The Journey Begins

I almost called this post "The Experiment Begins," but that would indicate that the next two and a half months would be some kind of oddball attempt at something, a stab at a half-baked idea that might or might not pan out. Yet what I propose to do is nothing less than start the work for which I believe I've been formed for the last thirty-four years or so.

For the first time since I started teaching, I do not have to work summer school. With the blessing of my ever-generous wife, this is the Summer of the Beginning of the Writing (which doesn't roll trippingly off the tongue, so I'll have to come up with another title—or perhaps I'm making too much of this already). I'm not sure exactly to what standard I'll be working—whether I'll attempt to crank out a certain number of words or pages per day, or if I'll simply work for a set number of hours. I'm leaning heavily toward the latter, because I'll be doing a good bit of revision on my novel and sometimes that is slow work. But we've agreed that this will be my "job" and that the writing time will be sacrosanct.

I'm in a good place for this and I have confidence it will be a success, but I'm reaching out to you, the vast horde of my reading audience. Any who'd care to lift a prayer on my behalf—for inspiration, motivation, and dedication. I'm going to try to keep a short log here about my daily progress here, so feel free to check in and drop a note to encourage, to question, or browbeat me as the situation warrants. It'd be much appreciated.

Off I go...