Resting on my writer’s shelf are twelve manuscripts which I expect to turn into a children’s picture book series. These books will be for little ones in the early stages of reading. As they decipher the mystery of the printed pages of my books, young readers will be introduced to wonderful visions of playing, learning, creating, and, most of all, feeling worthy of love.

As I posted last week’s blog post, FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH, I knew my next writing would be a personal letter to you, my readers. I want to let you know that I am changing my focus and direction as a writer. With this new and challenging endeavor that needs my attention, I cannot continue to produce a new blog post each week.

Since my first post some ten months ago, I have shared with you forty-four of my writings. I included essays hoping to cause you to reflect. Or, on the other hand, maybe you ran across one of my funny little stories that made you laugh. I hope so! We all need a good laugh now and then!

A number of you have told me a particular poem or lyric touched your heart. I think the most viewed lyric was the country music one FOREVER IS SUCH A LONG TIME. Well, I told you from the very beginning that I was going to post in a number of different genres: that one surely corroborates what I said!

One of my faithful readers that I see regularly told me some of my posts made her laugh and some made her cry but that she still loved them all! “I’ve kept ’em all!” she said to me, as she scrolled back through her phone messages to prove it!

Ten months ago I determined that I wanted to get what I have been writing for a number of years out of my scrapbook and into a place where they could be viewed publicly. I had known a little about WordPress since I followed a blog of a personal Louisville acquaintance who wrote reviews of books she was reading. So I knew there was a way to get an individual’s ideas out into the public’s view. I now know that WordPress is a content management platform/personal publishing system used and accessed by millions of people all over the globe.

Coupled with that introduction of several years’ following a WordPress blog, I happened to make a new social contact last year who asked, “Would you be interested in joining a writers’ group?” I did join that group which led me to her suggestion that I should consider getting my writings online using WordPress as she had done. So, that’s what I did.

Challenging myself to posting one writing per week, I spent much time each week pulling out an old text for editing or writing a brand new one. I took or looked for just the right photograph that I thought might catch a prospective reader’s eye. Many times I tried to create a catchy title to tease and cause the reader to question, “Now, I wonder where this story is going?” I tapped words in on the keyboard, deleted some, rearranged some and read and reread the text until it seemed just right. I’m not an English major and I never took a class in creative writing; but I think I always knew I was a writer. Now with a blog on WordPress, other people were calling me a writer, and that felt good!

To those of you who have told me how much you enjoy what I write and that you look forward to my weekly post, thank you very much. You can expect to see reposting of these forty-four writings for the time being. But don’t be surprised if you do find a brand new post from time to time as I never run out of things to write about; it’s just a matter of having the time to go through the creative writing process. Wish me well in my upcoming venture and I’ll let you know when my children’s books find their way onto publicly printed pages.

(Not So) Random Thoughts on a New Pursuit
Connie Carlisle Polley, 2019
conniecarlislepolley.com

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