ex. blog, etc - my wildest dream

Background, history, purpose, whatever...


So a thousand years ago I started my first blog.  In that blog I wanted to document my efforts to become a writer of animated cartoons.  I'd post my letters of intent, various musings on the difficulties of writing, meager attempts at poetry and other bits of hilarity as they spouted from my brilliant, fecund creativity.


Did I think it would work?  In my wildest dreams I thought it possible that some animation executive from Cartoon Network or [adult swim] or Disney or wherever might stumble across my blog and think I was hilarious.  S/he would comment to one of my posts and suggest that s/he wanted to work with me.  I would agree and begin writing scripts for his/her animated cartoon and thus become a household name.


But realistically I thought I would be lucky to capture a few followers and maybe once a week have someone comment on how I made their day or made them laugh.  Then perhaps, over time, I would develop a style and maybe get a short story or an article published in a magazine.  Then, if I was diligent and true, I would eventually hammer out a writing career.


What happened was something of a mix.  Very early in the life of my blog an animator from Austria, Florian Satzinger, commented to one of my posts that he thought we might work well together.  I wrote a script for a concept cartoon he was creating.  He liked it and asked me for another.  So I wrote another!  And thus my wildest dream of being an animation writer became a crazy reality.


But then the recession hit and Florian's concept cartoon got put on a shelf where it remains to this day.  I continued to post almost daily to my blog, but I only ever managed to attract about 3 to 5 followers and I'm pretty sure that at least two of those were my wife trying to bolster my fragile ego.


After several years of relatively diligent blogging I stepped away from the practice to focus on my other endeavors.  In addition to writing for cartoons I write articles, poems and short stories.  I also draw and animate my own cartoons as well as write and record music.  But recently I submitted an article that I thought was pretty well written to The Write Place at the Write Time, an on-line magazine and I received an unusual denial letter which included the following (poorly written) excerpt:


"Though this piece isn't quite a fit with the nature of our non-fiction section, it has a distinct 'un-average' voice. Hitting upon common concerns, you might develop your reflections in a personal format (ex. blog, etc.) to directly converse with readers in the accessible style the material is written.We wish all our submitting writers to find the right home to showcase their work in. We wish you the best of luck in all your writing endeavors."




At first I thought this was an awful idea.  Then I thought, well, maybe it's only a kind of bad idea with some merit.  Then, after pondering the idea for a month, I was convinced that there was no question that it was an awful idea.


But then I remembered my wildest dream and how it almost came true.