| William E. Brower II |
| Written Works of |
| A Dream Achieved
It’s a strange expierience becoming recognized for your work. Normally by nature I’m an outgoing person who remains private. After my book was published last year, I was asked one question constantly by almost everyone, “How can someone your age accomplish so much?” The best way to answer is to go back about twelve years ago when I was a student in Taravella High. My writings at the time consisted of two page short stories all of them with a dark horror theme. I grew up reading the works of King, Poe, Barker and Lovecraft. My classmates generally enjoyed my ironic plot twists and characters with shady pasts. In 1992, I was finally able to take a Creative Writing class. Back then you had to wait until 10th grade before having a chance to get into it. My teacher was a quiet spoken woman named Ms. Corll. She taught me how to make my descriptions more vivid and challenged me to increase my stories beyond two pages. As luck would have it, I met a fellow student named Rodrigo who was the first graphic artist I knew. Somehow we found common ground, his paintings inspired new scenes for my writing while drew inspiration from my work. My English teacher Ms. Sarel caught me in class one day writing in my notebook. At first, I was almost repremanded for writing notes, until she read everything through. It seemed I killed two birds with one stone, her lessons of the day were being used to edit my manuscript for an eight page fantasy story for Ms. Corll’s class. Rodrigo’s sketch of a minotaur locked in combat with a dragon sat to the side for reference purposes. My descriptions were so vivid that Ms. Corll wrote a note asking I see her after class. Although I passed with an A it seemed that the battle scenes were too harsh. Meanwhile, Ms. Sarel made an exception when it came to me doing the note taking. As long as the homework and other things were done, I could write my manuscripts during class. Rodrigo contributed pages of sketches for me to thumb through to brainstorm things, through each of them I learned many new skills. By the time I was a senior, my manuscripts were taking up five subject notebooks and I started to know employees at Office Max on a first name basis. Enter my Journalism teacher Ms. Colantuono to round out my writing skills by showing me how to conduct interviews and produce articles. My peers had predicted I’d become a bestselling author when they wrote in my yearbook. Before graduating, I promised Rodrigo that we would continue to work together using our creative chemistry and one day his work would be on display at the Met. He had always been adamant I’d become a literary master, causing me to blush so I produced the best comeback. This coming August it will be my class reunion. To say I’m thrilled at going is an understatement. The fantasy story I wrote has become a sixteen book series which will one day be published, with the teachers that I had and the support from my friends, I have been able to sit here today and type this article. |