Thursday, April 22, 2010

Blog Amiss: Stories from the Heart

Today, I got a note from a friend who’s missing the notes I leave on my personal blog. I’ve been silent there for more than 2 months . . . not a good record for an author who’d like to use her blog to build her brand as well as to share her world with whomever hangs out long enough to read it.

Blogging isn’t easy for me. I never thought of myself as a particularly private person, but blogging just feels odd. If I post personal stuff, I think I’m being too self-indulgent. If I talk too much about my books or work, I feel materialistic.

I’d really rather just write my stories.

Earlier this year, I made a plan to be more regular with my blogging. Life sorta bungled in, however. Schedules changed, work got weird, folks got sick, including me. Then my mom had heart problems. A stint in one artery collapsed, requiring a long hospital stay, and I wound up in Alabama for more than a week. Everything else in my world came to a halt, and I’m still trying to catch up. But I find that I’m weary. And I keep thinking about the notebook.


My mom’s notebook.

For some time, she’s been writing down everything she can remember about her childhood and teen years. She graduated from high school in 1945, and she still has all her report cards, graduation materials, even a newspaper from a senior trip. But the notebook is the real treasure – pages and pages of stories about her family and her adventures. Whenever she has a story to share, she pulls it out.

I come from a long line of great Southern storytellers. When other families watched TV or went to the movies, my folks sat around on the porch and told tales.

Only . . . the notebook is missing. When we got her back from the hospital we couldn’t find it.

We will. It’s too precious to lose forever.

My blog isn’t my mother’s notebook, that’s for sure. But I think the blog will be better, at least for right now, if I stop planning and just keep dreaming. And writing when I have something to say. Maybe next week. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe when I get enough sleep.

After all, I’m working on a new book. I have a hero to pick and a heroine to show off. Stories about how the tale came to be. And . . . someday . . . I’m going to write about what’s in the notebook.

5 comments:

my name is Kimberly said...

Can't wait to read it!

Debby Giusti said...

Ramona,
You mentioned not blogging on a previous post here with the craftie ladies, and your words were good for me to read then as well as today.

I'm hesitant about blogging as well. For some of the same reasons you mentioned. Does anyone really want to read my posts, is what I often think. It does seem rather self-indulgent, doesn't it? Some folks seem to have no problem communicating with the world. I do. It's comforting to know I'm not alone.

Praying you'll find your mother's notebook. What a treasure!

Ramona Richards said...

Ha, Debby! That's one of my problems with blogging. I repeat myself! Probably because I just don't have much new to say. I can understand why people share blogs - Craftie Ladies and the LIA blogs have been very good for me: a deadline to blog and support!

Pamela Tracy said...

I wish I had notebooks from my mother and father. I have a few scrapbooks, but I want more.

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