R. J. Spindle
R. J. Spindle was born, you could say, in May of 2007.
Only three months before, Joey came back from Okinawa, Japan a changed person. He was very much grown up from the boy he was when he left, but not quite an adult. With focus and determination, over the course of three months he managed to write a melodramatic family drama even V. C. Andrews would shudder at.
In the summer of 2007, Rhiannon also went abroad, but to St. Peter's College, Oxford, England for a six week course studying Jane Austen. The course happened to fall during what you might call Harry Potter-mania, due to the fifth movie and seventh book coming out within weeks of each other. Americans and British stood together at midnight, waiting in line at Blackwell's Bookstore, chattering and speculating desperately over what would happen next to Harry and all of the other characters they love. Rhiannon decided she needed to do this; to write the American answer to modern fantasy. However, her focus remained on school and graduating the following year, with no idea how to go about solidifying her dream.
Rhiannon was nice enough to read Joey's "novel" and honestly tell him it was stickier than pine sap. After much discussion about the book, nervous Joey asked Rhiannimated if she would rewrite the book with him. "The book needs magic," he said, and she agreed (both to the assessment, and to the partnership).
The name came about a few days later. Joey didn't like the idea of having two author's names on the cover. Really, it was their combined talents that would make their stories unique and well loved. There needed to be a nom-de-plume.
R. (Rhiannon) and J. (Joseph) were naturally obvious. Another requisite Joey decided upon was their common origin, Lowell Massachusetts. Ultimately is was Sue, Rhiannimated's mother, who came up with Spindle.
We are the weaver of tales, it evoked. R. J. Spindle, bard for a new generation.
The J. in R. J. Spindle
I've always been a writer. My mother has hidden away the first three short stories I wrote on a rainy day in the first grade. As I recall them now, how prophetic they are in their composition.
The first two were simply called, "The Haunted House" and "The Haunted House II." I remember the first story being about how the house became haunted, infesting with witches, vampires and ghouls. It's sequel was regarding the children of the original victims. No one in either adventure survived (unless you consider the undead a form of life).
The third was "Cinderella II." As a child I was very much obsessed with the story of Cinderella. We (my siblings and I) wore out two VHS tapes of the Disney version, and watched/read/performed many other tellings as well.
These stories reflect my writing today. I desire to write unique stories about characters from my own head as well as rewrite and add to stories and characters I love from others. Writing is what I do--it's what I have to do. Ideas come to me, screaming to get out. Think about it like this:
My ideas are Patrick Swayze and I'm Whoopi Goldberg (if only). This is the writing process. It's a love-hate relationship with far more love, and that makes it easier to deal with "real" life. I think we all have trouble with that nowadays in some way or another.
What I intend to do with my time here on the site is mostly entertain. Perhaps create some advice for other writers, but I will mostly log my experiences to provide motivation (for self and others) and possibly to inspire.
The R. in R. J. Spindle
Like Joey, I've been a writer since I could hold a crayon. I remember writing endless stories about Mickey and Minnie, scrawling illegible pages with vague drawings, and reciting the story to Mom, then being able to recite the same story to my younger sister (who ADORED Mickey and Minnie).
Most of my writing after that was of the school essay variety, but the thousands of five paragraph essays in middle school and the slightly longer papers in high school sharpened my organizational writing skills. My favorite papers were an eleven page biography/critical assessment of Stephen King's Needful Things. When I hit the five or six page mark and realized that I was having a gleeful time working on my homework, I figured out this must be what I want to do for the rest of my life.
In college, my favorite professor told me I'm brilliant at writing a good paper off the top of my head for a class, but that I would be unstoppable with discipline. This site, as well as the stories I am working on with Joey, are my stab at disciplining myself as a writer. Join us on our creative adventure!
