It is interesting, the maturation of my writing, as I go through the editing of a Band of Dogs. My first book, The Marsh Adventures: Of Times and Places, as I've stated before was around 100 pages and for my son who was five at the time. After editing it, I brought the age level up. Everyone's heard this part before, but I must set the stage for musings.

The second book for my son, The Roosevelt Series: The Sun Also Sets, was 100 pages and written for a 6 year old...the addition of another 100 pages for publication, changed it to a PG-13 book.

In editing the Band of Dogs, and actually in writing. I transition in the book from "children's" to "adult" and didn't even know it. Yet as I go back and look it can clearly be seen...like when Dorothy stepped out of the house into color. I was telling one of my fans about this the other day. As much as I try to be, I am not a children's author. Yes, I can sit down and write a story fit for my son's age...but A Band of Dogs was my first book written for publication, to my son, but not just for my son. And in writing I realized, my books for publication are written for an older audience. In running the draft of Band of Dogs through Grammarly, it rates it "High School or above".

Will I continue to write stories just for my son? I don't know...I hope so. But it is like I've crossed the line now into publication books. The Message, the third book I wrote for my son, was already PG when I read it to him, but I walked him through the details and he was mature enough for it. However, it's publication manuscript will roll it right into PG-13, and that is the book I will start work on in 2025. More to come on that.

So there you have it, in long form. In short form - I write for an older generation, and not children. My books are OK for children, but they need a parent to walk them through it.

I've said before, I write because I love to write, and where my story starts is not where my story ends, and I cannot, no matter how hard I might try, change that path.