GRAND OPENING: Welcome to home row

Everything begins at home. For me, and I hope for you, home is that safe place to fall. It’s where we can be ourselves, find welcome and choose to relax or dig into a project. It’s where we can study, read, take care of personal business, enjoy a meal, watch TV, listen to music,  visit with family and friends or do absolutely nothing.

Do you remember?

Writers my age learned to type clicking away on manual typewriters as we worked our way up to the coveted IBM Selectrics. We began, always, on home row. Many things have changed but I still start every sentence with fingers placed on home row. It too is a place of comfort and familiarity, no matter the particular keyboard.

I come later than do most published authors (even indie-published, like myself) to online blogging. But that too is how I am. I still write checks to pay for groceries. I still buy stamps at the post office. I would much rather be in a consignment shop or antiques store than a mall. We have a land-line phone and I’m the oldster in this marriage who balks at pulling its plug.

A few years ago, my friend Cheryl Bennett of Bloomington, herself a writer and blogger, asked why I didn’t have a blog myself. My excuse was that I have a newspaper column. I’ve come to realize that I communicate regularly with a great number of people who never see my column. And of course, as an author, I hope to continuously connect with new people. Do you know what they call that in marketing terms? Building a platform.

While you won’t see me creating a structure with wood and nails, I’m hoping to construct it with words. With a second book in the works, staying in touch is even more important. So that is my mission, in part. Oh, but there is more.

Ideas for sharing

I want this blog to be your home row as well; a reader’s safe place to fall. I hope to include guest bloggers, reader feedback, ideas, encouragement, updates on upcoming events, observations along the writing path, chats about daily life, funny things that happen, my faith and yours, crafts, newspapering, pets, randomness.

Think of it as an old-fashioned pen-pal exchange. Let’s see what happens. Come along and follow me on this new venture, won’t you? I'd be honored if you'd slip over to the ABOUT DONNA section, scroll down and subscribe. It's free.

PHOTO: I found the flower-pot wreath (actually the pots are lightweight foam) at Cracker Barrel back in the spring and not-so-patiently waited until summer to hang it on the front door. I love wreaths and use them all over the house. 

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