Here’s the Main Reason You Should Follow Me on Medium

I came up with a brilliant idea for a new direction in blogging. Zac gave me a year of Medium for my birthday (it’s 9/10, so early but useful). So, on Medium I decided to play a counter-motion scale by including the first link here. Every day, time will move forward and backward as one post of the day will be sorted in ascending order, the other in descending.

Of course I used the Duke Ellington piece to figure out what I wanted to do. We know how to roll. We’re DC artists.

So, all I have to do is start at middle C, my current entry on Medium….. making sure the next notes are B flat and D. This blog is brought to you in the keys of F major, U Minor. It’s rarely performed because that particular key is generally for the rehearsal room. I promise it’s in somebody’s opera score somewhere.

Anyway, here’s to reversing the polarity, and a new start altogether at Medium. I will try to remember to update here, but again, please subscribe on Medium to keep the site free. You don’t have to pay to read on it. You only have to pay to publish on it. However, in a sense you can “pay me back” without money. Sharing my Medium and Facebook posts, or even spending 30 seconds at my Medium account will ensure I get paid. It’s not about how much I make as a writer per article. It’s the volume. Being able to notify people with essays twice a day when one is no work at all is a godsend, and once a day if I just want to copy and paste, earning passive income while taking a break. When you count on donations only, you don’t get a break.

I know I’m the real deal because I started at exactly the same time as Dooce and only a few years after Wil Wheaton. That means I am the original Texas manic rambling spiral and Jenny Lawson is the new kid on the block.

I don’t think she’s ever read me, but through blogger DNA info I pretend it’s possible that I taught her everything she knows.

I taught Brené Brown how to use styles in Microsoft Word. Therefore, I’m pretty sure I’ve taught her all she knows, too. If you want to know how that could possibly happen because you’re new here and haven’t heard me tell that story a thousand fucking time, ask me about it. Now that I’ve referenced Brené in my blog enough to link her to me, I don’t tell that story with purpose anymore. It’s not useful. Once her name is connected through search results to my web site, I don’t have to work so hard at engagement.

Here’s what comes up when you search “Brené Brown Leslie Lanagan.”

The reason I joke about being responsible for her career is that she’s a writer. Who needs to know Microsoft Word more?

Maybe we’ll meet again someday. But I doubt it. Our last interaction was “I bet the hottest ticket in Houston is coming over to your house to watch you watch Ted Lasso. I would if I still lived there.” She gave me a heart for the Tweet. It’s the little things that make me happy, like that and getting a heart from Jodi Picoult when I said, “Picoult, that line slays. I’m stealing it.” Telling poet Mary Karr that I’m not the Son of God, but I was born to upper management” and making her laugh.

I’m a preacher’s kid. If you’re not new here, you know that pretty much explains my level of weird. You’re getting in on the ground floor of something both wonderful and free of charge. I can afford to give away my writing for free because Medium pays me based on impressions.

It takes the stress out of asking people for money, because it’s much easier to convince someone to come to your page for 30 seconds and close it…. particularly important support from people who both like my personality and don’t.

Turns out my audience is nonbinary as well.