Opening phrase

     The crowd and the music in the background was blocked by the earbuds the writer wore.  He stared at the blank screen on his laptop and set the large ice tea down to the left of it.  He placed his fingers on the keyboard and began to type -
 
 "The crowd and the music was blocked by the earbuds the writer wore....."

     Hello.
     My name is Walter, and I'm a writer.  I have written four novels of over 50,000 words each, my preferred genres are thriller/spy novels and science fiction.  But that's not to belittle the mystery I wrote this past year.

     When I was growing up, I read quite a bit.  I love to read, read all the L. Frank Baum Oz stories, Tarzan, Swiss Family Robinson, a lot of the classics of youthful reading.  Still have some of them.
Ok, I lie.  I have most of them still.  I dreamed of growing up and becoming a writer.

    Then something happened.  I found the James Bond stories by Ian Fleming and started reading those, and when I got older I read them again, seeing how much the Bond of the books was different from the Bond of the movies.  And how in the end Fleming managed to weave a continuity throughout most of the series.  Although Moonraker draws quite the discussion on when it took place.  I'm a 1952 man myself.

    Life went on and I eventually found myself in film and television, mainly behind the scenes.  My interest grew as did my knowledge base.  And then came that fateful day I found myself out of work and unlikely, at the old age of my early fifties, of finding another job quickly.  I was in a marriage that was about to enter endgame, and I wondered what to do.

     Somewhere I read about NaNoWriMo.  National Novel Writing Month.  A self-challenge to write a 50,000-word novel in one thirty day period at a rate of 1667 words a day.  It took me 25 days to complete.  My novel, now in the rewrite/edit stage, is called "Eton & Windsor".  It's a thriller, part mystery, part travelogue, part spy novel.  I wrote from ten p.m. to midnight from the seat of my pants.  My then wife thought I was up to something else because I dare not tell her what I was up to, for fear she would say something negative that would just make me stop trying.  But I did it.  I wrote a novel.

    The ones that I have written have been a mixed bunch, and I hope to share stories behind them with you.

So hello, nice to meet you.  My name's Walter, and I'm a writer.