I wish I had... but didn't. So, the time to start is now.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.  The second best time is now. (Chinese proverb)

I was looking at that Chinese proverb, and thinking about how it could apply to so much of our lives. It might be 20 days, or 20 years, but it's all lost time. For instance, one could say, “I wish I’d started publishing my novels 20 years ago, but I didn’t, so I’m going to start now.”

Think of all the other statements that could be said:

 -      - “I wish I’d started learning to swim, or golf, or learn Azeri, or learn Tae Kwon Do, or travel, or go to the library, or read more books 20 years ago, but I didn’t. So, I’m going to start now.”

-   “I wish I’d started to save and spend my money better 20 years ago, but I didn’t. So, I’m going to start now.”

-  “I should have started to tell my son how proud I've been of his accomplishments at school. But I haven’t, so I’m going to start now.”

-  “I should have attended more of my daughter’s ballet recitals when she first got started. But, I didn’t, so I’m going to start now.”

-  “I wish I’d said more times how much I love and appreciate my father or mother or brother or sister or grandparent, and I didn’t, so I’d better get started now.”

What you don’t want to say is:

-  “I wish I’d told my father or mother, or my grandpa or grandma, or my uncle or aunt, or my brother or my sister, or my son or my daughter, or husband or wife how much I love them, but now it’s too late.”

So, whether it's one year or 20 years, perhaps the message here is that we should not put off until tomorrow what we can or should do today. Because, just perhaps, tomorrow will be too late.

Wil

Looking for Free eBooks for Young Adults?

Looking for Free eBooks for Young Adults? In January 2010, I started another blog, entitled Free eBooks for Young Adults, with occasional assistance from another Smashwords author.  I've listed over 130 free eBooks, and the number of views for that blog is now over 20,000.   I'm really pleased with that, and I hope the blog has helped many readers find books by my fellow YA authors. There are many, many good reads for Young Adults out there, and lots are available free.  I will continue to search them out, and list them on my other blog, Free eBooks for Young Adults.

Happy Reading, 

Wil

Free eBooks for Young Adults

When I started my first blog, The Thoughts of Wilson James, author, at the end of 2009, I wasn't sure what I'd write in my blog, just that I needed to have some additional online presence for my eBooks at Smashwords, and elsewhere. I'd read that it was a marketing necessity, and considered that it would be a good idea. So, I got started. I've blogged about many things, but a recurring theme has been pieces about successful, courageous, tenacious, and determined young people and point out that they inspire me to write some of my Young Adult fiction. In turn, some reviewers have said that my fiction is 'very inspiring.'  

In any event, I've enjoyed being able to reach out with this blog, and now, after 101 posts, the number of views is approaching 5,000. I'm pleased with that.

Over a year ago, I got going with Twitter, @WilJames_author, and I've had a lot of fun with that, in addition to noting an uptick in visits to my blog and a slight increase in sales and downloads attributable to my almost 1,000 tweets.

In January 2010, I started another blog, entitled Free eBooks for Young Adults, with occasional assistance from another Smashwords author.  I've listed over 80 free eBooks, and the number of views for that blog is now over 5,000.  (UPDATE: Feb. 23rd...now over 6,000.) I'm really pleased with that, and I hope the blog has helped many readers find books by my fellow YA authors. There are many, many good reads for Young Adults out there, and lots are available free.  I will continue to search them out, and take them to my other blog, Free eBooks for Young Adults.

Happy Reading, 

Wil

70th Anniversary of attack on Pearl Harbor

In a few hours, it will be exactly 70 years since the attack on Pearl Harbor.

This is a significant date in American and world history, and well worth my noting for important reasons.  Just looking at the reality of 70 years makes a person realize that there are now dramatically fewer living survivors of that day, December 7^th, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States consequently went to war. For example, the Pearl Harbor Survivors’ Association, founded in 1958, will be disbanded at the end of this month because there are so few survivors left.

The War in Europe started more than two years prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor

Of course, for those in Europe, the Second World War started in September 1939, and many Americans quietly or more actively supported the allied effort.

For well over a year, I have been actively researching that interval of September 1939 to December 1941. The reason? Why else does an author do research? For a book, of course. Perhaps even a series of books.

Courage in Combat:Volume 1 – The Flying Fighters

This new fiction book, very much a departure from my previous efforts and current-day genre, will introduce some characters that I will follow from 1938 to 1941. In possible further books in the series, I hope and intend to follow the characters from 1941 right through to the end of the war in 1945, and perhaps beyond. The book(s), while fiction, will be based on historical fact, and I hope to introduce readers to some lesser known facts, situations, and locations that formed part of the overall fighting in WWII.  The book is intended for a Young Adult audience, and is initially about teenagers who signed up to be Air Force pilots.

Some of the characters will accurately portray Americans who traveled to Canada and to England, to join up with the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Air Force in order to get into the war and fight. After the US went to war in December 1941, many of them returned home to join the US Army Air Corps, but many stayed with the RCAF and RAF until 1945.

I hope I will be able to bring that dramatic period of history to life for my readers.

An excerpt of the book can be found on this website.  At this time, I do not have a planned release date for the first book in the series, Courage in Combat: Volume 1 – The Flying Fighters, but given the significance of today’s date, I wanted to write about the book, post the short excerpt, and comment about the 70^th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Wil

Where to find more FREE e-Books!

Ah, Groundhog Day. If it’s more winter we’re getting, then there is a need to curl up with a few more good books. Of course, I hope mine are chosen, but if not mine, there’s a good website that offers a really good choice of FREE e-Books. It’s called “Online-Novels.” It is certainly worth more than a look, and it organizes the available fiction works into a wide variety of categories. I certainly recommend it!

And how about the new i-Pad®? It will be interesting to see how it can perform as an e-reader. That’s a good thing about SMASHWORDS … it offers a wide variety of formats for every e-reader. Check it out, and...

Happy reading.

Wil