Ten Thousand + Thanks

I told you I wasn't going to look at stats anymore - BUT --

I had to acknowledge this one. Today, sometime when I wasn't looking, the hits to this humble blog numbered TEN THOUSAND PLUS.....

I know some folk get 10,000 hits a month and more... BUT --

I am so grateful for those of you who have spent these last two years visiting my site and causing this watershed moment in my life. I thank you again, from the bottom of my heart.

On to business... Hmm. That's odd to say for I had not, until a couple years ago, considered writing as a business. In today's market, a writer must consider her writing a business, if she plans to: 1) make a living doing it, 2) getting her name out, 3) sharing her work and her characters. 

My ultimate goal is to share my characters with as many readers as I can. Because I like them. However, I was reading a book today that my writing buddy got me. It was one of those 'gag' gifts, supposed to be like a Hallmark card, looked at briefly and enjoyed and then donated. 

I've learned not to look a gift horse in the mouth (Oh - Sean Bean was exquisite in Troy, was he not???). Never mind. Be still my heart. The book is called, 'The Joy of Writing Sex.' Now, I've been reading it for quite some time and I have yet to see any 'joy' in the book. I'm on chapter three (Give me a break - they're long and they require thought - much like sex. *giggle giggle snort snort*)

One of the quotes intrigued me. The writer quoted is Dorothy Allison. http://www.dorothyallison.net/

"There's no safety in writing well. There is no way to be naked, which is what you have to be to be a good writer, ... and still be safe."

I'm back at that fear thing, dear readers, but I see it in the many writers who have become a part of my life. Fear is rampant in their lives, too. Fear can be the biggest roadblock of all. The most debilitating. The one that keeps me from winning. Honestly. That's what it's about. Winning over fear and all the other things that lie hidden in my life, that keep me tied to things that don't bring joy. And writing, when I give myself over to it freely, is abundant joy. 

In the February, 2013 issue of Writers' Digest (I know - I'm beating this issue to death but it's a great issue!), John Steinbeck is quoted:  "It is not so very hard to judge a story after it is written, but after many years, to start a story still scares me to death. I will go so far as to say that the writer who is not scared is happily unaware of the remote and tantalizing majesty of the medium."

I'll paraphrase it. I have to be smart to be scared. And I should be scared shitless. 

I don't feel so bad, now, about being afraid as I look at my blank page, or the last line of the last chapter, or the character who looks back at me like I'm an idiot for writing what I just did.

I do so love writing. It's worth it - taking out my sword and smashing fear or using it. Both ways work, I think.

Life is writing.