I identify primarily as a writer. Other things about my identity might be significant, but their importance is secondary. Events that have influenced my writing interests, activities, biases, and perspectives -
- I learned how to read at age 4.
- It took a year of reading before it occurred to me to ask how all those words got there.
- I attended Holy Angels Catholic Grade School (in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) for 8 years as a disruptive influencer immersed in social studies and language arts.
- I wrote my first poem at age 7. It was a haiku. Sister Germaine said I had poetic talent. Whatever. I'd merely followed the assignment's instructions.
- At age 8, two short stories completely enthralled me: The Monkey's Paw and Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. I re-read them both dozens of times with an eye for their structure more than their narrative. Strange child I was. Still am.
- My rebellious characteristics began ripening at age 10. Got grounded a lot for my tendencies: no TV and no outdoors activities as punishment. What to do? I read the Random House Unabridged Dictionary cover-to-cover as well as each volume of Compton's Encyclopedia and Encyclopædia Britannica. Three years of rebellion will do that to a kid in a home that has big dictionaries and too many bookshelves.
- From age 13 to 17 I attended Messmer Catholic High School (also in Milwaukee), where I learned it was better to be sneaky than rebellious, depending on the circumstances.
- At age 14, Sister Noraleen returned one of my English Poetry & Composition assignments with an A+ grade but not without writing "WW" in the left margin. I had to ask as a classmate what "WW" meant as I'd never seen it before as a correction. Upon learning that it stood for "Wrong Word," I asked Sister Noraleen which word was "wrong," and why. She explained that, in the poem I'd composed as an Elizabethan conceit, the objective "them" should have been the nominative "they" in my line, "Then hurry did I after them who crossed the burning snow." Was she crazy, or... ? No, her explanation included expert parsing in the alternative as she provided the meaning of what a zeugma entails in its classic sense (i.e. in contrast to the rhetorical sense as I understood it from Random House) and a lesson in why Yogi Berra was correct regarding his much maligned "Are those they?" question. The whole episode marks my last utterance that was grammatically wrong for reasons besides carelessness. It also marked my transitional interest into semantics and linguistics as a way to sneak some misdirection into my essays.
- At age 15 I saw The Man (1972 film). I was unimpressed with its premise, which I thought was overtly patronizing and a strain on credulity. Convinced I could write something that was more engaging, I wrote a treatment about a Japanese-American who would become U.S. president. (Back then I was prescient enough to predict that by the time I'd complete my intended novel, the first African-American U.S. president would have been elected already and, thus, old news.) The treatment contained a U.S. Constitutional twist whose outcome was beyond my ability to resolve from a legal standpoint. So, I arranged to interview University of Wisconsin Law Professor Gordon Baldwin for some insight. During that interview he knew that he'd spun my head right 'round with his explanation of the relevant legal principles. He therefore recommended that I attend law school in order to fully grasp what he'd said and to suffer the same legal inculcations as my story's focal character - all in the interest of developing the legal verisimilitude I was thematically seeking for the story's sake.
Fast forward... My résumé includes:
- Alumnus of University of Wisconsin (Madison) - School of Journalism, JBA
- Alumnus of University of Wisconsin (Madison) - School of Law, JD
- Wisconsin State Legislature (policy analyst and legislative assistant)
- Residency in South Korea since 2005
- Completed a 7-part novel (relating to the abovementioned premise) in 2015
- ESL textbook now underway
My biggest boasts:
- I am the fastest writer of our generation, as measured by my bicycle time trial results
- No writer has ever composed and spontaneously deleted more unworkable prose than I have within a comparable 15-year span
- I have perfected the art of (1) disguising fictional attribution to real-life counterparts and (2) seamlessly blending fictional world-building with historicity in a style that has frustrated countless legal scholars and history PhD candidates' efforts to independently trace my sources.
My current occupation: Finishing my textbook before this year's end. Cheers, and good health to all! Kent Dominic 09:38, 1 May 2020 (UTC)