Staff Writer

An author with local ties encouraged Troy Elementary School students to put pen to paper.

Wayne Fuller, whose grandchildren attend TES, visited the school on Thursday to discuss the importance of reading and writing.

He also read them, The Honeybee Tree," and gave each one a copy of the children’s poem.

Now living in South Florida, the man who has written poems since he was 7 years old, shared his story with fourth and fifth graders.

Many of the poems written in the 1940s and first published in the 1980s are about people and experiences he has known.

He went to school in a one-room schoolhouse in rural Mississippi and has written about those experiences in a novel, "And So it Begins." Each chapter of that book is a story unto itself.

Writing about life’s experiences, he said, is much different today that when he was growing up, he admitted to the students.

"Today, a lot of things get in the way of reading," Fuller said of things like computers and video games.

"I used to go through a lot of erasers. I don’t use erasers anymore," said Fuller.

But, Fuller, who is a self-proclaimed computer junkie, has not let the ease of today’s world stop him from putting his thoughts onto paper and strongly suggested the students do the same.

"You want to get all the education you can possibly get, now," Fuller said, adding they will thank their teachers later in life.

"Get the basics, now," he said, adding everybody has his or her own way of doing things, including writing.

"As long as you feel confident about writing, write it. If you’ve got something in your mind, write it."

Many of his poems and ideas for novels pop into his head "like seeing a movie" and he never knows what or when will come because he does not know what his next experience will be.

His poem entitled, "Thoughts" was written just after he had learned his first wife was being given six months to live because of a tumor. And, he also wrote a poem when his childhood friend and cousin died.

"Reading and writing are the best things you can do," he told the students. "They will take you from where you are to where you want to go."

Although he has written 60 children’s stories and hundreds of poems for both children and adults, he said he is never done.

Another bonus to knowledge, he said, is the fact it’s something nobody can take.

Fuller’s books, such as the novel for high school students and adults, "The Injustice of Justice," can be ordered through all major bookstores or online at www.xlibris.com.

"The Orange Line," a novel that touches on discrimination, and was written for all ages will soon be released, along with an anthology of 165 poems, "Memories in Poems."