Are you a Schmoozer?

On Tuesday evening, we had our monthly New Mexico SCBWI chapter schmooze. I almost never miss. We have the BEST Schmooze Coordinator, Brian Herrera - or as we lovingly call him The Schmoozinator!

I first met Brian two years ago - hmm, or was it three April's ago? - at our annual NM Handsprings SCBWI conference (go to the link for this year's Handsprings with some FAB editors/agents/art director in October) and we ended up at the same table. Brian started writing for children and teens fairly recently, but he's a multi-published professor in the Theatre Dept at UNM, and has been on the road with his one-act play, I WAS THE VOICE OF DEMOCRACY - a terrific one-man show! My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed it! (Go to this link for future performances - he'll be in Chicago in August!). 

Brian has become a warm and supportive writer friend of mine and I'm excited about the YA novel he's working on - and about which I just *have this feeling* will one day be well-published and receive tons of awards. He's just that kind of talented!

Every month we have a great topic for our schmoozes and it's always a terrific discussion and conversation. Our Schmoozes started to die a bit and with Brian we sometimes have nearly 30 people there now.

"To Blog or Not to Blog - that is the Question!" was our topic this month.
Or you could say
"To Facebook or Not to Facebook"
"To Goodreads or Not to Goodreads"
"To Twitter or Not to Twitter"
"To Google + or Not to Google +"

I personally fell into blogging 5 years ago when it was just getting off the ground. Writers and illustrators were migrating away from MySpace and doin' the blogging thang. I figured I'd better jump in, but wish now that I'd waited and figured it out. Hopefully that doesn't matter so much anymore.

Our discussion made me think about why I Blog/Facebook/Goodreads/Occassionally Twitter - although my brain starts contorting into strange shapes and I feel screams of panic coming on after about 10 minutes of trying to keep track of conversations on Twitter.

Reason #1: Writing is a lonely, solitary occupation. I've been at it for more years than I care to count, and even though I'm actually pretty shy and LOVE being a homebody, I do like talking and reading about the craft of writing and publishing VERY MUCH and being a part of the community, and getting inspired by all of you - and know what's going on with other writers around the country.

Reason #2: I'd parted ways with my agent of 10 years (amicably and I will always love her) and I found myself panicked that I would ever get another agent or sell another book. Especially with the way the children's and teen literature has been changing the past few years. I used blogging in a very systematic, purposeful way to find and research and compare literary agents. I made up a huge list, emailed other writers, and finally found my PERFECT MATCH THAT I HOPE WILL BE FOREVER!!!!

So how did YOU fall into blogging? Do you still like it? Will you continue? Would you like to see it change in any way?

At one point I was trying to keep up with hundreds of bloggers/blogs who posted daily and I admit I got burned out. With all the deadlines the past two years and book launches, I read my favorites now, only comment occasionally, but always hope to do better! Lots of *KimberleyBloggerFail* going on in 2010 and 2011.

I sorta wish I could shout out to everyone: Please only post once or twice a week so I can keep up!!!!!!!!!

Tell me what you think!