As my new feature, My Life, continues to motor along, with all the speed of a steamroller going up a mountain, I am pleased to welcome yet another visitor into The Crypt with their tale, and that visitor is none other than Robert Wacaster.
Welcome Robert and thank you for taking the time to partake is such an exciting new venture.
MY LIFE
by
ROBERT WACASTER
I always had a vivid
imagination, but grew up in a small, boring town in Idaho. I joined the U.S. Air Force to get out of
Idaho and see the world. When I joined,
I had figured I would stay in the military at least 20 years. After a miserable 4 years, I was given an
honorable discharge, but not before the military had changed me. During my 4 years I had discovered beer. I liked beer.
I liked beer a bit too much, in fact.
It got so if I wanted to run away from something, I got drunk.
This carried over to
my civilian life. After having a rough
time finding a job, I ended up dealing blackjack at a Las Vegas casino. (When work dried up in Idaho, my family had
moved to a place called Bullhead City, Arizona, 100 miles away from Las
Vegas.) It was a horrible job! I honestly can’t imagine doing much worse
work. I watched people piss and shit
themselves while playing. People spit on
the floor. They would blame me when they
lost all their money. Around the
holidays some people would say things like “I hope you sleep well tonight,
because now that you’ve taken all my money my kids won’t get any presents for
Christmas!” So my life became a train
wreck, and I sank deeper into alcoholism.
One day I caught some
kind of virus at work. I tried to fight
through it, but eventually my lungs filled with fluid and I was having a hard
time breathing. I finally broke down and
went to a doctor. Since I had pretty
good insurance, the clinic I went to ordered every test they could on me, just
to make a bit of money. They did give me
antibiotics that cleared up the virus, at least. A week later, the clinic called and wanted me
to come back and talk with the doctor.
Here’s the start of where my life finally changed.
The doctor told me
that after looking at my blood test, my liver was in really bad shape. That if I kept drinking, I would probably be
dead in 3 more months. He told me the
good news was that the liver will regenerate if you stop abusing it. So I had a choice to keep drinking and die
soon, or stop drinking and keep on living.
This was a harder choice for me than you might think. Since I hated my place in life, I considered
just drinking for the next 3 months and giving up. Obviously though, I didn’t take that
route. I decided I would just quit
drinking.
I really struggled
while drying out, but I did stay clean.
But things were getting worse at work, and I was just having a really
rough time. I had some vacation time
saved up, and my sister and I took a vacation to Disneyworld in Florida. I had hoped that if I got away for a week, I
could maybe get my head together. While
in Florida, an amazing thing happened. I
was walking through this hotel called the Grand Floridian and saw this guy
cleaning gum from a rug. I thought to
myself that this had to be the worst job in the world, and he must be
miserable, too. As I walked by, he
looked up at me with a happy smile and said “Good morning! How are you?
I hope you have a magical day!” I
was stunned that he could be so happy doing a shit job like that! And right then it occurred to me that I
didn’t have to be miserable at home. I
could change my life! I wasn’t chained
to the rotten casino!
On my first day back
to work, I found the assistant casino manager (the casino manager was no where
to be found) and told her I was quitting.
I would work the shift for that day, but then I was finished. I wasn’t even going to give a 2 week notice. She told me I was a really good employee,
didn’t call in sick usually, was always on time, and maybe she could help me
transfer to another department. She had
talked me into staying, until...the casino manager found his way into the pit,
looked at me and said:
“What the hell are
you doing standing there? Get your ass
on a table and start dealing and shut your fucking mouth!”
I looked back at the
assistant casino manager and said, “Sorry, I quit. I won’t take this.” and then I left.
After a few years of
stocking shelves and unloading trucks for a living, which is too boring to even
write about, I found my way into working security for a casino. It’s not a bad job and the easiest thing I’ve
ever done. They pay me a decent wage and
all I really have to put up with is juvenile behavior. Mostly that comes from the other security
officers, some of which refuse to bath, have horribly bad dandruff, and are
borderline illiterate. But still, it’s a
living I can get by with, and sometimes even enjoy.
I found Myspace and
found out about blogging. I began to
write. I had written in high school, and
even some in the military, but never kept anything I had written. I don’t even think I had 10 friends on
Myspace. *chuckle* But I did start getting a few views on my
blog. I decided to write a book about
casino security. I tried sending query
letters to literary agents, and only got back form letters. None of them would even read what I had
written. So I self published the
book. It’s poorly formatted, and the
paperback is a mess, but it was a start.
I wrote a couple
other titles and self published them.
Then, I began to find a few other writers on Facebook. I began to swap reviews for amazon. I made friends and eventually ran across an
erotic writer at the start of her career.
No, I won’t tell you who, but she’s done quite a bit since we’ve
met! I began making other friends who
were erotic writers and decided I wanted to try writing in this genre. After writing my first erotic story, I didn’t
know what to do with it and put it aside.
I wrote another one. After
looking at the two stories, I realized one had a home setting, the other a work
setting. I thought to myself if I add a
vacation setting, I can put out all three stories as an anthology about women
searching for love...sex and love...THE SEARCH FOR SEX AND LOVE! And thus my first erotic title was born! I submitted it to Silver Publishing and was
thrilled when it was accepted and I was offered a contract!
I continue writing,
hoping someday I might even make enough of a living doing this that I can quit
my security job. My current project is a
story about an air force sergeant who ends up blinded in Afghanistan and falls
in love with an air force nurse in a hospital in Germany.
So there you have it,
my life up to this point. The good and
bad. I’ve left out a few things like the
woman who cheated on me and expected me to watch her kids while she did it, my
crushes and how badly I’ve done with women.
*chuckle* But maybe those are
stories for another day?
by:
Robert Wacaster
THIS IS JULEZ S MORBIUS THANKING ROBERT AND WONDERING WHERE ALL MY OTHER WONDERFUL CREATURES OF THE NIGHT ARE WITH THEIR STORIES, BOOKS TO PROMOTE AND GENERAL VENTING.
REMEMBER TO KEEP YOUR NECKS CLEAN, YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN I SHALL FLY BY OR A LITTLE BITE ;)
T.T.F.N.
4 comments:
Great story, Robert and well written, too! I admire your honesty and the way you pulled yourself together. That isn't an easy thing to do. Seems like you've found your way to a happy life. Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed reading this.
Great post Robert!
I'm glad you found solace in writing!
Thank you, ladies.
Good for you Robert! Such honesty...
Post a Comment