This is a real blog post.

{ April 7, 2009 @ 10:50 AM } · { Uncategorized }
{ Tags: introductions }

First of all, let me say this to get it out of the way: I absolutely suck at anything web. This is my first real attempt at creating a website and since I’m somewhat html illiterate (I can make things bold and italic, underline stuff, upload a picture and embed a video, but that’s about the extent of it) I would like to apologize if the site doesn’t quite look professional. Still, I like it so far. Perhaps one day when I win the lottery or write a bestseller that I can sell to Hollywood to butcher, I can pay someone to design it for me. But for now, this will have to do.

So this is me introducing (or re-introducing) myself to the world. My name is MJ. I am thirty-four years old (most of the time). I manage a restaurant. That’s my day job. I am also an aspiring writer. That’s my night job. I know, I know. There are about a million aspiring writers in the world and if any of you have made your way here,  it’s a pleasure to meet you and I share your pain. Grab a cup of coffee and come sit by me. Together we can bitch about the frustrations of our demons and tear our hair out. By the end of the week we should have a pile of hair large enough to donate to charity. Or choke a really large cat.

Now, when I say writer, I mean I am a novice. I do not yet have a ton of work to share with the world unless you count the terrible poetry I wrote in high school. Twenty years ago I was very passionate about it; one of my poems even made its way into my high school anthology (but not without some controversy and an invitation to speak with the school counselor–it was in the form of a suicide letter). Then, for some reason or another, I decided to spend twenty years obsessing over really petty shit and basically making an unnecessary mess of myself and my life. I like to call it research. Yes, that makes my growing up sound much more sophisticated. Anyway, getting back to my roots is long overdue, but I’ve always been a late bloomer, and that’s that.

On the other side of the actual writing itself, there’s a way to get it out there. I admit this idea makes me nervous, since I’ve never been good at the whole self-confidence thing. I figure if there’s one person in the world who might be interested in what I write, it’s worth making an entire website and blog so I can share my writing and talk about my freak-outs during the writing process. Enter myoclonictwitch.com and this here blog on wordpress. I honestly have no idea what I’ll put here, but I’m sure it will be a mix of quotes and passages from writers I admire, links, pictures, brainstorming and overall random thoughts. All I can promise is I will do my best to make it coherent.

As for what I’m working on right now, I have two projects going. One is a short story called “The Price of Coattails” and the other is an as yet unnamed comic. Yes, comic. The idea for the comic actually started as a novel several years ago, but as I got deeper into the comic genre I got it in my head that the story would work better this way. It’s definitely a challenge. I’ve written stories and poetry but never a comic. The short story has the bulk of my attention right now. I don’t write poetry anymore.  I’m terrible at it.

So now I’m off to get cup of coffee number two and get to work. Again, it’s a pleasure to meet you (or see you again) and thanks for stopping by.