An introduction...

There are so many things I want to say. Some of them can be found by navigating around this website. You can find out how I started writing and some details about me under the bio icon. Other details include the fact that I recently celebrated 39 years of marriage with a wonderful woman, my partner Dorrie. I am the fortunate father to three children, Aly, Julia and Andrei. I write when I can, mostly on the weekends, because during the week I have a full-time job that pays the bills and puts food on the table, etc.

At this point you might be asking yourself a simple and maybe obvious question. Why is this guy bothering me with this stuff? The answer is that I hope through this effort to make some new friends among those who are fiction reading enthusiasts as well as those who might be interested in the creative process. I’d like this to be more than just an ongoing advertisement for my books, though obviously if it led to a few sales I wouldn’t shed any tears.

Why Romance novels? As you can find elsewhere in my site, the inspiration came to me after years of doing my best as an artist painting in oils. The difference between my first book and most romances is that the characters are seven years old when they meet. The story tracks their progress as they grow up. There’s only one problem. They meet in the boy’s dreams. If you like the idea, come back to this blog site. Next time I will include a little segment from the story to show the early days for Dalton and Sienna.

This first blog will be a one-way discussion. I will be posting a link on Facebook, the one you would have had to click to get here. In the future, as soon as I figure out the skill, I will build this out to allow feedback and questions. Meanwhile, feel free to contact me on Facebook to ask questions or give feedback. Let me say that I never ask for compliments, only fair and honest critique. I have had a good number of reviews on Hurry Moon and appreciate even those that were not five-star variety because I learned as much from those as from the others.

I mentioned earlier my full-time job. I am getting to a point in my life where I would love to focus more on my creative pursuits. My dream is to get up in the morning Monday through Friday and write for 5-6 hours. On the weekends I would then be able to get back to my painting. I like to work on larger canvases, usually 3-foot by 4-foot size. If I had more time, I might be able to even paint outdoors as I used to in younger days.

Part of my plan for these blog posts is to share my thoughts about the creative process. In case you are at all interested, let me just say that for me, each type of creativity comes from a different place. Painting starts with an image that I try to represent. I describe my work as neo-impressionist. Very real items with a sense of light and color, but with modern themes. When I paint, I have what I call a conversation with the canvas and let it tell me what it needs. Writing comes from a very different place. I start with a beginning to the story and then an expected end. What takes place in between sometimes has an outline, sometimes not. In any case, I let the characters tell me their story. The best times are when the character lets me know that they will be doing something different than what I expected. Those are truly amazing moments. When I am writing dialog, I try to “hear” what the character is saying. No, I am not nuts but I try to let the way they express themselves be consistent. Choices of words will definitely change from one to the next, something I hope you will get a chance to experience if you buy one of my books.

I have had other creative experiences. All through school and into college, I sang in choirs. I was part of my high school’s drama group, the year after I graduated where I got onstage and helped with backdrop design and painting. That was an amazing year and led to my doing theatre in college. Singing only requires passion. The brain is not involved except to remember the words. Acting is so involved, becoming the character and doing everything you can not to forget the words.

That brings me to the advertising pitch of this blog. I will be looking to build my email list for future promotions. I have already had one very gracious response on Facebook that I am rewarding with a free copy of Hurry Moon that I will be sending this week. I have four more copies that I will be happy to part with for any who are willing to provide an email address and then a mailing one. Beyond that, I will be setting up sales at reduced prices via Amazon. Speaking of Amazon, if you look at the book icon on this website, you will see sub icons for each of my books. When you navigate to each one, there is a quick synopsis of the story. Scroll to the bottom and you will see a link that says: “Buy it.” The link will take you to the site to purchase that particular book.

Every person who shows an interest in my writing takes me one step closer to my dream.

I love nature. The beauty of the sky at the end of the day. Trees and ponds and birds and all of creation inspire me endlessly. I have never had the time or energy to learn all the different types of plants or more than a few obvious birds. I love seeing the first robin in spring. I have no experience growing things and while I would love to learn, my life has so much already. Work, family and my weekend writing take up so much time. I actually have to sleep as well. Now that I am trying this new marketing effort, I feel maybe a little the way a farmer might feel, standing beside a freshly plowed field.

And so here I am, planting a seed.

Thanks.

Paul