If only I hadn’t been two days tardy, we’d share the same day–but I guess my special-wattage will have to make do with what I got.  Dr. Seuss’s books are like chocolate–always welcome, and always a pick-me-up.

Today we’re off for a whirlwind stay out on Oracoke Island.  I can’t wait!  Lots of pics to be posted when we get home, and hopefully some new writing in the works.  Summer is a great time to restore the creative well, and I intend to embrace it!

What’s the only thing that could give query-time a run for its money as front page news?  Me and my writing buddies’ new group blog, the Cabinet of Cuirosities!  Hosted by Pat Esden, Ginger Churchill, Becca Fitzpatrick, Laura Anderson (who has some very exciting news of her own–a three book deal!!!), and me, of course.  We’re still getting it up to speed, but having a great time doing so.  Our second post went up today, a review of Jane Yolan’s new graphic novel, The Last Dragon.  Pat did a great review, and made me really envious that she’s already gotten her hands on a copy!

I personally have been a fan of Jane Yolan since before I knew what fans were, and was so excited to meet her at SCBWI National in January.  I was just sitting quietly on the front row of our last session when she and her friends claimed the seats next to me.  I actually had a great time whispering with Carol Snyder, who I did not recognize and was therefore able to relax and enjoy.  But, when I met Jane I had my first ever experience in which I was so excited I couldn’t think!  She asked me where I had published my short stories (something I really should know) but it was like my brain had just bailed.  Gone out for ice cream, or something.  I couldn’t come up with the name of a single mag where I’ve published.  She was very kind, and didn’t laugh at me, and patted my hand, and soon I was able to say something or other about mostly writing novels now and then toddle back to my seat.  I was left feeling very grateful that those gracious ladies took the time for me, a relative noob, but also very grateful that there are very few people in the world I am likely to fangirl!

The wonderfully stylish and sensational Pat Esden has tapped me for the:

Which I’m delighted to accept.  My first every blog award!  Hold on a moment while I enjoy a good squee.

You should check out Pat’s seven things.  She’s got some interesting bits to share in her list, including a really fun link to a museum buggy pic with her basket inside.  How cool is that?  Now I have a new aspiration–to someday see an object of mine in a museum!

Okay, so on to my seven secrets, which will no longer be secrets as of this writing.  Unless, of course, these are someone else’s secrets.  In which case, shhhh!  Don’t tell them.

1. Despite having had many unpleasant encounters and gone into anaphylaxic shock from contact with peanuts, plus carrying a double-barreled epipen and enough benadryl to knock out a horse, I sometimes wonder if I really have a peanut allergy.  Maybe I’ve outgrown it, maybe it was really a mold allergy all along and if I could just find ‘clean’ peanuts, there wouldn’t be a problem, maybe…you see how it goes?  I am living proof that a person can live quite happily in denial.  So long as they don’t eat peanuts.
2. When I was a child I found my name quite boring.  There was no story attached to it, like there was for my sisters, and I don’t have a middle name.  So, I used to play with my name, splitting it up as Sue and Anne, etc.  Oh, wait!  I still do that, as witness the reinstatment of the Z!
3. I have a history degree and am drawn to historic sites like a fly to honey, but I have no desire (at this time) to write historic fiction.  Go figure.
4. I brush off my bed each night before I climb in and go to sleep.  If that princess thought a pea was lumpy, she should try sleeping with a speck of dust!
5. I was a late reader, and in fact didn’t really see the point of it all.  I had three older sisters and a mom who read aloud–what did I need to spend time with baby books for?  I think it was the arrival of my second brother (meaning we had two little ones in the house) which forced me to crack the reading code.  I’ve spent the rest of my life trying to make up for lost time.
6. When I was a child, I said I wanted to be a giant when I grew up and have one hundred children.  I was going to name them 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on.  Thank goodness for underachievement and stunted childhood dreams!
7. I have always wanted to travel, but I’m the world’s worst traveler.  I have to be careful of every bite which goes in my mouth, I don’t want anyone in my space without my permission, and I don’t sleep well without my own pillow.  The good thing is, I’m wonderfully stubborn and still plan to visit every country in the world before I topple into my grave at the ripe old age of 342!

There you have it–my every secret hung out on the line to air in the sunshine.  Or lack thereof–it’s raining here.  As per the rules that guide all stylish bloggers:

1. Thank and link to the person(s) who nominated you.
2. Share seven random facts about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to five blogging buddies.
4. Contact those buddies to congratulate them.

I hereby proclaim the following friends

Eric James Stone Eric James Stone
Demetra Why I YA
Chelsea Turkey Boy’s Girls
Steve Stewart Steven R Stewart
Melissa MOT’s Simple Live

recipients of the Sylish blogger award, and invite them to share seven somethings and pass it on!

