I have been toying with the idea for a blog for a long time and as an aspiring writer I’ve read innumerable articles about the “must” have having a writer’s website. Problem is, I’ve struggled with being able to offer compelling content. When people I know read it, I wanted them to have something positive (and honest) to say about it. So, I decided the following:

1.        to figure out my point of view which will reveal itself as we go and define it
2.        figure out if/how I’m going to publicize my little piece of bandwidth
3.        produce at least one blog per week

As mentioned in the “About Me” portion of the website, I started writing prolifically when I was about thirteen. Enthralled with the nighttime soaps of the 80s, I write a “Dallas” knock-of that was about a wealthy Oklahoma family. See? Not Texas. VERY different. With no outline or plan the book meandered aimlessly, but kept me occupied in the evenings for probably a year. Long before the age of affordable personal computers, I hand wrote the whole thing on ruled, three-hole punched paper and remember placing the stack of weary pages I was so proud of inside a Snoopy three-ring binder. Although I got bored over the years and did re-writes and overhauls, I remember a profound sense of accomplishment when I felt it was “done.” I didn’t discuss my writing with anyone and continue to be very private about it. I remember the summer before my sophomore year in high school my family was getting ready for a two-week road trip vacation to Texas to visit family, then dip into Mexico for a “foreign” experience. (My parents were relying far too much on my two semesters of freshman Spanish.) Photo of the trip below. I’m the hot one on the left.

I took my completed manuscript titled “The Monarchy”, wrapped it in plastic wrap and hermetically sealed it with tape then hid it deep in the center of the area rug in my bedroom, that part of the floor concealed further by my bed. It was everything to me, and I couldn’t bear the thought of criminals breaking in to our house while we were gone, selling it to a publisher, capitalizing on my hard work. I wouldn’t have it!

That memory is demonstrative of the role writing has played in my life, and though life has taken some twists in turns in the intervening years, I write a lot–whether it’s a current writing project, my journal, or a note card to a close friend. Of all the things I’ve written and all the times I’ve moved, I still have portions of “The Monarchy.”

I guess there really is nothing like your first. (Oh, and you better believe this excerpt is SUPER copyrighted!)

Also published on Medium.