Have you Googled yourself lately?

Ever try to Google yourself?  I did today.  I'm pretty easy to find between the Gmail account, Twitter account, Facebook account, Linkedin account, this blog, and the blogs I comment on.  I even discovered today I'm the only person with my name (First and Last) in Michigan and the United States. 
I wonder what the pros and cons are of having as much exposure to myself as I have.  My grandparents are from the era that anything they hear in the news will happen to you.  Identity theft is something I am being continually harrassed about at home.  I'm constantly being reminded that I can endanger myself, my children, my finances, and my reputation if I put anything on my Facebook or Twitter feeds that would be considered "too personal".  Since I'm the only person with my name, I would think it would be easy to find someone impersonating me.

But, being an aspiring author, you also have to consider exposure as a good thing.  The more traffic to your blog, the better you'll be received into the community of authors you need to have as your support base.  The better your writing on that blog, the more interest you'll receive from book reviewers, publishers, agents, etc.  Word of mouth used to be your ally with respect to your reputation as an author, politician, caretaker and other pursuits.  But in the age of technology, being found in a search engine so someone can see who you are, where you are from and where you are going is today's "word of mouth".  If you are on Google, you just may be somebody.

"I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille."

Happy Reading!

There is a Talented Author Within - Where did she go?

The writing world is a fascinating place.  From day to day you are in the groove and have the muse dancing around you singing your brilliance one moment, then at a standstill staring at a blank screen or piece of white paper the next.  Sound frustrating?  You bet! 

There are some funny memes going around about the concept of a writer.  Here are a couple of them:

These are definitely worth the words unspoken and implied.  There are days where I read what I have written and feel like someone else wrote it.  "She's a genius," I think.  Then, I go to add to my masterpiece and feel like this:

Having that kind of week right now.  I open up my documents and read a bit to get into the feel of the next scene and find myself staring at nothing, or managing to type only 100 words before I flounder and give up.  I know the key to working through writer's block is to just keep writing, even if its nonsensical jibberish you'll only delete later.  But, it can be daunting to write up 800 words of jibberish to just delete later and find yourself back at page 2 when you were on page 22.

I just want to move forward!

Happy Reading!