Why Blog and Hats Off Corner Welcomes Stephen Tremp

Why I Blog
by 
C. Lee McKenzie


Photo SourceI started blogging because my publisher told me to, and back then I did everything my publisher told me to do. The interesting thing that happened is this: I liked it. So why?

I learned a lot of new stuff for one thing, and that's always a motivator for me. I had to figure out which program to set my blog up on, and then how to use it. Blogger worked for me because it didn't have a long learning curve. I quickly     learned where the undo button was, so what could go wrong?


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I quickly learned that, too. A lot could go wrong if I didn't have content that was of value. What was valuable content anyway? I wasn't a marketing guru. I didn't have hot tips for writers. What was my platform? What was a platform? See? I had a lot to learn, so I kept going.

Then I discovered things like Awards and Hops and Groups. Yay! Now I was on a roll because more than the family cat was reading what I posted.

Then just as I had this blogging thing down, I burned out. Yep. Dry as a summer hill in California, and it happened overnight. I was quitting. I was burrowing into my writer's cave and blowing off all this blogging business.

So why didn't I? Why did I take a break and return? Here's one reason: I missed the contact with the people I'd connected with. I missed knowing when they had new releases or rejections or a great new WIP. 

Was there any other reason? I thought about that and decided that without blogging I might have continued to read within my preferred genres. I wouldn't have sampled books that I usually passed up. Because I was curious about what writer friends had created and I wanted to support their work, I found myself reading much more widely. 

And that thing about showing up to the blank page? Well, blogging taught me a lot about doing that every single day.   

So why blog? I guess those are three compelling reasons for me. 


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Here are the followers who won books in this month's Back to School Special Offer. 
I had this idea to share books I'd read, enjoyed and reviewed with people on my Mailing List. I love to recycle, but reuse is even better. So congrats to: Bish Denham gets my ARC of The Secret Files of Fairday MorrowBeverly Stowe McClure gets my signed copy of WovenL.L. gets my signed copy of Shooting Kabul. 

I'll need your snail mail people, so email me that and I'll send your books on their way!  I hope you enjoy these stories as much as I did.

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Hats Off Corner Welcomes Stephen Tremp


Stephen Tremp writes speculative fiction and his fourth novel, 
Salem’s Daughters, 
is supernatural thriller. 

A four hundred year old evil is unleashed when souls of the daughters of those killed during the Salem Witch Trials find a new generation of people to murder at a popular modern-day bed and breakfast.

For a full synopsis and to pre-order a copy of Salem’s Daughters for $2.99 (price goes up to $4.99 soon after release) Click Here.

Visit Stephen at his BLOG.


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Quote for the Day: "The different and the novel are sweet, but regularity and repetition are also teachers." Poet Mary Oliver

Why do you blog? Ever think of giving up? Does Salem's Daughters look interesting?Beware the White Rabbit (Anthology: They Call Me Alice), Leap Books, Summer '15
Sliding on the Edge, C. Lee McKenzie, WestSide Books, Spring '09
The Princess of Las Pulgas, WestSide Books, Fall '10
The First Time, Fall '11 (Anthology story: Premeditated Cat)
Alligators Overhead, Outskirts Press, Fall '12
Two and Twenty Dark Tales (Anthology story: Into the Sea of Dew