When I first heard about blogging, I didn’t think much of it. I had been an on-again/off-again journal writer for years and my journal writing tended to be both illegible and sappy. Blogging could correct the illegible but I wasn’t sure what it would do for the sappy.

Later, when it became more popular and it seemed like everyone and their dog had a blog, I felt no real pressure to have one myself and so I continued to avoid them. Then, mid-way through the last year, certain key events coalesced, tossed a much needed grenade into my life, and I decided to do what I had longed to do for years: write full time. So, putting the house in California on the market, I packed up and moved to Albuquerque. No real reason for the destination. It just seemed like a good place to go at the moment. So far, so good. It’s sunny in the winter, something I’m not much used to and find I really like.

Once there, two things happened to change my thinking about blogs.

First, I realized that being a full time writer was not just about spending eight, ten, twelve hours a day writing. The money from the house sale would only last so long and to expect to support oneself writing, one had to promote. Blogging was one small way of doing that. More important, though, I came to see blogging as another form of writing. It didn’t have to be the “my life is miserable” sappy crap my journals mostly were. Just as I have begun to write short stories as a way to stretch and exercise my writing muscles, blogging could be yet another exercise machine, another set of weights added to the daily regime.

My initial thought about setting up a blog was that it would be about what I loved best: writing. But over this last week, as I’ve gotten more into this blogging idea, that initial thought has expanded considerably. It’s all writing, that little voice in my head has been whispering. Does all the writing have to be about writing? I’ve decided it doesn’t.

The overall blog will be about writing; the pages, the links, and probably most of the posts as I’m an opinionated guy and I have some serious opinions about the state of the writing world which I’d like to deluge you all with.

I hope you enjoy what you read here. And please comment. As a writer, and something of a loner, I tend to write in the dark too much. It would be nice to know I’m not here by myself.