Hi! I’m John Brasher. Thanks for stopping by.
I grew up outside a small town named Ochelata, Oklahoma. I started first grade only knowing how to write my name, having learned that the weekend before. Troublesome would be a mild word to describe my behavior. I easily spent half of our recess time in the classroom for bad behavior. Mrs. Bartholomew, the first of many wonderful teachers I had, used that time to teach me how to read. By the end of the school year I was reading encyclopedias and everything else she provided me.
From that time on I loved to read. I lived with my grandparents who owned a small plot of land where we raised chickens and every vegetable known to man. I spent my time outside of school working that garden with my little brother. To occupy our time I began to tell him stories. After time the stories grew larger and became chapters that often ended with cliffhangers that left him wanting more. Listening to him tell me what he hoped would happen next allowed me to invent the next episode giving him some of what he wanted with unexpected twists.
Throughout my childhood I dabbled with writing stories and poems, spending my small allowances on books, paper, and pencils.
At sixteen my grandparents sent me to live with my father in Georgia. We decided it was best if I left upon graduation. I joined the army. Having been hurt, I was medically retired and moved to Athens, GA to attend college by the grace of the American taxpayer and the VA. I wanted to major in English or journalism, but those options were closed. The VA required I choose a major that ensured a job after graduation. I chose special education. I graduated in under three years and started a family and a new career.
After four years of teaching I faced burnout. It was the nineties, though, and I landed a job with an ERP software company. I became a technical instructor teaching development and programming classes. This allowed me to travel the country and beyond. I constantly saw new horizons. After a time I moved into consulting working on project implementations of HR, Financials, and Student Information Systems in the commercial, public sector, and higher ed worlds. These long-term projects involved weekly travel and lasted for one to three years at a time. I was able to work with wonderful people in cities all over the US whose whose lives and perspectives were vastly different than mine. It was wonderful.
I always wanted to write, but my career required long hours between flights. Three children produce a cacophony of sound and energy you miss when they are grown, but it is certainly not conducive to the introspection and solitude needed for writing. Still the sounds and energy were far more precious than solitude could ever be. I could still read on the road and at home. It is certainly easier to stop in the middle of a sentence you are reading over the one you are writing.
Still I wanted to write. I felt I could be good. It wasn’t just my own vanity. So many teachers, professors, friends, and family felt I had a true talent. Writing is hard though, it twists your emotions, wrecks your esteem, and sucks you in. It requires you to push your emotions into dark places. Often writing just a few sentences effectively can require hours of research on arcane subjects. Thank you internet!
My children are now grown and starting their own lives. My life changed as well. Now I live in a cabin in the woods in South Georgia, a newlywed again, with my wonderful wife, my youngest daughter, her yorkie, and X number of cats. I decided it was time.
I left my job and pulled out some of my savings and set to work on a story that had been brewing in my mind for fifteen years. It would have been great to have begun this journey of writing when I was young, but I have to believe it is better this way. The journey I took allowed me to meet thousands of wonderful people of every background. It allowed me to have countless little and great moments. It allowed me to experience so much. These things are the tools that I hope will enrich my stories as much as they enriched my life.
Thank you for reading.