Before we get too far afield, I wanted to address the word count widget and the accountability I hope it brings with all its dinosaur goodness.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote:  ” The goal is 16 consecutive 3,000-word-days. This is my plan, and it is Good.  So starting tomorrow, at the bottom of each blog post will be an update on my quest to develop a 3,000-word-a-day habit.… […Public floggings are a hassle….]  … Let’s just say that if ever I show up empty-handed, then you are welcome to start a good old-fashioned cyber stoning in the Comments section.”

Wow.  Look at me.  I’m like a little word politician…promises, promises.

Then just the other day, I tried to involve all of you in my word count shenanigans by utilizing the pronoun responsible for aiding and abetting:  “This month is going to be all about speed.  Speed, speed, speed, my friends!  We are going to drill.  We will time ourselves.  We are going to kindle life into as many story ideas as we can.  This month we are going to see just how many words we can write to keep the Muse Patrol away.”

Then I promised again:  “I will share my word counts each day [cough], and you can post your word counts in the comments [ahem!…excuse me!…tickle in my throat].  I will put together some sort of cumulative word count widget that I will install along the side here so that we can see just how big a pile of words we can make together.”

Okay.  In all fairness, I could not find a widget that suited our purpose here.  Perhaps I will just have to make one at some future date.  But in the meantime, I have resorted to jerry-rigging and prehistoric wildlife.

Behold, to your right (and a little bit up on the sidebar) is a picture of a dinosaur.  According to our resident expert, the Toddler, this is a momma dinosaur.  I snapped this photo in the wilds behind the Pink House after spending days with the Toddler in a sweltering blind with only graham crackers and energy drinks…which is really why I haven’t been fulfilling word count promises.¹

Now, I know everyone keeps telling us dinosaurs are extinct…ya know, “scientists” and stuff.  But you have to remember, back in the day, “men of higher learning” used to believe that the world was flat.  Centuries later, we are still pointing and laughing at them.

Here’s the truth:  Dinosaurs are real, and they are very much alive.  They like to keep a low profile because of the paparazzi (they ruin it for everyone) and because of government contracts (they easily scare), but they are really just people like you and me.  How do I know this?  Because they love a good story, and they’re total suckers for what-ifs.

So actually, it was pretty easy.  She’s a sucker for High Concept stories, so I left out my novel draft and yelled, “‘Eat Pray Love’ meets ‘Sliding Doors!'”  Sucker!

It was obvious she meant to scoot right on past for a quick glimpse…being not terribly fond of the camera after the “biting incident” with a paparazzi that resulted in a restraining order — against the pap, not her — but there was a passage that caught her eye…and snap!  Got her!

(This puppy’s going to National Geographic, baby!…or US Weekly.  What?! Momma needs a new laptop!)

Anyhoo…this is our widget.  As our team-effort, cumulative word count goes up², so will our pile of first drafts.  As our pile of first drafts gets larger, so does our chances of attracting more dinosaurs (which means more pictures).

And as everyone knows, dinosaurs are totally good luck.  If we’re lucky — and if we’ve got dinosaurs, why wouldn’t we be? — at the end of the month, if the household dinosaurs are pleased with our pile of first draft, they will show us favor by holding a secret celebratory ritual in our honor…and we’ll be invited!

Surely you want to see that, don’t you?

Yep, me too.

In order to make this happen, however, the dinosaur shaman’s public relations rep tells me they want at least as much as NaNoWriMo gets, so we’re gonna have to muster up 50,000 words by the end of the month to see this secret dinosaur thing.

The bad news?  We’re off to a late start.  But who cares?  Nothing wrong with jumping in midstream.

The good news?  Everything counts…and everybody counts…and there’s no sign-up, no fees, no requirement to participate every single day.  Just…if you drop by, and you really want to see the dang secret dinosaur thing at the end of the month, type in your word counts.

And then maybe I can finally find out what the hell it is they do at night that makes that weird squeaking noise!

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¹ All of this is not true.

² Word counts will be collected from the “Comments” section and tallied up by the little mice that live beneath my desk.  They will then communicate their data via smoke signal, the Toddler will translate it, and I will update the widget.  Technology…ain’t it great?

Thank goodness we’re working on speed this month.  I can’t wait to get faster. 🙂

Here’s the reading list for this week.  A little light, I admit, but a damn good selection.

