Joyously Prolific

I'm sorry that Holly and Sheila have both shut down their blogs... but you know, you can get tired of having people constantly sniping at you for what you believe, or what you write there, as if it is those peoples' right and duty, just because you said something in your own site. Sometimes the wiser choice is to tell the little bastards to go find somewhere else to play for a while, and you'll get on with the business of having a real career and publishing real books. (grin) I know that they are both going to miss the interaction with the fun people, but -- as has happened in the past -- the bad ones have finally taken their toll.

It's nice to see that many of the people respect that the two of them have the right to get on with their work and do what pleases them -- including dropping blogs that have become time drains and annoyances because of the bastards that they have to keep watch over and edit out or answer and get annoyed at. Holly pointed one important thing out to me today -- of all the writers with serious careers, she is the only one who has this much personal activity on line, from blogs to Forward Motion and her own site. She just does not have the time to do it and keep her career going with all the new contracts she has, nor does she have the energy to waste on the impolite children any more. It would be nice, of course, if we could all guarantee that people would respect her right to say and believe what she wants on her own sites... but we all know that's not going to happen. There have been too many years of proving it differently.

As people grow up and grow older, their priorities, needs, and even what they enjoy sometimes change. People who do not grow up don't understand this, and are likely to be the most problem. They're still playing schoolyard games, and I've noticed a few of them being quite shocked to see the schoolyard closed so that they no longer have that big public forum in which to be impolite and draw attention.

Holly and Sheila have real careers, real families, and real lives -- and having those things is taking priority again.

So, for those of you who will miss seeing what life is like for writers who make a living with the written word, it is a real loss. We're not only not going to be there to cheer on the ending of a book, we aren't going to see the moments of inspiration and change.

A shame there were so many jealous, impolite little children in the world (no matter what their age), but that's part of life as well.