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Not ‘Goodbye’ . . . Just ‘See You Soon’

Some of you may have noticed, but I have been a bad bloggy friend the past little bit. I haven’t replied to comments like usual (for those who have their e-mail address available in their user settings), and I haven’t visited others blogs.

And I know, I know, it happens to the best of us, but I really do feel terrible about it, because I love all you people who visit and comment on my blog. I can’t tell you how happy a little comment makes me. Ridiculously happy. 🙂 

But alas, despite the less sleep I’ve been trying to get by on, I’m just not getting everything done. Because some things simply must come first. *cough* kids *cough*

So where I am going with this? I’m going to take a blogging break for the month of April. Hopefully in that time I can catch up on replies and visiting some of your blogs, too, but I must do a few other things first:

1. Spend every possible second enjoying my parents when they come out to visit.
2. Continue potty training little miss dirt monkey (no accidents yesterday!).
3. Finish the big translation job hanging over me.
4. Write 1000 words of my wip [work in progress] every day (or you just might see a post in April after all). For an explanation, check out this post by the fabulous Leigh Moore.
5. Spend time with my hubs every spare second he has.
6. Exercise. Time to find a new race to work towards . . . preferably a shorter one.
7. Relax. Excuse me while I go look up the definition of this word . . .
8. Begin the clearing out process for our move in June. My but junk builds up fast.

Well, I could go on . . . I didn’t even mention spending QT with kids, because I hope that’s a given . . . though it hasn’t been lately. *sigh*

So have a great April everyone! I will miss you, but look forward to hearing all your wonderful news come May. 🙂

This picture just makes me happy, so I’m sharing it again.

Speak up:

23 comments

| TAGS:

blogging, comments, Time

Top Writing Blogs

Right now, ecollegefinder is holding a vote for the top writing blogs. You can go vote for your favorite by clicking on the little badge below.

You have until Feb. 3, and you can actually vote for multiple blogs and on a daily basis.

Some of my favorite writing blogs are listed (Miss Snark’s First Victim and Shallee McArthur), while others I love (Literary Rambles and Janice Hardy’s blog) are missing. Someone kindly nominated my blog as well, but no pressure to vote for me.

So my questions to you are:

1) What makes a top writing blog? and

2) If you were nominating your favorite/most helpful writing blog, who would you nominate?

Speak up:

22 comments

| TAGS:

blogging, Janice Hardy, Literary Rambles, Miss Snark's First Victim, Shallee McArthur, Top Writing Blogs, writing

This is SO Not My 850th Post

Flipping through my Blogger Dashboard yesterday, I happened on Elana Johnson’s post, titled: What Does One Blog About for Post #850? (For the record, we’re not related. We checked. Still, I fondly think of her as my amazing little cousin.)

So wow. That’s a lot of posts. And that’s a question (minus the #850 part) that I (and other bloggers, I’m quite sure) ask all the time. So today I give you my list of what to blog on when you’ve got nothin’.

1. Share a Personalized License Plate (duh!).
2. Piggyback off someone else’s blog post (clever, that).
3. Find a picture and make a post out of it. (Joanne at Whole Latte Life is excellent at this).
4. Share an embarrassing moment from your life.
5. Share a favorite quote.
6. Share an inspirational moment from your life.
7. Do an “Awards” post. You know all those awards floating around, right? Surely you forgot to pass one of them forward. And if you didn’t really get one, just pretend. Who’s going to know, right? 😉
8. Make up your own award and give it to someone.
9. Spotlight your favorite blogger.
10. Spotlight one of your heros.
11. Let your readers ask you questions that you promise to answer truthfully (a blogging-world favorite).
12. Talk about the people-watching you did at the grocery store (or from your front porch if you’re in a pinch).
13. Comment on a bit of news you read/heard.
14. Close your eyes then open them. Now write an essay on the first physical object that you see. You can talk about how it inspires you. (ex: Toothbrush. How inspiring that a toothbrush works day in an day out and wears itself out just to keep you from getting gingivitis).
15. Tell a joke.
16. Comment on a favorite movie (bonus if you relate it to writing).
17. Tell a cute kid story.
18. Tell about that time that you lied to your mom about hitting that baseball through the window, then blamed it on your . . . oh wait. Mom, I totally did not do that. Really.
19. Start a story and ask your readers to each add a sentence.
20. Post a picture of yourself when you were young. Be sure to include a funny story about yourself.
21. Share a song that inspires you.
22. Have a contest/Give something away.
23. Videotape yourself doing something crazy (why, I do believe that’s called a vlog!).

