Reading and Writers

I was very happy today to get a good report from my favorite doctor, my cardiologist. I have been a bit depressed due to my chronic pain in my hip and leg, but I was told that I am physiologically younger than my chronological years, and while I might need to slow down my intensity, I should not stop doing what I enjoy. I can do that. 

As a senior adult with the usual stresses, I was thinking about making major changes and walking away from writing, Netwest, Writers Circle around the Table, and teaching. But today I decided to rethink my future. 

A writing class at Writers Circle around the Table

In the past week, I have received calls and emails from local people who want to know when I will teach again, where can they go to take classes in writing.
I am reminded of why I began my Writers Circle studio. I like to take writing classes and I like to teach beginning writers. I like to give them the chance to see what they can do, to instill confidence in them, to give them the opportunity to pursue their dreams in a safe environment where they cannot fail.

I was reading a post on the site of Progressive Rising Phoenix Press,
about the benefits of reading for older adults. Writers are important to society in general, and often they don't get the respect that visual artists and musical arts receive, especially in their local areas. How we would miss writers if they were not working all the time to bring us books, stories, facts and news we want to know about.

I have been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. My house is filled with books, so many I don't have room for all of them and I am giving away books all the time. I subscribe to a couple of magazines also and enjoy browsing through them. 

Reading takes us out of our present and puts us somewhere else for a time. The writer on Progressive Rising Phoenix Press explains this in the quote below:

The Health Benefits of Reading

Life of a senior can indeed be stressful. Health problems and family worries wear a person out. And at an advanced age, stress can be costly. To the rescue comes the book, which is a real treasure during difficult times. 

A good novel can take you to different places and different times and distract you from your worries. It helps you to take a deep breath and face problems calmly.

Many studies have shown a connection between reading and mental health. Reading as an everyday activity can reduce memory decline by 30%. The scientists have also discovered that brain stimulation provided by learning or solving puzzles minimizes the probability of having Alzheimer’s disease. 

Another excellent benefit of reading is that it improves the quality of sleep. Anxiety, pain, and side effects of medications can make falling and staying asleep very difficult. Reading before bedtime is a perfect way to help your brain slow down and tell your body that it’s time for its well-deserved rest.

We writers must continue with our work, our passion, to write the words that others need to read. 
We don't have to write the next great novel or the most praised play or memoir. We can write whatever pleases us and share it with the world. A book of short stories, a poetry book, a self-help book---someone out there wants to read what we write. I enjoy writing for my blogs. Some people leave comments and some write emails to tell me how much it means to read my blog posts. My page views are often from foreign countries. And many people read what I write but never tell me. 

I would love to hear from you whether by comment or by email. See the Contact Form on the sidebar of this blog. Go there and follow directions to write your thoughts and send them to me. Let me know you read this blog. 

Why Writers Need to Blog and Why Blogging Helps Build a Readership

Why Writers Need to Blog

My view as I sit and write blog posts twice a week. 

I am a fan of blogs by writers and I really like those that give helpful hints or lessons they have learned about the writing world.

Blog posts are shareable and they stick around for a long time. FB and Twitter posts slip away quickly and are forgotten. I can easily find a blog post published on my blogs or on the NCWN-West blog in the past seven years. Belinda Pollard's article explains why every writer should have a blog.

Check out the article and tell us what you think? If you have a published book or several, maybe blogging once or twice a week would help you create a readership for your work. If you are beginning to publish in journals and magazines, having a blog as part of your online presence gets an editor's attention.

http://www.smallbluedog.com/the-one-big-reason-authors-need-to-blog.html#comment-46475

Are You a Rainmaker?

Kristen Lamb tells us what it takes to be a rainmaker.

https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2015/11/30/being-the-best-what-it-takes-to-be-a-rainmaker/

I like her remarks about blogging: 

"One of the reasons I recommend blogging and teach authors how to do it in my book Rise of the Machines---Human Authors in a Digital World, is blogging trains us to get out of our comfort zone. Not only are we pushing ourselves mentally, psychically, and professionally, but the sheer word count is grueling.

