“There followed a great demonstration of delight much clapping of hands and cheering, which filled the city the whole of that memorable day.” - Plutarch, "Lives"

This is how I like to think everyone has ever reacted when they read something I wrote. We know that is just not true. But I still get that excited writing . It is how I felt when I ran out to the sidewalk to pick up a rubber-banded copy of our hometown newspaper one morning during high school after covering an event the night before, so I could show my parents my first all-caps byline. It is how I felt writing stories as a staffer for The Miami Herald, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and San Jose Mercury News, how I felt accepting a National Magazine Award on behalf of our magazine, how I felt writing for millions of baseball fans on MLB.com from 2002-2018.

It is how I feel writing books and freelance copywriting as a side hustle today. My first real book "Diamonds from the Dugout" was the culmination of several years of interviews with baseball legends, and it became a No. 1 bestseller across Barnes & Noble with 110 bookstore signings. I am currently in-edit and restructuring a 600-page narrative n/f MS pivoting beyond sports, and I've started a screenplay about a person I grew up with and want the world to know.

It's all about a single word that is included within that Plutarch quote here. Why write if you don't imagine much clapping of hands and cheering?