My name is Fergus Hinely, though I have come around to being called Ferg. Sometimes Fergy. To acquaintances, Fergalicious. Pleased to meet you.
I think, like many other aspiring authors, I have come to the realization that making a living with my writing is going to be a difficult task, despite all the times I’ve been told to use my words. When you’re staring down that blank page and watching the numbers tick down in your bank account, things can get rather bleak. Then, sitting poor and story-less, the idea that someone would actually pay you for what you’re writing seems like the most outrageous fantasy.
But, for me at least, that pessimism is tempered every time I time I pick up a book. My brain shouts, It can be done! It can! look, see? They’re doing it! And it’s good, but it’s not that good…
And so I’ve been led to Medium. A place where, with consistency, work and a good bit of luck, I might see some dollars for my words (still a strange idea to me). I like it here… it’s cozy. A little empty, but I can fix that.
I don’t write for money. I can’t imagine what that would even look like. My dream, however, is, and has been, to write for a living. Living being the real sneaky word in that sentence.
To make matters worse, what I would really like to do is write about the things I want to write about (ridiculous, I know- somebody call the head doctor). I plan on doing this for the rest of my days, money or no, but if anyone would care to read the words I put down, they will be here for all to see.
I realized I’ve skipped right past introductions and gone straight into the philosophies- excuse my hurriedness. Nerves.
My life began in Springfield TN in the year 2000. I live in Cincinnati now, though I spent all last year teaching high school English in Japan. My mother is a hair braider and my father is a musician. He plays guitar, sings and writes, and is also a talented player of the glass armonica (invented by Ben Franklin). I chose to enroll in mom’s apprenticeship program rather than dad’s, and so I have braided hair with my mother at renaissance festivals across the U.S. since I was thirteen.
I went to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville for two years and secured myself one of the most useless degrees there or anywhere else: Creative Writing. I’ve also done a fair amount of traveling around Europe and a bit of Northern Africa, which I found to be much more of an education than my time in Knoxville- at least, for someone who wants to reach people through fiction.
Spending time with people- meeting lots of different people- is important for a writer of fiction I think (not calling myself a professional by any means, but even so). How else can we write about people? And I think all writing really comes down to just that: People. We have to know people.
To anyone currently hating life in university, I would encourage you to drop out and run to the ocean. Or… anything else besides a dormroom really. This goes double for anyone getting a degree in the arts- wait, no- triple.
There. A brief summary for you, my loyal army of Constant Readers. And look, I even managed to sneak in a little bit of silly advice too (stop that man! He’s philosophizing in an introduction). It’s a little more fun this way though, isn’t it?
Thank you Constant Reader for taking the time to read this strange and rambling introduction. I hope you know me a little bit better than you did, and I look forward to giving you a piece of my brain and soul every single day. I only ask that you please be gentle… well, not too gentle.
Sincerely,
Ferg
