First attempts at writing..with the manual typewriter (pictures)

Remember a little while back I wrote about my old Olympia Carina 1 Manual typewriter. 

Recently I unearthed my first attempts to write with it. Keep in mind that I was in my early teens when I wrote this on lined paper. The first one is a collection of science fiction stories, the second is a mystery noir story about a private investigator.

A friend of mine offered to bind my loose pages into an actual book. Until that time, I kept it in a huge 3-ring binder. The cover says 'by R.A. Copon', my maiden name.

 

Here is the book opened to a random page. Note the stout string through the holes to bind the pages together. And yes, that's wide-ruled paper, blue ink, and cross-outs. I also typed on both sides of the paper so it could be bound. (Yes, ouch, wince).

 

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A closer look at the left hand page.

 

Here is the homemade cover of my P.I. short story. My sister did the binding.

 

And a sample of the writing. Black ink, and typing on one side of unlined paper. Yes, I was learning. >.< This was during my 'Sam Spade' phase of writing, with a hard-boiled P.I who lived in a rough and tumble city a la Gotham City, which was controlled by the Mob. Yes, he also used to be cop, but got kicked off the force due to corrupt forces.

 

Why share these first attempts at writing? I was willing to write anywhere, using any means necessary. Once you get bitten by the bug, it never really leaves you, even twenty-five years later.