Chapter 89: Ok, I'm Not Going Away After All

Stay tuned. I've decided not to let this blog get lost in my back pocket and crinkled up in the wash, after all. Coming soon: my picks for the 2011 baseball season. But first, some reader participation.

In the past couple days, I've added followers, despite my most recent post saying I'm going on hiatus. I can only imagine it's because readers have found The Elephant's Bookshelf interesting and wonder what else I might have to say. Since the previous post, I also took the plunge and bought a Website address, MWSinclair.com, which is still being developed but which will serve as my journalism and fiction-writing home, and I'll link to both blogs there.

For those who are relatively new, the Coffee Cup was designed to be undesigned. Slightly less vaguely, I created it to be a place where I might ruminate over my morning cup of coffee. In fact, check out this interview I did with Victoria Dixon who blogs at Ron Empress, to see what I intended for this blog and the Elephant's Bookshelf.

And feel free to suggest anything you'd like to see here or on the Bookshelf. I'm a full-time writer, after all, which means I have an opinion on things, and sometimes I even share them.

Welcome back!

Chapter 88: A Blog on Hold

I've decided that rather than feel guilty about not writing much of anything for this blog, I'll press pause. At some point, I'm sure the little icon/screensaver will start moving around, or something of that nature, but eventually I'll shake things around again and refill my coffee cup.

By no stretch of the imagination, however, am I giving up blogging. I'm not as active as I want to be at The Elephant's Bookshelf, but it's kinda where I live in terms of blogging these days. When I post comments on other blogs, that's the URL I type in. When I tell people about where I blog, that's the site I point them to. You can reach me there at elephantsbookshelf@gmail.com. And if you'd like to continue to read what I have to say about reading, writing, and writers, then I would love to see you there.

Indeed, come. Maybe we can chat over a cup of coffee.

Chapter 83.2: Re-Emerging or Just Shifting?

It has been too long since I posted anything other than a new poll question here. Indeed, it used to be unusual for me to go two weeks between published posts much less the two months it has been.

Those who know me know why that's happened, and while I have shifted the dexterity in my hands to diapering the girls, my fingers and my mind remain quite able to type and think. Ok, the fingers still work, the brain's not always there without enough caffeine to fuel it. This is my coffee cup, after all.

As July ebbs in the rain-drenched streets of New York and New Jersey, I pledge to post more often in August — both here and at The Elephant's Bookshelf, where I've posted a tad more regularly. I know these posts won't come frequently, but they will occur. But I've got a first novel to re-re-revise and a new novel to continue writing. After all, these characters in my soul don't stop bugging me when I'm not writing about them.

Chapter 82.5: Spring Cleaning

It's cold and breezy still, but the sun is shining and my mood isn't as dark as it was last night. Amazing what a couple of sleeping babies and cups of coffee can do to a person.

Anyway, I have had a lot of things on my mind lately, one of the least of which is this blog, which I cherish but have been neglecting lately. So I decided to give it a little bit of a makeover — nothing too earth shattering (there really are not many template choices when one has a free blog) — and mark a milestone.

Recently, I crossed over the 500 post mark. I'm not quite sure which one it was (though I'm thinking it might have to do with dirty diapers). But since I have a few posts in the hopper and others that are actually notes for myself (who knows what evil lurks in the post lists of man...), it's possible that this one is #500.

I've also added a followers list. I don't expect too many, but as that little woman in the Poltergeist movie said: "All are welcome. All are welcome."

In the grand scheme of things, 500 blog posts is not much of an accomplishment. I may, however, try to do something to mark my five-year "blogoversary," which is a few months away.

Anyway, enjoy your weekend. There's a lot of work still to do.

Chapter 80.5: It Has Begun

Ordinarily, this would be something I'd post on the Elephant's Bookshelf, but I think it qualifies as worth noting here at my Coffee Cup, too. Plus, my last post there was about National Novel Writing Month, anyway, so I'm going to share the wealth. (Or should that be "redistribute the wealth"?)

For all those who aren't aware, NaNo WriMo has begun. Throughout this thirty-day month, tens of thousands of masochists all around the world will work on new novels (well, even that isn't an ironclad rule; I've heard of one writer who plans to do fifty 1,000 word short stories. Now that's masochism!) I've already begun and posted about 740 words to my tally, and I'll add more today. The morning is young!

And I even have some energy yet to share this news with all of you. So, if you're a fellow Wrimo, feel free to say hi here or at the Elephant's Bookshelf. I'd love to hear from you (I'm "Elephantguy" in Wrimo land), but I suspect you're dedicating your writing to your actual book. Good luck everyone. It's time for coffee.