FirstBlog

Welcome to 2015! I trust that you all had a safe and happy new year and a wonderful holiday season. I know I did. One of the best ever in fact. I was honored to host my siblings (my brother and sister-in-law visiting from Chicago, my sister visiting from Seattle and my other brother whom just moved back from California.), my mother, my maternal grandparents and my aunt. It was my first time hosting my favorite holiday and, while we did have some Griswoldian moments (Our Christmas tree fell down), overall, it went off without too many hitches. But, with the conclusion of Christmas comes the new year, and all of its promises of fresh starts. I make resolutions each year and, like most of us, I have abandoned them by February 1st. Will this year be any different? I have no idea, but I'll resolve to keep my resolutions this year. I have personal and vocational goals which will stay with my spouse and employer respectively but, with you, my friends and readers, my writing goals ar...

I’ve always wanted to work for myself. From my youngest days I was an entrepreneur. I remember one day, I was four or five, my best friend and I found a pile of coupons at the park and we went around our neighborhood and sold them to our neighbors. I found out later that they were expired and the neighbors bought them from us because we were cute little boys. (Insert your name here)     My dad is a musician. I didn’t see him get up and put on a suit and go to an office. I saw him get up and play his guitar in jeans and a t shirt. Every few months, he’d leave on tour for a few weeks and come home. Every summer we’d travel with him. Since I have a summer birthday, I was rarely home for my birthday.   As I got older, he took odd jobs. Waiting tables primarily. He also got his real estate license. He worked hard but not like a typical dad with a nine to five job.   I got my first job at McDonalds when I was fourteen. I enjoyed having a little m...

Welcome to 2013! The Mayans, of course, didn’t think we’d make it this far. I didn’t put a lot of stock in that, so, I planned ahead, sort of. Did you? With the new year comes renewed optimism and reflection. It’s a time for us to make resolutions and set goals for the new year. I generally don’t like to publicize my New Years’ Resolutions because I don’t generally keep them and I don’t want to have to bite my tongue or eat my foot. Biting the tongue hurts and the foot is icky and bitter. I’d like to avoid these unfortunate consequences. That being said, I am making three resolutions, and publicizing them. Hold me accountable. Sometimes that’s the only way to ensure resolutions are kept, so, without further ado, here are my resolutions and goals for the coming year:   1.       KEEP MY NEW YEARS’ RESOLUTIONS This is a biggie. I don’t think I’ve ever done this. Keeping a resolution would be a major accomplishment and I intend to keep ...

After six months, nine articles and one Editors' Choice Award, I've decided to leave Wizzley. Unlike Triond (which refuses to publish anything I send them, yet still sends me monthly earnings statements of $0.00 every month and still invites me to publish) and Redgage (which, for the life of me, never lets me log in), I leave Wizzley on good terms. It's simple economics. I'm not getting enough traffic there to justify the time I spend writing the articles there. It's an amicable split. We still have deep affection for one another... we're just not right for each other and want to see other people. It's not them, it's me. Over the next month, I'll be deleting and de-indexing all my articles there and placing them on my Hubpages account, where I get plenty of traffic and have loyal readers. Be looking for those. It makes more sense to consolidate my writing into one location (two if you count this blog). I wrote great articles at Wizzley, but no on...

It's odd. I have a hard time writing consistently, yet, I love to write. It's my main hobby. Yet, it can sometimes feel like a chore. Sometimes I feel like what I write, no one will want to read and then I'm just writing hoping someone will like what I have to say, glomb (sp?) onto it, and maybe share it so I can reach some viewers and make a little scratch. I'm in a weird place. I've just released a book of poetry , a magazine , a mailing list and author page on facebook, and yet, I feel I haven't accomplished anything because they are wildly unpopular. It's not because they're bad products-- in fact, they are quite good-- it's just that I don't know how to drive traffic to myself and sell my products to folks without sounding like either an ego maniac or a spammer, or both. My hubpages account gets several hundred views a day, and I'm proud of that, but even a hundred or so views doesn't pay the bills. It doesn't keep the...