The other day, I explained that this blog, Live In Los Gatos, is part of a 14-week contest. And I promised to tell you how I got involved with it. So how did a fairly nice, Santa Clara Valley Native find herself in a contest like this? 

The first question, actually, is Why Blog at all? 

I love to write and have enjoyed doing so since my days at nearby Saratoga High back in the 70's, when I took a lot of English classes, including Journalism (thank you, Mr. George Scott) and Creative Writing (thank you, Mr. Larry Johsens). And I love to take photos, dating back to those days too (thank you, Mr. Jim Hatfield). If you'd asked me at age 18 what I thought I'd be doing for work in later years, I'd have told you that I'd write. I had considered a career in journalism. 

Turns out I wasn't entirely wrong about writing being important. I did later co-author a book with Ken Deshaies, a Realtor in Colorado, "Get the Best Deal When Selling Your Home in Silicon Valley".  (And at some point I'd like to do a book on local ghost stories.)  In my real estate work, I've recently gotten more involved with writing on the web generally as it has been bringing me business.

  So when Ken Deshaies invited me to join Active Rain, a social networking group (which is a host of this project along with Inman News), and told me that I could blog there - write articles or entries more often - I thought it sounded like a good idea.   I dove in. Thank you, Ken!!   

And that was really the beginning of my blogging in earnest.  I like to write, and it seems to attract clients who want to buy and sell homes in Silicon Valley. Therefore I blog. Or as my friend, Bay Area resident and Realtor colleague, Ira Serkes, likes to say, "Blogito ergo sum".

And the contest? What about the contest?

Joeann Fossland, my wonderful real estate coach, knew I wanted to learn more about blogging. I had started this Los Gatos blog in November but seriously didn't feel like I knew what I was doing.

What's a widget? What's a ping? What's a pointer site? What's RSS?   

You name it, I didn't know it. I loved writing, loved the web - but the blogging stuff wasn't coming together for me. Joeann knows Fran (my blogging mentor, Frances Flynn Thorsen) and before I knew it, Fran contacted me to see if I'd like to be in the Active Rain/Inman contest, Project Blogger.  After the initial fear wore off (time committment, being in the spotlight, fear of failure in a big public way), I said yes.  I'm not the most competitive person on the block, but I love to write and I love the idea of being able to give the $5000 winnings to charity. 

So here we are.  The blog formatting on my site is in transition (my in house tech support has designed a header that's 99.9% done).  My blogsite does need more formatting work, still.  Beyond the "look", my only faint concern is running out of topics.  Luckily, that's not a realistic worry. There are countless interesting things going on in Los Gatos today, and even more stories out of history that people find compellingly interesting. There are "what ever happened to...?" stories to write. There are interviews to have. Wines to taste and review!

In truth, it's never boring when you live in Los Gatos.  

So that's  how the blog began to get attention from people outside of Silicon Valley and why comments are being dropped in recent days about "Project Blogger". I thought you might want to know what it was about! 

Your suggestions for this blog, your ideas for topics to cover, your constructive criticism are all welcome and appreciated. And, maybe more than all the rest, your local ghost stories are solicited too! 

And yes, I know...work on being concise.