Each morning, when I begin communing with my Mac, I first read what I wrote the day before.  Once that’s done, I begin pounding on my keyboard.

    No outlining, no idea of what’s going to happen next in the lives of my story’s characters.  I just let them do what they do and urge my fingertips try to keep up with them.

    That is the truth.

    Let me give you an example.  Three or four years ago, I began writing a story about a high-school boy living in Edinburg, Texas, (my hometown) during the 1920s. Edinburg is the country seat of Hidalgo County.  The county’s southern boundary is the Rio Grande River.

    There was a character in the book who was the Hidalgo County Sheriff.  His name was D. A. Lawes.  Get it?  A lawman named “D. A.” (district attorney) “Lawes” (laws).  Oh well, you just don’t have much of a sense of humor, do you.

    Ole D. A. kept barging here and there into the story of this kid.  Finally, he had become such a major player in the action that I decided I should define him a bit better than he was defining himself.  So, I decided I’d devote a chapter, 20 or 30 pages, to his history.

    Now, six books later, I am still defining him.  I believe (but I am certainly not sure) I’ll have the defining stuff done by the end of Book 7.

    Then, I’ll finish the story (or two) of the high-school kid.

    I think.

    How...Why...did all this happen.? Where did the Lawes’ Raiders books come from?

    I have wondered and wondered about the answer to that question.  The only conclusion I have been able to rationally make is the one you will read on the dedication page of every story I write.  It is this:

This story is humbly

dedicated to my

Creative Director and

Chief Editor,

Our Lord God

    And, that is all I can think to say about that.