The First Blog!

So, this is my first attempt at blogging.  I have never quite understood the whole "blog craze."  But I suppose in this day and age of zero face to face communication, it does make some sense.  I can't promise how often I will add to this.  Maybe 2-3 times per week?  Maybe once a week?  Maybe I will completely forget about it and just keep my thoughts to myself?  Most likely I will try to accomplish one of the former options, rather than the latter.  My goal will be pretty simple: I plan to write about anything and everything that might pertain to writing, my books, other authors' books, sports, music, raising small children, dry grass in the background...you get the point.  I hope you enjoy it and continue to follow this blog.  Please feel free to comment about anything you wish.  And feel free to let me know if you find the information here entirely ridiculous.  At times, I will probably agree.

I guess I will start by discussing a fascinating experience I had recently while I was out promoting If I Know It's Coming.  There are many organizations out there that are designed to help support the children of military families.  Beyond the Yellow Ribbon hosted a teen summit for these children in St. Cloud, MN.  At the end of the summit, they held a military teen resource fair.  They were nice enough to allow me a booth at the fair to promote the book.  I didn't sell many, but lots of kids came and spoke to me.  The stories I heard from these kids made me realize the importance of this topic.  One girl in particular showed me, in about five minutes, the roller coaster of emotions she experienced when her dad was deployed to Iraq and then again, when he finally returned home.  War is horrendous and our soldiers deserve all the respect in the world, but their children are also going through a war on the home front.  Let's not forget that.