My SF Story (Part 3)

It Runs in the Family

Let me explain how David Farland is my uncle. My dad had moved our family back to Utah in 1980 after he resigned from the U. S. Army. He was a tank driver/gunner/commander stationed up at Ft. Lewis, Washington when I was born in 1976. And I, his namesake (just the Junior), am exactly 23 years and a week younger than him. Dad moved back because his family had stayed down here when he joined the Army. I need to explain what family means to my dad and by example to me. Dad's family that he was born to, the Emersons, had been through trial and misfortune over many years, the most recent was a trailer roll-over up American Fork canyon in which my dad's step father was killed in the accident. Soon after that, my grandma decided to move the family up to Salt Lake City.
Dad, already enrolled for his senior year of high school at Pleasant Grove High School, did not want to move up to the "big city." So he arranged with my grandma to move in with "Grandma" Herbert. Grandma Herbert let Dad stay with her until he graduated from high school. Afterword he moved in with Grandma Herbert's daughter, Barbara, and her husband, Sid Hagman as a foster son until he left to serve as a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the South.
Dad grew to love the Hagmans and the Herberts. In a lot of ways, the Herberts and Hagmans became my dad's real family. They reinforced his love of hunting, shooting, and the outdoors. When he returned from his mission, he returned to their home before joining the Army. And he set in place the fact that still holds true today: that we each have two families in this world, the one we're born into, and the one we choose. In my opinion, the chosen family is of more value than the birth family.
One of Dad's foster sisters in the Hagman home (they continued to foster, both through arrangement and state programs) was a young lady who later married David Farland. In 1989 he furthered the changes that Orson Scott Card started in me four years before. On my 13th birthday, Thanksgiving Day that year, David gave me a signed copy of his first novel.I read it in a very short time. Then I read it again. And, according to some papers I found, despite my earlier efforts, efforts began in earnest from that time on to tell stories.
I also, in my 14th year, got introduced to comic books and role playing games. I read primarily X-Men and a few other Marvel Comics titles. (More about comics, RPGs, other authors, and movies in later posts.) I can find a few papers, here and there proving that I started writing more during that time. Many of the stories were copies of comic and adventure stories I read. Some are original. But, almost all of them, to me, stink. But, I was a young writer just stretching his wings and testing his claws.
David next provided a deep direct influence later, after my LDS Mission (another story for another time). At the time I had been working after having to drop out after just one semester of college in Spring 1997 at UVSC and had gone to work at Techserv in Orem, Utah to pay off my short-term student loan. After paying it off, I stayed working in the technical support industry. I worked briefly in a call-back survey team in the latter part of 1999 and then in January 2000, at the suggestion of my boss, I took the larger paycheck and moved down the hill to another of the old WordPerfect buildings to work in Hell—I mean for Convergys. (Incidentally, if I royally screw up in this life and get to the judgment bar, God will look at the fact that I did time at Convergys and lived in the Tree streets in Provo and pronounce, "Time Served!" and let me go.) I did tech support there, then found myself later unemployed that summer. I had started, before leaving Convergys, to work with David on a project, which sadly, never came to fruition. I had even spent some time that summer trying to drum up a scholarship to get myself back into school with the theater department at Utah Valley State College (UVSC). They had offered me a half-tuition scholarship, but, as summer wound to a close, I had to realize that I would have to turn down the scholarship, there was no way I could make enough money to pay my back-rent and get into school. A benefactor helped change that circumstance, and David gave me advice on a direction to go.

He pointed me to use the money from my benefactor, take the scholarship, and get some student loans and get back into school full-time. He told me that as he got his degree in English and Editing he used student loans and did not regret taking ten years to pay them back. (I'm coming up on my ten-year mark and still haven't done that well for myself, but I'm doing well enough.)

I took his advice and started back to school using the theater scholarship with the thought in mind to use it to quickly get my Associates of Science. Then I planned to move up to the University of Utah to major in Physics with an emphasis in pre-med courses.

Part way through that, I realized that I was not supposed to go to med school, so I changed my emphasis to just pure physics, thinking I might like to go into particle astrophysics later. But, during this time, I met my lovely wife, who helped me realize I might not make it in physics, but I did have skills as a writer. She prompted me to also take a reality check: I was three years away from a Bachelors in physics, following which I would immediately have to go onto a Ph.D. program. Or I could look at the fact that I'd taken enough literature and writing courses to get a degree in English at UVSC in just three semesters. ...It wasn't that hard of a choice.

I transferred back and ended up getting my BS in English in 2004. I had some great courses and some great times in college. I'll mention some of the SF accomplishments I had and some of the other foundational things in my SF life later on.

Ultimately, David was there all along, as he is still there through his Daily Kick emails (which are the best free writing and writing life emails anyone could ask for). We see him a lot. And I try to not talk writing with him. He's just a person, like everyone else. People like to talk about movies and music and books and life; though we do discuss story, a pet topic we both enjoy discussing (stories in movies and books). Most people don't like to endlessly discuss work (unless you pay them for it). But, on the times where he initiates the topic and decides to discuss writing, I try to absorb every word. I listen with focused attention. I hope that, some day, I can not only find some of the successes he found, find ways to write myself out of the financial holes I encounter in life, but I hope to be able to give back to a new, aspiring author and give love to someone else the way David loves me.

I kid not when I say he is my favorite uncle. And, if you're still with me, I do want to plug his novel Nightengale not only as one of the best young adult novels I've read in a long time (I read it in three days, a feat I haven't had the time or the novel to accomplish in years) but also because the sales of his novel are helping him to write his way out of a bit of a hole he recently found himself in after his 16-year-old son, my cousin Ben, fell off his long-board back in March. If any of my readers care to do so, or could donate at helpwolverton.com I would be most grateful. It would be the least I could do to ever even try to pay him back for the influence and love he has provided for me.

Thank you, Uncle Dave, for providing me with a hope and guidance in this world. Thank you for helping me to find hope of my own. I wish you much luck with your next story and overcoming the current hiccup in life.

And a special thank you to my 10 readers who have found me and actually have liked me well enough to come back for a third installment. The next one is on my favorite media influences.