A tiny writing corner in suburban Florida greets you

Welcome to my niche of the writing world. Does the world really need yet another blog about writing? Probably not. Is my writing so good that I can change the world? Probably not, but I know for a fact I've changed slivers of it. Do I have the most sage advice out there for up-and-coming writers? Probably not. But another perspective can't hurt.

Here's my first bit of advice: don't go into journalism. At least not the journalism as I knew it. I spent 15 years in newspapers - yeah, before the Internet even existed. Back when everyone, OK, nearly everyone in a certain age bracket, couldn't wait to hear the slam of that black-and-white roll hit their driveway before the sun came up. Those 15 years were some of the best of my life, and you'll read about some of the highlights here - the tear-jerking, the gory and the downright hair-raising.

But newspapers are cutting staff left and right because people are getting their news elsewhere and ad dollars are drying up. So if you're a news junkie, shift your thinking to another form of media - Web sites, blogging (ahem). I'm trying to stay afloat freelancing, and you'll read about the ups and down of that crazy venture here as well. Some days I think I have it made (thank you Medscape), other days, I wonder why I didn't just get a medical degree. After all, I've spent enough time with physicians and in ORs - a steady paycheck would sure be a heck of a lot easier than mining the battlefield against the other 1,543,871 freelance writers out there.

Upcoming posts - who the heck is Steph anyway, and how much is she going to write about the Orlando Sentinel since that seems to be what every former Sentinel-ite is doing these days?