He loved the opening line to his favorite story. But because tomorrow is the day he would have been 34 I've been thinking about him this week.
Below is what I posted on another site that tracks dead authors
My friend Joesephus would have been 34 tomorrow, (Nov 24,) I find it hard to understand how much I still miss him. I'm still in touch with his widow although I haven't seen her in person for a year. She's going career in the Marine Corps and has received promotions early. She is still in Military Intelligence and long ago learned a killer stare for anyone who mentions the old saw.
I have one piece of Joesephus' writing that I've never published. It was what he hoped to make into a book for dead tree publication and translations into his own language. He intended it to be very political in his country and it's about half written with a (almost unique for him) detailed outline of how he intended to finish it. I've talked to my dad about his taking a shot at finishing it, his two stories that he tried to use Joesephus' voice, have gotten pretty good responses, but he doesn't think he can get the politics right. Joesephus would not have wanted published unfinished. My dad ripped me for the one unfinished story I did post. I was just so happy to have found that I didn't think about it.
The big deal for me is that I could show it to Kritter, his wife, since he intended it to be public and she has no idea how talented he was. He wouldn't want her to see an unfinished story , thus MY dilemma. ?
Thanks for the opportunity to vent.
_________________
********
Jonnyrebel82
I have received several requests to give more information about Joesephus. I can not tell you his country or origin it would make it too easy to discover his real identity. He worked very hard to keep that private, and was very scared to death his wife would find out about his private passion.
My friend was a very modest man. He was a very good looking man, and until he met Critter he generally had several good looking girlfriends at the same time. Most of whom still liked him afterwards.
He was also a great athlete. He probably wouldn't have gotten an invite to the US Olympic trials, but almost certainly would have made his country's team. He was also a top student. He graduated just shy of summa at a pretty good school in a foreign language. (No, it wasn't UT but he did get accepted to their MBA program without meeting their work experience requirements.)
The most important thing to know about my friend was that he was a skilled listener. It was something he had been trained by his diplomat father to do. If there was a group of us talking, everyone would be making eye contact with and talking directly to Joesephus. He made you feel that what you were saying was the most interesting thing he had ever heard... even if he had heard it before. I had never noticed that until he showed me some of the body language things he did to make it happen. To say he was popular is a great understatement.
He was also the child of divorce. His father is a minor diplomat but his mother comes from a wealthy family. He always said he hated his mother, but if she called he was off like a shot to do what she wanted.
Erik and some other readers have commented that he used to have these impossibly high achievers for characters. I think that's because he was one. He fully expected to change the course of his country. He married one of the most remarkable women I know... except my finance of course. He hated fast food and would save like crazy to go to expensive restaurants.
In reading over this I note that I haven't said anything negative about my friend. He was a mooch (his word not mine.) He was always broke he was the biggest computer klutz I have ever seen.
He loved to argue, and he used ten dollar words. He had a hell of a temper and was way too competitive about almost everything. I mentioned girlfriends, I guess until he met Critter he was a user. I do know that he thought women... well let us just say he had to grown tons to be merely a chauvinist pig when he met Critter. In his defense that was cultural thing. He was very macho in all the negative ways too.
I know he said he had a thick skin, but he didn't, some of the comments made about his stories would send him into something close to a rage. However, I don't think he ever responded in kind, and he did value constructive critiques. It was the burn the bitch crowd that drove him to distraction. This was especially true with his "Dee Dee" and "Home Early" stories. I will never forget how he reacted to comment where a reader said the character was a wimp because he took the woman back! I will never forget because he dragged me off on a much too fast eight mile run to work off his anger,
He was not very funny, I guess part of that was cultural, but he did not mind laughing at himself. The last thing he posted "Dilemma: Lorelei's Story" was his idea of a joke. He turned the character into almost a parody what he thought the burn the bitch crowd wanted to see in a man. He thought it was very funny... as I said he was not a funny man but great fun to be around.
He paid no more attention to skin color than hair color but he was a very quick to denigrate other cultures. He was close to a cultural snob. He thought multi-culturalism was intellectually dishonest and extremely lazy.
Finally, he believed in marriage. Once he started dating Critter I do not think he ever looked at another woman. When she left for Iraq, I know that several women hit on him and he ignored them.
Last but not least, although he was fascinated by religion. He was especially fascinated by the idea that people would actually try to live their religious values. Still, he wasn't very religious. Until he met Critter I don't think I ever saw him go to church. He had read the Bible, the Quran and other religious tracts, but even after his marriage I am not sure he fully accepted.
He was my friend and I would do almost anything be able to visit with him one more time. It took me over a year realize in my gut that I wouldn't hear his "wazup!" ever again. He was different man, at my dad's suggestion he went to a maximum security prison to help teach reading, but while he made friends there he... let us just say he thought American pampered our inmates. As my dad would say when God made Joesephus he threw away the mold.