Dexter Godbey - Writing - 2021

  As In Tennis...As In Life… By Dexter Godbey (March 21, 2021) I didn’t want it.  But, had no choice. Dad was clear.  “It’s girly.  For sissies.  Not men.” “I’ll get him his racket,” Grandpa Godbey said.  You didn’t argue with Grandpa.   Grandpa and I didn’t talk on the five-mile drive to the old, disheveled Mountain View Sports store in La Canada, California.  Neither of us usually talked much anyway.  We had a special bond, though.  I was his first grandson and namesake: Dexter.    It was Mid October 1960.  Cobalt blue sky. I wore a sweater.  I was 13.  Going to pick out my first tennis racket.   We were in Grandpa’s ancient, red, Ford pickup.  Grandma hated that truck. Grandpa knew everything about concrete work and fishing.   Nothing, though, about tennis or tennis rackets.  Me neither. In my 7th-grade gym class, we tried every sport for two weeks.  Which is why I neede...

  6 Apr 21 YouTube Video Assignment Target 250 words -  18 Minutes Timed  - I minute per sentence - 18 Sentences allowed - I have 16 Assignment Rules and Requirements Assignment - Genre is Sci Fi - Opening needs who, where, and make genre clear and must use the words “jockey” & “coaster.   386 Words ----->>>  368 --->>>  322   ----->>>>>  306 ************************************************************** Jackson, a 10 Star Tennis Jockey was competing for his fourth consecutive Intergalactic Gold Ball Championship.  He loved playing from the Floating Tennis Control Chair in his living quarters on the Cosmos Interstellar Space Station where, in spite of the climate control, he was dripping wet as he quickly grabbed his 30 oz electrolyte drink from the coaster next to the control panel, and took a huge gulp.  Jackson pounced when he saw Bruno - his nemesis since their near fistfight on an Earthboun...

  Dexter Godbey 100 Word (exactly) Writer's Bio March 11, 2021   March 5, 2021 Dexter Godbey is a writer, teacher, entrepreneur, and enthusiastic tennis player. He fell in love with fiction and started writing stories in 5th grade. Fiction slipped from his priorities in college/Law School.  But, he chose courses where grades were based on papers and essay tests. Always writing.  In business, Dexter wrote legal briefs. Later, marketing and sales plans.  And ad copy.   Fiction survived in the basement of his soul.  Semi-retired, he still writes nonfiction. Hundreds of business articles.  Content for lessons and training programs.  Three books.    And now, his passion for fiction is creeping up the basement stairs.  Seeking daylight. 

  Mrs. Nelson, well known as the scariest, most dreaded, Wicked Witch of the West teacher in my school, was one of three people that changed my life that Wednesday afternoon in May 1957. I was in 5th grade.  Ten years old.  La Canada Elementary School, La Canada, California.   My teacher, Mrs. Nelson, read to the class for 20 minutes every day after our long lunch recess.  Except for every other Wednesday.  Every other Wednesday was different. I don’t remember anything Mrs. Nelson read to us in her deep soothing voice except “The Jinx Ship.”  I was captivated by the cover.  “The Jinx Ship, by Howard Pease," Mrs. Nelson read. "A Tod Moran Mystery.  The Dark Adventure That Befell Tod Moran When He Shipped as Fireman Aboard the Two-Masted Tramp Steamer ‘Congo,’ Bound Out of New York for Caribbean Ports.” During the time Mrs. Nelson was reading us The Jinx Ship, I couldn’t wait to come in from lunch recess.  I’d gladly trade our rousin...