Tuesday, June 12, 2012

My Blogging Future

Last week at our annual conference I met several people who kindly commented on my Together column.  "I enjoy reading your column," some said; while others told me, "I read your column first thing."  Well, okay then.

I also met some folks who said to me, "Hey, aren't you that guy who writes that column?"  Funny thing what a photo can do.  I should have worn dark sunglasses.

A few other people also told me that they read my blogs and they wondered what else I was working on in the future.  I told them I am already looking ahead to 2013 and have several new ideas.

But I'm not sure how well any of these would be received.  Tell me what you think:

Coming Out of the Closet
     This blog would allow me to clean out some of the boxes in my writer's closet, and would feature the old writing I would dig up:  the unpublished work I've accumulated over the years and shoved into the nooks and crannies of my closet (and my hundreds of floppy disks).  Question is:  since so much of this work was rejected by dozens of editors, who would want to read it now? Does the attic have any relevance (unless you are Emily Dickenson)?

Some Guy's Love Poems
     Okay, here's the deal.  I have, for many years now, written love poems to my wife.  Most of these poems she has never read.  Would she read this blog?  I'm sure I could find 300+ decent love poems to post on this blog in 2013 (including a goodly number that were published and that padded my bank account but my wife still hasn't read!).  But who the heck wants to read the love poems I write to Becky (besides the editors who are sometimes willing to pay me)?

Church Chat
     The magazine I miss writing for the most is The Wittenburg Door: The World's Pretty Much Only Magazine of Religious Satire.  The Door went out of business (again) a few years ago and I've been in mourning and remission ever since.  I began writing for the magazine when Mike Yaconelli served as editor, continued to contribute when Joe Bob Briggs and Bob Darden began editing, and was holding out hope that Ole Anthony and The Trinity Foundation would be able to keep the magazine solvent . . . but it was not to be.  I have dozens of published pieces I could glean from the magazine (and to which I still hold the rights) and dozens more that I either wrote for The Door or could create fresh for a new day.  Question is:  would anyone want to read religious satire--and my fun take on the church, pastors, televangelists, etc.--and actually laugh with it?  This from a pastor who once received a note from Ole Anthony informing him that one of my Door pieces had offended Tony Campolo (Tony C. called The Door office demanding my head on a platter!) and another editorial note telling me that one of my pieces could not be published because even The Door felt it would be too incendiary . . . and that's why they were publishing it, and great job!  I loved being on assignment for The Door, too . . . and I suppose I'd be willing to write a religious satire blog if folks would read it (and get it!).  

So there you have some of my 2013 meanderings.

Anything interesting here?

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