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A MISSISSIPPI WRITER |
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Rusty Van Reeves was born April 14, 1960
in a small southern town (Newton) in central Mississippi. The first
born child of
Sandra Ann and
Charles Edward, Rusty excelled at music and sports. A tragic High
School Football accident (Forest, MS) in 1975 left him permanently
paralyzed (Quad
C4 -see the graphic) from the shoulders down at the age of 15. The
former Eagle Scout, Lifeguard and Middle Linebacker found himself broken and
directionless. After over a year of confinement in the hospital and rehab
centers during which his father committed suicide in an auto accident, he
returned to the real world a very different man. No longer the
muscle bound
athlete, he struggled to do the simplest everyday things. The world he knew
was gone. After taking and passing his GED and SAT, Mr. Reeves attended
Mississippi State University in 1978 in an effort to keep moving forward
with his life. He began writing aggressively at that point in an effort to
cope with his newfound physical limitations. The long haired kid continued
writing and painting as he had done all of his life. After a day spent in the soaking rains of Starkville a barrage
of emotional demons took him into a minor meltdown. The inner pain went
unseen but boiled below the surface. He abandoned college and sought refuge
back in Jackson... sleeping days, writing nights, finding solace in part
time friends and the numbing embrace of alcohol. In his 20s on an old IBM
electric typewriter he wrote an unpublished novel titled, Reservoir.
It took several years and countless bottles of cheap wine to complete. It
would never see the light of day but it was a learning experience that would
help lay the foundation for his next effort.
BIO Continued on page 2... |
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(c) 2008, rusty van reeves |
