What's the purpose?

The first week of this blog, my friend, Jean, wrote to me and said, "I've read your blog. What is the purpose? Seems like random thoughts."

Jean is more than a friend, if there is something more. She has been my mentor for thirty years. Two of the best things about Jean are her honesty and her way of framing a question to make me think rather than give me the answer.

It is true, most of the blogs are the writer's thoughts and opinions. Everyone who knows me, knows I had zero interest in blogging; no, make that 'absolute zero' interest, until I had a concept in mind.

This blog is an augmentation of information, opinions, and excerpts related to my writing, and sometimes the fiction publishing industry; things that don't quite fit my newsletter or my website.

This is a tough industry and the economic 'downturn' has made it worse. So I'd like to be encouraging, entertaining, and a bit more relaxed than writers get (sometimes) when pushing their wares.

In the past few months my website and newsletter have gone through a transformation and found a specific identity apart from where they started several years ago. As my friend Judith would probably say, this is a bit more like our over-the-garden-wall chats.

I would like this to become more of a dialogue forum. As I noted before, I've opened the comment section (I think) so anyone can comment. You don't even have to agree with me. This isn't intended to be an 'atta girl' situation.

Who knows, I might even write a novel on here one day. It would most certainly be the first draft, but if you'd like that, I'll consider it. Kathryn's Beach was written in three weeks in emails, a couple of hours a night. Granted it was rough, but if you're game, I might be too. But I won't know, if you don't comment.

So that's the purpose, a scratch pad...minus the doodling I often do.