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PROFILE:
So, you want a story, my child? Settle down by the fire. Let the crackles and dancing flames sing my anthem. . . Way back in ancient times (the mid 80s--ha), I was in fifth grade. I had a really good friend named Robert. He was sitting in class one day reading a book during free time after our assignments were finished. At first, I paid him no mind and just sat quietly as were the others who had also finished. After a while, I happened to notice that the book he was reading seemed different. Then I realized that he kept turning the pages back and forth in no real order. I thought that was strange considering I had always read books from front to back. So, I asked him what he was doing. He explained that it was kind of like a choose-your-own-adventure book and D&D book combined: "The book is written in sections and you choose which one you want to turn to when you are prompted by the text", he explained. "You also engage in combat from time to time and you can turn to the back of the book to select numbers from a random number table, which you use to figure out who wins the fight", he explained further. I found the whole thing very intriguing and so I asked if I could look at it when he finished. It just so happened that he was reading book #3. He said that the books are in numbered order and it is best to read them in that order. So he offered instead to bring book #1 in for me to read the next day. He did. And so I began to read it. I thought that it was the coolest thing that I had ever laid eyes on. I never liked reading because I thought it was boring just watching text scroll by on pages. But this was a whole new way of reading for me. I was always a vivid child with a great imagination. I was always thirsty for something creative and different from "the norm". Those books were perfect. One catch though. At that time my family was EXTREMELY poor! We could not afford to spend money that was used for food to buy books. My friend, Robert, knew that I was really poor. He came from a middle class family, so whenever he got a new book, he would loan it to me to read when he finished. (Good ol' Robert. I'll never forget that guy!) I remember how I begged and begged for those books. But, as stated, my family could not afford them. One day just before the end of that school year, I was waiting for the school bus when I thought I had left my homework in the house. I reached into my satchel and started digging around. I felt something strange, so I pulled it out. I could not believe what it was! It was a brand new Book #1!!! I was so excited that I ran into the house yelling and screaming. My mother confronted me and I told her "thank you" about a thousand times. She said she had no idea what I was talking about. When I showed her the book, she said that she had not given it to me. Considering that my parents were divorced at the time, that ruled out anybody else in the house. My mother had to drive me to school that day because I missed the school bus. When I got to school, Robert asked why I was late. I told him what had happened, and thinking he may have given it to me, I confronted him. He also denied giving it to me. And, so it goes that until this very day I have no idea where the book came from. We got out of school for the summer. I slaved doing every odd job I could find in order to get some money to buy some more of the books. I worked all summer and sadly I only earned enough money to buy 3 more books!! Although the series was well into the teens by that time, I was quite happy to have those that were on my shelf. I was so proud of all of the SLAVE LABOR I had done just to earn some small change and be able to buy those books!! My grandmother was so inspired by my hard work and dedication that she surprised me with a back to school present of books 5-12!!! ****(Now, my grandparents were somewhat wealthy, but my mother (their eldest child) had basically been exiled from the family some years before I was born. That explains the difference in financial situations and why my grandmother could buy the books.**** Well, I almost had a heart attack when I opened the box they were in! For a few years, I went to school and grew a little older. I worked here and there when I could and I would buy a book every once in a while. I finally caught up to the last book in the series, which was #15 at the time. Then I had to wait while the publishers worked on the next one to be released. In the meantime, I graduated high school to find myself only up to #17. Shortly after, I could not get any more answers from the bookstores about any other books. At that time I did not know that these books were originally published in the UK. That is why it took them so long to get to the US for our publishers to agree on copyright issues and then print them here in the form of US versions. Before I could find out anything else, I joined the Navy and basically forgot about them for a while. Every once in a while I would visit a book store and they would tell me that they did not know if new ones were out or anything else. Then one day, I found out that I could not buy them anymore from the stores. à à àFast Forward a year or two à à à I was still in the Navy and had learned to use computers. I never knew a darn thing about them. I also learned about the Internet. On a whim, I thought that maybe somebody out there in the world would know something, so I started looking for Lone Wolf stuff. It just so happened that I found a group of people (Kaiwisdom) with a mailing list dedicated just to Lone Wolf and other stuff by Joe Dever. I was elated!! I thought that Robert and I were the only folks on earth that knew about them! Was I wrong. I joined the list and was shortly reading a ton of information that I did not know. Such as: There are UK versions; There are 28 books in the series; There were other books related to them; The US versions were only printed to #20; The US versions were also abridged and a lot of sections were cut out of the text in all after #12. And on--And on--And on I was then armed with some new info as well as excitement. The only thing that was not good was that I learned that almost every one of these books was out of print. Which means I have to scour the countryside vice go down to the local bookstore and order them. I had waited too long--but then again, I had no idea about them either. No one could tell me until I met up with the folks at Kaiwisdom. So, now I have embarked on a new crusade to find these treasures of my life. I do cherish these books greatly. It is funny, because my entire family knows that now as well. If some of the family comes to visit my home and there is a new person around and they get near my collection out of curiosity, the family screams out at the same time "DON'T BOTHER THE BOOKS!" They have heard me threaten them a thousand times over--now they warn others! It is quite funny to see the reaction of the new folks when every person in the room yells the same message all at once--as if they were about to commit a cardinal sin or something. So, I guess you could say that without these books, I never would have been inspired to read. That is one reason I collect them. I guess they also remind me of the hardships of my early life, because they were my escape from the reality of things like hunger and poverty and ridicule from other social classes. And now that they are somewhat hard to come by, I can get lost once again in my searches for them. Besides, it is good for passing the time and giving me something to do. But, for the most part, I have always heard that everybody needs something that "is just for him or her". Well, I guess you could say that these are "just for Don." And I cannot describe the feeling of being able to buy something that I want! I worked hard to get where I am today, so every time I open a new shipment containing one of my finds, it reminds me that I have pulled myself up to a position where I can enjoy life and be a little frivolous rather than worry about my next meal. Well, there you have it. --Something so simple as a book of yellowed parchment with a whole lot of meaning.--I do enjoy telling that story. Thanks for lending an ear. --And as the smoldering embers die into the chill of the night, let your dreams ride on the wisping smoke--rest well, my child. MYSTIC SAGE (a.k.a. Don Copous) |
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Contact: TheRisingSun@bigfoot.com
Lone Wolf © TM Joe Dever 1984-2000. |
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