About the Author: Kent Wayne

Hello everybody, my name is Kent Wayne.  I’ve started getting requests for personal info so I thought I’d put up this author page.  I know it’s commonly practiced social media etiquette to post lots of pictures and stuff about personal life, but I tend to veer the other way—I like my privacy.  Sorry if that offends you; I’m not trying to be rude.

I spent ten years in the military.  I was never a sex-nuts strong, roided-out Bin-laden-wasting-stud, nor was I a fat, whiny, high-and-tight (it’s the stereotypical military haircut) wearing pencil-pusher that lived to yell at people about uniform and haircut regulations because he was bullied in high school and couldn’t get a date.  Within those two extremes, I fall somewhere in between.  I’m not going to specify what units or branches I was in.  That was a different person, and it doesn’t matter now—I’m out and done with that stuff.  While it definitely informs my writing, the chapter has closed on that part of my life.

I prefer not to be thanked for my service.  There’s plenty of great articles out there that can express why better than I ever could.

My view on the military, just to give you some insight on my perspective:  the military is a reflection of society.  Of humanity.  Within it, you can find behavior that is villainous, heroic, idiotic, and genius.  The full spectrum.  And just like life, one person can exhibit some of each.  Nobody is a badass 100% of the time.  Nobody is a piece of shit 100% of the time.  I find most portrayals of the military reductive in that it doesn’t recognize this basic fact:  the military is made up of humans, and they are subject to human nature.  When it becomes clear that “shitbags” can be amazing and “heroes” can be child molesters, then the folly of using a label to reduce somebody to hero, baby-killer, badass, or brainwashed is revealed to be shortsighted and childish.

This is everywhere, not just the military.  I’m resigned to the idea that humans love to reduce the complexity of life into an easy-to-get-riled about, simplistic viewpoint.  But I have seen it get better as I’ve gotten older, so I still have hope.  I think the internet—and the increased ease of sharing information—has a lot to do with that.

The great lesson I learned from the military:  Ideals are nice and soul-stirring, but people tend to get blinded by them.  It is the ability to perceive the minutely relevant changes from instance to instance, from circumstance to circumstance, that will carry you.  It is not comfortably reductive idealism, but all-inclusory awareness that will let you navigate not just life, but all of existence.

(Hops off the soapbox)  I know that’s a poor bio, but I hope that my obnoxiously grandiose statement reveals more about me than if I were to list a boring series of life events.  And I hope it wasn’t too pretentiously poetic.  As a character from one of my favorite authors says (about a bunch of mentally masturbatory goth vampire wannabes):  “Too much time on their hands.  Leads to poetry.”

(Just kidding.  I love poetry.  Some of it.  Maybe.)

Thanks for checking out my work!  To all you writers, I wish you inspired drafting and insightful editing!

Kent Wayne

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1,346 thoughts on “About the Author: Kent Wayne”

  1. Hello Kent, a to-the-point genuine article. And I’m sure, understated, in terms of your military experience. I thoroughly enjoyed what I read, typical of your effortless writing style; thank you for sharing on such a personal and sensitive topic. I come from a line of ‘military men.’ A pilot father, bomber crew uncle (RAF), and two other uncles in the Battle of El Alamein (One killed) in WW 2. Three sons-in-law in the Rhodesian bush war and two sons in the South African war machine. Well done, and I have decided to tackle a few more of your books. Blessings, Peter.

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  2. Well, Kent, aside from one remaining son and two sons-in-law, they’re all gone now. I’m pleased to say that peace and fulfillment did come to each of them, and, unknowing as I am of what lies beyond the bar, I hope they are in the space of even greater contentment. Blessings, Peter.

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  4. Hey Kent! I always appreciate seeing your likes on my posts. You’re in the top percentile of those engaged in my writing, Albeit through likes and views. Nonetheless engaged! Your writing style is intriguing. Anyhow, I wanted to write to you to inform you of my plans to make my way over to a site called “Substack,” where I will be working on a newsletter of sorts. I’m still working out the mechanics of it all. But will be migrating there in time, and if you appreciate my content, I’d love to invite you to look at my content when I move to their site.
    Many thanks!
    Have a great day.

