On Wednesday, April 24, G. Ray Bodley had a visit from a local author, Mr. John Mercer, who talked to several classes about his journey as a writer.

Mr. Mercer retired last year from his position as a sixth-grade teacher at Fairgrieve Elementary. He talked about his struggles as a writer and the learning curve that comes along with becoming one. He also gave some tips to the classes about how to edit their work and create interesting characters.

Mr. Mercer talked about how he began to have an interest for writing and explained that he got his inspiration from punishment. He said his parents would send him to the corner and that there was nothing to do there so he would just make up stories. When the time was up, he would go right to his room and write them all down.

He also talked about how he had always wanted to write a book, but did not think he would ever write one. He tried one time, but only got so far. With his busy life as a full-time teacher and a full-time dad he had little time to work on writing. When he finally came back to what he had written, he found it a horrendous mess and stopping working on it completely.

Many years later, Mr. Mercer picked back up his hobby and found it to be a success. He is now a published author of two books and is working on his third. Mr. Mercer's story tells a lesson that just because something did not work out once does not mean you should give up on it forever.

Senior Hailey Nugent said, “I thought he was very inspirational and his presentation made me want to read the books.”

Senior Eric Shear noted, “I had read the books and it was interesting to hear what inspired him.”

Senior Nora Kingsbury said, “It was really cool to hear the inspiring story of Mr. Mercer. The information he gave was very helpful for writing.”

Mr. Mercer's visit was put together by GRB Librarian Mrs. Scalfaro. Mr. Mercer's two books, They Call Me Zombie and They Call Me Zombie: Hope are both available on Amazon.