Welcome To Hinterlands Blog

So here I am about to get at it again after a four year break from blogging and a break for two years from writing in general.  It was April 2015 when I last posted on my old blog Rosewater.  I was in Turkey at the time, and my blog's name was, I felt, fitting.  

June of that year I returned home and started learning about self publishing and how to become an independent author.  Then I was toppled by health issues, one right after the other, culminating in two major surgeries and one outpatient procedure performed on the same day as the second operation.  Because of weeks of recovery, physical therapy, and adapting to a new sort of teaching position I put aside the manuscript of a short book of stories that I had written.  

For over two years I've been nagged by a thirst to write again. I both longed to write and at the same time didn't have the energy to get busy.  Faced also with family crises I had to step up and manage the situation.  I became an efficient benevolent dictator determined to create order.  

I have learned in the last two years that if you have a talent or ability you're likely to be highly dissatisfied until you put your skills and creativity to use and at least try.  

The era of the blog with long, thoughtful posts is about over, but not quite.  There are still traditional blogs out there.  One of my Twitter friends occasionally sends me email updates for his blog.  Authors often have blogs on their websites.  One blog that has influenced me to return to the medium is Club Orlov maintained by professional blogger and author Dmitri Orlov who is Russian American.  He's a political and social critic whose writings I love and admire.  I love his mixture of intellect and sarcasm.  He doesn't bite his tongue about the serious social and political issues the US faces.  People like him are rare because immigrants certainly will be criticized, likely in crude ways, as ungrateful if they point out the inadequacies of this country even more so than natives who complain.  He probably didn't come here willingly since he immigrated to the US with his parents when he was a young teenager. 

Partially due to Mr. Orlov's blog along with the necessity to have a space to promote my own writing including my upcoming self published book of stories, I knew I needed to return to Blogger or some other platform. My plan is to try to post once a week, on Mondays or Tuesdays.  Along with being a vehicle for my books and artwork I will write on these topics: education, history, travel, social commentary, book reviews, and some sharing of my experiences as a teacher, thinker, and traveler that might inform or inspire. 

My upcoming book of stories is called Gratitude, and I will follow it with a book of poetry. I have the manuscripts for both. Once I have gotten further into editing my poems I will continue working on a novel that I've started writing.  I cannot say the date that my first book, Gratitude, will be available, but I would like to have it published before 2019 ends. I am in the process of proofreading it again for the final time, I hope.

I hope you will enjoy my future work here.  The links to posts will be available on Twitter, Goodreads, and my personal Facebook page.