Blogging: 101 (and more)

I’d like to say that this is my first blog site, but actually it’s not as I started a blog for my dog several years ago (http://xenadogblog.blogspot.com/). I haven’t updated it for 18 months because I can’t remember how to get into it. The other blog I’ve written (with the exception of the last post, which was written by my partner, David) is the one for our Horse Trailer Restoration website (http://www.handyrider.com/blog/) but I haven’t updated that one for awhile either because I decided to put the material I was sharing there into book form. Which I did.

I have had two books published this year. The first is titled The Secret Lives of Horse Trailers: A Handbook. This is a reference and how-to manual to help educate horse trailer owners and potential buyers on the safety, repair, maintenance and purchase of trailers (here’s the trailer book trailer  http://youtu.be/8iaIwG7YOvY)

The second book is a ‘foodoir,’ created for my children to pass along their favorite recipes and share funny/poignant stories and cooking fails from my past. As I’m a misplaced/displaced Canadian, I titled it Goodies From the Great White North, Recipes for Dinners, Delicacies and Disasters. The word ‘Goodies’ is, in part, a play on my last name, but Goody was also my father’s nickname during the 17 years he served in the Canadian Army. (see http://www.sheffieldpublications.com)

Now that I’ve gotten the nonfiction out of my system, I plan to concentrate on my fiction, which I’ve actually been working on all along. For years and years. I am currently half way through a suspense novel, have recently completed a science fiction novel that is ‘maturing’ on the shelf before I begin further research and then dive into the editing process, and a young adult novel that I’m editing under the tutelage of the Acquisition Editors of a university press. The photo at the top of the page is the banner that will be on my author’s table at the Book Corral where I will be signing books for the Western States Horse Expo in Sacramento, CA, June 8-10 (http://www.horsexpo.com). Here’s the trailer I created for that event http://youtu.be/wrygXVDnUtc

So, I hope to blog fairly frequently, though whether anyone will want to read my posts remains to be seen. At the very least it will keep future and potential readers, as well as friends and family, aware of what I write when I’m not working on The Willamette Writer newsletter, which I’ve edited since 1994.