Some of this info can still be found in more succinct form at Technorati where, among other things concerning the blog, you will find this:
"Retired Texas newspaperman (politics, crime, science, medicine, technology), married father of one child, antique rose gardener, self-publisher, and Vietnam combat veteran (MACV, I Corps, 1969)"
That more or less sums me up, for the purposes of this blog. I might have added sailor to the list. But I recently sold the family sloop, after twenty-three years of sailing Lake Travis, west of Austin. I faced the fact that I am too old and too slow for it any longer.
But I stopped linking to Technorati when it became obvious the "service" was not updating me. I know they have millions of blogs to deal with but I have to wonder about their software when nine days after the fact they still had not noted that Instapundit, a top blog with many, many thousands of links, had linked me on Dec. 5, 2006.
It was a great honor, of course, but it produced next to nothing in new, unique visits. Only seventeen, in the first two days. One rare reader suggested I may have made blogosphere history getting such a small response from an Instapundit link. Yes, well.
I started the blog a few months after retiring in April, 2006, after thirty-five years of newspaper reporting and editing, mostly reporting in the subject areas above, preceded by one year of television and radio news writing and delivery--essentially because I didn't want to stop writing every day, although most of what I had done before wasn't personal in the least.
That has been a challenge, to get a personal voice into this, although my choice of subject categories already does that to an extent. I'm not after any sort of persona, just to go with the flow of my personal reaction to the news, ideas and feelings of the day.
I write about my son, my only child, who was newly six when I retired. I refer to him as Mr. Boy to maintain his privacy, and won't be including too many embarrassing details about him so that he continues to think kindly of his old man when he's grown. So old I am already that his teachers sometimes confuse me with his grandfather. Although I have found that older men being new fathers is not such an unusual thing anymore.
Gardening, of course, is mostly weeding, which isn't a lot of fun, though it carries a certain satisfaction, and even more when you plant something you like. For me that's antique roses, particularly hardy Chinese roses, so-called because they entered Western commerce from China in the late 18th through the 19th centuries.
They are bush-like, rather than tall and spindly in the fashion of modern hybrid roses. In truth, they don't usually require much attention, except judicious (but non-finicky) pruning twice a year to encourage repeat blooming in spring and fall. But I'm finding them a challenge at Rancho Roly Poly (click on the category and scroll to the bottom to see where that name comes from) because all the oak and elm trees on the lot reduce the amount of sunlight in the yard, of which roses need at least six hours a day, and the maurauding deer (who think of rose leaves as candy) when they get into the back yard. As the roses bloom each season, I post pictures of them from time to time.
Self-publishing is something I never considered until the recent advent of print-on-demand and the birth of lulu.com which is free if you do it yourself. Unlike the vanity presses of old that charged thousands of dollars, and even their POD offspring such as iuniverse which still charge hundreds. Lulu will get you on Amazon.com and other online sellers and the the rest is up to the book and your own efforts to publicize it. You only have to pay for each book as you buy it. They also offer discounts on large quantities.
You'll notice an entry in my blog roll that says "Buy My Book." Click on it to go to my page at lulu.com to find my collection of post-war short stories "Leaving the Alamo, Texas Stories After Vietnam." There's also a free preview of one of the sixteen stories. Reviewer Marc Leepson in Vietnam Veteran Magazine liked the book.
Or forget hunting through the blogroll for the link and just click here. If you prefer to entrust your credit card number to Amazon.com, you can buy it here--where the Leepson blurb is. And if you're (understandably with self-published stuff) more cautious, you can download a pdf version for free here. Then, if you find value in what you read, you can go back and buy a copy in traditional form.
Meanwhile, I've finished another self-published book for my son. It's mostly fatherly advice and some family history, in case I don't live long enough to see him into college. Stuff that he likely wouldn't think to ask me, anyhow, until long after I was gone. It's strictly private and won't be sold or given away.
I recently finished an historical novel about a littleknown Civil War battle involving my Confederate great grandfather and some of the most famous commanders and units of the Union and Confederacy. On Feb. 2, I entered it in Amazon's 2009 Breakthrough Novel Award contest. I should know by mid-March if I make the initial cut. If not, I will shop it to literary agents in the traditional way (which could take only a year or two since many of them these days have blogs and invite queries), until I'm convinced no one wants it. If not, I'll self-publish it, too and give it away.
[UPDATE: The novel made the first cut at Amazon, to the top twenty percent. Then it went down in flames on the second cut to five percent. Bragging rights, at least, in the hunt for an agent.]
Meanwhile I am working on a non-fiction Texana book, of which the less said the better as there is plenty of competition for Texana these days. I hope to be done my mid-2010. It also will be shopped, with the several in-state Texana publishing companies. More on that later.
Mr. Boy, who is a budding story-teller of local renown, recently got a gift digital camera and has begun making slide stories and videos. We plan to put his best effort on YouTube, and when we do, I'll announce it here.
I included my veteran status in the old Technorati profile summary above, and at Milblogs.com, for a bona fide, because I blog about the War on Islamic Facism and the American, Israeli and other allied troops involved from the perspective of a veteran who supports the war and them and has little patience with those who throw stones at either one.
Meanwhile, contact me at Scribbler (at) TexasScribbler DOT com, if you have any questions or comments that you don't want to share with the world--as worldwide as my modest readership is. Well, it has grown a lot since 2006.
I hope you find something in The Texas Scribbler that interests you.
Best regards
Dick Stanley
LAST UPDATED: March 31, 2009
