by Peter Leavell, @PeterLeavell
When I first heard the term ‘blog,’ I looked it up on Urban Dictionary. The four letter word had all the qualifications for an awful meaning. Thankfully, the search ended happily, unlike many of the other new words I have to look up.
However, I still can’t help thinking of ‘blog’ as something that has to do with an upset stomach. (I think I’m going to….blog…sorry)
Blogging has come into question. Do writers still need to blog? For goodness sake, the medium of the blog is, what, 20 years old now? In computer years that’s around 140.
The answer is YES. Ahem, I mean yes (with emphasis).
According to the latest blogging numbers, 409 million people read blogs each month. That’s a lot. To change up a history maxim, one blog reader is a blessing, 1 million readers is a statistic. And in the writing world, if you’re part of a statistic that gets noticed, you get contracts and speaking engagements.
No, blogs aren’t going away. And they shouldn’t. They’re a little bit of your personality stamped into the world, unlike magazines or social media posts. A blog offers nuggets of truth and bits of folksy wisdom that you would get from someone like Earl at the grocery store or Susan at the Five-and-Dime. It’s where a person can create a niche and readership, and if your niche is for one person who happens to be their mother, or one million people who are there to simply argue, the blog is a bit of free speech that helps the world have interesting conversations.
Yes, blog. Enjoy yourself. Keep your writing skills up, thinking skills sharpened, and community building skills at the forefront of your mind. Because if you’re not offering your material, people are reading someone else’s. And good heavens, the internet is full enough of new words that have nefarious meanings. So add something wholesome we can all enjoy without getting an upset stomach and blog.
Philip Anderson keeps his past close to the vest. Haunted by the murder of his parents as they traveled West in their covered wagon, his many unanswered questions about that night still torment him.
His only desire is to live quietly on his homestead and raise horses. He meets Anna, a beautiful young woman with secrets of her own. Falling in love was not part of his plan. Can Philip tell her how he feels before it’s too late?
With Anna a pawn in the corrupt schemes brewing in the nearby Dakota town, Philip is forced to become a reluctant gunslinger. Will Philip’s uncannily trained horses and unsurpassed sharpshooting skills help him free Anna and find out what really happened to his family in the wilderness?
Peter Leavell, a 2007/2020 graduate of Boise State University with a degree in history and a MA in English Literature, was the 2011 winner of Christian Writers Guild’s Operation First Novel contest, and 2013 Christian Retailing’s Best award for First-Time Author, along with multiple other awards. An author, blogger, teacher, ghostwriter, jogger, biker, husband and father, Peter and his family live in Boise, Idaho. Learn more about Peter’s books, research, and family adventures at www.peterleavell.com