Lift Off

A few days ago I told you that I was creating a new blog platform. The truth is I was waiting for my tech savvy son to come home to "help me" (i.e. to do it for me). Well this weekend finally arrived. He did that and here it is.  If something looks weird it's because Blogger is totally new to me and I'm learning as I go.  I told you that you would be able to subscribe to my blog and post comments directly to the blog.  All of that is possible here.  I look forward to getting familiar with all this and not feeling exposed and self-conscious.

Now instead of posting only to my Facebook readers, I am posting to the world. Google searches can find me and anyone anywhere can read what I have to say.  Anyone anywhere can also comment on what I say. So I am going to have to be willing to stand by my stories, opinions, theology (and lack thereof). I can  delete my posts (if I remember how) but in many ways no matter what you do you publish to the internet is there forever.

I have been writing and posting to Facebook for six years. It all started with a brief story about my late, great mixed shepherd Maggie. My post received a warm reception. So I kept writing and posting. Over these years I have posted over 200 stories of about 1000 words each. It's on my bucket list to have some of them published as a book. I am working on that now.

Most of the time I know what I want to write about before I start writing. Sometimes I'm just in the mood to write and I just stare at the blank page until something bubbles up.

The most  important thing about writing that I have learned is that "write" is a verb; it's something I have to do. I've learned that writers get "writer's block" because they stop writing.  At times I wonder if I'll finally run out of anything  to say.  As you can see, that is highly unlikely.

I'm always curious who actually reads my stuff. Sometimes I think  only about eight or ten people are still reading me. But then I run into people at Walmart, people who have never commented on anything,  who say, "I love reading your stories."  So if you would like to comment now to let me know you're there I would appreciate that. But if you don't feel like it I'll be publishing anyway. It's just something I enjoy doing.

I wrote this mainly to publish it and  see what I can do with it, And to see where it goes. Once I get more comfortable with that I'll write something a little more like me.