Happy New Year - 2013 is Here

Good morning to all. I'm sure many people won't be up for a few hours yet while others have already begun their day and their new year with vigor. I've been up for a few hours and felt it was time to say hello to the world - and I'm finished with my morning's email.

What was 2012 like for you? Was it a good year? A lousy year? A so-so year? ...the year you got engaged, or married?. ...the year you found your soul mate even if he or she doesn't know they are that yet?

For me, 2012 was filled with mixed blessings and messages. Too many people are still out of work - which is why part of my job has shifted to Job Readiness activities. I have a great volunteer/intern who, unfortunately, has just gotten a job and will be with me fewer hours per week. But I'm glad he got a job. I figured he would - he's got a good skill set and is very intuitive. Give him a project and he can take it to the first and second draft level with few questions and lots of good ideas.

I have a number of volunteers who each have various talents; together, they cobble together the skills necessary to keep our community technology center, Cyber Cafe @ Malden Square, open and functioning. That's no easy task, as most of them are senior citizens with moderate computer skills and we have a growing population of people coming in who require help at the computer.

My database volunteer, a young man who wrote a user guide for it and trains all the new volunteers in its use, has given his two-week notice. His family is moving to Texas due to his dad's job promotion. See: mixed blessing - their good news is my bad news.

Our lead computer instructor, also a volunteer, has helped us transform our courses to a model that supports job seekers who must be able to complete online forms, fill out applications on kiosks, and manage their job search while dealing with the frustration of rejection after rejection - or no response at all.

The fact that many of them are no longer eligible for unemployment insurance, as of today, makes their situation all the more dire. Rent and other bills to pay but no more money coming in - more than 1,000 residents in my tri-city area - means more frayed nerves and clients who feel they have no one who will listen to them; certainly, they don't believe the federal legislature has listened to them.
[Update: 1/3/13 - Unemployment Insurance was extended by Congress at the last minute - a welcome relief to millions of unemployment Americans.]

My own situation is as mixed as work. I worry that my 12-year-old van won't pass its inspection this month. I stick to a pretty tight budget - more by need than by choice; there just isn't any 'play' money available and certainly not a lot to spend on the van.

On the upside, in December I completed my novel, a murder mystery set in New Hampshire 30 years ago, in five-and-a-half months - on time for my own deadline - on time for submission to a first crime novel competition. I feel pretty darned good about that!

Now I wait; can't do anything with it until the end of March when the judging is completed. I'm not anticipating a win, but I'm a big believer that you can't win if you don't play. So I'll wait patiently and work on the next novel in the series.

I've re-edited a short story I wrote many years ago. I'm trying to find a way to make it available for download on this blog or somewhere else - a freebie as a salute for getting my first novel done. Even though they're in totally different genres (the short story is in the sword-and-sorceress genre), it's the writing that's important, not what genre it is.

I've invited folks from my online mystery writer's group to guest blog in this space. We'll see how many decide to do that. It will be fun to have another voice - even many voices - appearing here. And you'll get to discover writers you may never have known about before.

Use the comments section to share how you plan to spend 2013. I don't think resolutions are worth much because so many of us never follow through on them. But what plans do you have? What are you just dying to do that you have begun or are beginning - even if you began it in 2012, what is it? Speak up. Share.

...and Happy New Year!

How do you find inspiration for your blog posts?

This morning I read this question raised by Colin Welch on LinkedIn.  Colin referenced an article that gives bloggers tips for posting regularly and keeping your blog interesting.  Here's that article, Blog Post Ideas - 10 Tips for Blog Inspiration, by Heather Buckley.  Both Colin and Heather work for Silicon Beach Training.

Another reader, Andrew, responded to the discussion stating that bloggers who get "blocked" shouldn't be blogging.  My response is below...

"I have to disagree with Andrew about "bloggers block" indicating the person shouldn't be writing at all.  That thinking would have meant that many of our most famous novelists throughout time shouldn't have ever written.  Bloggers blog for a wide variety of reasons and not every blogger has a product or service to sell.

I know people who are quite good in their field and believe strongly in what they are doing.  But they cannot blog.  They have tried, but their personal characteristics interfere with their ability to say it and let it go.  So they spend weeks rewriting and crafting such a "perfect" article that will never get published because they'll never consider it "done."  They need to use a ghostwriter so their work gets published.  I know because I've been a ghostwriter on blogs and in print! 

Writing is a process.  Good writing takes time, patience, and persistence.  Many blogs are well written and some are not.  While content is what is important, and many people will forgive a poorly written blog that has good content, good writing makes good content easier to read and understand.  So a lot of people exercise good writing skills when writing their blogs.  That sometimes leads to a "block" because the writer, in trying to convey a message that is clearly understood with the writer's meaning, wants to ensure the quality of the article(s). 

Heather's article, Carl, is well written and a very good guide for bloggers.  Even when we really already know these things, it's good to get them in a guide that pinpoints what we already know.  And, it demonstrates what she is writing: use a list, ask for ideas, link to other posts, etc.

I've decided that this response merits a blog post, so it will be my post for today, with a brief intro on the topic you raised, Carl, and link to your public profile.  Thanks for raising the topic! "