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  8. Thank you for reading my latest story post and giving it a like. It’s always nice when someone reads my work and likes it. But I’m not here for accolades and praise, I write for myself, I try to write about what I know (this is the fiction collection, I have another account for the political and economic essays). As James Cagney said of acting: “You hit the mark, square your shoulders, and tell the truth.” Easier said than done when you write either fiction or non fiction. Good luck in your future writing and sales of your work.

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      • I will tell you a story, a rather simple story but one with a moral, if you like. As a child I was attracted to art and music, two of the most powerful stimuli in human existence. I discovered books by the age of nine and started my own library collecting. Later as a teen my interest in art grew and I did a far amount of self instruction in the various forms. Throwing pots was really cool, I could spend hours at the wheel (the kick wheel type) practicing techniques. I hated writing, I was dyslectic and my brain would race farther than my fingers could write, thus I had a lot of unfinished sentences, fragments, and the like. My mother made sure that I would never have the opportunity to play an instrument or have any musical training. But like is what you make it even if you never really plan its future. I have always been a reader and until the age of fifty almost always a reader on non fiction. Then one day I started to write poetry, not very good poetry, a lot of mediocre poetry, but none the less, it was poetry. And at the same time I started writing journals, expressing my feelings, giving observations room to play, and, most importantly, trying to tell stories. Now back about the age of forty I started my foray into technical writing, my supervisor challenged me to write a technical manual for trouble shooting a rather complicated process. Many years later it dawned on me that the technical writer tells a story. It has a start, a middle, and end, and even something of a moral. Since turning fifty-two I have tried writing novels, each of the three suck, but none the less each of them taught me more about the craft of writing. Now I write short stories, how good they are, well not that it matters unless you are young and ambitious. Creativity is what drives the arts, it is a compulsion that carries over into other lines of work, it is a need that must be fulfilled. We write because we are compelled to write, to express that sense of creativity it whatever way is necessary. We write because it is extremely important to us, it is life itself.

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      • Absolutely. I’d even argue that music tells a story. The Superman theme, despite not having words, is recognizable as something heroic, heartfelt, and optimistic in my mind. A technical manual is a story with a focus on sequence of action, cause and effect, rather than emotion and future potentiality. That innate creative drive is what separates us from simple organisms and reactive machines.

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  9. You are correct in that music tells a story. I believe it was Thelonis Monk who when asked by a few of his contemporaries why he was listening to the old style C&W (50s) replied; “You have to listen to the stories.” The visual arts were meant to tell stories, to convey ideas from simple to complex. In past ages when most of the populations were not literate the visual arts conveyed messages through symbolism. The history of mankind has shown the need for story tellers, first in oral traditions then to visual arts, and now to written texts. We teach our young children about themselves, their family, and then the world through stories. Our lives become collections of stories and some individuals can articulate those stories well, most have difficulty in expressing themselves. But the universal appeal of the novel or short story is how successful the writer can articulate stories the reader identifies his own experiences. We capture moments in time in fiction, moments we believe convey some truth and hope others may see for themselves that expression of truth. And emotions convey elements of truth, they are expressions of moments of being.

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    • Indeed. Perhaps the truest expressions of our being. It’s all well and good to survive and function, but everyone is doing it for a subjective reward of satisfaction and fulfillment. Without that, the most successful folks can be incredibly miserable, to the point where they take their own life. Some don’t like to admit it, but our emotions, I believe, are the primary drivers behind our behavior.

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  10. Hey Kent, excellent insights and thanks for the honesty. If you want to talk to more like-minded vets and such, I did some work for a while with an amazing guy called Stephan who had a group of vets working on Shakespeare monologues. Not as actors, but just to have some powerful words with which to speak their experiences. https://www.decruit.org
    Just spreading the love on them cuz I loved the work.

