Merry Christmas 2015
Well, I have an answer to that question so many have been asking – “When are you writing a new book?” Some even ask, “Why aren’t you writing a new book?” Some are more subtle and say, “And what’s the date for that new book?”
I think the best one was a couple of weeks ago from a Facebook friend of my wife’s. Debbie had posted a picture of me sitting comfortably at home reading a book. Someone commented with, “Shouldn’t he be writing a book instead of reading one?” I loved that and laughed out loud. So however the questions have been formed to me, the answer to all is the same: “Yes, I have a new book.”
This book has been in the mill for some time now and I didn’t even know it. Let me explain as I do in the introduction of the book itself. A writer friend of mine, Charles Culbertson, and I eat lunch together often. Sometime back in the early part of the year, we came up with a writing game that has grown into this new book titled Half and Half. And here is how the game worked. Charles would think of a one-word title. Example: Bicycle. We would both go home and write an 800-1000 word story from our individual lives concerning a bicycle and then email one another the results. This was fun and also funny to us, so we continued. Next, my turn to think of a one-word title. Example: Ghost. We both wrote a story from our past with this as a theme and the game was on. This little exchange and writing exercise continued for months. Some stories took a day or so; some took a week. There was no time constraint so we took as much of that free commodity as we needed.
But after a while, we changed the rules a little just to keep things interesting. Instead of writing about our childhood or recent pasts, we decided to write short story fiction. Same word count; same freedoms of style and content; still one-word titles submitted by each of us in rotation. Charles hit on a character he invented that I liked so much I encouraged him to write a novel around him. He is doing just that and it is going to be a jewel. And then enter my sons, Debo and Langdon. They got a hold of some of the stories of mine and insisted this should be a book. They produced the whole thing from scratch and here it is! Thanks to them Half and Half, is available as of today on the Statler website: www.statlerbrothers.com
But more important than any of this, I want to thank every one of you for your loyalty, love and friendship through the years. I hope each of you enjoy all of God’s good blessings this Christmas season and that you, your families and all of those you love have the most wonderful experiences you have ever known.
GOD BLESS YOU AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!
DSR 12/10/15
