Read My Blog, or This Cute Kitten Gets It!!!

While I neglect my blog a lot of the time, sometimes I work really hard on it and think I do a halfway decent job of it. And I'm just as likely to have my blog ignored when I work hard at it as when I give blogging a lick and a promise.

I've tried better content and more comments on other blogs and participating in blog events so there's one more thing left: threats. Read this blog, folks, or the cute kitten in the picture is going to get it.

Now, to give you a little more information about the kitten you are saving by reading this blog post. She was born this past spring to my black cat Gwen, one of a litter of 5 kittens, all female and all tortoiseshell or calico in color. I didn't name any of the kittens at first since I was planning to rehome them. But one of the litter was so sweet and friendly that I have her the name Myfanwy, after Gwen's sister who disappeared last year.

Myfanwy the kitten sadly died suddenly, so I was inspired to name the remaining two kittens in the litter after her--- Second Myfanwy, and the kitten in the picture, Third Myfanwy, who I tend to call 'Ender' lately.

Little Ender and her sister tend to have little eye and respiratory infections a lot in spite of the vet meds I gave them for it. But both girls are friendly and lively little things, a bit undersized compared to their foster brother, Little Stranger (who was nursed by their mama Gwen when I couldn't find which barn cat had given birth to him and abandoned him).

OK, the truth is when I said the kitten's going to 'get it' I was deliberately vague and I predict little Ender won't 'get' anything other than cuddles and, once in a while, a special food treat. This whole blog post was an odd experiment just to see what would happen.

But there's a serious side to the post, which is, it's very frustrating to be a blogger, especially in the world of writing or book related blogs. We work hard on our blogs (sometimes, anyway) but there are no guarantees we are going to get any payoffs in the form of finding an audience for our words.

I think it's a good thing for us frustrated bloggers to work together in our quest to improve our blog stats and build an audience. I've already started a little contest--- see my left sidebar--- to find a few blogs to read and comment on regularly.

I also intend in the new year to look up information on better blogging techniques and blogging about ways to apply them to our blogs. My hope is that even those bloggers who have nearly-unvisited blogs will find something practical they can do to improve their blog's reach.

Like right now. Your blog assignment: post something. Even if you didn't intend to. Even if you normally schedule and plan every post. Just post a little something--- take a picture of YOUR kitten, or puppy, or pet cockroach. Take a picture out your window and bitch about the weather.

Because the one thing I've noticed about the more unvisited blogs I've visited is that the bloggers don't post all that often. In the years I've posted on the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour, I've seen more than one blog on the tour that seemed to post one blog post in each month, for the blog tour. And while a once-a-month schedule might be fine for a traditionally-published, better-known author, when you are trying to build up a bit of a blog following, more posts are better.

Are you going to do your blog 'assignment' today? When you are finished with the blog post, feel free to post a comment here with the link to it. I'd love to read your post!




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http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Catsong: for Niki

This is one of the poems that will be in my new, expanded edition of Where the Opium Cactus Grows. Written in honor of my nine-year-old cat Niki, it is a sijo, a form of Korean poetry somewhat similar to the haiku. It was composed using an ancient Korean sijo as a model/inspiration. 

Catsong: for Niki
a sijo

what if my heart is too long or too tall?
what if my cat is too light or too small?

this calico tabby is mine
no matter that her nails are too sharp

the chill moonlight is mine also
to collect in alabaster jars


 This is one poem of mine with which I am satisfied--- not that I think it perfect or even good, but I feel that it is as good as I can make it, and any time I might spend fiddling around with it would be better spent writing new poems.  Other poems I've written I make endless revisions, sometimes achieving a better poem, sometimes only a new arrangement of the deck chairs on my poetic Titanic. Strangely, in my earliest poems this sense of satisfaction came more easily--- and I continue to be satisfied, for the most part, with these poems still. Today this sense of satisfaction is harder to find.

Note: I am planning to list this poem on Poetry Pantry over at Poets United this Sunday. If you have a blogged poem to share, or just want to read some poems, please visit their site.

The poem will also appear in the revised version of my book, Opium Cactus, on which I am still diligently working.

Last week with my Poetry Pantry poem undercover lesbian I got some valuable feedback which, strangely, I may actually use. Thanks to all my visitors from last week. 

Update: I have indeed shared the poem on Poetry Pantry #143 and am having fun looking at the other poems, seeking treasure. I've already found some, my favorite so far being And Bells Will Ring.

Can People with autism/asperger's become published Fiction Writers?

No matter how much I work on my writing I always have one source of doubt: is it even possible for someone like me--- a person with an autism spectrum disorder (Asperger's)--- to become a published writer?

Yeah, I know there are a lot of writers from the past like Herman Melville who are believed to have had an ASD. But I'm wondering about right here right now--- me.

One of the problems is that people with autism/asperger's have problems with social interactions, understanding the social rules that everyone else knows without being told. So can we learn to write about social interactions?

Actually, when it comes to that part I don't think it's that difficult. But there is another factor. In real life, people I meet don't choose to be my friend---even though I try to be nice to them, and to act like I'm 'normal'. So will people want to be a 'friend' of my writing? I mean, maybe no matter how good I get at it, people will be able to tell it was written by the kind of person that no one wants to be friends with and so they'll want to read something else instead.

And in these days the writer has to be involved with marketing their books and I'd imagine the last thing any publisher wants is to be saddled with some autistic person that isn't personable enough to do well at things like interviews and book signings....

I once tried to get in contact with other folks living with autism/asperger's by posting something on a writing forum, but the admin took offense because my reference to autism wasn't politically correct enough for him since I had the poor taste to joke. Well, I guess it's okay to mention it on my own blog, I've said a lot of stuff I shouldn't here and have had no complaints from Blogger.

I've searched the net for writer's forums for autistic/asperger people but I just find a lot of resources for parents/caregivers of those with autism. Don't know what to do about it really, so those I would whine about it on my blog where at least I'm not bothering anyone....

So--- enough of that. To update my life for anyone that cares--- I'm still working on my NaNoWriMo novel but have stopped to outline using the method in the book "First Draft in 30 Days", don't know how well that will work.

I have mentioned on this blog that I've had two kittens die recently. They were the two kittens out of the current batch that actually liked me enough that they'd purr when I picked them up. Recently, though, someone abandoned two half-grown kittens here and one of them is really friendly. I've named him Chan-ho, after major league pitcher Chan-ho Park, and the other kitten is named Chantho, after the alien in Doctor Who. You know, the one who started every sentence with 'chan' and ended it with 'tho'? As in, 'Chan that was one weird Doctor Who alien tho'.  The picture at the top of this post is of Chan-ho.