Farewell to Charms: A Goodbye Post

Hello, lovely readers. It is KGG, here with my farewell blog post. I have been a member of Across the Board since 2014. I know! That's forever ago when I was in my thirties. Since 2014, I have published more books; got an agent, lost an agent, got another agent; and raised my kids. I've also started to put in more volunteer work with Sisters in Crime (I am now the chapter liaison), and picked up more teaching hours at the community college. Sadly, that means I need to let go of my monthly rotation at ATB. 

I've truly enjoyed blogging for ATB. This platform has allowed me to explore topics and ideas that normally would not have had an outlet. 

I thought it would be fun to revisit some of my more interesting posts from the past seven years. In some ways, my writing career has really evolved, and in some ways, it's regressed. So be the life of an artist.

Here goes:

• My inaugural post from October 16, 2014, "Make a Long Story Short," in which I wrote about the short story format and interviewed fellow ATB writer, Steve Kozeniewski, about his short story in At Hell's Gates, a horror charity anthology.
• This post from March 5, 2015 recounts my first foray into indie publishing in which I self-published a short story. "One Night Is All You Need" had been initially written for a writing contest, in which sadly, it had not won anything. Not even an honorable mention. It came close to getting selected for a literary magazine, but alas, that didn't pan out. So I published it myself. Then I got the indie bug. Seven years later, I am trying to make some headway into traditional publishing, but looking back, I am so glad I gave indie publishing a try. 
• And here is my follow-up to that post, only 4 months later. I am always here for the updates.
• And then in June 2015, I wrote a post on making cover art in Canva. I titled this post, "Blank Canva," and I still love it. I wound up revamping the cover years later when my design skills improved.
• In December 2015, I wrote a blog post about submitting my book to Kindle Scout. The program is no longer around, but once upon a time, Amazon Publishing supported a crowdsourcing campaign for a publishing contract. Winners got $1500 advance and visibility on Amazon. Here's my post on how it all turned out. And then here is my post about submitting Book #2.
  
• Here's a post in 2016 where I wrote about dictation software. 
• A few months later, I wrote a post about fanfiction and why I thought writers should give it a try. I'm still here for it.
• In May 2018, I wrote about reader magnets, and not the kind you hang on the fridge. But the one that attracts more readers.
• In this post, I wrote about a new habit that made a world of difference to my writing--waking up at 5am. I should go back to it; it really did work.
• Also in 2018, I wrote about Veronica Mars, the #Metoo movement, and the future of crime fiction being more diverse.
• In February 2019, I wrote about my favorite activity--writing retreat at Highlights in Honesdale, PA. Seriously, if you haven't done an Unworkshop at Highlights, you don't know what love is. This post is complete with photos, so check it out.
• In September 2019, I wrote a post celebrating my accomplishment of writing a screenplay!
• Oh, and in March 2020, naive KGG wrote a post about the pandemic, thinking we hadn't quite hit middle of lockdown! Ha, dummy.  
• In August 2020, I wrote about how extroverts can thrive in an introverted profession.
• I also covered the traditional publishing submission process. 
• As my writing changed, so did my blog posts. In this piece, I discuss historical research for novel writing. 
• And lastly, one of my most informative pieces, I wrote about what to include in your newsletters when you're not promoting your books.      
  

I truly appreciate everyone who read and commented on my blog posts. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

😘 KGG