Meanwhile, Two Decades Later…
Ahh, 1994. Bill Clinton was president of the United States. Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa. Comet Shoemaker-Levy hit Jupiter, George Foreman hit Michael Moorer, and the Lion King hit EVERYTHING. It was big, y’all. Harry Styles, Dakota Fanning, and Justin Bieber came into the world, while Jack Kirby, Dinah Shore, John Candy, Kurt Cobain, Raúl Juliá, and Cab Calloway all left it. Doesn’t seem like a good trade, but no one asked me, so. (that’s actually only a swipe at one of those born in ’94, by the way. I have no opinion on the other two.) Another movie released in 1994 was the Star Trek “bridge” movie passing the torch from the original series (TOS) to The Next Generation (TNG)–aptly titled Generations. This post is not about that movie. In 1994, I had nothing to do with any of the above. I was working as a Jack in the Box drive-through cashier and also as nanny to three children, and dreaming of writing books but doing very little actual writing of anything. But 1994 was the year I decided I needed to change that. Writers, I reasoned, should write things.* Or they should not call themselves writers. Enter this poster. I snagged it from work because duh. It was a free Star Trek poster. I used it to get myself to write most days in 1995, and finish my first novel. But this post isn’t really about that, either. It’s about the fact that…