Who wants to start publishing after sixty? Me.

How old is too old? 

Years ago, I read a Dear Abby column that resonated. The writer wanted to go to medical school but was concerned that he wouldn't actually be an MD until he was fifty-five! Abby asked how old he would be by then if he didn't go to med school? 

When to stop wanting. 

I think most of us know the answer is never. Never stop wanting. Never stop dreaming and making plans. I'm sixty-seven now, just finished a first draft on my seventh novel! Although I started early enough, I was a Cricket Magazine author in my late thirties, I could never find an agent or publisher. What to do? 

All ahead full. 

About four years ago a friend and shirt-tail cousin, Oregon author/photographer Vernelle Judy, pushed me to self publish. It's not like the old "vanity" publishing where you buy a bunch of books and use them to decorate your garage. They're POD ... published on demand. Sold through Amazon and others. 

So I did publish. I started with a middle-grade adventure series. The first book, Cheechako, has been well-reviewed for reluctant readers and is already in use in classrooms. There are now three books out in that series, and —although few in the world really know who I am—they sell. 

How to "do" your dream.

Start. Just start. Because I was—and am—still working my day job, I began getting up early to write. I write from two to four pages a day, about six days a week. What does that mean? It means I finish (the first draft of) a new novel about every three months. 

I have four books out, a fifth on the way, and two books "in the can" —film talk for shot but not processed. Best sellers? No. So far, consistent sellers. The best part is the occasional letter or review from a reader that says, "I couldn't go to bed without finishing your book." There aren't even words to tell you how good that feels. 

Platitudes aside.

At this age, we tend to say encouraging things about being this age. It's new for us and a little scary. The fact, for me at least, is that to get what I want, I have to put my forehead against it and push ... same as at any other time in my life. 

And, if you still have something you want to do, that's my advice. Push.

Curious? You can read 30 pages of any of my books for free, here: 

Books by Jonathan Thomas Stratman

One simple way to change a child's life without breaking a sweat.

I'm 67 ... though of course I don't look it. (None of us do.) I have eight grandchildren and, especially around the holidays, put a lot of thought into what I can do—that doesn't cost a fortune—to really make their lives better.

Turns out the answer is simple and many of us are already doing it: reading to children aloud. We just didn't know how really important it was. Don't know where to start? Sendak's classic (above) is perfect.

 More than just warm and fuzzy.

Though it's fun to cozy up with a child to read, and feels frivolous, that's just the first significant benefit. 

Here's another: Children who have been read to, arrive at kindergarten with a 30% larger vocabulary. So they both understand more of what the teacher tells them and can express more. 

It means they start school at the top of their class instead of at the bottom feeling confused, frustrated and struggling to keep up.

And there's more.

That old devil ... digital!

I worry that my grandchildren spend too much time playing video games. No, I don't think it's bad out of hand. My second-to-youngest, Zane, actually taught himself to read playing video games .. and to spell by trying to wrangle passwords out of his adults so he could order more!

I worry because so much of it is only reactive. For the most part players don't have to think, plan, or wonder.

One of my great prides is that my first middle-grade novel, Cheechako, an Alaska adventure, had 8th grade reluctant readers sneaking to read ahead and find out what happens.  

And it's not enough to just give a child a book. Imagine one of your grandkids with a book in one hand and a game controller in the other. How long does that choice take? 

Start reading aloud at birth.

Apparently, it's never too soon to start reading aloud to children. Or too late. Don't assume that because they're starting to learn to read, that your work here is finished. The difference between a child's reading level and listening level doesn't equalize until about grade 8. All that time, they still need to hear material that is more complicated than what they can read to themselves. 

Captive reading. 

My mother read to my brothers and I while we did the dishes, admittedly to keep us from killing each other. My brilliant daughter-in-law Rachel, reads to Mia and Addy in the car for similar reasons. The miles go by without shouts and bleats of anger or pain, and after a road stop, the girls are more than ready to find out what happens next. 

