Life on the Outside

Greetings and salutations,

I’ve given my reticence to starting my own blog quite a bit of introspection over the past couple of years. Normally, I am at the forefront of technological trends, so the delay came as a surprise to even myself. At times, I thought perhaps it was something as simple as not having anything particularly interesting to say. Or maybe I was simply afraid to put my thoughts and words out there, only to find no one wanted to read the words I had so thoughtfully and painfully crafted. Or even worse, people would read my writing and hate it!

Then, just quite recently, I remembered something one of my professors told me. I had come to his office after class to discuss a short story due in a couple of weeks and the “writer’s block” I seemed to be having. He told me I was suffering from what I later came to describe as “great-american-novelitis”. Meaning that everytime time I picked up a pen (or sat down to my laptop) I was trying to start the greatest american novel ever written all in the first line. That’s alot of responsibility for a first line. He told me to just start writing, then throw away the first five or ten pages.

The professor was William Kittredge, and if you’ve never heard of him – along with numerous awards including two from the NEA and a Stegner Fellowship, he co-produced “A River Runs Through It.” Personally, I couldn’t stand the man but he did co-edit an amazing anthology of western fiction in “The Last Best Place” with Annick Smith. The book made me want to move to Montana, which I did and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Even though I don’t like the man, I’m certainly appreciatve of the impact he had on my life.

Last Best Place Anthology @ Amazon.com

It looks like I’ve finally taken the plunge and jumped feet first into this unique blogging world. It’s not easy just diving into writing of any kind, but I’ve done it. Finally! Here’s to jumping off cliffs.