The weekend of April 9th, I had the chance to be in New Orleans. Well, anytime you can visit New Orleans, you really should go. The opportunity allowed me to visit friends, do some research and visit the radio show I do some work for as they entered their new studio. If you are in the New Orleans area you can hear on 99.5 WRNO on Sundays at 7 or catch them on podcast as The Week in Geek.
Opportunity arose for an impromptu, mini-interview. One of the questions Brian asked was where did it start for me?
I gave a quick answer on air, but the question has lingered. First, one of the things I am grateful to my grandmother and my mother was they did manage to instill a love of reading. That was the start. I could fairly well before I started school. Some of those early books I recall were Babar, Robin Hood, Paul Bunyan, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea and of all things, I fell in love with Edgar Allen Poe through The Gold Bug.
Once I was hooked, I found all I could at the library. I devoured Poe. By the time I was in third grade I had read many of his stories. Poe was stirring, and amusing. And all was well.
Until third grade. Not sure what possessed her but she thought reading The Tell-Tale Heart and Cask of Amontillado to third graders, even if it was Halloween, would be a good idea. Still, she did not reckon with me.
As she read them, many did get scared. Except me, having read them, knowing what was coming and watching the others get scared, I giggled.
Yeah, third grade and I was giggling at some of Poe’s scarier stories. It actually seemed to unnerve the teacher. I was sent to the principals office where I had to explain why I giggled.
My humor has always been a little dry and often dark, sometimes a gallows humor, this was probably some of that origin. But I also think it was what made me want to start writing. See, I liked watching the others react, and I wanted to make other react. Put words in front of them and pictures in their mind to which they would react.
Thank you for reading,
Ernest
When My Worlds Collide 