Looking Back and Forward, Did I notice Your Book Blogfest

Please welcome my Wednesday Guest, Mary Deal, who is an award-winning author of six thrillers, a short story collection and a writers’ reference. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, Associate and Contributing Editor of a magazine and a newspaper columnist. She is from California’s Sacramento River Delta, has lived abroad and now resides in Hawaii.Her latest book is Down to the Needle, 

a suspensful story of a mother's search for her abducted child and the hope that the child did not grow up to be the woman on death row. It was a good read.

Mary Deal

To commemorate Stacy Juba’s book, 25 Years in the Rear View Mirror, my thoughts go back to about 1987. Then, I decided I had to stop traveling if I was to create anything with lasting value. But let me digress further.

In 1949 I was eight years old and studying geography and history. A light went on in my mind. I wanted to know about the world and knew that I would travel during my lifetime.

In 1959 I moved to my favorite city, San Francisco. After some time living there, I moved to Puerto Rico. By then, traveling was in my blood.

In 1969 it was back to San Francisco. Yet, meeting new people and cultures and having exception experiences was educational. I didn’t know how I’d use all this knowledge but I breathed it in on every breath. I moved to England for a year, then moved to Phoenix. I vacationed in Hawaii.

In 1979, I moved back to San Francisco. Yet, in the ensuing years, I remembered Puerto Rico and island living. I didn’t want to go back there. I wanted to see another part of the world.

So, about twenty-five years ago, judging from my major moves in every year ending in a 9, I wondered where I’d end up next. All the while, I’m telling myself that I have so much knowledge and experience that I should write books. I wanted to stay put and not go gallivanting off to some foreign land. I got my wish but still had to move.

In 1989, I moved in with my brother in Petaluma to help care for our aging, ailing mother. Once she stabilized, I moved back to San Francisco, then on to Sacramento where I found contractual work that paid enough to allow me to begin to pour out all this knowledge and experience into books and stories. I wrote every spare moment, sometimes sleeping only two to three hours per night. I finally found something I loved to do that seemed to overpower my desire to travel . Or so I thought – and I moved yet again!

In 1999, I was already living in Hawaii and, judging from my much traveled past, wondered what big move would spring itself on me since it was already a year ending with a 9. My strongest desire was to settle and write. I got my wish. My boss and I had moved to Kauai to flip houses damaged by Hurricane Iniki.  Although we didn’t move far, we bought a house and moved in as roommates. It was a 9 year. I had still moved.

Now, in 2012, after visiting all of the Hawaii Islands through the years, I feel Honolulu calling to me. I’ll probably move again and live there for a time. The next 9 year, 2019, is seven years away. Maybe I’ll stay here on Kauai till then. I could get much writing done. Plus I’ve started oil painting and photography with online galleries. I’m entrenched in my life here on Kauai. Maybe I won’t move again till 2019.  I’ve found I can write from any place or circumstance I encounter, and everything is fodder for my stories.

Presently, I push 2019 out of my mind. My books and stories have garnered some awards. I want more. I keep writing, no matter where I find myself.

Thank you, Mary, and now the other special for the day: Did I Notice Your Book Blogfest hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh and  Ciara Knight. 

What I'm supposed to do is mention a book I recently read or heard about, then promote this on Twitter and Facebook and see how long it takes for the author to find the mention and come over to leave a comment. There are a lot of other bloggers participating, so this could get interesting as we all discover new books to read. Visit Alex's blog or Ciara's for a full list of participating bloggers.

The book I'm mentioning is  The Road to Chigger Flats (Baby Shark) [Kindle Edition] by: Robert Fate. I have this in my Kindle and plan to read it as soon as I can. I love the Baby Shark series, which features a most unusual female PI. Fate is a master at dialogue and creating unusual characters, and his books are good, quick reads. This is a short one, sort of a teaser for Baby Shark's Showdown at Chigger Flats, and is a good introduction to this terrific series that is set in 1960s Texas.