The Saturday Morning Blogger

I am James Barrington, and honored to be the newest addition to the wordsmithsix family.

My wife, Darlene, and I were married in 1973. We have two grown daughters and six grandchildren. Half of them are here in Canyon and the rest are in New England.

With a master’s degree in public administration, I spent 30 years working in local government. Twenty-four of those years were as city manager in three different communities, in Texas, Florida and New Hampshire.

After moving back to Canyon in 2006, I have done photography and news reporting. I retired in 2015 in time to take on “Elder” responsibilities with University Church of Christ and make a trip to Israel in November of that year.

Since then I have been busy with visiting the sick and shut-ins of the church.

Having written five unpublished novels since 1991, I decided to start writing again, as time permitted. With the help of Harry Haines, I’ve begun studying the craft, seeking to improve my fiction writing. Needless you say, I have done a lot of writing over the years in the form of legal documents and memos and letters to government officials. I have been interested in writing fiction since my high school days.

I enjoy writing, just for the sake of writing, but I am beginning to learn that there are “rules” for fiction that are far different from technical writing and journalism. Each style has a different purpose and different rules to help the writer accomplish that purpose.

I have personal Facebook and Twitter accounts: James S. Barrington and @oneJamesopinion respectively. My email account is james.barrington14@yahoo.com.

With an assignment to contribute the weekly Saturday blog at wordsmithsix.com, I expect I’ll be writing about a variety of subjects. I plan to open with a few thoughts about the novel I’m working on now, with some previews and some of the “before and after” versions I’m learning from my colleagues in our critique group. I’ll probably go off on a few tangents about some of the earlier works I’ve “completed.” I suspect I’ll do some serious editing of some of those works as I learn more of the craft of fiction writing. I personally think I had some good story ideas, but simply fell short on the craft of telling those stories as works of fiction.

Thanks for tuning in to my self-introduction. I always appreciate constructive criticism and ideas for future blogs.