La Libertad: How long have you been a writer?
William: I feel that I have been a writer all of my life, and I recently celebrated my sixty-first birthday.
Of course, to become a writer, I first needed to learn to read.
According to my mother, my father started reading to me almost as soon as I was born. I wore out my first copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses by the time I was three years old, so my father bought me another copy of it.
Also according to my mother, the first two words I spoke were not "ma-ma" or "da-da," but "Huh?" and "book."
When I started attending school, I remember wanting to read so badly that I would stare at written words, and struggle to imagine how people were able to interpret the symbols. It seemed like the actual business of learning to read took far too long for me. I think it was late in my First Grade year (or perhaps in the Second Grade) before my teachers started teaching me to read, and it was one of the most thrilling abilities I ever developed. We had competitions, based on the honor system, to see who read the most books, and I was among a couple students who read the most. If I remember correctly, a Japanese girl was my closest competitor. She and I both started reading books from outside the children's section at the Weber County Library, in the town of Ogden, Utah, where we lived.
My father, who served as a U.S. Army Lieutenant during World War II, was a man named "William Knowlton Vaughan." He was a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and a published author, so I think he would probably have taught me to read before my fifth birthday, but he died before my fourth.
La Libertad: What types of things did you write about?
William: I used to write poetry, including romantic poetry; I also wrote about things I read about or experienced.
Although I am currently agnostic, as a teen, I was very immersed in the Mormon religion, which inspired me to write a science-fiction fantasy novel titled Our Lord and His Sword, about the savior of another planet, which I invented. I typed this novel using a manual (not an electric - a manual) Olivetti-Underwood typewriter, which I inherited from my father.
When I attended Ben Lomond High School, in what I consider my "home town" of Ogden, Utah, it offered a Creative Writing Class, taught by an elderly woman named "Mrs. Gillins," whom we called "The Gila Monster," or merely "The Monster." This class published a booklet each year, titled The Thistle. It featured poems and short stories by Ben Lomond students, as well as drawings, also by Ben Lomond students. Mrs. Gillins had the final say on what literature was published in The Thistle. She probably had the final say on what art was published in it, too; I presume she coordinated with one or more of the art teachers to obtain illustrations for The Thistle. But before Mrs. Gillins had her final say, she had her Creative Writing students review all of the literary submissions, and come up with a certain number of poems and short stories, or pages of such, essentially by voting on them. Of course, students had a tendency to vote for their own poems and/or short stories. However, all Ben Lomond students were allowed to submit their writing for consideration.
I did not take Creative Writing in my sophomore year (Ben Lomond was a three-year school at the time), but a friend told me about the class, and The Thistle, so I submitted a stack of poems to him, to submit for consideration, in our junior year.
Mrs. Gillins had never met me in person, and I was not a very popular student, so, not having the privilege of voting for any of my poems, I had little chance of having any of my poems published in The Thistle. However, Mrs. Gillins was so impressed by one of my poems that she insisted on publishing it, in The Thistle, that year; it was titled "On Being a Man."
I took Mrs. Gillins' Creative Writing class during my senior year. One of the assignments Mrs. Gillins gave us, was to write a "scene report" about life in one of the less affluent neighborhoods, on the west side of Washington Boulevard. A significant portion of the students at Ben Lomond lived on the east side of Washington Boulevard, where it was common for them to receive new automobiles for their sixteenth birthdays.
This scene report was a particularly easy assignment for me, because I lived with my mother and an ogre of a stepfather, on the west side of Washington Boulevard. I simply wrote a true story about a time when, at age seventeen, I ran away from home after one of the times that my stepfather physically assaulted me. It was during the winter, with snow and ice on the ground, and I tried to sleep on the back porch of a department store, Z.C.M.I. (Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution), where two police officers detained me. In their infinite wisdom, they returned me to the custody of my mother and stepfather.
During the class critique of this story, its greatest flaw seemed to be that it was not believable, and it was not believable because, in the small minds of my fellow students, a seventeen-year-old would simply have driven away in a car, rather than trudging through snow and ice to find a place to sleep outside.
Mrs. Gillins took me aside, and told me to change my story. She told me to change it from the first person perspective, to the third, and to give the boy a name, and make him thirteen. Apparently, even a fourteen-year-old would have known how to drive. She told me to make these changes, and to submit it to a short story contest at Brigham Young University.
