Which Way To Go? it’s a dilemma

For a long time now, I’ve struggled with where to go with my blog.  When I started to work for the Foreign Service, I pretty much stopped blogging altogether. In my line of work, you’re constantly reminded about cyber security and personally identifiable information online.

It pretty much puts a damper on posting things publicly.

Then there are all of the branding blogs that talk about having a focused blog with content that doesn’t wander.  And so came the dilemma. Do I post or do I not post? Which way to go? How to share without over-sharing in a world where everything posted is basically permanent and should be treated as public despite any layers of security you have (hello Russian & Chinese hackers, nothing to see here…move along).

Should I post about writing and what I’ve learned as an Indie Publisher? No, there are others out there who do that so much better than I.  Should I write about life? No, my life’s pretty boring. I wake up, go to work, come home, write, fix my website, design book covers, process photos I’ve taken, and then go to sleep.  Wash, rinse, repeat. Not so fascinating.

I do have things I’d like to say. But the posts I want to write are not focused, like people say they should be. I jot them down on paper, but never post.  Am I blogging to my readers?  Or am I blogging to other writers?  I don’t know, maybe a little of both.  Last night I decided that I should just go ahead and write to both, but I think I’ll focus mostly on other writers, because well. “I had two Costco Italian Sweet sausages for breakfast today. They were yummy. I ate them in the car as I was driving to work,” would get old, really quickly. And there are only a few acceptable times to shout out and say, “Hey, my next book is out.”

So writers it is.  :)

Last night I couldn’t sleep, I woke up at 2:12 when my neighbor downstairs started his/her nightly ritual of blasting club/rock/punk/electronica/I can’t think of the exact name here/music. All I know is that the rhythmic baseline vibrates right through the concrete separating us. It only lasts for 15 minutes. I usually roll right over and go back to sleep.  Last night sleep didn’t come, then at 4:00ish woke up for real. So I sat in bed and started going through facebook and my feeds.

I found myself going over to The Passive Voice, one of my favorite Indie Publishing Industry blogs, and reviewing the comment threads.  And then I found myself wanting to reply, and so I got up, turned on my writing computer, and all of a sudden I’d completely stepped over the bounds and posted a thousand word comment on Passive Guy’s blog.  How embarrassing. But I went ahead and posted my response anyway because I didn’t want people to misunderstand, and I thought it added to the discussion.

And so now I’m here, with yet another blog post about how I think I’ll start blogging again, perhaps more frequently than I have over the past few years.  At present I’m not afraid of revealing to the Chinese government that I like the Italian Sweet Sausages that can be found at East-Coast Costcos (the ones on the West-Coast aren’t so great…). 

I’ll post here on the blog, what I wrote over on The Passive Voice. But before I do, I felt the need to write a preface.  A hello of sorts, I’m headed in this direction type of post.  So here it is:

I’m back, again. Maybe I’ll blog a little more often, mostly to other writers. I hope you like the redesign of the site.

-Melissa