Happy Anniversary Writer's Crate!

From Cheryl's Writing Crate

It's with great appreciation and joy that I write these words--"Happy Anniversary Writer's Crate"!  In essence I'm wishing both myself (a little pat on the back never hurts every now and again) and my inspiring blogging partner, Kate, these anniversary wishes, but for those of you who have followed us on this insightful, thought-provoking and above all enjoyable one-year blogging milestone, it's your anniversary as well!

I can still remember the very day that Kate and I almost "fell into" this idea to blog.  We were returning home from one of our infamous 'Literary Adventures' or LA's as we like to refer to them, and the conversation was bouncing back and forth to different authors we were reading, the exciting new authors we were meeting (hey, we take our LA's very seriously!), our goals of both writing and publishing our own earth-shattering novels (which we will both do!), and one of our common loves in life--our dogs.  

I believe I was sharing my housebreaking woes when the discussion turned to dogs because my compassionate daughter who now lives in NYC wanted to make sure a sweet, utterly adorable, cuddly, did I mention adorable, Pomeranian puppy born to a litter from someone she worked with would find a loving home.  Need I say more, that sweet puppy, Gracie, came to join our family of 10, well really 11, because our 9th child is our black lab, Molly, who is now 10 years old.  So Kate, also an avid dog lover with two dogs of her own and I started discussing the crating process for housebreaking puppies and just like that, a light bulb moment occurred and we began chuckling that if we as writers had a crate to snuggle into when we wanted to get some serious writing done, we'd be authors in no time.  

And with that, The Writer's Crate blog idea was born and after a few short months of researching how to start a blog from scratch we launched our first post, written by Kate, on Labor Day in 2012.  My first post followed several days later and since that very first week, both Kate and I are proud to say we have not missed a single post!    Kate posts every Monday, and I post every Thursday.  Looking back over the past year, the feeling of accomplishment is one I don't take lightly.  Both Kate and I have had some personal struggles during our first year of blogging, but truthfully, if it weren't for either of our intense passion (Kate, I hope it was alright to speak on your behalf on this topic :) ) and love of writing, I don't think we would've coped as well as we have.

My "new vision" for my Writer's Crate

I hope you all had a chance to read Kate's anniversary blog post, because not only was it heartfelt, but it was chock full of great tips on blogging.  I want to take a moment to thank you, Kate, for being such a terrific blogging partner.  You have helped make this journey not only fun, but such a great learning experience as well.  I look forward  to each and every post of yours and am continually inspired by your thoughts.

One of my favorite posts this past year was 7 Tips on Making Your Blog a Positive Experience.  One of the benefits of blogging is having published content to re read and review.  That, of course, is just one of many pluses of starting and keeping a blog so I invite you to continue this journey with Kate and I so you can read about  the many other benefits that we are eager to share with you.

Have you ever dreamed of starting your own blog?  What's stopping you?