Blogging. I'm not doing it right.

by Toni L.P. Kelner

I've come to a conclusion about blogging: it's a lot harder than it looks.

Seriously, the web is filled with blogs from people who post every week, every day, more than once a day. They talk about the music they're listening to and the books they're reading, give interesting links, describe their day, and even add clever insights. Whereas I've spent the past two days trying to come up with something worth blogging about.

So here it is, eleven in the evening the day AFTER I was supposed to blog. And I'm going to do what I try to teach my daughters never to do, and have tried to avoid whenever possible. I'm going to copy other folks.

MUSIC: I listened to one of my husband's mix tapes in the car, with everything from Duran Duran to the Beatles, but none of that good stuff was stuck in my head. No, what I can't escape is the song "Christmas Shoes." Do you know it? Sappy, sappy, sappy piece about a guy encountering a kid buying shoes for his mother for Christmas because she's dying and "meets Jesus tonight." Totally idiotic and it always makes me tear up because I'm totally idiotic about sad songs. And it reminds me of a very sad incident. Two years ago, my daughters' school had a Christmas pageant, and I remember the eighth graders singing that song, and listening a bunch of kids from Massachusetts trying to sing in a Southern accent was one of the saddest things I'd ever endured.

BOOKS: A high point for the day, actually. Thanks to the recommendations of Femme Charlaine, I've discovered Diana Galbaldon. I read one of her Lord John mysteries first, and it was good, but now that I've started reading the Outlander series, I am hooked. I'm near the beginning of the third, Voyager, and having a wonderful time. Can't wait to see what comes next. I also read an interesting biography this week. Mr. Confidential by Samuel Bernstein is about magazine editor Robert Harrison and the effect his scandal rag Confidential had on Hollywood. Great stuff, and great research for my "Where are they now?" series.

LINKS: Just discovered this site this week, and have spent several happy hours laughing here: http://icanhascheezburger.com/ It's difficult to explain the appeal of LOLCats. I expect you either like 'em or you don't. Take a look and see which side of the fence you belong on.

MY DAY: And a long one it has been... But I just can't convince myself that anybody cares about my gripes and daily tedium. Does anybody care that I had to spend ten minutes scooping wet litter out of the guinea pig cage because their bottle leaked while we were gone? I didn't think so. I'll just mention the good stuff.

Via e-mail, I found out that my agent and editor have finally ironed out the important issues of a new contract. So I can now say confidently that my new book really is the first in the "Where are they now?" series. Berkley Prime Crime will be publishing the paperback reprint of Without Mercy, and will continue the series for at least two more books. (Apparently the editor does not like my proposed titles, since she refers to Untitled Books #2 and #3, but I can accept that.) There is much rejoicing in this--contract negotiations had gone so long I was starting to worry that it wouldn't happen.

The yard men came and cleaned our yard. It's so satisfying to watch other people work hard.

On the way out the door to go to a library event I had scheduled, found a box on the doorstep. It was copies of the large print edition of Many Bloody Returns, the vampire anthology I co-edited with Femme Charlaine. It is pretty.

I spoke at a Sisters in Crime panel at the library in Burlington, MA, and it went very well. My daughters were well-behaved in the back of the room, there were brownies and cookies, the discussion with Gary Braver and Nancy Bruett was interesting and entertaining, and I sold a few books. Can't beat that.

When I got home and checked my e-mail, I found a very favorable review of Without Mercy that's been posted on a blog.

Best of all, my husband Steve will be returning home in a few minutes. He's been in Australia for TWO LONG WEEKS, and I'm really looking forward to seeing him again. Really, really, really looking forward to it.

CLEVER INSIGHTS: Make sure your guinea pig's water bottle is sealed tight. Sorry. That's all I've got. Maybe I'll do better next time...

Comments

[danacmrn]

Congrats on the contracts, Toni! That's WICKED good news! And remember: "Make sure your guinea pigs' water bottle is sealed tight" is just one step away from the Zen notion that "there are no unimportant movements," so it's actually pretty deep!

Untitled Femme #9

[Charlaine Harris]

I'm sure the guinea pigs' water bottle is a metaphor, and very interesting one it is. You are DEEP, Toni. Instead of advising us to keep our gunpowder dry, you are telling us our litter must be dry . . . which is a metaphor for something else, I'm sure. I will ponder this. Dryly.

Seriously, very good news about the Tilda books. I look forward to reading Untitled 2 AND 3.

[Kristina L.]

Since you like lol cats, you might also like:

http://www.cuteoverload.com/
http://stuffonmycat.com/
http://dailykitten.com/
http://aaronrift.com/cats/ (the cat diaries)

[mary]

I'm so out of the loop, I've never heard of Christmas Shoes. I think I'm glad. Fantastic news about your series, Toni. Congrats!

[Toni Kelner]

Untitled Femme #9, about the only thing deep was the amount of yuck in the piggie's cage when you mix water, litter, and a fair amount of...piggie detritus.

Charlaine, I'm not thinking any metaphors are involved. Pondering is not required. And thank you. I'm rather looking forward to writing the Untitleds.

Kristina, I'll check out those other sites. I'll run out of the ones on the site I like pretty soon.

Mary, "Christmas Shoes" is well worth never having heard of. And thanks!

Toni

[Janet Reid]

Thank goodness for the warning about the water bottle. My guinea was nearly fowled.