Finally, I'm Back

After several long months of long hours, captaining the three ships that are my companies through very economically troubled waters, I'm glad to say that I'm back here, posting something to the blog. Granted, this particular post isn't that interesting - merely a "Welcome Back" to myself, of sorts, but the truth is that it's representative of so much more ... it means that I'm back into the groove of writing, which is where my heart truly lies.

You see, it's very hard to do what you truly love for a living. We all know this and very few of us are lucky enough to ever reach the point that our first love is our only profession. Personally, I've never reached that point ... not yet, at least. Granted, I don't have it bad. I own a motorcycle dealership and, since I love riding, one might consider that "doing what I love." You'd be partially right. There's a lot more to running a dealership than riding, however. A ton more, in fact, and most of that is like ... well, work. Secondly, I'm president of a large direct mail and direct marketing company. That's a cool job in that there are a lot of great people there and a lot of great clients that are truly fun to be around. However, when times are tough for everyone - like now - that too is a real job and not so much a labor of love. My other company, (the one that handles my newspaper and magazine columns and my book promotions), is also fun, in that I get to write for a living, create occasional ad layouts, do voice overs for cartoons and commercials ... all sorts of fun and interesting things. However, I've been so swamped with other things these past few months that I've been scrambling to get the columns out by deadline and while they've been good, it's not been "fun."

The fact is, I haven't written for pure, un-pressured "fun" in nearly half a year. However, all of that changed recently. You see, the PR Firm that handles stuff for my direct mail company did me a favor by sending out a bunch of press releases promoting the Books for Soldiers campaign with my book. That, in turn, resulted in a couple of recent interviews, (KMOX Radio with John Carney - a great guy, by the way, and KSDK Channel 5 in St. Louis on their Sunday morning edition of Show Me St. Louis). While doing these interviews, I was able to talk about the troops program and the different signings that I've done. I talked about the people that I've met along the way who really get a kick out of the tales in the book or from my various columns and how they always have a story to share, as well. And that, my friends, is why I write. It's about the stories. Sharing laughter with people is infectious, prompting them to share stories with you, but also with others around them. In the end, everyone gets a laugh and it brightens everyone's day just a little bit. The story teller feels good for having brought a smile to someone's face and the reader feels good because, not only did they get a laugh, but they've also been reminded of similar funny things that have happened to them. Over all, it reminds us all that life is filled with humor and good times - all you have to do is be in the mood to look for it.

And so, being brought back to the mindset of living for the laughs, I'm back to writing for fun. A renewed vigor and interest in not only sharing my tales, but hearing tales from others that will hopefully spawn more laughter and good mood to others along the path. Will I keep up with the blog indefinitely? I certainly hope so. Because after all, what I write here is not written for publication, profit or even publicity ... it's written for fun. And that, my friends, is what I love to do.

Until next time ...

All the best,

WDL