Category: About a Blog

writing on the website

Feeling Published

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Remember flame wars? In 2002, this same week, I got torched on a Yahoo Fan Page. Which led me to leave a group I’d really loved. It was so hard, and so much on my mind, I told my son about it. I shocked myself when cried a little bit before wiping my tears away and laughing at myself.

My son Mike asked me what I’d liked so much about the group. I thought about it. I finally said I liked talking about writing. Which was something we did a lot in that group. I’d miss having that outlet. Mike said “Mom, you should start a blog.”

I sniffed and said I wouldn’t know how to do that, and anyway, weren’t blogs over? He replied that he’d set up the site for me and also, no, blogs were not over. They were only going to get bigger. He was in IT, so I figured he knew more about the internet than I did. I said yes, thank you, that sounds like fun.

I hadn’t published a book yet, just some poems, short stories and book reviews in magazines, but the minute I posted my first blog entry, I felt published. It was an incredible validation. All these years later, I still feel so good about my blog, which my son continued to help me with for more than ten years, until his first son was born.

I have such happy memories of this adventure. Choosing wallpaper for a custom template, learning to write a key lines of code, blogging every single day about the novel I was working on. In 2002 there wasn’t any software that did tech things for you, so Mike did them for me. He was so patient when I wanted to change my blue stars wallpaper to pink flowers. The blog was a joint project and my son was my teacher. What a gift.

Mike said he could still do the work on my blog after the baby came. By this time we had been through Blogger and Moveable Type and were firmly into Word Press. I’d met Barb of Bakerview Consulting online and was sure she could do the housekeeping chores. I was also sure Mike was about to be way busier than he could begin to imagine. Both of these things turned out to be true.

What started out as a way to talk about writing became my author platform and I didn’t even know it until I read Colleen Story’s “Writer Get Noticed!” I’m learning more about my writing self from Colleen’s book…like what specific things I want from this writing life I’m living. The answers will be different for everyone, but the discovery process is the same.

It starts with the question Mike asked me all those years ago: What do I like about doing this? Why do I like it? These days I’m revisiting those questions and so many more that Colleen poses. Doing the exercises in Colleen’s book is an illuminating way to fill my morning pages. Which is the way I always start my day. Why? Because I like it.

Why do I like it? Any of it? Morning pages, blogging, writing novels, participating in a Twitter hashtag? It’s all one reason, really. It’s the best way, the perfect way for me, to communicate with the world. And I didn’t really put it all together quite like this until I read Colleen’s book, so thanks Colleen. And thanks to Mike, who set me off on this adventure. And most of all to you, whoever you are, wherever you are, reading this. ❤

Stealth Book Giveaway

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IMG_4768In September, my blog birthday month, I like to do nice things for people who visit my website. A few years ago, I extended the giveaway to my friends on social media. This year I did myself one better. I had an IRL spontaneous giveaway of my new novel. It was so fun. Everything just came together to make it happen.

I was in Florida without internet the first ten days of September so couldn’t set up any traditional giveaways like Goodreads. (The photo above is the basket our Michigan Sisters in Crime donated for a charity auction.) For part of my Florida time, I was at a book convention. I had several copies of my new release with me, just in case the bookseller ran out and needed more. I was walking with my fellow Michigan Sisters in Crime member, Bobbi, and I realized I didn’t want to carry MY books and all the hardcover books we got inside a book bag when we registered. I took out a book and handed it to Bobbi. “Here! My present to you!”

She said she would buy it but I just waved that away. My September giveaway had begun. In the hallway there was a long table full of free books. Lots of people obviously felt like me and didn’t want to carry a book bag full of hardcovers around or maybe they had duplicates or something. Anyway the books were there and I went over and put a copy of my book on top of the pile. I walked by ten minutes later and it was gone. So I put another one in the pile. After the panel discussion, I noticed that second one was gone, too. So I put a third book on the pile and two women who were sorting through the books looked at me.

“You wrote this? You know this is the free table, right?”

I said, yes, I wrote it and yes I knew it was the free table. One of them immediately grabbed it and tucked it in her book bag. I was having such a good time giving away my books. (You know how that works, right? Do something for someone else and you’ll feel happy, too.) Then I noticed on Facebook people were saying they bought the new book or they wanted to order a copy. I was in Florida and two of the friends who commented that they wanted to get the book were there, too. So I gave them books. Then I gave my dad one,  because he asked. He’d never read any of my previous books.

(My dad’s reaction after reading my book was so sweet. On my last day in Florida, he took me out to dinner and he said “I can’t put that book down!” My book. Then he said “How did you do that? How did you know all that stuff?” I told him a little bit about how I researched the book. “You are a really good writer, honey. You are as good a writer as any of them.” My dad reads a book a day, all mysteries, so this was a huge compliment. He looked at me a new way that dinner. He always had loved me, but now he was a little bit in awe of me. It was so sweet.)

Keeping it in the family, my brother had asked via Facebook if he was ever going to get a copy of my novel and I promised him one as well. The first thing my mom said to me when she came to my house for a family party in August was “Do you have a book for me?” I gave her one. I gave my small critique group each a book, and we don’t usually do that. We usually buy each other’s books as a show of support. But I had dedicated this book to them, because parts of it were so difficult to write and they listened to my technical problems, gave suggestions and cheered me on through the whole thing.

