Many years ago, when I was a smoker, I had attempted to quit so many times I lost count. The reason I wanted to quit was because I hated the taste in my mouth, and the cough I had developed from smoking. All my attempts to quit seemed futile. I would quit, once for two years, and again for a period of three years, but I always went back to smoking, until one day, I came up with a plan I was sure to work. My plan was to
tell everyone who knew me that I no longer smoked, and that I would never smoke again. The idea behind the plan was that people knew me as a man of my word, and the last thing I wanted to do was show them that I was not. Well, in short, it worked, and from that day, over thirty years ago till this, I've never picked up a cigarette again, nor have I had the desire to, and so when I decided I was ready to pen that book I'd been wanting to write so very long, I decided that since my plan for stopping smoking once and for all had work so well, I would apply the same method to writing my book, and so I announced on Facebook that I was writing a book, and that I expected it to be finished within six months.
Well, I was wrong. I hadn't taken into account the prep work that would be required to write the story of my life, nor had I accounted for the thing that plagues all writers from time to time.. writer's block. In my effort to produce my book, I first ran up against quite a bit of difficulty getting information I needed from others to tell my story, and when I decided to carry on without that information, I realized that I just could not get the job done. I didn't give up... but I decided to put it on hold, telling myself that I just wasn't ready, and I've since decided that in fact, I wasn't ready.
So while I was writing my essays on Facebook, I ran into what I call the Facebook Word Police. The first time was when I referred to Kelly Ann Conway as white trash. I probably would have been ok had I not used those two words together, because Facebook's Word Police zeroed in on the combination of "white" and "trash" and assumed, I assume, that my comment was a racial remark, even though I, as a white man, made that comment about a white woman.
Then there was an incident where I reported an obvious troll who had posted some comment on one of my pieces... a comment that was only intended to harass, and perhaps make me angry. Instead of getting upset, I reported the comment, and replied to the mystery troll, "Why don't you crawl back into the hole you crawled out of.", and that was enough for Facebook to block me from posting for several days, but not enough for them to sanction the troll.
The final time Facebook blocked me from posting was after Russian invaded Ukraine, and I commented something to the effect that Vladimir Putin needed to be ended. I was so certain Facebook wouldn't find my comment objectionable, but I was wrong. They did, and this time, they blocked me for something like fourteen days, and so during those fourteen days, I decided to create a blog where I would be free to express my opinion without being censored, and I'm not sure when, but one day, the thought hit me, why not write the book on my blog. No pressure... no deadline. I knew that I didn't have the time to write a book in the way most do, devoting hours, days, weeks, months and maybe even years to finish my book, hoping a publisher would be willing to take on an unknown author, and ending up not being able to get the book published... all that time... all that effort, for what?
And so, the idea of writing my book right here on my blog made perfect sense. After all, I was doing what I've always been doing, writing. Prior to Facebook, I would write my thoughts on note pads, on scraps of paper, between the lines of books I read, on my computer, my iPad, and sometimes on my phone. So, since I was already doing that, it just made sense to carry on in the same manner I was..... share my story with those who signed up for my blog, and finally, after 80 years on the planet, share my story.
My efforts in putting this blog together, and in penning the book, all takes time and money, and frankly, my money tree stopped producing some time ago, so if you'd like to contribute to the cause, I would be most grateful, and you can do so by clicking on the link below, which will take you to my Patreon account. Any amount you donate will be appreciated, whether it be large of small, so I thank you in advance for your kindness.
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