I have two thoughts on this subject. The first is of course! The second is heck no! In the end I decided to put together some pros and cons discussing the matter. Feel free to jump in with more ideas!

5 Pros for Authors Owning a Blog:

1. You are the editor. You can treat it like a newsletter or diary. You get to decide what goes up and what doesn’t. Want to talk about your sex life? Go ahead, but it may be a little TMI (too much information).
2. You’re easy to write about. Who knows you better than you? There’s so much you can take from to inspire others with: your writing schedule, writing process, writing life, future books, etc.
3. Your fan base gets a regular update on your life. They came to you, they want you, if they wanted someone else they’d go look them up and follow them.
4. Everything is somehow about you. Even with guest authors, they’re your friends and acquaintances, mentors, fellow authors, publicist, etc. so while you’re sharing the floor, you’re still in the spotlight.
5. Increases Your Book Sales. It’s searchable and drives traffic to your main website and your books and can very easily increase your sales.

5 Cons for Authors Owning a Blog:

1. Providing constant content. How do others do it? How do they provide fun quirky content day after day to keep readers interested and coming back? It’s a heck of a lot of work and can be stressful. You could be devoting that time to writing more books or personal time.
2. Building a readership for a blog is tough. Why struggle getting noticed when readers and reviewers would gladly share their blog readerships with you? When something comes to you as a great blog idea, ask one of them to host it. Chances are they’ll jump on it (see last point). You’ll get coverage (and pro point five) and they’ll get good free content. It’s a win-win deal.
3. Do you really want to get that close to your readers? You love them and hearing from them, but do they really need to know what you’re doing all the time? Where’s the line between the public you and the personal you?
4. You’re not internet savvy. The idea of writing a blog gives you chills. You just master Google for research and now it’s time to start a blog? Which platform should you use? Is it easy to use? Does it look professional? You wouldn’t even know where to start!
5. It doesn’t sound like fun. You would much rather read other people’s blogs than write one yourself. There’s no shame in that and really there are plenty of ways to get out in front of readers. Channel your time and energy into those and relax.

Middle Ground: if options one or two aren’t for you there’s always co-opting. You can easily share a blog with fellow writers in your genre or under the same publisher. That would cut out the time you’d have to devote to upkeep in both content and promotion. Plus it gives you another way to network and reach readers.

Today's interview is with Patrick Dilloway on his debut novel Where You Belong. Please extend him a gracious welcome to Love Romance Passion. Let's learn a bit about his book before we begin.

BLURB: Orphaned at an early age, the closest people in Frost Devereaux's life are the free-spirited Frankie Maguire and her conniving twin brother Frank. Over the years Frost's life takes him from the lush fields of the Mideast to the burning heat of the desert to the sparkling promise of Manhattan. His heart, though, never strays far from the two people who have meant the most to him. Ultimately, Frost must decide where—and with whom—he belongs.

Keira: How did the idea of Where You Belong come to you?

Patrick: First off, thanks for letting me take up a bit of space on your blog.  I hope you find it interesting.

To answer your question, once I saw the media coverage of Prop 8 in California and other gay marriage initiatives in other states, I decided I wanted to write a story on the subject because it was something I felt strongly about.  But at the same time I didn't want to write a story that was too preachy or a thinly-veiled manifesto on the subject.  I wanted it to still be a story, but one that people could maybe take something from.  In trying to think of how to do this, the question came to me:  what if someone was so bad at marriage that he failed with both sexes?  That was really the tiny acorn that in the end became a big oak tree.

Generally, at least for me, that's how it works.  I get just a tiny idea for a scenario or a character or maybe just a title.  From there it's all filling in the blanks.  It's sort of like rolling a snowball downhill-it starts off small but as it keeps going it gets bigger and bigger until it's unstoppable.

Keira: I also am pretty curious about the actual writing process.  As this was your first novel, can you tell readers what motivated you to start writing and then stick with it?

Patrick: In all seriousness, this is really only the first novel I've actually published in paper form.  I've been writing stories that could qualify as novels in the broadest sense since I was about twelve years old.  (You can read many of these in e-Book form on my D.E-Press website:  http://roguemutt.bravehost.com.  And you can read my young adult novel Forever Young in e-Book form on Public Bookshelf:  http://www.publicbookshelf.com/mystery/forever-young/)

What motivated me to start was probably the only motivation for a kid to do anything on his own-it was fun.  And it continues to be fun.  Sometimes it's hard work, especially when it comes to editing, but there's not much better feeling than writing "The End" and then looking back at what you've got and saying, "I did this."  It also helps that I have no other discernible talents in anything else:  music, painting, drawing, singing, sports, and so on to compete with it.

