The Big Green House

Friday, June 13, 2003

 

That�s not writing; that�s just typing

As I believe I�ve mentioned elsewhere, my formal education was somewhat truncated in nature. I did attend college, but did not graduate. While I was there, I spent most of my time screwing around in the theater. (Not literally, I�m sad to report. My time in the theater was, by and large, a celibate time. Yet another reason why I quit.) The last English class I remember taking was, gosh, back in 1988, I think, at a junior college.

My writing is adequate at best. My knowledge of grammar, syntax and whatnot I�ve sort of picked up through osmosis from a lifetime of reading. For the most part what you see here are ever-so-slightly revised first drafts, with the occasional good line stumbled upon here and there. Because of time constraints and laziness, that�s really all I�m aiming for. This is, after all, for my own amusement.

Or so I keep claiming. The Big Green House is open to anybody with a modem, so things posted here are not exactly secret. Since I�m making it public, it follows that I want it read � otherwise I�d just scribble it down in a cheap journal stored at the bottom of my sock drawer.

Why the navel-gazing all of a sudden? My reasons are two-fold. First, I know for a fact that at least two professional editors read this bucket of tripe, one fairly regularly and the other maybe once a month. Naturally, this knowledge makes me a wee bit self-conscious from time to time. Not enough to actually clean up my act, grammatically speaking, but I am aware of my shortcomings in that regard.

Secondly, since I am shoveling these little nuggets of whatever-it-is out there for the world to feast upon and/or compost their mental garden with, maybe y�all could give me a little feedback every now and again. Everybody seems to be a little shy about leaving comments. Well, don�t be. I installed that damned Haloscan for a reason, so feel free to say something when you stop by. I�m not asking for my ass to be kissed, no more than I�m asking you to tear me a new one. Agree with me, disagree with me, just don�t throw me in that briar patch, whatever you do.

bmarkey 6/13/2003 08:31:00 PM