In a month or so, I’ll be off to a conference for English teachers, and of course, this meant I had to think up something to present. As a result, I am about knee-deep into another writing project, though this one has nothing to do with arts and crafts. This is not necessarily a bad thing though.

If you don’t count writing up assignment instructions, power point presentations, or handouts for my classes, then just about all I seem to write about any more is related to crafting. As I was pounding away on the keyboard a few days ago, popping back and forth from my sources I had researched and thinking about my approach to this un-crafty type topic, I realized how much I really enjoyed writing, period.

I particularly enjoy the process when I’m invested emotionally in a topic. This article I’m writing now is sort of a second chapter or continuation of one I wrote a little over a year for a book on Florida culture (Florida in the Popular Imagination: Essays on the Cultural Landscape of the Sunshine State). Because the topic is fairly timely – the Space industry on Florida’s Space Coast – a year later the paradigm has shifted, which means I have more to talk about 😉

After I write and present this, it may not amount to anything else. The conference does publish a small selection of articles, but I am not counting on mine being picked. In fact, I know I will be presenting to a mainly liberal audience who knows little (and probably cares even less) about the space industry and who thinks our president walks on water, so I may have to dodge a few piece of rotten fruit during my presentation.

Anyway, this has really made me start thinking lately about writing in general. Don’t get me wrong. While right now it is nice to not be working on another jewelry book, I do expect to write others at some point of time, even if it means self-publishing. But, I think I need to really start thinking about other writing projects, if for no other reason than to do it for myself.