First off, any discussion on the origins of The Bookshelf Muse has to start with this statement, in my best Forrest Gump voice: As far as writing goes, Angela and me was like peas and carrots. We both started writing about the same time and joined an on-line critique site called Critique Circle within a few weeks of each other back in 2004. Somehow, among the thousands of members there, we stumbled into each other and found that we were both at about the same place on our writing paths and had similar goals in mind. It was meant to be, you might say.

A few years into our writing journey, I realized that my characters were always shifting their feet, narrowing their eyes, and fidgeting. To come up with new ways to show emotions, I started a list of physical indicators that I had seen in books, observations I had made, and phrases I had written out myself. Right around that time, Angela opined that her characters were always biting their lips, nodding, and smiling or frowning. She began a discussion in our critique group about how to convey emotions through different indicators. Everyone responded that they struggled with the same thing. I shared my bare-bones list of emotional indicators. We agreed to contribute to the list and Angela kept a master copy.

Shortly thereafter, Angela and I started The Bookshelf Muse. In discussing what kind of blog we’d like to have, we decided that we wanted to offer resources to other writers in a format that would keep people coming back for more. Angela mentioned our list (back then, called the Please Beat Me over the Head Beat List). We saw what a benefit it had been to us and the other members of our critique group and decided to start with that. And so, the Emotion Thesaurus was born.

It took a year before we exhausted our list of emotions. People really responded to the thesaurus, so we followed it up with a new one: Settings. A Colors, Shapes, and Textures resource was next, followed by the current Symbolism thesaurus. Fellow writers have been so positive about the thesauri and how they’ve helped in their writing. Since we started The Bookshelf Muse almost 3 years ago, we’ve watched our follower base climb to 1400, and we now have over 330k hits. People say that’s pretty good in the blog world, but Angela and I are just awed and totally stoked to be part of such an encouraging and inspiring community. As writers, we’re all in the same boat, struggling with the same issues, and everyone needs support. My husband owns a Chick-fil-A restaurant (sorry if you live in a part of the world that doesn’t have them and don’t know what I’m talking about), and as the founder of Chick-fil-A likes to say: “How do you know if someone needs encouragement? They’re breathing.” Being an encourager is a pretty good way to be, and it really does describe our followers. They talk about how much they appreciate our blog, but they’re the ones who cheer us on, who motivate us to try and find something that might help others as much as we’ve been helped by them.

So that’s The Bookshelf Muse, in a nutshell. We’ve got a birthday next week, which you know means a parrrrrrtay and an awesome surprise. And while the Symbolism thesaurus is still going strong, ideas are percolating about what might come next. So if you’re a follower, thank you so much for your dedication. Please keep coming back. And if you’re not, come on over and see what we’re about.

Thank you, Becca–it’s been a pleasure! ~Linda