Pondering a post

With the American election dominating the news, it is hard not to post something political for my American readers. Still I prefer to post something about writing or my books. Let's get the Political part out of the way. I saw a program where Donald Trump says he will bring back all those high paying jobs to America. That is clearly something that can never be done because when factories close and set idle for a long time, they have to be totally rebuilt and no one wants to spend that kind of money. Being a Plant Manager for many years, I know what I am talking about. American corporations are the ones that would have to do that kind of investments. They will never do it when it is more profitable for them to ship the jobs overseas getting tax breaks and huge profits. Why pay an American worker a high wages when it can be done cheaper overseas. I had to laugh when a worker went on to say that he believed Trump and was voting for him to be President just for that reason. I couldn't believe how naive that person was. I know Hillary is not much of a choice but I can't abode with racism, bigotry and sexism then trying to cover it up with fancy political ads that smothers the true facts. Enough about politics, I have had my weekly say.
In my last post about writing-The Evolution of a writer. I spoke of how must get better each time they write and publish a book. Very few writers are good out of the gate and have to improve with each book. Hopefully their first one doesn't turn the readers off. Like Stephen King said, "write,write,write...read,read,read...." That is the way to improve your storytelling until you have everyone in the world reading your work and coming to you for advice. I admit I am a long way from having even a huge following but I stay on social media hoping that somehow one reader will pick up one of my books and tell another and another until it becomes a bestseller. In the meantime, I will keep writing, rewriting and blogging even if it is about other's books.

Have a great week and talk back, I'm listening!

Trump buys the Presidency

No matter how much money the Democrats raise trying to secure the White house and Congress it will not be enough. Ever since the Republicans found out they can buy their way into office, they can and will do that. All Trump has to do is keep blaming everything wrong in the world on Hillary Clinton and President Obama, tying the two together they know that their negative campaigns will guarantee they win in 2016. The average America voter listens to the negative and recalls it when they walk into the election booth. Unless the economy really tanks in the next two months the voters will vote according to the negative commercials even if they are untrue or half-truths. I watched the election in 2014 in Arkansas very closely. The Republicans bide their time and wait until weeks before the vote to suddenly flood the airwaves as much bullshit as they can to turn the voters against a popular Senator and replace him with one the Koch Brothers bought and paid for. He knows he is owned and when the his owners pull his strings, he respond exactly like they want. To me it is shocking how short the memory is of voters but I guess that is human nature. 

Americans have short memories, they forget how we dumped the smoke filled back rooms where the party bigwigs decided who our next President will be and created primaries to lessen their power. After losing that, they decided the best way to get control back was to back only certain candidates make the people want them by saying or doing everything in their power to make sure Americans favor them. Even though Trump is a bigot, racist and dehumanizes women, they are doing everything in their power to make people forget all this so he can make America Great again, Whoops, Make America White again. 

On the Commander in Chief debate, that was a farce. It was clear that as Commander in Cheif, Trump would blame everything on Clinton and Obama but not offer any real solutions. Not one person asked him about his wanting to nuke the terrorist. They tried to worm out of him what the security briefings were about. He only said that those giving him the briefing had proposed one thing and Obama didn't follow. When asked  a question about anything, he quickly pointed out that everything wrong in the world was caused by Hillary or Obama. Even if the audience knew that some of the things were untrue they didn't waver in their support of Trump.      

Writing is an evolution by a writer

When an everyday writer finishes his/her first book, they think it is the greatest story ever written but the realization sets in that just because it is, no one has ever heard about it or you. So you start an author platform by going on social media. Let me tell you, it is a slow process, especially now days when there is so many out there writing books. If you are smart, you won't spend all your time on social media trying to garner followers but get back to what you love... writing. You have to love it or you wouldn't waste your time being a writer. When you have have written your second book as you go through editing it or having it edited, you will find that it is better than your first book. How do you ask? Your evolution has started. Most people do not start out writing their best book. I'm sure Stephen King had some of his earlier works in his opinion ready for the trash can. Once he found out what works, he cranks them out one after another. He has found his niche (style) that works for him. You have to find yours, copying someone else won't work, but once you have your style, each book will be better than your last. I may never write a bestseller but each book I write, I feel is better than the last one. A true writer's evolution into a well known writer, at least that is what I hope I have become. I have put all that I learned into writing "Saddle Spur" and believe when it is finished, everyone will agree it is the best one written by me so far. Once I complete it have it edited, I will go back to writing "IronHearts" Got to keep the writing flowing. So all you aspiring writers out there, here is Stephen King's advice "Keep writing and reading to become successful" My additional advice is after you have written the best book get back to writing and let time tell where or not it is the best. You might surprise yourself by actually writing the best book ever written.

