I H E
U D E N T
F IL E S
RETIRED VETERAN ENJOYS WRITING
25-YEAR STUDENT READY TO GRADUATE
STORY AND PHOTO BY CASSIDY W HITE
Eric Bronson is a student at Clackam as
C o m m u n ity C ollege and has been for
25 years. H e is curren tly w orkin g on
an Associate o f Science w ith a focus on
creative w riting and authored his first
book, “ The Juggler’ s G irl.”
Everybody says the picture looks like him
[on the cover]. My nephew Travis Sm ith
[illustrated it], h e’ s a graphic artist for
D utch Bros. I dropped the idea on him
last August, on his wedding day in fact,
and he put this together for me, the cover
art and this’ interior one. No color inside,
that drives the price o f the printing way,
way, up.
The C lack am as P rin t: Is there any
particular reason you’ve been a student
for so long?
Eric Bronson: The tuition waiver is nice.
I’m retired now and I can’t just sit home
and watch game shows, so I put m yself
to work here. I graduated from George
Fox [University] in the mid 80s. I was a
hum an resource major, but I didn’ t have
a minor so now I’ m finally finishing up
a degree here in creative w riting, and I
consider that my minor.
TCP: Have you written other novels?
EB: I’ve dabbled in fan fiction, which you
can’ t publish. That is just strictly online.
This is the only h o ld -it-in -y o u r-h a n d
book that I ’ve done [The Juggler’ s Girl].
I ’m having to make some corrections. It
turns out m y copy editor damaged it, but
I have access to the lab upstairs and the
InDesign program to review work there.
TCP: Did you use the degree you earned
at George Fox University before you
retired?
EB: No. I did work in the S i section in
the Arm y. I ’ m a retired soldier, alm ost
all o f it in the reserve com ponent. S i is
their personnel departm ent, so th a t’ s
as close as I cam e. In retrospect, that
w asn’t the best thing in which to major.
I think I would have been much happier
as an English major, as I am now. I love to
write. I live to write. If someone asked me
what I do, I’d either say I’m retired or I’ m
a writer. I just published my first novel.
TCP: Do you have a website for your
fan fiction?
EB: Y e a h , i t ’ s called S in k Into Your
Eyes: www.siye.co.uk. It’ s Harry Potter,
essentially. I don’ t own the site, but we
have a senior staff. We have about 10,000
m em b ers, thou sand s and thou sand s
o f short stories and book lin k s. I got
recruited into the senior s ta ff a w hile
back and it’s a handful sometimes, but I’m
getting away from that quite a bit because,
well obviously, you can’t publish any o f
it because it belongs to M s. Rowling, but
it’ s still fun.
TCP: Do you have any career objectives
in m in d fo r your creative w ritin g
degree?
EB: I’m going to continue writing. It’s not
really a career. It’ s costing me more than
I’ll ever m ake. It is som ething to do. If
you stop m oving, you start dying. I can’t
do that, and this is what I do.
TCP: W hy did you decide to participate
in the Veterans Poetry Reading last
term?
EB: I’ve never written that kind o f story
before, or veterans writings, or military
w ritin g, an y th in g lik e th a t and I was
curious. I mean we’ve all read “ Red Badge
of Courage” or “ A ll Quiet on the Western
Front,” ... but I was curious how it would
be. So I prepared som ething, som ething
very short, and I went there and I went
TCP: Tell me about your novel.
EB: My son is a semi-professional juggler.
Eric Bronson proudly displays a copy of “The Juggler’s Girl.”
there m o stly fo r perspective and for
curiosity and I ended up participating and
I enjoyed it. I’ll probably do that again if
I ’ m still in school next Veterans Day. Oh,
I ’ve got to graduate eventually.
T C P : W h e n are you e x p e ctin g to
graduate?
EB: I’m hoping by Christm as, at the end
of fall term, at least having the degree. I’ll
take the occasional class, but I’ m thinking
I m igh t w ant to get som e m ore p a rt-
time work, just som ething to add to the
spending money. Besides, the teachers are
probably getting sick of me after all these
years. I’ve taken classes in everything you
can im agine: business, science, m ath ,
philosophy, a lot of English obviously and
writing. I have no idea how m any credits
I ’ve accumulated over tim e. I’ m getting
to the point now where maybe I want to
move on away from campus and I want
to cross that line from career student to
alumni. It’s sort of something to cross off
the bucket list as far as I’ll have a degree
in writing, som ething I’ve taken up as a
strong avocation.
This story has been edited fo r clarity and
space.
ON THE COVER: G raphic illustration by Saige Keikkala. Cover design by Brandon Chorum.
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