Yeah, I know, the last time I revived this blog I was REALLY going to DO it!  I do have a good excuse though, and I will take a few paragraphs to share the amazingness of my beautiful little granddaughter, Soraya Jade Standifer!

I made my last blog post on April 2, and planned to keep blogging REGULARLY.  However, two days later my daughter went into the hospital (at 33 weeks pregnant), for observation.  This observation showed pre-eclampsia, and the only cure of that is delivering the baby.

Well, Lee and I were on a plane to Kansas City that Saturday, April 7, and I remained in Missouri until May 4.  I am happy to say that when Soraya was born on April 12, her only major complication was learning how to eat.  She was hospitalized for three weeks mastering that skill, but is now a healthy 2 ½-month-old, weighing over seven pounds (she was just barely four pounds at birth).  I haven’t seen her in nearly two months, but I’ve seen pictures and videos (not enough, but CAN there be enough of a grandchild?).

The whole becoming a grandma—I’m “Yaya”—thing was/is truly amazing, and if I hadn’t been so sleep-deprived, worried, stressed out, etc. it would surely have made for some interesting blogging, but I just couldn’t make myself write.  The only things I wrote during my time in KC were a few emails and Facebook updates, and baby shower invitations.  The NEXT time I experience a life-altering event I will do much better, I promise!  And if I don’t…well, we’re not even going to discuss that possibility!  I WILL do it!

I HAVE been writing during the time I’ve been back home; well, I got to it after a couple weeks.  I’ve done yet another “final solo edit” of Within the Petals, which my editor and I are in the process of reviewing/rewriting.  My goal is to have this novel FINISHED, as in ready to SEND OUT by the end of the year, and I’m also planning to get into a pitch book to agents/editors/publishers this fall.  Cross your fingers!

I’ve caught up with my Shared Words writing group, which was also left by the wayside during most of April and some of May.  Please take a trip over to those sites, which you’ll find in the links.  Not only will you find my writing, but also writing from the other, VERY TALENTED, Shared Words authors.  And STAY TUNED!!!  Shared Words is working on publishing A BOOK, hopefully also by the end of the year.  2013 is going to be a BIG and EVENTFUL year for me!  I just KNOW it! (and you can say, “I read her when…”)

I would like to thank my wonderful-and-wise editor, Deneen, for giving me the ‘assignment’ of getting back to this blog; and she’s promised to restart hers also!  You can find a link to her blog, “The In & Out Patient” on the Shared Words site.

Deneen suggested the other day that perhaps blogging is like quitting smoking—a thing I never really had to do, since I was only a social smoker and never addicted—most people have to start and restart it several times before it takes.  Hopefully FOUR is my magic number!

2 Responses to “Apparently the Third Time ISN’T the Charm: Being A Better Blogger”

  1. Deneen Ansley

    What a funny and insightful post, Julie, and thanks for the shout-out! I’m not doing as well with my blog as I’d like, and not as well as YOU are. I’ve yet to post my piece, and you’ve already written three for yours, here!

    One thing that I want to say is that you shouldn’t worry or feel guilty when you are too tired/word empty to write. Writing is like hunger. You have to wait for it to come, and if you’re forcing it, it’s not healthy at all, and you won’t be happy with the result. You have to let the hunger come, and satiate it while it’s there, then, wait…and wait…and wait….

    When I’m experiencing a lot of emotions like the ones you describe here, I find that my brain is storing them up, and that it will regurgitate them for me to write about later. I hope that your brain operates this same way, because grandchildren ARE one of the best experiences in the whole wide of this world! I will love hearing more about your little Soraya!

    Congratulations, Yaya!

  2. Julie Carriker

    Thank you, Deneen! I feel bad, (but maybe not exactly guilty), when I WANT to write, but I physically or emotionally CAN’T. I think with me, if I do force myself to write, I feel better, more alive, more energetic, and even if I’m not happy with the output initially, when I go back and read it, it isn’t so bad, and I can at least use it as a draft or a prompt for something else. So WHY is it sometimes so difficult for me to just DO it? Hmmm, that sounds like a blog post…

    I need to write more about Soraya; maybe my experience reading to her, (I’m the FIRST one who ever read to her!), or singing to her, (some of the songs I sang to her mommy and aunties). I also want to write something FOR her, and perhaps her being here will inspire me to finishe the childrens’ book I’ve started, (although that actually is Linda’s book that she never got to write).

    Again, thank you for taking the time to read and comment here. It truly means a lot to me.

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