The great blog blowoff

In 14 months of blogging here each weekday, I’ve never skipped a post without previous warning or explanation.

Yesterday was my first time, so thanks for making it a gentle yet pleasurable experience.

I’m traveling for the day job, and though I thought I could keep up with the blog during downtime, I forgot there is no downtime in public relations (not that I’m complaining about late nights of free food and wine tasting, but still). I’ll be back home soon, and promise to return to the regular blog schedule in a day or so.

I actually wasn’t sure what to expect of my first time blowing off the blog. Would the police drag me out of the conference and take away all my free water bottles, or would my mom be the only one to notice my absence? 

The cops didn’t show, which is disappointing since I had plans for those handcuffs. I’m not sure if my mom noticed the missing post, but a good many readers seemed to. If you emailed or posted on my Facebook wall or nudged me on Twitter or shook your fist at me under the bathroom stall at the conference, I want to thank you for missing me. You’re too kind.

Feeling guilty about the whole thing, I set my alarm to get up early this morning and write a meaningful post.

Then I decided sleep was more meaningful. 

Instead of being awakened by an alarm or by the lusty nuzzle of a Brazilian boxer-brief model, I woke to the cheerful “ding” of my iPhone alerting me to an incoming message. I want to share it not because it strokes my ego, but because it’s a good reminder for any author/blogger that THIS is why we do what we do:

Hi Tawna,

My name's XXX, and I'm an 18 y/o writer and reader. I stumbled upon your blog a few months ago with links from Kiersten White, but it wasn't until this past week that I realized—"hey, this woman's hilarious!" As I do whenever I like a blog, I went through and read the entire backlog of entries on Monday (being a fast reader helps). When I started reading, I had no interest in buying Making Waves because I never read romantic comedy, let alone romance, but as the entries passed, I realized how much I enjoyed your humor and your voice. Look at that—social networking does sell books!

Anyway, I wanted to email you to tell you how helpful you've been. Though it's hidden under a friendly tone and raunchy jokes, there's a lot of good advice in your entries. I revisit the show-don't-tell post all the time, and basically anything is good for a laugh or a reminder to persevere. I'm crossing my fingers that you'll be at a writing event in XXX this summer, as that's where I live, so I can thank you in person.

As a sidenote, the writer’s name isn’t XXX and she doesn’t reside in a town by that name, though either of those things would be extraordinarily cool.

As was that message. Thank you so much to the writer for making my morning.

Since I doubt many of you have a fervent desire to read my entire backlog of posts, it’s worth pointing out that I’ve categorized past entries by topic. The label titled “popular posts” contains the ones that seemed to resonate most with people (including the Show-Don’t-Tell post the letter writer mentioned). In the event that I fail to show on some other morning and you have an urgent need for inappropriate humor or musings about writing, that’s a good place to start.

Thanks so much to all of you for reading this blog, and for reminding me every day in a multitude of ways why I show up here and do this. 

Don’t forget the handcuffs next time though, OK?