As I begin to write this bio, I find myself faced with a technical dilemma, and a minor case of writer's block.  Should I write this thing in first-person or third?  If I write it in third, will it sound too stiff and impersonal?  If I write it in first, will it come off as overly casual, like I'm tooting my own horn?

I know from experience that blocks can be stifling on every level--from the technical, to the personal, to the existential.  At the University of Colorado, where I taught creative writing and got my MA, I saw students, peers and even professors--some of them internationally known--fall victim to limiting thoughts and beliefs that inhibited both their writing and other areas of their lives.  The technical and creative blocks associated with writing are one thing; the personal and existential blocks associated with living are another--but they almost always feed each other. 

Blocks started to develop in my life during my years as a freelance travel writer, editor and copywriter.  Halfway through my novel Mosquito, a thriller that takes place on a cross-country adventure tour (visit doug-kurtz.com for more information), the blocks became debilitating.  My interior monologue was unkind, my marriage hit the skids, and my health began to deteriorate.  Next thing I knew, I couldn't cough up a sentence to save my life.  My writer's block and my life blocks were one and the same, and eventually I realized that I couldn't fix them in separation.

To get myself functioning again, I tried everything from Tibetan acupuncture to group therapy to applied kinesiology--but ultimately it was a coaching mindset, sheer determination and support from a lot of talented people that restored me to balance and got me writing again.  Since then, I've been busy coaching other writers and non-writers through their own blocks, I've been certified as a life coach by the Coach Training Alliance and I've launched Write Life Coaching.  Mosquito has hit bookstore shelves, and my next novel, Hunter's Island, is due to be finished sometime in 2009.

When I'm not coaching or writing, I'm outside skiing, backpacking, or mountain biking with my golden retriever, Mackay--or I'm traveling to pursue one of the aforementioned activities.  Last summer in Washington I got my paraglider pilot license (Aerial Paragliding), and lately flying seems to be trumping all other recreation.  Other pastimes include reading, cooking--mostly my own creations but also the occasional foray into Asia--and riding my motorcycle around Boulder, Colorado, where I live.  I play a little electric guitar, too, but not even Mackay can stand my licks.

So here I am at the end of the bio and it looks like first-person won out.  Even in the opening paragraph, when the question of point-of-view cropped up, I knew somehow that first-person was the right choice, I just couldn't see it then.  Experience has taught me that the answers we need to overcome the blocks we face are almost always waiting inside us; sometimes to find them we just have to shut up and write.