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we write at dawn!
Today is my good friend and fellow author J. Patrick Lemarr’s birthday.
I first met Jeff, as I call him because I am grandfathered in and have executive privilege, when we were fellow middle school teachers. It was 175 years ago, in The Year of our Lord AD 2000. I was finishing up and publishing my first novella, The Preacher’s Kid, and he was putting the finishing touches on his first book, a book of poetry titled I Am a Broken House.
Jeff and I worked together to establish a campus support and encouragement group for teachers, which we ambitiously named The Association of Christian Educators (ACE). We each moved on from the thankless and sometimes impossible teaching profession. Jeff became a stay-at-home dad and writer. I went into business and wrote between the lines. Jeff has established himself as an award-nominated writer of fantasy fiction and an artist of weird art that people seem to love.
Jeff has often called me a “mentor,” which I consider a mistake – and an honor.
The thing I am most proud of Jeff for is his perseverance. It is not easy to make a living as a writer, which makes it hard to make a life of it. He has fought through every discouragement and downturn and continues to produce high-quality writing.
Happy birthday, Jeff! Saddle up! We write at dawn and dusk and midnight and until the cows come home or the horses give out under us. Then, we get fresh horses and write on.