To blog hop or not to blog hop...

                          
                         Have you been asking yourself this question? I know I did.

When I first created my blog, I had absolutely no inkling what I was doing. So I fell back on my 'ol standby --the internet. I spent hours researching, trying to find that perfect template, figuring out code, trying to get out there, to brand myself--which is near impossible when using an alias. I worked and worked, until I had it how I liked it (or so I thought at the time), and then I published my first post.

It was nerve racking. I was honest, painfully honest, and I wondered what kind of response I would receive.

The next day I checked my blogger account with trembling fingers. What I found there was shocking! Lo and behold I had a follower. Boy did I feel special!

 I had that one follower for a couple of weeks. And then a friend joined the group, and my sister. So there we were, the four of us. It was awesome.

And then one day I was tooling around the internet and came across a post that spoke of blog hopping. What was this foreign idea? What? I was supposed to sign up and then go from blog to blog following perfect strangers, hoping for the same in return.

No! Way!

Like I would ever do something like that! People were going to follow me because they wanted to follow me, because they were interested in what I had to say. Not for any other reason.

I waited a while longer, maybe a week, but my little blog made absolutely no progress. I was talking, but no one was there to hear me, and I found the void striking a death toll in my heart. I was failing.

What was the point?

Yes I love to write, but I would be better off working on my manuscripts--not spinning my wheels, shooting the breeze with nary a soul to respond. (my lovely followers weren't exactly vocal)

Then one day I had a thought. (This happens to me from time to time, weird) How were my prospective readers to even know I exist? It's not like I'm Lady Gaga. If I were Lady Gaga, I'd have all kinds of people chillin' on my site. But that wasn't the case. I'm a nobody growing into a somebody, and if I ever wanted to make friends I needed to be the one to introduce myself.

So I did exactly that. I stood tall and went knocking, hoping that I wouldn't be ridiculed for being so forward. And that day I discovered something...there are other people out there. People who not only wanted to meet me, but people who have interesting, exciting things to say. Oh my...a long, fabulous list of inspirational posts began to fill my reader. The funny thing is that some of my absolute favorite bloggers are the ones I never would have followed otherwise. We all know you can't judge a book by its cover, and never has this been so true!

If you're interested in making new friends, check out the blog hop link above. There's a slew of great hops going on every day of the week. Hope to see you there!

Procrastination does pay off!

Exciting things have been happening around here.  First of all, I have decided to move Grace's Ruin to another blog, and if I ever get it figured out, it is my goal to set it up more like an e-book--with page numbers etc.  My apologies, but this is the best I can do for now.  Secondly, I have come to realize that by setting up this new story, I am breaking my promise to myself that I would not write anything new till I get my revisions completed on Bound, my latest YA fantasy novel.  I'm sneaky and need a slap on the hand for this latest maneuver.  I actually found myself online doing research last night.  However, the good news is that I am almost finished with revisions and I should be able to send the manuscript to my test market within the week. Cross your fingers!  Third, my 8 year old has First Communion this Sunday and I'm in freak out mode.  People are coming.... Here! The house is a disaster, the yard needs to be mowed, the laundry has taken on a life of its own.  Not to mention the grocery shopping and I need to clean my car--father in law always checks it and has loud opinions on this.  Ahem.  Freaking Out!

But on the bright side--very, very bright side--yesterday I was finally able to track down my dear friend from childhood.  I can't tell you the number of times I've googled her name and come up short.  Yesterday, while procrastinating on revisions, my mind turned to her yet again, and I thought, what the hell? I should check for her on Twitter.  I've only just begun using Twitter a few weeks back and so this was the first time this had occurred to me. Yes, I am a genius! (Yeah, right).  So I punched in her name and lots of people came up. I searched the list two or three times and was just about to give up, when something popped out at me.  I seriously almost missed her.  She'd put the number 75 at the end.  Our birth year.  Could this be her? Her profile photo was grainy, but I found a familiarity in the way she held her shoulders, and who besides my one of a kind friend would wear such humongous sunglasses.  Are there brown eyes behind those shades? Is there auburn hair under that scarf?   What a lame picture, what was she thinking?  Didn't she know I'd be looking for her?  Couldn't she have worn a t-shirt saying "Hi, this is such and such, and I am your long lost best friend.
Sort of embarrassing to admit, I actually trembled as I sent her a message.  But what to write?  I had to keep it brief, after all, no one on Twitter wants to see a ton of someone else's personal stuff flashing across their home feed.  And I would be lying if I didn't admit that I was worried this person may not know who the heck I was and would send back a message accusing me of being a stalker chick.
For three agonizing hours I kept checking for a reply.  Turns out she had answered me right away but for some reason it hadn't shown up on my phone.  Grrr..... talk about frustrating.  It wasn't until this morning that I found a second message and I knew for sure it was her.  This has been an emotional morning for me.  Even now I'm tearing up thinking about her.
There are so many things I want to tell her.  So many things I want to ask.  If only she would click the follow button on Twitter so I can give her my contact info.  I think I may just send her a link to this.

If you're reading this Helen....move your arse!