Keeping my blog going is #2 on my list of retirement activities. Why keep blogging? Good question.

My best answer is more excuse than justification. I enjoy writing. Blogging feels more constructive than journaling and is a lot easier than knocking out another novel.

This blog and my reasons for keeping it have often changed. Initially, the Crotchety Old Man bitched about things that pissed me off. When my anger issues proved insufficient to keep it going, I expanded to other topics.

I wrote a memoir (including many blog posts), joined a writing group, and penned my first novel. I confess to believing my contract and advance were equivalent to winning the lottery. Millions of fans would flock to my web site to buy my books and learn more about me.

Bwahahahaha!

The fantasy persisted through four more novels. Success was waiting around the corner. Readers just needed time to find me. Maintaining a presence through my blog and guest posts on other blogs was a means toward that end.

Marketing professionals and successful authors say “serious” writers should give equal time to writing and marketing. I never did. Writing is fun, but marketing is hard work. A frenzy of promotional activity around each new release didn’t make much difference and a more sustained campaign was more work than I wanted to do.

Then life got in the way. Random posts replaced a regular schedule. The focus shifted from books and writing to other aspects of my life.

My blog has been around since 2008. That’s unusual. Few blogs survive more than 100 days. Whether I’ll write another novel or not remains to be seen. Never say never. Either way, I want to keep the blog going.

To be honest, I’m in way over my head and have been from the start. The web site has functionality and compatibility issues I don’t understand and haven’t bothered to research. I also need to explore the capabilities of my paid subscriptions to WordPress and Flywheel.

Figuring out what’s possible and what I want to do will take time. Until then, I’m soft-committing to a new post every Monday and Thursday. As always, I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for stopping by!