June 17, 2005

Photo by Bryan Davidson, used with attribution, cc license

June 17, 2005. That's the date of my first blog post. I didn't realize that I had passed the blog's 7th anniversary earlier this summer.

Seven years of consistent blogging.

Close to 900 posts.

I had no idea what I was going when I started. But when has that ever stopped me before?

I had a commercial website as far back as 1996. That's practically the age of the dinosaurs, as far as the web is concerned. My husband and I created it on AOL's hometown. We figured out the HTML, later learned how to use FrontPage. I sold babyslings.

When I started my first novel in 2004, I had absolutely, positively no idea what I was doing. I had only ever written text book chapters, professional papers, short stories (and precious few of those) and poetry. But I threw myself into it with the same kind of foolish abandon I do just about anything else in my life.

Well, not abandon. More like willful cluelessness. It's easier to do something when you have no idea it's supposed to be impossible. 

So blogging. I had started to read some blogs in '05 and '06 and decided to try it out and see if I liked it. I had absolutely no expectation of readership. In fact, in 2006 I'm not even sure how anyone *found* blogs. I had kept a journal for as long as I could remember, so writing for a blog seemed like a natural extension. Since I figured no one would read it, I could just write what I felt like writing and create a small creative space on the web that belonged to me.

In the seven years since, I've seen the rise of social networking, the predicted death of blogs, the shift to content management systems (like wordpress) that made creating static and dynamic webpages simple, the phenomena of microblogging, and the re-invention of publication with the eBook.

Pretty dramatic changes.

I still see this place as an extension of my journal. While folks talk about 'platform' and 'branding', I prefer to think of voice and world view. I'm just as likely to share writing news as I am to talk about canning raspberry jam, or post a poem, or share something about my family. What links it all is the promise I made to be honest with myself and find the truth of my experience, regardless of the subject.

Thank you for all you intrepid souls who have stumbled here by one path or another. 

So happy belated 7th anniversary to "Once in a Blue Muse," my little corner/soapbox on the web. While I am pretty engaged in G+, FB, and Twitter, this is the place that belongs to me and my thoughts. A quiet space. Like a small, enclosed garden where I've left the gate unlatched and a bench to sit on.

You're welcome to sit with me, if you like.