Thin

Sorry I've been absent for so long! After going off the radar while I worked on edits, I managed to catch the nastiest cold/flu/virus/whatever that I've had in a couple years. Even with antibiotics, these damn germs are holding on for dear life!

So, I realized something in my recent blogging adventures. I'm NOT a blogger. In the month of February I blogged every day. I scheduled posts ahead of time, and I put a lot of thought behind what I did. But when March rolled along, I didn't blog at all. I'd managed to burn myself out in the course of four weeks. Another side effect from my mad February blogging schedule: it caused me to lose a lot of my creative drive. I was putting so much thought into blogging, reading blogs, commenting on blogs, and following new blogs, that when I was done with the blogging portion of my day, the thought of writing wasn't quite so appealing.

Granted, I've been in revising mode. I didn't want to disrupt that groove because I knew I'd be working on edits soon. I have a hard time switching gears from creating to revising. But, really, blogging is creating. I had to plunk down new words once a day. I'd worn myself a little thin.

We're all eager to brand ourselves. We've all read the articles, heard our friends talk about how our careers as writers are staked on our on-line visibility. But if we don't have a product to peddle, that product being our novels, all of the visibility in the world isn't going to do a damn bit of good. I think about some of my favorite authors, take JR Ward, for instance. She doesn't blog. But she posts to her facebook page almost every day. She's interacting with her fans constantly. She also posts on forum pages and is active on her website. But as far as I know, she doesn't blog. At all. In a recent article in RWA's RWR April issue, Ward said that she forgoes a lot of appearances, as well as real life activities for her writing. She basically said, hey, my fans are in it for the books. And it's my job to give them what they want. Without a book to sell, I don't have fans.

Now, it's easy for Ward to put her platform on the back burner. She's already built a tremendous fan base. But I think the moral of the story, at least in my case, is this: don't over do it. Everything in moderation. It's not necessary for ME to blog every--single--day. It's perfectly acceptable to blog once or twice a week. Or once every couple weeks. It's okay to blog in the form of my favorite song, or a quote I want to share, or a joke. It's okay to write an essay or blog about my current work in progress. As long as I'm popping in, saying 'hi' every once in a while, I think readers will be okay with that. I'm going to keep writing blog posts, reading the many blogs I follow, commenting. I'm not going to attempt to be that super-blogger that I know I'm not. I tip my hat to those of you that can blog once a day/five days a week. I envy your hundreds upon hundreds of followers. I wish I could follow in your footsteps. But I can't. And that's okay too. I'll continue to network and build my platform through facebook and twitter. I'll continue to blog with my UF/Para-romance sisters at Magic and Mayhem. And hopefully, you'll continue to pop in every once in a while. You know, just to see what's up!

What's your opinion on blogging? If you don't see a post a day, do you unfollow blogs? Are you okay with the occasional blogger? What's your take on blogging? Love it? Hate it? Undecided?

Magic and Mayhem - The TBR Pile

I'm laying out my reading goals and revealing a few gems from my TBR pile on Magic and Mayhem today! Stop by and you might find a new series to read!

Magic and Mayhem - Owning It

Hey everyone! I've finally come up for air while my edits stew a bit and I'm blogging over at Magic and Mayhem today about owning your successes as well as your failures. Hope to see you over there!

Magic and Mayhem - Let's Talk About Sex

I'm talking about sex in paranormal romance and urban fantasy over at Magic and Mayhem today. Hope to see you there1 :)

So...Whatcha Doin'?

I was a bad blogger last week. And I have to warn you, when my edits come in, I'll probably be a bad blogger again. I have a lot of blog reading and commenting to catch up on and I hope to hit you all up today! :)

I'm trying not to write too many new words because I have a hard time switching gears from writing to revising. So I've been finishing my outline for book 2 which is due next week and looking over CP feedback so the MS for book 2 is ready to go. I've also been reading. Sooooooo much reading. Some of my favorite authors had releases over the past few weeks, two of them being Jeaniene Frost and Patricia Briggs. Let me just say, I devoured their books. I've also dipped in to Kresley Cole and in a couple of weeks I'll be making the two-hour trek to Boise for the new JR Ward book. Yes, I love JR Ward enough to drive two hours for her. ;)

So, what is everyone else up to? Writing? Revising? What are you reading right now?

Magic and Mayhem - Books That I Scream Like a Girl For

I'm giving a shout-out to Patricia Briggs today over at Magic and Mayhem. RIVER MARKED, the sixth Mercy Thompson book releases today! I can't wait to get my copy :)