Writing is baring the soul, painting with words. Write freely, and discover yourself on the page.
I have that quote from a conference pinned on my wall. I don’t even remember who said it.
But this week, the writing has been hard. My anxiety has pushed back. My attention has been distracted. And my interruptions have been many.
Still, like all writers, I sit and type.
I’m going to try a new thing here on the blog every Friday. In the old days of Social Media I would have tweeted or posted these via Facebook. But I still have a desire to keep this place active and two: I want to provide weekly updates outside of my newsletter. So each Friday I’ll be putting these out… We’ll see how it goes.
Social media comes, and it goes. Heck remember XANGA, MySpace, and AOL Chat? Twitter and Facebook have been the dominate forces the last few years with Instagram and TikTok quickly growing. The problem is TikTok is probably going to be banned in the interest of national security, and Twitter is a complete disaster right now in my opinion. Personally, I miss the old days of twitter. The truth is I have to think about where my audience is at. So for author related things I’ll be on both Instagram and Threads. For friendships I’ll be on Facebook. If I do post on twitter it’s only going to be occasionally and for updates. I’ll decide at the end of August if it’s worth my time staying or leaving completely. Who really knows. But at the moment I don’t enjoy being there anymore.
The podcast is taking a break. I try to take a break every 20 to 25 episodes. And since I just posted episode 47 I’ve decided to take that break now. I have a lot going on in August and it’s a brutal month to try and post and edit. It will be back in September with episode 48 and we’ll run until sometime in December. I love the podcast and it keeps me active in the pop culture world. So it’s not going away. I may even explore the possibility of turning things over to a guest host once or twice just to get some different content. So if you think you might be interested in hosting, let me know.
The main reason I’m taking a break from the podcast is I’m about to shift into Kickstarter fulfillment mode on Aug 1st. I have a lot to get done and need to stay focused. The Kickstarter was definitely the hardest and most challenging marketing I have ever done. It was a learning experience. I’ll be dropping a blog post soon on the top five mistakes I feel I made.
Since I won’t be writing much in August other than on the collaboration project I’m doing with Steve Rzasa and Jason Joyner, I’ve decided to dust off some old stories and touch them up over the next month. I’ll be looking for beta readers, so if you are interested in reading a political thriller set in a VR world where gamers compete on behalf of politicians to see which party dominates certain campaign ad space- let me know.
Right now I’m reading Star Wars: Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn. I haven’t read this series since the early 2000’s. There is so much I had forgotten so I’m glad for the chance to reexplore this trilogy. I’ve also started a reread of the Wheel of Time on Audible. I’m currently about 25% through the Eye of the World. This will be my fourth time through the Wheel of Time and I learn something new each time.
Since Ashoka is kicking off soon I’m doing a binge watch of Star Wars Rebels! I’ve stoked about this one. Thrawn is hands down my favorite Star Wars character so with Heir, Rebels, and Ashoka I’m pretty much Star Wars geeked out for the month.
That’s all I have for this week! I’ll be back next week to provide some updates on writing plans etc. heading into the fall.
I now have two Iggy & Oz books- written back to back finished. Book 4 The Great Ice Cream Truck Heist and Book 5 The Hairless Sasquatch are done. Now I’m about to go chill for a week in the Ozark’s where I plan to read, relax, and be utterly lazy!
On March 10th, 2013, I registered the domain jjjohnsonWrites.com and started blogging/writing. What was my plan? There was no plan! Like most discovery writers I usually make it up as I go along. And to be fair, I was pretty upfront about it: the site is called jjjohnsonwrites– So what exactly am I writing? I’m writing about just whatever pops into my mind and what I feel like writing about for that day.
This, to be sure, is how my site continues today, nearly ten years later.
I’ve remained on WordPress this entire time. And with the exception of the last half of 2021, thru all of 2022, when I struggled with anxiety and some minor depression and needed a break from everything and everyone- I’ve been here blogging.
Many say blogging is dead. I beg to differ. There are a lot of lies about social media spaces, and prettier attractions always come along. Yet, my site has always been consistent, and when I show up here, to spew out random thoughts, so do readers.
Most posts are undoubtedly about writing, reading, being Geeky, and of course the kids. Some post are even on the finer joys of life: like Coffee. Why? Well, these are the things that interest me.
Writing here has become, sort of my life’s work. I Don’t get paid for it; it’s not monetized, nor is this the work most people read. Heck, this year I’ve already published well over 15,000 words of content on this site.
When I started writing here, I had only one child, a five-month-old son, and I had published only one short story: Compulsion. My life was in a very different place, professionally, politically, and spiritually than it is now.
I never planned for this place to be a personal blog or anything. But the reality is that is what it has become, and it probably will always be, just whatever I feel Like writing about because I want to or until my brain runs out of things to say. Which I’m hoping is unlikely anytime soon.
So, here is to another ten years.
Oh, and for kicks- Here is the very first post I put up. 47 Drafts: https://jjjohnsonwrites.com/47-drafts/
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Do you believe in fate/destiny?
Do you believe in Fate / Destiny? That’s the daily question for today. It sort of requiresone to believe in a predetermined sequence of events.
To be honest I sort of hate this idea. Yes, I believe in God, and go to church, and believe He has a plan for my life. But I think I have the freedom to choose to go a different direction. He knows what I’ll choose too.
So, yes, no, it’s tough to answer. On one hand I want to say no. On the other hand my faith persuades me to say yes.
The important thing to remember is to always live your story. We get in this bad habit of letting the world define us. We let the world tell who we are, how we should live, and what we should do.
Regardless, if we believe in fate, destiny, or whatever, we must remember to live life as the hero of our own stories.
That means being the best version of ourselves for everyone
