Date:         Wed, 5 Aug 1998 14:07:56 -0400
From: Jim Witteveen <hndful@UNISERVE.COM>
Subject:      [WRITERS] Fill: Intro: Greetings, all!

 Hi there! I've been subcribed for a couple of weeks now, and I thought I
might as well introduce myself to you while I'm here catching up on my
e-mail after a week away (and a mailbox CHOCK-full of Writers' stuff!).

I'm 27 years old, I'm a university student (NO, I haven't been in school
_that_ long - I started my career as a post-secondary student a year and a
half ago), and I'm working on a novel. Which I _will_ get published. I
will, dammit! :-) When I was 21, I wrote a book about my travels, got a
nice collection of rejection slips in the mail and the satisfaction of
knowing that I did have the willpower and determination to write a
book-length piece of work. Unfortunately, I do have a habit of starting a
new project with a great deal of enthusiasm, and then letting it fall by
the wayside. I'm gonna do my best not to let it happen with this one, though.

I've read all the "How to write" books. Well, ok, not _all_ of them, but
almost enough, I think (although when I go to the bookstore I'm
hard-pressed not to leave without yet another one in my clutches), and one
of them (they've all blurred together, so I'm not quite sure which one it
was)  recommended carrying a notebook and recording things that strike you
as being something that _could_ possibly be included in future writing. So
that's what I did last week, while I enjoyed life in a small town on the
Canadian prairies (which is an absolute gold-mine of real-life
stranger-than-fiction characters). So... now I've got about two dozen
fantastic characters that I _must_ somehow get into a piece of work.

My favourite authors include W.P. Kinsella (his short story collections are
magnificent), Mario Vargas Llosa, Barry Unsworth, and a lot of others,
including Bill Bryson.

Well, that's me. A bit of me, anyway. I enjoy the list, and I look forward
to being a part of it!

-Jim (hndful@uniserve.com)