What's new with Roger Welsch

I've gotten a number of queries about where and when I'm doing programs open to the public. Well, I don't do many of them--not because I don't enjoy them but because I'm not invited to do many. But I am going to start isting a few things here in hopes that I will be able to meet your personally sometime soon.

A question I field at least once a week is "Which is your favorite book?"--or, "favorite Postcard," or "favorite ETV interview," or...well, you get the idea. My standard answer is, "The next one." That's not funny; it's true. I am always working on something...there was a period of a couple months three years ago when I didn't have a project--a book, a series, a video, SOMETHING!--on the table, but other than that, I've had several irons in the fire every day of my life for the past forty years. Still do.

At the moment, I'm working on

#1. My work with CBS is taking on a new format, to my delight. I will be appearing less often on Sunday Morning...but I will have more flexibility and autonomy in my Postcards. This whole change will shake out sometime during the Spring of '00, so I don't know much more I can share with you...but when I do, you'll find the information right here!

#2. On the other hand, the amount of energy I'm devoting to duties at Successful Farming is expanding...again to my delight. This too is an uncertainty but I hope to appear in the pages of SF more often and of course I am delighted that I will be working more closely and more frequently with Cheryl and John here, at our new home page with agriculture.com

#3. Despite promises (to Linda, Antonia, my dogs, and myself) to spend less time on the road doing speaking engagements, opportunities keep coming along that I just don't have the resolve to resist. I'll be involved again with the Institute, a kind of free university on the campus of DisneyWorld in Orlando this spring, telling stories and talking with "students" about the importance of storytelling in our culture and families. I am absolutely giddy too about the possibility of speaking to folks serving our military base in Thule, Greenland, this spring; if things go well, I'll spend time not only at the ice cap but in an Inuit village, the northernmost human habitation on earth. I should have a new appreciation for the ease of Nebraska winters! Of course I will also have my usual schedule of keynote and banquet speeches, and when one comes up that is open to the public, I'll let you know, here.

#4. I had a dry period for book writing for two years...the first such drouth in 35 years of writing, publishing 25 books. But it has blown over and I am back at work, with renewed vigor. Motorbooks will publish my fairly zany look at love, sex, romance, marriage and tractors (a natural combination if there ever was one) fall of 2000. Sales will be forbidden to women because I give away far too many secrets. About the same time, Lee Books will release my book of essays about my experiences doing almost 200 Postcards from Nebraska over a period of 13 years. I am already negotiating with Motorbooks and Lee about several further volumes, and there are possibilities with other publishers too. Save your Christmas money. There will be plenty of Welsch books out there!

#5. I have had far too little time in my shop but last summer I did finally get back into the groove of sitting on the banks of Oak Creek or the Loup River, drowning worms and being laughed at by catfish. That's okay, I got the last laugh...didn't have to clean any fish or eat them. I am already anticipating warm mornings in the summer of '00, wetting a line, losing sinkers....

#6. And if things go right--nice weather, good river--I sure would like to spend more time down along the river running set lines for catfish. I need the exercise and I love the fish. I also need to spend some night sleeping down there. Antonia and I have spent a few nights sleeping out watching for comets and meteor showers and it is always a benediction. Our place is teeming with wild turkeys, raccoons, possums, coyotes, deer...and rumors and signs of a lion. In short, we are only a few hundred yards away from a real safari. We shouldn't be neglecting the opportunity.