Whmankeworldofwords's Blog

Will Rogers once said, “One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.”

When I look back to consider my story, I find many splendid times.  I recall with pleasure how my mother thrilled us by reading with great flourish stories and poems to us.  It instilled in me early on a love for the written word.   Sports were important to me in my growing up years.  I dreamed of playing professional soccer, and more than one coach encourage me to dream it and aim for it.  Coming to Canada ended that dream, but hockey soon filled that void.  In my early twenties I met the girl of my dreams, the one I would marry.  Four healthy children, their spouses and now eight grandchildren make up our family.  To escape the city for a few years we moved to a small town in the 70’s.  We fell in love with it.  Instead of leaving after the two or three years that we had given ourselve to live in a small town when we made that move we have remained here.  All our kids and their families have settled in the area now too. 

In between I had thirty years in Education as teacher, principal and director of instruction.  These years were filled with interesting work, with unforgettable children and adults, and I loved every day of those years.  But I had never lost my love for writing and researching.  Writing fiction for me was another dream I dreamed.  So I took early retirement to follow that dream.  I have finished five novel, published, one and I’m writing a sequel to that one now.  In addition, I have written many short stories and poems. but so far have not tried to publish them.  You can read some of them on my website, http://wmanke.com/.   In the near future I will work on getting more of my finished work published.  It may mean spending less time writing for a while.  

Besides writing, researching and reading I enjoy spending time with the grandkids.  Sports and fishing continue to give me much pleasure.  I also collect pins, Christmas village houses and the people and items that go along with creating a village of about 150 buildings.  My wife and I also love gardening and to travel by car on this continent, by ship to many places and by airplane to Europe.

Yes, there have been hard times, disappointments and pain along the way, but looking back on the day I realize it has been a splendid day so far.