Thursday, October 21, 2010

BLOGS ARE LIKE SMALL WINDOWS

Stacy Juba nominated our blog for an award and we’d like to pay it forward by nominating the following blogs:

http://bethgroundwater.blogspot.com

http://bschlichting.blogspot.com

http://bushdogblues.blogspot.com

http://death-by-killing.blogspot.com

http://fivescribes.blogspot.com

http://www.jungleredwriters.com

http://www.killercharacters.com

http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/

http://writerspoliceacademy.com

http://lenbogarad.blogspot.com

http://mysteryloverskitchen.com

http://sasanoleksiw.blogspot.com

http://theunpredicatablemuse.blogspot.com

http://travelswithkaye.blogspot.com

I hope you’ll enjoy looking up these blogs that both entertain and inform.

I first heard of blogs in a CSI show, now off the air. One of the lab techs blogged daily and a killer was inspired by the blog to kill again. Then a friend in the UK gave me the address of her blog. She’s an inspired photographer who captures people and scenes at unusual times and angles. Still, the world of blogs remained an unknown territory for me because a blog seemed like a diary and I’ve never kept a diary.

I could never visualize someone two hundred years from now finding my diary and being overwhelmed by the historical details of our daily lives. Leaders of writing groups I’ve attended have urged students to keep a writing diary. What would I note—a spectacular sunset, a deer crossing the street at midnight, or a conversation overheard in a restaurant? If the former mean anything to me, I easily remember them in pictorial and auditory detail. If I wrote the details in a diary, I doubt whether my kids or grandkids would say, she was so sensitive to the world around her, so creative. No, they’d probably say, do you think she was worried about going blind or losing her memory?

As a child, I remember having to plough through the writings of Samuel Pepys who kept a diary that recorded the great fire of London. Mostly, I remember him because of a ditty written about Lady Godiva. Covered only by her long hair, she rode naked on a horse through the streets of Coventry to make her husband stop demanding such high taxes from the people of Coventry. Although Pepys and Lady Godiva were separated by six centuries, that didn’t stop a writer celebrating her nakedness and noting that “naughty Samuel peeps.”

While I still thought of blogs as similar to diaries, I started to notice that writers whose work I enjoyed had web pages and blogs. Then, Elaine asked me to join our blog. Suddenly, I discovered a whole new world of fascinating people and information. Blogs keep me updated on people I’ve met and their accomplishments, and introduce me to people I might never meet.

Do I regret not being able to see all these people in person—you bet. A century, no twenty years ago, I wouldn’t have known what I was missing. I make the best of the time in which I live and contact through blogs interesting people I see once or twice a year or not at all.

Have you been surprised by what you discovered in a blog? Do you wish you could meet in person blog writers?

9 comments:

  1. As the "newbie" on this blog, I'm finding that one blog can learn form another. I feel like I get to know writers by their blogs. I would like to meet Adrian McKinty in person.

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  2. I often read a blog and think, what does the blog writer find funny and what is their next project?

    Just as there are writers conferences, there could be bloggers conferences by region, west, midwest, northwest, etc. probably never happen but I can dream.

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  3. I don't feel as if I have to meet a bloggers in person, but I do like to read blogs writen by authors, especially those by authors whose work I read. Their blog gives me insight into the real person and how they may view the world. Interesting to me to see how that jives with their writing.

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  4. Blogs are fun. I enjoy many of them and like the information or the insight into the blogger--I feel like I know them on some level. Some lead me to new authors or just other good blogs.
    So keep it up!

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  5. Thanks, Ellis, for the encouragement. I always enjoy meeting new people.There's no way I can travel to all regions of the US.

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  6. Thanks so much for the nod. For me blogs are a way to write an experimental novel, non-fiction,or biography that would otherwise languish as merely unshared good ideas.

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  7. Thanks for sharing, Len. There's so much to learn from blogs.

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  8. If I can add to Pauline's blog. The blog award that we were given by Stacy Juba was meant to be passed on by the recipients. So, those of you whose blogs we awarded are to pass the award on to other blogs which you enjoy reading.

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  9. It's nice to pay it forward. I was touched to receive the blog award also - apparently, it's a viral award. I'm not sure where it originated but it is making its way across the Internet as I was just nominated again! If any of the recipients want to use the logo that was passed onto me, you can download it at http://bit.ly/baJhiY.

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