Faye Passanisi – Fair winds and following seas to my writing colleague and friend, Bill Allen

7/15/2019

Greetings, I’d like to share about Bill Allen ~ my writing colleague, and friend. Bill and I “met” due to an “accidental click” on my computer 4 years ago. 6 months after my “accidental click,” I was FB “friended” by Bill Allen and the same day was asked to co-write PORT BLISS with him and JW Gooding.

Before the day Bill asked me to co-write, I did not know him. At first I said “No” as I was not a reader and certainly had NO desire to write, EVER!

However, Bill was very persuasive and convinced me to write with him, so I did.

 

We wrote for 2 years and during that time, we grew very close. I spent another year after we finished writing, editing, finding a literary agent and getting PORT BLISS published by premier publisher Simon & Schuster. Bill was ecstatic about this. PORT BLISS was a dream of his for many years and I, along with JW Gooding made that dream into a reality.

 

Many of Bill’s friends and family told me on more than one occasion that they truly believed that it was because of my relationship writing and being a friend to Bill that kept him alive for the last 3 years. I have never met anyone who has lived through what Bill has been through and I want to say, he was not a complainer. I had so much respect for the way Bill turned his life around and made a difference in the lives of so many. It was because of Bill that I realized that I could write and I will always remember this. We became good friends in the 3 years we connected and I will cherish all the good times.

Bill was quick, witty and had a sense of humor. It was a pleasure to co-write with him and get to know him and he would tell me that I was everything good in his life. He did not want PORT BLISS to come to an end but it had to, eventually, in order to get it published.

Bill finally went on to his PORT BLISS this morning, July 14, 2019. His life was a testimony to the resilience and hard work which he demonstrated, helping others less fortunate as he became a lobbyist for the mobility impaired. He also formed a wheelchair basketball team, I believe the first of it’s kind in Florida… He did not let his mobility impairment disable him in any way. He could easily have lived off the system, instead, he took great pride in getting higher education and working to make a better life for himself, as well as helping others make their life better for themselves.

Bill Allen was loved by family and friends and will be missed by many. Fair winds and following seas my writing colleague and friend.