Carly
Honors English 11
8 September 2014
W. Bruce Cameron
In the small town of Petoskey, Michigan, known for the iconic killing of thousands of messenger pigeons in the nineteenth century, if even known at all, is where a boy named William Bruce Cameron was born. Bruce, being from a small family consisting of his mother, father and younger sister, lead a simple life growing up. He only ever mentions his birth in Petoskey, later on his family living in Prairie Village, KS and of course living in Colorado where he started out his writing career as a columnist for the Denver Rocky Mountain News. W. Bruce Cameron’s story elucidates how he has made a name for himself, in not only in American literature, but also how he has developed personally, by reflecting back on the events that led him to where he stands today.
When he was only in fourth grade, W. Bruce Cameron already knew he wanted to pursue writing as a career. He recalls many of the kids he grew up with wanting to be “ball players, astronauts, and soldiers” while he was mainly interested in storytelling and literature (Cameron 6). Knowing whole heartily what he wanted to do in life, from such a young age, kept him aiming for his long term goals. While growing up, playing sports was not Cameron’s favorite activity, “I was a star athlete in high school, as evidenced by the fact that my football uniform was spotlessly clean” (Cameron 7). At age sixteen, he sold his first short story he had ever submitted anywhere, to the Kansas City Star, he was paid a measly fifty dollars. The fact that he sold his first ever submitted story so quickly, seemed like great news, “it convinced me this writing thing was going to be really easy. Guess what? It’s not easy.” (Cameron 10). After high school Bruce attended an all-mall liberal arts college in the Midwest, where he was the editor of the library magazine and the student newspaper.
When William Bruce Cameron was around eight years of age he remembers his...