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Though born in St. Augustine, Florida, Edward M. Baldwin Jr. lived in Jacksonville with his mother, sister, and step-father since he was four years old. When his mother, Annie Lee Lafavor, remarried, only she adopted the surname of Ellis LaFavor, the man Edward and his sister Sheronda would soon call “Daddy.” Never developing a relationship with their biological father, he and his sister grew to love their step-father to the point of amputating the word “step” from his title. As Edward grew older, he eventually dropped the “Jr.” from his name, though never legally. Still, “Junior” was what his family and friends called him throughout his youth, a name that still hails his attention even today, as long as it’s pronounced “June-ya.” For him, it rings like a distant echo of a happy childhood.
Though he was an A-B student throughout his public school years, he never developed a love for reading or writing. Instead, his passion was drawing, especially comic book characters. During ninth grade, he did write and draw 22 issues of a comic book starring a character he created called “The Blue Lightning.” He enjoyed writing and drawing the books, but he did it mostly for the amusement of his schoolmates who anxiously awaited every next issue. Each book, made of folded sheets of notebook paper with a stapled crease, was no more than ten pages long, with six comic strip boxes to a page. Each book was written and drawn using every available box—no more, no less.
Following his stint with art, his next passion was participating in public speaking competitions (which was a stretch considering his “inferior” dialect) and the martial arts. For years, he was dedicated to both, working tirelessly on learning both Standard English and fighting techniques, winning tournaments in both endeavors. After graduating high school, he was invited by the governor of the state of Florida to deliver a national winning speech before the State Cabinet.
He received a diploma from both a high school and a vocational school where he studied Electrical Wiring, and he was set on becoming a journeyman electrician, but his success as an orator had everyone encouraging him to attend college, so he did. However, he did so reluctantly, still wanting to pursue a career as an electrician.
Over the years, he bounced in and out of college, changing his career goals the way many people change dieting strategies. By the time he discovered a real passion for teaching, he was twenty-seven years old. While studying to become a teacher, he chanced upon a class assignment in an American Literature class. The assignment was to rewrite the ending to a Harry Crews novel titled A Feast of Snakes. He received a B on the assignment (he failed to mirror the writing style of Crews), but seeing prose and dialogue that he created triggered something dormant within him, and he discovered a passion for creating stories, a passion stronger than anything he’d ever felt in his life.
With encouragement from his wife Elizabeth and brother-in-law Dan, he decided to try his hand at writing a short story. The short story blossomed into a manuscript titled “Learnt.” After three tireless years of writing his monster-sized short story, he finally finished Learnt during his first year as an English teacher, reading each completed chapter aloud to his students. His students’ response to his work fueled his passion even more, and he credits many of his students with the writing of his first book. Their feedback played a key role in his plot decisions. Even today, he maintains the habit of sharing chapters of his works-in-progress with selective readers during the writing of first drafts.
He lives in Florida with his wife and three children, and currently serves as an adult education professor for Florida State College of Jacksonville. . |
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Copyright © 2009 Edward M. Baldwin |
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About the author |