26.  “A Loss for _____” by Brenta Blevins (ChiZine) Surprisingly emotional end.  Really sa- sa- sa- — total bummer to imagine this happening to the world.

27.  “Pugelbone” by Nadia Bulkin (ChiZine) Absolutely stunning world-building.  This is going to stick with me for a long time coming, I can tell.

28.  “Last Days” by Dave Chua (ChiZine) Not really original in terms of subject — zombies roam the Earth — but the imagined details are memorable.  My favorite bit:  “Jo folded paper airplanes of the books we no longer read, and threw them out the car window.”

That’s it, folks!  Short and sweet.  I think this is the first time I’ve read anything from ChiZine.  Good stuff.  Dark. Apparently, they’re on a temporary hiatus to overhaul their website (so they’re not currently taking submissions), but will be back with bells on come April 1st.  I can’t wait. 🙂  In the meantime, their archives of past issues is still up and accessible.

Happy reading!

(In case you’re curious, the Jeopardy question was, “What did Spock find in the Enterprise toilet?”)

~~~

Well, unfortunately, circumstances were such that I was not able to proceed with my originally planned post tonight — those circumstances being two years old and having missed her momma very much after hanging out with Grandma and Poppa all day while Momma wrapped up court reporting work…which took all day. But have no fear, that particular post is only briefly postponed, not lost.

One of these days, though, I’m going to have to talk about the time-expanding phenomenon that seems to surround deadlines...but, again, not tonight.  Instead, we will continue our discussion regarding speed (and how to get faster as a writer).  And today we will talk about practical matters, like…

~~~

Why Writers Should Keep a Time Log

Anyone who’s ever dieted has heard of keeping a journal or a food diary as a way to discover where they are in terms of their current diet.  Having to document what you eat creates the database of information you need to honestly answer important questions, such as, how much am I really eating?  What kinds of food am I eating?  Am I getting enough protein?  What foods send me directly to the bathroom for extended periods of reading?  😉

It’s been my experience that I am never quite as honest with myself as I think I am.  Writing down what I eat removes that very forgivable human error factor.  And I think this holds true for keeping track of how you spend your time writing.

If you already consistently keep a time log, then you rock.  Give yourself a pat on the back, a self-satisfied smirk to everyone else, and go find yourself some cookies (before someone finds a pen and stabs you with it).

If you don’t already keep a log, then let’s talk about why you should.

First, let me ask you a few questions:  Do you know how much time it takes you to produce 1,000 words of fiction?  How much time should it take?  How many words can you produce in an hour with no interruptions?  What always trips you up when you’re on a roll?  How much time do you spend in front of your computer “writing”?  How much of that time is actually spent writing?  How many projects do you say you’re working on?  How many projects are you actually working on?   How fast a writer are you really? Are you as productive as you would like to be?

If you know the answers to all these questions, then you, too, rock.  You may collect your cookie and be excused.

Now, why is it important to know the answers to these questions?

Because if you want to be a faster, more productive, better writer, then it stands to reason that you need to know what kind of writer you are now.  Knowing your actual speed will help you figure out strategies to keep you focused and make you even faster.  Being faster leads to more productive work sessions, which means more words are being written.  And of course, the more words you write, the more practice and experience you gain, which unavoidably will make you a better writer.

This is a no-brainer, folks.  But don’t make it difficult, and don’t make it a time-consuming task in itself.  These things are work documents.  They are meant to be stained and wrinkled, written in different colored inks, and doodled on.  That’s okay.  Potential agents, editors, and readers will never see this thing…unless, of course, you are foolish enough to post it on your blog, like this:

This is a snapshot of my log from early last month.  I selected this page to share as it’s probably the most readable, being in black ink and not orange.  Not really sure why I have an orange ink pen.

Anyway, as always, I started out noting the time, what I was working on, the word count, and total time spent.  As is my custom, I like to use the left column to make notes and plan out future tasks…and apparently draw silly cartoons.

The point is, I am sharing this with you to prove that these things are no big deal and that they don’t have to be neat and pretty.  The only requirement I place on this thing is that I note the time.

Just the very act of noting the time I start sets me firmly into work mode.  I never note the time I start and then wander off to People.com.  I don’t want my goofing-off time to be factored into my writing speed averages.

I do often note my goofing-off time though.  My hours at the desk are limited, and so I like to know that I’m spending more “desk time” writing than surfing.  And oftentimes, even noting surfing times helps me to keep it reasonable.  I’ll tell myself, “15 minutes of OMG!, and then it’s off to England to help a protagonist get rid of unusual garden pests.”

