In the beginning, in January of 2009, I was writing this blog every-other-day, on odd days only. My computer gal said I needed an “online presence” where potential agents and publishers and the general public could stalk me—err—I mean check out my work.

Heeding her advice, I tentatively waded into the ambiguous world of blogging for an invisible audience. I didn’t have a particular theme (still don’t), and I had no idea how to post pictures, or even how to pre-post my entries.

Two years later, in 2011, I still hadn’t managed to attach photos, but I had figured out how to write entries days ahead and put them in the queue for more consistent posting times. I had also figured out that 15 times a month was far too many for me to manage, but that 10 a month sounded a lot more reasonable.

I cut back to the first of every month plus “every day that divides by three.” This freed up a little more time to tackle what I kept insisting I really wanted to be working on—my cozy mystery series!

I’ve now written two books in that series (publication for both of them, and perhaps a third, will be later this year), written 28 stories for Chicken Soup for the Soul, and had numerous other short stories and poems published, all while keeping up with my commitment to blogging.

So this is Blog Number 999, spanning more than six years at the keyboard. Nine hundred ninety-nine and still counting! It’s an interesting forum for my writing, but if I didn’t enjoy doing it, I’d have given it up years ago. Maybe. There’s still that “online presence” thing, and I’m stubborn enough to want to keep the ball rolling. You just never know when someone from Simon and Schuster might decide to look me up!