Introductory

I write.
I write a lot.
I have an online journal I've had for a little over eight years now that boasts a few over 5,000 entries.  5,151 as of 2:07 pm EST today to be exact.  That's about half an entry per day not counting six months worth of entries from my first effort on that site and about three months' worth of writing I lost due to a site hack back in 2004.

During the eight years I've been writing on that site I've posted numerous entries which have received "You should write a book!" comments.  I've helped friends compose letters and e-mails that resulted in "You should do this professionally!" remarks.  "You should write a book Julianne" has become somewhat of a litany in others' voices that has been echoing in my head for more than a couple years now.

In wracking my brain trying to come up with fodder for this book that Julianne "should write" I've considered everything from hack poetry to children's books to romance novels to my own autobiography to an advice/self-help book and every one of those ideas felt somehow disingenuous to me.  And they were.

Then one day it hit me (you know the 'hit' you get when you're facing east at 8 am and lo and behold there's the sun): Publish the things that have led people to say "Julianne you should write a book!"  Well, maybe not the letters and e-mails you helped with, but all those journal entries!
I've already written my book!
Now I just have to compile it, touch it up a bit here and there, and get it 'Out There'.

Which is what has me here today.
This is the compilation.
This is the touching up.
This is the 'Out There'.

After a semi-exhaustive Google Search (funny how we all know exactly what that is these days) I found this place - Writers.Com - and after carefully perusing all that was posted here about Copyrights and decided it was as safe a haven as the internet has to offer for compilation, touching up, and most importantly getting it Out There.

Consider this post the Prologue of a book.  The part where the author drones on and on about why he or she wrote what he or she wrote.  Well, you've got the "Why".  Allow me to get to the "How".  The "Style" of the thing.
I suppose if I had to define my writing style it would be "First Person Narrative".  (A few others have called it "Self-Absorbed Bullcrap" which is fine too, but that First Person Narrative thing just sounds better.)  When I was in Ninth Grade in Miss Denzler's Honors English class at Bancroft Junior High School in Omaha, Nebraska she once commented to me "You write exactly the way you speak Julianne."  And she was right - I do.  I believe the writer-ish term is "Stream of Consciousness" but it's just how I write.  Lots of dashes and parentheses and I just love a good semi-colon.  I even think paranthetically at times.  And simply I adore ellipsis!

So there ya' have it.
The Prologue.
The Introductory.
The part immediately after which I click "Save" or "Publish" or whatever I click on this site I begin thinking "What have I DONE?!"

There will be more...  I'm off to begin the compilation.