I’ve written about this before, but one of my big worries as a writer has always been that I’m honestly not very well read. At least not when it comes to the literary greats like Twain and Hemingway and Vonnegut and Salinger…

I am at the very least proficient in the complete works of Adams and Barry if that counts for anything, which I kind of think should given my particular genre of choice! 😉

Last night I paid a visit to the Kerouac House over in Orlando to listen to fellow humor columnist Erik Deckers give a reading as the culmination of the residency that he just completed at the house. Between the slow death of the newspaper industry and the rise of short form humor on the Internet, I feel like humor columnists these days are kind of a dying breed, so it’s always nice to encounter someone who shares the same eccentricities that makes us pursue the writing of booger and fart jokes instead of pining away at The Great American Novel that could earn us the literary accolades that humorists rightfully deserve…

Even though I know next to nothing about Jack Kerouac except for what I’ve skimmed from the man’s Wikipedia page, it was neat to visit the quiet, little tucked away place where such a legendary icon toiled away at his own work. Despite walking in late, front and center to a room full of people, I admittedly felt a little envious of the quaint solitude that Erik had mentioned enjoying about his time there that gave him little excuse but to actually write … an environment that I personally will dream about for years to come as my own house grows busier and busier as our family continues to grow!

Although I can’t quite pin down the source, I’ve felt more motivated about writing lately than I have in a really long time and I hope that it’s something I can keep up. Just in the last week or two, I’ve pinned down two new books that I want to try and put out this summer – the first being the long-awaited Humor Collection #3 that I could’ve done years ago, but just didn’t, and then also one that’s going to be a little more personal of a story but with hopes of injecting plenty of humor into the mix, too.

If anything, I’m still trying to come to terms with what I’m supposed to be working right now, but at least I’m confident to say that as long as I’m being productive, I’m happy, and maybe in the grand scheme of things that’s enough?