My Blogging Journey

Someone in a comment suggested that it would be helpful to hear a little about my other blogs (that someone was J. Kaye).    I have several!

It’s strange how it all came about.  A year ago, I had my one little blog—Creations by Laurel-Rain Snow—in which I posted rather sporadically.  Then I started having “issues” with it…things didn’t work properly.  Someone said maybe I should start a new one, to see if that would help.  (This was on one of those Blogger support sites!).  Now I’m still not sure how that was supposed to help, but I did it.  So that’s how my Reflections (now merged with another one) blog was born.  (From here on out, I’ll only give the main word in the name of the blog, since the titles are rather long!).

My first blog was about my creativity; the second was going to offer a place to muse, reflect, etc.  I also began posting reviews there.  And that’s where the community called Book Blogs came into play.  There I met serious book bloggers…among them, Sheila, from Journey Through Books. Her site was the first Word Press one that I had visited, and I liked what I saw.  I began exploring, and soon I had created my first Word Press site, Explorations. I loved the variety of templates, including several with three columns.  I adored how I could install a custom header.  (Later I would learn how to do this on Blogger).

But most of all, I saw this blog as a place to really expand my experiences in the blogging community.

One day…it was a Sunday, I think, my granddaughter Fiona was visiting.  We were playing around with the blog, and then I had another idea.  I needed a place for all the odds and ends.  Potpourri, if you will.  One of my first posts on this new site spotlighted Fiona, complete with photos.

Since I am an obsessive collector, I decided to start a blog highlighting my many collections (now merged with Potpourri); a place to put all those photos of my odds and ends and to tell stories about them.  So…to sum up a bit.  My second blog came to be in June 2009, followed that same month by the first Word Press blog.  By the end of July, I would have a total of seven blogs:  two Blogger blogs and five Word Press ones.  My next effort was to create a blog to highlight each of my novels.  Hence, we saw Miles to Go, Stardust Dreams, and Embrace the Whirlwind.  In each of these blogs, I focused on the novels, with excerpts, reviews, book covers (including slideshows), and my thoughts about their creation.

By now we’re in the summer…August 2009.  I was getting ready to go on vacation and was collecting an assortment of books to take along.  I was also humming that song—the Carpenters’ “Rainy Days and Mondays Make Me Blue”—and the idea for my next blog sprang to life, with a tagline:  Books:  Laurel-Rain’s Prescription for the Blues. This one I created on Blogger, since I felt sorry to have neglected that host!  And by then, I’d learned how to play around with it, creating custom headers and adding those widgets.  Naturally, I named this blog Rainy Days and Mondays. This was actually my first “book blog,” in the very strict sense of the word.  On this one, I do book reviews, talk about books, do bookish memes, etc.

Then I decided I needed two more blogs, to spotlight the two remaining books.  So I createdWeb of Tyranny Chronicles and Accidental Life (now Serendipity), with a tagline:  Accidental Moments Inform a Life.

On these two sites, as with the other ones highlighting my published novels, I post excerpts and reviews of the books.  But I also do bookish memes and other reviews there, too.

In September 2009, when I was looking through photo albums and saw one of my favorite shots of my two granddaughters, Fiona and Aubrey, I decided to create Snow Impressions.  In 2004, we’d all vacationed in my son’s cabin at Big Bear (near LA), and took several photos of the two girls cavorting in the snow.  The wonderfully delighted expressions on their faces captivated me.  And I was also thinking about the play on words, with snow (Laurel-Rain Snow).  In this site, I mainly just share my impressions about things…creativity, mostly.  And sometimes I will include family stories here.

Next came Obsessions and Compulsions. It started one day when I was ranting and raving with my Jenny Craig consultant, about how I am compulsively drawn to certain things, like eating, collecting, whatever…and then I said, laughingly, “I should create a blog to talk about this stuff!”  So I did.

Seasons came about, because I wanted to showcase the “seasons” in images, but, like the tag line says:  For everything there is a season, so talking about seasons in the sense of change appealed to me.

One day I was lamenting the sad state of my TBR stacks.  I decided to list them all and put them on a Microsoft Works document, just so I could get some kind of control over them.  I photographed the stacks, too, and posted about the “out-of-control” state of things.  Naturally, I decided to create a blog to document my progress through those stacks.  So CURL UP AND READ formed…(and back on Word Press, where I could have several pages for my topics!).  On this site, I work my way through my stacks and post reviews and progress notes.

Then, back on Blogger, I designed Moonbeams & Rainbows specifically as a place to document and post reviews for the Alice in Wonderland Challenge hosted by Take Me Away. Once that challenge ended, I decided to keep it up and focus on “fairytale stuff,” including soap operas.  The tagline is “the stuff of dreams and fairytales.”

That blog was born in November 2009…and I thought that I was done.  Sixteen blogs…enough already!

