It's Amazing

I know I should be used to it, but it never ceases to surprise me how the written word spreads everywhere and does it quickly. Yesterday I wrote a blog that featured Colonel Russell P. "Red" Reeder. Today I received a message from one of his daughters thanking me for what I had written. How did she every find out about it? Not on Google because I checked. Many blogs or even comments on a newspaper do show up on Google, of course.

A week ago I received a similar message concerning the Waterloo Wonders, a high school basketball team in Ohio during the mid 1930s. I wrote about them months ago, A woman said her father had played against them and often told stories about the Wonders. She was pleased to have them authenticated. Amazing

Yes, it is amazing, Dick. Isn't it wonderful too to get that feedback? You must be so proud that these people sought you out to tell you how they feel about your writing! Congratulations are definitely in order!

That's happened to me, too. I mention something in a blog, then a week later or even six months later, somebody mentioned in it makes a comment.

I fully expect that one day I'll write a satirical piece about a governmental official and get a personal phone call from them 30 seconds after I save the post.

Malcolm

Dick she may not have googled it exactly, but she may have a "Google Alert" set up for his name. The alerts come from some of the most fascinating places; I have several of them set up for my name as well as a few topics that I keep an eye out for, and the results are sometimes fascinating.

A cousin I hadn't seen or talked to in years called me on the phone a few months ago, after reading my blogs about our grandparents home in East Texas. We talked for hours, catching up.

Ann

Dear Pam,
How do you set up a Google alert?

Love,
Betty

Hi Betty,

To set up a Google alert, go to the Google homepage, and click on "Create Account" or something similar to that in the top right corner. Set yourself up an account, and you will also have a neat tidy profile page (with access to some really neat Google stuff), that allows you to create alerts for any terms that you like. As Google bots travel the 'net, they will report back to you by email about any sites that have your alerts on them. If the results your get are not helpful, you can create more alerts, delete some and so on. I have alerts for the following phrases:
Pam Robertson
Maggie Bendar
... and you can also add your book titles, name of your hydro business, grandkids names (see what they are up to)... and so on.

Happy 'lerting!

Thanks Pam! I copied, pasted, and printed it out. One more thing to learn to do and actually do it.

And it sounds as if we should all be careful about what we type, lest it come back to bite us in the butt! Yes, Malcolm you would probably hear about that satirical piece! But it might make you famous, and your books would be in fantastic demand!