An Unfocused Approach

Every time I venture out, whether it be in person or through the increasingly restrictive world of social media, it seems like someone has created yet another category to define me. I mean, I get it. I'm an old guy who was born in the Texas panhandle a little over a year after we landed on the moon. My dad was a construction worker and my mother was a homemaker.

Which means I'm a lower-middle-class, gen x, southern, middle aged, over-educated redneck male. And while all of those labels describe aspects of who I am, even going as far as explaining why I lean certain directions more than others, there's nothing in that list that truly defines me.

So where am I going with this? I think the world has given these arbitrary categories far more credit for the way we've turned out than they deserve. We are all the product of what we and the ones around us have seen and done. We view and interpret the world around us through the lens of our personal experiences. If I act differently than someone who is ten years younger than me it has more to do with the fact that I have ten more years worth of unique experiences under my belt that have changed me from the way I was ten years ago.

As a writer, I don't want to write to a particular generation. I want to craft stories that speak to people of all ages. Will they all take the same things away from my writing? Absolutely not. However, I hope that everyone can find something, and that some new treasure can be found each time they return, no matter how many years they've lived since the first.

Furthermore, I'd like to think that I'm not alone in my weariness of our society's constantly roving eye, ever intent on finding the next bit of newness. Even though I've released all four of my books in the series at the same time, nearly three decades have passed since Megan McGeehee and Bruce Grimble first whispered in my ear. Bits of the writers I was at the ages of twenty, thirty, forty and fifty live on in those books, and each of them had slightly different stories to tell.

So I hope my writing speaks to you no matter where or when you were born. Because no matter how we fill in the blanks on those forms that pop up like weeds in the landscape of our changing lives, even the people at polar extremes from each other share far more similarities than differences. Maybe its time for us to remember that.