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This story, My Own Prison is one that has gotten me the most press coverage and is my most personal account. My wife, Melinda, asked me a few years ago, in 2000, to write a story about what it is like to have multiple sclerosis. At first I wasn't sure I could write a story that adequately describes what kind of experience it has been. Once I sat down at the keyboard, the words just flowed and I didn't stop until I finished "Prison." I never went back and rewrote or edited the story. The finished story is what I wrote on the first and only pass. I was diagnosed in 1998 and the Albuquerque Journal published the story (verbatim) in their Sunday edition of Thanksgiving Weekend (the highest readership day of the year for newspapers)

 
Logo by Evan Beachy
 
 






The follow-up to the My Own Prison story is one I call 40 Over Me and it was written after I turned 40.
Dogs of War is a commentary on pop culture from a dogs point of view.
 
This is one of the earliest stories I wrote, it's called He Did She Did
 
Billboard From Hell is one of my favorites.
 
Reunion is, well, one of those things I guess.
 
In My Time of Dying was named for a Led Zeppelin song, but it has nothing to do with the lyrics.
 
The setting for The Phone on the Wall was my father's mechanic shop in Clarion, Iowa.
 
There is always Good News Bad News
 
I was in a Stephen King phase when I wrote Mannequin Robots
 
Trimming the Hedge is something that actually happened. I used my dramatic license, however.
 

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08/16/2008

 
Vern Beachy
I think every journalist has a desire to write a book, or just write. I have a desire to do both.
The stories on this page are a mixture of fiction and non-fiction.
I am currently writing a memoir.

CREED LYRICS

"My Own Prison"

A court is in session, a verdict is in
No appeal on the docket today
Just my own sin
The walls are cold and pale
The cage made of steel
Screams fill the room
Alone I drop and kneel
Silence now the sound
My breath the only motion around
Demons cluttering around
My face showing no emotion
Shackled by my sentence
Expecting no return
Here there is no penance
My skin begins to burn

(And I said oh) So I held my head up high
Hiding hate that burns inside
Which only fuels their selfish pride
(And I said oh) We're all held captive
Out from the sun
A sun that shines on only some
We the meek are all in one

I hear a thunder in the distance
See a vision of a cross
I feel the pain that was given
On that sad day of loss
A lion roars in the darkness
Only he holds the key
A light to free me from my burden
And grant me life eternally

Should have been dead
On a Sunday morning
Banging my head
No time for mourning
Ain't got no time

(And I said oh) So I held my head up high
Hiding hate that burns inside
Which only fuels their selfish pride
(And I said oh) We're all held captive
Out from the sun
A sun that shines on only some
We the meek are all in one

 

 

 

 

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