The Upcoming Schedule

As most of you probably know, it’s been somewhat of a strain for me to blog every day – a strain compounded by the fact that for whatever reason (yes, I suspect user error too, or – Error Between Keyboard and Chair) when I schedule posts my rate of their actually going up is fifty fifty.

I’m not by nature a non-fiction writer, and when I do it, it tends to be out of having something very important to say. Which rarely happens every day. I also suffer from a ridiculous form of attention deficit disorder, probably peculiar to authors, which means I can promise long series, but they rarely happen.

No, this is not an announcement that I’m abandoning the blog, merely that I’ve noticed I’ve been getting more and more tightly focused on writing advice, which might be what a lot of you come here for, but I suspect it’s not what most of you come here for.

I will not blog on politics or world events. There is a reason for this, one that I’ve had to explain recently at my conference (Sarah’s Diner on Facebook, not the open one, the closed one. Knock and it shall be opened. Or shoot me an email and I’ll pull you in. The bigger conference, in Baen’s bar is suffering from my having to login to post – I need to start inhabiting it more again.)

I don’t allow politics or religion at my conferences, and I will not talk about them on my blog, because I grew up in a strange place and in a time of such turmoil that made the US today look practically cohesive. Wearing one’s politics on one’s sleeve, particularly when they were as odd as mine (which have only gotten odder) won you the enimity of 90% of people, and was purely not worth it. It was easier to get along with people of all persuasions and ignore, as far as possible the despicable things they believed. (Most of them treated their politics as mainline protestants treat religion anyway – only relevant in certain times and places.)

The other part of this is that frankly I wish some of my favorite authors had refrained from rubbing their politics in my face. I can ignore them in the fiction books, weirdly, which – for my favorite authors, at least – are rarely BUILT around politics. I can ignore the occasional three page screed the same way I ignored Heinlein’s engineering diagrams. But when they pound me with their politics at social occasions, or over breakfast, or in other places where they’re totally unexpected, I confess it taints their books for me. There’s at least one of my very favorites whose latest book I haven’t read just because of one such screed.

I’m trying to avoid this. I have – of course – political opinions. Having grown up on Heinlein, and through revolution and counter revolution and having come from Portugal to the US and acultured as completely as one can, you could say I couldn’t avoid having political opinions. Actually, were it not for my odd life story, I probably would have given politics a miss for the same reason that while religious I don’t discuss my religious beliefs or even my affiliation with anyone unless I really trust them. (Part of this, of course, is that my religion is … complicated. But not all of it.) The fact is I’m one of those lassez faire people who mostly wants to be left alone and to leave others alone. However, the revolution/counter/revolution in Portugal taught me the dangers of ignoring the asylum till the loonies take over. So… I have opinions. And I’m ever ready to plunge in, sword drawn. On the side bar is the group blog which I DO use for my political articles. But I believe in letting people ignore it, if they wish to, and if my politics offend them. I tend to think everything to the nth degree, so I can offend even people with whom I agree.

So, politics is out as a topic. Family, by and large, is too. If I’d started regular blogging much earlier, I probably would have sounded like one of those mommy-bloggers. But the kids are now teens and – probably – on their last couple of years with us. Blogging about what they do and say would either violate their privacy or possibly get them in trouble with some of their odder professors.

My family has POSSIBLY the dorkiest lifestyle of any other middle class family in the US. We love it, mind you, but I think if I started blogging about our strenuously disputed games of mini-golf (the more fiberglass animals on the course, the better!) or our hunt for the cheapest and coziest diners in the world, you’d probably get tired very quickly. Not saying I won’t do that, now and then, mind you. I’ll probably reserve a day a week for it. There will even likely, as the summer progresses, be pictures of amusement parks and museums, which are our version of living it up.

But I need to put up some sort of post everyday. There was a rhythm I had in my baen.bar conference, and to which I need to get back, but some of it will need adaptations for the blog. So, below I’m going to list some of the things that worked and let you chime in on what you think I should do instead/additionally on the blog.

The new, new program won’t go into effect until June 15^th, since I’ll be out of the country from the 27^th of May till June 12^th. For that time, I’m hoping to coerc… er… beg a bunch of friends to keep the blog going. So I have time to mull it over.

Anyway, here’s the proposal:

Monday – a report on what I got accomplished the week before and a snippet of something I wrote that week. This will also update you on what I have coming out – shorts and novels. It’s the “Fan update report.”

Tuesday – Blue Plate Special – I will try to post a (previously published) short story. Failing that, it will possibly a short short written on the spur of the moment.

Wednesday – Your how-to-write blog. This will probably be echoed over at Mad Genius Club.

Thursday – in the diner conference I had this thing called “the soap opera” also called “desperate barflies” which was well, what it sounds like. A story line, usually involving sf/fantasy themes, and also every single one of the regulars I could think of. I don’t know how that would work here, since most of you (according to the stats) don’t comment. If you have an idea how to replace it, chime in. It has occurred to me I could write a serialized novel, but if I do so, I’m warning you (even though it won’t be storyteller’s bowl) I’ll put up a paypal button. (There are novels I have started that would work best that way, since they’re not… traditionally marketable. Some of you might remember my special ops in hell novel, or the Red Baron alternate history, for ex. If you want it, I’ll get on it, then see whether I continue, depending on the hits. I mean, if I’m writing a serialized novel, I want it to be seen by more than fifty people…) The other option is to post some of my Austen fan fic, which I need to get on again soon…

Friday – Lifestyle report – this is the more “personal” part of the blog and will probably involve pictures of places I love, reports on any fun restaurant we found lately, stories about my terrible, terrible cats (one of whom, at least, is a lolcat) and when all else fails, reports on books worth reading or what I thought of a book as I re-read it or read it. It will also necessarily involve mini golf, museums, aquariums and, oh, yeah, inevitably – I’m sorry – the occasional Disney comic post, particularly in summer.

Saturday – Industry blog. Or as I like to call it “report from the living death” – I might bring a friend in to do this on occasion, as Amanda Green keeps far more on top of it than I do.

Sunday – quizzes, games, contests.

Okay, how does that look to you, and do you have any suggestions?