I met David in 2007, when he was a freshman braving my Scriptwriting class.  He was a Communications major then.  The first day he was up for workshop, he came with forty pages, & at least half of them were interesting.  Right away I told him to switch his major, & I’m grateful he did.  It was a real treat to get to working with a writer so young with so much promise.  I don’t think I’ve ruined him too much.  Last year, visiting writer Patrick Madden selected an earlier draft of House of Autumn Fire for our college’s creative writing award.  The year before, visiting writer Kellie Wells selected some of David’s poems for our college’s creative writing award.  What David really wants to do is write short stories & novels, I think.

David’s a cerebral writer, but I’ve finally convinced him to stop thinking so much.  He used to want to write something epic & something that’ll change the world.  I’m convinced he’ll probably do that one day, now that he’s not going for that anymore.  But this guy’s prose is smart and sometimes poetic and sometimes, you know, tough enough to make you shudder.  The folks in his inescapable landscapes are all flawed and perfect and got it all figured out and don’t know a damn thing.  What I like most about his writing are those carefully improvised moments.

I’ve only got one or two more classes left with David.  Some graduate school’s going to get lucky with him next year.  This is David’s first publication, & I’m proud to be the one to introduce it, as y’all will be seeing his publications a lot in the coming years.                    Wayne Thomas

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