Sunday, June 05, 2005

WARREN NORWOOD R. I. P.

Star-Telegram | 06/05/2005 | WARREN NORWOOD | 1945-2005: "WARREN NORWOOD | 1945-2005

Novelist was a teacher and a musician

Star-Telegram

WEATHERFORD - Warren Norwood, a writer, writing teacher and musician, died of liver disease Friday morning. He was 59.

Mr. Norwood, a longtime employee of Craig's Music in Weatherford, wrote novels, mostly science fiction/fantasy, including Shudderchild, The Windhover Tapes Trilogy and True Jaguar.

Mr. Norwood taught courses at Weatherford College and what is now Tarrant County College about writing and selling fiction.

'What I remember most about Warren was his love of learning,' said Shannon Story, a former student. 'He was always learning new things and was eager to share his wealth of knowledge with everyone he met.'

Another student, Viqui Litman, said: 'He was a great teacher. He focused on the nuts and bolts of writing. He was a good critic and gave a straightforward reading.'

Mr. Norwood was born Aug. 21, 1945, in Philadelphia. His family moved to Fort Worth when he was 12, and he graduated from Arlington Heights High School in 1963.

While serving in the Army in Vietnam, he earned a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star and an Army Commendation Medal.

He learned about Buddhism in Vietnam and continued to practice it, according to his family.

Mr. Norwood graduated from what is now the University of North Texas and was later named an Outstanding Alumnus by the philosophy and English departments."

This obit is posted on a registration-only site, so I'm excerpting a good bit of it here. I met Warren at the first AggieCon I ever attended, back in 1979. He was a great guy, always willing to help out other writers or others who wanted to be writers. For a while he stopped going to conventions, but I saw him again at ConDFW in 2004, and he was his usual jovial self and even remembered who I was, which sort of surprised me. He was at the convention again this year, but I was at LCC in El Paso and didn't go. I wish now, of course, that I could have seen him again.

1 comment:

Jayme Lynn Blaschke said...

Warren taught at the first writing workshop I ever attended. My story was so bad it prompted him to write a song about it. This is the same story that inspired Steve Gould to fling his shoe across the room.

Warren was a good guy and a great teacher. It was great that he and Gigi were returning to the convention circuit, and he congratulated me on my book. It's terrible that he had to deal with so many health problems over the years.