Tuesday Tips—When the Blog Writer Needs Ideas

I hope Tuesday Tips isn’t misleading, because I need some help from you this time. You might know my affection for surveys, but let me explain the back story.

I was looking through a writer’s magazine when I saw the West Coast Christian Writer’s Conference. I haven’t been to a writer’s conference for a long time, and neither Marnell nor I have been to San Francisco. We chose that one, and we plan to leave tonight. Marnell can work remotely if he needs to while I’m at the conference, and we can explore before and after. (Marnell has dropped suspicious hints that he just might go exploring during the day without me.)

Our itinerary is a little crazy, I fear. We are both working today, then planning to throw our suitcases in the car tonight and drive to Chicago. We are hoping to catch a 10:55pm flight from O’Hare to Las Vegas, get a rental car and drive to the San Francisco area.

We chose that 10:55p flight, because we wanted to go yet tonight and none of the other flights west left late enough for us to make it after work. I got a little frustrated with the O’Hare airport as I was searching for flights and I started spewing off to Marnell.

“I want there to be a flight going to the place I want to go, at the time I want to go,” I said.

“Yes, Donald Trump,” he replied.

That shut me up in a hurry!

Anyway, why not drive through the desert and see some scenery and soak up some sunshine? We’ve never been there, either. You can count on San Francisco for rain and clouds, especially in February. But the sun always shines in the desert, right? So we booked the flight to Las Vegas.

Did I ever mention that on our honeymoon we went to basically the warmest spot in the United States, South Padre Island, Texas, and it snowed?

So maybe I should not have been surprised when I checked the forecast, and basically all of California is supposed to get rain on that one day of our lives that we are driving through. This includes an 80% chance of rain in DEATH VALLEY, which only gets an annual rainfall of 2.4 inches. Who knows, maybe tomorrow will be the ONLY day of the year it rains in Death Valley? Basically, if you are wishing for very uncharacteristic weather, you should consider inviting us to visit your area.

Still, we survived snow in the tropics on our honeymoon, so we can handle a little rain. (For good measure there’s supposed to be snow tonight for our drive to the airport. Hopefully we make it.)

Back to the thing I need help on, and how it relates to our trip.

The first day of the conference is a workshop and the leader of that workshop sent us some notes/homework to get us thinking. She did NOT suggest we beg our readers to help us do our homework, but I decided there’s no rule against it!

It is simple:

1. Email me one reason you read my blog. You’re my sister and I feel sorry for you? Okay! One of our nephews told me the other day that a lot of my blogs are a waste of his time, but they aren’t bad blogs! And I totally get that too. But beyond praise or criticism, I am looking for simple facts. What do you expect from my blog?
2. Send the email to Katrina@500-words.com before Thursday. MUST BE AN EMAIL to receive the reply mentioned below.

I have 20 post card stamps in my possession, so the first 20 people to send me an email and their United States mailing address will get a piece of (rain-splattered?) snail mail from us from the West Coast. Perhaps I can get Marnell to drop them off at the post office while he GOES EXPLORING WITHOUT ME. (Full disclosure-if he were at a conference, I would certainly go exploring.)

Beyond twenty and outside of the US, I will reply with a photo of us on the West Coast. (Hopefully you will be able to see us under our umbrellas!) The first 20 will receive the emailed photo as well.

Remember, use Katrina@500-words.com. I will not be looking to comments on the blog or messages. We will be traveling and I want to be as stream-lined as possible.

If you aren’t the “doing homework for others” kind of person, just say a prayer that we get a little sleep tonight on our four hour saving-on-a-hotel flight to the west. Hopefully, tonight’s flight doesn’t turn into What-Not-To-Do Wednesday!

Apology: I just found out that my contact form is not currently working. I know it has in the past, so I’m not sure when it quit. I am planning to update the entire website, but in the meantime, I apologize if you tried to reach me via that form and I did not reply.

I always try to reply to every message.