I remember when, many years
ago, my former agent told me I should have a blog. I had no clue what
she was talking about. I’d never even heard the word “blog,”
let alone knowing what it meant. She tried to explain, and to this
old dog it sounded intimidating, difficult, a stealer of writing
time, and something I couldn’t begin to know how to set up, let
alone keep it updated.
Today I still wouldn’t know
how to set up a blog site. If it wasn’t for my former publicity gal
who originally set up blogging for me, I still wouldn’t even have a
blog page. And I still don’t even know how to enter new blogs! My
current publicity gal does that for me. I write the blog in Word and
send it to her, and she posts the blog. How’s that for a “duh”
situation?
Then, of course, I have to
come up with a new subject for each new blog, but after 36 years and
70 books I can usually think of something. I have blogged about
nearly every subject one could bring up about writing, but I hope to
continue finding new subjects and ideas for you. And now that I
understand what this blogging thing is all about, I’m happy to have
yet another outlet for talking to my faithful readers about my
thoughts when it comes to writing and to my genre of western
historical romance.
American history is a vital
subject that in my opinion is no longer properly and thoroughly
covered in public schools, so I try to show and teach readers some of
the things they might have never learned about this country’s rich,
exciting and adventurous history in school. Yes, we have made huge
mistakes. It’s human nature. And yes, we have also done a lot of
things right. Learning our own history can teach so many lessons
about what NOT to do wrong the next time. As we age, we realize that
what we thought was so important at 20 becomes totally UNimportant at
50. And by 60 and 70 it’s too late to go back and change what we
missed as being most important of all. There are no “do-overs” in
life, so I tell my grandsons to please, please never do anything that
their common sense tells them they could regret later in life.
Seems I’m wandering here,
and none of this has anything to do with writing, except in the case
of a story that covers 20-40 years, and I’ve written many such
stories. I really enjoy delving into a hero or heroine’s past and
showing how they have grown from there. A good example is Jake
Harkner in my Outlaw Hearts books, a man so pitifully broken in
spirit and pride at a very young age that he never quite recovers.
His childhood turned him into what he became as a man, an outlaw who
on the inside is struggling to learn what love is all about and who
forever feels unworthy of that love even when he finds it. I have
often wondered what his eulogy would be like, and one thing I thought
of was that Jake Harkner, though unaware, was one of God’s avenging
angels, like Michael, appearing to be mean and bad, yet doing what
God appointed him to do without even knowing it. Jake is so sure in
his early years that God would never want anything to do with him,
yet he is always finding ways to help someone. His technique is
usually questionable, but he means well, and people love him in spite
of himself. What a great epitaph for his tombstone – “Here lies
Jake Harkner, an avenging angel.”
Now I’ve gone from blogging
- to history - to human nature. Isn’t that how it is with women? We
can get on an elevator not even knowing the person next to us, and by
the time we reach the top floor we know all about each other. I guess
that’s what we do with blogs – spill out our lives to complete
strangers in one elevator ride! I love to get to know my readers and
to let them know where I’m coming from in my writing, so now I
blog, a wonderful way to talk about these things with my fans. I am
very grateful to all of you, and I truly appreciate it when some of
you post comments to my blogs. It really helps me know how you feel
about my subject(s), and if you don’t like what I say, that’s
okay, too. I need to know that.
Meantime, I hope ALL of you
like my STORIES. That’s far more important than my own thoughts. I
think you can tell from my books that I love a great love story of
devotion and sacrifice, and I love American history. And just think
if our pioneers could have had these methods of instant
communication! Once, we wrote long, long letters. Now we blog.
Coming 26 November 2019!
