The very fact that i am writing this blog means that I'm willing to give up my privacy - hey, but not my copyright! (There's an "all rights reserved" link on the left side of your screen.) Not only that, I'm looking for ways to expand my audience. Writers, of course, are used to delayed gratification and resigned to the fact/possibility that they will never have an audience. Process is everything. We know that and accept the joy of writing in and of itself. However...it's nice to have an audience. It completes the equation, closes the circuit: from me to thee. That being said, I'd like to have a small audience, and one that offers a little feedback. That's the second part of the equation, a continuing dialogue, an interaction between the writer and the reader. I get about one fan letter every other month, and what a diverse bunch of readers it represents. I had one from a woman thanking me for my leftovers cookbook, published over 40 years ago now, and telling me that she learned to cook and to be frugal and to be comforted in her first efforts as a newly-wed fledgling in the kitchen. That's nice. And a man who lives in my building came to me last summer offering to scrape and paint the rusty railing on my balcony and then when he was doing it, said "you may wonder why I offered to do this." Well, yes, the thought had crossed my mind. He said that years ago he had read some advice I had offered about financial arrangements (I guess it was in my book on retirement ) that had been very helpful and he just wanted to pay back. Wow. Never under-estimate the power of the printed word. So what has that to do with privacy? A lot, really, Because if I had never been public, I would never have had my balcony railing painted. There you go.