Eric Aune:
CLASS OF 1976
Bellflower High SchoolClass of 1976
Bellflower, CA
Cypress CollegeClass of 1984
Cypress, CA
Washington Junior High SchoolClass of 1972
Bellflower, CA
Pyle Elementary SchoolClass of 1970
Bellflower, CA
Eric's Story
Life
I presently live in Norwalk. I own my grandparents home. I have been active as a Boy Scout Leader for over 20 years.. I enjoy a lot of outdoor activities; hiking, camping, backpacking, skiing, rock climbing, horseback riding, scuba diving for example
I have also been involved for over 40 years with Living History. I have done history presentation for schools and community groups. Also many different battle reenactments. Most of them have been Civil War, but I have also done WW2, Old West, Indian War Period, Renaissance period (you can find me at the Renaissance Pleasure Fair taking part at swordfighting demonstrations with the Gentlemen Adventurers), Victorian and Edwardian times. Back in 1985 I made the front cover of the Bellflower Blade (our alma mater's paper) for a presentation at BHS for the History classes. Mr Brown (for those who remember him from 8th Grade history at Washington JR High, he went to BHS to teach 11th grade history) was the one who arranged it.
Because of this hobby I have worked on 2 documentaries about Custer's Last Stand. I have also seen some of the footage from these documentaries used in other documentaries about the period. I portrayed Custer during the Civil War for a documentary about Medal Of Honor winners. I worked on the mini series North and South Book 2 that was shown on TV in 1986. I also worked on an episode of House in 2010. I even worked on a rap video for the guy who did the song Harlem Shuffle.
I am now retired and thoroughly enjoying it. I've paid off my mortgage, so I don't have any big bills to deal with. I run 7-9 miles a week to stay fit.
In 2007, I started writing and posting my stories online; I believe they can be found on four websites right now. My stories include: short stories, novellas, and novel-length stories. I have fans in many parts of the world who email me to thank me for sharing my stories online so they can enjoy them. In 2022, I finished my twentieth story. After it had been posted on the site that I have posted all of my stories, a lot of friends and readers said I should publish that one. So I got to work on doing that with the help of some other writer and editor friends from my main website, on which I post the stories. It took us a year of editing and making changes to the story to make it better before I could publish. In 2023, I finally published the story, and because it was such a long story, we had to turn it into three books, a trilogy. The first book, The Ripple Effect, was published in February 2023. The second book, The Journey North, was published in May 2023. The third book, The End of the Beginning, was published in August 2023. All are available on Amazon. The first book is also on Barnes and Noble Press. I'm working on formatting the second book to post on BN Press right now.
Throughout 2024, I submitted the three books to several book awards. I was a Finalist in the 2024 American Legacy Book Awards, 2024 American Fiction Book Awards, and 2024 Grand Prize Finalist in the Four Seasons Book Awards. In November 2024, I received the International Impact Book Award for the category, Books in a Series. On October 4th, 2025, at a Hollywood Red Carpet event at Loews Hotel, right next to the Dolby Theater where the Oscars are awarded, I was awarded the 2025 Author of the Year for the category of Dystopian Fiction.
My first book has been made into an AI-generated short film that is to be shown to studios and producers to see if they are interested in turning it into a movie or short-term TV series, and it has also been submitted and accepted for consideration by the Sundance Film Festival. I believe it is in an AI-made film category. My agent is handling all of that.
In 1991 I spent a month traveling around England, Scotland and Wales by car. One of the best trips I've taken, hope to get back there and visit again sometime.
I presently have a "grandson". He is my godson's son, so I'm sort of his Grandfather. He's 10.
School
I went to Kindergarten at a school in Colton. 1st - 3rd grade in Hemet. Then started 4th grade at Nuffer Elementary in Norwalk, before transferring to Ernie Pyle Elementary, Mrs Kruse as the teacher there. Which is where I got to know many of those that I spent the next several years with up through High School Graduation. Some of you may remember that I was known for a long time as Bones, due to the fact I was so skinny (in fact when I joined the Navy, I was 5'8" and weighed 114 lbs, that was the minimum weight for my height, I was 125 lbs when I got out of boot camp). Anyway I remember one time playing football with Carlos Acosta and Mickey Gomes at Ernie Pyle and I tackled Carlos, and for the next several minutes Mickey kept ragging on Carlos about how "Bones had tackled Carlos".
