When I was nine or ten years old, I think I started writing short stories. My brother was excellent at fiction. I remember opening his computer files and reading the works he wrote for class. There was one suspenseful thriller about being in space and I was disappointed it was only a few paragraphs. I remember thinking, I can do that, can’t I?

I wrote for several years. I wrote through my parents’ divorce, around twelve. I wrote through high school. My junior year, I printed off my first novel. Seventy-six pages of 8.5x11-inch white paper. Holding it in my hands, I could not decide if I was disappointed that hundreds of banked hours had only resulted in something so thin. I was eager to share it though.

I realize now that perhaps channeling one’s teenage angst and personal issues into a story is not the best idea. At least, I doubt it was understood correctly by my friend at the time, an English concentration in human form who walked around always with a book in his hand and dated and re-dated at least half of my girlfriends. I handed him my stack of papers and asked him to tell me his thoughts. It took a while for him to read it. I doubt he cared. In the end, when he finally gave me a look that said it all, I asked for my novel back. You know what he told me? “I lost it.”

Sad day that. It was my only copy. Somehow, the night before or when I cannot recall, my computer file crashed and I lost a good chunk of the story. I believe I was miserable after that.

The story was a love story, a fiction fantasy with made up names and words. Nothing special, except that for a kid I thought it was at the time. Once I heard a writer say, and I fail to understand if he was conceited for saying it or not, that he never reread what he wrote. What he meant by that could have been several different things with several different reasons.

I always reread what I wrote. Sometimes I cringe and trash everything. Sometimes I smile and say, “Damn, that was actually good,” then wonder how I am going to use it. The latter is where I am now. My writing’s not great. Heck, it might not even be good. What I do know is that I enjoy writing. It is fun, exciting, relaxing. Why am I telling you this?

I guess I just want to share. Please review. Please be kind. I am hoping this is the first stepping stone of miles to go.

Currently, I am writing a bit of FanFic for Mass Effect. I apologize in advance.

8/18/2019 Update

Isole Shepard - Part 1 is live!

Chapter 1 has been posted and I’ve only made minor edits for grammar and spelling, which I missed somehow after the first couple of read-throughs. Anderson makes his first appearance.

Chapter 2 is in the works with daily lengthening and revision. It’s longer, so I ask for patience. A few old faces showing up.

8/24/2019 Update

Chapter 2 has been posted. Kaidan Alenko, Joker, Thane Krios, Karin Chakwas and Kahlee Sanders make their first appearance.

8/26/2019 Update

Chapter 3 has started. Took me a few days to decide where to go after Chapter 2. Hopefully this will be the right choice.

Also, please leave reviews for the previous chapters. Thanks for reading.

9/2/2019 Update

Chapter 3 is up. Organized Corruption is still fleshing out, so more to come.

Chapter 4 has started.