Consistency, Writing, and Cultural Diversity

 

What in the world could these three items have in common?

The answer is “me,” although Inconsistency might be a better term. Every article or book about blogging emphasizes consistency. You don’t have time to go to my blog and discover nothing new. Why would you ever return?

This is my confession, but I could have said my laptop was consumed by a Komodo dragon in Indonesia (there’s a joke in the U.S. when kids don’t do their homework they say the dog ate it) . . . or I could say I accidentally dropped it in the volcano (on Tanna island in Vanuatu). But no, I will come clean.

Doann with Komodo dragon (just after he ate my computer with my blog posts-LOL).

I enjoy writing my blog. I am an author after all, and I love doing research. It’s fun for me to discover facts—current or historical—to create stories about the world. The cultural diversity of the world is not only fascinating to me, but a beautiful facet of human life. What could be better than writing and sharing about it?

So why my inconsistency this year? I started the blog initially because my book Voice of a Voyage: Rediscovering the World During a Ten-year Circumnavigation had recently been published by Sunstone Press, and I was quite faithful about posting blogs for over a year. Some were about the book, but most were about travel, other countries, interesting places and people. Now the eBook has been released and my bottom-line motivation should return, but then summer came, and, as I did post earlier, I just wanted to be outdoors. [When will they come up with a computer screen you can see in sunlight? Maybe then, I’d do more computer work.]

I was also discouraged because it seemed like only a handful of people really read it and hardly anyone ever commented, although I welcomed comments and asked questions, although probably not enough of those.

In requesting the opinions of others, I got good reviews. People thought they were interesting, informative, some were inspiring, some elicited amazement, compassion, a broadened connection to the world—all the thoughts and emotions I would want the readers of my blog, books, Facebook public page to have.

So this is my confession. I haven’t done a good job for you, my reader. I apologize.

The issue now is that I am about to have some major surgery, nothing life threatening, but a total shoulder joint replacement in my dominant arm, and I will be immobilized for some time.

QUESTION FOR YOU!

If you have ever read any of my blogs, would you please comment on what you liked and didn’t like? If I were consistent would you be interested in checking them out twice a week [new ones have brief intros on my public Facebook page, so if you connect to that, it’s easy to see when there is new content]? https://www.facebook.com/VoiceofaVoyage/

I can write blogs before the surgery and set them up to post at specific times. There are times when it’s nice to escape the immediate present and read something from the past.

In the meantime, I’m going to recycle a couple of early ones about Yemen and Sana’a, since the Saudis are bombing the hell out of it now. I also will have to comment on the horrifying, frightening (for democracy) charade of the Republican Party and some aspects of the U.S. election.

So I will be posting twice a week and if I am going to stop, I will let you know. I certainly don’t want to waste your time! Hope to hear from you here or on Facebook. THANKS!