There are so many, many memories that pop up or flow through my mind when I think back over the past 14 years. We met for tea and talk at the Border’s in Beaverton in February 2011. We put together the concept of Romancing the Genres and launched it less than 90 days later. Why? Because “blogging” was The Way to get noticed, become visible to readers. We commiserated on our reality that we didn’t want to blog every day, or every week.
What about once a
month?
What if other
authors were like us?
Those two questions
started the brainstorming process that showed us we had a plethora of common
views of the world. Our blog would have authors from diverse backgrounds who wrote in a variety of sub-genres…initially
romance sub-genres and then we dropped the romance genre as the over-arching
genre and combined it with mystery, suspense, thrillers, etc.
As
of today we’ve had 1,447,008 page views with 22,149 comments left and so far this month, 53,541 have stopped by.
So
many changes and challenges came our way. We managed to overcome them all with
a little help (actually a lot of help) from the Genre-istas. When the Blog
Queens aka Sarah and Judith put out The Call, one or more people stepped up.
Lynn
Lovegreen and Marcia King Gamble took over individual months recruiting guests.
Paty
Jager and Marcia King Gamble interviewed authors for our weekend guest spots.
Paty the 3rd weekend and Marcia the 4th.
Marcia
King Gamble organized our Facebook Party something the BQs had no idea how to
put together.
Diana
McCollum helped refresh and update our banner when we decided to expand our
overarching focus to all genres not just romance. She has also stepped up with
posts featuring images reflecting the theme of the month.
Many others have stepped up to help over the years. You all have our heartfelt thanks!
Although
I don’t think it was a conscious decision, we did create a community, a family
in some ways. Over the 14 years of our run, we’ve celebrated each other’s
writer triumphs and helped promote each other’s book launches. We’ve also stood
as friends when we’ve encountered life’s challenges. We’ve experienced LIFE’s
challenges with the death of loved ones, unexpected illnesses and on the other
side of LIFE, the sweetness of babies being born. Both Sarah and Judith have
great grands, and many Genre-istas have welcomed new babies into their families.
JUDITH ASHLEY
We've had authors from all over the English-speaking world join us on this amazing journey. That was a dream come true!
And some have become good friends. That was an unexpected gift from RTG. I never thought I could have a close friendship with someone I never met in person. I was so wrong!!!
Stay tuned for Part 2, RTG's last post (or half-post?) tomorrow.
In Love and Light, Judith Ashley
4 comments:
Judith,
I can truefully say I've learned a LOT from all the different bloggers you and Sarah have had on RTG.
You are a Queen in every sense of the word. You've both held a steady path and guided us. Thank you for that!
Thanks so much, Judith. It's been a pleasure to be involved with Romancing the Genres.
Couldn't have done it without you, Judith! RTG grew into much more than we ever expected.
You and Sarah were the glue that held this group together, gently nudging us when we forgot to blog. You'll be missed. In fact all the Generistas, my virtual friends will be missed. I've learned so much from all of you. Keep writing my friends because we have to.
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