Its Just Your Perspective

Last weekend, we took a drive to Amish Country, which is always a fun excursion: bebe loves to see the horse-and-buggies, the countryside is really pretty and there is fun shopping. We hadn't been for a couple of years. So imagine my surprise when Amish Country went...well, country.

For anyone who doesn't know, Amish isn't 'country', it's a religious order in which the people forego electricity and modern ways for a more simplified lifestyle.

Not country. Just simple. And on with the blog:

I took the picture above for Wrangler D'Ann, who tells me this (and a few other things) often enough. And she knows what she's talking about because she is a cowboy - she lives in the west, raises and rides horses. When I have a horse question, she is the one I turn to. We've laughed together about the WalMart Cowboy Syndrome (in which a city guy goes to WalMart to get fitted for a county fair and tries to pass himself off as country)...

The picture also reminds me to tell my stories in my own way. Because readers can tell when you're stretching your wings and growing as a writer...and when you're trying too hard. Writing too outside the norm, going for topics that don't necessarily interest you just for the shock value or to 'write to the market'. We're told as beginning writers to listen to our hearts, to write the books we are interested in reading. Sometimes, as we grow, that early lesson is forgotten. But the picture above will help me remember: to tell my story in my way and not try to be something I'm not.

How about you?