As I contemplated today’s blog post last night, I realized I didn’t have any blog topics in my back pocket, waiting to be written. When you have a regular blogging practice, this happens occasionally and you’ve got to think of something fast to write about. While Twitter is generally good for immediate blog post inspiration, what’s top of mind for me is research I’m doing at work on a guy who lived in my county…
It’s Indepence Day in the United States. Historian Heather Cox Richardson has a marvelous newsletter to mark the occasion, one that reminds us to live up to our highest ideals in this country, rather than sink into our lowest manifestations of a society. We haven’t been doing a good job of reaching the ideals of life, liberty, equality, or the pursuit of happiness lately. There’s a sliver of people who would rob the majority of…
When it comes to writing, there are some articles that take a while to develop, sometimes months, sometimes years, because there are pieces missing that you sense are missing, but you haven’t yet found them. Such is the case with today’s blog post. In December 2020, I made a note about “Moms as social glue – keeping families together across space & time.” This is something I’ve seen in my family, particularly on my dad’s…
One of the aspects of blogging that I love is the ability to constantly fuss around with how it looks and functions, something that WordPress allows me to do with relative ease. Well, I’ve been fussing again recently. I had been looking for years for an easy way to allow people to subscribe to my blog posts via email as they publish. It’s the way I like to get blog posts from writers I follow.…
When I transformed my book giveaway box into a Writing Nook last month, I struggled with whether to add some sort of writing implement. I’m using the Writing Nook to give away blank notebooks in several sizes, index cards, and books about writing. I mentally went back-and-forth on whether to include pencils or pens. I prefer pens myself, but with our very cold winters (24 below zero was a constant for two weeks this past…