So having this thing open next to my computer keeps me focused…and makes for a great idea catcher.  No need to stop in mid-flow and open up a new file or find paper and pen to capture a new idea.  I’m ready.  Just jot it down and return immediately to the project at hand.

I confess I am not as diligent in logging my time as I’d like to be.  I have countless missing days where I know I wrote something, but never bothered to even open the darn thing.  And of course, there were days I just wasn’t writing.  But sometimes it just means I was so busy with the writing that I didn’t even think to note the time.  I love those days, and I’ve been having a lot more of those recently.

Even so, I am not near as productive as I’d like to be.  So I stand by my glorifications of the humble time log.  And to prove it, I will commit to keeping a full and accurate time log for the remainder of the month, which I will use in my own quest to becoming a faster, more productive, better writer, and to further illustrate and elucidate its magic as occasions arise.

So whaddaya think?  Are you in?  All you need is an old blank notebook — I know you’ve got dozens — something to write with, and a commitment.  I’m not asking for your first-born or the most favorite leftovers you’ve got stashed in the back of the fridge.  I’m just asking that you commit to doing this just for the month of February.  We’re already five days in.  It’s a short month.  It’ll be easy.  Just write down the details of your writing sessions until the end of February.  Keep it brief, but be open to whatever ideas come your way.  At the end of each week, we’ll compare notes.

I have a bold prediction:  After just one week of consistent, diligent timekeeping of your writing sessions, you will feel more productive, you will be more determined, the ideas will come flooding — I promise you! — and you will have written.  Quite probably, you will lose a couple of pounds and feel sexier.  And there’s always the possibility that you will become a better cook.

All this just from keeping a time log.  Who knew?

 

I feel like figuring out how to approach this topic is akin to trying to take a bite out of a whale’s ass.  It’s just too big.  I can’t figure out which angle to go at it with.  (There’s an image for you.)

Well, let’s first identify what we’re talking about here.  I went to Dictionary.com and looked up “speed.” Here are some definitions that suit our purpose here:

Full, maximum, or optimum rate of motion; to promote the success of an undertaking; further, forward, or expedite; to succeed or prosper; to the maximum of one’s capabilities; operating at full or optimum speed.

Wow.  Imagine that.  Imagine what it would be like to be working at the maximum of your capabilities, operating at full or optimum speed.  Of course success and prosperity are included in the definitions of speed.

Let’s say right now you are not working at your full potential.  I’m just going out on a limb here.  Don’t feel bad.  This is not a terrible thing.  All it really means is you just haven’t leveled off yet.  If you’re still breathing, you’re still in the game.  (Lucky for me….)  There’s still lots of better up ahead.

The best part:  You don’t know yet what you’re capable of.

What if you discover, after getting rid of all the mental junk and streamlining your work habits, that your sweet spot is 3,000 words a day?  Ah-ah!  Don’t scare it away.  Just, what if?

That’s over a million words in a year…or 11 longish novels.  Close your eyes and imagine 11 books with your name on them.

You like that, don’t you?  Me, too.

So.  This is our task set before us.  This month we are going to discover our full and optimum speed in order to further, forward, and expedite our success and prosperity…and then we’re going to have one hell of a party!

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P.S.  Tomorrow’s post is a complete mystery to me…but it may or may not involve dried elbow pasta.

P.S.S.  Considering I spent over five hours writing this post every which way — don’t judge me — I’m going to add the word count of today’s post to the Word Pile:  362.

P.S.S.S.  Yes, I am aware of the irony.  Be quiet.

Tonight I am finishing up court reporting work (to pay for all those Nutter Butters), so my word count today is quite small.  I humbly offer you my 305 words, a result of a five-minute typing up-chuck just prior to showing up here.  (Remember, the goal is speed, not quality.)  And thank you to everyone who’s down to groove and boogie on word counts this month!  We’re gonna have so much fun!  And don’t worry…soon we will have something widget-licious in the sidebar to illustrate all our hard work.

Lest you think I am discouraged by my admittedly slight word count, know you this:  I am not discouraged.  I am simply laying down the kindling, the foundation of an awesome Burning Word Man Bonfire — ooh! maybe — or whatever we end up doing.  So write each word for the flames and worry not for its future, for its destiny is now.

