For the past year or so, several people have been pestering me to start blogging, and I’ve been pushing right back at them that I didn’t want to. I’m one of those people who has to be hogtied with a mouse cord (or would be, if ours weren’t wireless) to try something new, especially in the area of technology, but they’ve finally worn me down, so here I am, making my first blog entry.

I’m a writer, a wannabe novelist. I’ve got a Web site, an unpublished first novel, a second novel in utero, moderate freelance experience–I’ve even gotten my LinkedIn page up and running. I’ve joined professional associations, attended writers’ conferences and literary festivals. I’ve been faithfully plodding along with these and other writerly endeavors, figuring that this is just my time to be paying my dues.

I’ve been drawing the line at starting a blog, however. “Blogs? We don’t need no stinking blogs.” No particular reason; I could say that I just don’t like the sound of the word “blog”, if you really need a reason, and  it wouldn’t be completely untrue. But as I’m beginning to understand, getting my work published will require more than I’m already doing, even things I find to be mildly distasteful (schmoozing, marketing, and sucking up) as well as colossal drains on time I feel I should be spending doing my “serious” writing.

I have, in fact, already written some things that have been “published”–the quotation marks there speak volumes–but now we’re talking Published here. Yeah, you other writers out there all know exactly what the difference is.

So anyway, here’s your “backstage pass” with me, on my journey either to publication or continued obscurity. I wonder, what exactly would be the equivalent of a “backstage pass” with a novelist? An excuse for a two-hour nap? The opportunity to see how fast you can duck  a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style  chucked at your head? I somehow can’t imagine watching a writer write catching on as a hot ticket, but you know, I guess there’s a reason I’m not in marketing.

So although my current set of fans ( my husband, 3 kids, and The Goldfish That Won’t Die–we’ve tried) may be small, I have decided to give blogging a shot. I’m not sure who besides my current posse will want to read this, but I guess that’s true about any of the writing I do, and that hasn’t stopped me yet. I’ll be writing anyway, whether you read it or not.

On the other hand, maybe I’ll be wrong, and lots of you will decide you’re not only interested, but would really love to hear what I’ve got going on “backstage”.  As an added bonus, all my readers will receive, absolutely free of charge, the sublime satisfaction of giving my husband yet another opportunity to tell me “I told you so” for the rest of our lives–yeah, like he needs any more of those.

Anyway, here goes nothin’.