Broken Shoulders and Marion Zimmer Bradley
As a teen, I wasn't much of a reader of novels. I preferred to keep my head in the real books and spent many hours reading encyclopedias instead of fiction. I know this is not normal, but it was what I loved to do and at the time the only way to sate my unrelenting curiosity of the world around me. But, that all changed in 1992 due to an unfortuitous event and a chance meeting that change my life forever.
It was a hot spring day and I had just arrived at the barracks in Cecil Field. Being that it was Friday and I didn't have to report to class until Monday, I decided to step outside of my room and take a look around. I was new there, having just moved from Guam, and I didn't know anyone (kind of the norm in the military). My room was on the second floor, so I looked out over the rail to see if anything was going on at the small pavilion that sat between the buildings. After a few minutes, I was approached by a young man named Billy, who invited me to a party at the pavilion later that evening.
I waited until the party was in full swing then make my way downstairs. Bill introduced me to his friends. Not being much of a drinker, I sat on one of the picnic tables and watched everyone else get drunk. At some point one of the guys thought it would be fun to play chick and scooped me up on his shoulders. Wanting to have my feet firmly on the ground I protested and after several minutes he finally did. He just bent right over and dropped me on my shoulder.
The medical building on base could be seen from the pavilion and I watched as the ambulance pulled out....To this day I am still wondering how the driver got lost it took an hour for him to show up and cart me off to the hospital. By now you're beginning to wonder how this has anything to do with books and why I'm now an Author. But, I really did feel the need to start at the beginning.
When I did not return to the barracks by the next morning, Dawn the only other girl there that night became concerned, called the hospital then grabbed Billy. He grabbed one of his duffel bags, went to my barracks room and packed it with the things he thought I might need. Once at the hospital he walked in my room carrying a blue duffel bag and a stack of books. I was thankful that someone bothered to check on me. I would spend the next 10 days in the hospital...My collar bone was shattered and unfixable, my shoulder blade was fractured in multiple locations and now so dislocated it rested against the vertebra of my neck. It took 7 days for the swelling to go down enough to do surgery.
During that time Billy visited every day, I read the books he bought for me and found that Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover was the most fascinating world I could have ever imagined. For the first time in my life, I read something that left me wanting more. It made me want to become part of that world, so I bought every single Darkover novel I could find and read them too. Over the years I have read these books so many times some of the pages are starting to fall out and the covers look like they have seen better days. It would still take me 20 more years to decide to write my own world and like the Darkover books, mine books also blur the line between Sci-Fi and Fantasy.
To this day I still have the 5 inch scar on the front of my shoulder, 3inches missing from my collar bone and Billy still by my side even after knowing me for 20 years. And had Marion lived longer, I'm certain I would have been her biggest fan.
What in life has inspired you? Have you ever read a series that changed your way of thinking? I would love to hear from you. And if you have a strange story about how you met your significant other, please share it in the comments too!!!
C.G. Powell
Author of Spell Checked: Book One of The No Uncertain Logic SeriesFollow me! Facebook | Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Buy my book Amazon | Barns & Noble | Smashwords
It was a hot spring day and I had just arrived at the barracks in Cecil Field. Being that it was Friday and I didn't have to report to class until Monday, I decided to step outside of my room and take a look around. I was new there, having just moved from Guam, and I didn't know anyone (kind of the norm in the military). My room was on the second floor, so I looked out over the rail to see if anything was going on at the small pavilion that sat between the buildings. After a few minutes, I was approached by a young man named Billy, who invited me to a party at the pavilion later that evening.
I waited until the party was in full swing then make my way downstairs. Bill introduced me to his friends. Not being much of a drinker, I sat on one of the picnic tables and watched everyone else get drunk. At some point one of the guys thought it would be fun to play chick and scooped me up on his shoulders. Wanting to have my feet firmly on the ground I protested and after several minutes he finally did. He just bent right over and dropped me on my shoulder.
The medical building on base could be seen from the pavilion and I watched as the ambulance pulled out....To this day I am still wondering how the driver got lost it took an hour for him to show up and cart me off to the hospital. By now you're beginning to wonder how this has anything to do with books and why I'm now an Author. But, I really did feel the need to start at the beginning.
When I did not return to the barracks by the next morning, Dawn the only other girl there that night became concerned, called the hospital then grabbed Billy. He grabbed one of his duffel bags, went to my barracks room and packed it with the things he thought I might need. Once at the hospital he walked in my room carrying a blue duffel bag and a stack of books. I was thankful that someone bothered to check on me. I would spend the next 10 days in the hospital...My collar bone was shattered and unfixable, my shoulder blade was fractured in multiple locations and now so dislocated it rested against the vertebra of my neck. It took 7 days for the swelling to go down enough to do surgery.
During that time Billy visited every day, I read the books he bought for me and found that Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover was the most fascinating world I could have ever imagined. For the first time in my life, I read something that left me wanting more. It made me want to become part of that world, so I bought every single Darkover novel I could find and read them too. Over the years I have read these books so many times some of the pages are starting to fall out and the covers look like they have seen better days. It would still take me 20 more years to decide to write my own world and like the Darkover books, mine books also blur the line between Sci-Fi and Fantasy.
To this day I still have the 5 inch scar on the front of my shoulder, 3inches missing from my collar bone and Billy still by my side even after knowing me for 20 years. And had Marion lived longer, I'm certain I would have been her biggest fan.
What in life has inspired you? Have you ever read a series that changed your way of thinking? I would love to hear from you. And if you have a strange story about how you met your significant other, please share it in the comments too!!!
C.G. Powell
Author of Spell Checked: Book One of The No Uncertain Logic SeriesFollow me! Facebook | Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Buy my book Amazon | Barns & Noble | Smashwords
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