Hello, how are you?

My truly good friend, Gigi has started her blog it’s: http://gspitsit.blogspot.com/ and its great and I’m not saying this because she’s a great friend but because it’s a terrific blog for the same reasons a really good book or story is good, because it gives you everything you’re looking for and more and gives it to you in a clean, down to earth form and rhythm that glues your attention. I compare the way she writes her blog to the way one of my favorite writers, John Sandford writes his novels, specifically the Prey series. I recently finished Mr. Sandford’s latest, Dark of the Moon, it was wonderful for a number of reasons, most important, the novel’s voice—as I call it-- was original, realistic, compelling and funny, so easy to follow and be drawn into you feel you understand the world these characters live in whether you like it or not.

Gigi’s blog is the same, easy to get into, you understand exactly where she is coming from with the issues she presents—one of the blogs is on Breast Cancer--because she presents them in a non-flowery, no-nonsense real way so the truth of them can’t be ignored. Mr. Sandford’s novels and Gigi’s blog also have in common an ease in which they seem to be able to write words of substance –I envy this—and to be able to get to the point of their story in a minimalist fashion by choosing only the best words, the ones that count and putting them in the perfect order to get their idea across, the story across, it makes what they do seem so easy and like magic when it's not.

Both the blog and the novels are informative too, one of the things I love about reading good work. I always get helpful pieces of information when I read a Sandford novel, in the last one I learned that DEA agents whom don't get much press, do a tough job and are not to be underestimated. From Gigi’s blog I realized how hard hitting breast cancer is to women of color though the face of breast cancer seems to belong to others.

Like I said, both writing forms give me everything a great read should and it’s how I want my writing to affect readers. I know it takes talent, learned or natural, to reach this level but I have faith in myself that if I keep working on it, keep trying, never giving up, I’ll get there and I hope you’ll enjoy my writing enough to come along for the ride. .

Keep writing.

If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com

Until next time, God willing,