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Will Chance
About Will Chance
Will Chance has no interest in becoming a public figure, but with his permission we have assembled a few facts for his readers, perhaps to lend...view moreAbout Will Chance
Will Chance has no interest in becoming a public figure, but with his permission we have assembled a few facts for his readers, perhaps to lend a little context to his writing.
Will was born in the late 1940's and was on his own by the time he was fifteen. He stayed out of foster care by negotiating with the county sheriff, working hard to make ends meet and getting good grades in high school. He worked nights and weekends all through high school at gas stations and welding shops and in the summer at a high end marina on Lake Minnetonka. He put himself through high school and then college, sometimes surviving on rice he bought in bulk and apples from a neighbor's neglected tree.
From an early age Will was an avid reader. Once he was on his own, sometimes he read late into the night after work. Often his ability to navigate extraordinary circumstances came from the perspective he gained from Dickens or Twain, Dostoyevsky or Hesse. To some extent their books enabled him to view the challenges of his own life as an adventure instead of an endless stream of disasters. They also taught him perspective on the value of experience.
In college Will was like a kid in a candy store. He studied whatever interested him and dropped courses that bored him. One teaching assistant confided that the professor asked about him after he’d dropped his class. “He said you were the one who did everything wrong but better,” to which Will replied, “That’s why I dropped his class.”
Being on his own from a young age gave Will an overdeveloped sense of freedom. One day Will walked out his front door, whistled to his dog and hitchhiked from Minneapolis to Nederland, Colorado. In 1972 there were lots of kids hitchhiking so he made the trip in fourteen hours and found in Nederland a sometimes fractious community of hippies, cowboys and rock stars. He lived in a Gypsy wagon—a tiny wooden house built on a Model-T frame—ate frugally, wrote poetry and sketched designs, sometimes for clients but mostly for fun. Will’s high school English teacher once sold some of his poetry. He accepted the check but told her not to do that again, so otherwise none of his poems were ever published for money, although one did turn up as the lyrics to a popular rock tune. Will’s old friends still have some of that early poetry but Will refuses to see it published. "Maybe someday," he always says. Will won't share many more details and wouldn't even let us give you the name of the band. He says poetry is too personal to be shared or sold.
Stories on the other hand are meant to be told. Will writes his stories to his readers and always writes with the reader in mind. He loves a good story and has spent a lifetime enjoying the escape, insight and inspiration a really good story can bring. His books are written just for that purpose, and he says it is very exciting to share a story that has provided him with hours of enjoyment, and he hopes it does the same for you.
Will writes because he loves to write and he chooses topics that interest him. Will has a degree in engineering granted to him by the University of Minnesota for his studies in art, architecture, engineering and law. He lives in Wayzata on Lake Minnetonka and works in downtown Minneapolis. He enjoys his family (a wife of thirty-seven years plus children and grandchildren), and in the summer when he’s not writing he is either boating on the lake or riding his bicycle, thousands of miles per year.
Will places a very high value on his privacy and that of his family, but that doesn't mean you can't get to know him. In fact, you can visit his blog and author’s site at willchance@wordpress.com. There you can download previews of Will's other books, talk to fellow readers and learn more about the author and coming attractions. Will wants to dedicate most of his time to writing quality novels for you but feel free to leave questions or comments and he'll do his best to respond.view less