George Jackson, Author

Write What You Know...

     It seems like the number one piece of advice that people give about writing is simply this: you should write about what you know. Thanks goodness that fantasy authors like Tolkien, McCaffrey and King didn't follow that advice. Hmmm, on second thought, maybe they did write what they knew. In their case, however, it was what they saw, envisioned and were familiar with inside their own creative minds.

     In my own case, I grew up in Vermont. A small town outside of Rutland, Fair Haven to be exact. I saw a number of old time Vermonters as I grew up in the fifties and sixties. I was familiar with the lush green mountains surrounding every town, farm and hamlet. I lived through winters where six feet of snow in one storm or temperatures far below zero were commonplace. I fished in the myriad of small lakes and streams as well as in Lake Champlain. (By the way, Lake Champlain is about 500 feet deep in the middle and has it's own Loch Ness monster nicknamed Champ. That's where Squashy of Lake Pumpkinseed lore came from!)

     I grew up around independent, feisty, crotchety and direct speaking Vermonters. I believe that strong, intelligent and determined women were the norm back then as well. My ancestors were farmers and loggers. I was raised by a gentile, intelligent but stubborn teacher, my mother, and a kind, funny, inventive and skillful man, my father. My sister was eleven years older than me. She was my babysitter...and that relationship didn't change to us being friends until we were adults. I only have misty memories of one grandfather, but I remember both my grandmothers very vividly. The character traits from both parents and grandparents have been used a number of times in The Falls small town mysteries.

     I write about a town that has fifties and sixties values, ethics and relationships, because it is what I value most about my birthplace. The small town in my stories is a place that I find solace in, a place apart from the hustle, bustle and often callous and insensitive world we now live in. It also is a town that combines both the best of modern technology and the reminders of an older, slower paced but more caring world world (like the two-way radios that the sheriff's department uses, and the hand printed menus at Tina's Diner).

     So, in the end, in The Falls small town mysteries, I write about what I know.

     Of course, that doesn't give you any reasonable explanation about the World of Rupar, Dragon World! Dragon World is all mine, a world of rugged landscapes, lusty, fierce and passionate warriors, wizards and barbarians. They are my escape from the modern, 'there's a rule for everything' world. There, courage, honor, strength, fierce dedication and loyalty hold sway above all else. It is the world where I go to think bigger than life as the powers of good wars against evil, in all its forms.

     So, in the end I, as an author do both. I write about what I know, and I write about what I dream. What do you do?