Am at the Outdoor Writers Association of America annual conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Great city, reminds me a lot of Austin, and the Amway Grand Hotel reminds me of San Antonio's Menger, minus Sid who sang and played piano wonderfully in the lobby in San Antonio's grandest hotel.

I'm digging the great folks who are members. Very helpful bunch. I will, God willing, be writing for the magazines once again. My initial foot-in-the-door moment came when Texas Highways Magazine published my cover feature "Port Isabel: Simple Pleasures by the Seashore" in Feb. 2005 while I was in Iraq's al-Anbar Province. That successful break-in for consumer magazine writing was sidetracked by both the war and the sorting out I had to do after returning from Iraq.

I'd say the sorting out is as done as it'll ever be, better or worse (see previous posts on this same blog for archived relics of my old thought processes).

My highlights so far (one day in) are having talked with Field & Stream's Editor-at-Large and the editor for Angling Trade magazine, Kirk Deeter, as well as former Field & Stream Editors Slaton White and Glenn Sapir. Also spoke with Intermedia's Wayne van Zwoll and NFWS's Eddie Magazine Editor, Craig Springer.

Kirk has the great spread about fishing Bolivia with the natives in the July spread of Field & Stream. Frankly, I am starstruck.

OWAA is a fantastic organization, and it is through them that I shall maintain a professional outlet for the passion I bear for writing. Semper Fi.