Today, I wrote about the death of Jimmy Shirah, a Destin resident who passed away early Monday morning.
It’s the kind of story I dread.
Not because I knew him, but because I feel so awkward approaching people who’ve had a close friend or family member die and asking them to talk about him.
And because I feel a real pressure to do a good job on the story. Not that I don’t normally do a good job, but the last thing anyone needs is to open the Log and see a story that comes off disrespectful to their deceased spouse, kid or close friend.
And, of course, writing about people passing on always makes me conscious that I may not have as much time as I think I do, which is an unsettling realization to have.
Doesn’t make the job of writing the stories any less necessary though.

When you’ve written one of, or possibly the most popular series of books ever, what do you do for an encore?
Along with millions of other people, I’m looking forward to the finishing volume of the Harry Potter series, but as a writer, I’m also fascinated by what this must feel like for JK Rowling herself.
I’d like to think that becoming a fabulously wealthy, internationally famous best-selling author (I’ve read that the New York Times created a Children’s Best Sellers list because publishers were frustrated that Rowling’s books took up so many slots on the regular fiction list) feels terrific, but where does Rowling go from here? What does she write next?
Whatever she writes, I’m sure it’ll sell: Her fan base is in the millions. And as one of the world’s wealthiest people, she has the freedom to write anything she wants without worrying about whether it will pay the bills.
But on the other hand, everything she writes will be judged against the seven volumes of Harry’s adventures: Is it as good? Is it as successful? While HP isn’t my favorite fantasy work, it is for millions of Rowling fans: Even if her next book is amazing, will it capture their hearts if it’s not about Harry?
If I were in that position, I’d find it intimidating to know that the bar was set so high, especially since I’d set it myself.
Some authors have been in that position and hated it: Arthur Conan Doyle would have much preferred one of his historical novels, such as “The White Company” be the work he’s remembered for, rather than Sherlock Holmes.
Then again, I’d certainly jump at the chance to create a character as successful as Holmes or Harry, even if it meant the rest of my books were neglected. Endless “Well, I didn’t like it as much as …” comments in return for one true classic isn’t a bad trade-off.
So what will Rowling do next? She could spin off adventures in the Hogwarts world and probably sell well for years. She could switch to some completely different field, to minimize how much her next book will be compared with the Harry Potter novels. Maybe she has something in mind she believes will do even better than Harry.
I look forward to finding out.

I love good writing.

Not just the pleasure of reading a good story well-told, but I like reading something and realizing it’s actually written well: The word choice, the tone, the metaphors, the pacing and rhythm can all make something more interesting to read, just as clunky, awkward phrasing and delivery can make even a good piece bad.

This is just as true when writing about issues or ideas, which is why Martin Luther King’s speeches (and some of JFK’s) are still powerful to read 40 years later. Not just the ideas they express, but the way they’re expressed.

Three examples (though not from Kennedy or King in this case)

•Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison on the fight against slavery:

“I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hand of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest—I will not equivocate— I will not excuse —I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.
With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost.”

•HL Mencken on then-President Warren G. Harding:

“He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm of pish, and crawls insanely up to the topmost pinnacle of tosh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash.”

•And Frederick Douglass on fighting for justice:

“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation…want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters…. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

Or to put it another way, why am I blogging here?
The answer—admittedly not a terribly complex one—is that I enjoy it. I already have one personal blog, and a second relating to my freelance writing and I’ve no qualms about adding a third.
Blogging for me is a lot like letter-writing, and I like writing letters (ditto email). If I’d lived about 150 years ago, I’d be one of those Victorian writers who have their collected letters put out after their deaths in three volumes (let’s assume for convenience that I would have actually accomplished enough to make publishing my letters of interest).
Posting a blog is a lot like a letter, but one sent out into cyberspace rather than to a particular person (my personal blog, with a readership of maybe a dozen, is an exception). There are pluses to this: I can blog at length about something like buying a backpack or a weekend getaway, knowing that anyone who finds it boring will just skip the post, whereas in conversation I’d be worried people were just feigning interest (”No, please tell us more about what you had for lunch in Normandy, it’s … fascinating.”).
For anyone who likes my column at The Destin Log (or hates it), this will probably turn out a lot less political; I spend enough time being outraged as it is, and I don’t need to brood here as well. Though this might be a good place to post really brief topics that deserve coverage, but can’t carry a full column.
And I won’t be tackling local politics. Since that’s my regular beat, it wouldn’t be good form to both report on it and write commentary.
I’m thinking of this blog more as a patchwork: Some personal stuff, some politics, something about writing (which I love), something about reading (which I love to). We’ll see how that works out in practice, I guess.