Oops! After 15 Years I Killed My Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers Mystery Blog
By Lois Winston
Sometimes the universe sends you a signal. Last month, I received one. It began when I was uploading a guest post to Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers, the blog I’d created in 2010 because my editor wanted me to join Facebook, and I had refused. I told her I’d instead join Twitter and create a blog.
I rarely posted on Twitter and eventually closed the account, but I kept up the blog. It changed over the years. At first, I posted new content five days a week. After a few years, I reduced my blogging to three days a week, then once a week. I began having more and more guests because coming up with fresh content, even once a week, is time-consuming, and I also belong to two multi-author blogs. I blog once a month here at The Stiletto Gang and once every seven weeks at Booklover’s Bench. For the last year, I was posting once a month on Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers and hosting guests the other weeks.
Then one day about a month ago, I was uploading a guest post, and Blogger wouldn’t let me add the jpeg of the guest’s cover. I rebooted my computer. Multiple times with no success. I searched the Internet and found various reasons why the jpeg wouldn’t load. I tried other jpegs with no success, and after eliminating all the other suggestions, I tried the only one left. I deleted my cookies. Suddenly, I could no longer get onto my blog dashboard, even after signing in.
I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Google, leaning heavily toward the hate. Google doesn’t play well with my Mac. Never has. And, of course, it’s impossible to get human help from Google, especially for Blogger, which they stopped supporting years ago. Did I want to waste more hours, days, even weeks trying to get back into my blog, knowing the chances of success were infinitesimal? I’d already wasted hours, the result being that the initial minor problem had grown to a major one. I also wasn’t about to pay a tech expert hundreds of dollars, only to have him or her fail as well.
Maybe the time had come to bid a fond farewell to Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers. The fact that I wasn’t panicking about losing my blog, told me this was an option I should consider. Maybe Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers had run its course after fifteen years. All good things must come to an end. Would anyone even notice or care? Do I care? The more I thought about it, the more I realized I didn’t. Instead, I was looking forward to the time it would free up in my writing schedule and my life.
So, fare thee well, Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers. I bid you adieu as you take your place in the huge expanse of dead blogs floating around somewhere in cyberspace.
Have you stepped away from some or all social media, either intentionally or inadvertently? Were you upset or happy about it? Post a comment for a chance to receive a promo code for a free audiobook download of one of the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries.
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USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Her most recent book is Seams Like the Perfect Crime, the fourteenth Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website. Sign up for her newsletter to receive an Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery.
Lois, I have the same Google/Mac issues, and am constantly navigating around them, especially when the couple of blogs I follow on Blogger require me to enter via Google. A few months ago, I jettisoned my Twitter/X account as not worth my time or attention, and I don’t miss it. My guess is that your old blog followers likely read you elsewhere anyway, as do I.
I’m hoping they do, Gay. No one has contacted me so far, asking why there hasn’t been any new content for a while.
I share your intense dislike of Google 🙂 – When an editor sends me stuff in Google Docs, I instantly cringe. I’m never sure anything I do in there actually gets through, it’s unwieldy, not user friendly, and invasive (always wants me to switch to Chrome). Damn, I hate it! Fifteen years of blogging, hats off! I’m 2 1/2 years in at Substack and a bit surprised it’s been that long, oh well! I know that if it becomes a burden instead of a pleasure, I’ll drop it, I’m not sure how much people care for it. There’s all these things we’re supposed to do as writers that eventually get in the way of writing ….
Far too many things get in the way of writing, M.E.! And that’s even before we factor in life. Lately my biggest gripe about Google is that I’m being forced to switch from Zoom to Google Meets for committee meetings, and as much as I detest Zoom at times, Google Meets is far worse. It’s constantly freezing up on me. I suspect there’s an entire department at Google whose sole function is to make life miserable for Mac owners!
Thanks for sharing your decision, as well as the thinking behind it. When it comes to technology, I think there’s a natural waxing and waning process, and certain things we do that used to be effective and efficient become rote and even obsolete. For example, Tik Tok is all the rage today, but will likely be replaced by something fresher and more interesting. Meanwhile you can take pride in the fact that you had a remarkable run with a blog that served a good purpose in its lifetime.
Thanks, Saralyn! It does feel like a rollercoaster ride at times. Wouldn’t it be nice to go back to the golden days of publishing when publishers valued their authors and did everything in their power not only to help their books succeed but to make their lives financially worry-free so all they had to do was write? I wonder how many people realize that advances were once supposed to be large enough to support an author for the year it took after a book was sold but before its release? Must have been nice.
I’ve been a guest on Killer Crafts and Crafty Killers and found it fun and enlightening. As for Google, I cant say anything that the other commenters haven’t voiced. Good decision, Lois, and despite your refusal to join Facebook(Meta) which is now splintered into myriad other un-social media platforms, in my opinion you’ve done just fine. Ideally, you can access your posts if need be. When Five Scribes disbanded, we lost so much great material. You rock!
Thanks, Donnell! Every time I hear another Facebook horror story, it reinforces my decision not to join.
I read this because I’ve read several articles how blogs are a thing of the past. Then I read how many millions of blogs are still active. I think I spent so much time thinking up posts and promoting posts and looking at statistics that I never went back to the books that I want to write. I believe I could post a blog less often, but then I fear missing out or missing a chance to get the word about my books out.
As you can see, I’m so conflicted about blogs and social media and where to go on social media.
JJ, welcome to the club! We all feel that way.
I was a guest on Killer Crafts many times and appreciated it. I also appreciate your decision. I have blog content lined up on mine until end June and then I am taking a break over to summer to reassess. I’m also stopping my newsletter after May because Mailchimp now longer offers my option and the price they want for the number of followers I have is obscene. All good things come to an end. And there are always new beginnings. You’re going to be a Keynote Speaker at Killer Nashville. That’s massive. And more massive things will come your way.
Judy, thanks so much for having so much confidence in me, more than I probably have in myself!
I think newsletters are still important. Have you looked into moving yours to a different service?
Because I always enjoyed guesting on your blog (and think I had a future date lined up for July 16), I’ll miss it; however, I appreciate the way you laid out your reaction rationale to what happened. Kudos to you for the fifteen years you blogged and for all the other things you do. Looking forward to seeing you at Killer Nashville — I’m also one of the keynote speakers.
Thanks, Debra! And congrats to you, as well. I’m looking forward to seeing you in August. It’s been a few years.
Totally understand your decision, sometimes it’s just time to move on. Thanks for all the fun posts, and enjoy the extra time for your writing!
Thanks, Elizabeth!
Isn’t it nice when fate takes a hand in your life and pushes you to make a decision? Finding myself overwhelmed with a number of things, I didn’t do what I needed to do to keep my webpage active. Have I missed it? No.
Grace, I think we’re basically creatures of habit and sometimes need that push from fate’s hand.
Did you save all your blog material? I always write mine in Word, save them in files for the month and year, so the content is mine. Then I copy and paste into my blog, which is on my website. If you have saved your posts, now you can recycle them when it’s your turn at Booklovers Bench! Or start a new one at Substack which seems to be popular.
Nancy, since I can’t get into the dashboard to delete the blog, the posts will probably be online forever. I always write them first in Word, though. Right now, Booklover’s Bench and The Stiletto Gang are enough. Plus, I’ve been writing articles for Killer Nashville Magazine every few months. I won’t say never, as far as Substack is concerned, but for now, I’m not interested in starting a new blog.