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.   

Monday Morning Musings

Timothy Hallinan, a terrific author whom I discovered when I read and reviewed Breathing Water, has just received some good news about his latest, The Fear Artist. The book was chosen one of the Best Crime Novels of 2012 by Deadly Pleasures Magazine.The Fear Artist continues the Poke Rafferty series that just keeps getting better and better.

Congrats to Tim!

"Governor Goodhair", as some people refer to Texas Governor Rick Perry, is fostering another proposal that doesn't seem to be in the best interests of higher education. He proposes to cut funding for universities that are not graduating their students. That is just as bad as rating teacher's based on the student's test scores. Granted, the teachers and the educational institutions do have a responsibility to make sure that the learning environment is healthy and supportive, the staff committed and qualified. However, to put the full responsibility for outcomes on their shoulders is a huge disservice.

Students make poor choices all the time that affect their success, or lack of success. Parents make choices all the time that either help or hinder the ability of their children to succeed.

To punish the teachers or the schools does not seem like the right thing to do.

I do hope you will come back on Wednesday. I have a special guest, Mary Deal, who shares the pages of 25 Years in the Rearview Mirror with me. She has also written a thriller,  Down to the Needle, about a woman’s search for her abducted child. Could her daughter be that woman on death row?

Wednesday is also the day for the Did I Notice Your Book blogfest hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh and  Ciara Knight. There is still time to sign up to participate in the blogfest and you can do that at either blog. Here are some of the specifics:

Did I Notice Your Book Blogfest, October 17, 2012
Post about a book you’ve noticed.

You can choose a book that you’ve read, something you saw on a blog or social media site, Goodreads, or a sales website. Anything that caught your eye because of a great cover, blurb or reviews, but DON’T tell the author that their book has been noticed. Instead, shout out on social media sites, and encourage others to do the same, until the author finds his/her book.

Leave a blog comment at Ninja Captain Alex or Ciara Knight when the author finds their book.

Only two rules:
1) You can’t post about your own book.
2) The book shouldn’t be on the New York Times or USA Today bestseller list. This is your chance to shout out about a book that might not have been noticed by others.