HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BLOG!

One year old today! Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday you crabbit old bat... I know it doesn't scan, but we're on HOLIDAY today. So, no advice, no nagging, just some traditional party things for you:

1. A speech. [Sorry.]
2. An activity. [Hooray.]
   
3. A gift. [Double hooray.]
   
4. A request. [Please say yes.]
   

THE SPEECH
For me, last year was The Year of the Blog. On Jan 10th, I rose from a sleepless night of extreme crabbitness, headed straight for my desk and spontaneously started a blog, without knowing what on earth I was doing or where it would lead. I never dreamt it would have led to making so many new friends, and "meeting" so many hard-working writers dedicated to improving their writing for publication. I certainly had no idea that it would take so much of my time nor that I would enjoy it so much. And I absolutely had no intention of starting an actual business from it, as I ended up doing eleven months later with my writing consultancy, Pen2Publication. [Going very well, thank you very much! I'm delighted to have been able to set several clients on their way to much improved WIPs already, and I feel very honoured that so many are trusting me to do so.]

The support of all you blog-readers has kept me inspired; you've enabled a real community to grow up here; and so many of you have contributed your own wisdom and experiences in the comment sections. This blog is far more than me: it's is all of you, too. I'd love to mention you all but I'll just take some examples from most recent commenters. I've loved the unstoppable book-loving enthusiasm and knowledge of Catherine Hughes; the industry uber-wisdom of Jane Smith and the US perspective from Lynn Price; the curmudgeonely acerbity of the "anonymous Proe", and the generous comments of so many of you all over the world. I've valued comments from Aussies, such as Catdownunder and Ebony; African viewpoints from readers such as Lauri in Botswana and Amanda in South Africa; Harry in Bulgaria; Miriam in Israel; lots of Americans (too many to mention but I'll scratch the surface with two Jos and two Sarahs); and in the UK, again so many of you, including Elen, Mary, Kate, Thomas, the Davids, more Sarahs; and then there was my first  blog baby, Marsha Moore; and all the great Twitterers, Helen, Helena, Flixtonmum, Simon, Marshall, Lacer, and others; and the self-publishers who are serious about the quality of their writing, more than the simple fact of having their name on a cover: Dan and Marc, hats off to you. I mustn't forget the young ones, too - watch out for Iffath and, to see a young book-loving blogger in action, hop over to her place when she puts a link to it below, as I'm sure she will! And there was the wonderful Isla, who won the young writers' comp I arranged and who emailed me so sparkily in the following weeks. Oh gosh, there are so many more of you. I know I've left tons of you out but please realise that I am grateful to each and every one of you who has commented, even when you've disagreed with me. [How dare you?] If you've lurked and not commented, I'm glad you're there, too - lurk as long as you like!

In short - thank you all for your company, your support, your wisdom and your humour.

THE ACTIVITY - blog-puffing
Here's what to do.

1. In a comment below, briefly advertise your blog or on-line presence. NB: this must be for your writing, not selling any other product. I will remove any comment which seems to violate the spirit of this activity, which is about allowing writers and readers to meet.
   
2. Note the word "briefly". Your blurb is unlikely to be read if it's waffly or boring. You are selling yourself, remember, and readers will choose whom to visit. 
3. If you can include a clickable link, do. But if you can't, don't worry: just include the full URL.
4. If you are on Twitter, give your Twitter name. Mine is @nicolamorgan
5. Then visit some of the blogs that you will find mentioned here and leave comments on them. Please visit at least 4 during the next 48 hours.If you have time for lots more, fabulous! Try to visit some you haven't seen before.
   
6. Please keep returning here during the day to find more ideas. 
7. Keep checking your own blogs during the day, so that you can respond to comments that people leave there. Successful blogging is active blogging.
   
8. If you don't have a blog where people can leave messages, but just a website or online work in another forum, simply make sure that your directions to it are clear and compelling.

THE GIFT

For your amusement, and by regular demand, I bring you three funny stories. You may have read them before, in which case I apologise. Choose from the story of my terrible / amusing event in a coffee shop; or my terrible / amusing experience of an author photo-shoot with boots; or my terrible / amusing experience at Belfast International airport, where my brain caused a security alert.

THE REQUEST

It's confession time. I hope you will be so well-disposed to me on my birthday that you will a) forgive me and b) grant my request. Eeek. See, I foolishly went public with my goal / resolution, which involved a daily word count target of 1500 words until my current novel was finished. I now realise that in this particular year, I simply can't do it, not without killing myself. I'm moving house in the most complicated way imaginable in three months' time and I can't begin to tell you the other things I have to deal with this year. So, pleeeease will you allow me to reduce the target to 1000 words on a writing day? I may well do more on some days, but I'm going to get twisted in guilt if I keep missing targets. Pretty please? I won't be lazing around the rest of the time - actually, I'll be doing a lot of mental planning for that novel, but if I make myself write it too fast, it won't be good enough. And you wouldn't want me to write a rubbish book, would you?

Now, let the party commence!