Bill Cokas

Some of my earliest and fondest memories involve travel--more specifically, escaping into books, whether devouring the latest Beverly Cleary or biking to the library to spend a few hours with Stephen King.

Inspired by author/artists such as Jack Kent, Wende and Harry Devlin and Margaret and H.A. Rey, my own storywriting efforts took the form of cartoons and comic strips throughout most of my youth—there was writing involved, but usually in the form of dialogue balloons. As a freshman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I was dismayed to find no courses in comic art. So I turned to creative writing and publishing a regular comic strip in the school paper.

With graduation inevitable, I knew neither short stories nor cartooning were likely to provide a viable living. Enter advertising, journalism’s delinquent stepchild. The television commercial, with its combination of dialogue and visuals, was tailor-made for my "storytelling" skills. The big city beckoned, and I spent a decade in Chicago typing out (yes, on a typewriter) copy for McDonald’s, Heinz, Nintendo, Samsonite and Kellogg’s.

After North Carolina lured me back, I continued my advertising writing for smaller clients, started a family and taught copywriting for my alma mater. While “back on campus,” I developed an idea that didn’t fit into a comic strip, a TV commercial or even the confines of a short story. It became "Ring of Fire." "Battle Axe" followed shortly thereafter. Read more about me on my website: http://www.margawriterville.com

My humorous suspense novels are available on Amazon:
Ring of Fire: http://www.amazon.com/Ring-of-Fire-ebook/dp/B007IX2YV0/ref=ntt_at_ep_edition_2_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2
Battle Axe: http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Axe-ebook/dp/B007IX2Y3S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1336663170&sr=8-2

Listen to my Wattpad podcast with Pam here: http://soundcloud.com/wattpad/a-born-storyteller-comic