Barry Wallace
Bewildering Stories biography
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Hi, I’m Barry Wallace.
“McCorsky’s Ants” is my first publication in Bewildering Stories. Hopefully there will be more. It’s the second of my stories to be published. “Dark Rains and Hurt Things” appeared online previously in the online magazine Heater.
I’m currently working on several projects both short and long, and seeking an agent/publisher for my science fiction novel, “Judgment.” The aliens have arrived, and mankind holds its collective breath while waiting out a contentious weekend which will decide our fate.
I was a WWII baby, born on July 5, 1943. My childhood was average for a boy growing up in southeast Missouri, with a great deal of focus on playing and watching baseball and basketball. Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals and Bob Pettit of the old St. Louis (now Atlanta) Hawks remain my sporting idols. Following high school I graduated first from junior college, then the University of Missouri. I started teaching in Turner, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, in the fall of 1966. I would retire from the profession in 2009 after spending forty years as a teacher. Along the way I added a Master’s degree in computers to the Bachelor’s in education.
During my career I taught theatre and acting, competitive speech and debate, English, and writing. Over the span of that forty years my students won several hundred awards, both major and minor, and I had the pleasure of becoming one of the top one-half of one percent of test subjects to record a perfect score in the English and essay portion of the CLEP (College Level Examination Program).
I also spent time as a radio news and sports director, did a handful of small films and commercials, and a bit of voice-over work. I’ve directed and/or acted in over a hundred and fifty educational, community and regional stage productions, and been fortunate enough to receive recognition for the roles I’ve played.
I have loved teaching, enjoyed doing radio, and felt great satisfaction from performing. I think, however, nothing in those endeavors was as much pure fun as the work I did for a number of years as a Studio Tour Guide for Universal Studios in Hollywood. Entertaining guests on the tour trams was like getting paid to eat cotton candy.
Perhaps surprisingly, I didn’t start writing until 2014, after enrolling in a memoirs writing group conducted by Marilyn Cram Donahue. This wonderful woman ignited a new passion. I still attend her group, and am inspired constantly by her.
I have an amazing son and daughter, both adults now of course, and am lucky enough to frequently enjoy their company. I live in the Inland Empire area of Southern California with three beautiful, and thoroughly spoiled, cats. They keep me grounded as I write, act, and continue to seek success in the voice-over arena.
Copyright © 2018 by Barry Wallace
