Welcome to my blog!
First, let me explain that I know this blog is a bit schizo... at the time I created it I had just published January Moon and I envisioned a blog where I would write about January Moon and it's sequel, March Storm, as well as post book reviews about other great books written by talented indies (and also maybe author interviews, as well as interviews with the people who help indies publish, such as book cover artists). I thought this blog would concentrate on my journey as a fiction writer and allow me to dabble in humor and other fun-related areas as a writer.
However, after the mid-term elections (November '10) I started writing political commentary that was published on various blogs, ezines and also in print journalism. Since I'm trained in history, my political commentary is heavily infused with historical analyses. As you might guess, especially if you've read January Moon, I'm a liberal progressive, a strong feminist, an advocate for human and animals rights and a dedicated fighter for justice and equality.
Eventually my political commentary became "scattered and all over the place," to but it lightly. So, I started to try to centralize it and began to post it here on this blog. The problem then became "branding." I'm a writer who waltzes in and out of non-fiction, political commentary and fiction rather easily so I'm difficult to categorize but that also means that if I put all my writing together it can seem unfocused and even confusing and that is what I think has happened: this blog has become a hodge-podge of my writing. That works fine inside my own crazy head where I glide in and out of the fictive and the real but I know it confuses readers.
Therefore, I've decided to create a separate blog that will be the place where I archive all my previous articles (political commentary) and post all new articles going forward. I'm working on it now. I'm also goint to post short videos of me speaking about various political topics of the day and perhaps giving additional background about my blog posts and other published articles.
And THIS blog will be reserved for my fiction writing.
Of course, I hope you'll enjoy BOTH blogs but I certainly understand if you have a preference. Some people never read fiction and others read nothing but fiction. To them I can say that my fiction bridges the divide: although fiction, it's always about current hot-button topics or unresolved issues in history. As an example, January Moon situates female genital mutilation within a crime story but is also so much more -- it looks at religious fanaticism, racism, mental illness, domestic terrorism, and the vagaries of crazy politicians, government screw-ups and of course (you gotta' have this!) love! (Whew!) March Storm continues the Del Carter story and addresses hate-crimes, animal abuse and human trafficking. (You can read more about both books here under the TABS on this blog.)
The bottom line is this: whatever your poison, fiction or somewhat snarky political, leftist commentary, I think you can get a few jiggers full at either blog.
But for now, this is the only one up & running.
Thank you! Maureen
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| The Morse Avenue "L" Station in Rogers Park close to where I grew up |
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| My Alma Mater on the shores of Lake Michigan |
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| Wherever I live I seem to end up near water! This is the Kankakee River |
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| My neighbors along the river! |
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| Neighors on a neary alpaca farm (these guys are so sweet!) |
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And here I am now at the Kennebunk Beach in December
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| We went to the wharf for fresh seafood and learned Shadow loves pickled herring! Who knew? |
