“You don’t blog?” he asked with surprise.
“Well, no,” I replied.
“You should blog.”
“Who has the time? Besides, I’m a novelist, not a blogger.”
A year after that conversation took place, upon a few requests and countless recommendations, I began to reconsider my answer. So I pulled my old journalism training from the back of my mind, dusted it off, and set about posting at least once a month some of the most useless essays that are as eclectic in nature as my books. The only rhyme or reason the posts share is that they all seem to center around me. I started out writing little bits about writing, then one day, took a sharp left turn and wrote a post primarily for fun, and by Jove, it was a resounding success! That one single post, called “The First Time…Mindless Meanderings” https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6485699.L_F_Falconer/blog caused me to reconsider my reading audience and what they prefer to learn from me. I’m not really an egomaniac, but I don’t mind sharing portions of myself with my readers. The blog posts seem to have received the seal of approval from my fans (Come on, don’t try to deny it—you both know who you are), and do serve to reassure my readers that I really am a normal person, despite the pervading dark nature of my books, which has even caused my friends and family to now look at me with a raised eyebrow.
My website is relatively new, so hasn’t had a great deal of traffic, but does have a blog page. I don’t have any immediate plans to inundate it (or myself) with any blog overload. After all, “Who has the time? Besides, I’m a novelist, not a blogger.” Right now I’m keeping it simple and short, but that could certainly change over time, for someday I might just find a focus. Or not.
Several of my most popular posts are: “Gems,” featuring some of my favorite newly discovered indie authors (as with “The First Time” article, posted only on Goodreads blog), “Mindless Meanderings—Living on the Edge,” a small slice of my country life, and “A Little Romance, Anyone?” where I moan about genre and its restrictiveness. One of my own, personal favorites though, is “Battle Born,” because I’m often tickled by the way others view the Wild, Wild West. I’ve provided a short excerpt for your reading delight:
Battle Born
“Out in the land of the setting sun, where the wind blows wild and free…” I’m sure I have a couple of readers who might recognize these opening lines from Nevada’s state song. They’ll probably also recognize the title of this post as the state’s nickname emblazoned upon our flag, since Nevada was rushed into statehood by Abraham Lincoln via telegraph so our silver could help finance the Union in the War Between the States back in 1864. And this year, as we begin celebrating our sesquicentennial (or, in real-life language, our one-hundred-fiftieth year of statehood), I’d like to take a moment to help clear up a few misconceptions I’ve encountered about the place my heart calls home.
· Vive Las Vegas! Whenever I say I’m from Nevada, the first thing that tends to pop into people’s heads is “Las Vegas.” All right, I do concede that Las Vegas is the largest, most well-known city in the state and its greater metropolitan area contains nearly 70% of the entire state’s population, but that still leaves about 900,000 of us sprinkled throughout the remaining 92% of the state. If you stop to consider that Nevada covers 109,781 sq. miles while Las Vegas only covers 136 sq. miles, that leaves a lot of ground open to NOT being Las Vegas.
· Years ago when I was visiting British Columbia, I had someone ask me about the slot machines in Nevada’s restrooms. Okay, this is something I’ve never seen, but can’t really disclaim since I’ve not visited every restroom in the state (though a person might be taking a gamble if trying to rely upon one of those little “dispenser” machines in some of them). Yes, there are slots in the grocery stores, gas stations, mini-marts, and airports, but I’ve yet to see one in the john.
· One summer evening as my younger sister and I strolled down the main drag in my hometown, we had to politely set a highly embarrassed young sailor straight upon his misinformed knowledge about Nevada’s legalized prostitution. While prostitution is legal in certain counties, to be legal it must be done in a licensed brothel and it certainly does not mean that every girl who walks down the street is a hooker! ….
BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! Pretty pictures, too!!! Check me out: http://www.lffalconer.com
A maverick with a pen, Nevada author L.F. Falconer’s powerful, page-turning style of dark fantasy has been consistently praised as both “gripping,” and “captivating.” Skillful, character-based artistry fuses magic and the supernatural with reality to bring her audience a unique reading experience.
Visit L F Falconer's blog here: http://www.lffalconer.com
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