My 7 Links Challenge
by Christine Kling
One of the best parts about cruising is that it feeds my desire to travel and meet new people. Sometimes, as cruisers, we make friends who keep cropping up in our lives. I recently received a note on Facebook from my friends Connie and Dave on Eurisko (Connie has been a guest blogger here at Write on the Water), and they nominated me to participate in The 7 Links Challenge that was started by TripBaseBlog to "to unite bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again."
The rules of this challenge are simple.
Rule #1 You are supposed to go back through all the posts you have written on your blog and find the one that fits best for each of these seven categories. Here are the ones I have chosen:
Your most beautiful post
Morning on the Waccamaw River
Early this morning as I motored out of Broad Creek I watched a Great Blue Heron standing statue-still focusing on a small fish in the shallows. The air was a crisp 48 degrees and the sky was a pale blue still tinged at the horizon with dawn's colors. A little white two-decker ferry passed me and the skipper waved a gloved hand out the wheelhouse window. I reached over and switched on the autopilot, leaned back against the stern rail, took a sip of hot coffee and thought, "Aaahhhh. . ."
Your most popular post
Is print the new vanity press?
As those of you who have followed my blog posts here know, I have recently finished a new novel, and I've been trying to find my way back into the publishing world, trying to navigate all the changes that have taken place in the years I've been off writing. Though I am intrigued by self-publishing, the lure of a print contract pulls strongly at my heart. So, when I finally finished this book, I decided I would need to get myself an agent.
Your most controversial post
Yeah, I know this blog is late. But I was at Stranded Naked. You see, it is Regatta Time in Abaco, and the first party to kick off the week's racing activities was today on Fiddle Cay and it's called the Stranded Naked Party. About 200 boats and 2000 people converge on this little uninhabited island, and they serve free Margaritas and free Cheeseburgers in Paradise.
Your most helpful post
Whenever I have to put on my writer's public persona hat and go out to book signings or conferences or library events, I find that unpublished writers frequently ask me for "my story." They want to get published and they hope that from my story of how I got published, they will discover that one thing that they've been doing wrong all this time.
A post whose success surprised you
The dream vs. reality or only the tough survive
Irene a-coming
Okay, I admit it. I shed real tears yesterday. Yes, I was the wimpy, blubbering girl who decided I didn't want to be tough anymore. I'd had it with this *&%$#^ boat and everything breaking and the incessant rain from tropical systems and the fact that I wasn't getting anywhere near the writing done that I had hoped.
A post you feel didn't get the attention it deserved
I'm sitting here in the cockpit of my boat tied to a little dock in Black Sound in Green Turtle Cay. Off in the distance I can hear music drifting over the top of the island. It's the Gully Roosters playing some Rake and Scrape at Sundowners over in the village at New Plymouth. Here at the dock, it is nothing but me and a billion stars and the soft gurgle as the wind pushes the water under my stern. I walk the decks, checking the dock lines and making sure the boat will ride the tide well during the hours that I sleep.
The post that you are most proud of
We need to change the definition of "rich"
I went to a party Saturday night with other folks from my work. One person I'd never met before asked me how long I had been working for the College. I explained that I had started as an adjunct in 1999, and it was only three years ago that I got the full-time position. She smiled and said that I was so lucky to have joined the rarified ranks of full-timers, and that after this year, I would then have tenure and wasn't that terrific? Tenure means you will have that same job for the rest of your working life. I know I am supposed to think that sounds wonderful. To me, it scares me.
So those are my 7 posts. It was lots of fun going back through all the posts I've written over the past two years. And since I enjoyed this exercise so much, I must move on to –
Rule #2 When finished with selecting your 7 blast-from-the-past blogs, you are then to nominate at least one amazing new blogger to take the challenge. Here is my nominee:
Victoria Allman's blog Following My Stomach is a blend of travel, food and photography that is beyond yummy, and I would really love to see a group of her favorites!
Fair winds!
Christine
Author of CIRCLE OF BONES
Available for Kindle
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