Sometimes I click on my own blog to see if I’ve written anything new. And the answer is always a resounding no. How dare I!

If you want to read me, head over to the Chicago Tribune where I have an article today.

Where have I been hiding? Right here behind the monitor of my laptop whiling away on assignments for my personal essay writing course. What I’m realizing is that everything is fodder for possible publication somewhere, and if I publish it on the blog it’s null and void.

Did you know that when you hit “publish” on your blog software that the mainstream publishing world takes that quite literally?

So all my ideas are tucked neatly into Word documents in various folders saved on my favorite technological accessory/necklace — my beloved jump drive — and the world is none-the-wiser. Yet.

As for the class - it’s fabulous. I feel like the kid in the front row going “Oooh! Oooh! Oooh!” with all my posts to the course bulletin board and emails to the teacher. I figure I’m also just about as annoying as that person, but in an online course I can’t see the other students rolling their eyes and talking behind my back. I tend to be rather resolute when I get going. I am bound and determined to make this writing thing my fulltime gig — or at least give it the ol’ college try. Not that writing or researching or editing at least 6 hours per day isn’t as full-time as I can handle, it is, but I want to make money at it. So I’m in the process of figuring out how I can do what I want and make money doing it without becoming or succombing to any early morning infomercials.

I hope to peek back into my blog now and then, and when I do, I hope you’ll all say boo.