Open Forum

Good morning one and all. It's open forum day, the day I set aside to talk about whatever I feel like.

Well, my new blog for Montreal City Guide will be live at 8:26 am today. It's kinda exciting really. A broad audience will read that blog and also the people I feature will likely check out my comments as well. It was a lot of fun writing it--though it took longer than I expected. I spent at least twice as much time on the City Guide blog.

I guess that makes sense. This blog is my personal space and, though I take it seriously, I know that it's not as accessible as the Montreal site is. I am also promoting Montreal on the City Guide site. I'm not really promoting anything here. Here I am connecting with other writers and anyone else who's interested.

I can imagine the diversity of people that visit the Montreal City Guide site. They may be tourists looking for accommodation and things-to-do in Montreal, Montrealers might check out the site to keep up on what's new and happenin' and web users might just come across the site from just about anywhere.

Our technological age has certainly brought people from all over the world closer together. It's really cool that I can write this blog, and the City Guide blog, knowing that I am reaching people that I would never have any contact with otherwise. People that live all over Canada, and even the world. That's pretty awesome when you think of it!

I can imagine that's what a writer feels like when they have a first book published. It must be somewhat exposing to be suddenly at the finger tips of so many people. That's the timelessness of books as well. You never know how many people will read your book and be changed by it. And you also never know how many years might go by before different people pick up your book at just the right time in their lives.

Writing is liberating, yet daunting in its responsibility at the same time.

As John Updike said so well: To be in print is to be saved.