But then, J. Kaye created her newest blog about her own creative journey (no longer in existence)…and I thought about my rather “flat” efforts lately, which led to the designing of Creative Moments (another Word Press blog).

J. Kaye, I am so sure that you did not anticipate this long and rather rambling tale.  You were probably just hoping for a list and links…right?

But I can’t pass up an opportunity to tell a story.

To find that list of all the blogs with links, you can visit my website…there’s a page called Blogs, and they’re all there!

UPDATE:  6-8-10: Since I wrote this post, I have added two additional blogs.  Thought I’d better mention them, since I have links to this post in various sidebars.

First, I added Out on a Limb (which has now migrated to Word Press and is called Going Out on a Limb) for all that crazy, experimental stuff I want to spotlight.  And then, only recently, I created Connections, which is my place to talk completely and fully about my family and social connections, which include my web connections.  I have a little place in there for interviews and guest blogs, too.  Then there’s a venue for creations, like short stories.

7-09-10: And finally, I won’t say last but not least, since I could conceivably create more blogs, but on 6-20-10, I added another Word Press blog which I’ve called Meditations.

This one is a place to muse, reflect, rant, rave, and share with others.

That brings the total to twenty blogs so far:  ten on Word Press and ten on Blogger.

7-31-10:  Update (Again!)

Yesterday, I moved my Web of Tyranny Chronicles from Blogger to Word Press, which brings the total on Word Press to eleven and nine on Blogger.  Still twenty blogs, though.

8-12-10:  In the past two weeks, I’ve also moved my Accidental Life blog to Word Press, where I renamed it Accidental Moments (now called Serendipity).

Then I combined my Collections site with Potpourri HERE.

Today, I moved Snow Impressions over to merge it with Connections on Word Press, and renamed it Snow Connections and Impressions.

My total blogs on this date is EIGHTEEN, with eleven on Word Press and seven on Blogger.

8-25-10: Another update!  Yesterday I moved the old Reflections site from Blogger and combined it with Meditations…

Revised Total:  Seventeen blogs!

Now for another update: I’ve moved this journey from Obsessions and Compulsions to Potpourri, under the Journey page.  Seems appropriate!

9-8-10: My Blogging Journey is obviously a work in progress!  A few days ago, I moved Meditations and Reflections in with Explorations, to create Explorations, Reflections, and Meditations.

Now I’m down to sixteen blogs.  Will I stay the course?  Or is there more to come?  Tune in for possible updates!

9-20-10:  More changes!

I’m now down to 13 blogs! I deleted Obsessions and added that idea into my Potpourri blog, which has a tagline of My Quirky Tidbits, Treasures & Obsessions.

I deleted Seasons...I can reflect on seasonal changes on Potpourri, or anywhere, as a matter of fact.

And Moonbeams & Rainbows was pretty much all about Soap Magic these days, so I added that page to Stardust Dreams.

Now I have ten Word Press blogs and three Blogger ones.

Do you think I’ll be satisfied now?  Well, you never know!

***

Another Update:  On 11-11-10 (hey, don’t you like that date!), I moved Out on a Limb (and deleted it from Blogger) to Word Press, and renamed it GOING OUT ON A LIMB.

Still 13 blogs, but now there are 11 on Word Press and 2 on Blogger.

Update:  On 11-29-10, I added one more blog, on a Word Press site:  Snow Chronicles.

This blog (which brings my total up to 14 sites) will showcase my journaling moments, including my thoughts, feelings, and even some writing excerpts from my WIPs.

1-21-11: Just one more update!  My Explorations site, which became the Explorations, Reflections, & Meditations Blog…now, voila!  During this edition of Bloggiesta, I have renamed the blog An Interior Journey, with a tagline of: Explorations, Reflections, & Meditations.

***

6-22-11:

Bet you thought I was done…well, no, not so much.

Recently I renamed and revamped Snow Connections & Impressions and dubbed it Snow Sparks.

You could have probably predicted that I would become tired of managing so many blogs…so now I have whittled the total down to ten.

Yes, I created pages for An Accidental Life, Embrace the Whirlwind, Chasing Stardust, Miles to Go, and Web of Tyranny over at Creative Moments.

I deleted ETW, Stardust Dreams, MTG, and WT Chronicles as separate sites.

I put my “soap magic” on a page at this site (Potpourri).

Am I done now?  Time will tell….

***

11-7-11

Just when you thought it was safe….

Yes, I added another one.  Chocolate & Mimosas is my special place to celebrate those guilty pleasures in life.

Here I will post chocolatey and other pleasurable tidbits, including memes and book reviews.  Join in and enjoy!

1-26-12:

Today I added my tenth Word Press blog (after going up and down for the past two years!); this is another writing journal that I’ve dubbed My Forest Journey.  Because sometimes I can’t see the forest for the trees.  This brings my grand total to twelve sites (counting the two on Blogger).

9-26-12:

Today I merged My Forest Journey with Snow Chronicles, bringing my total to eleven sites.