Confused?

When people visit my website or check out my Facebook page they tend to get confused.

Most people know me from my outdoor recreation books and writings for RootsRated  and other outdoor magazines and sites. They pigeon hole me into that genre. Don’t get me wrong. I love writing about my favorite outdoor sports, it’s number one on my list, but my writing goes beyond that. My writing is, as I like to say, all over the place.

 I love to write about history and have had several articles published on historic topics. Of course there is the book that I co-authored, Baseball in Mobile, and I am currently researching and writing Everyone’s Gone to the Moon about July 1969.

Oh, and I love a good mystery. I have been delving into that world, having written a rough draft of a new mystery novel and setting about tidying it up for the publishing world.

Then there’s my absolute favorite genre - humor. I love writing humorous short stories to make people – and myself – laugh. Several have made it into magazines.

So what happens is that when people start exploring my website and social media offerings they see my outdoor recreation books, my short story podcasts, my historical mini-documentaries, and they get confused. What exactly does he write? He’s all over the place?

I’ll confess, I have been told that being a multi-genre writer is a turn-off. I have been told, “You can’t write that. You write about hiking.” For the record, I was told that it wasn’t that they didn’t like my other musings, they just wanted to see more outdoor rec books.

It’s not unusual for authors and writers to be multi-genre. J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, A.A. Milne, all are multi-genre authors. My feeling is that if you’re comfortable writing it, write it, even if it’s out of what people think your mainstream writing should be.

I think the problem is my marketing. It’s one thing to write multi-genre material, it’s another to make people understand. I haven’t found the right combination yet, but I’m working on it. (And if any of my writer friends out there have any suggestions, I’m all ears!)

So, when you see an article that I have written about installing hot water heaters, listening to Third World countries on shortwave radio, or the hilarity of asking a girl out on a first date in high school, don’t be confused. It’s the other side of me coming through.