Writing, But Not Here

Life is busy. I'm writing a lot, but I don't have much time to do it here. Here is what is on the plate:

1) New music reviews for Paste Magazine
2) New music reviews for allmusic.com
3) A feature article on poetry slams for Paste Magazine
4) A proposal for a new IT development project at Columbus State Community College. This is actually taking up far more of my time than I desire. Damn employers. :-) But I have mad Work Breakdown Structure and Gantt Chart skillz, and I'm using them to great effect.

5) A book. We'll see. This is a huge effort, and I'm making far less headway than I want, but here's where it stands. Over the course of the last twenty years or so I've written literally thousands of pages. Many of those pages simply tell my story, much as I do in some of my blog posts. I've written about my life, my faith, my questions and doubts, my stupid choices, my joys, my sorrows. And those of you who read my blog already have an idea of what that looks like in print (or at least in pixels). Probably several hundred of those short, self-contained essays are salvageable to the point where I wouldn't be totally embarrassed if others read them. And so I'd like to salvage them, add some narrative padding around them, and turn them into a book. If you've read Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz, you have some idea of what that might look like. He's just telling his story, too.

Is it farfetched? Maybe. But I'm going to go for it. The guys who run Paste are behind me in this, Donald Miller apparently is willing to help, and I have the backing of a marketing guru who can walk into anyplace and convince the powers that be to do almost anything. I figure if he can walk into CNN and convince those folks to give a fledgling little music magazine air time on a weekly basis, he can probably convince somebody to publish my writing.

For those of you who are praying types, I'd appreciate prayers for perseverence. A lot of work needs to happen before it can even be considered as a realistic possibility. In the meantime, I'm still working a fulltime job, writing for a couple magazines, trying to be a husband and father, and trying to be involved in other peoples' lives as a friend and fellow traveler on a spiritual journey. But I'm excited, and I'd like it to happen, not for any great desire for fame, but because this is what it feels like when the key fits the lock. Eric Liddell said in Chariots of Fire, "When I run, I feel His pleasure." I know that feeling, but it comes when I pound keys on a keyboard.