Why I Still Have No Use for My High School English Teachers
Even though they may have been pretty hot in an octogenarian way…
I remember they told me I was never going to amount to anything.
Of course, they may have simply been parroting my mother, but at the time, I thought it was an insensitive thing for an authority figure to tell a lad.
I practiced syntax. I diagramed sentences. I declined and conjugated. I still never became Steinbeck.
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I learned all the theories front to back, but all my stories were as interesting as a used laboratory frog.
At the time, my parents were renting our house, and one Wednesday, while I was at school, they moved to a different city. Wow. No furniture, no bed, and the school bus had already gone by the time I realized it.
All there was for me to do was sit on the floor and practice my writing.
It was hardly any time before Atlantic picked up one of my series, and sent me lots of checks.
I bought that empty house, tore it down, and leased the lot to McDonald’s on a hundred-year lease, and a couple of days ago John Steinbeck called me to ask for advice.
I told him never to listen to high school English teachers.
I am Don Martin. I write books and stories. Check out my new microbook about microbooks. Join my reader family for my writing news and rumors.