At Washington JR High, I enjoyed history with Mr Brown, Boy's Glee club with Mr Green. Science with Mrs Higa. I still have my Knight pin for reading 35 books or whatever it was. Coach Holden always remembered how to pronounce my name by saying Ole' Aune'. In 8th grade chorus, Lindy Her...Expand for more
mes chasing me around the choir room trying to give me a kiss, and me be the naive idiot I was (and I was embarrassed), I was running from her. One time early in the 8th grade during lunch recess, my brother Steve (7th grade) and I were allowed to play on the same team for baseball. We each hit a home run in the same inning, so after that, anytime there were team sports at lunch, no one would let us play on the same team ever again.
At BHS, enjoyed all the time in Boys Chorus, then Mixed Chorus and finally Choir, Mr Dustin was great (I ran into him a few years later at Long Beach City College, where he was still teaching music). Most of the choir going out to Bob's Big Boy on Lakewood after the end of a concert. One of my favorite teachers was Mrs Young Social Studies. Trudy Clark was definitely the best as a guidance counselor. I got my wrist slashed during track practice in 10th grade, by Richard Elkins' spike. I enjoyed the look on Mr Fouquette's face, when I took his Algebra Class in 11th grade, since I had flunked Math 10 the year before, due to my constant reading a book rather than doing the work I was supposed to be doing. It wasn't that I couldn't do the work, I just dislike math. I'm good at it, but I don't like it. Our "Democratic Convention" that Mike Farrell was a guest speaker during our senior year. Then Graduation and off to the world. One regret is that I did just enough to get by, well below my potential, since I was always on the Dean's or President's Honor list during college.
Workplace
I went into the Navy in the fall after graduation and was a Radioman. I attained the rank of P:etty Officer 2nd Class (same rank as a Sergeant, E-5). After I got out of the Navy in 1980, I worked at Disneyland for about 6 months, then cleaned pools for a year, before going to Cypress College. While going through college I worked part time at a couple of gun stores in Bellflower.
After College in 1986, I went to work at Lehman Medical Centers in Orange County, as a Radiology Technologist. I started at their Orange office and after a few months transferred to the Garden Grove office, where I became a Nuclear Medicine Tech as well as a Radiology and Fluoroscopy tech. Eventually, I became the Radiology Manager for all 8 offices in the medical group.
In 1991, I went to work at Long Beach Memorial Medical Centers, because I wanted to get into a big hospital so that I could get the chance to learn CT Scanning. After 6 months there was an opening in CT and I transferred there. I worked in that department until 1998, I also worked part time in the Nuclear Medicine department. since I had a license for that discipline.
In 1998, I was put in charge of the Radiology fileroom, then after 6 months, I became the Systems Analyst for the Radiology Department. During that time, I also worked in the Nuclear Medicine department a few hours a week to fill in and occasionally in CT as a backup.
In 2001, I was asked to be the PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) Administrator for the Hospital. Currently, I am part of the IT department and hold the title of Clinical Applications Analyst.
The day finally arrived and I retired in March 2025 after 39 years working in the Medical field, the last 27 in the Radiology IT Field.
Military
I went to boot camp in San Diego Recruit Training Center Oct 76. During boot camp, I was granted a brief leave to go home, because my dad had died from lung cancer. I graduated from it in Jan 77 and went to Radioman A School at the Training Center, followed by Morse Code Operator School. While there I ran into a schoolmate Paul Lipsohn, he had also joined the Navy. In July 77 I shipped out to the USS Proteus on Guam, a submarine tender and the forward deployment base for Submarine Squadron 7. My first week there, one of the chief petty officers was retiring and he had a fiesta. At the fiesta, I was given this meat, i'd never had before and found out later is was dog, it is kind of a delicacy over there, My ship took care of the ballistic missile and the attack subs that were keeping an eye on China and Russia and other places in the West Pacific. While on Guam I did lots of hiking, golfing and scuba diving.
In Dec 78, my ship was ordered to Long Beach for a refit. We spent a little over a year at Long Beach Naval Shipyard refitting the ship in drydock. While in Long Beach I was sent on temporary duty to the the submarine base at Point Loma in San Diego for a few months. In June 80, we were back in Guam.
I was only back in Guam a few days when I got word that my stepmother had died (no great loss to me, she did not care much for me or my brother Steve anyway, and the feeling was mutual). I was granted leave to return for her funeral and then was reassigned to Long Beach Naval Shipyard as part of Security and Honor Guard for military funerals (I was in charge of the armed Honor Guard that fired the rifle salutes over the soldier's graves). This reassignment was because my youngest brother was 14 at the time and I was the oldest. I was Honorably Discharged Aug 15, 1980.
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