They would not let me give up. I almost did. In fact I took a break and wrote a Christmas mystery. So that’s how the giveaway worked this year. I gave print and eBook copies to random people on Facebook and Twitter and print copies to friends and family. I gifted 16 books, which is something I also like to do. Every September, I give away a book for every year my blog has been live. I’ve been here since 2002. 16 years.

I still have one last blog birthday surprise. It is in the works as I write this, and won’t be ready to reveal until early October. I am so excited about this last surprise. I am bursting to tell you what it is but I’m going to hold off until it arrives. Stay tuned.

September Surprises

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IMG_3263It’s September, which is the month, 16 years ago, I started blogging on this site. It continues to be such a joy to me and I love interacting with my readers. I have arranged with my publisher to put the Kindle edition (also Nook and ePub) of my new release Lily White in Detroit on sale for 99 cents. This deal is a very limited time offer.

I’m an avid reader and when I discovered I spent more than $200 in one month for e-books, I decided to put myself on a book budget. Now I look for those 99 cent deals, so if you do, too, this is for you.

I do have more surprises coming this month. I’ll be giving away free e-books and print editions from my backlist. I also plan to make at least one of my backlist permanently free, maybe on my website. Stay tuned for more September surprises.

 

15 Years

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15 years ago this month I started this blog. Back then, I called it “A Writer’s Diary” as a  homage to the Virginia Woolf book of the same name, the one with all the writing related entries from her journals assembled by her husband after her death. I read Woolf and other writers’ biographies, memoirs, and even their collected letters. I read May Sarton’s “Journal of a Solitude” and Hemingway’s “A Movable Feast.” Pretty much anything writers had to say on their craft, I read.

The internet was pretty new then, or it was to me. I did belong to one fan group though, on Yahoo. Are there still fan groups? I don’t even know. Anyway, a fan started a group to talk about one of my favorite contemporary writers so I joined. I got really into it. Maybe a bit too much. I posted lots of writerly type comments, asking the other fan/writers questions or just getting something writing related off my chest. It was fun and a highlight of my day. Then it wasn’t anymore.

I know this about myself: sometimes I am too enthusiastic and I can get ahead of things. Always with good intentions, but some people don’t like it and if I try to leap over them, I stumble. This happened then and I left the group. I was telling my son about it while he was hooking up my new computer. Telling the story, I started to cry a little bit, which was embarrassing because I always try to be strong for my kids. I told him how stupid I felt about tears. It was a dumb fan group and the mean girls made me look bad in front of the famous author. Big deal.

My son was so sweet and sympathetic. He said “You should start a blog.” This was 2002. I said “Aren’t blogs over?” He laughed and said “No, they’re going to get a lot bigger.” And he set me up. He registered cynthiaharrison.com, found me a host, designed my first page and managed my blog for ten years. Eventually it grew into a website highlighting my blog posts.

I uploaded an entry every day of those ten years, usually about whatever novel I was working on, what was going good and what my problems were with the days’ pages, which editor from what publishing house was interested in a query. Who had rejected the current manuscript. It was raw data. I never edited those posts. Really, when I started blogging, nobody edited their posts and they weren’t meant to be polished pieces.

My first novel came out around that ten year mark and I realized my son had been exactly right. Tons of people were blogging about writing, some of them authors using their  websites as platforms for their work. The official word from marketing departments  was that writers should blog to keep their websites “live” and attract readers. Not every writer has a website, and not every writer with a website has a blog. But lots do.

After 2,519 blog entries, and ten published books, my blog is now occasional and only one part of the ever-expanding website. Barb of Bakerview Consulting (I found her five years ago on Twitter!) designed a site I love that reflects my pride in having become a published author as well as my new laid back approach to blogging.

Today I was having coffee with a friend who suggested I take a look at my blog posts. She believes there’s a book in here somewhere. I just sent my current manuscript off to my editor, and I don’t have a good idea for new novel yet. Maybe, like my son’s suggestion 15 years ago, this is something I can do.

Last Post

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I just bought a home in a Florida beach town. I’ve lived in Michigan all my life except for a brief season in Key West when I was on the brink of twenty and recovering from a teenage marriage. I still live in Michigan, as my husband is not yet retired and I very much like living with him. But as Michiganders of a certain age sometimes do, we’re taking a second home to avoid the brutal winters.

Until I can convince Al to retire, he won’t be down south with me as much as I’d like. He does have several weeks’ vacation, so he’ll be there a good chunk of the time. Probably not in February where I will try to console myself with lots of writing time and feathering the new nest. Also a consolation: not having to cook all those suppers and shop for the vast quantities of groceries he makes disappear with alarming regularity.

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Still, I’ll miss him when we’re not together.

It feels really strange to have two houses in two states, but strange in a good way, like an exciting adventure. And as one adventure begins, another ends. After fourteen years and 2482 posts (!!!) this is my last one. I started blogging as a way to motivate, understand and identify myself as a writer. I was unpublished and wanted a place to hold the dream of one day being the author of books. So I did what I set out to do and made some good friends along the way. Thank you all for reading. Now on to the next adventure.