Ahem.

Yes, I am terribly silly.  But rest assured, all these shenanigans doesn’t mean real work is not being done.

Speaking of real work — meaning, the writing — I thought tonight I would share with you a fairly recent web find.  Perhaps everyone already knows about this website…after all, I just discovered Duotrope not too long ago.  (Yes, I’m the rotten egg.¹)  Anyway, at the risk of being the goober shouting out yesterday’s news, I wanted to bring it to your attention…in case you’re the goober standing behind me.

So for those of you who have yet to make her acquaintance, I want you to meet Miss Snark’s First Victim.

Now, I don’t know Authoress, the woman in charge, personally, and I feel compelled to reiterate that her blog is fairly new to me, but it’s apparent that she’s created something epic, as evidenced by her latest blog post entitled, “Another Success Story.” This is the blog’s seventh or eighth success story.  If reading this blog doesn’t make you want to chain yourself to your desk until the novel is finally done, then I don’t know what will.

Once all the dead-tree traffic has cleared off my desk, I plan on sitting down and reading as much of Miss Snark’s First Victim² archives as I can.  And if you are serious about finding an agent for your novel-length project, I recommend you do the same.

These are our tribesmen, folks.  When you come across little hamlets of wonderment like this on the Internet, and the people are doing what you wish you were doing, then that’s where you need to pitch a tent and make some friends.

So go on…try to get a good spot.  I’ll catch up later with some beers.  First, I want to find the wood surface of my desk…I think it’s wood…it’s been a while since I’ve seen it.

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¹ Let my last-to-show-up-rotten-egginess be a lesson to you:  read, read, read! Learn about the industry you are trying to break into!  I am mostly directing these exclamation points at myself…just so you know!

² I also thought I should mention that Miss Snark is another blog on my archive-diving list.  It seems like every aspiring writer worth their salt knows of the legendary Miss Snark and her “T-Rexual heels of stiletto snark.”  Two and a half million hits over two years before Miss Snark retired the blog.  You know the rule.  If all the locals eat there, you know it’s gotta be good.

I started out this year with six very specific goals geared towards building a Writing Career of Significant Worth:

1)  I want to write more…a lot more…as in I want to sweat, sneeze, and bleed fiction.  Vomitus de Muse, Fiction Eruptus. That’s Latin for prolific and inspired.

2)  I want to edit that fiction. No, not just edit it.  I want to make that shit sparkle like Edward in the noonday sun.

3)  I want to submit said sparkly fiction. Momma needs to get brave, pack them sandwiches, give them lots of hugs and kisses, and wish them good luck as she puts them in a cab.  It is time for all the stories to grow up and fulfill their destiny.  “And don’t come home without a paycheck!”

4)  The platform, I wants to build one. What do you think we’re standing on here?  Sure, it passes code.  Why do you ask?

5)  Accountability. This is a transparent attempt to trick myself into doing my work using reverse psychology and false deadlines and penalties…but I think I’m on to myself.  I may have to resort to urban legends about the Muse Patrol…you know, that ghostly gang of scorned muses who stalk, mob, and tear apart writers who don’t write?  Didn’t you know the gift of writing is located in a writer’s gizzard, tucked right underneath our big fat egos?  And if you don’t use it, they come to take it back….  Yeah, I’m not buying that one either.

