Writing in 2009 (Not Only)

I didn't end up graduating with the English degree I never declared, but I came out of high school knowing the nuances around participles and gerunds. I haven't seen Charlie Kaufman's new one yet, but I knew what a synecdoche was when I heard the title. As I climb over the boxes of notebooks in my closet, ex-Austin tech writer Marion Winik always pops into my head, talking about being one of those kids who stored milk crates full of spiral-bounds. I wrote cowboy stories in first grade, stick-figured protagonists with stetsons and circle hands, fingers popping out like Keith Haring sunbeams. Wrote for the school newspaper. Fattened envelopes to friends scattered about the world.

I wrote articles and copy for New Texas Magazine during its 25th-anniversary heyday. I've been writing web site content, and documenting software development lifecycle drama, since 1997. I haven't been short on paid gigs - what I lack is the constitution and cred enjoyed by writers who publish. Original works, born from the cracklings between their eyes.

I've yet to write just to have published something my own. It haunts me. I need 2009 to be different.