“Consensus” and “internet” are two words that don’t find their way into the same sentence very often. I know this because, as I’ve embarked on my publishing adventure, I’ve had to look a lot of things up. Usually, the process goes something like this: (1) I formulate\u00a0a question (e.g., “One or two spaces after a period?”); (2) I find an authoritative-sounding answer; (3) I feel good about following the advice I just found in step 2, until (4) I click on another link, hoping to confirm what I’ve already been told, only to find an equally authoritative-sounding argument in support of the oppposite conclusion, which leads to (5) I spend another hour clicking around, trying to find an unimpeachable source, or at the very least, figure out the majority\/better view.<\/p>\n
I suppose that’s the nature of the beast, and it’s not meant to be a complaint.\u00a0 Without access to the\u00a0vast store of\u00a0knowledge that’s out there in cyberspace , I wouldn’t have had the first clue about how to publish my book.\u00a0\u00a0Being forced\u00a0to view\u00a0one’s findings\u00a0through a discerning lens is a small price to pay for access to such an incredibly valauble pool of information.<\/p>\n
There is at least one issue, though, on which everyone’s views seem to align:\u00a0 the need for authors to have blogs.\u00a0 Intuitively, this makes sense.\u00a0 If one is going to hold oneself out as a writer, then one should write whenever one can, and get\u00a0those words\u00a0in front of as many eyeballs as possible, right?\u00a0 I think this goes double for novelists, who might take months or even years between books.\u00a0 If a blog can help keep readers engaged with, and interested in, an author, then it’s certainly a worthwhile exercise.<\/p>\n
You might wonder, then, why I would hesitate for even a moment when it came to starting a blog.\u00a0\u00a0I could point to\u00a0my historic aversion to new technologies (and yes, I realize that blogging isn’t on the bleeding edge of computer use in 2014, but you have to realize that I am still not completely\u00a0used to having a cell phone, either – my history of late adaptation probably deserves its own, separate post), but that’s not the reason.\u00a0 My real hang-up is\u00a0with presuming that anyone would want to read what I have to say.<\/p>\n
That may sound disingenuous coming from a person who\u00a0is trying to get you to purchase\u00a0his 105,000-word\u00a0novel.\u00a0\u00a0Publishing anything entails some degree of hubris – as an\u00a0author, I am asserting that I’ve written something that’s worth your time to read.\u00a0 But\u00a0saying that about my book is different than\u00a0saying that about my blog.\u00a0 I can explain why you should read my finished story a lot more effectively than I can tell you why you should care about my views on current events, or what I had for breakfast on any given day.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, I’ve tried to give some thought as to what this blog will be.\u00a0 Honestly, I’m still not 100% sure.\u00a0 I can tell you that it’s not going to be about my day job.\u00a0 There are many websites\/blogs out there that chronicle the wonderful world of lawyering, so I’m not going to re-invent that particular wheel.\u00a0 I also don’t see it as pulpit for me to spout off on news\/politics\/current events.\u00a0 There are lots of places on the internet to debate taxes, health care, guns, or whatever else floats your boat.\u00a0 All interesting stuff, for sure, but not what I want to focus on here.<\/p>\n
So what will this blog be about?\u00a0 Certainly, I want to talk about the writing and publishing process, not only with respect to Peripheral Involvement<\/em>, but also with an eye toward future projects.\u00a0 In the coming days, I’m sure I’ll be sharing my experiences from this week’s book launch.\u00a0 Each step is a first for me and I’m learning on the fly, and I’m pretty sure I’ll have some things to share.<\/p>\n Beyond that, I plan to write about whatever I think is interesting: observations, experiences… whatever comes along, really.\u00a0 I guess we’ll see where that takes us.<\/p>\n Thanks for taking a look!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Consensus” and “internet” are two words that don’t find their way into the same sentence very often. I know this because, as I’ve embarked on my publishing adventure, I’ve had to look a lot of things up. Usually, the process goes something like this: (1) I formulate a question (e.g., “One or two spaces after a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\n