Potpourri: works of a longer nature.

Farewell 2015 – Charles Dickens said it first about the year 1775: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of  times …” Since then others have used that famous line for their own purposes. Now I’m taking a turn…

Actually 2015 was the best of times in all ways except one. I traveled, spent time with my adult children and their mates, enjoyed good health, and still had more money than month after paying my bills. I had the good fortune to work with Annie Poon, an illustrator from New York City to create a children’s book, had some of my creative work published, and combined my piano room and my office into one sunny space where I live a good portion of each day.

But… it was the worst of times as I worked with a local marketing firm to bring my website (designed in 2004) into the modern age. A project that was to take four months took the entire year, and I realized how little l knew about today’s technology. It was also the worst of times as I also struggled to overcome my anti-social stance on social media. You know: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and their cousins.

All I wanted to do was drive more people to my website because today’s publishing world assumes you already have an audience before it even considers your work.

Welcome 2016 – But, that’s all behind me. The website is functional. (I hesitate to say ‘finished,’ as these things are never finished.) And thanks to Chris Bick and Emma Fernandez, my in-place marketing team, I can return to writing while they get me more readers. This newsletter is part of that effort. The children’s book Annie Poon and I worked on is called Philip and Phoebe. It’s about a little boy who feels displaced in his family when his baby sister comes along. Look for more information about it on my website, annebrandt.com, in February.

Look for more entries in the Potpourri category too. There will be super-short essays (only 75 words each) on various types of written communications, and the serialization of F Seeks M, my chick-lit novel that won a contest years ago and has been languishing in a computer file ever since. Fs are still seeking Ms, so I’m dusting it off and putting it out there.

And of course I’ll continue to blog. Perhaps someday there will be a calendar collection created from the 2000 entries already on my site.

In his day, Charles Dickens was paid by the installment; in my day, that arrangement would have made me rich. Instead, for 2016, I’ll still settle for more readers.