Know Jack #396 About Face! Charge!

 “We’re not retreating, we’re just advancing in a different direction.”

Gen. Oliver Smith

Surrounded at the Chosin Reservoir by multiple Chinese divisions, that his superiors assured him did not exist, General’s Smith men fought the elements and the enemy on their way to freedom. Criticized for retreating, Smith replied with the words that introduced today’s blog. When you’re surrounded, every direction is the front.

The “Chosin Few” are men I admire and will never be able to emulate. They are American heroes, I am not. I mention them for two reasons. First, I admire what they accomplished and I’m going to take the blog in a new direction. I hope to move from the writing front to a more personal line. That being said, I realize that I cannot speak about my own life as though it exists apart from writing.

So, why change, and why change now? It is a question that deserves an answer—even if you didn’t ask it. The simplest answer is that I have multiple interests. Using Occam’s Razor, that should be answer enough, but there’s more to it than that. There always is where people are involved.

My interest in sharing writing advice has waned. I believe in Jesus’ admonition, “freely ye have received, freely give” and try to practice it. I also recognize that sometimes people just need to step in poo to truly understand how it stinks. I should allow them the learning experience.

After all, you’ve got to pay the dues, if you want to sing the blues. I am amazed by the number of people who want to write without ever having counted the cost. If you know that I am not speaking about paying editors and cover designers or buying author copies, move to the head of the class.

Before I fall down that rabbit hole, I want to say this blog was never meant to dispense “expert” advice about anything and it has succeeded in that sense. So, I’m going to let my mind wander across these posts and see what happens. I know the voices in my head aren’t real, but they really do have some good ideas.

They also have a much-maligned perspective. I am not the straight, white, Christian male over 40 who has sworn an oath to defend the Constitution, but I am one of them. Like the voice of one crying in the wilderness, I plan on expressing my personal take from viewpoint on multiple topics in future posts.

You’ve been warned.