George Story led a very rich life.
Windjammer, sea captain, engineer, musician, artist, father of five children.
And then there is his story. The story of how, with the help of two beloved mentors, he overcame dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to write 12 novels, several short stories and dozens of episodic short stories .
At 71, the longtime Lanesville resident has just released his latest tale on Amazon. “Primrose Grange – Liddy’s Narratives” is the first in a five-part series appearing sequentially on a monthly basis on her Amazon site.
Story says that, thanks to new technologies, he is doing things the Old World way. “Dickens, Mark Twain, Fitzgerald, when they were writing, their stories appeared in installments in magazines.” and due to Amazon’s flexibility, it follows suit.
“Primrose Grange – Liddy’s Narratives,” released April 1, will be followed on the first of the next four months by more episodes from the life of Liddy, a girl inspired by Story’s 13-year-old granddaughter Sienna.
“I’ve done a lot of things in my life,” he says. “But when I look back…I’m the proudest of my kids.”
These children inspired characters in many of his stories.
Liddy, aka Sienna, was born as a newborn named Lydia Gideon Walker in the final chapter of an earlier group of shorts, “The Souls of Primrose Grange”, and “she grows up and finds life” as a teenager in the last of Story.
Liddy has an extraordinary gift (no spoilers here) and because of it, she doesn’t feel at home in the world outside of Primrose Hill, a former New England estate.
Story himself found life as a member of an ancient family of Essex shipbuilders who, over many generations, built “thousands of fishing schooners”. He was, he says, ‘born windjammer’, but here in Gloucester he is perhaps best known for writing, producing and directing an audio walking tour of the seafront – a trio of achievements for a man whose childhood was tormented at that time. undiagnosed dyslexia and ADHD.
As a student, school was torture until, at Beverly Farm Elementary School, her sixth-grade teacher, Ms. Mahan, “seemed to have more patience with the hyperactive self than anyone ever had. seemed to have.” With her encouragement, he thrived, writing a 15-page article that was a revelation to him.
Years later, when he was in his thirties, a woman named Ruth Powers also saw potential talent, teaching Story the difference between a story and a well-written story.
“At the time, I didn’t understand that writing could become an obsession,” he says. But the more he wrote – in tandem with an overflowing imagination – the more he was compelled to write. Over the years, books have sprung from him, titles such as “Girl on a Pink Schwinn” and “Vanessa’s Valley”, both inspired by his daughter Vanessa.
For Gloucester lovers, his novel ‘Someplace Different’ imagines a Gloucester untouched by man. No native tribes, no settlers, no fishermen – just a teenager and a girl who live in the present, but escape together in the afternoon to this pristine Eden, where they can be like Adam and Eve.
Given his family history of boat building and sailing and his years as a sea captain, life on the ocean also played a major role in Story’s writing. But he is, by his own words, not Herman Melville. Still self-deprecating, the boy who beat dyslexia and ADHD with the help of ‘wonderful female teachers’ says, ‘I earn enough on my writing to pay taxes, but I’m not wrong. I’m a $3.99 book author. »
Well, just like a book can’t be judged by its cover, a book can’t be judged by its price.
And one thing is for sure, if you buy a story from George Story, he will give you what you pay for.
Joann MacKenzie can be reached at 978-675-2708, or jomackenzie@gloucestertimes.com.
