Hello Again!

Hello again.

Here it is, nearly a year after my last entry into this blog and I'm back at it again. I have two blogs, this one and another which has been ignored for an even longer period of time.

I'll stick with this one for the time being.

Let me start by introducing myself. Rather, let me start by introducing myself again. My name is bdharrell. A bit unconventional, for sure, but it is what it is. Legally, I am someone else. For the purposes of this blog I am bdharrell.

It's a marketing gimmick, you see.

Actually, it's a moniker I have used off and on for over 40 years.  Most of that time I have incorporated punctuation into the moniker: b.d.harrell, in the same way that e.e.cummings did and got away with it.

The reason I'm using bdharrell has to do with my writing. I am establishing a brand, you see... something which sets me apart in an increasingly cacophonous world.

From this point, I could go into a full-bore selling mode, telling you about the books and the stories I've written, but there's time enough for that at a later date. What I am doing instead is getting you, the reader, to become acquainted with me. When you get to know me, you may want to know more about what I've written and what I am currently writing. If you are going to make a purchase at some point, you would be more likely to make that purchase from someone you know instead of from someone you don't.

So let's get started.

Hello again.

You might be wondering why the title of this blog - ...and all the records you can eat. This goes back to my days as a radio disc jockey. I worked for many years as a radio announcer at several stations in southeastern Ohio and western West Virginia, struggling to make a living while making a fool of myself. One of the people I worked with, a fellow named Steve Crabtree, described the sort of subsistence radio wages we were receiving at the time as being "Minimum wage and all the records we can eat". Very few of the radio people from my era achieved any measure of stability save from some combination of talent and sheer luck which has served them in good stead. The one thing we did have was a measure of status in the communities where we worked. There's always someone who remembers us, even years after the fact.

Several years ago, I was working as a sales drone at a major national retailer. I was talking with a couple about a large sale when the woman noted that I had a radio voice. I told her that I had worked on the air for a number of years. She asked if I had worked locally (Dallas, Texas area). I told her no.  I worked at radio stations in Ohio. She smiles and tells me that she remembers hearing me when I was on WBEX in Chillicothe, Ohio!  At that point I was at least a thousand miles and a dozen years removed from the last time I had had a gig there.

Anyhoo, I am an ex-radio person doing relatively well for myself and living on the outskirts of Dallas. (As a matter of fact, I am less than 10 miles from the ranch used for the exterior shots for the TV series.) Radio doesn't just disappear from one's blood, though. We tend to listen to other radio people and read what they write. Garrison Keillor and Tom Bodette ("We'll leave the light on for you!) are great storytellers, both with successful books which I have been in the process of emulating. I've also read Jan Karon's stories about Father Tim up in the hills of North Carolina. All three authors use small towns as settings for their stories about life in general. Much of what I'm doing is mostly the same. Instead of Alaska, Minnesota or North Carolina, the stories I've written are centered in southern Ohio in a small town I've name Magnolia.

Now I'm getting ahead of myself.

So, I've explained who I am.  I'll tell you a little more about me in later posts. Yes, it has been a long time since I have been on these pages, but hopefully I will make it up to you by allowing you to walk with me on a journey I am about to take. In the next few weeks, I will be introducing you to Magnolia, Ohio and some pretty interesting people. In the meantime,

Be Seeing You!
bdharrell