[stylist] Fwd: [Nfbk] Ruston novelist and Braille instructor shares his inspirations and struggles

[Donna Hill]

Hi Dave,
Thanks for sharing this. It is a nice article about Jerry from The News Star 
in Monroe, Louisiana, and I'm happy to hear that he's getting some press for 
his novels. It was difficult to read, though,  with all of the >>> and Euro 
symbols. If anyone else had a problem with it, the link, which is under the 
article in the original post,  is:
http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20140108/NEWS01/301080043

I checked it out, and it took a bit to load, but once it did, it was 
accessible with Jaws.
Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of David Andrews
Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2014 3:36 PM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] Fwd: [Nfbk] Ruston novelist and Braille instructor shares 
his inspirations and struggles


>
>
>Ruston novelist and Braille instructor shares his inspirations and struggles.
>
>
>
>
>Jerry Whittle, a former Braille instructor, is a writer.
>
>He has self-published three novels based loosely on his experiences
>growing up in South Carolina.
>The novels - â?oSlingshot,â? â?oStanding with Better AAngelsâ? and
>â?oTwo Hearts Make a Bridgeâ? - are aavailable on the Amazon Kindle
>and the Barnes and Noble Nook.
>
>The novels also deal with living with vision loss. Whittle has written
>his books without being able to see his computer []  screen.
>
>â?oBecause I cannot see people,â? said Whittle, â?oI found myself
>remembering what my friends looked like, so I used my family and
>friends as means to describe characters.�
>
>The novelist has suffered from vision loss since he was 15. He first
>noticed a problem with his sight while playing baseball one night for
>the American Legion team in Seneca, S.C. where he was born.
>
>â?oI could not see the ball under artificial lights,â? he said, â?oso
>I turned in my uniform. and had my eyes eexamined.�
>
>Whittle was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a form of hereditary
>vision loss that begins with night blindness. In the years since, he
>has dedicated his life to education and to writing about the condition
>of the blind.
>
>Writing presents unique challenges for Whittle.
>He writes with a voice-activated screen reader and hires personal
>readers to help him edit.
>â?oI do not like the computer voice,â? said Whittle. â?oI prefer a
>real human voice, and I can tell my reader to add or change something
>for me.� He usually writes early in the morning, when he feels he
>will do his best work.
>
>Though recently retired from his 28-year career at the Louisiana Center
>for the Blind in Ruston, Whittle said that before becoming a Braille
>instructor, his short stories met with success in literary magazines.
>â?oI won a contest and published several stories,â? said Whittle. â?oI
>even received a fan letter from a college student at the University of
>Tennessee, who told me to keep up the writing.�
>
>While working at the center, Whittle also wrote
>23 plays about the nature of vision loss and blindness, all performed
>by his students at state and national conventions. He used these plays
>as outlines and inspiration for his novels.
><http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20140108/NEWS01/301080043>http://ww
>w.thenewsstar.com/article/20140108/NEWS01/301080043
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