Advance Warnings

Well, I guess it's come to this. I am finally entering the blogosphere, hopping aboard the blog boat, deciding to engage in the now omnipresent form of journalistic release that is the verbal equivalent of a colonoscopy prep. Except that the work product, instead of being conveniently and conclusively dispatched into a plumbing fixture, is dispersed through cyberspace as what some would call either psychic effluence or grassroots populist press, depending on your point of view. But call it what you will. In these tough economic times it's saving me big bucks that would be otherwise spent on a shrink. 

A few years or so ago, ignoring the conventional wisdom of "baby steps", I launched my labors large with a flashy novel all tricked out with a fake disappearance, missing heirs, geographical cures and a sibling estrangement. I think the only thing missing was Professor Plum. At one point, when I was about halfway finished and the word count was over 80K, I actually had a couple of agents interested and impressed. But going the distance was another thing entirely. I realized that words are not necessarily my first language (did I really say that?), and after moving the characters hither and yon and hauling their story lines around, my narrative was starting to look like a preschool poster painting - bright and energetic, happily mounted on its refrigerator magnet, but lacking definition and refinement.

I am a graphic designer by trade and also by DNA, my family tree ripe with a luxuriant growth of designers and artists. So naturally I thought that upon occasion exchanging the one-thousand-dollar Adobe Creative Suite for the handy, accessible, and FREE, medium of words, would be a mere technicality. Wrong. So, what follows will have a steep learning curve but hey, it's probably the most fun I can have without getting out of my pajamas or buying a new outfit. And I don't need a corporate ID either. (See above, Fig. 01, "Artistic License".)

If I were you I'd strap on. You've read this far, what else would you be doing right now? It's going to be a bumpy ride, with high winds and choppy seas and a sometimes-broken GPS...or should I say "damaged moral compass"? Well, whatever, bring on the Dramamine.