Okay, okay. I’m going to stop there because I can hear that snoring back there. Yeah, I mean you! So what do you do when you’ve got nothing?

Speak up:

21 comments

| TAGS:

blogging, embarrassing situations, nothing

What is Your Platform?

A little over a year ago I discovered the writing blogosphere. I was amazed at the wealth of information and at the giving nature of all these folks. For months I simply visited blogs, until I decided I was ready to jump in with two feet and start a blog of my own.

Deciding was the easy part. But when I sat down to plan it out, I realized I had no idea what to blog about. I was in awe with these bloggers who made it look so easy. Topic upon topic related to writing; funny vignettes from their lives; serious ponderings about their frustrations. Blogs where you could get your work critiqued. Blogs that offered marketing advice. Blogs that gave information about agents. Blogs that interviewed agents. Blogs that gave grammar instructions. Blogs that focused on Asian settings.

It seemed everyone in the blogosphere knew their place and their platform, and how could I enter that? What could I possibly add? It was definitely intimidating. But I had decided to try, so there we were.

I looked at my background to find my strengths, but I decided that few people had need of French translation services (though if you ever do, feel free to ask away!); and having done the English professor stint, I initially dabbled in the mockery of grammar, but I got tired of it.

I’m sure you’re waiting for a point right about now, but the thing is, I’ve been doing this writing blog for almost a year now, and I still am not sure I’ve found my platform. I still wonder what I should blog about more often than not (because you can only do so many posts on license plates).

So this is what I wanted to ask: Do you have a platform for your blog? Do you know what you are trying to convey to your readers? How did you get there? And what keeps you coming back to a blog?

Maybe one of these years I’ll figure it out!

**As I’m nearing my year mark, another blogger and I have a week of fun and silliness planned from Mar. 28 to April 1. Lots of prizes, easy entries, and a big grand prize you won’t want to miss!

Speak up:

23 comments

| TAGS:

blogging, Contest, platform, writing blogosphere

“Fake Following”

I was reading Elana’s blog last Tuesday, which I’m sure most of you saw (I mean, who doesn’t follow the fabulous Elana?!). She talked about blog building and following, and in the comments, a few people mentioned “fake following.”

This idea has been swimming through my brain ever since. I’ve seen blogs that specifically say: “Only follow me if you’re sincere” (or something to that effect). And I’ve seen those who follow, but rarely visit.

So here’s my question: What do you consider to be “fake following”?

Does that mean you follow and NEVER visit? Follow and only visit once a month? Twice a week? Is a true follower only one who stalks visits your blog daily?

Honestly, I follow blogs that I rarely visit. However, I only follow blogs on subjects I’m sincerely interested in, and I’ve never thought of it as “fake following.” I skim through my daily list of updated blogs and visit the ones with topics that interest me most until I run out of time.

Conversely, I’m always pleased when someone stops in and comments, but I have never looked through my follower list to see who is and who isn’t commenting. I figure we all have lives outside of the computer (at least I HOPE so!).

So how about you? What are your thoughts on “fake following”? And please, don’t be afraid to disagree with me. I’d love to hear what you think.

Speak up:

34 comments

| TAGS:

blogging, fake following, following

I’m Back!

Wow, so I feel like I’ve been gone an eternity or so. Blogging? What’s that? Now I have to re-learn all this stuff.

But the trip was good, minus the not good stuff. And I definitely have some ranting fun stories to share. I’ll save those for other blogs. Just wanted to pop back in, after my long absence, and say “HEY YA’LL! I’VE MISSED YOU!!”

So what is the funnest thing you did in August?

Speak up:

13 comments

| TAGS:

August, blogging, stories, vacation