Don't mess with crazy old people, or felony is the best policy (Part I)

[Pony_Express]

I realize this is still fresh for maumann, heck, it would be fresh for any of us middle class/upper middle class white guys thrown into a similar situation. However, this would be a really compelling story that I believe would generate a broad audience. A combination of your media journey (radio, print, evolving media landscape) to the conflict that caused this, to the process of being charged, to your jail time, to a reflection/your reflection on the current system and where the gaps are.

Many less qualified stories have sold well and have been published. I was in a graduate writing program about 20 years ago and took a memoir writing class. Five people in that class ended up selling their memoirs to major publishers. Only one of those five was anywhere near on par from a human interest perspective and it went on to become a bestseller and made into a movie (I got a novel out of the program that sold).

Not that publishing this for a broad audience is your endgame but thought I would at least mention this is the most compelling stuff I've read on SJ in quite some time.

 

[maumann]

Thank you, @Pony_Express. And to everyone who has added constructive criticism and "played along with the home version" by asking insightful and excellent questions, I appreciate it very much.

I didn't start out trying to be cryptic, and then writing reams of regurgitated real-life nightmares in an effort to impress or revulse, or worse, play the victim. To be honest, it took so long to go from reveal to write because I was afraid of what might come out if I tapped into my brain and explored the rabbit hole that got curiouser and curiouser. The writing is easy. Reliving it is the hard part.

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

Boom goes the dynamite, Lewis Carroll.

Very few people have been privy to (or forced to sit through) these accounts, so consider yourselves to be some of my closest confidants. Poor IJAG is another. There may be refreshments. And perhaps election-day pizza.

The fact that I still have so many vivid, specific memories does bother Gwen a lot (she would like for our physician to see if perhaps hypnosis might alleviate this), but I'm a little bit proud of myself because I apparently learned a valuable lesson from my first meeting with publisher Dean Lesher at the Contra Costa Times way back in 1975, when he asked me to describe the shape of the glasses and color of the tie the man was wearing who interrupted our meeting -- and I hadn't noticed either one, or the fact that someone even came in.

Always keep a mental notebook ready at all times! You never know when a story will appear! Talk only to direct the conversation! Listen to the narrative, don't just jot down the words!

I've prided myself on telling other people's stories. Thank you for providing me with the opportunity and support to tell one about me of which I am the least proud.

 

[qtlaw]

Dean Lesher, did you write for The Daily Ledger (Antioch)?

 

[maumann]

Dean Lesher, did you write for The Daily Ledger (Antioch)?

I did not, @qtlaw. I had Outside Work Experience at the Times when it was still "The Green Sheet," helping Charlie Zeno and Don Zupan in the sports department after school.

However, I was the track announcer at Antioch Speedway -- "There's a Fight Every Saturday Night!" -- for two seasons, 1982 and 1983.