Reaching One Hundred!

One hundred.

Wow. Let me say that again.

One hundred.

It's a round number, not a huge number, but somehow, I find myself impressed by myself. Oh, sure, when I was a student at university, I cranked out dozens, if not hundreds of papers as an English/psych undergrad and a "professional writing" grad. And I generated close to 700 articles when I worked for an SEO company, using their titles and topics. One hundred stories is a drop in the bucket compared to that number, right? Wellll, yes. Sort of. These stories, as few as they are, are a modicum of ME, of my essence being distilled and put forth for other's consumption. Every time I hit the "publish" button, there's a scarycreepyhappy feeling that makes me want to rush and hit "DELETE, DELETE, DELETE!"

Still, somehow, these 100 stories remain. Let me say again: Wow.

I know, I know. There are many people on Vocal with hundreds of stories to their credit. It's taken me three years to get here, which is a looooong stretch of time. But life must be lived before its fleeting moments achieve relative permanence. And those moments, those random thoughts that seem worthy of expanding upon and sharing, appear more quickly than I can write them. I have a list of over 40 titles under my "Draft" link, waiting for the right moment to arrive and they are sprung into life.

So, going forward, what can we expect? Well, more of the same, obviously. More goats, more dogs, more cats, more garden. The occasional navel-gazing connected with all of the above, as well as factual articles on those topics that you never knew you cared about. (What's a Preservation Breeder? Who knows? Who cares? Well . . . what?) A few more "hellos," and, sadly, a few more "goodbyes." Training articles. A look at Buddy's travels through life and at Steele's adventures in agility. I'll be writing a bit more fiction and, perhaps, I'll continue sharing the occasional poem if I have one that I've written in the past which fits a challenge. I recently shared one and the world didn't implode, so I might risk a second try. We'll see what the challenges bring.

One of the things that has held me back from being more productive, I think, is the concern over writing things that Are Interesting. Concerns over writing Things That Matter to other people. Going forward, I think that's going to change. I am not worried about capturing the topics of the day on my Vocal account. I'll still try to write about meaningful things--not things like Mr. Yellowcat scratching his head on the porch railing and falling to the ground in the process (but I have to admit it, his expression when he returned to the railing was kind of funny to see).

As I go forward, I'm going to be more focused on writing for me--BUT--to also share why these topics can be meaningful for people around me, too. What is a preservation breeder? You'll be amazed at the hidden meaning (maybe). Why can eating healthy food be bad? What is a "landrace breed?" Why is Cassidy a goofus? These are all important topics (well, mostly) that can have meaning to the world at large (mostly . . . I'm looking at you, Cassidy . . . ), if people can see the larger implications that go with them.

I want to thank the small number of people who have stayed with me and believed in me for these last three years. I've enjoyed writing these things and I've enjoyed getting feedback when I can. If you've been reading and have anything that you'd like me to cover about my cottage or my homestead or anything related to dogs, goats, and homesteady-type stuff, please let me know.

See you soon--and here's to another one hundred stories!