A beginning, an end, and new directions.

It wasn’t until late in 2003 that I joined some of my old San Jose State University journalism cohorts and others in writing columns for this website.  Ron Miller and the “founding fathers” (yes, they were all male to begin with) created TheColumnists.com four years earlier.  I’ve known Ron for many years (in fact he married one of my college roommates!).  I also went to school with Jerry Nachman, another ‘founder,’ and a couple of the other writers.

It took me awhile to find my ‘niche’ in this writing collective.  Because I was traveling a lot at that time and had sold a couple of travel articles to newspapers, I thought that would become my specialty.  But I soon realized that just writing about travel was too restrictive.  Besides, other writers also wrote columns about their own travel experiences.

So, after trying out a few styles, I found that what I liked to write about most was…..me!  No surprise considering that my daughters have always considered me a diva.  But one of my favorite columnists is Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle.  He, like his cohort before him, Adele Lara, wrote what I’d call personal essays.  Jon never seems to know when an idea will strike him for a column, but when it does, he says he jots down a quick note on a sticky or something and files it away for the future.  I do the same thing, except that when I get an idea, I type a couple of words in an email and then file it in a computer folder labeled “Columnists.com.”

What I love about the personal essay, other than that it mostly allows me to write about me, is that – unlike my former occupation as a newspaper reporter — the usual rules of writing can be broken.  Fragments of sentences, for instance, are OK.  Exclamation marks, long considered something to be used only in dire circumstances, can be sprinkled liberally throughout a personal story! (Like that!)

In the past decade I’ve written about such diverse topics as tea, my wild-and-crazy dreams, country music stations way out in the boondocks, baseball players and their quirks, timeshares, RVs, stamps, the demise of newspapers, the joys of reading, what old folks talk about (the weather and everybody’s health), some of the unique cars I’ve owned, appreciating aerobics, toilets, Siskel & Ebert, “Jeopardy” (yes, the TV game show), sunshine, Zimbabwe, lots of stories about acting and the theater, and many more about the joys and pitfalls of aging.  I even wrote one column about what I wanted to have happen after I kicked the bucket!  Re-reading it now, I’m thinking that I still feel the same way about most of what I wrote, but I think I want to go back and tweak it a bit.

I’ve written some very personal things as well: My childhood remembrances of my stepfather Wes, the sorrow of losing my husband, Ray, the immense excitement and happiness at (finally!) having a grandson, and my good fortune in finding a late-life love to share my life.

Most people probably wouldn’t feel comfortable writing about such private matters, but that’s what a personal essay is: It’s personal.  And although it’s only about me, the writer hopes that readers will be able to identify with some of it in their own lives.

All told, I’ve written slightly more than 70 columns.  Not a very prodigious amount for 10 years.  By comparison, some writers (especially editor Ron) wrote several each edition so my total looks mighty minuscule.

It’s been a rewarding experience in many ways.  I’ve enjoyed the interactions with most of the other columnists, took pleasure in reading many of their columns and felt the kinship of other writers for the first time since I was a news reporter in the city room of a daily paper.  Even more important, this vehicle provided me with an outlet for the thoughts, opinions and causes I believe in.

So now it’s time to move on.  But it’s with a lot of fondness that I say adieu to TheColumnists.com.  Its ilk won’t come this way again anytime soon.

As with a number of the other columnists, I’ll continue to write, whether or not it’s for pay, in a newspaper or digital or a hybrid of both.  When someone loves and lives to write, you just can’t stop. Most of the other columnists also will find new ways to be creatively industrious.

As for me, I’ll continue to give my professional opinions via theater reviews and work on some longer pieces for the writing collective of which I’m a member.

Is there the makings of an entire book churning somewhere inside me?  Well, if so, it will have to be my memoirs!

Oh, yeah.  Once a diva, always a diva.