Wednesday 29 June 2011

Connecting: SKJ Traveler Follow Up


Connecting with other travel writers is a very important part of my project and this blog, so I thought I’d share a follow up I had from SKJ Traveler, Shara, since the last blog post I wrote reviewing her website:
Hi Rachel. I really appreciate the write-up on my websites. This whole networking thing is a bit beyond me, to be honest. I'm a bit of an old fart and have no affiliations... I'm basically a hermit with no social or professional connections! I designated 2011 the year of trying to contact the outside world. I suppose I should just do a sort of Blitzkrieg sending out friend requests on Facebook, but it's just so not my style, and to be honest, even with the careful selection of strangers whom I contact (seeing people with similar intents on travel-related sites) it still makes me nervous. Ha. So not a child of the social media age! Anyway, it's a delight when I meet someone who is friendly and enthusiast and a kindred spirit. As it happens, I very recently decided to add a page to my travel website with external links and various "armchair" musings. I have the button up and intend to start adding content in the next week when I get some time. I will be sure to add a link to your blog at this time. Thanks again. Best – Shara
I just read through your Conclusions from Adventures in Ghana. Very thoughtful and thought-provoking, and I relate to a lot of it. I'm actually inspired now to perhaps vent some of my frustrations on my next Writing Life blog entry. I wrote an entire book, generally filed under "ethnographic memoir" about a village in China I spent time living in. A most horrible and depressing experience trying to get it published and I finally gave up. A number of your points in your Conclusions ring relevant to my experience. Anyway, I very much enjoyed reading your piece.
From there I got a post on my facebook wall linking me to her latest blog post (June 27, 2011) inspired by my Ghana conclusions, reflecting on her struggles with publishing a book.  

Pretty neat, eh?  It is nice to see that everything I did in Ghana can still be a leaving, breathing entity out there that others can benefit from outside of myself and the one person who might read my final written paper.  I am convinced that by having my conclusions in a blog format makes it so more people can benefit from it.    It makes me so happy that other writers are thinking, and caring, about the issue of authenticity and writing. 

3 comments:

  1. i am not sure your history on the internet, so i don't exactly know what you are trying to accomplish with your connect thing
    i am pretty sure your approach is very similar to dr. burton's
    which is pretty scholarly, and i won't pretend to understand it
    i grew up on forums and lj, so i was thinking that one thing that might help you, if you like are one of these:
    http://disqus.com/
    http://intensedebate.com/home
    they are things that make is so your blog has threads or what you might "nested" comments, i don't know if that is the colloquial name for them though
    basically it means that you can comment on each comment rather than having to shout up at comments above you
    some of them also at a +1/-1 feature or other things like that
    again, i don't know what your ultimate goal is
    but this allows comments to be a conversation like over on lj

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  2. I'm very proud of you, woman! You're a writer! And have been for some time now. I'm just reminding you.

    Your networking and connecting with people in your field will help you grow so much.

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  3. Hey Rem, I'm new to all of it, so thank you for your experience. What is an lj? I'm going to definitely look more into those two links that you sent me. I have a +1 feature, but I have no idea what that means or how to use it.

    My ultimate goal is just to get my ideas out there and find people with similar interests to connect with.

    Jeanette- You are great. How is your writing coming along?

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