You might have noticed the ole The U-Haul Diary got a facelift recently. It’s been five long and very painful … errrk, let’s do the we’re glass half-fulling it today … incredibly informative years since I had the guts to throw The UHD out into the world. Add another five plus years to figure out how to write said book … and there we go. When I started, I knew nothing. I had no idea how to be a writer. Scratch that. I knew a few things about being a writer. I had the breathing anxiously, drinking, and stressing the flip out as your finger hovered over the “Submit” button thing down. But actual writing, editing, or publishing … nope. Nopey. Nope. Nada. Proper comma locations, dangling participles (FYI, not just a fun code word for boy parts), present and past tense, third person, first person … total blank-brain chalkboard.
Confirming my suspicions, I didn’t just lose the change out of my pockets during the infamous keg stand incident of 1994, but also apparently my brain cells that held my sixth–eighth-grade English lessons. All that to say, I’ve learned a lot in the last ten years. I still don’t know jack crap about dangling anythings, and between you and me I’m sticking with this life choice. Commas are still my nemesis (Nemesi?), but what I have learned is to find a really good editor. **Cough Elizabeth Andersen Cough**
Which brings us back to the start of this party. With the ghosts of comma and bad punctuation past haunting me, we decided to pull The U-Haul Diary off the shelf, dust her off, give her a good once-over, add some lipstick, and send her back out into the world. You can find her here. With that, I want to sincerely thank everyone who overlooked her flaws the first go-around and offered so much overwhelming support and love.
I hope you enjoy or re-enjoy, learn a little, and as always—laugh A LOT!
Sincerely,
K.B.
P.S. For those of you, like me, with commitment issues feel free to read a chapter here.
