Magna Vista High
Ridgeway, VA
Graduated: 1967
Student status: Alumni
Degree: High School Diploma
Major: Girls
Minor: Moon's Danceland
Clubs: The school was called Drewry Mason back then
About me: Carl Palmer, originally from Old Mill Road in Ridgeway Virginia, brought up on a chicken farm where his Daddy raised fighting roosters. Carl was asked to serve his country with the United States Army during the Vietnam War. “I figured that since the service wanted me, then they’d just have to keep me, so I stayed for 20 years until retirement.”
While on tour in Germany, Carl met Judy, a lovely fräulein and they married in April of 1970. (Don’t ask him what day) They have a daughter and a son. Their daughter, Kathleen, married to the sheriff of Pierce County, Ron, has two daughters, Alexis and Aundrea, Papa’s grandgirls. Jason, their son, married Amy and they are the parents of Papa's first grandson, Brady.
Judy and Carl now live in University Place, a small bedroom city in the Puget Sound district of the Pacific Northwest just south of Seattle Washington. Judy volunteers at Saint Joseph’s Hospital and Carl is a Hospice volunteer. Judy makes and sells homemade high-end European cakes and pastries, “put in your order early”.
Carl is a member of many writing and poetry groups: The Puget Sound Poetry Connection, Tacoma Writers Club, Tacoma Writers Roundtable, Striped Water Poets of Auburn, Dream Weavers and does open mike readings throughout the region.
Carl has seen many sights and experienced many experiences, many he’s been writing down in flash fiction and poetry. “Some of the stories may not have happened exactly as they appear on paper, however that’s just according on who’s reading that particular story.” Each of Carl’s two brothers and three sisters has appeared in print, their kids, and of course, Judy, Kathy and Jason.
“What tickles me most is seeing one of my stories in print from another part of the world.” His works have been published in England, Scotland, Germany, India, Algeria, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States, with selected poetry translated into Arabic, Hindi and French.
The first book Carl ever read was Hondo by Louis L’Amour, a western paperback pocket book, while waiting in the barracks at Ft. Dix, N.J. for the plane ride to his wife and baby girl in Germany after a year spent in Korea. He was 24 years old. “I had scanned through books, read magazines and copied Cliff Notes in school, but never really read a book cover-to-cover until then. I’m now an avid reader and have since obtained the entire leather-bound collection of Louis L’Amour, my favorite all time author.”
Carl enjoys writing as a hobby, writing about moments within his life, observations along the way. “Getting it down on paper, in a magazine or on the web, makes it indelible. I can live forever through my writing. I guess we all want that, to leave a mark.”
Carl has written three books, "Telling Stories", "Memory Moments" and "Family Matters", each containing flash fiction and poetry presented at open mikes. In the works is, "New Beginnings", as the adventure continues.
To see his mark:
Google: “Carl Palmer, flash fiction” or “Carl Palmer, poetry”
Who I'd like to meet: All the relatives, family, friends and clan at the next reunion @ Matt's house on Old Mill Road
Happy Monday! (Or enjoy the end of your weekend if you haven't made it to Monday yet!) I have a new interview up at Bookwenches: We discuss killerbyte, new projects, music, and death threats...