To learn more about the benefits of reading aloud, check out the Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/

And most of all, celebrate the upcoming holidays by buying or checking out books for kids, and by making time to sit down with them to read.

Reading, especially reading together, is the gift that keeps on giving ... for life.

Save on signed book sets for Christmas!

Save $5 on more than 750 pages of Adventure!

If you have readers on your gift list, here's an opportunity: the complete Cheechako set for $25 plus shipping.

For Alaska readers and adventure readers, whether adult, middle-grade ... or even reluctant readers, all three of these books are five star guaranteed to satisfy. 

Sorry, we tried to get Amazon to do a "set" price or a class set price. No luck. So here's our work-around. You can order any of these books, or all of them, signed if you want, directly from the publisher.

The only way to save on the set. 

If you want to buy just one or two of the books, use this link to purchase quickly and efficiently:

Buy Jonathan Thomas Stratman Novels

But if you want the whole set, and dollars off the set price, order here: Jonathan Thomas Stratman Books, Ivy Gate Communcations, 730 S. 2nd Street, Harrisburg, OR 97446. Enclose a check for $25 plus $8 shipping and handling. If you'd like your gift books signed, please TYPE and enclose the critical info. 

And, for the mystery reader on your list ... 

"I couldn't go to bed without finishing this book," is a common comment. If you are a mystery reader or have one on your list, Check out "Indecent Exposure," the first book in my Father Hardy Alaska Mystery Series. It rates a consistent five stars in Amazon review. 

Want a signed copy? Send your check for $9.95 plus $3 shipping, to the publisher address above. If there's a particular inscription you'd like, be sure to enclose TYPED copy. 

For best results, order soon. Questions about any of this? Call me at Three Six Zero, Three Four Four, Three Three Zero Zero.   

But I'm not really a passionate person ...

This troubles aspiring writers

"I'd like to write but I'm not really a passionate person."

It's a comment, sometimes a question, that writers hear frequently. And it always surprises me. 

Because writing isn't about your passion. 

It's not about looking or sounding passionate, or looking or sounding like a writer. I think you know where this is going. 

Writing is about words you put on the page. About the passion expressed in the words you put on the page. And it doesn't matter if you're up or down ... hung over ... it's all still about the accumulation of words.

You might just as well say, "I'd like to write but my hair is green." 

Zane Grey was a dentist.

Raymond Carver worked in a sawmill, John Grisham built fences, Stephen King—a janitor—and Kurt Vonnegut sold Saab automobiles. It's hard to imagine any of them were passionate about their day jobs, or about writing in the early and late odd hours when they were tired, often discouraged and tempted to "just let it go until tomorrow." 

If you wanna write, you gotta write. The secret is doing it, not how you look, feel or sound about it. 

It's also not about how much you sell of it. But that's another story. 

Questions? Comments? Write anytime. 

How I turned my dad into Sherlock Holmes

Dad to the rescue.

I started reading Sherlock Holmes in about grade 7, and desperately wanted to write a similar character. Trouble was, they were all too similar. And not really that good.

Flash ahead a few decades and it came to me out of the blue: I'll use my dad for my character model! That's when I hit my stride as a mystery writer and by now I've written three mystery novels featuring an Episcopal priest in a small town in Alaska. The second one is due out in December.

I'm writing what I know. 

It's the first thing they tell fledgling writers. "Write what you know." 

So what DO I know? For one, I know Alaska. This confuses people a bit. They don't realize the Alaska I know, and adapt for my stories, is the Nenana or the Sitka of the late 50s, early 60s. Really a much different Alaska than today. But it works for me and works great!

Another thing I know about, are Episcopal priests and brothers ... monks! I left home in grade 8 to travel to St. Andrews School near Sewanee Tennessee, run by the Order of the Holy Cross. One of my favorites, Fr. Baldwin, (who I actually met in Nenana) used to play softball in his monk robes. It didn't seem to slow him down. I haven't introduced a monk to the series yet, but it's sounding like a good idea as I type. 