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  11. Hi! I’ve seen you pop up on my blog, so I figured I’d check out yours. Its awesome to find another sci-fi/fantasy writer on wordpress! You sound pretty cool, so I’ll be lurking around your books. 😉

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  12. I don’t have a problem thanking those in the military for their service. I have a problem that we don’t often recognize that many other types of professionals “serve.” For example, teachers serve and they don’t get all the “goodies” that soldiers get. (When was the last time a teacher was heroized?) Nor do teachers get free or subsidizing house. They don’t get special lending privileges when they apply for mortgages. Here’s an interesting anecdote. I served (yes, I used the word served) as a Peace Corp Volunteer a long time ago. When I got back from my service, I got some of those goodies but they only lasted for year. So we who work for peace get a taste of those goodies; whereas, those who go off as soldiers get them for life. Make you sort of think, doesn’t it?

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  13. Hi, Kent. I enjoyed reading your introduction of yourself. I’ll definitely be reading more of your writing.
    Thank you for visiting my blog. You’ve been a source of encouragement for me to keep writing in the face of my personal evolution.
    I wish you inspired drafting and insightful editing 🙂

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  15. Hello KW. Thanks for your Like of my Fabulation post. Just starting my blog and ecstatic to know someone read my, you know, blaw blaw.
    Two images of yours I liked a bunch: “…oftentimes you’re smeared across the unsuspecting lip of an unconscious drunkard….” Also: “…mistakenly incarnated as a fresh dildo….”
    Just wanted to tell you that.

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  17. I had to chuckle when your About page launched into military service. I served as a weekend warrior (oooh-don’t say that!) for some years and got to know all sorts of people. As you said, they are just that-people with good and bad sides and can’t stereotype any of them.

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  18. Hello Kent, I just want to say “Thank You” here. I stumbled on you when I saw likes from you for my recent post. All I had to do is sneak into you and your books and am delighted that you took the time to read the ferocity and intensity of my emotions that I expressed them in the truest form. I will go ahead and read some of your pieces of stuff too. Sending you a big virtual hug 🤗

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  19. Hi Kent Wayne. Appreciate the likes you’ve given my fledgling attempts at blog posts, some of which are poetry, so I must have a lot of time on my hands. LOL Appreciate your stated concern for the present. I’ve written a song with a chorus “The past is history, the future a mystery, the moment is all that’s now.” Keep on keeping and again appreciate you. Jan of jansmatters

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  20. Hi Kent, I’ve been meaning to write for a while now to thank you for consistently reading and liking my poems. I appreciate the fact you keep returning.. That must mean I don’t suck as much as I always think I do 😋 It means a lot, thank you!
    Also, huge congratulations on all your books/book series!! Writing and completing so many books is an astonishing feat and I wish you much success with them!
    Maybe you can someday write a post on how you manage to be as productive as you are and see through so many projects. I can barely finish one short story a year 😂

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    • No worries, I couldn’t write at all before I was thirty (and I had tried) but then something clicked and I was able to do it. I suspect it was because I became more interested in people’s psychology, especially the hero’s journey from Joseph Campbell. Also, writing puts me in the zone–it’s truly enjoyable for me on a consistent basis. Keep going with the short stories! I believe creativity is like a muscle, and if you keep working it out, it will become stronger over time. 😊

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  21. Hey Kent, thanks for the like on a recent post on one of my sites.

    As a child who grew up with a career military father, himself a product of a career military family, soldiers and sailors (the branches involved) are definitely flesh and blood humans, coming with all the fantastic foibles of all other flavours of humanity, regardless of what movies and some politicians may wish us all to think! In my opinion, it would be a little terrifying to have a military that did not represent/reflect the society it was a part of in such a fundamental way. Like with any form of work, people have the jobs they have for many different reasons, and the choices we have, the choices we see, and the choices we make all lay the foundations for the choices that might lie ahead. I was talking with someone earlier this year that was (somewhat irrationally, imho) fixated on someone else “understanding that actions have consequences” and I have always wondered why “consequences” are almost always framed as a negative 🤔

    As a (very positive!) consequence of your like, I now have the genuine pleasure of looking forward to reading your work ☺️

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    • Society is transactionally structured, where it’s always emphasizing that there’s a price to be paid for every reward. But I agree with your implication; I don’t think life is a punishment-oriented game of Simon Says, and I think taking that to the extreme leaves no room for grace or spontaneous wonder.

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