1/17/2018

The Beginning

Greetings,

My name is Lawrence Quammen, however, some know me as Chip.  This is the first of many blogs to come. “About what?”, you ask.  About Evergreen, book one of a trilogy named “The Adventures of Pouxie, Mouxie, and Chrissie.”

Let’s start with a little background information.  I spent twenty-three years in clinical practice as a P.A. (Physician Assistant), a career that began in 1974 in Social Circle, Georgia, with Howard Barton M.D. in general practice/family medicine.  Following several years of practice in Monroe I moved to Atlanta, a move which launched a change of clinical interest from family medicine to emergency and occupational medicine.  After leaving clinical practice I spent the next eighteen years as a consultant in the medical information systems and management consultancy founded by my wife Dr. Robecca Quammen.  At the end of my second career and the beginning of retirement I have focused my time on projects that involve the health and welfare of children.  More about that later.

Throughout the years I have been a dedicated leisure reading enthusiast with a preference for fictional works of all types.  That said, my love for reading and good books never included a moment’s interest in actually writing a book until a month or so prior to my sixty-third birthday.

One evening, while enjoying a quiet supper in a restaurant somewhere in East Texas, I had a great idea.  My great idea was to write a book about the antics of three mice named Pouxie, Mouxie and Chrissie, who happen to be sisters.  These characters were the subject of stories written by my father in the mid-to-late 50’s for his children.  I decided to use the same mice as the principal characters for my work.  The supporting characters, and stories would be of my own creation.  Once completed, the book would be dedicated to my three beautiful granddaughters in honor of my father.

And so it was.  One book became two and then three. Next came the search for a publishing pathway, followed by the search for an illustrator.  And that was just the beginning.  The space between writing and publishing is filled with processes, benchmarks and milestones, a labor of love to be sure.

I am thrilled to have reached the launching point for the first book.  There are lots of things I would like to discuss during this exciting time.  The next several blogs will cover a variety of topics including; writing, story development, character creation and development, illustrators and illustrations, the trilogy, and what’s next.  More specifically, the topic for the next blog will be the Power of Reading, and will also address the path to development of a robust imagination. 

Oh, and one more thing as I come to the end of this blog . . . your questions and comments are always welcome along the way.