Reminder/New blogs!

Don't forget to move your links or feeds over to the new blogs:

Julie Kibler

What Women Write

I'm not a very persistent blogger yet at my personal blog, but my first post is up today at What Women Write:

Signs you MIGHT be a writer!

Scoot on over and see what's happening at the new place

I'm now making a slow start in blogging over at:
http://www.juliekibler.blogspot.com/

And soon to be blogging at a GROG! (A group blog. Ha.) at:
http://www.whatwomenwritetx.blogspot.com

Hope if you're still stopping by here, you'll move your bookmark over to these new blogs and see what's happening.

I have to figure out how to incorporate my poppy photo at the new blog. It's actually mine, and not a stock photo, taken in Toronto one summer. I will miss it otherwise.

What's happening

Just in case you wondered if I fell off the face of the earth --
I didn't.

What I am doing is working behind the scenes on a new blog with a new focus and (gasp!) a new identity. You'll be the first to know when I launch it.

As I get closer to publication (every day is closer to publication, no matter how far in the future or what happens between now and then, right?), I'm thinking about branding and considering how best to present myself as a writer.

I'm starting with my blog. I'd like to put a little more focus on the issues I'm exploring and a little less focus on my bellybutton. To that end, I'm taking a short break as I figure out the best way to do it. I'm getting there, and I think you'll like it. Just to give you a hint of one thing you'll find, I'm planning interviews not only with authors who write about families in crisis, but with real-life ordinary people who've faced extraordinary dilemmas.

I can't wait to show you the new digs, and I hope you'll stick with me and tolerate the silence until then.

~Julie

Sticking my head out of the sand

What I've been thinking about lately:

1) Work. Putting the finishing touches on my manuscript. It's currently with a lawyer friend getting the once over to be sure I didn't commit any major offenses against legal procedure in the story. When she returns it, if I haven't failed too miserably, I really and truly will be querying agents. (Yeah, I said that a few times already, but I forgot to account for this step in the process. Silly me.) Also working on synopses of varying lengths so they're ready to go when the time comes. I had to rename a character today when I realized I had too many similar names. I went through the 900 most popular girls' names in 1992 and finally settled on one I didn't like as much as the original, but it had to be done.

2) My treadmill. Yes, my new treadmill that sits proudly in my family room and will until or unless I stop using it for exercise and start using it as a clothes hanger. Let's hope that doesn't happen any time soon. I've discovered two things. First, I exercise better when distracted. My computer sits nicely on a built-in shelf on the console and I can get about 45 minutes of walking in while I read email and blogs first thing in the morning. (My morning, that is.) I've done this three out of three days so far this week. Whee! Second, I think I'm like a reverse addict when it comes to working out. I know in my heart of hearts and from past experience that if I skip a day, I'm about ten times more likely to quit. So, I get up, and I get on the treadmill. I don't take the first drink. :) I'm not sure how things will work on the days I truly can't do this (i.e., I have to be somewhere early), but I'm not going to think about that yet.

3) Blogging and focus. I read here and there how a blog needs a focus that keeps people coming back. I see the proof of this even in author blogs. Those that are simple journals don't necessarily have high traffic. Those that take a particular focus generally have a high level of traffic and interraction in the comments. It doesn't matter so much at this point in my life, but if I'm eventually published, it will become more important. So I've been thinking about this.

And in the interest of brevity, I'm quitting here for now!

And here I was thinking I was a genius.

Well, GOSH, I thought all that stuff I wrote in my last post was original, you know, that *I* thought of it, but it turns out some other dude was thinking it, too. I will be reading more by him, methinks. (And, of course, I didn't think I was saying anything that unique. I figured there were folks out there who were saying better.)

Thanks, Kathy, for pointing me in his direction on your blog.

Ready or not, change is here!

We have a new president. Whether you voted for President Obama or not, the day is here, and I hope we'll all join together in showing respect and support for the democratic process and the man we have elected to lead our country in a strange and often terrifying time.

I'm a big believer in personal responsibility. Don't just jump on the truck that has your party emblazoned on its side. Please, please, take the time to read, study the issues (all views), and make informed decisions before you speak.

The election season and time leading up to the inauguration have been stressful for me because I do that, and it's hard sometimes to stand in the middle of the great divide. I'm staunchly bipartisan, though I did have particularly strong preferences in this election.

While waiting for election day and inauguration day, my stomach has knotted and ached at times while reading the hatefulness spewed from my fellow citizens (from both parties), while deleting emails I am fairly certain people didn't read all the way to the bottom or check out for validity before clicking "forward," and when listening to small children spout the views of their parents--because kids are honest if easily misled. They'll repeat what their parents say at home, and not only repeat it loud and clear, but more often than not grow to embrace it.

But now the election is over, the swearing in has been accomplished without chaos. I read something this morning about how amazing that is. So many people watching around the world live in countries where change of power almost guarantees violence and chaos. (I can't remember where I read that -- sorry for the lack of attribution.)

We are a country who can embrace our political differences (not to mention all the other kinds of differences! Wow!) and still, at the end of the work day, get on the highways, the railways, and in the air, and feel confident that we will be safe nearly 100% of the time as we rub shoulders -- in spite of those differences. What great privilege -- and what great responsibility.

Change we can believe in. That was the platform. President Barack Obama is one man and we're expecting a lot of change from him.

But change also happens one citizen at a time. What about you?

My sidekick

My cat likes to help me work. She also likes reading blogs over my . . . knee. Yep, that's my knee. I was sitting cross-legged and Yentl decided to join me as I read Lisa's December book blog.