So are these stories about my dad? No. To my knowledge nobody ever shot at him. How it works is, if you think of a coloring book, the outline is him, the place, the time, some of his attitudes, but the colors inside the lines come out of my imagination. Even if I use a story he might have told ... and sometimes I do ... it gets the spin of how I want or need it to happen. 

Please ... like my site and review my books. 

You can read 30 pages of any of my four novels FREE on Amazon. Just search Amazon Kindle Books and then my name. If you like what you see, please give me a LIKE on Facebook. 

Also, when you finish one of my books, if you take a minute and write a line or two about what you liked ... on Goodreads or on Amazon, I would be very grateful. There are more than 600,000 books on Amazon Kindle and reviews are the best way to shine a light on an author you like. 

Questions? Comments? I would love to hear from you. 

Inspire Young Writers ... Invite An Author To Your Classroom

There's no substitute for an "expert" in your classroom. 

It's one thing to tell your students that this or that thing is important. It's entirely another to bring a person in from the real, outside world, someone who actually does the thing, and can talk about it. 

This is more than "how to," more than facts. If you bring in a writer, an artist, a welder, a musician ... people who really do the things you're talking about in class, everything changes. 

A visitor to your classroom brings energy, confidence, excitement and the real-world authority that comes from having successfully accomplished a thing. And those qualities shine a guiding light for your students who are coming to believe they want to travel that same path. 

How to find one? 

Start by asking. Is there a budget for bringing in speakers? Money is always a good thing. But not essential. Ever since I first started selling stories to CRICKET Magazine, way back in the '80s, I've been visiting classrooms. And its still something I enjoy doing. 

In the Eugene OR area, I'm local and free. Elsewhere, I'll travel for expenses or ... can we Skype? You bet. 

I particularly enjoy visiting classrooms from grades five to eight, the approximate reading level of my Cheechako series (covers above). Volume 1 in that series, "Cheechako," is highly rated and well-reviewed for reluctant readers. Reading specialists tell me it's the kind of book a kid (who normally doesn't want to read anything) cheats and reads ahead on. 

The other two, "Float Monkeys," and "Musher!" are also exciting Alaska tales of adventure, and all are great for reading out loud, too. 

Please share this blog!

If you have teachers on your mailing list or "friends" list, please share this post. I've made my living as a writer for thirty years. Writing is on a short list of things I'm really good at and enjoy talking about. And if I can really make a difference for young writers, it's really what I want to do.  

"Indecent Exposure," Soon out in Paperback!

I write two book series, the Cheechako series for middle grades and an adult mystery series. Sometimes, like lately, it can get crazy around here.

We have three new books coming to paperback in the next 30 days, including "Indecent Exposure," which many of you know from its Kindle debut several years ago.

Check out the new cover!

We tossed out the old cover. Do I hear cheering? It turns out the only one who really liked it was me. Except for the fact that it was dark and fuzzy it was perfect. More than that, I didn't know until it had been up awhile, that it was a photo of legendary dog musher George Attla Sr. One more reason I didn't want to stop using it. 

Watch for a new book in each series.

This month we're publishing the second book in the Father Hardy series. It's called "In Gold We Trust." One comment I've heard frequently with "Indecent," is "I couldn't got to sleep without finishing. For a writer it's the best!

I'm hoping readers will feel the same about "Gold," which felt like a rocket ride when we went through doing revisions. 

Announcing Book 3 in the Cheechako series: "Musher!" 

Although I wrote the Cheechako books for grade 5 and up, I've discovered "up" goes all the way to the top. It's not unusual to have people who are even older than I am—imagine that—introduce themselves to tell me they loved it. Luckily the combination of interest in Alaska and interest in adventure is something we don't grow out of. 

A big "thank you" to readers.

For those of you who have been reading, reviewing, commenting and passing my books along to friends, thanks so much! Keep it up. I can use all the help I can get. 

I know there are several hundred thousand books you could be choosing at any moment and am so pleased that a whole bunch of you have been choosing mine. 

When you have a chance to read one of the new books, I'd love to hear from you!