Blog Round Up: Is This the End?

Why do the kids look so little here? 

It's been a decade for the blog, and here we are 260 blog posts later...

For the year, readership, is down. Where did I go wrong? Have I forgotten what readers really want? I don't know, but this year was about the UTLA strike and those were my most read posts. The others introduced the re-release of Through Eyes Like Mine, and Overdue Apologies and the publication of I Tried.

I posted 16 times this year, and there are still a few hundred of you playing along, so here are the top posts of 2019 revisited:

My culmination speech for the Class of 2019 about our teacher strike and standing up for what you believe was my third most-read post.

In second, was my post about the start of the strike landing on my parents' birthdays: "Celebrating John and Sue's Birthdays."

And my most read post!!! "On The Eve of Spring Term" captures the anxiety before the UTLA strike and the start of the second semester.

Whew. It's been a good one, and although blogging still sometimes feels like screaming into the void, I'm not ready to shut her down just yet. Thanks for reading along with me, y'all. Let's make even more of this next decade.

Milk and Words are Weird Like That or Three Things Breastfeeding and Writing Have in Common, No Four!

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In the first few days after Kiara was born, I posted on Facebook and twitter, "I always thought writing was the hardest thing. Nope. Breastfeeding is harder."

It was true, and although it got easier, those first weeks of breastfeeding drained me physically and emotionally. Now, as I struggle to get myself back to the page, I'm thinking about all of the connections between writing and breastfeeding.

1. Starting is the hardest.

I hate staring down the blank page, not knowing what to write about, or just unplugging from the internet and getting to real writing hurts.

Where the milk goes.

Same with breastfeeding. Getting a good latch, engorgement, and the godforsaken nipple pain! I'm already dreading having to start breastfeeding again if we have a second baby.

2. It gets easier.

Despite how awful the beginning is, thankfully writing seems to get easier once I have something written to start and the trick of stopping a writing session mid-sentence is great for getting me back into a piece.

Where blogs and books begin...

There is a learning curve for new mother and baby, but after a few weeks, we seemed to figure things out. And thank goodness.

3. The only way out is through.

If there is a problem with a work in progress, the only way to solve it is to keep writing. Read it. Reread it. Reflect on it. Revise again. Come at a different angle. Read it.

If there is a problem breastfeeding, a plugged duct or diminished supply, the solution always seems to be, keep breastfeeding. Just keep at it and it will get better.

Where blogs and books begin...

4. Keep at it.

No matter how long I stay away from the page, the words always seem to come. They might not be the best words, and they aren't always in the right order at first, but they come. They have yet to let me down.

Somehow the milk keeps coming. If I latch/pump, the milk comes.

Words and milk are weird like that.

They say (and they are pretty loud about it) breastfeeding is best for the baby for the first year. Well, if you're a writer and a mother, my guess is writing, even in the exhaustion of these early months, is probably best for you too. So take care mother-writers out there, whether you are breastfeeding or not.

A Life in Revision...

As this past March came to a close, I knew life would be changing with baby on the way and Overdue Apologies finished. I decided to take advantage of an opportunity to workshop my writing with Lidia Yuknavitch (whose memoir I wrote about in January) even though I would be overwhelmed by life with a newborn.

Kiara came into our lives before I could submit work, but in the past two weeks I've had the chance to send her work and in an email exchange she said of childbirth, "what a revision it is of all the chapters of your life."

In that one line, Lidia captured precisely how I'd been feeling since the moment Kiara arrived. She changed everything. I'm not sure who I am as a writer, or a woman, a teacher, a mother, a wife, a daughter, or sister. Everything has a new context. All is subject to revision.

I don't even know who I am as a blogger! Is this a mommy-blog, a craft-blog, a baby-blog? I don't know anymore, and although I've been writing Kiara's birth story, I'm not sure it belongs here. And with David starting his own Daddy blog, I'm not sure how much of my baby-girl I'll be posting, but she has arrived, and she has changed everything. We'll see if I figure any of this out come next blog post.

2011: A Year in Review

Another year of blogging. How about that. Aside from that dry spell after going to BlogHer, it's been my most productive year of posts. People apparently like to be all up in my fertility as those posts were by far the most viewed, and while this year finally brought some happy news in that regard, 2011 was about more than that. Here is a review of the year on the blog.

Drafting Overdue Apologies, my forthcoming middle school memoir... due out, well, before the baby (I hope).

Reading from and promoting Through Eyes Like Mine.

National Pancake Week!

Reading, critiquing and viewing The Help.

Photo essays using Instagram.

Poetry in April.

Twitter as a #writingpromptgenerator.

A memorial to my cousin Traci.

Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting on this random little blog. Here's to good times to come in 2012!

Time Flies

It's already been over a year since I started Noriko's Random Bits. 32 posts and 18 followers later I'm still waiting on that book and movie deal. I guess I just have to keep blogging.

In my first six blogs I got very kind feedback via Facebook (thanks all of you who have been with me from the start) and slowly started to build a readership. Then, with Fertile Soil, I received two blog comments all the way from China! Thanks, Dalian Clan and Ni Hao Flennaugh.

According to my labels I've written most about writing, Los Angeles, middle school and NaNoWriMo but that's probably because of all those New LA Life posts of the YA novel I was working on this past fall and winter. The posts receiving the most reader comments on blog and Facebook were two entries relating to food. "Hot Dog!" ~Jimmy Stewart, It's a Wonderful Life received 13 comments and Chocolate Chip Cookie Confessional 9. One of my more serious posts, Cockroaches, also brought numerous comments and amazing support. Thank you all for letting me know I wasn't writing or living in a vacuum.

I even started a second blog! These are my sporty reflections on the world and even if you don't like sports you might want to check it out. http://throwingcookies.blogspot.com/

Again, thanks for reading along with me. If you aren't following any other blogs, check out my blog list. There are some amazing bloggers out there and you might discover them before their movie or book deal comes through.

Cheater, Cheater Pumpkin Eater

I started another blog. It's about baseball. I've posted to it three times and haven't posted here at all in that time. If you can forgive me, and/or you want to read about sports, check out "Throwing Cookies." It's a sports reference. If you throw a cookie (not toss your cookies... that's gross) it's an easy, hittable pitch. So these are little blog-lobs about baseball and other aspects of my sporty life.

http://throwingcookies.blogspot.com/