About Me
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I‘ve been writing for years. I think it all began with a little comic I wrote and illustrated called WIBLUR THE BOUNCING BALL. Believe it or not, I actually illustrated a pregnant mama basketball. At the end of the comic, out bounced Wilbur. Oh my! I think I still have it somewhere. I went on from there to figure out I am not an author/illustrator. Drawing is not a gift I’ve been blessed with. I continued my writing with a script for the Twilight Zone just in case Rod Serling came back from the dead. I began writing a western during my infatuation with Louis L’Amour books. I even began a screenplay about scandals in college basketball. The problem with a lot of my early writing was an inabilty to finish it.
I have been writing a journal since the 6th grade. ”Missy doesn’t like me,” was my least favorite entry that year. Since then the entries have flowed like a leaky faucet from my various writing instruments. It all began with a pencil, then a pen for many years, and today I complete my journal entries with taps on this keyboard. My creative writing ceased for many years and I wrote about music for numerous small magazines and newspapers. My biggest paycheck ever was $43.00 from the Bismarck Tribune in North Dakota. Can you beleive they actually paid me for a CD Review of THE LAST ACTION HERO soundtrack? I don’t think it sold $43.00 worth of CDs. My music reviews were even published online before Yahoo and Google existed. Man, I’m pretty darn old! It was actually back when the internet was simply a bunch of computer bulletin boards. I was a pioneer.
It wasn’t until my son was born that I began writing picture books. Okay, there was that book about the first brussel sprout ever cooked in America. I wrote it a year before my son was born. After I began reading him picture books, I was inspired to let my creative juices flow once again. My actual picture book boom began on February 5, 2002 when I wrote THE CAT WHO LOVED TO CATCH CURVEBALLS. I revised it a bit and one year later received a personal rejection from Clarion.
I‘ve been actively writing for six years. During that time, I’ve written well over 100 books. Of course, most of those won’t make it off my hard drive into a slush pile because they don’t make slush piles deep enough for most of my manuscripts. I’m the type of person that just has to write and write and write and write some more. Among my trash are some real treasures. But I must mention some of humorous trash first. How would you like to read your son or daughter a book on bellybutton lint? Hey, it teaches the metric system. If you’re interested, I can always self-publish THE BELLYBUTTON DETECTIVES and sell it to you. It’d look great under the Christmas tree if you keep it wrapped. I’ve also got some books inspired by our living on the edge of the Palo Duro Canyon, just south of Clarendon, TX. I say these are trash, only in terms of how editors would look at them, but I treasure the memories these books provide. I’ve got TAMMY TUMBLEWEED which is pretty self-explanatory. Then there is EZEKIEL AND THE RUNAWAY EMU, a book about my son watching an emu run down the state highway in front of our house. Finally, I have to mention HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPUNKY, a story about my cat and his birthday adventure when I fed him sardines and allowed him to have some ice cream to cap off his celebration. Then I took him for a ride in our car. If only he could have waited five more minutes to potty (he was on my lap) and then vomit. Let me just say I wrote those stories over four years ago or better yet, I’ve written over 100 stories since those graced my computer screen. I’ve matured in my writing and I’m sure editors praise God they won’t be receiving any more TAMMY TUMBLEWEED stories, at least not from me. Reading through slush is tough enough
As of November 2009, I only send out about 12-15 of my manuscripts. If you’re a writer, please share some of your “trash” with me. I’d like to laugh a little bit too. Also, visit http://brianhumek.livejournal.com and become my virtual friend. Remember writers, get critiqued, revise, and submit only your absolute best writing.
Some of my Favorites
Movie: Say Anything w/John Cusak (favorite line: I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen.)
Stupid Joke: Did you hear about the two pretzels walking down the street? One was a salted.
Family Tradition: Reading Where Does Thursday Go? to my son on the evening before his birthday. He’s sure going to hate that when he’s a teen.
Foreign destination: Eastern Europe
Domestic destination: the plains south of Ardmore, South Dakota – it’s so peaceful!
Pastime: Hanging out at Starbucks with friends, meeting new ones and revising my books. A close second is playing football with Albanians on Thanskgiving and Christmas.