Keira: The works of John Irving inspired Where You Belong, any one in particular and how?

Patrick: The one most responsible is The Cider House Rules.  I first read that book about seven years ago and absolutely loved it.  I loved how Mr. Irving could create a novel with a social conscience that also was a great story with great characters.  Once I read it, I wanted to do something like that; it just took me a while to find the right issue to write about.

While I wrote Where You Belong, I actually re-read all of Mr. Irving's novels in chronological order to help me maintain the right overall structure and tone to my narrative.  The reason Frost winds up at a private boarding school in the novel is because so many of Mr. Irving's characters like T.S. Garp in The World According to Garp go to private boarding schools, so that was kind of a tip of the cap.  Of course I didn't try to mimic Mr. Irving's work exactly, so much as to do it in the style of one of his books.

Keira: What were some of the challenges in writing the book?

Patrick: The biggest challenge in a book like this that goes back 35 years is doing research.  That's one area I wish I could have spent more time on, because you really want to get things right.  I've read some books that have factual errors and it just drives me up the wall.  The good thing is that with the Internet, especially Google and Wikipedia, you can find out a lot of historical information without even making a trip to the library.  For instance, I could track down the football schedule for the University of Iowa in 1977 to find out who was playing when Frost and his mother make a fateful trip to Iowa City.  Someday it'd be great if someone could invent a time machine so you could really make sure you get things in the right historical context.

Keira: How do you define love?

Patrick: I think it's important first to separate love and lust.  Sex and love aren't mutually exclusive, but we all know from experience there are relationships with one and not the other.  Overall, whether it involves sex or not, I think of love as when you enjoy someone else's company so much that you want to be around that person all the time.  Some people say you should marry your best friend and in some ways I think that's a good idea, because the person you marry should be someone you actually want to be around and have fun with-in the bed or not.

Keira: What did you learn while writing this book?

Patrick: I think what I learned most from a writing standpoint is that old principle of "garbage in, garbage out."  If you really want to create something special, then you've got to put the work in to make it happen.  That means doing the research, the writing, and then the editing.  I think what made this one special for me compared to others is the amount of work I put into it, especially in writing two completely different drafts.

Keira: What is your favorite scene to write in Where You Belong?

Patrick: I think that's like asking a parent which child he loves the most.  The answer is always the same:  "I love them all equally."  It's the same for a book.  I love every scene in equal, albeit different, ways because they all make up the whole.  Maybe some scenes are more fun to write than others, but the scenes all need each other in order for the book as a whole to work.

Keira: What do you hope your readers will gain from your book?

Patrick: To me, the message of the book is that everyone needs to find where they fit in.  Maybe if you're a man it's with a woman or maybe it's with another man.  The important thing is what the two of you feel for each other and not what anyone else thinks about it.  At Christmastime, my favorite special has always been the "Rudoph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" from the '60s with the puppets because I always like the idea that even though Rudolph was a freak with a shiny red nose, he still had something valuable to contribute; he still fit in somewhere.  That's the same thing in Where You Belong; we all have some place where we fit in, it just might take us a while to find it. Once you find it, though, don't let anyone take it away from you.

Keira: Is there anything else you'd like to share with us?

Patrick: I'd just like to say to all the writers out there:  don't give up.  Maybe you're not going to get published and sell thousands of copies and make millions of dollars.  Maybe you're not going to have the next Harry Potter or Twilight or whatever with movies and action figures and Happy Meal toys.  The important thing is if you really love to write that you keep doing it because it makes you happy.  Eventually, if you keep trying and working at it, maybe it can make other people just as happy, but always do it because you love it.  So when you get those inevitable days where you don't want to go on, you can remember why you're doing it in the first place.

Thanks for having me today and asking such great questions.

Buy: Where You Belong

Patrick will be giving away an autographed copy of Where You Belong to one randomly drawn commenter each week of the tour. Leave any relevant comments or questions you have here to enter. For more chances visit other blogs participating in the tour and leave comments there too.

Learn more about Patrick Dilloway and his debut novel, Where You Belong by following his virtual tour with Goddess Fish Blog Tours. (Click the graphic below.)

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