Talk back, I'm listening as always just not here everyday.

Too busy writing to blog- I apologize

I know the past few posts have been about President Trump but I haven't been posting a thing recently. I have been busy writing "Saddle Spur" featuring "Wildoats" the horse of my main Character John Howard Strum. Their adventure from Alabama to Oregon in 1870. I am trying to make it historically accurate as I can, hence I have to do a lot of research to get it write besides having to make the story interesting and compelling for the reader. This is my first time in trying to write such an adventure book of this nature. Normally, I write straight fiction books making it all up in my head since most are set in the near future or future. That is easy to do I have found out but having an adventure in the old west even fiction, you need some truism to be believable. I know in the old westerns, they didn't worry about how accurate it was but I do even if the characters are fictional. As soon as Saddle Spur is complete, I will get back on finishing "IronHearts" My story set in today's times, just fictional characters that have hell to pay to survive.
So this is my status right now. Every since I had Wildoats playing a bigger role in the Saddle Spur story, I have had to rewrite most of it while checking to insure each event or scene is correct.

Have a great day. Talk back, I'm listening as always just not on social media that much. 

Concerns of my wife about President Trump

Last night, my wife and I were sitting up having a few drinks. The conversation covered various subjects then it went onto politics. I asked her what concerned her the most about Trump becoming President. This was her answer, "I am not concerned with the rights of women being trampled upon, even removal of my voting rights. What concerns me more is the fact that the Republicans want to roll back laws and even eliminate EPA to allow businesses to pollute even more destroying the planet for our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. We have a lot of those. About Trump, "he is a ticking time bomb that would start World War III in one of his tirades, destroying this planet for future generations, maybe even eliminating them entirely.  We were entrusted this planet by our past generations, to make it better and pass it onto our children and to learn to live in peace regardless of religion, color and gender.  If humans are truly the advanced species, they owe it to themselves and the other inhabitants of this planet to allow each to live and not be destroyed in one of the rages of man.  I couldn't disagree with any of the points she raised. I like it getting a woman's prospective on this election. Everyone with a half a brain knows Hillary was less than truthful about her emails but she was calm under fire and didn't explode just because someone questioned her. I would feel better knowing we have a calmer person in the White House with their finger on the button. 

Talk back, I'm listening. Tell me how you see the 2016 election shaping up.       

Reflections of a blogger

Thanks to all those that dropped by my blog during the 2016 Cherish Blogfest. It was nice to see you. Sorry I wasn't able to drop by every site on the list, my volunteer activities limited my time on here. 

As I write this post, it gave me thoughts to reflect upon. Why does anyone blog anyway? Most people blog to sell you something, others blog about their point of view on different subjects including politics, books and their health conditions or what they had for dinner. I started blogging back a few years ago when I found out that as an author, I had to present myself to the public. Along the way, I found I enjoyed talking more about other unknown authors and their books than I did about my books. Then I started doing reviews of other's books since I read a lot. I have made a lot of online friends and others that I will call associates. I tend to follow back anyone that follows me whether I find their post interesting or not. I even comment more on various posts on LinkedIn,Facebook, Blogs and even on GoodReads. It is interesting on GoodReads that I have even started chatting with other authors in their discussions where you ask why they write and other questions. A question for other authors, do you engage in such discussions?

Time spent on social media will always reduce the amount of time an author has to write but I try to balance that with writing and my activities where I do volunteer work realizing both are equal important in my life.

Talk back, I'm listening as always! Have a great week!

Cherish Blogfest 2016 post-Cherished Item

 It took me a long time to find my Cherished item. My real most cherished item is my wife, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren so I had to select something after agreeing to do the Cherish Blogfest 2016.

My wife discovered during the winter that she had talents she never knew. Normally she does not have the patience to create something. It was tedious work but she found her abilities and patience to do this. She started with old horseshoes, cleaned them up and then painted them. Some black, some silver. Using leather she attached all the beads and feathers creating a beautiful wall ornament. In the center is our last name made from wooden blocks. To me it is something special she created for us.
I showed two views, the top one is trying to show the entire item with a slight close up in the second picture to see more of the details. Thank you for dropping by my blog and you can follow me if you wish. I normally follow the sites I visit.

 Drop by and visit other blogs taking part in this blogfest. I am sure they will enjoy having your company.