Oh, great, another blog!

Well, here goes, I’m entering the world of blogging. I’ll let you pause to catch your breath, you, whoever you are that might be reading this. How exciting, you must be thinking, another blog!

Blogging is something I’ve thought about for a couple of years. I love to read and I have a few blogs that I try to keep up with through Google Reader. I also love to write yet I have held off until now actually starting a blog. I think there are two reasons (there may be more, but these are the two I’ve identified). One, if I blog someone may actually read what I’ve written (other than my wife and my trusted writing friend). It’s out there, no taking it back. I’ve always wanted to someday be published but I’ve had this hope that I could write in isolation and then summon the courage to send a manuscript to a publisher who falls madly in love with it. The book becomes a bestseller as news of it spreads like wildfire (my own The Shack-like success story). And once that happens I am validated as a writer and as a human, and then I start a blog, but only because my adoring public is dying to hear what I think. I do have enough contact with reality, though, to know it doesn’t work like that. I’ve just got to put my stuff out there. The second thing that has held me back from blogging is that once you’ve started one you’ve got to feed the beast. If I do somewhere along the line actually attract some readers they will only keep coming back if I’m adding new stuff. Do I have that much to say that is actually interesting? I have feared the answer is “no” so I’ve held off from blogging.

Last Saturday I went to a writer’s conference. One of the things several speakers said was that if you’re going to get something published the publisher wants to know you’re going to be marketing and promoting your book, and one of the primary ways of doing that is through blogging. I do have some hopes for publishing a few things I’m working on, so I can no longer drag my feet about blogging. It is time to get it started.

What will I blog about? I am a counselor in private practice but one thing you can be sure of is that I will never write about my clients. That would be foolhardy and potentially damaging to them. I may, however, offer some thoughts here and there about counseling in general and the process of change. Any examples I use will be from my own life.

I’ve had a lifelong love affair with books, so I will often blog about something I’m reading that is impacting me.

I love sports. I don’t invest nearly the amount of time I did 30 years ago in the days when I was pursuing sportswriting as a career, but I do try to keep up a little. As things interest me I may blog about them. Since I was a little bitty kid I’ve been hopelessly attached to the Kansas State Wildcats. You’ll probably have to put up with a comment or two about them. My wife has pointed out my ongoing determination to “find the K-State connection” to sports stories. Like the day Tiger Woods won his first Masters. Susanne was sleeping in the recliner while I watched a CBS special about Tiger they were running before the Sunday afternoon golf coverage. When they mentioned Tiger’s father had played baseball at K-State I woke her up with my shouts of “there’s a K-State connection to Tiger Woods!” She was less than pleased but accepting of the fact that it’s part of the package with me.

We’ve been married for 20 years now (we actually celebrate it next week). Seventeen years in God blessed us with a beautiful daughter. I am an old geezer who is finally enjoying the thrill of fatherhood. The journey to fatherhood is my main writing project. I chatter on constantly to my friends and my clients about my daughter; I can’t help myself. No doubt I will use some of this space to chatter on about her.

I hope you enjoy it and maybe even find something helpful for your own life.