Finding My Ticket to Write

   I first started thinking about doing a blog about my travels and writing last October at a conference of the Society of American Travel Writers in Manchester, England.  Shel Holtz, a communication and technology consultant who wrote the book “Blogging For Business,” led one of the professional development sessions.

   Now it’s fair to say, and I don’t think Mr. Holtz would disagree, that he is a man who has drunk the Kool-Aid. He’s taken the bait.  He’s gone over to the Dark Side.

   Holtz is a fanatic for the power of and potential for blogging.  My notes from the session say that he reads something like 600 blogs a day.  Now I don’t know if that is humanly possible, but hopefully mine is one of them.  I’m just glad that it’s one of yours.

    Anyway, all of his comments were bouncing around in my head the next day as a group of us writers spent the day exploring in nearby Liverpool.  All of the blogging dialogue on one side of my brain became entwined with “the merseybeat,” that fabulous rhythm brought to the world by John, Paul, George and Ringo….and I decided that the name of my blog would be “Ticket to Write.”

   Get it?

  “She’s got a ticket to wri-i-i-te…”

    If I had paid closer attention to Mr. Holtz, I might have learned how to insert sound here, so you’ll just have to hum along.  As it turns out, “I think I’m gonna be sad…” because someone else already had snagged the domain for “Tickettowrite.com.”  So instead, the cyber world gets Diana’s Destinations – maybe somebody will write a song by that title … ya think?

    However, all was not lost from my visit to Liverpool.  It was John Lennon’s 67^th birthday that day, and thus the lead to a story that runs in the July issue of a fabulous new publication called Kansas City Urban Times.  This month marks the one year anniversary of Urban Times, so if you’re in town, pick up a free copy at any of the stands around downtown or stop by the office at 1819 Wyandotte and join me, John, Paul, George and Ringo in singing…

You say it’s your birthday
It’s my birthday too–yeah
They say it’s your birthday
We’re gonna have a good time
I’m glad it’s your birthday
Happy birthday to you!