Or, so I suspect it will say.  And how do I know Wednesday and Saturday will be in this unique conversation?  Simple.  I’ve decided that it’s time to put the blog on a diet schedule so that it can stop this feast or famine cycle going on.  Perhaps my dear, loyal readers haven’t noticed, but the blog has tended to get several updates in a row, then nothing for a week or more.  And everyone knows that’s no way to raise a happy, well-adjusted blog.

Of course, the fact that I’m posting this on a Sunday ought to indicate that I will, on occasion, pop up an extra post.  Just to keep everyone on their toes and let my inner rule-breaker have a small spree.

See you Wednesday!

Okay, so that last was just silly . . . since, she hasn’t got shoes.  But maybe she could learn to come up with her own tags?  Re-categorize all those posts that never got placed in a category?  Back herself up so there’s a saved copy?  Figure out how to maximize her SEO?

Yeah, maybe not.  After all, she’s only four.  But, she will learn, right?  Right?

Happy Birthday, Blog!

• An empty suitcase with two items of clothing laid on top.
• A batch of wet laundry.
• A tentative confirmation from an untrained friend willing to watch our fish, chickens and cats while we’re gone.
• An overdue library book waiting patiently on the counter,
• Oh, and a website that is halfway through its facelift.

Otoh, I had a great time messing with the blog look, and had a fabulous time tearing my WIP apart and planning the next draft.  I plan to continue this trend of preparations until the last moment possible tomorrow.

It’s good to know my priorities can’t be shaken up by a little thing like a plane to catch.

He had some valid points, and got me thinking, so I decided to discuss the subject myself.  It might be that the discussion belongs on my writing LJ, but since I see it as involving all of you, I’m going to keep it here.  The post’s also grown as I wrote, so I might try a series of sum-ups and cuts to make it easier to navigate and to keep those who don’t want to hear my oh-so-carefully stated arguments in all their gritty glory from falling asleep.

Not every writer is writing to an audience outside themself, and that’s okay, but I have always seen what I do as a craft and a business.  I am an artist only in so far as I can reach my audience, and that means I need to effectively capture their attention.  Whatever skill level I’m currently at, I believe my blog has helped me to grow and increase my abilities in this area.

First off, I have to say that one concern I had when I started blogging was that it would take too much of my writing time and energy, and that that has been a real danger more than once.  I also know that different writers have relative speeds at which they not only write, but type, so the time commitment varies with the individual, too.

However, I feel that I am a better writer now than when I began blogging.  Some of that was of course the intensive upper-class coursework I completed, and the fact that I worked through all of it with an eye toward it’s implications and improvements on my fiction writing skills.  I’ve also written a dozen or two short stories since beginning my blog, and read with a critical eye hundreds of words in either the tsj slush or my friends’ manuscripts.  All of this has increased the speed, perception and clarity with which I write.

But more than anything else, I credit this blog with having helped me find my voice.  Often I was writing for myself, or to some unknown and, I suspected, easily bored audience.  I had to find that happy medium between writing in ways which would engage and entertain my reader and writing on those subjects which most interested me.  And I needed to do this without knowing who my audience was.  I didn’t tell family and friends about my blog initially because I didn’t want it to turn into a blog which was written for that audience alone.  I wanted to find my voice as a writer, not fall into those habitual patterns of speech and communication which I use around family and those I’m close too.  Slowly over the last couple years I’ve learned which parts of myself I’m comfortable sharing, how playful a voice I can pull off and still live with myself, and how to listen to that inner writing voice inside myself while also remembering that I’m writing for an audience.

I’ve made significant contacts through my blog which have helpted me learn about the business of writing and know that I can draw on a network of fellow writers for support and friendship–my network. 

As if the above cut wasn’t enough, my blog has helped me to effectively reach others and build a network I can draw on.  While it’s impossible to know who will be pivotal in any one persons life, I can name a few circumstances that have already really helped me to further my pursuit of writing as a profession.

Meeting James Maxey through my blog.  I honestly don’t remember when or why I picked up Bitterwood, but when I blogged about my take on the book, James was kind enough (and professional enough) to discuss my pros and cons on the book.  He not only commented here, but at one point he mentioned what I’d said on his blog.  This exchange gave me the courage to go up to James and introduce myself at the upcoming Trinocon, something I never normally would have done.  Through this connection, I became a part of a writers group here in the triangle which was overseen by James, and this group, which also included Alex and Mike, has been hugely helpful in helping me to improve my writing.  I’ve also had several chances to pick James’s brains on all things writing–from book contracts, to agents, to what to wear when promoting–and these pointers have helped remove some of the mystery which shrouds this business and increased my confidence.

Also at the same con, I chatted with the talented Alan Welch, and bought one of his prints.  When he wanted to get in touch with me but didn’t have my contact info, he was able to do that through my web site/blog and the use of the email I list here–even if he had to be very patient in waiting for a reply.  We have kept up that contact and I now count him as someone I can chat with at a con and look forward to connecting with.  Through similar online contacts, I’ve ‘met’ other friends who I will now feel comfortable approaching at cons or arranging a signing with.  These are people who I might never have met had I not become active in the online community.  And while I could become a member of forums and drop comments on people’s blogs without having a blog of my own, I know that having a blog has helped me feel that my time on the forums was well spent, as people would not just hear a surface comment or two, but would also get to know a bit about the name behind the avatar.  Jordan, for example, is someone who I suspect feels a stronger friendship/acquaintance with me because he has read my blog than he would had I only dropped by a forum we both frequented.

