Rusty Blogger

No . . . Rusty Blogger is not the name of my character. Sadly, it is my current status in the world.

 ( insert deep sigh here)

It's kind of embarrassing to admit I haven't greased the wheels or oiled the chains of  "ye old blog site," in nearly two-and-a-half years. It was a matter of necessity to get my then, WIP on track. It was a painful decision to choose which baby to nurse along, the blog or the book, but I'm happy to say my first-born manuscript is complete and the second is in its infancy stages.  

In hindsight, letting the blogging world disappear for awhile was the right call for me. It's sort of like the old adage, "You can't love others until you learn to love yourself." I had so much to learn about writing, I had to dig in and learn by doing. I had absorbed so much from the blogs I followed, but the time had come for me to put all that good advice to good use. 

It's not news--blogging takes times and keeping up with fellow writer's blogs can take up even more time. But the payoff is a wonderful, supportive network that opens at our fingertips. Writers are expected to build and maintain their blogs to ensure future sales--and current sales if you are so blessed. But my blog was only in "newbie" status with only 11 posts in all. Very few people even missed it when the"ink" went dry.

So why am I knocking off the rust now, and attempting to oil all the gears? There are two reasons.

Reason One:

I hadn't thought about my blog in months, but it came up in a dream I had last week. Someone I didn't know asked me what had happened to it and I remember staring in surprise at the person for several seconds. Who were they and why were they interested? Those were the first questions on my mind. And the second was--How should I answer? Before I could complete my halting, stammering reply, my dream world morphed into a paint store setting.

Maybe because paint can cover rust--giving fresh life to old things.

When I had a second dream about the blog, I decided it might be one of those proverbial nudges, we Christians come to recognize from time to time. (Oh. . . how I wish it were all the time!!!) I decided to revisit the blog and received quite a shock. Well. . .actually a  very embarrassing shock--I couldn't remember how to access it or how to create a new post. Nearly two hours later, here we are and I'm hoping this all works. 

Reason Two:

Last week when I saw the list of finalists posted for the "Genesis" contest, I was curious about several names on the list. Some I knew from their excellent blog sites, but others were new to me. A close friend confided that she thought my writing style was quite similar to one of the finalists. Really? Of course that got me interested in doing a little blogging research to find out more about these talented women.  It occurred to me that they might be just as curious about me. I'm a newbie to contests and the writing world. What if they were trying to find out more about me? A rusty blog was no way to make new friends. 

So I'm digging out the WD-40 and getting all those gears sprayed and oiled. I revamped the site and it's time to see if we can jump-start the rusty heap  and bring it back to life. We will keep the mileage low at first, perhaps once-around-the-block each week, for starters. 

Congratulations to all the "Genesis" Finalists and what you had to give up to get there!

What have you had to give up to focus on your writing?

--Ava