Darren Mitchell

I am a proud father of three. I was born in Michigan, and when I was four, our apartment burned down and we moved to Texas. We had very little, and I used my imagination to escape.

After ten years of dealing with an abusive and alcoholic husband, my mom took us to school one day and we never went back. At the end of the day, we were taken to Salvation Army and given dinner, a night stay, breakfast, and lunch.  

I remember my mom explaining to the cook that she had arranged with her social worker for us to be there.  After he confirmed it, he asked what we all wanted to eat, because he had never cooked lunch for anyone.  We chose Hamburgers and french fries which made him smile.  I wish I could find him to thank him for his kindness.  

After lunch, we were each handed one paper bag of clothes and put on a bus to California to live with my great aunt. My mom looked for a place for nine months and we moved to the High Desert.  

Although we didn’t have much, we had each other, and my creativity blossomed. I used what little we had to make things to entertain my brothers and sisters. I remember putting a zip line in our backyard, and a swing that worked like a human tetherball. I also assembled a tandem bike out of pieces from other bikes.

I married and began a career as an electrician, driving up to a hundred miles to work each day for twenty-two years. A terrible motorcycle accident affected me severely and for two years everything I knew was inaccessible to me. It wasn’t until I helped a coworker troubleshoot an electrical problem that it all came back to me.  

I worked my way up to superintendent and relocated to San Jose. Soon after, I got divorced and began focusing on my physical and mental health.

One day, my friend was feeling down and asked me to tell her a story.

I began with, “Once upon a time...”

“Get serious,” she said.

I began again with what is now the first two lines of my first book.

“That’s good!” she said, “keep it going.”  

When my daughter found out, she demanded, “You owe me a sentence a day!”

I decided to turn the story into a book so my daughter would have something to remember who her dad really was. When other family members read my incomplete manuscript and after a lot of convincing, I decided to submit it for publishing.  

I am very grateful for the support of family and friends and now I plan to complete the five books my mom demanded.

I hope you enjoy my work as much as I did writing it.

Come and take a journey through my imagination.