I’ve always been Bert from Mary Poppins creatively. Drawing, painting, writing, embroidering, sugar work, speeches and such. After I got disabled physically, my friend told me, “Well, this can be a good thing. You’re now being forced to do what you’ve always wanted to do anyway, which is to write and create. So get at it.” Boy, was he right. It’s been wonderful to finally be able to do all these projects I’ve had to put on the back burner for years. Now, four books later and a manuscript in the final edit, with a long list still to do, I am so grateful for the wonderful home my sister-from-another-mother has given me, where I can write and draw all these incredible things in peace, without having to waste time with nonsense. A children’s book to help traumatized and/or bullied kids (bullying is at plague status currently), my memoir now in a zillion different forms, including an audio read by me, a science fiction novel inspired by an idea from my screenwriter pal (he’s working on turning it into a mini series from my writing), a second children’s book also illustrated and written by me that’s finished and ready to go. And now, at long last, my beloved stepdad Charlie’s first book of the trilogy on my final edit. As most of you know, he was a Marine in World War ll and fought on Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima. I’m doing one book per island. Bougainville is basically done. It’s made me twitchy and wiggly and often weepy, but I’ve written it as close to his hours of interviews and transcribed tapes as possible. He lived long enough to read the first screenplay. Boy, was I sweating bullets, sitting there as he silently read the entire thing in one go. When he finished, he looked at me and said, “You got it. I don’t know how, but you got it.” I’ll never forget that unbelievable moment. I’ve never been to war. I’ve never experienced anything close to it. So his saying that to me, so bluntly, so miraculously, is one of the most cherished moments of my life. I can’t wait for you all to read about this man I loved so much. Everybody who knew him loved him. We were all lucky to know him. Even back then, when he was still just a kid with a rifle, thrown into a meat grinder, he was beloved. What a story. Amazing man who literally helped save the world. These books will show exactly how he, and thousands of his fellow reluctant warriors, did that.
