Matthew Koehler - Author

Here in Sonoma County, CA, the mornings are cold, the afternoons are breezy, the trees are blooming, the evenings are warmer, and the days are getting longer. Spring is moving in! No time like the present to start getting your summer reading lists in order.

Want my opinion? This one should be on your list. It's a feel good story for a crazy time.

Here's the link... https://amzn.to/3pQz9cx

Having the first chapter of your next book come together better than you thought it would is a great feeling. going into the second chapter!

I'm one for "The Classics." Many of my favorite authors wrote their best work, and lived their entire lives, before I was even born. Ernest Hemingway, Norman Maclean, J.R. Tolkien and Harper Lee come to mind right away.

It's hard to say why. Well... if I think about it, maybe it's not that hard to figure out. Maybe it's because pen, paper and a typewriter, the "tools of the day" used to share their thoughts with the world were cumbersome to use and a master of the language was an essential element of the craft. The words they chose to put on paper, and how they organized them into thought-provoking tomes of literature was an art form unto itself.

I'm always digging around for new and interesting reads from the 19th and 20th centuries. Although there are countless works I have not read, there just isn't enough time to read them all, I came across a book yesterday that I'm enjoying very much. It's a journal, actually, about Francis Parkman's journey along The Oregon Trail in 1846. His writing is beautiful, and his descriptions about what he saw and the people he met paint an incredible picture of this crazy time in American History. And he was only 23 when he documented this trip from Boston to the West Coast.

I'm only 1/3 the way through and can't put it down. Of course, I have an affinity for American history, but it's far from what I limit myself to when choosing what to read. If this kind of adventure is your "cup of tea" though, you may find it interesting too.

I say all this because I find inspiration from the "old ones" for my own writing, not for content but more for the style and grace I find in their writing. When I struggle to find the right word, or how I should structure a sentence, or paragraph, or just an outline for a future project, I think about how one of my favorite authors may have handled the struggle. Sometimes it helps, and sometimes it leads to even more frustration. Writing is hard, but so satisfying when you read over your own work and can't think of any way to make it better.

We can all lean a lot from those that have passed on, and I'm glad they left these gifts behind.

The Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail