The Case of the Missing Blog Post

My most popular blog is from April 12, 2016. It must have been a Tuesday, because the title is Tuesday's Top Ten(ish): Actors Who Look Like Other Actors. I'm not sure if it's the wacky title or the concept that draws them in. As much as I love celebrities and making fun of myself, I couldn't post twice a week about Hollywood. The only program I watch with any consistency is the CBS Evening News. (#HiNora!) I don't have an inside scoop on any Hollywood happenings. If Hollywood is the bright spot in the universe, Iowa is Tatooine.

The four friends who read this blog and the one person who stumbles in occasionally (hello and welcome!) know I write these posts on the fly. There's no pre-planning involved. I have a pile of drafts, sure, but they're all content I can't publish, a boneyard of detritus no one wants to read. Trust me. No one.

I missed blogging this Saturday because I thought I'd do it when I got home from helping my parents clean up after the derecho. Instead, I came home with the worst headache accompanied by waves of nausea I've ever had. I went to bed early.

Starting next weekend, I'm going to plan my blog posts. Knowing me, that means a title here, a paragraph there, maybe an image to get started, and then fill in the blanks on publication day. In the same article that gave me the idea for planned posts, it mentioned to write for my audience. That means 10% writing about writing and 90% writing about other things. For me, those things are dogs, web design, public? speaking, politics, health, spirituality, and reading. Take away politics (there's enough evil in the world), spirituality (because it's almost religion, but most definitely not religion), and work (I like my job and I'd like to keep it), I'm left with dogs, speaking, my attempts to eat healthy and stay active, and books.

Another caveat from the article I read: No more book reviews. Any judgment we give a book in a public domain, either positive or negative, could turn away new readers. For me, that means giving five stars to a book someone hated. I mostly rate all books I finish a five (and sometimes I choose not to give a star rating). If I finished the book, I learned five stars' worth of something from it, and that's all I care. All this to say, if you're here for the Top Ten Books Edie Read in [insert year here], please accept my apology. 2019 will be the final [insert year here]. My TBR backlog is five years deep, so by the time I read a book, my reviews aren't relevant anyway.

I will continue blogging what I learn, though. You've probably already noticed, I'm horrible about citing my sources when I'm not writing a review. I've long since deleted the email that took me to the article I mentioned above, and now I don't even remember where it was posted. Medium? Quora? Reddit? Can you even post articles on Reddit? Ideas are free, right?

I know, I know. I'll cite my sources. Next time.