Billy Buckins Childrens Books

I have a blog that tells more about me and has some of my poems. Writing books is very important to me and I am a member of the Appalachian Authors Guild, but there are other things I care about too. Maybe we share the same opinions, maybe we worry about the same things, maybe we’ve had some of the same victories or griefs, and maybe we laugh about the same things. Laughter definitely helps keep me going when life gets tough. I hope that we can have some laughs on my blogs, and share some private moments. I’m going to be writing often at my blog on the (authorsden), so I can bring you up to date on what I’m doing, seeing, thinking, and feeling. Thank you for sharing these special place's with me.

What I care about most: my children and my wife of eighteen years, Kristin. They are my life and always have been. I have always been a full time, hands-on dad by day, and wrote by night. My two sons are important to me, so they have kept me very busy, and they are the joy in my life. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been some tough moments. There are in everyone’s life. But the happiness we share far outweighs the pain or worry. I’ve worked in the car pool at my son’s elementary school in 15 degree temperature and I volunteer as the 4-H leader at my son’s school.. I have tried to be there for all the tough moments when things don’t go well for them, and what I hate most is that I can’t ‘fix’ everything. I can’t spank the floor that they fell on. I can’t make people be nice to them, or shield them from all the hurts and disappointments. I want their happiness, well being and safety more than anything, and no matter how much I love them, I can’t guarantee that. I hate that part. And I cherish the time we spend together. We see a lot of each other and are very close. We go on vacation together. Sometimes we argue at each other, but on the whole we all get along pretty well, even very well, and we love each other. I sometimes feel like crying ever time they have a larger size of shoe or move up a grade in school, because it brings me closer to the day they will be own their own.

The hardest thing that ever happened to me was when my son William died in January 2001, he was nine days old. He died of SID’s at three in the morning, he was our first child, and we all loved him. It was terrible for all of us, but I think it brought us all even closer, and made us even more grateful for all our children and each other. We still miss him and our son Zach who was born that same year asks questions about his brother. You don’t stop missing someone you lose, but you learn to live with it, like a limb you lose. We have all tried to go on and lead good lives. We have worked with several children’s organizations in his name like JDRF and our local children’s hospital.  

I have been very blessed and have tried to give back in our church food ministry, and work really, really hard and always have. At  times in my life,  I have had very little money, I was a Deputy Sheriff and wrote at night. I completed my first book “The Voyage of Billy Buckins”, which was published, and after that I wrote “Tommy Hop the Bunny’  which was also published. Sometimes the lessons we learn are hard. But in my experience, perseverance wins the prize. I always tell friends that if I had quit after the second or third or even fourth unpublished book, I would never have had the career that I do today. So whatever you do, it’s good to stick with it. I’m pretty stubborn about not giving up, on most things, and people. I was turned down four times with “The Voyage of Billy Buckins” but I never gave up. After eighteen years in law enforcement, you get an attitude about you and given up is not apart of you character.

I also have a number of other interests. I like working with my son’s elementary school. In 2007, I brought the 4-H into his school. This has been a fun organization for me, because of my love of gardening. The club I started has twenty five students from 4^th and 5^th grade. We work on gardening project through the year and compete with other schools.                                                              

There are a number of things I’m not good at. I hate working on cars and plumbing. I don’t like large social events. I don’t like public speaking although I do it often. I am not big on sports either but I play tennis with my son. I hope you find my books interesting and enjoyable.