Intro to Madness

Last year I had no idea what a blog was, although I thought it sounded like blob of phlegm. Today I am using one in an effort to keep my (slimy) brain spinning and (slippery) fingers tapping.

Pushed over the precipice of doubt and procrastination by a dear friend, I enrolled in a writing course this spring. From this group sprang a monthly writer's workshop with a delightful social component. The women who attend are merciless, demanding and wonderful.

The syndicated columnist (woohoooo, Suzette!) who taught our class has been kind enough to join us at meetings as though we were peers. A complete naif when it comes to producing articles and columns, I have had several pieces published locally due in great part to her urging and tweaking.

There are so many forces at work on your ideas when writing for publication. What makes the subject interesting? Who will you offend? Why should a newspaper want it? Where should you submit it? How far can you go before you cross one of the hundreds of imaginary lines current society has drawn in the sand?

Well, hell. All of that is tremendously limiting.

Here, on the carpet of this blog, is where I plan on ejecting some of my written masses of sputum. No one is paying to read and my greatest compensation is the pressure released from my brain.

I can pretend that I am the female embodiment of David Sedaris. Thoughts in my cranium not fit for general public consumption of the paid sort will have a home here. The inane droppings and venomous bile. The private hurrays and the public grievances.

So, for those of you who have not yet gone running from the room dodging the slick mine field of my intellect: Cheers!