I must admit

Okay, I know a few of you might think that I am a horror writer. It is true, I do like horror. I read every 'scary' book I could get my hands on as a child (this worried my mother, and I don't know what my father thought of it). King, Clegg, Koonzt (the early stuff), Bloch, the list could go on. But I have to admit it, there can be no more denying it.

I am not a horror writer. I don't really call myself a speculative fiction writer although I was ecstatic to come in as an honorable mention in the Return to Luna Anthology (I am sure they butchered my name when they read the honorable mentions but that is okay.) I am a writer, pure and simple. I have had pieces published that I called westerns but got put into literary journals (The Life, Cerulean Rain issue 1), and experimental pieces that could have taken place on any street you've been down (Life in Vignettes, Literary Chaos print issue #1).

I've written two books. One an adult thriller that will probably never see the light of day unless I rewrite it from a different point of view. I am working on a children's novel that I am re-writing from a different characters perspective (that's a load of fun, let me tell you).

I guess I don't want to be pigeonholed. I like to write whatever my mind comes up with and I want to be able to run with it. Heck I even have a children's picture book out for consideration with Tricycle press.

Does this make me a bad writer? Good grief I hope not. I hope that it makes me a better writer.

Here there be Bears!

Okay, so I live in Iowa. Not much goes on here to tell you the truth. We have two pretty good football teams (Go 'Clones) and occationally I see a bobcat across the road from where I live but we have had some visitors to the state that have been getting some press of late.

Bears. Black bears coming up from the Ozarks in Missouri and black bears coming down from Minnesota. There have been six sighting this year and the latest one was only about twenty miles from where I live.

Now the problem that I have is that they are not a protected species in Iowa because, well, you don't need to protect something that doesn't live there. Right?

Right.

Anyway. We have the same problem with mountain lion (I have seen one of those in the state about ten years ago) in that they are not protected and god forbid we let any animal go where it wants.

I realize this is off the writing topic that I try to stick to in this post but it struck me as something I needed to get off my chest and most of the local hunters don't feel the same way about it as I do (I am a local hunter) so my ramblings would be falling on deaf ears.

Now to the writing. My children's novel "Big Chief's Gold" is actually going well when I find the opportunity to work on it. I have greatly expanded the narrative on the bones that I had laid out. The first four pages have blown up into thirteen pages and at that rate my little ninety page story will be about a 250 page book. I don't know if it will turn out like that or not but I am happy with the progress so far.