The Village Lake Writers and Poets heard from prolific local author, David Todd, who has written more than 50 books.
Todd's catalog includes novels, short stories, poetry, detective stories, historical pieces, teen grief pieces, religious works and nonfiction.
Todd credits his work as an engineer -- where he wrote business letters, technical documents and presentations -- for his skill as a writer.
He also grew up in a reading family and his mother read to him and his siblings regularly, he said.
"We had books all over the house," Todd said.
He's been writing since the late '90s, he said, and started his first novel in 2000, which he completed in 2003 after a brief hiatus.
After attending regional conferences to get it published, he explained, he learned most publishers are more interested in someone looking to make a career than someone who has a single book.
Examining life experience and spitballing ideas led to an espionage thriller, commentaries on historical and current events, a story about baseball players and the mafia and poetry.
He describes his scattered styles as "genre focus disorder."
"That's the inability to stick to one genre," he said. "I realized I have that in 2005, 2006."
During his presentation, Todd posed the idea that poetry may be a way past his disorder.
Todd read several selections from a poetry book he wrote, "Daddy Daughter Day," which started with a poem he initially penned for a poetry contest, only to realize it didn't fit the contest rules.
The book features a variety of poems in several styles, each detailing pieces of a day shared between a father and his daughter.
The idea was that each poem needs to fit cohesively into the overall story, but also be able to stand alone.
The book was finished in 2006, he said, and he finished tweaking it in 2011.
His books are self-published via Amazon, he explained, and he's spent the past nearly two decades with the polar opposite of writer's block.
"So what do you think?" he asked. "Is poetry the cure for genre focus disorder? No! I think it makes it worse ... Help, please, someone help me!"
One attendee, Anna Ahlman, said this was her first time with the writers' group, though she intends to come back.
"I thought he was very inspiring," she said.
Another attendee, Dan Sherman, said he is also part of the Bella Vista Fun With Writing group. He fully enjoyed this program, he said.
"I think it's fascinating when somebody's just that prolific," Sherman said.
General News on 06/19/2019