Thursday, December 9, 2010

The Rat has entered the cheese shop - And he has a lot to say between bites!

NOTE: I promise my regular blog posts will be WAY shorter than this, I know how busy people can be, especially at this time of year, this is just so you all know what to expect. I'll post the bullet points soon for those who can't read the whole intro.

I'm not the best with self-introductions, since in real life, I'm painfully shy. But it's easy over the net since it's not face-to-face, I can take my time, and best of all, no one has a problem understanding my words, since I talk fast and am a bit soft spoken.

Anyway...Who I Am and What I Do

My name's Taurean Watkins, I reside in the U.S., specifically the Midwest, and my goal is to be a novelist. Eventually a poet as well, even though like short stories, writing in short forms is not my innate strength. I'm learning!

First and foremost, I'm a guy, and I say that to avoid confusion. Since I don't usually post my picture on sites (I'll post a couple here later) people have been known to think I'm a woman. Often I think because of the way I write my posts, or my emotional tirades, either way, I just wanted to make that clear here at the start.

I've spent the last seven years writing and trying to get published, though sometimes I feel like seven years went by and I'm farther behind the curb than I'd like to be.

I've written a few novels, none of which published, only 1 (At the time of this post) was decent enough to market, and only made it past the query stage once, but always rejected, mostly via form letter.


Second time's the Charm

The first time I tried blogging I didn't succeed, mainly because I lacked a focus, and didn't budget my time like I (Try!) to do now. Not to mention my (Bleak) outlook on life at the time didn't help.

A New Year, A New Start

2011 is weeks away. This time, with a clear focus and a better outlook on life, I can produce the kind of blog I can be proud of.

As you can probably guess from the name of this blog, it celebrates some of my favorite books of all time, the ones where animals talk, of course!

Of course, I also love, and will be talking about books with "Real" people and animals acting as they normally would, but the former statement will be the main focus of this blog. So all you die-hard realists, you may want to run, not walk, while you still can. LOL!

My (Hopefully not Hokey) Mission

Just as there are many reasons we read a book, love it, or hate it, there can be many reasons one starts a blog. For me, I started this blog for a lot of reasons, but for now, only three are important for you to know now-

1. This blog is meant to be FUN! Both for me, and I hope for you as well.

2. This blog is for writers, and readers, to share their favorite childhood books, movies, and knickknacks they still love now, even if your inner circle doesn't know about it.

3. For writers who respect, understand, and (hopefully) love the books you do.

Needless to say, but just in case, anyone looking for "Nail-biting criticism" writing advice, you won't find much of it here. There are many folks in the blogesphere already who can do it better than me, some of the best I'll talk about in my blog at a later date, but I can't say none, since I designed this blog to be a hybrid between a how-to craft resource, and a fun place to hang out. Not too fancy free, but not too business-y either.

What can you expect? Here's a taste-


Book Reviews - both new releases and books already out.

Personal Musings - My own writing journey, how far I've come, where I need/want to go, what I need to learn but it's driving me crazy, etc.

What I learned the HARD way (So hopefully you won't have it as hard!)

Writing tips and tricks

Contests

Eventually I plan to have podcasts, a newsletter, and both text and audio interviews with published and soon-to-be published writers, and if I can swing it, insiders in the publishing industry.

I'll also review books on craft that I either own or borrowed, and who they'll best work for, and suggest who might find it doing more harm than good, at their current level.

Last, but far from least, The Commitment
I plan to update either once a day, or every other day, unless an offline emergency or internet trouble prevents me from doing so.

I hope this is as great a journey for you as this is for me.

6 comments:

  1. Cool! Can't wait to follow your journey! Make it a good 'un.

    Lovely blog, by the way. :-)

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  2. You're up and running!! Go Taurean!! Lookin' good, I must say!

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  3. I can't wait to share and learn. Nice going, Taurean.

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  4. Taurean,

    Congratulations on completing this goal of yours. Your blog looks really fun and interesting. Looking forward to keeping up with it!

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  5. Congrats on your blog. Looking forward to seeing your next post.

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  6. Your blog looks great.

    Our company has been representing authors for the past twenty years. We would love to add you to our database to receive press releases from them regarding books applicable to the genres you review.

    Thank you in advance,

    Ken Eason
    Bostick Communications
    bostickops@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete