A blog is a regularly updated, informational internet site, or platform, written in an informal or conversational style by a group of different people, a business, or a single individual, in a series of entertaining blog posts. An individual’s blog can be a website of its own or a part of a website, as mine is a part of my author’s website at www.linstepp.com Blogs can serve as a sort of digital journal conveying news or discussions.

For authors, like myself, blogs are often a way to stay in touch with their readers, offering thoughts, updates, and information about their books, writing, and their lives – like the beginning of this June 2023 blog about a visit to a botanical garden. Blogs are a nice way to build social relations and friendships with your readers. Each author blog post is optimally about 1,500 to 2,500 words in length, longer than an author newsletter, but a post can be much shorter, too. Usually, authors soon begin to develop a post length their readers come to expect. Each blogger has to discover their own ideal length, just as they learn their best book length. It is generally expected that an author create a blog post or entry consistently, weekly, monthly, or even quarterly.

For me, each of my blogs is like an article, talk, or short writing that I gift to my readers free every month. I always put up my new Monthly Blog Post at the first of every month, usually on the first day of the month. On the same day, I post my monthly Newsletter, too, which focuses on upcoming events, books, and projects I’m working on at the time. Many authors make their blog and newsletter available only to those who “subscribe” to them through an email link. Usually this is found in a pop-up link on their website, … annoyingly popping up often and intrusively.

In past I found it difficult to “unsubscribe” to blogs or newsletters I subscribed to, and I often found my email bombarded with too many blog posts, so I chose to put my monthly blog posts  readily accessible to my readers on my website. On the Home Page of my website at www.linstepp.com, you’ll find my Blog under the “Blog” heading and my Newsletter under the “Newsletter” heading on the main menu bar.  It couldn’t be easier. My readers and fans know that usually on the first day of the month they will find both a new Blog Post and a new Newsletter. Most of my readers really like being able to go and check out either one at their convenience. If they wish , there is a “Follow” link on the Blog page where they can enter their email to get a monthly reminder note when a new blog posts.

My first novel published in 2009 … and as more and more books came out, and interest in my writing grew, my publisher encouraged me to start a Blog and a Newsletter. Still teaching college at the time and writing two books a year, I wasn’t eager to take on another commitment. However, as 2016 ended, I decided I could commit to write a blog and a newsletter every month. So my Blog debuted monthly in January 2017.  I’ve been at it for eight years now. If readers get behind on my blog posts or just discover my books and start following me, all eight years of my Blog Posts are archived. For example, to see the latest ones before this one, just scroll down the page after you finish reading this post.

Just like planning and writing a book takes time, planning and writing a blog post takes time, too. I usually spend at least a full day creating a blog post and finding the photos I use in each for illustration. America reads less and less today, scrolling mindlessly through social media without stopping to read more than a paragraph, so sometimes being a blogger is disappointing. However, when I check my International Stats and see that fans and readers in over fifty countries are popping in to read my blog and avidly following it, I am encouraged.

Many of my fans in the U.S, who devotedly read my books, have never even discovered my blog and newsletter. I can only assume that’s because they seldom go to my website. It’s unbelievably easy to find at: www.linstepp.com/blog/  A woman who recently came to one of my events said, “I just want you to know you saved my life during covid.” I lifted an eyebrow. “How did I do that?” I asked.  She grinned. “I got covid and then my husband got it, quarantining us in the house for over a month, and I didn’t have anything in the house to read.” She sighed. “Then I remembered you said at an event presentation that you wrote a blog, so I went hunting for it. And, oh my goodness, there were years and years of your blogs on your website. I had the best time reading one or two every day and enjoying all your beautiful thoughts and illustrations. You need to tell everyone about your blog. It’s really wonderful.” So in humble response, I hope you might check out my blog, too, and, if you like it, start following my monthly posts.

My blogs are all archived and you’ll see an ARCHIVE search box to the right of every month. In that Archive, if you click the arrow to the right of “Select Month” you’ll see links for my eight years of blogging. You can doodle down through the past years to see what you might find. In looking back today at my first posts in 2017 … one early February 2017 post was about “Hiking in the Smokies” and our hiking guide THE AFTERNOON HIKER. Others were about visits to Bryson City, NC, where my 2017 book DADDY’S GIRL was set and about our book launch and signing events..

For June of 2017, I wrote about one of my hobbies in a post called the “Sunday Painter” and posted a few photos of my watercolor paintings. Readers seemed to like that personal touch, so in July I wrote about “The Joys of Home” and talked about our home. In August 2017, I blogged about “Growing Up with Flowers,” and in April 2018 about “Wildflowers in the Smokies.” In September of 2017, after our summer beach vacation, my blog post was called “Remembering Edisto.” Others that first year jumped around to different topics, like November about “Fall in East Tennessee” with glorious photos and in December “The Christmas Tree” remembering trees in our family over the years.

You can see from this discussion, that my blog posts are diverse, none ever the same. Sometimes I talk about books I’m writing or have just finished, giving you little inside tips and photos I collected to represent the characters and places in my stories. Many posts in 2018 and in the years since were about travels to beautiful parks and places we visited while working on our four parks guidebooks. I shared about the “Things I Collect” in September 2018, “The Art of Embroidery” the next month, “Games I’ve Loved” in June 2020. Other posts celebrate local places, like “Why I Love Knoxville” in April 2021, “The Beautiful Tennessee River” in May 2021, and “History of the Smokies” in June 2022.

Before 2018 began, my editor suggested, since the last of my twelve Smoky Mountain books would be published that year, that I dedicate one month all year to my twelve novels … so all of 2019’s blogs follow my first twelve books from THE FOSTER GIRLS to THE INTERLUDE. I think you’d enjoy these posts, telling how I got the ideas for these books, with photos and lots of inside facts. If you’re interested in the process of how I write my books, you might like my January 2018 post “Creating a Book” or February 2020 “How I Write.”

As I cruised through my old blog posts today to write this, I laughed over many of my posts and smiled over others. I loved remembering favorite books I loved in October 2020 in “The Armchair Traveler” and “Books About Remarkable Women” the next month in November, making me want to reread some of the titles I talked about again! Sometimes I got lyrical and inspirational with my posts, like in January 2022 in “New Year Inspirations” and in March 2023 titled “Life is Full of Opportunities.” Life is ever full of opportunities… and you have the opportunity any time you get bored or trapped inside during bad weather or illness to explore your way through my eight years of blogs to read whichever ones you might enjoy.   When people say to me, “I wish you wrote more books every year” my answer now is often, “Read My Blog Posts in between.” I write something fun and free for you to read every single month. Never undervalue what is freely given.

See you in December … Lin

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Note: All photos my own, from royalty free sites, or used only as a part of my author repurposed storyboards shown only for educational and illustrative purposes, acc to the Fair Use Copyright law, Section 107 of the Copyright Act.