THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 9, 1996 TAG: 9610090030
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 113 lines
AS A CHILD, Eric Little discovered an imaginary gold mine in his family's Norfolk home, once the site of a thriving funeral parlor.
At night, the young boy heard the wind moaning down the halls. He saw ghosts reflected through the stained-glass windows. He smelled formaldehyde and sickeningly sweet flowers each time he passed the row of matching rooms that lined the back of the house.
Death, it seemed, permeated his life.
The mortuary next door, the graveyard across the street and the Bible-thumping church within earshot provided even more creative fodder for the shy, skinny kid who would spend hours alone, lost in a vivid world of his own.
At night, he dreamed in vibrant colors of a monster with one eye and a giant who reigned over a frightened townspeople.
In the light of day, Little imagined himself the hero of those night terrors, performing feats he never would dare try in reality.
The boy would write poems and short stories, usually lurid tales about ghosts, vampires and magic. Little's mother worried about her youngest child, the seventh in a noisy, fun-loving brood.
But she worries no more. Those ``strange'' early musings were simply fuel for Little's creative fires. Today, this 37-year-old security guard and former college football star may be on his way to becoming the next Stephen King.
Three years ago, after decades of pursuing other interests, Little finally took pen in hand and began writing in earnest, mostly late at night while working as a chemical plant security guard in Missouri. Those scribblings eventually turned into a novel titled ``Pools of Ancient Evil.''
A Canadian publishing house, Commonwealth Publications, snapped the book up not long after Little finished it. The work was released late last year.
A story about the chemical contamination of an Indian burial ground, the novel explores race relations, metaphysical happenings, spirituality and native American folklores and myths. The book is based in the backwoods of North Carolina, near the site of an abandoned chemical plant.
``It's a weird story,'' Little said at his Poplar Halls home. ``I had the feeling it was writing itself. As I was working on it, I'd actually feel like I was watching these people interact. And when I wasn't writing, I couldn't wait to get back to it to see what was going to happen. It was a real labor of love for me.''
Although the book has been released only in Canada, Little is hoping it eventually will attract attention in the United States. In the meantime, he has submitted his second novel to the publisher and is working on a third. He's also writing a screenplay about the abortion debate.
His second book is about five Green Berets who meet after Vietnam in a Veterans Administration hospital. The third traces a Vietnam veteran, loosely based on his brother, on his return home.
All of his work, Little says, centers on ``twisted'' happenings.
``Each one has to do with a horror or supernatural situation,'' he said. ``All I do is take a simple story and look at it from different angles, like underneath a rock, where you'll find a lot of squeamish stuff.''
Just as in childhood, Little still is fascinated by the spiritual side of life. He traces it all back to growing up as an introverted child in rough-and-tumble Huntersville.
``I felt very unempowered as a young kid,'' he recalled. ``I had very little self-pride. I was always being bullied by the other kids. I got to a point that all I wanted to do was just be alone.''
To cope, he fantasized - and wrote. But Little's life changed dramatically with the onset of puberty. Adolescence transformed him into a strapping hunk of brawn. A love for writing soon gave way to a love of sport. At Norfolk's Booker T. Washington High, he became a football and track-and-field star.
He was so good at football that the University of Arizona gave him a scholarship. Eventually, he was offered a contract by a fledgling professional league, but it folded before he got to play.
By then, however, he had begun to lose interest in football.
``I wasn't in love with football,'' he said. ``The politics of the game are pretty cutthroat. I realized it wasn't for me.''
After college, he went to Germany for a brief stint in the Army, then headed to Missouri, where he got married and started a family. In Missouri, he found a job as a security guard on the night shift at a chemical plant.
Sitting alone in the wee hours with little to do, Little returned to his first love: writing.
It took him about nine months to complete ``Pools of Ancient Evil,'' all written in longhand. For months after, he honed and edited.
He dreamed of getting the work published but had little confidence that others would find it interesting. His wife didn't have such qualms.
``I told Vicki it wasn't ready, but unbeknownst to me, she was sending it out to agents,'' he recalled. ``Writing was my pleasure. All I wanted was a honest opinion.''
Instead, he got four offers from agents interested in representing him. He took the one who wanted the smallest commission. Not long afterward came a contract.
Since then, Little has relocated his family to Norfolk, gotten another job as a security guard and continued to write, mostly late at night. Although he's now a published author, this father of five isn't about to quit his night job.
``I'm not making any money on my writing yet,'' Little said. ``But I'm hoping someday I'll be able to quit and write full time.
``All those years I didn't write, I had forgotten how much it did for me, while I was living in that house on Princess Anne Road. I've got a lot of stories about that place. Now, I finally believe I really tell it all the way I really want to.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot
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