5:08 PM - Greetings from the flip side, people!
Current mood: breezy
Category: Travel and Places

Howdy.

Long time, no blog. Does anyone remember lil' old V?

Good.

I'll cut right to the chase here because I'm supposed to be working just now (I'm finishing up a new nonfiction book proposal that I was supposed to send off to the publisher like, last week. Heh....no one procrastinates quite like I do. It's an art form...)...

....when I was at the height of my infinate blog-coolness (last century some time), I had quite a few offers from a number of my subscribers, inviting me to come visit them in their natural habitats and stay with them for a weekend, see the sights of a new city, meet new people I've only known in virtual form thus far and generally bond in a cool, non-retarded, isn't-it-keen-that-we're-hanging-out-now-when-yesterday-we-only-knew-each-other-across-the-interweb kind of way.

Neat-o, right? I thought so.

However, I hadn't the opportunity to take anyone up on that offer at the time due to the crushing restraints of a nine-to-five, soul-sucking, rat-race-losing, office monkey-type job that had to be constantly appeased lest it render me paycheckless and destitute. Sad to say, I still worship at the copy machine alter of my day job, but (as previously alluded to) I'm putting together a nonfiction book proposal that, if picked up by my publisher, will allow me to throw off the shackels of office servitude and pitch me out onto the open road to finally write my travel book.

I'm traveling to St. Augustine in three weeks time to write a preliminary chapter for the publisher (first taste is free...after that, they have to buy my soul, I mean, offer me a contract...). St. Augustine is, admitedly, not the hippest locale in the world, but it has a lot of what I was looking for in a starting point....namely that it's close, can be "done" in an office long-weekend, has a reasonably decent amount of non-touristy tourist spots, and sports a nice little bed and breakfast with a mini bar that won't mind if I steal the towels. I'm excited beyond words.

For the rest of the book, I intend to span the country end to end, from Florida across the vast wasteland that is Texas, to the beaches of my homestate of California, up the gorgeous Pacific coast to Washington, fend my way backwards down the homesteading trails of the uppermidwest to Colorado, through the fruited plains to Chicago and Cleaveland, on to New York City, then down the Appalacians to DC and homeward bound again. It's going to be a gas.

All of this made possible by a book deal that is no sure thing, of course, but we're thinking positively and keeping our fingers crossed (do you have any idea how hard it is to type like that? Uhh, owie...).

All of this brings me to my central point, which is this:
Along the way, I'd love to devote some time to writing about how the digital age has brought the people of America closer together than ever before, as illistrated by the notion that even though I've never been to most of the 48 lower states, no matter where I could choose to go on an expansive road trip of this great land of ours, I know people everywhere. We all do. Teh Interweb has made it possible to connect with people we never could have known before and, ironically enough, to feel closer to them than half the people we choose to associate with in our "real" lives. Even though I'm tossing a bag in the back of my car and taking off into the great unknown...essentially disconnecting from life and throwing rigid plans and schedules to the wind, I'm still as connected as if I were sitting in my home office because wireless internet, email, cell phones and the like keep us constantly attached regardless of our physical location.

I'm essentially writing a humorous look at the young, modern road trip, and that now includes a digital link-up. What better way to illistrate that then creating destination points among my blog readers and digital friends? I'd love to see if there is anyone (in fact, as many of you as I can get) willing to invite me into their world for a day or two along the way....to show me the cities they live in, the interesting tidbits that make people from different regions so proud to call their unique home, home.

....and of course be willing to let me write about it.

Sound good? I hope so. This is going to be a facinating journey and I'd be squeaky-glee happy if some of you would join me in making it happen.

If anyone is interested, you can comment here, or message  me privately. I have no official timeline yet as, obviously, I have to get this idea picked up by the publisher first. I'm hoping to get it all underway as soon as possible but in the torturously slow world of publishing, "soon" is a desperately relative term.......

  -V.

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