As for the low numbers of readers which were alluded to in the comments on Jordan’s post, I can’t speak for other bloggers, but I’m very pleased with the number of people who visit my site.  I don’t know who you all are, but my blog recieves between 2,500 and 3,500 unique hits a month.  Obviously my total hits is quite a bit higher.  Considering that I’m sure the majority of these people are not personal friends or family, that’s a sizeable number of people who I can connect with which I would not otherwise ever know by any definition of the word.

Lastly,

my blog is an investment in my future status as a published professional writer.  I have watched friends as they recieved ‘the phone call’ and went under contract, and from what I’ve seen, the euphoria of delight quickly gives way to tight schedules and a long to-do list.  Imagine how nice it would be for such an individual to know that, as their name and promotion met with interested readers, those readers could come peruse previous blog content, thus taking off a little pressure on the newly discovered author to quickly get posts up and establish an online presence.

Of course, there are other benefits to a blog.  I like chatting–just ask my family how often I’m on the phone while fixing dinner!–and a blog is a chance to chat with lots of people in my favorite medium, the written word.  I’m a fairly fast writer and typist, so I don’t generally consider it any great sacrifice of my time, and it’s also a nice way to keep in touch with friends or family who I don’t see very often.  But are there strong benefits in blogging to a pre-professinal writer?  I answer that with a resounding yes.

Now, I’m sure wiser computer heads could tell us why these would be left, and maybe even venture a reason why my blog is suddenly so special, but I know what I believe.

It’s the Great Spam Conspiracy.

You know how in spy movies, or shows like Alias, the undercover agent leaves their message or incriminating film in a common brown bag and drops it in a garbage can while they waltz on by?  Then an agent, or handler, recovers the information with equal aplomb, and the message is securely passed despite all kinds of high-tech preventive measures and protections built up to keep the information from being passed along.

Well, what we think of as spam is really this process taking place on the internet.  An agent drops an incripted message as a comment on some random Joe or Jane’s blog, and that message is quickly read and understood by the agent’s people.  Then perhaps an equally garbled message will be returned using the same method.

This can go on for days, and the blog host is never the wiser. If the messages being passed are extra-sensitive or the code is not known to be secure, than of course the powers that be choose a site which is regularly maintained so the ‘spam’ comments will be quickly deleted.

That means that my blog being chosen is a good sign.  It means I’m now listed as a site where spam will be dealt with quickly, and I can look forward to more of these highly-confidential goobledy-gook ‘spam’ comments to pass over my site and into the eyes and ears of receiving agents.

Lucky me.

Later:

Okay, got that fixed, and learned something about my site, too.  Yay me.

I found some useful tips here, and here.  This one, on good author websites, was perhaps more to the point.  One thing they all seemed to indicate is that a blogger should know what it is they want to do with their blog space, and how they are providing that to their readers.

All well and good, but easier to accomplish when the blog is narrow in scope.  For example, a blog in which a brand is promoted, or niche knowledge in techy gadgets is shared, will be easier to follow and define.  Same for blogs which focus only on friends and family.

Author or writer blogs are more complicated, because the ‘brand’ can be defined as anything from a specific book or story, to anything of interest to the author.  However, I do think that this pariticular blog could stand some fine-tuning, and that along the way I can define my other internet social networking sites.  The plan goes something like this:

My writing-to-writers posts’, such as those on in-depth character development, jargon-filled notes on the field, discussion of cover and query letters, that sort of thing, will be going to my Live Journal.

My Facebook will take the sillier, more frivolous posts, and will also be a depository for photo collections.  This doesn’t mean that I won’t have some carry-over, or will stop posting pics here.  Just that I will allow myself to make albums of larger picture groupings on Facebook, and post those random bits I’ve kept to a min here or censored.  I can’t wait to start my photo album of abandoned homes and outbuildings! 

I may also start a MySpace page, which will take posts on my interests.  The categories that are most neglected here have sometimes been shunted aside because the post on that subject just didn’t seem to fit the blog theme for the day.  Then again, I may move discussion of some of these subjects to forums.  I may also move any movie and book critiques to this space, too.  We’ll see.

So what does that leave for this blog?  Probably all the crafting pieces, most the Home in the Rookery stuff, the Laughs, and the Writing stuff that is general in nature.  It’s actually hardest to define this space…maybe because it’s the closest linked to me.  At any rate, this space will no doubt change and adjust as I develop in the field and publish.  But now you’re ‘in the know’ and won’t be surprised if categories start disappearing!

As always, my thanks to all of you, my readers.  I’ve come to really enjoy blogging, and feel grateful that you’re all in it with me!