14 Years and . . .

 Good morning Faithful Friday Fiction Fans,

    Fourteen years ago I started this little blog. It was created as a place for me to share parts of my longer stories, my poems, and my short stories that I was writing as practice in different styles and techniques. I created it so that I wouldn't bug my friends by emailing them a new story every time I got one done. I could just post my story here and they could read it whenever they wanted. It took a few weeks for me to settle into my Friday schedule, but before long Fridays were the days that I would post.

    And somewhere along the line I began giving little updates about my life was well as a fiction story to read.

    So many of my published books got their start on this blog. And actually, many of them grew from one short post into much longer stories like:

• The Unexpected Request
• The Graham Quartet and the Mysterious Strangers
• Gift from the Storm
• Through the Tunnel
• Triple Creek Ranch - Unbroken
• Dylan's Story
• Kate and Kylie
  

And many shorter stories that ended up in collections.

    This blog has been a place where I could share all sorts of stories and writings and not worry about them being perfectly edited or finished. I could post short vignettes and scenes that I had no plans to ever publish. Readers could read them or not.

    Over the 14 years this blog has been going, there have been many turn overs. In the beginning my friends that I knew personally were pretty much the only ones who read it. That changed as they grew too busy, and new readers would come. Then those readers would grow up and get busy, and others would eventually take their place. There have been many times over the years when comments would become quiet and I would often wonder, "Is anyone even reading this? Should I keep going or stop?" But I never felt like abandoning it. Several times I would ask if I should stop the blog and I would get a flurry of comments begging me not to stop. Even when I had nothing new to post, I was told it was okay to repost my old stories. And so I did.

    However (you knew this was coming, didn't you?), over the last few months I have actually felt like perhaps this little blog is ready for retirement. I didn't want to. I struggled with the thought of actually not posting, and feeling guilty that all my quiet but faithful Friday fiction fans would be left without a new story each Friday. But I prayed and asked that I would know clearly if I should keep things going or not.

    The answer came clearer than I thought. After 14 years of always posting Friday morning, it had become a habit. But there came a Friday that I didn't even remember I should post until that evening! That was strange! I ALWAYS post Friday morning. And not a single reader commented on how late it was. And then came December when I like to post many times during the month. This December I couldn't seem to remember that I had a blog to post things on. Add to that, my average number of people who look at the blog (and this could be the same people coming to it multiple times) is less than 20 per post. Often it is closer to 10 per post.

    And so, I'm going to put this little reading room in retirement.

    Now, I'm not shutting it down. I might decide to post something now and then. Perhaps I'll write a short story and will want someplace to share it. Or maybe I'll want to share a snippet of a new story. But as for regular Friday posts, that's going to stop. I don't know if I'll bring this blog out of retirement and back to active service some time down the road, but for now, it is going to get a rest.

    And maybe this will give me more time to work on stories that are actually going to get published! Like Kate & Kylie, and the last Woodbreak books. And other things. So don't think I'm quitting writing! 

    With that, I'm going to bid you goodbye! Thank you for being wonderful readers, for enjoying my stories and parts of stories, and for the comments you've shared over the many years!

Do you have any writing plans?

Have you ever had to quit something you've done for years?

Do you read my Read Another Page blog?