One year ago today, January 14th, 2006, the first post of this blog/website appeared after a lot of debate with my daughter Brooke about why, what, when and how. She was between jobs, loved the challenge of setting up a website, and thought it would be a good way to create a community for writers. She’d handle the design and mechanics, I’d do the writing. I complained of course about not having enough time or material, and not knowing anything about blogs. But she convinced me and we got launched with "Everything You Need to Know About Writing On 1 Page".
Since then Brooke has a new job requiring long hours with no time to organize and do the mechanics, so – lo and behold – I figured out how to post it myself and also to find and post pictures. However certain mechanics are still beyond me and you might notice the books on my bedside table haven’t changed in about ten months, and our idea for the Courage & Craft reading room, abandoned ages ago, is still listed. One of these days I’ll figure out how to do the sidebar.
At first WritingTime had a trickle of visitors, mostly coerced students and friends, about twenty to thirty hits a week, and now it’s grown to five hundred a week. We have a stat counter that shows the flags with names of the cities and countries our readers come from. (For instance today people visited from Ramat HaSharon, Israel; Lima, Peru; Horsens, Denmark; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; as well as from lots of places in the U.S. ) I’m profoundly grateful to all of you who have visited, and especially those of you who have left comments. Many times I’ve written rather hysterical entries about lack of time, blog block etc. and have received beautiful reader responses that have caused me to just shut up and write.
For Christmas this year Brooke gave me a present that made me cry – a published version of the first year of WritingTime. (Cover photo above.) This miracle was accomplished through www.blurb.com . They actually made a hardcover book of all the posts, pictures, and your comments. So it’s really our book – Brooke’s, mine and yours. And I thank you, dear readers.
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