Lehman Yvonne - Writing Right to Success: Stories of the writing life by those who followed their dream!

compiled by

YVONNE LEHMAN

WRITING RIGHT TO SUCCESS, compiled and edited by Yvonne Lehman

Published by Writing With Excellence

an imprint of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas

2333 Barton Oaks Dr., Raleigh, NC, 27614

ISBN: 978-1-938499-00-5

Copyright 2016 by Yvonne Lehman

Cover design by Elaina Lee

Interior design by AtriTeX Technologies P Ltd

Available in print from your local bookstore, online, or from the publisher at:

www.lighthousepublishingofthecarolinas.com

For more information on this book visit: novelistretreat.wordpress.com

All rights reserved. Non-commercial interests may reproduce portions of this book without the express written permission of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, provided the text does not exceed 500 words. When reproducing text from this book, include the following credit line: Writing Right to Success by Yvonne Lehman, published by Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. Used by permission.

Commercial interests: No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by the United States of America copyright law.

Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION r. NIVr Copyright c 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Brought to you by the creative team at Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas:

Compiled and edited by Yvonne Lehman

Editors: Ann Tatlock, Eddie Jones, Brian Cross

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lehman, Yvonne.

Writing Right to Success / Yvonne Lehman 1st ed.

Stories of

the Writing Life

Compiled by Yvonne Lehman

And written by

some of the most well-known, best-selling, award-winning

professionals in the arts

(writers, actors, filmmakers, speakers, teachers, directors, editors, media)

Dennis E. Hensley, Ph.D.

Brian Bird

Tosca Lee

DiAnn Mills

Lynette Eason

Edie Melson

Cecil Murphey

Michelle Medlock Adams

Donn Taylor

Lori Marett

Richard L. Mabry, MD

Kathleen Fuller

Yvonne Lehman

Ramona Richards

Ann Tatlock

James Watkins

Gail Gaymer Martin

James Scott Bell

Eva Marie Everson

Jenny Cote

Susan May Warren

Tom Morrisey

Gayle Roper

Dianne Neal Matthews

Eddie Jones

Dedication

To all those who taught, motivated, inspired,
and encouraged us on our writing journey

and

to all those with whom we are privileged to share our expertise

and

most of all to
God
who gives gifts, talents, and opportunities to reach many
or that special one he chooses to benefit from our efforts

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Part One

I always thought I would become a lawyer. I imagined myself engaging in courtroom debates, facing off against district attorneys who had no chance of putting my (innocent) clients behind bars. My imagination saw me standing in front of a jury of twelve people, winning each case through the dramatic use of hand gestures, voice modulation, clever repartee, and demonstrative body language. It would be great fun and highly profitable. Yes, yes, move over, Perry Mason. Dennis E. Hensley was on his way.

Then, during my 1965-66 year at T.L. Handy High School in Bay City, Michigan, I landed in an Honors English class and fell under the spell of a master teacher. Mr. Neil Ringle was a world traveler, an engaging orator, a concert organist, and a highly educated literary scholar. He was like no other teacher I had ever encountered. In his classroom, we did not merely study plays by Molire. We had to read pages aloud and even act out various parts. We ended up laughing so hard we could barely breathe. How had I lived so long and never known that such a funny, funny Frenchman had written so many sarcastic parodies?

Mr. Ringle pushed us. Pushed us hard. In class, we also read Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Cervantes, Poe, Melville, Hemingway, C. S. Lewis, and Chaucer. Mr. Ringle tested us on their works and assigned us to write papers about their plays, novels, and short stories.

But, more than all that, Mr. Ringle made the effort to get to know us personally, and he gave each of us an extra reading list that was customized to what he felt would make us fall even deeper in love with literature. My list included works by Jack London, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton, Rudyard Kipling, and Raymond Chandler. Its still a mystery to me how he knew which writers I would relate to so keenly, but he certainly was accurate. I could hardly wait to get to Honors English each day, and I was always sad when the bell rang telling us to move to the next class (Algebra II, no less ugh!). I became convinced that writers were the titans of intellectualism. To write a book or play that would be read by tens of thousands of people would be an achievement unmatched by any other. I decided to change my career goal. Forget law. I would strive to become an author.

In 1965, just before Christmas break, I came to class early. I approached my teacher at his desk and announced, Mr. Ringle, I have always thought I would like to become a lawyer one day. But it occurs to me that even if I became the most successful lawyer possible and rose through the ranks and became President of the United States, I could impact people for only eight years. However, if I became an author, I could impact people for centuries.

Mr. Ringle raised one eyebrow. Yes if you ever had anything to say, Hensley.

I broke up, laughing. Although this mans sardonic wit and biting criticism of his students thoughts and writings always sounded as though he was berating us, even mocking us, wed all come to realize that he dearly loved us. He showed it in how he spent hours red-lettering our papers (no Track Changes back in those days, folks) so that we could see how to correct our errors and avoid repeating them. He gave us birthday cards. He arranged for us to serve as ushers at civic events on weekends so we could attend musicals, lectures, plays, and recitals for free. He persuaded the chairman of the English department to pay for a years subscription to