Writing a book is undoubtedly a big accomplishment, one in which Law and Public Safety teacher John Glass has achieved.
In May of this year, Glass published his book “Wilderness Thinking : Survival is not Optional”.
In his book, Glass talks about his struggles with both SERE, Survival-Evasion-Resistance-Escape , the survival school he participated in while in the military and his walk as a Christian and how God helped bring each experience together.
“It combines two aspects of my life as a survival instructor in the military, and then my walk as a Christian. I blended together to tell the story in the book,” Glass said.
The idea for this book has held a spot in his mind for over 30 years; however, he did not decide to actually write the book until about two years ago.
“ I was actually preaching part of a message, and I just felt like that was when the Lord said it’s time to write the book,” he said.
Glass makes many connections between his time in military training and Bible verses. He has gathered the information for the book and connections over the past three decades, which made the overall process of writing a little bit easier.
“I’ve preached parts of the book the last 30 years, so I kind of had the quotes from the Bible in that process. When I got ready to write the book, it was easier for me to kind of find those,” Glass said.
Out of the whole princess of writing, the biggest challenges he faced was getting the book published and editing it; however, he was able to get help from his brother and drama teacher Joy Smith.
“ I have a younger brother that helped me with that. And then the editing, which Mrs. Joy Smith helped with,” he said.
Glass approached Smith about editing his book, which she decided to take on.
“He knows that I really enjoy reading and that I have an English background, and I guess that’s it,” Smith said.
Although Smith enjoys reading and editing, she usually does this with English papers, so editing a whole book was quite difficult.
“ Editing someone’s book was a little bit harder because he let me know he wanted it edited and not revised,” she said.
However, to help her not do this, she had to keep in mind Glass’ voice, and what his objectives were in his book.
Overall, Smith states it was easy to edit, the only small error being commas, “which is everybody’s error,” Smith said.
After reading and editing the book, her respect and admiration for Glass has enhanced. Smith was able to have a look into the life Glass had before they became coworkers and friends.
It can be hard staying motivated in the process of writing a book, but Glass’s inspiration for the book helped him keep going on with his idea.
“All of us go through wilderness times in our lives, and it is important to have a positive mindset.” This is what Glass wants readers to take away from his book.
Lastly, Glass has a little piece of advice for young writers who also want to share their stories.
“Go ahead and start writing; put their thoughts down on paper. If you don’t start, you’re never going to do it,” Glass said.
