Writing

A long while ago I started writing a collection of stories that are tied into a main story and I am starting to see the potential for new entries.

Starting to think I really need to take the material here and work with it again. There is some really good stuff in it and I have others that I am pleased with that I can incorporate.

Part of what I find interesting is how I can see some stories in my head and know how they will play out.

Might not know all of the details, but enough to work with it and then there is a story with no end. Those have…possibilities.

Got more I could say, but I think today less is more.

Been starting too look at the posts with a red dress and thinking about working on them all again.

If you ask if I am thinking about a blue dress too, well maybe I am and maybe I am not. 🙂

If you have been around long enough you won’t be surprised to hear me say I have thought about updating the Shmata Queen’s blog just to see if she noticed.

It is only 12 years since the last update and it could be fun to update y’all on her life, cuz believe me, Texas women have stories.

But I also thought about sharing some of the tales of engagement with brands and agencies who have contacted me to discuss sponsorships and brand ambassadorships.

There are some good stories there and the headline alone guarantees that I’ll get more traffic than normal.

But I am in sort of a funny space.

Blogging For Money

If you love writing and want to pay some of the bills blogging for money can be a great thing.

That is assuming you figure out how to make the system work for you. I never was as successful as some others but I did ok.

A large part of my lack of success stemmed from my refusal to share pictures and details of the kids and family online.

It created some distance that is harder to overcome with just words and stories. It prevented me from getting as many comments and likes as I could have.

Though it is not the only thing.

I didn’t play the game the way some others did. I wasn’t as nice or as much of a suck-up. Nor did I go to the blog conferences so that made it harder to make connections.

It would have been nice to meet some people and who doesn’t want to make more money, it would have been nice, but I am ok with it.

Like I said there are still people knocking on the door and if I worked on cleaning up and doing a few things I could make much more happen.

I just have to decide if I have enough interest in that. It is a funny time of life, guess I’ll see what comes of the next few months.

The launch of the mighty sailing ship called The Jack B. was about 7.5 years ago or maybe it is eight or nine, who can remember.

Sure we could go into the archives and locate the date with ease if we wanted to or we could just say we started blogging in 2004 on a different site that was integrated into this one.

If you looked through the joints and removed the duplicate posts you’d probably still have around eight or nine thousand of them.

Based upon unscientific research that means I produced more content than most with a few of those posts falling into the good, very good and excellent categories.

Production levels were steady for the first decade or so and then courtesy of work and life responsibilities they slowed down to the current place of semi-hibernation.

Why is it important to mention?

Because writers don’t quit writing, but bloggers do.

I am a writer who is a blogger, not a blogger who just happens to write.

Stay Drunk

I have been drunk on writing for so long now I can no longer remember what it means to be sober.

There is no time I can remember where writing wasn’t on my mind or a part of me in some way.

Although there were and are times in which it was lower on the list of priorities it always occupied a spot on the list.

I am not sure I recognized its import when I was younger, but for certain I have and I do.

The hardest challenge for me now is to write with the complete freedom I wish to under my own name.

I come closer all the time, but have been holding back just a little, not always, but enough.

That will change.

Sometimes you walk under a moon lit sky searching for a missing shmata and sometimes you do the same under cloudy skies.

In light and in darkness you search because the echoes of the past reach into the present and the future and you wonder.

Wonder if what you hear is a lie told many times over many years or if it is the simplest and most powerful truth you’ll ever know.

Conflicted you stand in a field wondering if you’ll always wonder of if one day you’ll be able to say you know the truth without question or concern.

Once there were two souls…