My Friend & Author Edward Semon, Tennis Anyone? #ebookgiveaway
My guest today is an author and a personal friend, Ed(ward) Semon. He lives on a lake not too far from my lake. 🙂 He is a retired teacher and a very interesting person. Recently my daughter helped him take his Out of Print book into the digital age! Here’s Ed’s interview:
1-Tell us about your book, Over the Net and Between the Lines.
ED: After I retired from a/my teaching career, I started playing tennis, a lot of tennis. I loved the game and I started playing five days a week, indoors at an indoor tennis facility in Glendale (suburb of Milwaukee.) I had many enthusiastic tennis partners, mostly men, but not all, and with all the practice, I improved my game to the point where people were asking me to join their game. At the same time, I thought I had the time to write a reading and vocabulary textbook, time I never seemed to have when I was teaching. “Gates to Understanding” was published and sold all of 136 copies. Lesson, if a teacher is going to write a text, do it while you have students in front of you. I also started writing stories about my experiences on the tennis court, I never told anyone how to play the game. The stories were published monthly in a tennis periodical-“Crosscourt News”-out of a Chicago suburb. My wife suggested I put the stories into a book. That’s how Over the Net and Between the Lines was born.
2-What story in the book is closest to your heart and why?
ED: My first and most favorite story is “Men Do Talk.” After playing, the guys all sat together, talking about the game and about their aches and pains. Sometimes the talk was serious, but mostly it was hilarious, especially when it came to out of the world cures for whatever hurt-emu oil, the cherished ointment for a close friend. Years later, I’m still laughing about the efficacy of emu oil. Second favorite, a piece of poetry I wrote about Dr. Dan Rudman, a great gentleman tennis player, intellect and medical researcher who died prematurely and was sorely missed. Its called “Waiting for Dan.”
3-Who do you think would enjoy receiving this book as a gift?
ED:You don’t have to play tennis to enjoy the book. These are human people stories which happen to take place on tennis courts. Personalities, disputes over rules, rejection and acceptance, wearing apparel, and the the day I participated in medical research. A book for younger and older men in a recreational activity.
4-What are you working on now?
ED: I’m currently editing a novel-Biblical Fiction. The Bible has many many stories, I picked this one-Capture a Comely Woman-Deuteronomy 21, Verses 10 to 14 because it tells of the first in history humane treatment of women captured in battle. I asked, “What happens to those women after capture, their lives, adaptations to a new culture and acceptance in a new and different society. Rami, a Hittite beauty is captured, brought home and her adventure is played out.
Thanks, Ed. I love that you are letting the creative juices flow in retirment. Ed has offered a free EBOOK (not print) copy of his book to someone who leaves a comment here. Here’s a question for you–What do you plan to do in retirement? Follow a dream? Travel? Spend time with grandchildren? Please share!–Lyn
