Glitch in the Matrix

Blog Post No. 536

Something happened at the end of February that lasted until about a week ago. I don’t want to say it’s unexplainable because I’m sure there is an explanation, just not one I’m capable or willing to explore. During those three weeks I had a huge increase in views and visitors to this website. In one week I got more views than I usually do in some months. Most of those folks were American and most of them here came from Facebook. It was as if I paid for one of those Facebook ads, but as far as I know, I didn’t.

Your Brain Doesn’t Want You to Work

Blog Post No. 512

This blog is/has never been intended as a source for real information. I’ve never intended it to by any more than a place for me to keep writing regularly and maybe be a place of interest for people who like my books. (And a place for my parents to keep up on my life). I’ve hinted at how I write and I suppose that could be seen as helpful to some folks. Every writer has their own way of doing things (different schools of thought so to speak) but there’s lots of overlap.

500th Post

Blog Post No. 500

This is it. What everything (ever in the universe from the big bang to the moon landing) has been building towards. It’s the long anticipated 500th post on this blog. Before I get too deep into what is likely going to be a long and esoteric post, I want to thank Justin Cantelo, Brittni Brinn, and Christian Laforet for indulging me in writing thought-provoking (and far too kind) posts over the last three weeks. With little to no hesitation, they all agreed to help me and that’s a really good indication of friendship. They may be sick of me by now, but if they are reading this, thanks for your great guest posts!

Especially Wild Ideas – Guest Post by Brittni Brinn

Blog Post No. 498

Keeping the party going this week is Brittni Brinn. Not only is Brittni one of the most supportive writers in the Wrecking Writing Crew, she helps me to be more in tune with modern social sensibilities since her writing is always cognizant of the subject.

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I don’t quite remember how or when I started joining Ben and the rest of the Writing Wrecking Crew for regular sessions—maybe it was after a reading or a book fair we each participated in. In any case, I started meeting the Crew at Tim Hortons around the city. I was the odd one out in some ways. For one thing, I didn’t have a car, which made far away sessions tricky to get to, and I didn’t have the established friendships the rest of the group had. Plus, before I joined the Wrecking Crew, I didn’t know that you could order Tim Hortons coffee in a ceramic mug. I learned that from Ben.

500th Post Guest Bloggers Spectacular!

Blog Post No. 496

There are only four more weeks until I reach 500 posts on this site. I’m still working on what that will exactly look like (without it being way too long). In the mean time, I’ve been hard at work cajoling friends to write guest posts for me to fill in the gap from now until the big day (which is June 23rd if you want to mark it in your calendars). I asked the guest bloggers to write about working with me and/or this blog, but I tried to leave the subject open enough in case they came up with something a little different. I also pointed out that I’m open for them to be less than favourable, but I mostly said that to appear to be gracious.

The Social Me

Blog Post No. 481

Welcome to February of 2022. Right now I’m trying to figure out what this blog will look like for the year after having one of the best (in terms of views and visitors) years in the last decade. It’s hard to not take stock of the first month’s numbers, compare them to last year’s, and make predictions. If those numbers are any indication (and they probably aren’t) I won’t be breaking any records. But that’s okay. Not going out for readings or other events is strange and I’m sure it’s limiting my audience growth, but so is having as limited an internet presence as I currently have. I’m not a big fan of social media (though I check it enough). I hate making posts that feel empty. I believe in the concept of paying for a person’s attention with either information or entertainment.

No Events

Blog Post No.463

We had anther virtual writing retreat last weekend, which was good because it forced me to start on the second draft of Snow. I had planned on doing as much of it in one day as possible, but I didn’t get a lot of sleep the night before and started later than planned. I did manage to get a third of the second draft done in one sitting (and I finished off the rest over the next two days with two subsequent sittings). Not what I had intended, but I think it’s a step in the direction I wanted to take.

Imagined Pasts

Blog Post No. 442

It’s odd to think that in the future, today may be part of the good old days. While I was working on last week’s blog post, I started to think about when I first started this blog, some eight years ago. I had tried and failed to start several blogs and I had some friends in similar boats. Eventually something clicked and this took hold. I had hoped it would be part of a little network of blogs with my friends with guest posts and posts linking across multiple sites, like webrings of the early internet, but it didn’t happen. Even though some of my friends have websites and blogs, I’m the only one who does regular posts.

Eight Years of Posts – 2020 in Review

Blog post No. 424

I totally get the end of a year being a meaningful starting or ending point for people. We perceive the passage of time naturally in days and seasons, but we created weeks, months, and years to make it easier. It’s not like because we started a new year that everything is reset, though. The same issues we had a week ago are still here (unless it’s something you’ve already taken care of, in which case, good job!).
Still, I mark the passage of a year on this blog. I’m up to eight years of weekly posts. It may not be special for everyone, but I’m pretty proud of it. I had some rough starts where ten or so posts came whenever I could force myself to do them, but when I decided to give writing a go, I made a commitment to weekly posts and here I am.
Now, it’s about this time in each of my yearly review posts where I point out that I have one gleaming error in my otherwise pristine blogging record. One week (when I was working three jobs at the time) I missed putting a post out on Thursday and got it out on Saturday instead. I’m usually hard on myself for that failure, but thinking back on it this year, I was able to convince myself that I did manage to get a post out that week, so it’s not all that bad.

400th Post!

Blog Post No. 400

Seven and a half years of writing weekly and a couple of years prior of ten spotty posts. Add them all together and you get 400 posts on this blog. Hurray for me. Looking back on the post for number 300, I remember not many people were impressed. That’s fair. As I say most end of the year posts, it’s a personal goal that means little to anyone but me. It’s probably more engaging for readers if I can make some of the things I write here interesting. (Which I hope I do). Achievements like numbers and years are for me. Maybe one day if I can find a following for my books, those readers will care. Though, again, I’d rather they care about the books than some blog that I scrape out each week.