Olivia Newport

Photo by Lorri Nussbaum www.keeperscards.com

I do angst really well.

I’ve been drowning in drafts of blog posts, readying for the launch of this shiny new website.

But what did the very first post need to say?

I have six novels under contract, but none of them even has a cover yet. So I can’t do show and tell.

I suspect most of my first readers will come via Twitter and Facebook. But most of those people only know me in the cyber world.

And what am I supposed to talk about? There are fifty-seven kazillion blogs. What am I saying that anyone should listen to? (My kids wonder that ALL the time.)

Yes, I do angst really well. (But that’s not one of the Four Things I Know About Me. Keep reading.)

The answer came more clear as I produced more drafts. I found I was talking about ordinary moments that were portals to the profound. I talked about places where writing a particular book intersected with what distracts my random brain. I even talked about things my mother says that make me laugh out loud.

I was being me. And no one else can do that.

I can’t be all those other writers, all those experts who write blogs about things I don’t know how to do. Or be.

But I’m pretty good at being me. And this is what I know about me. (Count ‘em. Four things.)

  • My native language is story. Story speaks to me, and I hope I can speak story to you. My books will be stories, of course. But story is the stuff of life, so I have way more story to talk about than just my books.
  • I look underneath. And close up. The ordinary lays down a film over the extraordinary. I like to see through to the surprises underneath.
  • I thrive on connections. When I meet people, I love walking away feeling that we connected, that we celebrated something in common, that the encounter enriched my life in some way.
  • I’m chasing joy. I’ve had plenty of unjoy in my life. (I’m a creative. I can make up words if I want to.) But everything in me wants to get up out of the mud puddle and run toward the sunshine.

So if any of that is setting off bells in your brain, then I hope you’ll do these things.

  1. Leave a comment, so I know I’m not talking to the cyber-air.
  2. Subscribe, so we can chase joy together.
  3. Tell someone about this blog, so we can enrich our conversation.

I plan to post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We’ll twist through time on our way to joy and delve into the faith and passions that make us who we are.

  • Tell us why you dropped by today. I’d love to hear.