Tag Archives: blog

Blog growing pains—excuse the mess!

Posted in Writing by

I’ve been thinking about the purpose and direction of this blog lately. When I started this, I was in the early stages of writing my novel The Brevity of Roses, and blogging became a way to journal my progress. After the novel was written I moved on to blogging about editing and editing and editing, which progressed to querying, querying, querying, and finally to self-publishing. So now what?

For the last several months, I’ve been on a roller coaster of indecision not only about what to work on next, but whether I should write anything more at all. I’ve decided both now. I can’t quit writing—I’ve had migraines the last two days and still managed to get 1,200 words written. And I know which novel needs to be on the front burner, but I think it’s too early to talk about that book much, so that leaves me floundering blogwise.

This photo has nothing to do with the post, but I like it.

I keep promising myself—and you—that I’ll write posts of substance, but I don’t. I’m not confident in giving writing advice, partly because I’m not a teacher, but mostly because I still have much to learn myself. I can’t tell you how to write a winning query letter, scintillating synopsis, or can’t fail cover blurb because I don’t know how. I can’t give you book promotion and marketing advice because I’m even less qualified in that.

I’m just a woman—wife, mother, and grandmother—who sits here at this computer hour after hour struggling to transform my imagination into words. I lead a boring life. The most exciting thing I’ve done in the last week was set up a Pinterest account. Oh yes, and I had to wash off the butt of an aging poodle with digestive problems. (See the kind of stuff I’m likely to say here?)

Maybe I should ask you for ideas. But then, if you have an idea you’d blog about it yourself, wouldn’t you? I wrote a post once volunteering to answer any question you asked me, but that was not one of my more successful posts. The always-guaranteed-to-spark-discussion topics of politics and religion are out, and I’m a lousy book and movie critic. So what does that leave me to talk about?

I guess it doesn’t matter anyway. I hear blogging is dead, so I don’t expect many people actually read my posts. Maybe I’m off the hook. I can just talk to myself here and no one will be the wiser. Years from now, when I’m a famous author, I’ll be able to publish my blog posts as a memoir—or something. ROTFLMAO

Seven Pathetic Random Things

Posted in Blog Stuff by

It’s Monday, so I’ll start this blog week with sunshine. A sweet writer friend, Darlene Foster, sent me the Beautiful Blogger Award. Thank you for this pretty award, Darlene.

The rules say I have to list seven random things about myself. I presume these seven things should not be repeats from previous awards posts, which complicates the situation. I thought about this for almost two weeks and never came up with anything interesting, so this is what you get:

  1. I have no fear of spiders, mice, bees, etc. I’m not fond of snakes, though.
  2. The second cat I owned had a very short neck. He was the Silvio of The Cat Sopranos.
  3. I can’t eat salmon. It gags me.
  4. It’s almost impossible for me to fill out “favorites” lists because I’m so indecisive.
  5. The first movie I remember seeing at the theater was Elephant Walk with Elizabeth Taylor. I was five. My mother didn’t have a babysitter. The only scene I remember is when the elephants destroy the plantation.
  6. I consider myself a good speller, but nine times out of ten, I misspell occurred.
  7. I have at least one clear memory of all twenty-eight apartments or houses I’ve lived in since I was eighteen months old. Unfortunately, only two apartments were outside the U.S. (Germany) and all the rest were in only two U.S. states (Indiana and California). How exciting would it be to say I’ve lived in twenty-eight places around the world?

So, that’s it. Isn’t that a pathetic roundup of random things? I think it’s safe to say there’s not a memoir in my future.

As usual, I’m supposed to pass this award on to other bloggers (10-15 in this instance), but I’m not going to name anyone. If you want, slap this pretty award up on your blog and list your seven random things—then leave me a comment to let me know to come read yours.

You Won’t Be Anonymous, And I’m Not Crazy

Posted in Blog Stuff, Characters, Fiction, Novel, Writing by

I’ve noticed that some of you who take the time to leave a comment have become somewhat anonymous. Since WordPress made changes to their comment policy last month, now, unless you’re a WordPress blogger, the avatar that appears next to your comment might not link to your blog. That’s unfortunate because the real reason you bother to comment is in hope someone will click your avatar and visit your blog. Right?

Okay, it’s not the only reason, but it’s a benefit. I don’t mind at all. And I discovered I can help you out. That is, if I know the address of your blog, I can help. I finally noticed that from my dashboard, I have the option to edit the email address or link-back URL in your comment. So from now on, if you leave a comment and it doesn’t link to your blog, I’ll try to correct that.

