New Blogger

Last month I taught a personal-essay workshop at the Oregon Christian Writers spring convention, but a couple of hours before I did that I took in a humor-writing class by LouAnn Edwards. I was rather astonished to find that she also has six children about the age-range of mine. I mean, moms of 6 are a rare species, and then to have two of us teaching at OCW the same day. . . what are the chances?

While we have much in common, we certainly differ in one significant way: LouAnn is a former pro figure skater who travelled to lots of different countries with Stars on Ice. And she also has a personal connection to Tonya Harding--I think they used to run into each other (but thankfully not with a crowbar in hand) when Tonya skated and LouAnn coached at the rink at Clackamas Town Center.

After my class I sat right in front of her at a blogging workshop and we started talking afterwards. She was totally new to the idea of a blog and had lots of questions. "But what I don't get," she kept saying, "is how do people come to your site? How do they find out about you?"

"Trust me," I said, "the internet is amazing. If you start a blog, I can almost guarantee that in a year you'll have hundreds of people from all over the country that you've never heard of visiting your site." She looked completely perplexed. "Really," I said.

Well, she has now started a blog called LaughOutLoudMom. Her first post is actually more sad than funny, but it's the sort of thing that sticks in your mind long after you leave the computer, and I'm sure she has many more inspiring posts to come.

Quote of the Day:
"I knew I was staring, but I just couldn’t stop."
--LouAnn. Go read her blog if you want to know more.