Let’s say the worst has happened.  Your computer operating system has broken (probably why they called it ‘windows’…get it?), whether from a virus or corrupt system file, power surge or some other in a long list of reasons.  You’ve had to restore it to factory settings.

You didn’t have a backup.  Or your backup got destroyed also by clever hackers or Tom Cruise.  Now all your photos, documents, and–most importantly–that novel you’ve been working on for two and a half years, are all…gone.  Leaving you pounding the ground and cursing the heavens while the skeletal remains of the Statue of Liberty stare down at you from above. (more…)

Well, it’s been a busy couple of months.  Heck of a time to start a blog.  I figure it’s time to catch up.  So, I’ll start with the Rocky Mountains and our new closer relationship to them.

We had been living in Phoenix for the last couple of years, having moved down there for my job.  The biggest problem I have with Phoenix is the weather.  There is none.

For those who haven’t been there, I should say that it’s not 100+ degrees all year round.  There is only about two months or so in the middle of Summer when it’s that hot.  The rest of the year, the temperature is basically hovering in the middle of nowhere.  It’s not hot.  It’s not cold.  And the air doesn’t move.  No wind, no breeze.  So it just ends up feeling…meh. (more…)

It all started with Hemmingway.

A few years ago my Mother-in-law gave me a typewriter for Christmas.  She knew I had studied scriptwriting in college and had wanted to be a writer years ago.  And a few months before I had made some admiring remarks upon finding an typewriter stashed away somewhere, although it was electric.

She did her research.  She Googled and Yahoo’d typewriters and found the ones that were known for being good writing machines.  She wanted to find one that was not only a good ‘writer’s machine’, but looked classy.

She settled on the Royal Quiet Deluxe because not only was it a good looking machine, but Hemmingway famously  swore by Royal portables.  She found a beautiful black and chrome Royal Quiet Deluxe from 1947 in an antique store. (more…)

To be clear, I have wanted to be a writer for a long time.  Back even to when I was in grade school.  I ended up majoring in scriptwriting in college, and even was a finalist in a one-act play competition.

Since then, I’ve done a lot of various things: photography, driving a truck, marketing, eventually my current job as a computer programmer.  The one thing I have not managed to do in all these careers is write.

In the last year, though, I have started picking up the pencil again, and getting the kinks out of the literary muscles.  I have come to find again how much I love to write, and have decided that I need to just go for it, and finally dedicate myself to the career I want to have.

Having done my warm-up laps, I took a look around at the writing world today, and I realized that I probably couldn’t have picked a more confusing time to try and jump in. (more…)