6)  Read more short stories. I want to drink deeply from the well.  I want to be on the other side of the relationship between writer and reader more often.  I want someone else to do the driving.  I want to be directed and misled, tricked and delighted.  I want to fill myself with the words of others.  I want to walk in other worlds, crash into strangers, fall in love with them, and escape with them via solar pods to planets made of mercury and ash.  I cannot create in a vacuum.  There is always give and take, and that, bruddah, is the circle of life.

~~~

So how am I doing so far?  Well, I spent most of January blogging and hammering together my “platform,” to be quite honest.  There hasn’t been much time left over for the fiction, something I need to correct posthaste.  I need to catch up with my Write1Sub1 obligations.  Even so, I feel like I’m in a nice, well-greased groove as being in work mode, which is priceless.  I just need to get faster, dammit!

Which leads us to this month’s obsession:  speed.  (Italics makes the word look faster, don’t you think?)  The most important item on the above list is — wait for it — No. 1, writing.  No surprise there.  There is no Writing Career of Significant Worth without the writing.

Here’s my problem — and it’s not a unique or uncommon problem — I don’t have a lot of time.  I really don’t.  I won’t bore you with my violin-accompanied sob story, but I’ve got a toddler and a husband stationed out of state.  You get the picture.  But I understand that Joe over in Sherman Hills spends two hours a day in his car.  And I get that the PTA is depending on Violet down in Texas to organize this year’s bake sale gala.

We all have the same sob story.  We all have children and spouses and jobs and commutes — important things! — that take up our time, and rightly so.  It’s called life.

But what makes art great is not what we’re capable of creating under perfect conditions — there’s no such animal — but rather what we actually create under imperfect conditions.  It is the challenges and obstacles that enrich our writing.  The harder we have to fight to create, the more value it has.

So I accept that I have certain limitations on my time that cannot be negotiated, and I choose instead to make the most of the time I do have.  And that means getting faster…because I am at this point in my life incessantly barraged with new story ideas, and I am afraid that I will become buried in their lifeless, unmanifested husks and haunted by the ghosts of their unfulfilled destinies if I don’t get a handle on it now.  The situation is urgent.

So this month my focus is on making fiction and lots of it…and quickly.  I don’t believe speed has to have a detrimental effect on first draft material.  In a lot of ways, it serves the writer to have a part of the process in which they are free to spew out all the tropes and clichés, scratch that itch, lay on the purple thick and gooey.  All the mistakes and groan-worthy metaphors will be excised later.  Let all the cheese come out.  Go on.  The important thing is that we make something to work with in post-production, which we will worry about later.

So speed…how do we do this?  I want to be very specific.  I want to take the river of poetry that flows within me and turn it into Niagara Fucking Falls.  Profane emphasis intended, deliberate, and calculated.  Why am I getting all at-the-docks-after-sunset about it?  Because sometimes you have to be if you want to be a contender.  So crank open those gates, let it come rushing out.  Cast out the monkeys in their barrels and give them the ride of their life!

And yes, writing like this means I most certainly will have to backtrack at times, but that’s okay.  Ferreting out and marking dead ends in stories is just part of the process.  Gotta be done.  Somebody’s gotta clear the sewers.

So in the words of Ray Bradbury, “Work.  Relaxation.  Don’t think.” This month is going to be all about speed.  Speed, speed, speed, my friends!  We are going to drill.  We will time ourselves.  We are going to kindle life into as many story ideas as we can.  This month we are going to see just how many words we can write to keep the Muse Patrol away.  Hang on to your gizzards, ladies and germinators!  (I don’t worry about mine as it is deeply ensconced and protected by my ginormous ego.)

So are you with me?  Be with me!  Be a come-with friend.  I will share my word counts each day, and you can post your word counts in the comments.  I will put together some sort of cumulative word count widget that I will install along the side here so that we can see just how big a pile of words we can make together.

And it doesn’t matter what kind of words they are, whether they’re song lyrics, blog posts, articles, novels…whatever it is that you’re writing, count those words.  They all count!  Just throw them in the comments, and I will pitch-fork them on top of the heap.  This will be like NaNoWriMo, except without the NaNo.  So really, this is just WriMo.

Anyway, at the end of the month, we can celebrate.  Maybe we’ll stack all of our words together into an elaborate tower of language and set it afire and dance by its light…and from the ashes will arise loud, squawking phoenixes…which we will take home and feed and preen their feathers and send them to editors to sing to them and convince them to give us money.  It is a good plan, yes?

But if this don’t float yer boat, don’t worry.  I got fun stuff coming, educational stuff, cheesy stuff…plus, there’s still the little matter of 72 Nutter Butters.

