I fell in love with songwriting as a young teenager. By the time I got out of college, I'd written about a hundred songs. Most were on my Yamaha classical guitar; a few were on piano.

In my mid-20s, I put together a small home studio in the attic of the place we were renting: fake "Les Paul" Franken-guitar, Juno 6 and Yamaha DX7 synths, a drum machine, a small mixer, and a big reel-to-reel tape recorder.

I created some songs on that system. And I decided: This is too hard. I hate analog. Wake me up when all this is digitized.

Decades passed during which I was a sign-language interpreter, computer programmer, grad student, writer, crossword puzzle constructor, grad student again, and (now) relationship counselor / sex therapist in private practice.

A little over a year ago I woke up and realized I'd overslept: home recording *was* now digitized. In fact, it had been digitized for years, and the products had become sophisticated and powerful.

I fell in love all over again. I've put together a new small home studio to write and record songs. I heard about FAWM in mid-January and my heart leapt. Getting stuff out rather than getting it perfect is exactly what I need. And the community is wonderful!

So far, so amazing . . .