Last week I wrote about a book about writing that I’ve been tinkering with for a few years, and I shared the introduction I had just scribbled out, which begins, “How dare I write a book about writing? Nobody has ever heard of me.”
I was looking it over again the other day, and something snapped.
Wait. What was I saying?
Don’t I know who I am?
I heard my mom, gone these 20 years now, clamoring in my ear:
“You gotta toot your own horn, War, nobody’s going to do it for you.”
And so I rewrote my biography.
Warren Bluhm is an award-winning community journalist, twice winner of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association’s prestigious Robert T. Wright Memorial Award as the best local columnist in the state. His voice was heard in thousands of radio newscasts from Green Bay to Ripon for 22 years, and his words were featured in thousands of newspaper editions for more than a quarter-century after that. He has had a digital presence since 2005 with blog posts he has collected in 10 books to date, and he has seven additional works and collections of his fiction.
Also, I have long had a category for my more commercial postings called “Shameless self-promotion,” an ironic title that reflects my reluctance to toot my own horn. I think it’s time I took Mom’s advice, so I’m just going to call it “Promotion” now.
After all, nobody’s going to do it for me.
