A Story Resurfaces From My Past
When I was in elementary school (I don’t remember what grade or teacher-that photo on the right is from my 1st grade class) a teacher read aloud a story that took place on the planet Venus.
My first “science fiction” story. I don’t remember the title or the author. The story has stayed with me since then. We’re talking 50+ years.
I remember so many things about the story and how moving it was especially the ending.
Over the years I've claimed that I’m not a fan of science fiction or fantasy and then a friend gives me a book they’ve written and it’s one of those and I think, “Great now I have to read this because my friend wrote it even though I am not a fan of the genre.” And I end up liking their books.
Yes, in college I read the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. I read it over a summer when I was driving a beer truck in LA, It was my escape from that job. It was okay. I've never seen any of the films and I have no plan to. I read a bunch of other stuff that summer as well.
About 15 years ago I reread Fahrenheit 451, which lead me to read more of Ray Bradbury’s other books Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Illustrated Man,and others which I loved.
I have read Zen and The Art Of Writing a few times. That and Stephen King’s writing book are my two go-to’s. I always get a lot out of both books every time I read them.
About a month ago I was having trouble with my writing so I opened up Zen and The Art Of Writing to read again! As usual I was picking up a lot from the book. I starting thinking about the story from grade school and wondering why it stays with me when so many others haven’t?
For the life of me I still couldn’t remember the name of it.
One day a couple weeks ago I was scrolling through Instagram. This image popped up on the Ray Bradbury Official page.
Wait a minute? This seems familiar. Armed with the title and the author I looked it up on the internet and sure enough it was the story I remembered. I was able to reread it again and 55 years later it still moved me. The ending is so powerful.
Good writing is good writing and it doesn’t matter the genre. Summer-In-A-Day-.
Thank you Ray Bradbury for writing so many amazing stories and for continuing to teach me how to be a better writer. Here is a link for those who wish to check out the story, All Summer In A Day
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Originally posted July 7, 2022