Haha. Sorry. Didn’t know how to start today, so figured I’d comment on the fact that when I don’t post, I don’t get visits, so the lovely little traffic tracker in the top left corner of my dashboard is currently flat as flat as flat can be.
Interesting weekend. Made me think a bit about power and how people act based upon their perceived or actual levels of power. I may manage to turn that into a post in the near future. But I’d have to dip into gender roles a little more than I like to do on here, so we’ll see. One interesting comment from the weekend was from a professor who basically said that powerful people tend to be self-absorbed and don’t consider other people’s needs and wants much.
This weekend also had me thinking about the duality of our lives in the sense that what we choose to present to others is a very limited picture of what is actually happening in our lives. And that sometimes that’s very much influenced by what the people around us want to hear. There was very little talk of families, vacations, or hobbies, but lots of talk about companies and careers this weekend. It’s amazing how people can talk for hours and not tell each other anything of true substance. Granted, I didn’t ask those types of questions either, because it really wasn’t the right setting for it.
I’m also having a few thoughts on how people manipulate us. One was because we talked about how people can use anger in negotiations to trigger concessions from the other party. (Doesn’t actually work with me by the way. I’ll just walk away from a negotiation like that or absolutely refuse to budge because I do not believe in rewarding displays of anger.) The other was because a friend of mine is going through a divorce and I saw first hand how this friend’s family is using emotion to manipulate my friend’s handling of the situation.
But those are all still bubbling under the surface. They may result in a full-blown post at some time, but just wanted to mention them now.
In other news. Thank you to Dave Higgins for tagging me in The Next Big Thing: Blog Hop. As Stacie has already learned, I’m bad at doing these things. So, I will tag five blogs that people can check out and if any of those blogs want to continue the hop, they are welcome to do so. (Just follow the link above for the rules and questions. And while you’re there, check out some of Dave’s other posts.)
Alison J. McKenzie (writingatmidnight)
Elayne Joy (writeandponder)
All five of these are people who’ve followed or commented on my blog at various points in time and I’ve really appreciated their comments and have found my way back to their blogs at some point in time and have bookmarked them so I can find my way there again. Some aren’t as active as others, but maybe this’ll get them going again.
In other news, this seems like a good time to share a comment by Teresa Nielsen Hayden:
“…writing about writing, or writing about publishing, is what wanna-be authors do when they’ve given up on writing, but don’t yet want to admit it.”
Hopefully that’s not the case with me. But I must say that it has been easier to find time to blog than to write lately and that really does need to change. I did write a fun little short story the other day that I’m hoping to submit soon once it’s passed my Betas. (I know I really should try to get some short story writing credits, I’m just not a short story writer by nature, so it’s yet another writing skill set to master.)
And, in a somewhat related line of thought to the quote above, Rachelle Gardner has a post up today: Should All Authors Blog? I think it’s a good post and worth considering. For me the blogging is pretty easy. I just spew thoughts onto a page, spellcheck, read through, and post. (And hopefully what comes out is at least marginally intelligible.)
I think she has a good point that a lot of writer’s blog followers are fellow writers. But I would also say that I’ve bought books now from at least three authors because of their blogs or web presence and have at least one other author on my list of books to buy as a result of their blog. So, even if you only attract writers to your blog, it may still result in readers as well.
I would say, though, that in all those cases, the author in question blogged often enough and was interesting enough to make my daily or weekly reading rotation before I thought about buying their books. So, I would say only blog if you can keep at it week after week, month after month, year after year. (Or at least think you can.)
I have a lot of authors bookmarked who just don’t post often or only post when they have new books out. And I have to say that if I wasn’t already reading their books, that the blog does nothing for making me want to read their books.
Anyway. A certain amount of randomness today. Hope some of it worked for each of you.
M.H. Lee 
I am not familiar with that blog-hop thing, I will check it out! I have a hard time with awards, and I do think that I am going to finally accept some of them, but in an all-in-one type of way. Somehow. We’ll see.
I share a lot of your feelings about the blogging. If I comment less, I get fewer readers; it just seems to be the way it goes. Also I find that commenting and truly engaging keeps me more motivated to write the blog, so it sort of works out!
Also, I read that article today about writers having blogs. I even made a comment that sat there without being submitted for so long while I wrote articles that I eventually decided not to publish it. I feel that I love my blog more than I thought I would, for reasons that I didn’t expect upon creating it. The amount that I’ve been learning from other writers, especially those like you who share such greatly explained details of their process and resources, is just phenomenal. Along those lines, have you heard of Duotrope? It’s a site that has lots of outlets for short stories. You might like it, or already know about it. I’ve been trying to use it to get a short story published, and it’s quite versatile and full of various online publications.
I’m quite interested in your potential upcoming posts about power. Welcome back, glad to see you here! 🙂
It’s definitely been a surprise to me how much I learned about writing from blogging. Not in terms of mechanics as much as from other blogs. In trying to find content for the blog, I think it’s forced me to keep engaged when I might have stopped otherwise.
And you’re right, Duotrope is a great resource for tracking short story submissions and finding potential markets. I haven’t used it as much as I would like to, but it is very helpful.