It is hard to believe that I have been slaving at the computer and drinking wine for the last ten years to write an article here, every other night.  Years ago, in Junior High School, I had to read Richard Henry Dana, Jr.’s “Ten Year Before the Mast” and it seemed that long to finish that tome, but ten years doing this, has just breezed by.  There have been times when it seemed like a job, because of my self-imposed desire to do an article as often as I do, sometimes working under a deadline, and other times, I am a writing machine, because if I am going away, I don’t like to announce it, until I have returned.  I never quite understood telling the world that your house will be empty, because you are on holidays.  So, here is to some great articles that people have consistently responded to, by finding an article on a search-engine while they are researching something else, and to some fluff pieces and some pieces that are just there, all with my same rambling prose and narrative.    

There was plenty of doubt when I began, as to whether anyone would read my writings or if they would even care, and I still sometimes feel that way, but what the hell, it is fun.  I look at my early articles and I am a bit dismayed at the very amateurish feeling to them, not that I am polished and professional now, but I think that I have found my voice here.  I still get messages that I should stop writing, because I don’t talk about wine properly, with all of the descriptors that are all the rage for at least the last ten years.  Some brush me off, with their messages, and inform me that I have no designations, no formal training, so it is impossible for me to speak of wine properly.  The funny thing is, that most of my detractors, are no longer around, at least writing a wine blog.  Some even took umbrage, when another blogger conferred upon me, the title of “Street Somm” and I thought it fit me well, since it fits my background and my sense of humor. 

When I started out, I wrote my blog and then I would advertise it on Facebook.  The blogging world is a tough audience and that is fine, Facebook on the other hand seems to go out of the way to make it more difficult periodically, because I will not pay them to get me an audience, which I think defeats the purpose of writing, plus they have a hard time with the fact, that I refuse to pay them, for the work, that I do not generate any income from.  Then later I started to advertise with Twitter, and I am still at a loss on how to use Twitter and “tweets,” and I sometimes wonder if anyone else does, though perhaps with the new ownership, it may become less of a mystery.  The last big hurdle that I discovered and has made my readership grow is Instagram, which is owned by Facebook and also has inscrutable and unwritten rules, that one can get reprimanded for.  It is also a challenge to retrofit some of my articles, because I do tend to ramble and there is a word count (not mentioned in the missing rules).  And I find it, a fun environment for discussing wines and eventually, I will have all of my articles up-to-date and in sync with Instagram, so that all four parts of my blogging world will be on the same page.