On Blogging

I am confused by this blogging thing. Should it be like a journal or a play by play of my book, or something else entirely? I don’t really know. My marketing consultant, Gretta Dare from the Status Agency, suggested that each entry be a synopsis of a chapter from my book. I thought this was a great idea and gave me at least a direction to aim for. In practice, it was more difficult. Having learned to synthesize my thoughts in college, the entry came to about one paragraph. That’s not enough for a blog entry, I think. Then when I first wrote it, I said the same exact thing three different ways in three different, and wordy, sentences, and smattered them throughout my measly paragraph. When I read it back to myself I was confused and my head was spinning.

Time and space are a wondrous thing for me. I let my paragraph lie for a time, in my laptop, and gave it some time and space. When I finally went back to it, its flaws horrified me. Especially the sparseness. I cut and pasted and deleted, until finally it made more sense. I added to it a bit. Here it is:

In my twenties, I did an exercise with my counselor in which I wrote down my first three memories. For me, the senses play a big part in my first memories. Tactile sensations, color, sounds, and strong feelings or circumstances stand out. In each memory during the original exercise, the color red stood out, particularly. In Chapter One of Finding Elizabeth, I relate the circumstances of my adoption and my first memories from infancy through age three. Here, the memories are a combination of what I was told growing up by both of my parents and what I actually remember myself. Relevant photos punctuate this chapter.

My parents took me with them to live in Innsbruck, Austria when I was two and a half. We lived there and traveled from there for about six months. This chapter of my book recalls memories from Innsbruck, London, England and Italy. After our European tour, we moved to Denver, Colorado where it was found that I had pneumonia and a ruptured eardrum. I was hospitalized for two weeks until my mother affirmed that she was a nurse, after all, and she could care for me better at home. This was soon after I experienced trauma at the hands of a nurse in the adult ward of the hospital. There was no pediatric unit there.

I travel to L.A. with my mom to visit my Grandma. Back home in Denver, we get a visit from my uncle. Finally, there is a trip to Kansas City with my dad where I get into some trouble.

I hope you like my first post and are at least intrigued. It’s taken a lot to put myself out here in the world and to tell the truth about it all. I believe that it’s been worth it. I hope you do, too.

Blogger’s Note: I plan to post here about every two weeks. While I post, I am working on my book also. I choose this pace to post because I know for sure that it is something that I can keep up with. Enjoy!

#BloggerGirl