I’ve said many times on this blog that I find it necessary to edit as I write. It’s almost impossible for me to move on when I’m aware that a sentence is clunky, or I’ve made a poor word choice, or otherwise phoned it in. I’m not saying I never do those things, but when I know I’ve done one of them, I have to fix it before I can continue writing. It’s the same when I know I’m not going deep enough into a character, I fuss and fume until I break through.

But something weird has happened as I write my current novel. I know I’m leaving out things and I’m okay with it. In some scenes, I’ve skimmed the surface of my main character. I know there should be a lot going on in her head, but I’m not exploring it yet. She’s doing things, saying things, but she’s mostly shut me out of her head—if you know what I mean.

That seemed just plain crazy to me because that’s not the way I usually write. Always before, though I wrote the dialogue first, I’ve just as clearly known what my characters were only thinking. This new, seemingly chaotic, way of writing bothered me, but I’d delayed so long already on this book that I had to keep writing.

Then I started to feel excited about these missing pieces of narrative, as if I were waiting to open a gift. Recently, I’ve been hearing passages of my character’s thoughts, and they were worth the wait. I’m not sure where they’ll fit in the book yet, but I wrote them down. For now, what can I do but write and look forward to all my future gift boxes?

FREE BOOK: If you missed getting a digital copy of The Brevity of Roses on the free days in February, you have another chance. Tomorrow and Friday (May 3-4), you can download it free from Amazon. Remember, you don’t have to have a Kindle to read a Kindle book, just install the free reader for your computer or smart phone.

The first rule of blogging

Posted in Blog Stuff, Humor, Writing by

A week ago, I wrote a post titled Writing without writing, which is possible to do, but is it possible to blog without blogging? I’ll answer that question. The first rule of blogging is—you have to blog! You have to write something. Words, if possible.

If you’re keeping track, (humor me) you know I’m not doing so well at blogging. We’re two weeks into the month and I’m three posts behind. My mind is blank—well, no, it’s not blank, but nothing on my mind right now is a topic worthy of blogging about. Um … like now. (That was ninety-seven words about nothing, if you want to keep track.)

Hey, here’s an idea—I’ll blame it on Leap Year. Yeah, that’s it. The extra day in February threw the earth off its axis … or something. Threw me off my axis, maybe. That explains my recent equilibrium problem quite nicely. It’s hard to think straight when you’re staggering around.

Oh ho! Then we had that time change thing, doncha know. I was rudely flung forward an hour into the future. Seems that could mess with your brain, don’t you think? I mean, what could have happened in that hour I missed? I’ll never know. That question will haunt me for the rest of my life.

(Add 107 more useless words on your abacus.)

Do I need mention the weather? Weird, aint’ it? We only toyed with winter here, and now we’ve flung open the door to spring. When the natural progression gets disrupted, I wander off track, whistling aimlessly. Only I’m not, because I can’t seem to pucker like I used to.

So, yeah. I was supposed to be cleaning while I wrote without writing, but sadly, I haven’t accomplished much on that front. I did write a couple scenes for the new novel, but given my state of being, they’re probably nonsense. Maybe I could use them in Words With Friends.

May your days be balanced and productive, friends.

(Total worthless words: 322 … and now you know how to blog without saying anything.)

From me to you and you and you and ….

Posted in Blog Stuff, Links, Writing by

Two fellow bloggers cited me for awards this past week, so I’m taking time to say thank you and pass them on. First up, Jennifer Neri, who gave me the Liebster Blog Award. Liebster is German for dearest or beloved and carries the sense of “favorite”.

The rules say to pass it along to five favorite blogs with the stipulation they’re to have less than 200 followers. Unfortunately, I don’t know how many followers most blogs have, so I’ll just bring to your attention some blogs I’ve never cited before, but enjoy reading.

Recipients, do what you will with your award. Feel free to obey or disobey the “rules” of reciprocation or passing along.

At Judith Baxter’s blog Growing Younger Each Day she rages against growing older with humor and great insight.

Chris King‘s blog is named bridgesburning, but I don’t know why. I do know she says a lot of interesting things there.

Victoria, Lisa, and Christi at Writing Up An Appetite combine writing and food, two of my favorite things!

Darlene Foster blogs often about her travels, so it’s probably no surprise that she’s the author of a series of children’s books featuring world travel.

Kate Cardon Parish‘s blog kateschannel is what it sounds like, her show. So go tune into her thoughts on life.

Jessica Luton shares some uplifiting advice on her Serenity Writer blog. And if you follow her on Twitter she’ll inspire your day too.

Hmmm … that’s six, not five. Oh well, I gave you one to grow on. :-)

I was going to cover both awards today, but that’s a lot of links to throw at you in one sitting, so I’ll leave the second award for the next post. Enjoy the links.