One of my many goals this year is to network with other writers and be a part of the community–both off-and-online.

Patti Larsen, a Fellow Writer member on Facebook, had the brilliant idea to have a blogfest every second Tuesday of every month with a topic we can all write about and read.  The blogfest’s purpose is twofold: getting to know other writers and increasing traffic for our respective blogs.  For this month it’s New Connections. These connections can be just about anything under the sun.

Creating connections or networking is a challenge for me for offline  because by nature I’m aloof, and I have to really force myself to be outgoing. A lot of people have a hard time believing that since I appear at ease in social situations, but since I was 18 years old I’ve given myself these pep talks to engage people in conversation and learn to enjoy myself at parties. And I put on damn good act that I’m a social butterfly, although it takes me pretty close to a week to psych myself up.

Apart from opening my mouth and actually speaking to people at the grocery store, the health food joint, the post office, and the library, I’ve attempted to forge new connections so others can get to know me. This includes changing my Twitter handle to my real name, I’ve befriended other writers on Facebook, and I also joined the aforementioned Fellow Writers group on Facebook. Now I have to take it up a notch and actually socialize in actual venues, and meet agents and editors. Oh boy, my gut already feels like a pin cushion at the thought of approaching an agent in person.

Last summer, with this whole networking notion in my head, I attended a small symposium on getting published that was hosted  by our local library. On the panel were some important editors and agents who live here on this itty-bitty island. After the panel member were finished speaking, it was time to  schmooze and I introduced myself to one of the agents. She didn’t seem to be interested in forming any new connections at all; well, at least with me. It  left me a bit traumatized; no, not really. And to be honest, the two agents who were on the panel were not the right fit at all for Julius.

In any case, I see giving myself a lot of pep talks this year and maybe I’ll actually learn to like networking.

This morning I got it in my head that I want to run a 1oK that’s coming up June 19th.  I decided that the best way to train for it was to start immediately and launch my own fitness blog to keep me accountable during the whole training process. The new site is called Fit and Svelte and part of the reason I want to write about it  is to get some fitness writing experience (aha, I do have an agenda!)

I’ve already posted twice, and I’m added a few sites  I like to the blogroll and, boy oh boy, I’m discovering another world of bloggers.  When I worked in PR, I knew the Mommy and foodie bloggers pretty well, and as a book reviewer and writer, I’m familiar with all of the writing and book bloggers, but the fitness and weight-loss ones are a completely new world. They even have their own national conference called FitBloggin’. I don’t know why it surprises me since blogging about anything seems to be so commonplace these days. I also noticed that most of these bloggers are freelance writers so there’s that common factor that we’re interested in fitness and we write for a living.

If you follow this site, you’re wondering how the hell am I going to keep up with all the writing for HAND/EYE, this site, Alvah’s Books, book review assignments, and now Fit and Svelte. Oh, and let’s not forget  Julius, and the ESL certificate.  Well, how am I going to do it all? I don’t know. But I’ll manage. I managed when I was in grad school carrying 18 units and socializing. I spent a good portion studying and writing back then so how is it any different now? I spend most of my time researching and writing. C’mon I can do it all–plus train for a 10K. We’ll see.

The one thing I know is that I have to stop wasting precious time, and that means, drumroll, please….stop with the OCD behavior. In what sense am I OCD? Well, I think my editor at HAND/EYE would say I’m OCD about everything (I’m not, really, I’m not) or at least too caffeinated, but I am OCD with email and with FaceBook. I check both too often (however, I did find a new artist to write about via FB).

So it’s back to that old concept of no wasted movements, in which every movement has a purpose to help me reach a goal. In other words, quit putzing around Rebeca and get back to work!

And on that note, it’s time for bed. I have a 5:00 am wake up call.