about me
Who am I
Whooie… where to begin? My father used to tell me that I lacked herd mentality. When I asked him if that was a bad thing, he told me no; it would just put me on a different course. Groupthink is oil to my vinegar. Trying new things and being willing to take risks has become one of my great strengths as I have evolved.
My home digs are in rural western Washington. It’s also where my story began, in a town called Sequim. High school (K-12 really) took place and I knew that I wanted to get out and see more of the world. The United States Navy was my choice. From there I bounced around from jobs and lifestyles that have made me who I am today and are reflected in my writing. From shipping clerk, to helicopter mechanic, security guard, retail salesman, shoe salesman, ticket agent, college student, civil servant, human resources recruiter and many many more occupations, I draw from a deep well of experiences that make my stories more than possible–they are real!
All throughout life, I have had a passion and talent for writing. As a kid I was very shy and petrified of sharing my work. My confidence was simply too low to save much of my early materials, which may be a shame but was part of the process towards building myself up to putting sharp, hardened, quality writing out there for the world to read. Low points in life often involved me moving on to (or from) a new occupation, relationship, or location where a lot of my work or outputs including my writing were lost or allowed to fade.
Young people who are great writers often find themselves in the precarious position of trying to find a niche, or to make their work similar to other material already out there in the mainstream. I know when I was a teen and young adult that I turned to fantasy a lot as a theme to write about. The advantage of living four decades is that I look back and realize I have a great deal to write about from experience. The two books I have written thus far draw almost entirely from experiences I have lived. From that, my writing takes on a whole new meaning. Passion is the engine that drives my writing, but experience and really just a genuine joy of utilizing the written word propel the entire operation.
As a citizen of greater society, I’m a husband and father who has had the luxury of becoming a family man after taking more lumps than I’m willing to admit, except in my writing. Even with the rise of artificial intelligence, my passion to write and to keep the power of the written word alive remains as strong now as ever before, and will remain as such so long as my heart beats and I can breathe. I am Jolly Walker Bittick. <3