By Deborah Taylor-French on Dog Leader Mysteries

What makes a blog great?

As a kid in the hot California central valley summers, my sister and I had few choices. When temperatures hit 100 degrees or above, our mom usually offered us one of four things to stay cool in the afternoon heat.

Go to the library.
Read a book we had.
Play inside with our dog.
Go swimming.

Summer library visits felt like walking into a forest of books, books alive with new adventures. I never left with just one book. No, I walked out with my chin on top of a stack of a dozen to twenty books. Now that I read blogs, I feel a similar tug, like the library. Naturally, I want to explore new blogs. Reading much on the Internet cuts down on my writing. But I cannot deny I still have many interests, nonfiction on animals, history, mystery, literary fiction, short stories, and travel blogs or books.

Somethin' Like a Cracker known as Nabisco — Playing with our dog Nabisco, she looks so cool and happy.

These past three months, I have set a timer to write. Twenty-five to forty-five minutes of racing over the page. If my thoughts do not flow, then I do not leave my writing until I have completed a draft or finished a revision.

No blog reading until I have written my goal for the day.

I actually “sweat the small stuff” as every word counts and must add clarity, tension or sharpen my characters in my mystery stories. So I reined in my curiosity to hone my skills, craft and art of writing. Each week I read a select few writers blogs. I must put my writing first, yet the inspiration and experiences of other writers, and animal lovers feeds my blogging and my thinking. Having rather eclectic tastes, I feel a gypsy love of roving. Travel and cultural mixes in the genres of music, painting and books, like those library books, keep calling.

Defining Greatness

Greatness stands out like a two hundred year old live oak on bleached California grasslands. We know greatness when we see it because the uniqueness stops our wandering gaze. Our restlessness halts as we look or read.

We breathe in greatness. People near us may pull in a long inhale as if lifted on wing to another world. Photography and visual arts prove arresting. We only need to allow ourselves a suspended moment to meet greatness with a natural revery. Our literal word packages go beyond “a breath of fresh air” or “you had to be there.”

How Do You Know You Are Reading a Great Blog?

I get a physical sensation when I experience greatness in writing, in photography or paintings or in music. I shiver in lovely moment, as if a strong cooling fan a to my bones. “Oh, that’s wonderful,” I say. Or I feel the welcome chill of the ocean on a hot summer day.

As a dog person, I love reading dog blogs. I like both empathic dog lover blogs and blogs offering me the latest research on dogs. I also follow my favorite animal welfare blogs.

Take a look at my personal nominee for the greatest animal welfare blog today.

A Humane Nation Wayne Pacelle’s Blog

“Few are in a position to speak for the animals like Wayne Pacelle. As President and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, he leads the nation’s largest animal protection organization in the mission of celebrating animals and confronting cruelty.” Pacelle’s writing not only gives current updates on legal battles on behalf of animals, he also celebrates historic wins, shares his recent and personal adoption story such as his, The Beagle Has Landed. Pacelle’s blogging goes straight to my animal loving heart. His position gives him a national vista on animal welfare.

Please read one of his latest posts, which brought tears to many eyes.

Risk a few tears of joy as you read and watch History is Made for Chimpanzees in Laboraties.

The video shows gray-headed chimpanzees walking on grass for the first time. One ape appears amazed, searching the vast sky. These USA research primates had never touched another ape, except through the bars of a cage. Gladness such as this, is worthy of sharing and praise.

Wayne Pacelle

This excellent question and writing prompt comes from The Daily Post at WordPress.com.

What makes you follow a blog or “Like” a post?

How do you define greatness in blogging?

Please give us the name of a great blog you read. Why does it merit the title of the greatest of its kind?

Thanks.

You have seeds of greatness inside of you. Tod... — You have seeds of greatness inside of you. Today can be your new beginning. Today could be the start of something amazing. (Photo credit: deeplifequotes)

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Feds go after online ‘puppy mills’ (thehill.com)

Best Animal Blog Wayne Pacelle: A Humane Nation

What makes a blog great?

Defining Greatness

How Do You Know You Are Reading a Great Blog?

Wayne Pacelle

What makes you follow a blog or “Like” a post?

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What makes a blog great?

Defining Greatness

How Do You Know You Are Reading a Great Blog?

Wayne Pacelle

What makes you follow a blog or “Like” a post?

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