All of the following about me is true:

• award-winning fiction author
• taught creative writing on four continents
• mentor to professional writers

In college, I wrote a short story that won 3rd-place in a Creative Writing class contest and was subsequently published in the school’s annual collection. All selected works were paid exactly $1 to allow them to have at least one published work to list for which they were paid.

Whilst in the US Navy, wherever I was stationed, I usually put together an informal writing group to help some English as a Second Language crewmates, or anyone who wanted to learn a bit about writing fiction. Not that I was overly qualified, but I did possess a degree in both Communications and English. The ships made port in North America, South America, Europe, & Asia during the time I ran some of these groups. Et voilà—four continents.

After my navy days, I started and ran numerous writing groups, and at least three of the participants later had success in finding their work published, and they all thanked me for my help. Some others in my groups also published, and joined professional organizations and such, but none have thanked me personally, so perhaps their success should be attributed to the entire group—there were a lot of talented people in some of the groups, and that always helps.

The point of all this prelude is manyfold:

• Some people just have to know the advice they are being given comes from somebody qualified to deliver it. Personally, I think good advice is good advice no matter the source; being skilled at any endeavor does not mean the person will be able to teach that skill. Not all sports adages are correct, but there is a reason why it is believed that some of the best coaches are former players who had little skill and so had to work and learn to do the little things that made them successful. (see Show Me Your Bonafides)
• I want to assure you I am about as much a nobody as can be as a professional writer. The name I am using on this site and in my role as creator elsewhere is Albert Terego…but you can call me Al. So please never expect a stunning reveal wherein I announce that I am a New York Times best-selling author. First of all, I don’t think I want to be a NYTBSA; I am selective in the company I keep, often to the point of absurdity. Secondly, you probably are already thinking it’s obvious I’m not a famous writer. To which I say:
• I’m not trying to write Pulitzer-worthy articles here. First and foremost is just getting the information out so maybe it can be considered and then discussed. Like almost every other site and published book devoted to helping writers, there isn’t anything here that hasn’t been presented before.
• My hope is to help anyone I can, in whatever way I can. Writing about what I think I know about writing is meant to lay the groundwork to begin a discussion. If people visit and read and find one thing that resonates even slightly with them, but never engage in any other way, I will be happy. If one or two people start a dialogue/online friendship with me—or each other—then I will be happy.
  
  Heck, I’ll feel better than if I had a best-seller on the New York Times list.