I have, as many of you probably have as well, collected memberships in a number of websites with overlapping focus, and subsequently found myself duplicating and triplicating efforts, wasting time, and coming away with an undefined feeling of dissatisfaction. For the last year, I have put heart and soul into making this, my personal blog, the kind of inviting, entertaining, and informative site that would make it a prime destination on the internet. Alas, it was not to be. While there are a couple of regulars who check in here frequently, for the most part, all I hear is crickets, and this is very discouraging after spending 2 - 3 hours working on the latest post, only to find no interest once again.
Fortunately, I have found an alternative, a cozy little tavern just down the road where the conversation is witty, the participants are intelligent, and the subject matter is informative. As I write this, the membership numbers 30. Most of us are writers of steampunk, with a couple of other 'punks thrown in for good measure, and the few who aren't writers are interested in the craft, and have enlightening ideas to bring to the table. If you've gotten this URL from the book or a milk carton, I'd like to invite you to join me at a place where the joint is jumpin' 24 hours a day:
Fortunately, I have found an alternative, a cozy little tavern just down the road where the conversation is witty, the participants are intelligent, and the subject matter is informative. As I write this, the membership numbers 30. Most of us are writers of steampunk, with a couple of other 'punks thrown in for good measure, and the few who aren't writers are interested in the craft, and have enlightening ideas to bring to the table. If you've gotten this URL from the book or a milk carton, I'd like to invite you to join me at a place where the joint is jumpin' 24 hours a day:
http://thesteampunkempire.com/group/scribblers-den
This is all part of a push to streamline my on-line presence, and reclaim a portion of the time I waste speaking in empty halls, so to speak, for the purpose of writing Beyond the Rails. I have a small handful of fans who want to see more stories. I don't know exactly how many, but I would be surprised to find I have 1 for every million that J.K. Rowling can count. That doesn't matter, though. If I have one fan whose life is enriched by my work in fiction, I owe him or her more than the thousands of people who consistently have nothing to say to me, so there will be no more of this business about wasting hours tailoring posts for a half-dozen sites where no one is interested. Oh, I'll check in every day or so, and if anyone leaves a comment, I'll respond, but henceforth I can be found at Scribblers' Den, and I invite anyone interested in the Craft of fiction writing to join us. I promise you won't hear any crickets over there, just the sound of ideas and concepts colliding and mingling, and giving rise to completely new vistas waiting to be explored. Come on over. See what everybody's talking about. This is the place where imagination soars!