It is incredible training, especially for the new author.

If we look at some of the most awarded and prolific writers of the last two centuries, many of them were journalists (and blogging is actually a modern form of journalism). A journalist can't wait until the kids are in bed to write about the four-alarm fire. A journalist can't wait for a visit from the muse to detail the bombing in the train station. A journalist can't wait until her family offers emotional validation to take time to write the article due on the editor's desk."

My thoughts on blogging
Some of my favorite writers I know through their blogs. Websites are usually static with the titles of books, where to order them, etc. But a well written blog introduces me to the writer and I feel I know her personally. I will be more likely to buy her books if I like her as a person even if I don't read her genre. I can give it as a gift.

More information on publishing and marketing your writing

If you live near or within driving distance of Hayesville, NC come to our Panel Discussion on Saturday, Dec. 12, 1 - 3 p.m. where three authors will discuss their experiences in publishing and marketing. I will moderate the panel and discuss publishing poetry. This is a free event by NCWN-West a program of the North Carolina Writers' Network. 

Anne R. Allen on how to sell your books

If you haven't looked at the blog list on my sidebar, I suggest you read Anne R. Allen's post today.
http://annerallen.blogspot.com/2015/03/how-do-i-sell-my-book-6-tips-for-new.html?showComment=1427166624122#c1175795186007368708
Her advice on selling books is the best I've seen lately. She separates the fiction from the nonfiction tips and there is a reason to do so.
Anne says that slow-blogging for fiction writers, once a week, is fine, but she believes writers of nonfiction should post twice a week.
After you read her blog, come back and let me know what you think is the best way to sell books in today's world.

A Blog, A Newsletter, Both?

With all the talk about how a writer can build a platform or build a brand, I am pleased to see this   helpful post  

The author believes a writer should have a blog and a newsletter. I definitely believe a writer must have a blog. Read this article to see why Jim Devitt feels a blog is necessary.

Some of the comments show the writers don't see the "big picture." When the person comments that he doesn't  need a blog because he doesn't have enough books published yet, he is woefully neglecting his platform. The blog can be helpful in his getting those books published, in getting his name recognized before the book is published so that marketing of the book is easier. With a blog, a writer builds a community of readers and friends who will tell their friends about this writer. This is like moving into a neighborhood and taking time to get to know the folks who live there. When you know them and they know you, you have built an identity in your community. You are no longer a stranger, but someone to be trusted, and you have friends you can call on if needed. This doesn't happen overnight and neither does creating a writing community. It takes time and effort.

A blog increases a writer's online visibility because the search engines pick up his blog posts. I would rather visit an author's blog than simply see a website where his books are listed. And then, of course, he can share his blog posts on all the social media which will likely bring him new readers.

Thank You, Readers, for all the pageviews this month and every month.

We had over eleven hundred readers this past month just in the United States. Pageviews also came from over ten other countries. Thank you so much for visiting us here at Writers Circle 

around the Table, our blog for the series of writing classes held from March through October each year since 2010.

In the past four years we have been overjoyed with the quality of writers, teachers, poets and students who have come and shared the studio and sat around the table with like-minded people who appreciate the written word.

In the bookcases we have books to instruct, to inspire and others to enjoy reading. Students are invited to check out books and return them within a reasonable time.

Instructors who stay overnight in the studio apartment are invited to browse the bookshelves and enjoy a book while here. We also have a stack of writers' magazines to share - Writer, Writer's Digest and Poets and Writers. 

Each season we try to bring back the most popular instructors, but we continue to invite new writers who can offer instruction our local writers and poets want.

During the winter months while we are closed I will be busy contacting writers and poets in western North Carolina and North Georgia including the Atlanta area to include on next year's schedule of classes. 

Meantime, check back with us for guest posts and for articles and prompts that will keep you writing while you huddle inside by the fire. To see what is new for 2014, click on our Schedule page.

