DMV

Yesterday I took up a hard plastic chair on the north side of our local DMV office, plugged in my iPod and tried not to make eye contact with anyone. (If you've hung out at the DMV or your local Greyhound Bus terminal recently, you understand defensive moves.)

This is my fourth week in a row in this stand of chairs. I'm here because my 17 year old son is trying to pass the test to get his learner's permit.

Four times sounds pretty bad. But really, he only tried three of those times. He didn't study for the first test because, he felt he didn't need to -- that driving is all common sense. For test two, I think he fell asleep halfway through the book. Test three was the most humiliating. He really did study for it and he really knew the answers... they just psyched him out with some trick answers that sort of sounded right.

He was so upset after test 3 that he declared on the ride home, "that's it! I just won't drive."

The whole test three experience was traumatic -- before because he was nervous... during because I was nervous... and after because he was crushed. But this is what a parent does. You gut through the tough stuff for your kid and hopefully he learns something as a result.

We persevered to week four.

Week four had an auspicious beginning... I picked him up from school and he was in a great mood. He slung his arm around me, looked me in the eye and said he appreciated me taking time out from work to do this with him again.

Wow! A thank you AND a smile. How could we lose?

We couldn't and we didn't and I would've gone for week five if I had to because... well, that's just me!

MediaSherpa

This is the name I've chosen for my 'author development' business.

Author development?

Yeah, okay, here's the thing, maybe you're a celebrity, or a high profile somebody and you want a book... but you're not a writer and you're really not all about that 'lock yourself in a quiet room for 3-months' thing. But you really, REALLY want a book. Paris has one, right? So, what are you gonna do?

You're going to hire an Author Developer (moi) which is a fancy term for ghostwriter! Though I do more than just ghostwrite.

By design it sounds unglamorous and dull, but diligent and hardworking. Wait, am I still talking about the name? Not really.

Writing is hard work. Actually, let me amend that. Writing is easy... every waiter in L.A. has a screenplay in his back pocket. Getting paid (ie: making a living) is the hard part. It's unglamorous... dull (especially after 92 revisions) . It requires diligence and hard work.

I chose the unglamormous moniker to remind me what my real mission is. I am talent. I have ideas... I have a mission. I also have bills to pay...

and so to pay them I have developed the Clark Kent personna -- MediaSherpa... Sherpa/Schlepper. Same thing. I can get my clients to the top, but I'm having trouble getting myself off the dime. What UP with that? Hmmm? What's holding me back?

Maybe it's the cool outfit I'm missing... everyone knows the super powers are incidental to the tights. And, hey, tights ARE back in this year. I need the superwriting tights... right? Or,

is it just me?