The purpose of this blog is to get things going.
On the one hand, its a place I can put up talks and thoughts people have asked me for. But mostly, it'll serve at the catalyst for my writing.
Sometimes, writing is a lot like a starting a fire.
Fires need fuel: some quick to take flame, others to burn longer. Fires need space, oxygen to grow, and division from where the fire should be and should not be. All this preparation happens before fire can take place, a gathering stage.
In writing, this is mostly done by thinking while the rest of life is going. The components for burnable fuel are experiences, dreams, and desires we gain and shape as we live. The oxygen and space is the time we set aside to actually write.
But to begin an actual fire, usually a fire starter is need-- sparks, from a stick and bow, flint and steel, a match, a lighter, a magnifying glass and a good ray of sun. Or in my case, a pair of glasses and a ray of sun.
If the fire is the real writing, then the "fire starters" are the small, awkward, but shining bits of thoughts written that get the whole thing burning. That is what this blog is for. To smack words together, grinding them down, focusing them, until the result is a flame for my work.
So don't expect much. Its the ugly part of the ugly part. But by putting it in public forum, it forces me to treat it seriously, to commit myself to the work, and by extension, to the writing it inspires.
Plus, its fun this way. And in the end, that's really all I need.