WRITING CLASS IN MARCH BEGINS MARCH 12

The writing class, Writing Stories for Your Children and Grandchildren, at Tri-County Community College in Murphym, NC will be postponed for one week. 

The classes will begin on Tuesday, March 12, one week later than was originally planned, 3 - 5 p.m. each Tuesday for six weeks. So we will end this course a week later than planned.

We have met our minimum for the class and I am looking forward to meeting new writers and greeting some of my former students.

In spite of the title, this class is for anyone who likes to write true stories. We write narratives about our lives for our family or for publication. 

Back in the fifties friends gathered for a party

My students have run from age 21 to 92. All have had wonderful stories to tell. One young woman is now writing guest posts for a blog, Busted Halo, as well as writing her own story on her blog.

She is being paid for her writing, and had never thought she could do that until she took my class at John C. Campbell.

Another student published her memoir last year. We never know until we try, just what we can do. 

Nadine Justice with her memoir, I'm a Coal Miner's Daughter  But I Cain't Sang

Blogger, Feeds, and catching up

Tonight I decided to see who is subscribing to this blog. I seldom go there and because of that, it takes some time for me to remember what I do to find that information.
I want to thank all of you who let me slip into your E-mail Inbox when I post something new on the blog. At least I know you read this page, or at least have the opportunity if the Title interests you.

Writing a blog is fun and also puzzling at times. If I worried that no one was reading my blog, I'd find posting a problem, but because this blog builds in STATISTICS, I can see if anyone dropped by today. What bothered me tonight when I looked up my subscribers list, for a long time on the graph, I had X number of subscribers. Then suddenly, OOPS, I had zero subscribers.
I'm sure glad I didn't check this graph that day. It appeared that all my subscribers suddenly, simultaneously dropped me.
Thankfully, the next day, my numbers were back to X number as it had been before.

This is why I need more classes on blogging, or I need to spend about a month teaching myself so I can get caught up to where most folks were a couple of years ago.

My question for Blogger right now. Why is the default font so small? It looks pitiful on the page. Or is it just me?

Two Great Finds on the Internet

I feel I found the greatest treasures on the Internet when I found Hope Clark and Robert Brewer.

Reading Hope's newsletters and blog is like taking a writing course for free. It is the best time I spend online.

Now I have discovered Robert Brewer's blogs, I am taking another online course for free.

Congratulations to Hope who has just published her first novel, destined to be a terrific success. It sounds like a mystery/romance with a protagonist like no other. It is set in South Carolina where Hope lives. I will definitely buy her book.

Go to her new, very professional looking website www.chopeclark.com and read all about it.

You will find Robert Brewer, content editor for Writers Digest at http://robertleebrewer.blogspot.com/.

Tonight, on his blog, I learned how to easily put a social media button on my blog. At least I hope I did.

Back home from a nice vacation

Please forgive me for falling behind in updating my Schedules and Workshops pages. I have taken some time off this winter and had my first real vacation since 2009. But I am back home and will catch up on everything shortly.

Had a great time in sunny Florida and came home to warm weather here in the mountains. I'm not even unpacked yet, so be patient with me. I'll get caught up soon.

Thanks for stopping in and reading my blog. I appreciate each one of you. Please let me know if you have any questions about upcoming workshops and classes. Contact me at Nightwriter0302@yahoo.com

Beautiful Tampa Bay with Skyline bridge in distance

Blogging and Hope Clark

I find Hope Clark to have the best advice of any blogger online. For instance, I went to her blog today and found a post from a while back. I needed this advice today.
http://hopeclark.blogspot.com/2011/05/blogless-and-lost.html

While I enjoy blogging, I often get off the subject of writing. I was once told I should stay on topic in my blog. But I've decided it is MY blog and I write about my life and my writing and books I like and authors I like and classes I teach and students who make me proud and even rant sometimes about the world we live it.

But I do that more on Writing Life Stories than I do on Writers Circle. I hope you visit both blogs and that you will leave a comment or email me at nightwriter0302@yahoo.com

What do you look for when you surf around looking for something interesting online?