Last Column

August 18, 2002

by Charles E. Perry

For several years now, I have been writing regular columns at one webzine or another. It grew out of my love of writing. Love? More like driving need, and I have enjoyed it. But the time has come for me to move on, and this is the last column I’m going to do for the foreseeable future. There are a number of reasons for this. My health isn’t what it should be. I may be moving in the near future. But the most important reason is this: I want to write and sell books.

I’m not exactly a complete stranger to that. I’ve written a number of books already. None published yet, but one came amazingly close. The editor of a small publishing firm in Florida and I were actually talking advance, when the firm went under and closed. So I know I can write a salable product, and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do.

When I started the columns, I thought I could do both. But there’s more that goes into doing a column than you might figure, and it started taking up more and more of my writing time. That left plots and storylines spinning around inside me with nowhere to go, and that just isn’t fun. Not to a writer it isn’t. So I had to make a choice, and I’ve decided to go hell bent for leather with books.

It wasn’t an easy choice. Some of my readers have written to me from time to time, and they’re good people. I hate to disappoint them. But there’s a female detective named Barcelona Brown inside my head, and she wants to get out to defeat a 300 year old Satanist who’s killing Pastors in a small town. There’s a Wizard who has a quest to go on with a Dwarf who fights better sober than drunk, and a Halfling thief who gives new meaning to the word "short."

They all deserve a chance to live too, and I’m going to give it to them. Thanks for listening. Thanks for the kind words, and thanks even for the unkind words, since they proved you were reading. It’s been fun, but it’s time to go.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Charles Perry has been one of our most popular writers since he joined Conservative Truth. He will be missed by his readers and by all of us. We wish him well on his quest.

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Charles E. Perry is a freelance writer living in Michigan. He has done a variety of things in his life, including Ward Supervisor at the State of Michigan's Maximum Security Mental Facility. His degree is in accounting, but he discovered writing and now spends his time hunched over a keyboard, hollow-eyed, looking for just the right word. Perry is the author of "How Government Should Work: A Look at the Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States," currently pending publication.

Send the author an E mail at Perry@ConservativeTruth.org.

For more of Charlie's articles, visit his archives.