So now we come to the end of the Blog Overhaul, and I must admit, pink am I tickled.  I originally decided to write about overhauling my blog as a way to share the process with other Gonnabe Writers who might be thinking about their own web presence…and also as a kick in my own pants to clean up around here and start looking like a professional.

My goals for “overhauling” the blog were pretty basic and simple.  I wanted it to be more readable, more pretty, and I wanted more people to come by and hopefully enjoy it and tell their friends.  As far as meeting all the tasks on the “Overhaul List,” things went great.  Tasks were completed and blogged about.  I am happy with how the blog looks, and I feel it looks more professional than my “old look.”  Mission accomplished!

But I got way more out of doing this series than a better-looking blog.  One of the best things to come out of all of this was all the “oh-ing,” “duh-ing,” and forehead slapping that was happening on this side of the keyboard.  I think I may have opened up a few new connections in the old gray matter.  Yes, lightning may have occurred a few times.

For instance, in the first post of the series, “Blog Overhaul, Day 1 – Layout,” my intention was simply to share a few blog templates I liked and discuss their pros and cons and why I chose the one I did.  No biggie.  Like shopping with the girls, right?  “I liked the white one, but the black was more slimming…but my Carlos Santanas are red….”

Shopping so can too be a learning experience.  Not only did this little exercise force me to pay attention to what I like and don’t like in websites, but it forced me to learn my blogging software.  YOU MUST LEARN YOUR SOFTWARE!  It doesn’t matter if it’s blogging software or word processing software…whatever.  Whatever you need software for, if you learn it, your life will be better.  (And no, I still haven’t fully mastered my court reporting software…but it is so on the to-do list!)

And by the way, I want to emphasize that all of these seemingly technical aspects of designing the look of your blog are really very easy.  WordPress’s software is like one big blog wizard.  Once I sat down and just played around with all the buttons, I really got to understand how much control I have over how I present my content.  This, in turn, has made me think much more strategically about how to direct readers to information that I hope they will read and like.

For one thing, I have learned to link to relevant past posts, as you’ve probably noticed.  I used to consider individual blog posts as having a rather short shelf life.  And if you’re blogging every day, it’s easy for things to get pushed quickly down the screen and off into the archives.  But by linking past relevant posts, not only do you give your content a second chance at life, so to speak, but it gives you an opportunity to catch a new reader up to speed in an easy way and give a sense of continuity.  And why wouldn’t you want to point someone in the direction of past relevant content that you worked so hard to produce, right?

(By the way, if you’ve noticed my emphasis on linking to relevant content, you get a happy face.  🙂  Why is this important?  People get annoyed at being pointed to “dead ends”…at least I do.  It’s important to make sure that your description or hint of the content attached to the link matches the clicker’s expectations and makes sense in the context of a post.  Just saying….)

I also now pay closer attention to how each post looks on the page, where it appears, and how long it looks like that, depending on the content.  There are so many things that you can tweak and customize for each blog post.  It kind of geeks me out.  It really does.

In my effort to improve my “About Me” page, I ended up murderizing it…which led me to reconsider my approach and do a quick study of other authors’ bios…which helped me to figure out what kind of information was important for people to know about me in this blogging context.  In addition to helping me create a new “About Me” page I was happy with, it also helped me learn more about me — just kidding. 😉  I couldn’t resist.  Seriously, though, the effort was worthwhile and meaningful, and it helped to put me into a professional mindset.  I know, kind of boring, but I can’t always be a kook.

The next thing on the list was dealing with my “welcome mat,” something I had never, ever paid attention to before.  Sure, I read them on other people’s blogs, but it never occurred to me that I should explain to new visitors where the hell they’ve landed.  I know.  Captain Obvious here.  Anyway, being as my target audience is other writers and creative types, it only makes sense to let them know that they have arrived in friendly territory.  Park the mother ship around back.

The last thing on my little to-do list was to update my blog header image to something more pretty and relevant than the old blog header, which featured a snapshot I took a while back of a sunflower.  I must admit, it was a little uncharacteristic of me to embark on something more elaborate than finding something on deviantART that I liked (and could get permission for), but the DIY spirit was in me and I wanted to make it mine, if that makes any sense.

