Servicetown, Lot Lizards and Other Writing Tips

If you’re an aspiring writer, one of my greatest advice to you is to always keep your eyes and ears open.

Ever since I could remember I wanted to be a successful writer. But, of course, I was naïve to the world during my younger years. During my teen years, I found jobs at highway restaurants along Interstate 95 and Highway 17 near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Servicetown was a huge truck stop in our area years ago. The underworld life surrounding a truck stop was a real wake up call for me. Working at restaurants near a truck stop was very educational to me, especially as a budding young writer. I was so naïve back then. Don’t you know that when I’d initially heard the term ‘lot lizard’, when I first started working at the highway restaurant, I actually thought that it was a real lizard crawling across the truck stop parking lot.

The shady, secretive world of truck stops allowed me to see the world differently. As a teenager, when I’d originally conceived the concept of my first novel ‘Wet Matches’, I shed light on this somewhat little-known world of a truck stop by using it as a backdrop within the story. Today, in 2017, unfortunately, this dark world of truck stops and lot lizards is among many factors which play a role in the harsh, unforgiving world of human trafficking.

So, to all emerging writers, keep your ears and eyes open to everything going on around you. Your next story could come from something totally unexpected. – Randolph Randy Camp Wet Matches