Welcome to the Rest of My Life
DAY 1: Wednesday, October 1, 2025
Greetings, and welcome to Writing Another Chapter! I’m glad you’ve joined me for this new adventure. There are many millions of websites in cyberworld, and I feel honored that you’ve chosen to visit this one.
You may be wondering what this website is all about. Well, I have a little story for you. And – brace yourself – this story is sad at times. But it’s real. And that’s important to me, for reasons I will explain later in the story.
Back in my day...
Let’s travel back in time to 1973. I was a young’un then – a short, scrawny second-grader with perpetual skinned knees and abundant curiosity. In many ways, I was a lucky kid. I had a Mom and Dad who were the first and most enthusiastic supporters of my twin loves: reading and creating. Thanks to my parents, I was equipped with one of my life’s most precious possessions: a library card. Thanks to my parents, I always had art supplies and writing paper.
I also had wonderful teachers at my grade school. In 1973, when I was in second grade, my teacher was Mrs. Hoffman. She was a Green Bay Packers fan who drove a Chevy Blazer and instilled in us the value of a piece of paper. Mrs. Hoffman had a saying about paper: “Save paper, save trees.” She said it a lot. I mean, we were little kids, and we weren’t inherently conscientious about conserving paper. But over and over, Mrs. Hoffman’s voice rang through our classroom: “Save paper, save trees.” And that bit of wisdom has stuck with me for over 50 years. I still try not to waste paper, and every time I have to throw away a piece of paper, I think, I’m throwing away a piece of a tree.
By now, you may be wondering why I’m going on and on about my second grade teacher. Well, Mrs. Hoffman has a special place in my writer/artist origin story, because it was in her class that I wrote my very first book. Sadly, I don’t remember the title. However, I know I wrote it in pencil, on one of those big newsprint writing tablets with space at the top of the page for my illustrations. I know the main character was a cowboy named John Keller. I know the story had fewer than 20 pages. And I know I made the cover from green construction paper. For better or worse, that was my first book. No, I don't remember its title, but I'll never forget how fantastic it felt to have written a book!
A writer's life
I’ve written many other things in the last 52 years: a few forgettable books, but mostly other stuff: short stories; poems; scripts for sketches, short plays, and movies; newsletters; and articles for my high school yearbook (as a senior, I was editor-in-chief). I’ve written numerous research papers, dozens of presentations, and thousands of pages of journal entries. Lots of long-winded social media posts, too.
Some unfinished business
But there’s one writing project that looms larger than any of the others. It’s something I started in 2019 and still haven’t finished. It’s a novel, set in a fictional small town in the Midwest. Six years have passed, and the characters who’ve come to life inside my head still haven’t been able to share their lives with the rest of the world – because I haven’t been able to finish the doggone thing.
The “why” behind the unfinished status of my novel is complex, but the condensed version is this: the responsibilities of my personal life sapped my time and energy to the point that I didn’t have enough left over to work on the novel.
I haven’t finished that novel, but I’ve never stopped considering myself a writer. It’s been a core element of my identity since I wrote my first book in 1973. Creating that humble little construction paper-covered book was a life-changing experience. Fifty years after writing the “John Keller” story, I was dealt another life-changing experience.
It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times
In 2023, our younger son, Owen, died unexpectedly, just four weeks after his 24th birthday. The “why” behind his passing is complex, too. And for the purposes of this introductory post, the details of Owen’s death are not important.
If you’ve lived through the passing of one or more of your children, you know how awful it is. If you haven’t experienced this kind of loss, I’m glad, and I hope you never do. It sucks. The agony of losing Owen has reached depths far beyond my wildest imagination. My grief has affected me in profound ways. But…
A big "but"
Not long after Owen’s passing, I became determined that I would not be trapped in a grim emotional state forever. Owen’s death has made my life drastically different, but I’ve held onto hope, even during the roughest moments, when it felt as if I was clinging to the edge of a cliff by one fingernail. No matter how much my grief hurt, even when it was brand-new and raw, I never wanted to accept that I was destined to just spend the rest of my life in misery. Despite everything, I believed I deserved joy. I still believe it. I deserve joy, love, peace, beauty, and “best day ever” moments. And I’m determined to keep fighting to have all these, and many other amazing things, as my journey unfolds.
A path forward
Over these last two years, I've been exploring how my creative interests support my wellness along this path of grief. I've discovered that the more I write, the stronger I feel. I've realized that I feel most like my "real self" when I am creating something, whether it's an essay or a goofy little stop motion film. There's no way for me to know exactly what my path forward through this grief journey will be like, but I do know one thing: for me to live my best, most authentic life, I will need to carry my creativity with me every step of the way. My writing and artistic pursuits will help me not only survive, but thrive.
