Monday 2 March 2009

Wild West Monday is today


Hi my name is Chantel and I have taken over granddad's blog for today.
I am 16 and I have a problem.
A lot of people say that kids like me are always on their mobile phones or playing on our computers or watching tv or dvds. Yes, we do those things and I go to chat sites just like others. We are teenagers. It is what we do.
Some of us read as well. I do. And I have read westerns.
I have read the things that people say in blogs and chat boards about young people. You can't get us to be interested in things if people put us into boxes and say something different. The message just defeats itself.
My granddad has a bookcase full of westerns and I borrow one now and again. How many people say that they write or read westerns because their dads did?
I read an Edge book once. It was violent and it was gory. There was a bit where a man got shot by a shotgun and what he had for breakfast fell out. Disgusting. But you know what I learned?what guns and knives can do to a person. I am so anti-knife and anti-gun today.
But in westerns it is what life was like.
And westerns are not just a man thing. That is so sexist. I'm sure I'm not the only girl who reads them. And there are women western writers.
Today I am taking a western to school. It deals with child abuse and what it can do to people. It is something that we can relate to. It's called The Devil's Rider.
Thank you for reading this.

7 comments:

David Cranmer said...

Well, first you have a really cool granddad and I'm honored to be publishing one of his stories online in a couple of weeks. Second, you have the makings of a great blogger and maybe we'll see you filling-in again sometime.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Hello, Chantel! It's great that you share your Grandad's interest. I hope my grandson shares mine in a few years.

Jo Walpole said...

Well said. I started reading and writing westerns when I was about 12 and I've loved them since I was about 5. I'm also anti-gun and anti-knife but write about both in a way that's appropriate to the violence of the time. There are a lot of different styles and stories out there. Fingers crossed that reading westerns will turn out to be a ifelong interest for you. Jo

I.J. Parnham said...

And thanks for writing this. Please kick your granddad off his blog again one day!

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

Getting the young folk involved is what Wild West Monday is all about. This post made me feel really good. Thank you so much for that.

Nik Morton said...

Agree with Jo, well said, Chantel! People don't belong in boxes - well, save for those bad cowpokes who deserved to die... Yes, spread the word - I'm so annoyed at folk asking what I write. I say thrillers and westerns and they say, I don't read westerns... As if they're all the same, which is far from the truth, as your grandad has proved. I've quite a wait, my grandson is only 5 months old, but here's hoping he takes an interest in the Old West as soon as possible!
Nik (Ross Morton)

Barbara Martin said...

Well said. Chantal. It's nice you share your grandfather's interest in reading westerns.