Katy McKenna Raymond  
Personal blog of christian writer Katy McKenna Raymond in Kansas City, Missouri

Personal blog of christian
writer & fallible mom
Katy McKenna Raymond
in Kansas City, Missouri


Katy is represented by
Greg Johnson at
WordServe Literary

Read more Katy at
LateBoomer.net

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The Beauty Of Budding Bloggers

My lovely friend Mary DeMuth (whose book “Pioneer Parenting” we had a great time discussing here on fallible) is hosting the current Carnival of Beauty. Our topic is “The Beauty of Blogging.”

I couldn’t resist adding adding my two dollars worth. Okay, you caught me. Two cents worth. Yeah, we’re still cutting back!  :)

Blogging doesn’t sound very beautiful on the surface, does it? It’s kind of like when I told my mother years ago that we’d enrolled my kids in Maranatha Academy.

“Mara-WHAT?” she asked. “How am I going to live THIS down?”

She had a point. Some words are probably best left unsaid, if only because they sound so, well…you know.

So about the time my third kid was beginning his illustrious high school career at Maranatha (which as some of you will know is Greek for “Come, Lord Jesus!”—an action we implored Him to take before we plunked down that high tuition), I became a blogger.

This was nearly six years ago, before the word blogger was common among men, before the giants among bloggers began to roam the earth, back when you could still build a decent readership if only because there were so few of us around.

“You’re a WHAT?” my mother asked. “I can’t believe it. How will I explain this to my friends?”

She worked it out. She called me a “blobber,” and no one who knew me very well argued with her.

But who knew that a budding blobber, a middle-aged chick seeking an outlet for a bunch of stuff she still wanted to say, would be caught up among some of the most beautiful women (and men, of course…) in the known cybersphere?

Honestly, blogging started (for me) as a way to relieve my poor husband from a small measure of his listening duties. He is a dedicated man, but everyone’s read those scary stats about how many words a woman has to put out there every 24 hours. Let’s just say I’m not your average woman, either. Something had to give or the man wouldn’t have been able to bear up under the strain.

The beauty of blogging is that it gives us a place to bloom. If we’re writers, or aspiring writers, we try our hands at techniques, testing them on patient readers who challenge us to think it through a bit more deeply, convey it with more finesse. If we’re readers, we marvel at the growth, change, and life experience that our favorite bloggers gain over the weeks and months.

To me, the most beautiful thing about blogging is the free exchange of comments. Commenters build community. And while I didn’t begin blogging imagining that I’d make a whole bunch of new friends, that is exactly what’s happened.

I’m still a budding blogger. And a budding author. I don’t think I’d have even begun to attempt writing a novel without all the encouragement I’ve received through blogging. It’s a beautiful thing.

Almost as beautiful as Maranatha.

Posted by Katy on 07/25/06 at 12:57 PM
Fallible Comments...
  1. It's a beautiful thing indeed, and you are a beautiful blobber. Er, blogger.

    xo
    Posted by Jeanne Damoff  on  07/25/06  at  03:09 PM
  2. And Katy, if you hadn't become a blobber, I would not have received that encouraging email that helped me think through my dad's health issues. Reading how you've been there for your mom through thick 'n thin has been so encouraging. Educational and funny at times, too. Thanks for using your gift for gab to weave stories we'll all remember.

    I'd love to get my hands on those stats about a woman's need to chatter. No wonder my jaws are sore.
    Posted by Bonnie  on  07/26/06  at  03:07 AM
  3. "Blobber" So funny! It reminds me of my youngest, who is now 14--back when he was maybe--oh--9 years old...he called the buoy's on our boat--"Boobies." That is, until, one day his best friend informed him rather loudly, and will gut laughter...that it is not "Boobies..." IT is BUOY's!

    Whatever this thing we do is--is called.....it IS a thing of beauty in our lives! Thanks for reminding us!

    Diane
    Posted by Diane  on  07/26/06  at  11:54 AM
  4. "a place to bloom" I really like that description. I started my blog to enter into the discipline of writing, and I really have seen my writing get better (and easier, sometimes, but a bit harder now that the wealth of stored topics has already been tackled).
    Posted by Jennifer, Snapshot  on  07/26/06  at  03:31 PM
  5. A budding blobber blooming in blogdom. LOL!
    Posted by Michelle  on  07/26/06  at  06:25 PM
  6. I also have an astronomically high word count. And three young daughters with even higher ones. Jibber jabber all day long. (My poor husband.) Perhaps I ought to get the girls into blogging...
    Posted by Erin  on  07/26/06  at  07:15 PM
  7. Don't ever quit blobbing. I have tried it myself and it is liberating.
    I think you should try to write a novel - your readers agree that you are good at it.
    And what's the worst that could happen? Some publishing company doesn't agree with us?
    I am a Mom, Wife and now BreadWinner. I have facing eviction because I can't keep our bills paid. Husband is recently disabled. And he is not doing so well.
    He is a veteran and his dad just died on the 4th of July.
    You can only imagine what our household conversations are like. I like to read him some of your blobs. It keeps us smiling.
    So please, keep up the good work. And thanks...from my family to yours.
    Bren
    Posted by Brenda  on  07/26/06  at  11:21 PM
  8. I am a blobber, but it has nothing to do with my cyber activities! Hee hee. Well, I am a veritable ant in the world of blogging but it s great and I am so excited everytime I get a meaningful comment or return visit.
    Posted by Susanna  on  07/27/06  at  10:58 AM
  9. Thank you all for the encouraging, kind, and hilarious (boobies!) comments. And to the new readers of fallible: Welcome!
    Posted by Katy  on  07/28/06  at  12:21 PM
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    Posted by 一卡通  on  08/24/06  at  09:33 AM
  11. I think The beauty of innocence can only pertain to a child. Otherwise (it seems to me) that you have not allowed yourself to be educated in certain things.
    Innocence of beauty? I fail to see how the two related. Beauty is beauty and innocence is innocence.
    Posted by Online fire science  on  09/12/09  at  03:53 AM
    12. Page 1 of 1 pages
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