I've been avoiding writing a blog for a long time now. I'm a novelist, or so I keep telling myself. If I'm going to spend any time writing, I should be working on my book, Raw Umber, which will be my third if I ever get it finished. Writing a blog on a regular, or more likely semi-regular, mostly erratic basis, will only take time away from what I think I should be doing.
Many of my author friends have blogs. I've read them and they're all quite good. They tell me it's a great way to maintain name recognition and keep your fans engaged while they're waiting for the next magnum opus to spring forth from the inner depths of your soul. Fans? After my wife, mother, and I hope my daughter, I wasn't sure I had a fan base that was craving to read my musings on random subjects. Plus, my mother doesn't have a computer. I can just tell my wife and daughter what's on my mind and save us all a lot of time.
Then the obvious question, at least to me, is what am I going to write about that people will want to read? I decided I'd mostly limit it to things that I spend most of my time doing: writing, traveling, eating, and family, not necessarily in that order. But if something outside of those topics happens to get my attention and fill me with the need to spill my guts about it, you can count on seeing it here.
So, I set this blog up and the first thing I had to do was give it a name. John's Blog seemed a bit boring, and I thought it would give the impression that the content wouldn't be much better. The Amazing Ruminations of A Future Pulitzer Prize Winner was in the running for a while, but I felt it would put way too much pressure on me to write something important that might require a lot of research, and to make sure all the words were spelled correctly.
Then I came up with Thoughts From the Camel. I'm sure you're asking, "What does that mean?" If you're not, I'm going to tell you anyway. Camel was my nickname in high school and college. Many of my friends from those years still call me that. It's not because, as some people think, I had only had one hump during those years (although I did have a long dry spell). Obviously, it's short for my name, Cammalleri.
That's it for now. If you like this blog, please do the usual things: become a follower of it, tell your friends, send money, or better yet, buy my books, the award-winning Protecting the Cittern and The Ibex Trophy. I'll probably mention them occasionally, too.
