Welcome to WriteNow!

[Chuck Stromme]

I'm Chuck Stromme. I created WriteNow! to give us a place to write and to share our writing, our thoughts about writing and on life in general. Yes, I'm a writer of sorts. I fancy myself an essayist and, on rare occasions, a poet. I'll be posting occasionally along with you.

What can you write here? Pretty much anything you want: Essays, fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, news articles and commentary. We'll organize by author's name and type of work. We don't have the space or time for complete books but if you want to share a chapter of what you've written, feel free.

What else? We're in the start-up phase right now. If you found WriteNow this soon it was probably sheer chance. As long as you're here though, please sign up and I'll let you know as this thing develops.

Rules? Gotta have 'em these days. I'll keep them simple and understandable and lay them out somewhere else. First and foremost, be nice. If you don't play well with others and you can't change your ways, this may not be the forum for you. No outrageous or gratuitous profanity allowed, no porn or near-porn, no flame wars or name-calling. No discrimination on any grounds, although writing about discrimination is certainly allowed and encouraged.

Lots more soon. Please bookmark WriteNow! and visit and participate often.

Chuck

[LC-Hawk]

It is just past midnight on New Year's eve. Welcome to 2009!
I am sitting in my living room. My son and a friend are playing one of those video games that you sing and/or play musical instruments. The room is littered with fake guitars, drum sets and microphones as rock music fills the room.
My son is very good at playing the "fake" guitar. I discovered, this evening, that he is also a very good singer! Although I think he should finish law school and save his singing career for Friday night Kereoke bars.
Watching the boys, I fondly remembered my first video game, "Pong". I also remembered the night my niece was born, some thirty years ago, when my brother-in-law and myself were celebrating in a bar and saw the most amazing video game. Little did I know that it was the beginning of a revolution that would lead to this evening's entertainment.
On the screen were these little figures that actually moved around, playing baseball. You could control the picher, hitters and fielders! Nobody we knew believed us, the following day, when we tried to describe what we had seen. Everyone just assumed we had more to drink that we would admit.
There is no point to this trip down memory lane. It just struck me how things have changed.

And, just this moment, one of his friends said he needed water. My response was, "I believe the water is still in the car" (referring to cases of bottled water). My son responded, "we have this amazing new technology. In the kitchen is a sink, you turn the handle over the sink, and water comes out!"
Aside from my son having a smart mouth (must be his mother's side of the family), it reminded me that 30 years ago I would never have believed I would be paying for water in a bottle when I was already paying to have it piped into my home!
What changes can I expect THIS year?

[Chuck Stromme]

Nice introspective story, Steve. I can identify with it. Our SIL Rob, recently back from Iraq, is supposed to be good at whatever that fake guitar is called. I've seen it but I haven't played it. Loved the Heidi Klum ad, though. In fact, I just googled it and watched it again. Bob Seger never looked like that.

Our son Jim loves Guitar Hero (I cheated and looked at the ad, Heidi Klum was all I could remember) and I guess it's all the rage. I remember scratching out folk songs on a cheap acoustic in the 1960s. The nineteen-frickin'-sixties. What a difference. Pong? That I could play but who would believe that anyone ever wanted to? Part of getting older is how interesting it is to look back if you don't take it all too seriously. My overwhelming thought was: You're home at midnight on New Year's Eve, playing with your son and at least one other youngster. You win at the game of life.

I'm new at all this. If I knew more I'd move this to one of the named forums, maybe Autobios, where more people will see it. It deserves a read.

Thanks for the welcome to 2009. I think I'll stay. "Made it through another on the Northern Plain". Thank you, Ian Tyson. No, Cottage Grove didn't move to the Northern Plain, I just like the sentiment.

And a little nostalgia to close:

Call me a relic, call me what you will
Say I'm old-fashioned, say I'm over the hill
Today's music ain't got the same soul
I like that old time rock n roll

Chuck