I did as Mrs. Gillins told me. I called the boy "Paul," and gave the story the title, "An Urban Nowhere." It took First Place, and I received $50 in prize money for the story.
I was dismayed when none of my fellow Creative Writing students wanted to publish anything I submitted. Fortunately, Mrs. Gillins insisted on publishing my short story. How could she not? No other Ben Lomond student had placed First in a writing contest that year, or received $50 worth of prize money for their writing. Mrs. Gillins also insisted on publishing one her favorite poems which I wrote that year, titled "The Return of Ulysses."
La Libertad: What is your favorite subject to write about?
William: Genealogy and adaptations of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
La Libertad: What do you consider your writing style?
William: I consider my writing style formal and old-fashioned, but also personal. I prefer to write in first person, to make my writing more personal, but I also like to use formal language, as if speaking to people who are older than me, and more educated.
By the way, one of the things Mrs. Gillins taught me, was to write as if to one particular person, in order to make my writing seem consistent. One of the people I choose to write to is a cousin named Ronald Mortensen, who is old enough to be my father, graduated from college, and had a career as a school teacher.
La Libertad: What subjects do you like to read about?
William: In addition to studying genealogy, I like to "read" adaptations of A Christmas Carol, including adaptations in foreign languages. I use the term "read" loosely, because I prefer to listen to Audibles, especially with Whispersync, so I can follow along in the written version or refer to it when I want to.
I am currently in the middle of listening to and following along, via Whispersync, and Audible titled Ebenezer: The True Life Story of Ebenezer Scrooge. It's an in-depth adaptation of A Christmas Carol, which provides a detailed version of Scrooge's life, from the day he was born until he was about to die. Scrooge is a fictitious character, so the author, Douglas Bass, has, apparently, invented most of the details about Scrooge's life. The Audible is narrated by Benjamin Fife.
I am also interested in history, politics, foreign languages, and etymology.
La Libertad: Which writers inspired you?
William: I am one of the few people who have read The Holy Bible from cover to cover. I also read it twice - once in English, and again, in Spanish.
Full disclosure: Although I studied the King James Version, in Mormon Sunday schools and Seminaries, the version I read from cover to cover was mostly a children's version, but it had all of the same books, chapters, and verses as the King James Version.
In Spanish, I read a Reina-Valera version. According to Wikipedia, as of October 30, 2023, there have been revisions of the Reina-Valera version published in 1602, 1862, 1909, 1960, 1977, 1995, and 2011; I read it in the '80s, so the one I read was probably the 1977 version, of which I bought a brand new copy.
I also read The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price, which I, as an agnostic, believe were written by Joseph Smith. I believe that The Book of Mormon is a work of fiction, which Joseph Smith fabricated. However, I read these books as a teen, and the Bible, in Spanish, between the ages of nineteen and twenty-one, so I feel that they must have had a significant influence on me.
Another of the most memorable authors whose work I read was Alfred Hitchcock. I read most, if not all, of his fictional series, The Three Investigators. I also read some of his short stories.
Another of my favorite authors is Edgar Allan Poe. I still have his poem, "El Dorado," memorized.
Of course, now-a-days, I am more interested in Charles Dickens. While serving with the U.S. Army, in Afghanistan, during Operation Enduring Freedom VII, my Battle Buddy took me to see a live adaptation of A Christmas Carol, performed by fellow Service Members and D.H.L. employees, at the Base Chapel, on Bagram Airfield. I was so impressed that I have been obsessed with the story, and Charles Dickens, ever since.
La Libertad: Where can we read more of your writing?
William: My author page on Amazon.
La Libertad: Where can we purchase your book?
William: The Genealogy of William Mortensen Vaughan, on Amazon.
La Libertad: What other books, if any, do you intend to write and/or publish?
William: The next book I intend to write, and publish on Amazon, hopefully, in time for Christmas about thirteen months from now, will be a book about adaptations of A Christmas Carol, in film and television.
Then I intend to write another book about my genealogy, which will be a collection of profiles of my forebears - perhaps with a few profiles of some of my favorite aunts, uncles, and cousins.
I also intend to write a book titled The Memoirs of William Mortensen Vaughan.
Photo and interview by Libertad Green
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