John Ferneau-Leinen

After completing a course of study in the Writer's Digest School in 1989. I began writing short stories, both fiction and non-fiction. Published some, but also accumulated a desk drawer full of rejections. Finally tired of the: Not for us, Like story, but have too many similar, Closed to submissions, I chucked it all. I gave up and sat around with my finger up my nose. Then with the dawning of the age of e-publishing, I dusted off Microsoft Word and went at it again. Now have not only published for e-readers, but have my latest in paperback as well. 

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Swimming Naked

memoir 

“Swimming Naked” is cast in a time when it was fun to be a kid. A time when the two main rules were: Do your chores, and get your fanny home when the street lights come on. A time when there were no organized sports. Baseball, football, or what ever were pick-up games played on a vacant lot or side yard somewhere in town, with no adult intervention. A time when toy guns were not frowned upon, as make believe cowboys and Indians acted out skirmishes down the block or in ones backyard. A time when make believe Marines, or Army troops, fought the Germans and Japanese re-enacting battles of World War II. A time when your dog was a companion tagging along where ever you went, and everyone in town knew your name as well as your dog’s. 

“Swimming Naked” takes place during the early forties when our country was at war on two fronts, World War II. The story, and story lines are based on my life from age nine to twelve when I lived with my paternal grandparents in Sibley, a small town in northwest Iowa, following the death of my mother from cancer at age twenty-nine. 

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