Giving Is Its Own Reward

There have been many times where I've questioned this whole blog thing, mostly right here on this blog. Why do I do it? Is it really important? Is it taking up too much of my time? Does anybody care about this but me? Then I get a response to one of my posts that completely validates and reinforces my involvement and commitment to the blogosphere.

A couple of days ago, I made a post to my New Word blog about a book that was recently published by my friend GA's company, WD Publishers. The author, Carl Horner, who I'll be meeting next week when he comes to NYC, has been on a mission decrying the plight of bullying going on in schools around the country through his novel, A Hole In The Wind.

As much as I believe that this is an important topic, I really only offered to post about it to help my friend GA get some play for his publishing company. I also figured I'd finally have something to add to New Word, which hasn't seen any action in two months. In the process, I realized I was doing something pretty good. By talking about Carl and his book I was providing awareness for an important issue. I was providing a service. What really sealed it was the response I got from Carl Horner himself, via phone and email.

Here's an excerpt from that correspondence:

I marvel at your writing talent. Eternal gratitude to you for evoking the spirit of my book.

How cool is that?! That was definitely worth the time, and more than enough to keep me going with this thing a little longer.