nostalgia
PBW has me all nostalgic today - she’s talking about what I refer to as the early days, when I was just discovering blogs and blogging and what all of that entailed.
I think I found Alison Kent’s blog first - at that time she had a list of bloggers on her sidebar with a note that said, email me if you’d like to be added. And I remember being really nervous about asking her to add me - I was a new blogger, unpublished author and OMG, what if I wasn’t good enough?
I wrote and rewrote my stupid little email to her, asking her to add me and I got back an email a couple of days later that said, done!
Done! And she didn’t even know me. (now I get to drive her crazy all the time - little did she know back then what adding me to her sidebar would do!)
And then, through her sidebar I found Larissa and Bekke and Lydia Joyce. And Sylvia - I think she made the very first comment ever on my blog. And Sasha and Cece (who now goes by Amie Stuart to drive me crazy.) And Jaq and Linda Winfree and Sharon who then introduced me to Writeminded, who at that time was her, Amy Knupp, Jan Kenny and Allison Brennan. And Jordan Summers - and I remember meeting HelenKay long before she had a blog, on Sylvia’s message board when she hosted a writing challenge for all of us.
Oh, and Suzanne and Jill and Kacey and Tori! And Shannon and Charlene!
And somewhere in there, I found PBW and Holly Lisle. They both had so much advice - good advice. Both of them were so honest and irreverent, like many of the unpublished bloggers I’d already met and I remember we all just learned from them and from Alison and from each other. It was a wonderful, amazing time that can’t be recreated because of the…well, the innocence. If there were snarky blogs out there at the time, I didn’t know about them. I stayed in my own circle, and I honestly don’t remember all that many blogs out there at the time.
For me, we were part of a writer’s community - less so of a reader’s one at that point, only because there were so many of us who were unpublished, and we were looking toward the bloggers like PBW and Alison for guidance through the business.
I still have, on another computer, one of PBW’s blog posts saved, and I can’t find it and can’t remember when it was, but I know it was sometime before February 2006. It was a post about fear - and how the biggest fear of a writer is that all of the writing, all of the work, was for nothing - it made me cry and hope and I’d reread it all the time while I struggled on that road to publication.
If it wasn’t for PBW (ah, I remember when Jake took one of the Darkyn out drinking!) and Holly and Alison, it would’ve been a long and lonely road. If it wasn’t for the originals, especially the *thisclose* club, I wouldn’t have made it through.
But I remember the exact moment blogging changed for me - an agent commented on a friend’s blog that she shouldn’t write about her rejections the way she did - that it would leave a bad impression with publishers.
Now, said friend was upbeat, positive - there was honestly nothing negative in her post at all. To us, it was part of the business - she was being honest.
But that’s when I realized that they were out there - editors, agents, people who didn’t see what we wrote in the spirit in which it was intended. So yes, things changed - the blogging community exploded - to me, it’s a lot scarier out there. But even though I don’t comment nearly as much as I used to, I still read my originals just about every day. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be the writer I am today, and for that, I’m eternally grateful to my originals. Wonderful women, fantastic writers. Friends.
Steph T.
February 29th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Wow…….just wow. We’ve come a long way. Progress is definitely a double-edged sword though huh
February 29th, 2008 at 11:09 am
We have been at this blogging thing for a long time, haven’t we? And I’ve met some great friends from it. It’s nice to have not only the friendships, but the moral support. Other people who “get it” and know what it’s like to struggle with our writing. And, well, blogging is fun!
February 29th, 2008 at 11:39 am
I have been terrible the last year about visiting and commenting on friends blogs. I have 20 or so I read in a feed reader daily, but I rarely hop over and say hi. So, HI! :P
:P 
:P
February 29th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Cece - we have!!! It’s kind of amazing to look back at the road…
Kacey - it’s true, the moral support is incredible. And what’s cool is that I’ve found that the readers who now read the blog like hearing about the writing aspect of things as well, so I get to still blog on a wide variety of topics :)
Alison, I know where to find you…don’t you worry. You just keep writing.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Oh, I remember those days! And I miss them, too.
Gee, wonder who used to talk about rejections in general terms on her blog . . . and keep a scoreboard of them . . .
February 29th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
You made me go back to New Year’s Eve 2004 and see who my first comment was from: Jaci. Just turn in the book, Shan. Quit wasting time *g* (I should have named my blog that.)
But, hey? Am I the only one listed who doesn’t have a NY contract yet?
I’ll have to fix that this year.
February 29th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
LOL, Linda!!! We ALL talked about them…and seriously, I think we all stopped after that!
Shannon - yes, that sounds like Jaci :) And OMG, I totally still remember your sold post…around New Years, right?
Here’s to NY for you this year
February 29th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I’m amazed every day at all the wonderful friends I’ve made since I started blogging. It’s a great community, isn’t it? :)
February 29th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
And if not for you, I might never have discovered the joys of Navy SEALs. ;)
February 29th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Linda! I forgot all about that!!
March 1st, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Wow, so much has happened since those early blogging days, when I dreamed of being published. Yes, friends make a huge difference and widen our worlds. I’ve met great friends through friends. Just remember me when you’re rich and famous.
March 1st, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Came over to thank you for sponsoring the 70 Day Challenge. Stuck around to envy the community you all have built. I say, go you all! Made my words today, but not really happy with the direction the scene took. Will learn later if today was a waste, or a message from my subconscious.
Anyway, thanks for sponsoring.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Sometimes the way things have changed makes me so sad. And I know people are watching, and a lot of them are looking for trouble to cause and things to hate.
But who benefits if we keep silent? If we don’t discuss rejections? If we don’t admit from time to time that the industry isn’t perfect, that at times it sucks, that at times it’s unnecessarily and even intentionally cruel.
For example, I don’t name names regarding the editor who, talking with another editor on her way out of an “It Came From the Slush Pile,” laughed while saying, “I have to go tell some of my authors they’re dead,” about writers she was dumping. I know she’s out there, she knows she’s out there, but if you’re a new writer and you think all editors are your friends, I think you need to know that some of the folks buying your books are pondscum.
So I still tell. I take a lot of crap, especially from the Anonymous sector–that group of bloggers too lame to put their names on their opinions. It’s still worth it.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:08 am
That was supposed to be– “It Came From the Slushpile” panel–.