An Eat-Your-Vegetables Kind of Moment...With a Dose of Pure Honey

An Eat-Your-Vegetables Kind of Moment...With a Dose of Pure Honey

I started this blog because “I had to.” It was an eat-your-vegetables-because-they’re-good-for-you kind of moment. It was a word of wisdom I gleaned from writers, editors, and publishers at my first writing conference. 

 

“You need to start a blog.”

“Learn how to blog.”

“No matter what else you do…blog.”

 

And finally, from my first publisher, “How many followers do you have on your blog?”

 

I was honest. I told him I didn’t have a blog. Yet. He encouraged me to start one. “As soon as possible.” There was this one tiny problem: I had no clue what a blog was and was pretty sure I had never read one. Write one? 

 

That was the first week of June, 2012. 

 

I came home from the conference and looked up blogging. I read a few and honestly couldn’t understand what the fuss was all about. I found a free course offered by Jeff Goins online and joined it. It was likely the best move I could have made.

 

I handed in my final manuscript to my publisher on December 1, 2012 and turned my attention to my blog. My research was complete. I was ready to blog except for one small glitch: I wasn’t a grand cook blogging my way through a cookbook as in the movie Julie & Julia. I wasn’t an expert on gardening, sewing, crafts, or anything as far as I could see. 

 

I was a teacher. I was a professor. Sure, I was a wife and mother and served in my church, but everything I studied on blogging let me know I needed a unique or expert vantage point. I’m just me. I had nothing to offer. I was sure of it.

 

So…I called my blog “A Novel Creation.” I shared with other novice authors what I was learning about writing and publishing and the entire experience as I moved through the process of my first novel, Breathing on Her Own. 

 

I set up the blog and ran a trial post on December 26, 2012. I called it, “Who is Rebecca Waters?” I wanted to see what it looked like. I put something on Facebook about it and wound up with over 200 readers for my first post. I was excited, though now I think a few of those readers were family and friends who read the post more than once in an effort to encourage me. 

 

In fact, I KNOW a few readers visited that blog more than once. Here it is, 2021 and I only just revisited it myself in preparation for this post. I hadn’t looked at that first entry at all for quite some time. 

 

I glanced at the list of published posts. There were three comments listed for that first trial run. Three? I try to answer all comments so there should be an even number. Someone wrote a comment I didn’t see. 

 

I opened the post and saw the word “anonymous.” Hmmm. I read the comment. It was dated February 24, 2013.  Here is a screen shot of the comment:

 

 

"Rifka." Tom's name for me. The blog may have started as good-for-me-vegetables, but today? As I approach the seven-year anniversary of my husband’s death, his words are like honey for my soul.

 

Never underestimate the power of the printed word.