Guest Blog at Murder X 4 Is Up . . .

Folks, when writer Aaron Paul Lazar asked me if I was willing to write a guest blog for his shared blog site Murder x 4, I leaped, yelled, and said yes . . . though of course only the last part was verbalized as I didn’t want to scare the dogs.

Aaron asked me if I had anything Christmas-themed that might be interesting, and as my relationship with my late husband Michael started around Christmas of 2001 — and as I have two of his stories up at Amazon right now that are desperately in need of new readers, “A Dark and Stormy Night” and “Joey Maverick: On Westmount Station” — I decided to talk about that.  And because Murder X 4 is a writer’s blog site where they often talk about the process of writing, I asked if it was OK to talk about everything I’ve done to keep Michael’s words and work alive.

Fortunately for me, Aaron said yes.

Those of you who’ve known me a while, or who’ve faithfully read my blog posts since I was coerced — er, convinced to start blogging will most likely know why I’ve done my best to keep Michael’s work alive.  Even though it’s now at least partly mine, and at least some of the choices I’ve made might not be the choices he would’ve made, I had to try.

Michael meant everything to me, and in many ways, he still does.  So I just couldn’t bear the thought of his work not getting any chance to find a readership . . . bad enough he was dead, but did his work have to die out, too?

Not everyone is going to like what I’ve done.  I know that.

I also know that some people have told me along the way that Michael is dead, I’m not, and that it doesn’t really matter if his work stays alive.  Michael, had he lived, would’ve undoubtedly written more things, and he might not even have wanted these particular works to stand.

But I knew Michael very well, and the people who’ve told me this other stuff did not.  Michael did not give up, not on himself, not on other people.  He was trying to figure out how to get action into his novel about Joey Maverick (MAVERICK, LIEUTENANT) at the time of his passing; he and I were both wracking our brains to figure out what he could add that wouldn’t blow his premise completely out of the water.  (That premise being “quiet heroism,” which I discussed in today’s guest blog.)

Michael definitely would’ve kept trying to figure it out, and I can’t believe he’d have let these adventures rot.

But he almost certainly would’ve found other ways toward the same ends . . . and I truly wish he were alive so he would’ve found them, rather than me doing my poor best toward getting whatever I possibly can done.

Still, as a good friend of mine told me a few nights ago, the important thing is to write something Michael would’ve liked and enjoyed reading.  Michael would like what I’ve done, by that logic, and even if he quibbled with me as to how I got things done, he’d still like it that I did it.

That’s why I’ve kept trying, both on his behalf and my own.

Anyway, please do go read my guest blog, and see what you think of my efforts.  Then come back here, if you would, and tell you if it makes any sense . . . I just know it’s what I have to do, or else I’ve failed.

And I refuse to fail.