Hello, world...

No, I'm not coming out as a computer simulation of a writer. I just want to directly and specifically welcome people to comment or email me, with their questions, comments, etc.

I know I was very shy about writing to writers I liked. Many writers have day jobs. The ones that write for a living have deadlines, contracts, pitches to make, queries to send, and so on. I worried that asking them to take time to respond to one person was impertinent and intrusive.

Now, I'm on the other end of the pen, as it were, and I can tell you-- it can feel kind of lonely! When you're on stage before an audience, you get continuous real time feedback from multitudes. When you paint, you do art shows and get to peek at people's reactions as they look at your work. Sometimes they come over and tell you what spoke to them, or what well-known artist's style you're reminding them of. But there's a time delay with writing, almost always. I have Allan read my stuff in front of me, often, because I want to gauge his reactions. When I sent out my main draft to my beta readers, I was lucky enough to have a couple who were moved to write to me in the middle of reading it. That was quite helpful-- sure, I loved my book, but it needed to be good to other people.

I've fixed a typo a reader spotted that slipped by proofreading, and I suspect my Spanish and Russian dialogue has flaws. If you want to give me a correction, I am likely to find it helpful.

All this is a long way of saying, I really do value my readers and welcome feedback. I'd even be glad to know who is reading my blog, even if you haven't gone for the book. Some people just like to see how writers think and plan. Where are you from, and how is life treating you?