Happy Anniversary to Ink Flare

Happy Anniversary to Ink Flare, four years old this week. July 13 to be exact. No cake nor candles, just a big puff of gratitude. My thanks to all of you who read my blog and an extra big thanks to those who comment. You’ve shared your thoughts and your hearts, asked questions (always respectfully, thank you) and offered wonderful solutions to my conundrums.  In a world busier than bee hives in the Hundred Acre Wood, everyone has something else calling their attention. I’m grateful to those of you who are regulars, those who stop by occasionally, and those who read but choose not to comment.

Writing a blog is a solo experience – I usually work early in the morning, like before I’ve gone to bed the night before. The second wind syndrome for me. Hubby is asleep – smart (lonely?) guy – and the owls sometimes alert me to gaze through the windows at the moon. Posting is a crowd affair. You live all over the world and your clocks may tell a different timeline than mine, the seasons perhaps topsy-turvy from mine. Still, the early morning yawn and stretch for most of you.

Blogging is group oriented, more even than books, which tack to particular genres. I read travel, cooking, personal motivation, art, health, spiritual, poetry, political, humor, entertainment, music, science, family oriented, history, cultural, photography, and craft blogs, as do you. And many writing blogs of course. Some of the writers are so young I think they’re blogging instead of doing homework. Lots of us blog instead of doing housework. And many folks blog because they no longer work.

Like any blogger I smile biggest when you talk to and inspire me.

So let me rephrase the opening: Thank you for Ink Flare’s fourth anniversary. I couldn’t have made it without you.

 

 

Basque Celebration, Dario do Regoyos, circa 1890

 

H is for Hats Off for Helping Hands

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Mom taught you to be gracious. She reminded you to say thank you and to write notes after birthday parties. Should you be so lucky, getting your book published is not the time to forget all the good habits she pounded into your head. Because let’s face it: your book did not get published without the generous attention of about a dozen or a hundred or a thousand other folks who dedicated their precious time to assisting you with your special project. Perhaps you slaved away in an ivory tower, unaware of the party outside your arched window as you struggled to tame and taunt your writing muse. Other folks traipsed up and down the narrow staircase, checking up on your progress, offering advice, reviewing your work until it was ready to be seen by the rest of the world. You got your book published because you created a masterpiece, but someone else out there in Writerland helped, and you know it.