Should I begin a website? That was the question. So I asked my first editor: Laurie Wagner Buyer and she said, “It’s a good idea to have a web presence.” I thought about it for a year. I should (pluck). I shouldn’t (pluck), and so on. I kept an eye on her website, which changed dramatically for the better in front of my eyes. Wow!
More about that in a minute.
How did I meet Laurie? At the Ozark Creative Writers Conference a few years ago. A tall handsome man stood at table where–presumably–his books were for sale. I picked up a book of poems, not his: Across the High Divide. I leafed through it. The title “Running out of Thread” caught my eye. Within seconds, I was glued to the story about the end of a romantic relationship. “Who wrote these beautiful words?” I asked the tall man. He said, “Laurie Wagner Buyer. She’ll be back shortly. You can speak to her yourself.”
The lovely Laurie returned. We talked about her poem. When I asked, she said she did editing/mentoring work, handed me her editing business brochure, Creative Adventure: A Guide Service for Writers. Shortly after that, I sent her the first draft of my memoir Jewels that Speak. I sensed it was in capable nurturing hands.
Back to Laurie’s website. Every now and then, I checked in on her. I wanted to see how the presentation of her books was unfolding. About a year ago, I noticed a change. How to describe it? Comparing one library to another is the closest I can get. Some are dead and some are alive. Her new site leapt off the page, bursting with information about Laurie’s writing life: her books, her editing, her events’ calendar, and some personal sharing. If you wanted to see the full spectrum of Laurie’s work, a touch of the keypad gave you that wealth of information. It keeps evolving.
A few weeks ago when the last pluck told me I should, I studied the website to see who designed and maintained it: Deborah Kunzie of Garlic D’zign powered by keZoor. That’s how this website began.
The next article will be about creativity. I’ll also keep track of the process of how this website develops so I can write something on that.
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