I have published 529 posts on this blog.
Absurd.
I started the Distal Muse as part of an effort toward self-promotion, an effort that has in some ways failed. But in the years since it was first established (I think it’s first incarnation, as part of a ridiculously complicated site, was 2003) I’ve used it to hone a skill—the short essay—and indulge whims that I frankly have little interest in trying out professionally. After that original site was replaced by the current one, in 2006 or ’07, I started using it for all sorts of things, including putting up original art.
I look back over what is here and I’m pleasantly dismayed at the variety. Not altogether pleasantly nonplussed by some of the content. But, for better or worse, it’s all mine.
Some of it, I think, is not half bad. (May not be half good, either, but that’s a matter of taste. I think.)
Since its commencement, I’ve added a FaceBook page and, more recently, Twitter (at my agent’s urging; I’m not really sure how to use that one), to which I link my new posts. Since one of the purposes of this whole enterprise is to ATTRACT ATTENTION TO MYSELF (to gain an audience, you understand), I thought I’d start using the archive, and link to older posts that may pique the interest of some of the good folks who now subscribe to my various digital presences.
Obviously, anyone can peruse the archive any time they want, and to my pleasant surprise, some do. But I thought this might make it easier.
Yes, I’m trying to get more regular readers. But I also have a small vanity which chafes at the idea that past work will fade into total obscurity.
So while I may not post as much new work here as I have been lately (an inordinate amount of which has been political—duh, I wonder why!), I hope folks will indulge in my previous babblings and may find something worthwhile therein.
Do you remember the good ol’ days before electric typewriters? Great writers, in addition, of course, to feeding themselves and dependents, just had to perservere through completion of the manuscript. Publishers were eager to promote. Buyers scanned books from authors they didn’t know at drug stores. There once was a real publishing industry.
Now, you’ve spent all this time writing on a blog and wonder why. I’m considering the creation of a blog to self promote my project, lacydawnadventures.com.
Naw.