It is time to say goodbye

I have been publishing The Dees Diversion (formerly known as DED Space) for four years and ten months--five years, for all practical purposes. I have also been blogging for Mother Jones' MoJo Blog for over a year and nine months. That is a lot of blogging, and the time has come for me to cut back. After this week, The Dees Diversion will no longer be published. There are several reasons I made this decision:

I have never succeeded in marketing this blog the way I wanted to, despite doing everything I could think of to market it.

I am tired, not so much of the hoardes of ignorant conservatives in the blogosphere, but of the hoardes of so-called liberals who do not support women's rights, LGBT rights and the liberation of non-humans, as well as the liberals who are not interested in looking at facts and making rational arguments.

But mostly, I have neglected creative writing to the extent that it has been a long, long time since I have written a short story, and I am often too tired to work on my poetry. This drain on my time and energy is the main reason I am giving up intensive blogging.

Publishing The Dees Diversion has been a great experience, however. If I had not decided to blog, I would never have met ae of arse poetica, or Kathy of What Do I Know?, both of whom I now count as friends. This blog was featured on CNN's "Inside the Blogs," and even though I do not care for CNN, I have to admit it was nice to be showcased. It was through writing this blog that I was invited to blog for Mother Jones, which has also been a great experience.

Meeting my two blogging friends (I have met with Kathy a couple of times) was certainly the highlight of my blogging experience, but I also cannot forget the intensive, non-stop blogging (I got an arm injury from it) I did when we evacuated to get out of the way of Katrina. The nights I spent at Lefty's Lounge with The Heretik helped get me through the hurricane. Joe, Catherine, Matt, Agi, Melissa, handdrummer, and all of you who were there to talk to me and wish me well really made the experience easier...and who can forget the karaoke?!

There are other bloggers I also feel like I know to some extent: delagar, Helen Wheels, Pinky, Ann Bartow, Amanda, Ken, and others, some of whom no longer blog.

There were few bad experiences. Being verbally abused by the Koufax Awards coordinator stands out (my crime was that I and some of my readers wondered why I had been left off the list after being nominated several times). Most of the attacks I've received, however, have come from a few impolite MoJo readers, not readers of The Dees Diversion (there were never enough readers to draw too bad of a crowd).

I don't know how long I will leave The Dees Diversion in cyberspace--maybe a long time. I certainly encourage everyone to read some of the blogs in my links list. I have always kept it updated, and all of the blogs are worth reading.

In a week or so, I'll get rid of the email address associated with The Dees Diversion. A few of you have my "real" email address; if you do not have it and would like it, drop me a line at the blog email address while it is still active, or just post a comment asking for it, and I'll send it to you at your blog email address.

Will I ever blog again? Well, since you ask...the one thing I'm not tired of blogging about is the WTA, so I have launched Women Who Serve, a blog about the Sony Ericisson WTA Tour. If you are not into women's tennis, I urge you to give it a try. But even if you have no interest whatever in the WTA, rest assured that Friday cat blogging will go on! If you want to see Roxie and Velma and their pesky friends, Ziggy Stardust and Tarzan, they will still appear every Friday on Women Who Serve, and they would love to have you drop in and admire them.

I will also continue to blog at the MoJo Blog, but on a weekly (rather than daily) basis, so you can still visit me there, too. And I'll continue to visit your blogs, of course.

Thanks to everyone who read this blog and supported my efforts on behalf of truth, decency, sanity, and the rights of women and girls, people of color, LGBT citizens, and non-humans.