I finally broke down and started a website. I have blogged for centuries. I can’t even count how many blogs I’ve had, how many websites I’ve written for, how many articles I’ve constructed, but I have never had my own website, because it always seemed daunting. Well, when you use your brain you learn something interesting–that WordPress (the same blog host you’ve used for all those centuries) works just fine as a website and is simple, too.

So there. It all came together in a single afternoon. But it’s still a work in progress, so it’s not completely up and running yet. I only have a fraction of my reviews up and none of the links to my writings in other places.

That’s it. That’s the beginning of the middle of this web writing gig that really has made my writing career.

But what else is going on? you ask. Great question.

Civil War Couple from Vermont

(National Endowment for the Humanities)

I’m still working on the Embers of War series, but it’s getting revamped. Less Nazis, more Soviets. Stay tuned. And I am writing the first in a Civil War Romance trilogy. Don’t worry, nerds. You’ll love it. There’s blood and destitution–dead horses, beautiful women, guys with head wounds, evil Confederates, good Confederates, benign Union soldiers, a train hijacking, a frozen night at an elderly vicar’s house. It’s all good stuff, and it won’t read like anything you’ve ever read before, and yet, it will all feel so familiar, because that’s how human nature is–wonderfully and painfully familiar at the same time.

 

You’ll love it, but there might be some fleshy stuff, Mother (if you’re even reading this)–a little more than Charles Frazier but less than Henry Miller. All within beautifully rounded prose, of course, but they’ll be real people who have sex and eat hard tack over the open flame in the Blue Ridge backwoods.

Civil War Prostitute

(courtesy, americancivilwar.ca)

It will be a culturally diverse book, too, because I’m raising a half-Latina daughter whose the product of Jewish, Celtic, Danish, African-Taino, Romany, and Native American grandparents. I want her to be able to read this, see the smarts of it, the beauty of it, and feel proud to be part of each of those cultures when she reads my work.

There’s a story handed down in my Tacker family history about a slave who saved Great Granddaddy from a burning plantation house. I won’t divulge the story now, but Ruby will become part of the series in time as well. I wouldn’t exist if she hadn’t fought off those carpetbaggers, and that war wasn’t really about anything else, except, slavery anyway. We can’t let that “state’s rights” nonsense rewrite history. So, none of that antebellum worship here. Just a dost of my family history, a large serving of fact, and some tender lovin’.

“Stage Coach Mary” (Mary Fields)

(Wikipedia)

Anyway, that’s my first post. I’m glad I don’t believe in any of that “make it or break it” stuff, because this was a caffeinated post that may, or may not, have resonated with anyone at all. Also, no, the book doesn’t have a title yet. It has seven. So ,I’m still working on that. And you can continue to follow my other needle arts blog, A Stitch in Time, because I will always keep it current. I knit and crochet so much my metacarpals have begun to numb this winter season. However, This Writer’s Life, will be phased into www.tiffanivelez.com.

Glad y’all are still here! I’m writing full time now, all day long. You should see the state of my living room and what I’ve been forcing my family to eat. In the meantime, if you’re looking for a good read, check out my previous works.

All are available at Amazon, Goodreads, and B&N.