The resulting blog post, “Blog Overhaul, Day 6:  Epic Photo Shoot,” was selected to be featured on WordPress’s Freshly Pressed page, a tremendous honor in these blogging parts.  This was truly an unexpected, serendipitous gift for me.  In many ways, it gave legitimacy to what I’ve been doing here at my desk all hours of the night with my hair unkempt holding court to a gang of dirty coffee mugs.  That this particular post was selected means more to me than I could ever articulate.  I received so many kind and encouraging comments, you guys made me feel epic.  Thank you.

(I am still working my way through all the comments with much gratitude, so if I haven’t responded to you yet, please do not feel slighted.)

Funny thing, I started a draft of this post a few days ago, before being anointed by the Powers that Press Freshly, and I’m chuckling at this line:  “…discuss how much my traffic has increased…[due to posting daily].”  At the time I wrote that, I was a proud and beaming momma over a best day stats of 55 views.  I still am proud of that day because those were views I got myself.  However, since being Freshly Pressed on Friday, I have had over 3,500 views and counting.  Boggled and flabbergasted, stunned and humbled, thrilled and SQUEE! about covers it.

It remains to be seen what the long-term effect will be of this wonderful honor, but in the meantime, I feel galvanized, inspired, and lightning-powered in my blogging efforts.  I may, sometime in the near future, blog about how the post-Freshly-Pressed stats are coming along, but if you’re interested in reading about other bloggers’ experiences of being Freshly Pressed, I recommend you start here.

Lastly, if you’re reading this far — and I apologize for the length of this post — I hope you will forgive me if I light a stick of patchouli and wax a little metaphysical.

Anyone who knows me best knows that my favorite book is Steven Pressfield’s “The War of Art.” In the chapter entitled, “Approaching the Mystery,” Pressfield writes:  “…when we sit down day after day and keep grinding…a process is set into motion by which, inevitably and infallibly, heaven comes to our aid.  Unseen forces enlist in our cause; serendipity reinforces our purpose. […] When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us.”

Every time I sit down at my desk to write, I always have this image in my head of something strange and powerful in the aether raising its head in expectation, eager to read over my shoulder…and when it likes what it sees, spinning its fingers joyfully in the threads of the Universe, somehow shifting things in a way I can neither predict nor imagine.  But it’s always something I can rely on if I do my work.

I know this makes me sound like I wear lots of rings on every finger and clackety sets of teeth strung with feathers around my neck, but I swear it’s true.  I believe it.  I have seen too many things in my life not to believe it.

I also believe that we are all here to fulfill some potential that is uniquely ours, and when we put effort towards that potential, somehow we make the world a better place and more good things come our way.

All right.  End of sermon.  You can all put your lighters away.  Thanks for listening.  Namaste.

Anyway, I’m done fiddling with the blog…for now.  My only goal for it next month is figuring out how to migrate the whole thing over to my own domain name.  But that’s for next month’s concerns.  Tonight, I rest…and watch a bunch of episodes of “Lost.”

All right.  I gotta call it.  We’re at 72 votes.  That’s awesome!  Holy crap!  That’s 72 Nutter Butters I gotta eat.  I have obviously not given this thing enough thought.  I wonder if I can distract everyone by — squirrel!

Fine.  Well, be that as it may, I will have to prepare for Nutter Butter Day, either by moving meditation, warm-up stomach-stretching binges, or other more unconventional methods.  But do not fear…Nutter Butter Day will be shared with all…and soon.

In the meantime, please give it up for our new My Blue Screen Epic Blog Header…Epic3!  Yaaaaaay!

As our winner, she will represent My Blue Screen as our home page header.  She will also receive a $5,000 scholarship to the beauty arts school of her choice, which she will commute to in her new-to-her 1994 Ford Festiva, which has plenty of headroom to accommodate her big honking tiara!

If your favorite was not picked, do not cry for them.  All of our runners-up will receive smaller tiaras (size based on their vote percentages)…or blingy fezzes, as the case may be.  They each will also receive Target gift cards, as well as the chance to appear as featured blog headers in future blog posts.

And don’t forget, here at My Blue Screen, everyone goes home a winner!  If you voted, you may pick up your “I Voted” tiara in the back.  For everyone else, we have Nutter Butters…lots of Nutter Butters.

In all seriousness, to everyone who took the time to participate in this epic pageant of art and silliness and Nutter Butters, thank you so much.  The response has been overwhelming.  I never dreamed I would have to face down 72 Nutter Butters…. Thank you.

It’s been a busy week for me, so it’s no surprise my short story selections are…well, short.  In trying to meet the deadline for my short story reading quota, I found myself scrolling down to check the length of a story before I committed.  It’s kind of a lesson for me as a writer, actually.  I tend to write pretty long short stories.  And while longer stories are fun to read and the author usually has a little more room for world-building, I’m sure I’m not the only reader who checks the length of a story before committing.  Just something I’m thinking about as I’m contemplating my 11,000-word-and-growing behemoth that’s squatting on my desk.

