Getting Started: Behind the Times

Do you blog? Where's your blog? Have you got a blog? These questions seem to be coming at me from everywhere lately and, oddly enough, this is not a new thing. Blogging has been around since '99 - a product of the former century for God's sake - and yet I could only shrug my shoulders in reply and answer with an embarrassed "no". I'm a loser. I don't have a blog. Apparently I'm the last person on the face of the earth, judging from the shaming and sorrowful faces of those who had asked. It seems that, upon hearing that you don't have a blog, very few in the publishing industry want to know you. You quickly become persona non gratis in their eyes and the conversation abruptly ends.

Sure, I'm familiar with blogging, as much as I'm familiar with the art of self-mutilation. Of course, knowing what it is and having actually sliced your arms up are two different things. I recently realized that, if I really wanted to gain acceptance among my peers, blogging was essential. However, not only did I not have the knowledge of where on my body to cut, I didn't even know where to locate the knife. Fortunately for me, Colleen Brousil, my editor at MPN, was kind enough to lead me here to blogger.com. Duh. I guess now I can add "blogger" to my resume of uncomplicated accomplishments?

Though at this point I cannot promise a true outline of what you're likely to find in the future postings of my blog, my column, (as well as the book that I am currently working on), tends to focus on the more memorable - normally the most embarrassing - of life's experiences and the laughter and lessons that I've taken away from them. Not all that different by design, I suppose, from the format of a blog when you consider that I typically encounter tragically embarrassing situations each day and can therefore pass these off as a daily journal.

That pretty much covers the introduction entry. I should note that I have never so much as read another blog to this point and therefore have no preconceived notions of the format that these are supposed to be in. Therefore, I may well be breaking some ancient code of blogger society with this first posting and, if so, please forgive me. I am but an infant among the blogger-savvy and I'm sure that, given time, I'll do something much more embarrassing than whatever mistakes exist in this entry, which will inevitably allow you to forget all about my current shortcomings.

All the best,

WDL