Why a Book When I Can Read Your Blogs Online?

Hello dear readers and friends. I say friends because that is what you all are to me – anyone that takes the time to read my writing certainly qualifies as a friend in my “book.”

Speaking of “book!” My book has launched on the Amazon platform. Click here to own your copy of the soft cover paperback book or even the Kindle edition. Lots of promotion and marketing will be going on for it, so please bear with me. Coming up, look for swag, giveaways, autographs on stickers to put inside your physical book, so stay tuned here and on social media.

Clicking on the link is easiest, and you will be able to search by author, my three funny names, or the title. The author is me, Arlene Nisson Lassin and the title is The Very Best of the Hot Flashes Blog. It looks like this: and thanks to my dear talented friend Malka, for making my cartoon vision of the cover a reality.

Some have asked, “why a book? I can read your blog online for free!” So here in this blog is the perfectly logical answer – and trust me this was a well thought out decision about what motivated me to go to all the trouble (MONTHS OF WORK!) to get a compilation of some of my best blogs published into book form. The answer is that people who subscribe to my blog, or read regularly, or even see links on social media have never read my best blogs. Each reader comes in at a different stage and since this blog has been going since 2010, much of my best work is buried way back in pages that no one clicks on to read. It is hard or not convenient to find by topics and most people are not that savvy on an Internet site.

Some people do not prefer to do their reading online. Just as some prefer Kindle readers, and many, especially in my age group, prefer the feel of holding and reading a real book. They do not want to have their laptop open to my site for their nightly reading and now they can instead have my little paperback book as their bedtime companion. In that little nightstand book is enough to amuse and interest any reader for quite a while, piece by piece.

I was fortunate for a period of time to repeat or re-run my blogs that were worthy (and some not-so-much) on the Huff Post site. I gained new readers each time I published there. That means new eyes were reading my work that would have never accessed my blog otherwise. I was also lucky that I had an editor who loved my blog and my writing style and gave me top placement, including on occasion, front (landing page) of the Huff Post site on the Internet. On that platform, I saw my reader numbers go into the MILLIONS. For a modest, small potatoes writer and blogger like me, that was an out-of-body experience. People visiting Huff Post were used to reading material online, and that audience is enormous.

Now that the Huff Post site changed hands, the bloggers platform is gone. Without that, and with constant comments from readers that they cannot find a blog I mentioned in a newer blog, I decided to bring my blog to anyone and everyone if I could do that. My former editor at the Chronicle and the Huff Post both felt that I should publish a book or three. That is the best kind of encouragement.

It is true that going to read a blog is not a natural thing, as it is for going shopping for something on Amazon, or for reading your email. Some of my best friends who love me and support me in many other ways, rarely visit my site. Few people, even ones who read their newspapers online and perhaps even Dear Abby online every day, bother to visit even their favorite blogger’s site regularly. So material is missed, and when I lure some back via postings or an email reminder, they have also missed some previous worthy ones because they were just too busy last time, and that was pages ago in history.

It is my great hope that every single reader of my book will find several essays they had never read before worthy of their reading and their purchase. I think this will happen, and I also hope that they will share with friends to say, “Hey you have to read this!” The key word is that everyone can relate to much of what I write about; it is a good feeling to read your own opinions and thoughts in someone else’s writing.

I hear from readers about a particular blog that they feel deserves to be read by everyone. (“I hope this goes VIRAL,” they say.) I heard this so much during my Flooded, Disaster Blog days. Here is my equal opportunity way to make some of my best writing available and visible to anyone and everyone who wants to read it without going on a hunt.

Here’s another point: although I have a search feature on this blog, few can find a blog they are looking for at any given point. First, they have to find the search feature, and then give keywords to find the right one. That is WAY too much bother for most people. Here in the book is a handy table of contents. Read what you want to read, and easily find it, and then go back to others that pique your interest.

The only problem with doing a compilation is that some really great blogs worthy of another look, had to be left out, as this first round of “bests” has a whopping 281 pages! Perhaps others of your favorites can be included for VOLUME TWO of my next book – let me hear from you about your opinions.

On another note, when someone finds something I wrote from a Google search or Pinterest, or whatever, and writes me that they stumbled upon my blog on “such-and-such” a topic, and I re-read that blog, I lament that it was not included in this first compilation. Even I forget about some of my really on-point blogs. In those cases, I just say, DARN, I really should have read every single one before coming up with my compilation. You see, there are many, many blogs that I don’t even remember myself!

As an example of one that I completely forgot about, but it was truly a HOT FLASH (or hot topic) at the time I wrote it. I recently heard from someone who “stumbled” (biggest word used for new readers) across an old blog comparing swimmers from the Mark Spitz’ era (my crush, idol, hero from the 70’s) to the modern era. It was a fun and well thought out blog about how swimmers shave everything now; and wear caps and have specialized male and female same swim gear for speed, so as not to have any “drag” in the pool. Mark Spitz swam with his big, gorgeous head of dark hair out in the open, with a moustache to boot, a hairy chest and legs, and a speedo, and that was it. I mean, think of those nanoseconds he lost with that moustache alone! And he was still the fastest swimmer of his era. The differences from then and now if you watch the Olympics is quite startling. At any rate, I was tickled by this blog that I had long forgotten about. There is a lot in my blog vault that you may not remember just as I do not remember, even if you had read it before, and many deserve a second look or a bigger audience. Next book will for sure have a whole section on Then, and Now. That is a hot flash on my mind all the time.

This first book is mostly nostalgia-heavy, so the topical ones can be saved for another edition.

There was a lot of care and intent with this task of picking out blogs to publish in book form. I was asked by many to include a lot of Husband Follies ones, I hear from random readers who only read those, and so I did include many, but did not include them all. For those who do not care for that topic or other topics contained in any given chapter, it can be skipped over because it is in BOOK form! It is not something that should be read in one or two sittings, it is best to let certain topics have a space between them.

So how did I pick the VERY BEST of for this new book? Nostalgic looks back are some of my best writing efforts and having a big fan base and frequent commenters on my nostalgia pieces assured this topic of a heavy presence. I also picked some of the most popular ones – some went viral. I also chose some that few people read, in the way back when they were first published, but I thought they deserved a new audience. Some blogs were placed in the book because they are pieces that I wanted more people to read.

So now that you have read the whole scoop, what are you waiting for? Go buy the book and share the info with all your friends. I thank you for your support for my writing endeavors from the bottom of my big heart. I will personally autograph each paperback if you send me your information and mailing address. (Stick on inscriptions personalized of course.)

Thanks for putting up with my promotions and marketing, I am forced to do this for a while. (It’s part of the deal.) Please continue to look for new blogs as well as read the ones in The Very Best of the Hot Flashes Blog. You honor me with your reading my writing, and of course, your comments.