During the pandemic, I spent my personal creative time writing about cemeteries, and it’s high time I re-enter the world of the living.
Pure dumb luck, not a topical tie-in to the potential apocalypse, led me down that path. I write about Liberty Bell Replicas, and in March of 2020, I started the first in a six-part series on graveyard bells. I questioned my faith, waxed nostalgic about Evel Knievel and discovered the institutional crookedness of the deathcare industry. So when an old BizCult* colleague turned me on to a new writing community, #Ship30for30, I was all in.
Along with 400+ ShipMates, I’ll be posting an essay a day for the next 30 days.
It’s not perfectionism, imposter syndrome or lack of things to write about holding me back. It’s the absence of community and accountability. I’m excited to write 250 words on the en dash, the curse of the shitty delegator, how an invisible puppet helped our creative agency manage scope creep, that time the Liberty Bell spread the gospel of mental health and my affinity for Pete Rose.
I’ll consider #Ship30for30 a success if I stick to it, have fun, meet some cool folks and get comfortable posting pictures of words on Twitter. If you’re visually impaired, want to Google-translate to another language or prefer your text in old-fashioned HTML, I’ll post business-related essays to ToolboxCreative.com and the rest to TomLovesTheLibertyBell.com.
Before even publishing my first essay, I’ve been writing and thinking with more fluidity, excitement and ease. Ahoy.
*Term of endearment