There are many reasons why I enjoy writing, or why I feel compelled to write. Mostly it's because of my comfort with articulating myself on paper. Since I first learned how to type, I've managed to overcome my normal impatience with the slowness of my hand-scripting and have replaced that with the speedy wonders of keyboarding. My transition to college encourage me to write many letters to old friends, and the arrival of email only drew me further into the realm of the written word and all its advantages (and disadvantages). On paper, I can think things out, I can revise, I can spill my guts out or be cryptic...all things made more difficult, for me, in the verbal realm. I'm not an aloof conversationalist (trust me, I can blather on), but the pen allows me to express, more fully, whatever thoughts and ideas I have.

Now, I started writing for others (i.e. my freelance work) back in high school, but I didn't really get serious about it until the summer of 1994. One reason was because I wanted to become a better writer and I felt the pressures of the publishing world would encourage me to improve my style and content. Another was because I didn't feel like there were enough writers out there, covering the type of issues and people that I wanted to read about. Therefore, it's no surprise that the vast majority of my writing covers two issues that are most dear to me: Asian America and music.

So this section of The Ozone is dedicated to the art, craft and practice of writing, both my own, and that of others. It's organized like this: