welcome

Hi, and welcome to my blog, ‘All the Things’. This blog won’t have a specific focus per se other than providing a way for me to talk about ideas and experiences through the filter of my passion for the ebb and flow of life here in Los Angeles. I suppose I have a vague – quite possibly delusional – notion that a few people here and there might be interested in what I’ve got to say. But the real reason I’m doing this, at least initially, is that my life has been in a state of upheaval for about six or seven months now. Change is always difficult for me, and in this instance the ongoing disruptions have left me with a debilitating case of writer’s block, manifesting itself in my becoming overtaken with paralyzing fatigue every time I sit down and attempt to make progress on the novel I’ve been working at for five years and counting. In my more insecure moments, I imagine that the blockage is God’s way of saying, ‘You’re 40, man. No way anybody’s gonna publish that thing. Why put yourself through all the trouble?’ ...Where’s the benevolent George Burns-ish God when you need Him?... But even if it’s true that, from a purely market oriented perspective, writing a first novel at this stage of my life is a shaky proposition at best, I need to write for a lot of different reasons – not just the gratification of getting a book published. So I got to thinking that a secondary and more casual outlet, other than a ‘serious’ novel, might not be such a bad idea – a low-pressure way for me to get some ideas out there and hopefully reignite my creative energy. …I don’t know whether this medium will agree with me or not. Blogging lends itself to a certain immediacy of expression that seems anathema to the way I like to do things. I tend to labor over what I write for long periods of time before I’m comfortable sharing it with others. I would make a horrible journalist. On the other hand, though, this blog thing might end up being exactly what I need to work out of my current impasse so I can get excited again about my book. Plus, it’ll just be nice to have another way to express all my brilliant ideas. …Enjoy!