Hi, I'm Jon. You may remember me from such blogs as, well, this one, and some of you from real life. It's probably a faint memory at this point, since I haven't posted since April.
Why the long absence? I'm not sure I can pin it to any one thing, although I don't think it's a coincidence that I started reading George R. R. Martin's "A Game of Thrones" about a week after my last post. I'm not blaming him, but it's not the sort of book you put down once you start. And once I was finished with it (in record time for me), there were three more, right there. I got to the end of book 4 just as the long-awaited book 5 was released, one thing led to another, and 4,800 pages later here I am. Don't worry, I'm not going to review the thing. There have been probably as many words written about the saga as are actually in it, and it seems unlikely that I'd be able to add any thoughts that could be considered "new." But getting back on point, George R. R. Martin is personally to blame for the lapse.
That's not entirely true. I have lots of other things going on--heavier responsibilities at the paying job, coaching little league and various other dad stuff, traveling--but it's not like that's a new development. The truth is that writing anything for the last 6 months has felt like way more of a chore than it should be. I love doing this, but for some reason it just seemed like a big weight to lift. And the longer I let it sit there, the heavier the weight got, much like cleaning the garage. That's the big reason I'm back here now--I realized that I'd started equating writing with menial household labor. This cannot stand.
So I'm back. I even have some things that can roll out immediately that have been hanging around for 6 months (man, I couldn't even post stuff I'd already written). Keep an eye on this space. Send me encouragement. Send me ideas for articles. I have some--I'll take more.
-Jon
Welcome back, Jon. Glad to see you have rediscovered your love for writing.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Karen. And thanks for sticking around to read it!
ReplyDeletejk - strangely, I read the 1st 4 books of that series this spring/summer as well. I haven't read book 5 yet, though.
ReplyDeleteI have sort of mixed feelings about it - book 1 was great and sucked me in, but then... (maybe book 3?), all the main characters (at least in my mind) were dropping like flies, and I started having trouble following the gazillion different character plots.
anyway, glad you're back.
m2f,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the sentiment. I agree it gets hard to keep track of. For my money I think I like #2 the best, but 3 was pretty epic. A lot of people were livid after reading 4, since it was basically half a book. And then they were more livid for having to wait 6 years for #5.
The last one is pretty great...you should make time. You know, in between captaining and helms-a-leeing and whatnot.