You can tell a lot about me by the books I have written.
My name is Burl E. Battersby and I write under the pen name B. Eugene B. The decision to use a nom de plume speaks to who I am as an artist and what drives me to create. It speaks to the change that occurred in my life which inspired me to become a writer.
For much of my childhood and most of my adult life I was an alcoholic. I was fortunate in that I was a high-functioning alcoholic, (mostly) able to maintain a facade of normality; I was successful at work and had a great family that loved and supported me, but I struggled with alcohol abuse. Then, on June 15th of 2012, I decided that if I didn’t stop I would lose everything I had.
The dual life that I had lived up to that point, always hiding behind a mask during my sober hours, gave me a unique sense of what can pass for reality and it taught me how to tell a story. I learned that while these stories created a new reality for others, they also changed who I was. Although this is not a healthy attribute when combined with addiction, it is a skill that, in the clarified world of sobriety, has empowered me to write in a voice that is genuine and true to who I am. It is also a voice which others who have read my work have enjoyed reading.
