More Wonderful Writers Take the Leap
As Steady March To Digital Continues

I'm blessed to know more than my share of writers. They come in all shapes, sizes and colors, they live in every possible corner of the country (though the majority, naturally, are in my region) and they write in every imaginable genre, for every imaginable outlet. Knowing them all and listening to and learning from their struggles and their successes is easily among the greatest joys of my life.

Two more of those old writerly comrades have recently launched their own blogs, which I hope you'll occasionally sample. Richard Andrews is a guy I've known for many years. I first met him when I came across a fascinating little paper called The Real Deal, which he founded and for which he served as lone writer, publisher and ad salesman. It covered Cleveland's minority community (and much more), serving as something of a livelier, smarter alternative to the Call & Post. I was so taken with the paper that I promptly called him to chat. We subsequently became fast friends, the kind of friends who have a mind meld during their first conversation, and keep talking for the rest of their lives. While The Real Deal no longer exists as a print newspaper, now it lives on (with the same name) in blog format. Happily, Richard now shares office space with me, just eight feet down the hall, which allows me to walk down and chew the fat or seek his input on something I'm writing. It's brightened my days considerably.

Then, just today, I got an email from my friend Mike Quinn, who spent several years at John Carroll, where he wrote lively articles for the university website and other venues. While still the resident digital guru for JCU, he was nice enough to arrange for the taping and web streaming of a talk I gave on campus about blogging some time ago. He told me that he had occasion to listen to that talk again recently, and promptly decided to begin a blog of his own, about writing for the ear, a subject close to my heart. I know he'll be leveraging his decades of experience as a script writer to share pearls of wisdom with his new online audience.

Finally, we come to Kristen Hampshire, as lovely a writer as she is a person. KH, recognized not long ago by the Press Club of Cleveland as the best freelance writer in Ohio, has long had an interesting blog. But she recently bumped up her online presence considerably with this all-purpose website, which includes her blog, an article archive, information on her books, commercial copywriting practice and more. I hope you'll take a look around there as well. Kris, a new member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, attended her first ASJA conference last month in New York. I was set to go as well (looking forward to hanging out some with her), but had to drop out at the last minute due to a freak stay in the hospital. So now I'm really looking forward to hearing her report on how things went in her inaugural conference.

Anyway, please join me in celebrating these fine folks and marvelous writers in their new pursuits. May they all be the beginning of even larger future successes.