Ian D. Mooby

‘I think of myself as a bad writer with big ideas, but I’d rather be that than a big writer with bad ideas’

Michael Moorcock

Some will ask you to read and comment on their stuff before they will look at yours.  There are others that will read and comment on your stuff, but they expect you to return the favor.  Me I'm kind of a rare breed if I read and comment I don't want you to return the favor, you can if you want to, but I don't care if you do or don't.

Now some simple rules:

• No poetry, half the time I don't understand it and even when I do I'm not sure what should or shouldn't be changed about it.
• No romance, I'm not a romance writer and find that it puts me to sleep.
• I'm going to be honest, and blunt if you can't handle it don't ask me.
• If you ask me to read your book and I decide to I'll read at least the first chapter, after that depends on if it catches my attention.  Also if I point out a mistake in chapter 3 and you publish chapter 6 with the same mistake afterward I take it you don't care and so I'm done.
• I will help with unposted projects, but I refuse to work with stuff that is sent via private messages. I've done this a few times and it is a pain in the ass.

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

T.S. Eliot, Preface to Harry Crosby, Transit of Venus

My Life ... not.

It was early Wednesday morning and a storm blow into town awaking the citizens with peals thunder, flashes of lightning, the howl of the wind, and the steady beat of rainfall.  Streets flooded, and roofs were torn off homes as the storm showed the town no mercy.  This storm would be called the worse the city had ever seen with the loss of lives and property reach unheard of amounts before.

Into the heart of the storm rushed a young couple, David and Jeanette Mooby on their way to the hospital.  Jeanette was pregnant, but not due for another ten weeks at least, but it seems the baby was ready to come now.  The drive was something out of an action movie as David ended up speeding through alleys and backstreets to avoid the accidents that had blocked the main roads.  Reaching the hospital, the nurses took Jeanette off to labor and delivery, but the baby waited another six hours before making an appearance.

I came into the world at the height of the storm just before a lightning strike knocked out power for a major portion of the downtown.  The doctors didn’t give me much of a chance and kept me in the hospital for almost three months.  Even as a premature newborn I was a fighter and once I went home, there was no containing me.

My parents love to tell stories of my early years, of how I would get out of my playpen or crib.  I wanted to explore and see the world.  I learned to read at an early age and as I grew older, I devoured anything in print.  At the age of eight, I taught myself a second language, Spanish.  Learning Spanish wet my appetite for languages and I went from Spanish to learning others.  In school, I did so well I was advanced grades and graduated early.

In college, I experienced problems, mostly a lack of focus.  I went for a medical degree hoping to become a doctor but grow bored with that and switched over to the law.  Law couldn’t hold my interest any better than medicine could, and I changed course again.  I ended up taking the courses for almost every degree the college offered, but none of them could hold my interest.  I amassed enough credits to graduate in many fields, but I finished none of the required courses to get the degree.  I finally gave up on college and with no plans, I ended up joining the Army.  I enlisted and served four years getting to see other countries, but I had quickly realized that military life isn’t for me, too many rules.  I got out and bummed around for a few years doing odd jobs here and there.

My passion for reading was still strong and one day I picked up a book that had been left in a bus station.  It was a book on writing which I read on my bus ride.  I got off the bus and found a stationery store to buy a notebook.  That was how I found something that could hold my interest.

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