Saturday, January 06, 2007

When you write, you need a place that works well for you

LA MANZANILLA, Jalisco, Mexico - This website has been dormant for a long time, while I have been busy writing for money for news companies, including Reuters. I covered a federal terrorism trial for them and learned that daily wire service copy is hard duty. I knew it when I took the job but forgot about having to run for elevators and rude FBI agents who would just as soon push you down a flight of stairs as say hello.

But I believe the website will be revived this spring when I teach magazine writing again at my university and for sure when I finally leave the employ of the university. I hope to make this website part and parcel of that class. Watch for some interesting postings.

Right here in Mexico, I find that my desire to hit this keyboard - and write all kinds of stories and articles and ??? is high.

Here's palapa where I am writing from right now, during the day.

Our seaside villa
Palapa in La Manzanilla

In the brief time I have been here (less than a week) I have written an article for a boating magazine, six stories about education and have several query letters ready to go out to magazines for stories I would like to write in the spring, when (alas), I will not be in Mexico but back in Sacramento.

All of these stories, of course, are for money.

More on all that later.