Anyway, here are this week’s stories listed in chronological order as discovered and read:

17.  “The Gift,” by Christie Yant (Crossed Genres) Oh, man…they know not what they do!

18.  “Fame & Blowing Bubbles” by K.S. Riggin (Crossed Genres) This was a fun read.  I really enjoyed the protagonist’s voice in this one.

19.  “Dying With Her Cheer Pants On” by Seanan McGuire (Apex Magazine) I’m a big fan of Seanan’s blog, and her confident voice is very recognizable in this one.  I like reading stories where I feel I’m in good hands.  Plus, she always has great titles. 🙂

20.  “Snipe Hunting” by Jennifer Brozek (Apex Magazine) This story and “Dying With Her Cheer Pants On” came from the urban-legend-themed issue of Apex Magazine…and I love this particular urban legend.  Those snipes are slippery little devils….

21.  “The Caretaker of the Volcano” by Christopher James (Every Day Fiction) This had the feel of a parable…but was moving all the same.

22.  “Embolism” by Chaiti  Sen (Every Day Fiction) This one made me cry.  I miss my husband.

23.  “The Chase” by Ken Liu (Every Day Fiction) “Baby, you’ll be famous, chase you down until you love me, Papa-paparazzi….”  (That’s Lady Gaga for those of you who live under a rock… ;))  Fun read.  Liked the larger-than-life metaphor.

24.  “Hit and Miss” by M. Jacobo (Every Day Fiction) Very cool angle.  Very cool story.

25.  “Our Father” by Deborah Winter-Blood (Every Day Fiction) Another mini-tear-jerker.

Good round of stories this week.  Still five stories behind in my read-a-short-story-every-day quest, but that’s okay.  I’ll catch up somewhere along the line.

By the way, to anyone who happens to have a superhero story laying around, Cross Genres is taking submissions for their superhero-themed March issue…but you gotta hurry!  Submissions close for this issue January 31st — that’s tomorrow — at 11:59 p.m.

Next week I will try to read a short story from a different new-to-me market every day, broaden my wee horizons.  But not tonight.  Baby is piling up all the clean laundry on the dog’s head.  Just his snout is sticking out.  I should probably go rescue him.

I feel it would be terribly neglectful and missing a huge opportunity to share an excellent resource with lots of you writing folks out there if I didn’t mention this book now…before WordPress takes away the “Freshly Pressed” magic.  😉

I read Jeff Vandermeer’s excellent “Booklife:  Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st-Century Writer,” a year ago.  I even wrote a post in response to his section on goal-setting.

After I started the “Blog Overhaul” series this past month, it occurred to me it might be a fine idea to take another look-see at “Booklife.”  It’s amazing how after just one year of experience, of writing more and living more, my perspective and level of understanding has changed as I reread it.

To be quite honest, I’m not sure that I followed everything that Vandermeer wrote having to do with platforms and social networks when I read it last year.  Hell, it’s probably safe to say that I still don’t understand all of it yet.  After all, it’s not that long ago that I made my very first linky-link, and I’m still not on FaceBook.  But I’m starting to get it.  Things are starting to click.  I’m starting to really understand how things are interconnected in this strange new world we call The Internet.

Vandermeer writes in the introduction of his book, “Information and advice has no effect without what the reader brings to the experience.”  He further suggests that the reader “re-imagine” the book, “personalizing its real-world application to [the reader’s] life and work.”

He goes on to specifically say how one can do this:  “Take the sections that you find most useful, make a list of bullet points, and rewrite them from memory, adding in your own personal anecdotes and experiences.”

Now, I know that this is good advice.  I also know that I have probably read over this section at least three times without it ever crossing my mind that I should actually do this very thing…until now.

It’s been an amazing last couple of days for me.  Not only am I grateful and honored to have a post selected to be featured by WordPress, but I am just fascinated by everything that has come from it.  And as I read back through various sections of the book, I am deconstructing my work, trying to figure out how I got here, what drives traffic, what people are looking for, and what kind of people I’m looking for.  In some sense, I feel I have found my tribe.  At the same time, I still feel like I am walking around the campground with my dorky name tag on upside down wondering where I should pitch my tent.

It’s always about the journey, isn’t it?  I can’t wait to reread this book next year to see what it means to me then.  🙂  I suspect this book will go on to become one of my “perpetual” books, the ones I’m always reading and rereading.

There are hundreds of fantastic books out there for writers, but I think if you are working towards making a career as a writer, you would be doing yourself a disservice not to check out Vandermeer’s indispensable “Booklife.”  Vandermeer has built an amazing career for himself across many different media, and he shares his experience and insight generously and honestly.  I think that’s what makes this book one of the most relevant and helpful titles for writers today.

So…read it.  Dig it.  Spread the good word.