So it begins…

Hey there, anyone! My name is Bryce and I’m pleased as heck to meet you. I say that knowing that it may be eons before anyone sees this, if anyone actually does…and that’s ok.

This blog is a place for me to practice writing about anything that comes to mind. I’ve been working on my first book for awhile now and have heard some really great advice from a few authors I really enjoy the work of. This blog is, by extension, a piece of that advice turned into something “real”.

Author John Scalzi said, essentially (sorry, Mr. S…I’m going to paraphrase here), that one should build their craft through practice. To JS: I hope you’ll forgive me for the simplification of much better worded advice. To sweeten that, allow me to say that your approach to writing has inspired me to get at least this far. I’ve gotten to meet him several times in the last decade, but the last one had him talking about the writing process in Ohio. He essentially said that he sits down at his computer and goes “what’s next?” So thank you, John Sclazi! You’ve freed me from a paralyzing fear that I couldn’t possibly do this as I do that same thing!

…and also, sorry.

I also have to credit Scalzi with some advice I recently got from him via his novel “When the Moon Hits Your Eye” which essentially said this: writing, like bread dough, can be overworked. Work on the bread but then leave it for awhile to prepare the rest of the feast. My book is starting to feel like a bread dough that will be extremely tough as I have been kneading it like crazy. This blog also exists to help me practice other things “in the kitchen” while the dough is left to rise.

Truth be told, I’ve tried a couple of blogs in the past and had little to no luck with them. First, I attempted a ‘my life’ kind of thing that started to seem a little more invasive than I liked. For the second attempt, I need to provide you with a little background. I have been a music teacher for most of my professional life (high school band and choir, ya’ll). In Kentucky, where I live, we teachers used to be forced to start our Master’s Degrees within so long of being done with our Bachelor’s or we lost our teaching license.

Maybe that just made you think, “But Bryce…a mandatory and paid Master’s Degree sounds amazing!” and to that I would agree, except only the mandatory part applied. You may watch enough of the dumpster fire that is the news cycle to know how the field of education is to have fully expected to hear that. If not…that’s public education for ya, folks.

Anyways, this mandatory Master’s had me in a Kent State University online program which asked me to have an educational blog. So…if you’re keeping score: mandatory Master’s AND a mandatory blog. This, to me, was a lot like English classes used to be in the 90’s: being convinced I hated reading as I was forced to read so many books I actively hated. No worries, Michael Crichton saved me from being illiterate!

Being forced to blog about, of all things, my 9-5 (well, more like 6:30 am to 9:00 pm on days with marching band rehearsals) was like being told that I would or wouldn’t pass English based on how well I read and interpreted The Great Gatsby.

Side note 1: I mean no hate to Fitzgerald’s classic novel, but being forced to read it at that age forever made it a hard one for me to get into.

So anyways…I wrote as much as I was required to write in that blog as described by the grading rubric. It was such a creativity stifling thing that I stopped writing for quite a while after that. I’ve since taken the book back up and now, apparently, am wondering into a blog as well.

Maybe now I should explain the blog’s title “Off Madison”. My wife and I have been teachers for over a decade. We lucked into buying a decent house in Covington, KY awhile ago as it had been flipped with no buyers for years. We got it for a steal (especially in today’s real estate market) and were able to buy it, even on our teacher salaries. The problem (and honestly probably the reason it was affordable enough for us) is that its feet away from the insanely busy Madison Avenue.

We’ve since become administrators for two separate virtual schools. I’m an assistant principal for one in Tennessee while she is the Special Education Administrator for one here in Kentucky. They’re great jobs that allow us to work for and with kids while affording us a lot more time to do things like, say, write a blog and work on a book. That being said, we still very much live on Madison Avenue with a train behind us and gas tankers flying by in front.

Side note 2: I personally LOVE the train.

I’m using this blog as practice while I write my books. My goal (as is any aspiring author’s goal) is of course to be published. If I happen to be so lucky, I hope to be successful enough in my creative endeavors to get us off of Madison. I love creating. Before now, that took the form of drawing and music composing/arranging. I’ve found that the joy I get isn’t from the medium, but from the creation itself. Combine that love with these facts: my wife would like room for a garden, our doggo’s would love room to play, and I would like to have a driveway. Thus, Off of Madison was born.

Thanks for reading and may many more posts follow this one.

Best,
Bryce Miller