Captain’s Log, Star Date Unknown

Keeping An Eye Out

On The Metrics — A State of the Publication Report

Having come from a corporate world of logic and computers — I started down that path in the early 80’s with IBM, also having had some exposure to computer type equipment in college in the late 70's — I am constantly looking at numbers and all things logical. Despite having a degree in Liberal Arts|Humanities.

When I started my own small business, after corporate life, I was also keenly watching, and managing, by the numbers. Since everything I did was self funding, and I didn’t have investment partners of any kind, it was important to me to NOT lose money, even the smallest amount. That’s challenging as an entrepreneur, since there is a fair amount of risk involved.

If you look at your writing endeavors as a small entrepreneurial business, it’s the same. High risk. But in writing, it seems the high risk, high reward mantra travels into a black hole abyss where the sound waves and echoes are sucked in like a …. I don’t know…. pick an analogy. You are all wordsmiths.

So I’m looking at this pub and managing it like a small business. Just without the investment capital. Without a paycheck. Nothing new for me there.

Our growth rate in terms of adding new writers, and gaining new followers is respectable. I’ll report on that from time to time. Like I did with this funny:

I’m watching things like curations. Because I had wondered if we would ever have pieces being curated, since we were poking fun at basically, ourselves — we funny, goofy humans — AND the mother ship — — MuddyUm. So far we’ve had 6 people who have been curated with pieces published in MuddyUm — myself, Don Feazelle, Justine Reed, Laura Mohsene, Marilyn Flower and Janie Emaus.

Janie’s piece about coffee recently went into curation under Humor. This piece she wrote in response to our second writer’s prompt, which asked writers to write a short story and embed a poem.

Don had a couple of pieces curated. This one, a political piece, got picked up in Humor, and that’s quite an accomplishment, since anything political can get polarizing fast. Satire is such a fine art, and this being curated speaks to Don’s writing talent.

This one from Don also came out of our very first writer’s prompt, asking for a short story for Halloween with a funny twist embedded. It was curated into Fiction.

I had this one curated, also in Fiction. I wrote this in response to the first writer’s prompt as well.

Justine Reed’s piece that came from our second writer’s prompt was curated into Fiction too.

Laura Mohsene had this one double curated into Humor and Parenting both.

And Marilyn Flower’s very funny Yoga piece was curated into Lifestyle.

I’ll be happy to keep a curation report going like this from time to time. Kind of a “State of the Publication” report. With any luck, I’ll get Don’s Whole Toad News Service to do some of their fine reporting and coverage.

Last evening, on a lark — why is it a lark, why not a crow, a blackbird, an eagle, a heron? — I was playing around on my iPhone….it’s not what you’re thinking.

I looked at my profile. I’m obsessed with badges and accomplishments. It’s the Girl Scout training in me. 1K followers on my profile. And I can’t watch the numbers anymore. Once you get to 1K, apparently MuddyUm thinks you don’t care about individuals anymore, just increments of 100. So I have to wait for 1.1K, 1.2K, 1.3K. That’s just sadistic. Because I care about all those followers. Each and every one.

So to pacify my slight frustration in that, I scanned down to the top writer designations. They made me smile. Sure, maybe I merely hit some metrics in Al Gorithm’s Magic Book of Spells and Potions, but it’s satisfying nonetheless. And no one can tell me otherwise.

There they were, lit up as if on a marquis — — Satire, Poetry, Short Story, Humor, and This Happened to Me. Made me reminisce about my youth and all those badges on my Girl Scout sash, wrapped around my body, and with no room for just one more.

Then, I clicked on the Satire designation. Because I found out they are hot links.

Up popped a screen! With articles, and two tabs — TOP and LATEST. I scanned over the articles that showed up in TOP.

Last night there were TEN pieces from MuddyUm in that list. And ONE from Slackjaw.

This morning, it’s changed again. EIGHT from MuddyUm and TWO from Slackjaw.

I don’t know the metrics to get into that TOP list. I don’t care. What I do know is we are good. We are TOP writers.

My goal for MuddyUm is to help us all feel as good as I feel right now. Laughing. Loving writing. Fully realizing the passion that we all have for it. Being recognized as top writers in what we do.

And eventually — being paid for all we’re worth.

I recognize that you all are great. And I am most DEFINITELY not a bot. I think. Therefore I create, and write.

I wrote a Writer’s Manifesto last night, like the one Octavia Butler wrote. I wrote it on the back of the cardboard cover of my spiral bound college ruled notebook journal. Maybe it’s naive, or grandiose. But I take my passions seriously. This could change over time. Most everything does.

We are most definitely writing for the joy, and love, the passion of the craft. But I swear, each one of you has talent that is worth all the gold in Fort Knox.

Wait — do they still keep gold in Fort Knox?

I’m watching this MuddyUm publication grow like the young offspring it is.

That first night before I pushed the button that said, “Create New Publication”, when Michelle and Greg and I were sitting around our computers and texting and laughing and joking about a made up word — MuddyUm, and doing word play, I was thinking about my youth, and how much I laughed.

I missed all that laughter.

It’s been pretty grim out there in the world, what with politics, divisiveness, economic, cultural and climate distress.

I mentioned in that very first conversation about how much laughter there was when I was growing up. That in times of the worst — comedians, and poets — come out to play. The court jesters.

I reminisced about MAD Magazine, and how my stepdad used to smuggle copies into the house — my mother hated them — and he and I would laugh and giggle. We had so many inside jokes. My mom was super serious. She was no fun.

I remembered just how much laughter was in my home, and during the height of the Vietnam War too. There was so much turmoil. And so much laughter. How could these two things coexist?

When 45 was elected, I turned to my son, the Zen Master, and said, “Wow, these next 4 years are going to be a field day for the comedians and late night TV talk show hosts.” That’s proven true.

The late great Jonathan Winters said in a talk show interview once, that he laughed to keep from crying.

Across the world, we’ve got a lot of seriousness going on. That will continue for a bit, it appears. And a lot of it is grim.

But the way I look at it is this — it’s a lot like being a kid on a playground. If ALL the kids are sitting on one side of the teeter-totter, no one is going anywhere.

There’s no game, no fun, no balance across the fulcrum, if everyone sits on just the one side.

You can’t have a game of balance if everyone is sitting on just the one side of the ride.

I know which side I want to be on. I’m glad you’re here with me for the ride.

What comes next? More growth. More great writers. More great articles. LOTS more laughter and fun.

A CONTEST with a cash prize for a MASCOT! I’ll be announcing that soon.

You know how MAD Magazine had Alfred E. Neumann? “What, me worry?”

We need a mascot. So we’ll be scouting for the best ideas and artwork that money can buy. For real! I know y’all don’t write for money. But art work, that’s a whole other can of fish. So there will be a REWARDS poster for that.

Stay tuned. We’ve only just begun.

Oh, and BTW — as of this morning? 194 Followers. Our publication birthday was September 19th, 2019.

We might be on to something here.

© Susan Brearley, 2019 All Rights Reserved

Susan Brearley is a brilliant strategist, a published book author, writer, seasoned editor, essayist, occasional comedy writer, and an accidental poet. She is currently working on her second book, a murder mystery about an OCD detective, who’s been called a “young version of Monk.” She’s a retired systems engineer and salesperson from IBM, a serial entrepreneur, and a survivor of a stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer since 1995. She’s also working on her US Coast Guard Captain’s license, has her US Sailing keelboat certification, and is the creator and elder teacher of a new program, “VisionQuest” that mentors and teaches adults of all ages how to create the life they were born to live. She is currently based in the mid-Hudson Valley, New York.