What Can I Do For You?

Seriously. As a friend, a fan, a reader of my fiction or this blog: what do you want to see me do here?

As I mentioned in my last post, I need to maintain and build my online presence, and at the same time, I have limited amounts of time and energy to spend on blogging.  So I thought I’d ask you please to share with me your wisdom on what you’d like Sense of Adventure to be.

Please understand, all suggestions are gratefully acknowledged and considered. And I won’t necessarily follow them. Even the best. In the end, it’ll be my call. I say that just (based on terrible experiences in the past) to avoid or at least minimize ill feelings. I’m not rejecting you even if I don’t implement your idea.

The fact is, it’ll all help. It’ll all influence me, regardless of specifics. So, please, hit me with your best shot.

I promise not to flinch.

Right now I’m reading a good book called Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk. As you may infer he advocates pursuing one’s passion. Arguably I do that in my professional writing. For online, here are some of the areas I’m passionate about:

• Writing.
• What I’m currently writing.
• Encouraging others to write.
• The craft of writing.
• The How of Writing
• Electronic publishing.
• Helping creators promote and sell their own work.
• My friends.
• My friends’ writing (and other creative projects.)
• Dinosaurs!
• Walking.
• Birding.
• Emma.
• My other critters, TJ and Squeak Kitty.
• Square-foot gardening (sadly neglected this year due to the famed Circumstances Beyond My Control)
• History.
• The pursuit of happiness.
• Personal development.
• What I’m reading/watching. [Added 7-2-10 12:47 PM]
• La Vida Low-Starch and nutrition for diabetics. [Added 7-2-10 12:52 PM]
• A semi-regular feature called Firearms for Fictioneers. Because too many of my brethren and sistren in the fiction-writing game write way above their knowledge levels on the subject, frankly, and it’s a freakin’ embarrassment. [Added 7-2-10 12:49 PM]

There are certain other subjects that, if you know me, you know I can get pretty hoppy about: politics, current events, and what we might call survival-related topics. For various reasons I won’t get into (and in fact feel passionately about themselves), I won’t write about them here. If you’re interested in my views on freedom and politics (why?) you can check out my Tragic Waste blog, which I keep for times I can’t help myself. I also rant occasionally on Twitter, as oughtn’t.

(As for “survival” issues – we may get to those. Probably not here, though. Yet another blog? Or slam it up on TW?)

Regarding topics for this blog, I’ve gotten sound suggestions from people in the past. Some friends read it to keep up on what’s happening in my life. Some good people mention that they follow the blog for the latest adventures of Emma Dog.

Some of my wise friends want me to concentrate on writing: the business, the craft, what I’m writing now, behind-the-scenes looks at how I do that thing I do. Fair enough – and there’s a limit to how much of that I feel I can do.

Also, well, that’s a lot like work too.

I’ll also admit I’m yet to feel comfortable talking too much about actual stories I’m writing. That may be a holdover habit from my fear of asking for help, even when I need it – a habit therefore in need of breaking. Sometimes I find it helps me to talk out when I find myself perplexed about which way to go or how to handle something.

Anyway: there you have some of the things it occurs to me to blog about.

What should I do more of? What less? What aren’t you interested in at all? What would you like to see me cover that isn’t mentioned above at all?

I plan, quite soon, to institute video blogs, as well as podcasts. I’m thinking of recording me reading some of my older stories, just for grins, throw the MP3s online (for free, yes), see how that plays.

One cogent suggestion holds that my video blog should cover dinosaur news. Now, it’s true that for animals that have been dead for 65 millions years (except for, well, birds) they generate a lot of news items today. Blame Science. There’re always new discoveries of bone-beds, news species, new and more complete skeletons of known species. There’re also constant advances being made in applying new scientific techniques to the paleontological evidence. And there are always new theories being floated, some seeming solid, some just gas, IMNSFHO. So, yeah, a surprising amount of news about the damned things drops in my box over the course of a week.

Plus I have a nifty webcam built-into EEEowyn, the very netbook I’m typing this on – the one I use for all my writing, pretty much, especially now my notebook is on the blink and my desktop awaits my chunking in a new power supply.

And, yes, I have … toy dinosaurs. I’ve used them in my readings, with good results and bad. I in fact use them extensively in choreographing my hot dino-on-dino (and dino-on-human, and especially dino-on-human-on-dino, as in riding) action. They will undoubtedly come into prominent play if when I start my dino video blogs.

Then again, I’m not a paleontologist. I’m just some guy who never outgrew his mad childhood crush on dinosaurs, and sees no reason to try at this late date. And who’s, well, writing a game-changing high fantasy novel about dinosaurs; there’s that.

Does anyone want to watch me bubble and blab about extinct life-forms? Hear my half-vast opinions on the latest and greatest theories about what they were and why they aren’t? Want to hear me bring the latest news of cool news species found – or coolness uncovered a bout the species we all know and love?

I want your suggestions. On everything I’ve mentioned.

Please. Hit me with your best shot.

And as always – thanks for reading!

And … my anti-perfectionism meter just ticked over. Screw it: publish it now!

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