Hello OS bloggers!

I was reading comments made on my wife’s' blog (little miss writer) in regards to the interview she gave me. It was fun! And seriously, thanks for the kind words. As I read your comments, I decided to start…. uhm... Is friending the right word? 

Friending. Yes.  

Anyway, I have this blog just sitting here and to be honest, I haven’t been sure what to do with it. I have a Myspace blog… I use it mostly to make announcements for art things and here and there do a little “punk guy” ranting… I have a blog at Blogspot (The Red star Journals)… which is where I post my more serious attempts at writing… But what to do here? hmmm...

Gwen has been gently nudging me to post something, but there are SO many active bloggers here that comment… I’ve been a bit intimidated? Embarrassed?? Shy???  

(sigh) 

OK, so here goes.  Stuff about me that isn’t in my little bio or lurking somewhere on my website: my name is David and I’m a closet writer. In the last few years, thanks mostly to the small online writing group that Gwen formed and then invited me to join, I’ve finally come out. I do this part time as my painting always takes precedence and I don’t always feel the itch to sit for hours at a time staring at a blinking cursor contemplating composition BUT -- it is nice to finally be out and it does seem that my writing is coming into its own.  

My origin is not as ostentatious as some. I started writing as a way of dealing with my insomnia, which began when I was nine. That was back when I bought my first diary. No, check that. Not a diary, a Journal. Yeah. Much more manly.  

(insert me flexing, here) 

So I began writing down everything I found interesting. And I do mean EVERYTHING. At twelve, I started writing what I now know is referred to as; “Flash Fiction.” I wanted to be a comic strip artist/animator and felt I should come up with story lines that I could then illustrate. For practice. 

Gotta start somewhere, right? 

In High School, I got obsessed with film and started taking as many creative writing courses as possible to help me in my new quest of amateur screenwriting and then later signed on as a member of the journalism crew, providing a weekly comic strip and spot illustration work. Then, in college, I realized that I truly enjoyed writing and therefore decided to continue taking writing courses, now fueling my college dream of becoming a graphic novelist.

Ultimately, I didn't feel it was the right fit for me and after graduation and about six years of editorial freelance work that left me somewhat irritated, I dropped off the world and moved to NYC and into my Camaro. I spent that year writing and performing really, really, REALLY bad spoken word. 

In the midst of all this, I somehow managed a rough but complete outline for what I thought, at the time, might be a kick ass, ultra pretentious art film.  It was many things, new friends: 

* Coaster.
* Door stop.
* Fly Swatter. 

Anything, in fact, but a pretentious art film.  Around the end of 2003, I made it home to SF, ditched the Camaro and started rebuilding myself from the ground up. I took up yoga, fasted for a few weeks, got an early morning heavy lifting kinda job thing and did some hard core soul searching. It was during this time that, not-at-all by accident, I stumbled across a drawing I did when I was 15 and had a “eureka” moment where I discovered my "voice," and with it -- myself. For a visual artist, this is like coming back from a near death experience. 

I immediately started painting.

Then, I turned thirty. Six days later, I found Gwen, the love of my life, on a bus and got to the task of courtship.  

Meanwhile, my kick ass, ultra pretentious art film sat in a box quietly irritating the crap out of me.

So, at the end of 2007, after a whirlwind of painting and touring and moving and with gentle ecouragement from Gwen and the other members of our online community, I sat down and I decided to see what I could do with this – THING and started a re-write which has since become a novel.

As I have been working on it only part time, I'm still only about 2/3 (?) the way through the initial rough.  

The project has since taken on a life of its own. 

Anyway, I don't know if it sucks or not. I revised and prepared what I think is the complete first chapter (about 40 pages) as a sort of sample. I will be posting it in three segments, starting tomorrow. 

Below, is the cover art because, as you may have guessed, that’s how I roll… please, by all means, comment. Me likey feedback. 

See ya tomorrow!