The Saga Continues

I went down to Detroit last week ostensibly to hang out with a couple friends from my youth. I went on Priceline. Com and bid 35.00 and ended up with a very nice room at the Westin. Really nice hotel, all the amenities you could ask for and I highly recommend it.

I caught some crap from my friend about getting a hotel and not staying at his place but I really needed some private time. I took my computer and looked forward to doing some writing. I had two nights to spend and figured that would get me all the r&r I needed.

What I ended up doing was going through everything I wrote last year and edited it to the best of my ability. It was pretty cool. Like I actually had a job to do. I looked at it as if I had to have this done before I came home. I’ve been pretty down lately and I needed to do something to make myself feel good. It came down to getting an eight ball and some hookers or publishing last year’s model.

Well, if any of you know me you know I can’t afford an eight ball so I decided to publish. I gotta tell ya, this really picked me up. While going through all the posts I was able to read each one. I really like all of this one. I must admit that going through the first book I see so many posts that are just embarrassing. I can honestly say that there is nothing in this one that makes me feel that way.

A number of folks that read the blog have sent comments about how much they like my writing. People that I’ve never even met have sent emails from all over the world and I just thought it was nice but never felt that way myself.

Funny thing though, after reading these essays, I think I’m starting to develop an ego. I’m a bit embarrassed about it but an ego nonetheless. It’s a strange feeling, thinking you’re good at something when you’ve never even considered the possibility before.

My fear is that it’ll have an effect on my writing. I find myself reading and rereading everything I write now as opposed to before when I just wrote and let the chips fall where they may. Oh well, I hope I can trust you guys to slap me around if you see me grabbing things that are a little out of my grasp.

Anyway, once again, thanks for your continued support and I hope you haven’t gotten bored with me yet. Here’s the web site if you’re interested:

http://www.lulu.com/content/1985131

Who'd Ever Believe It

I’ve been posting to this blog for about a year and a half. A few months ago I took down the original blog and started a new one. The reason I took the old one down was because I wanted to publish what I had written up to that point.

Well, I did it. I took everything I wrote in 2006 and uploaded it to a site called lulu.com and it’s now a book. It’s 268 pages and has a real cover with binding and everything. The cover and back photos are pictures that I took. I’m actually pretty proud of myself. I’ve never been one to complete much of anything and this, like most things in my life, is a project that I kept putting off and avoiding.

There are a couple different feelings that go along with doing
something like this. The first is pride. As stated above, I’ve never been good at finishing anything and it’s nice to see something like this come to fruition.

I also feel kind of strange about it. This book is all about me, things I’ve done, my feelings, my thoughts, hopes and yes, a ton of whining. I sent a copy to a friend and said it was like a little Christmas gift. Saying that, to me, sounds rather egotistical and that’s the last thing I want you guys to think.

I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on my writing from so many people. Not just family, they’re supposed to support me, but from friends and other folks I don’t even know and without that feedback I would have never had the confidence to even consider putting it together like this.

I guess they call doing this “vanity publishing” and that’s exactly what this is. I got myself a copy and the feeling of opening the package, when it came, and seeing a picture that I took on the cover of a book that I wrote with my title and name on it was an incredibly powerful moment.

The beauty of doing it the way I did is that I can make revisions at any time. The first copy was formatted all wrong so I went in and reformatted it to my liking. I’m also finding spelling and grammar errors that I can correct with the touch of a key.

I have no illusions about striking it rich as a writer. Don’t get me wrong; if Oprah wanted to put this in her book club, I certainly wouldn’t stop her. There is, however, something really cool about the idea of having something on my bookshelf with my name on it. I’ve gotten a copy for each of my children. I hope it makes them proud and it’s something they want to pass onto their kids and all that but it won’t kill me if they don’t.

I’m not asking any of you to buy it. Most of you have read everything in it already. I will post the link to it though. I think it’s neat just to see it there. I do want to thank you all for giving me the fortitude to do this. I am so proud to know all of you and I always hope you feel the same.
I’m not sure if the link will work but if you’re interested you can copy the link into your browser.

http://www.lulu.com/content/1408214

Onward, Through The Fog!

Just in case you haven’t noticed, for reasons I’ll explain, the blog “This And That” has disappeared. I wish to thank you all for reading it when I would let you know I had posted something new. For those that read it purely by chance, thank you too.

I have saved all the things I have written over the last year and am in the process of publishing the blog for posterity. I think it’d be real cool to have something with my name on it printed and bound for me to keep for my children’s children. I think it’s important for future generations to see how incredibly messed up dear old gramps was before they put him in the home.

In the mean time I can’t seem to stop writing so I’ve started this new blog and after reading the posts from the first one I feel the title of the blog is apt. After all, that is pretty much what I do here, and that’s ok. It’s sort of a therapy/strange thoughts kind of thing and admittedly, I throw in a good story once in awhile.

So here goes another chapter and let’s see where it goes. I will continue to let you all know when I post and hopefully you will all still be reading what it is, however trivial to your lives, I have to say.

I will promise you that what I write will be new, exciting, emotionally driven and, oh who am I kidding, at least it’ll be new.