I start this blog process somewhat reluctantly. My ulterior motive won out over recommended humility: I hope to sell more of my writing and this medium is suggested as a tool.

I completed a long-overdue childhood memoir, "Walkin' Joe and The Midnight Marauders" and if you want to find out more about it, go to www.walkingjoe.com. Though I am proud of the work,  I'm a bit tired of self-promoting it. It is for sale on Amazon and can be ordered through Barnes and Noble and book stores. Amazon has it in Kindle format also.

I'll begin posting items primarily related to my "new" career as I retired from a long career in the newspaper and communications business Sept. 1, 2012.  Believing that retirement as such is hazardous, I am now writing for myself. I have about 45 years of professional writing - from basic reporting to editorials and from promotional copy to features and regular columns.

Writing is easy for me, but getting official recognition - like a publisher engaged in building a readership market - would be a goal. But I'll write regardless and balance that with exercise, reading, hiking and selected humanitarian work.

I have a simple goal: to make my little corner of this world interesting and beneficial.