Why is this Photo on my Art & Writing Blog?

The photograph behind the Art & Writing title (and with this post) is of Maketu, a tiny coastal settlement in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. When I wrote Swimming to Motiti, my first published short story as a serious adult writer, I drew on deeply-held memories of holidays at Maketu.

Living inside me still is the fragrance of wild fennel, the mystery of old graves tucked into a scrubby hillside, and the sound of breakers beating against the sand. At some deep level, these are the memories that ground me when I'm writing or making art. Swimming to Motiti won first place in a New Zealand national short story competition.

Using this image on Art & Writing is a way of entrenching myself into this challenging new world of online writing. What grounds you in your writing or artmaking?
Copyright Lyn Rasmussen 2010: all rights reserved

What is this Art and Writing Blog About?

I've been thinking hard about what this blog's about. It started as the result of a workshop at the Romance Writers group I belong to. I hurried home, set up a blog and ignored it for the next few months.

Writing for Suite101 online magazine has been a fantastic learning experience in terms of bringing me more up to speed with search engine optimisation, keywords and other techie things that I was previously completely ignorant of. I'm not particularly technologically inclined, but these aspects of the internet have fascinated me. The new knowledge has inspired me to make this Art and Writing blog more substantial.

Working via the internet and email is something that could have been invented for my way of working. I like to work alone; I'm not by nature a team person, but the customer-service ethic has always been inherent in my business practice. I like people - I have faith that most people are intrinsically 'good'.

With millions of people online every day, so much scamming and 'get rich quick' schemes out there, and little, or no personal contact, how do you provide customer service with a blog. How do you build a business that's ethical, profitable and provides a service.

Naturally, this blog will promote my own art and writing, but I will also be featuring and promoting other artists and writers, especially in New Zealand, and the businesses and organisations that support their endeavours. This piece on Copyblogger has helped me to clarify what my blog's about.