Sterling's Bio
Sterling Daniels was born in the small eastern North Carolina city of Greenville in 1962. He was raised by his very wise grandmother for his post-teen years in the neighboring town of Winterville. His strong, no-nonsense grandmother had a tremendous influence on Sterling, an influence that not only molded his character but those of her 11 children and over 100 grandchildren. She told him of her grandmother, who had been a slave, and schooled him on measuring the character of people.
Sterling was born in the heart of the South while it was in the middle of a transition from segregation to desegregation, due to the Civil Rights movement. His class was the first in which blacks and whites were educated in the same schools. This meant he always had a rich experience of many cultures, from his youth, up to today.
In 1982, Sterling joined the US Army. He did his Basics in South Carolina and from there his specialty training in Georgia. He spent one year in Oklahoma then one year in Manheim Germany, before returning to be a civilian. He counted these years as the years his eyes were really opened, as he got to experience many cultures, form many friendships with people that were far different from himself, and learned that many things that he had preconceived were wrong. Still, he found his grandmother’s wisdom held true and helped him navigate many dangerous situations, this holds true even to this day.
Shortly after leaving the US Army, Sterling left eastern North Carolina and settled in Greensboro, North Carolina, located in the central part of the state, where he worked a few years for the US Postal Service in a temporary, but well-paying position. From there he acquired a permanent position at a factory that manufactured trays that packaged poultry. After nearly 20 years working for this nationally rooted company, he moved to Maryland where he became an employee of an international food manufacturer, where he made Ice cream. After about 10 years, his knees forced him to retire on disability.
About the time that Sterling was in the 8th grade, he discovered that he had the talent to be a writer. He received high marks and praise from teachers for assignments that required imagination. This continued on through High School and even though it was years later that he would again use his talents, he became rich in experiences that would help him mold his stories and never lose his passion for writing. Although his jobs were in manufacturing, he was afforded to use his writing skills from time to time. He scripted, and filmed an instructional video, on the safe operation of equipment in the Greensboro plant. But his passions really awakened in the ice cream manufacture. A contest was offered to the employees to produce a film about safety and the safety of food preparation. It was encouraged for the project to be informative, but also entertaining, entertaining enough to keep the attention of the employees, who would vote the winner. Several groups of the 1000 employees began working on their projects, Sterling hatched an idea, wrote a short script, and presented it to his group. The theme of the script was based on two employees “Cutting Corners Clyde and By the Book Tyre”. One employee performed tasks safely, while the other performed the same task and cut corners, resulting in hilarious consequences. Sterling scripted and edited the film using members of his group. His group was the first to present their project at the plant-wide meetings and they were the last. The other groups, after seeing the film threw in the towel never completing their projects, with many heard saying, “We are supposed to compete with that?”
So, that is the life experience that Sterling draws from as he crafts his tales. He is heavily influenced by his love of horror films and mysteries alike. He injects his own sense of humor into his characters and in some cases some of his own admitted biases. But he makes sure that there is always a price to be paid for these biases, as a prime example for Sheriff Price at the end of “Whiskey Sour”.