For those of you who don’t already know, I have been fortunate enough to do some traveling this summer.  In fact, it wouldn’t be a huge stretch to say that I’ve been from one corner of North America to the other (Mexico to extreme Northern British Columbia). I know, it’s a bit of a stretch.  I just said it wouldn’t be a huge stretch.   Anyway, I went to Cancun with the intention of seeing the (historical) sights and experience the culture.  I’ll admit, I expected differences and similarities in the Mexican way of life, too.  I had heard that Cancun was an Americanized Mexican city, after all. Were there similarities?  Naturally, since they use the metric system there are some peripheral […]

Like many of you, I have become very reliant on technology in my everyday life.  Technology helps me to pay my bills, talk to friends and family, earn a living.  As I said, I’m very reliant on it.  It would be safe to say that my life often depends on it. And as sad as it may be, no device seems to have a more important role in my daily life than my laptop.  It is my link to the world, conveyor of information, entertainment and instrument of creativity. Now, for those of you who just shook your heads and muttered “Geek”, remember the saying “those in glass houses shouldn’t throw the first stone”.  For the rest of you, thanks for your understanding. Anyway, you […]

I had a very different subject that I wanted to write about today, but, alas, time has been my enemy as of late.  It’s funny how life can give you fodder for your writing, isn’t it? So with that, let’s talk about balance, specifically life-balance. Generally, life-balance can be broken down into two major categories:  Work and Home.  For those of us who don’t have the priviledge of working from home, work can approach and exceed 50% of our day.  Add sleep and the home portion of our day/night becomes pretty small. Just for the sake of my own personal writing challenges, I’m going to break out the home portion of my day, assuming a 10-hour work day (including commute).  […]

For those of you who pay attention to things like this, the very first post to Startingwritenow happened exactly one year ago tomorrow.  Truly a momentous occasion!  The world of writing has never been the same. I remember very well when Sean first mentioned his idea of the site to both myself and Aaron.  I remember being excited about the idea, but also a little worried.  What the heck could I possibly write about that would be interesting to other fledgling writers like myself?  Even more frightening, I had to do it every week. A daunting task, to say the least.  Especially since I had never done anything like it before. Still, I was intrigued by the concept for the […]