I also believe that the humble little novel I started writing in 2019 is worth finishing. It deserves to be read by someone other than myself. My characters deserve to share their stories with other people. And I know I'll feel amazing if I can complete my book. But I also know that I need to give myself a massive nudge to keep working at it on a regular basis. Accountability to others – say, readers like you – will help me do that.
The unveiling
So I'm launching this new project: my website, Writing Another Chapter. On one level, it will be a chronicle of my efforts to finish my novel by persevering until I finally get to The End. I will be doing my best to keep writing more chapters, for however long it takes me to complete my manuscript.
On a deeper and broader level, this project will reflect my ongoing experiences of writing another chapter of my life – a chapter that began the moment I found out that our son Owen had died.
"Down" is for elevator buttons, not this website
I've written some heavy stuff in this introduction, but please rest assured, the content I've planned for Writing Another Chapter is not all serious. In fact, I plan to post a lot of lighthearted stuff to balance more somber grief-related reflections. Since you're doing me the honor of reading my work, I will strive to make things interesting and even entertaining at times. I've spent months planning feature articles to include such things as: personal reflections (on grief, yes, but numerous other topics, too); observations of the ordinary aspects of day-to-day life; regular doses of “out-of-the-box” silliness and whimsy; periodic features on things that make me “geek out” (including, but not limited to: art, architecture, books, movies, TV, music, global cuisine, sports, and science); and some original cartoons and comic strips now and then.
Steering clear
Oh, by the way, if you've come to my website in search of political discourse, controversial topics, and/or analysis of current events, well… I don’t enjoy discussing those things in person, and I want this writing project to fuel my soul and nurture my wellness, rather than stress me out. So I won’t be writing anything about politics, hot-button controversial subjects, or current news stories. Offline, I deal with that stuff. But here? Nah. Ick. Nope. Yikes. Hard pass.
The road ahead
So... what's going to happen next with Writing Another Chapter? Well, I'm going to post at least one new article every week, on Wednesdays. Wonderful, wacky, wild, whimsical, weird, "whatever" Wednesdays... (see? I'm already exploring the interesting alliteration opportunities!)
I'm creating some regular features that you can anticipate seeing frequently (or even weekly, in a few cases), as well as recurring features and some special surprises. This week's publication has only this one post (insert dramatic sigh), because I still have some wrinkles to work out with my website formatting and hosting, and that's taking me longer than I had anticipated.
But one of my goals for this project is to let go of some of my lifelong perfectionistic tendencies and not get stressed out if my plan for the site doesn't unfold exactly as I'd hoped. You may see one post in a given week, or I may post five different things. Life happens. This website adventure will keep rolling along, in its beautifully imperfect form.
Tune in next time…
For next Wednesday, October 8, Writing Another Chapter will debut a monthly feature, Muppet of the Month. I’ll also introduce you to a couple of regular weekly features: Flavor of the Week (you’ll find out what that’s about when it’s posted) and Soundtrack of My Life. Finally, I’ll follow through with my accountability element by posting an update about my writing activities (especially my work on the novel I’m determined to finish). I’m calling that regular feature Write On.
You're cordially invited!
I invite you to subscribe to my emailing list, if you'd like. It's free! And I won't spam you or share your information. No pressure, though. Eventually, I hope to have some cool bonus features for subscribers. Like a fun little newsletter, maybe. For now, I'm not offering any "extras" for subscribers. And contrary to what you may see in a "subscribe" box on this website, there are no "members-only articles" at this point. I'm starting slowly with this project and just focusing on producing decent content, article by article.
What's in a name?
One last thing... for my handle on this website, and for the pen name I'm using for my novel, I’ve chosen the name BJD Phoenix. "B" is the first letter of my mom's last name at birth – my maternal grandparents' last name (call me weird or whatever, but I've never liked the term "maiden name"). "J" is the first letter of my legal first name, the name Mom and Dad chose for me. "D" is the first letter of my dad's last name (and his parents' last name). So "BJD" connects me to my parents and grandparents, all of whom have left this earthly plane. I owe so much to all of them, and I hope to pay tribute to them by the work I do in bringing this website to you week after week.
"Phoenix" connects me to the mythical bird. I’ve risen from the ashes in my life journey, and I will rise again and again, from the ashes of whatever rough times may lie ahead.
I'm grateful to you for reading this far. I hope you'll return.
Wishing you peace, love, and joy!
☮️💜😎~BJD Phoenix