Reading Time: 2 minutes

Here we are, halfway through the year, and I need to account for myself.

I’ve posted only intermittently over the past 20 weeks. Partly that was because of the state of the world. I worked on projects, both personal and professional, that interfered with a three-days-a-week deadline. I was also dealing with a lack of inspiration and material.

But mostly, it was time. It was a springtime of preparation for and recovery from an extended family reunion. It involved the logistics and adapt-improvise-overcome thinking of a complex military campaign. This is fodder for the sort of thing I wrote about in my columns, so there’s promise here for new material if I can ever internalize and translate it.

A large part of my absence was the conflict between the creative and promotional sides of blogging and writing. My time as a writer is limited. Do I want to spend it creating, or cross-promoting and commenting and otherwise participating in the communities of writers, readers, and bloggers? Because, I have learned, if you don’t give, you don’t get. Even before social media, the successful writers were out there mixing and mingling and corresponding with their peers and other influencers.

Observations: Readership drops off quickly and dramatically when I fail to post regularly. Also, missing a deadline once makes it much easier to do so again. Deadlines stimulate the creative side. That comes from a lifetime of daily newspaper work.

Interaction: Interesting. After all my promotion of “Inventions that Changed History,” no one asked me about it. A follow-up post is in order.

Professional development: Sat in on some virtuual writer’s conferences by Publisher’s Weekly and the Mark Twain House.

Next week: Try to build back to three posts a week. Make progress on a speech, complete a fundraising brochure, bring a journal up to date, and move “Margery” toward completion.

In case you missed it …