Written by Ellen Lyn, a lifetime resident who, while well-traveled, always finds the “good things” in our area that make it such a pleasure to come back home. “So, whether you are lucky or smart, if you call Northeastern Pennsylvania home, read this blog for the good things.”

So, check out Living Here and see what Ellen has to say this week. If feeling great about your community just isn’t your thing, check back again as we have many new blogs headed your way. As always, if you’re interested in joining our team, simply leave a comment to this article (we’ll catch it before it goes public) with your contact info and your interests and we’ll get in touch with you as soon as possible.

And now, breaking from news of the new, and on to the news of the “old”, nepaBlogs.com is proud to congratulate Christine E. and Boston Red Thoughts on it’s first anniversary. 250 posts ago, Boston Red Thoughts was launched as the prototype for the nepaBlogs.com project and today it enjoys a growing national audience.

Outdoor Adventures will also bring something new to our network - photo contests. Each week, we’ll collect photos submitted by our readers and determine which photo best exemplifies outdoor adventures in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The winning entry will be used in the header image of the site for the next week and the winning photographer will be featured in an article that week, along with links to their sites/galleries. As the site grows, we hope to sweeten the pot a bit, but more on that when the time comes.

For now, hope on over to Outdoor Adventures:nepa and see what our writers are up to these days. If the great outdoors isn’t your thing, check back often as we have many new blogs headed your way. As always, if you’re interested in joining our team, simply leave a comment to this article (we’ll catch it before it goes public) with your contact info and your interests and we’ll get in touch with you as soon as possible.

Next, along with the Executive Director of Arts YOUniverse, Kathleen Godwin, we are pleased to bring The Expanding YOUniverse with news and event information about everything going on at “the Mansion”.

Finally, kicking off our “Blogs for a Cause” initiative we are proud to bring you V-Day Wilkes-Barre 2007.  This annual campaign strives to raise money and awareness to help stop violence against women and girls with proceeds going to local agencies and the V-Day Worldwide Campaign.

If you’re interested in finding out more about becoming a writer for NEPABlogs.com, leave a comment to this post and we will contact you with all the details.

Until then, you can still find all your favorites at nepablogs.com. Watch for the “We’re Moving” post as each blog moves over in turn. Take a look over at the first of the sites to migrate - mysmartwedding.com. There are many more to come.

Thanks for your patience…

You may ask yourself, what would I write about and why would anyone want to read it? We’ll address the second question first by saying that if the internet has demonstrated anything since weaving its way into the very fabric of our society its that there is an audience for practically anything. Our job is to make sure that audience finds your work. To the question of what you would write about - well, if you live, work or play in Northeastern Pennsylvania, you’re off to a great start. The range of topics is limited only by the near limitless breadth of experiences available to you in NEPA. If you can write well, with style and passion, then bring your ideas. 
Deadlines? You won’t find anything like that here. We do ask that you post at least once each week but, certainly, the more frequently that you can post, the better. And when you’re stuck for something to write, we’ll be glad to help you get those creative juices flowing again. You’ll also be responsible for monitoring the comments coming back from your readers. Our writers screen all comments that are submitted prior to being published on the site. The great thing about this is that it allows you to interact directly with your readers, providing useful feedback or even ideas for your next article.

If you think that this all sounds like something you want to get involved with, great! Send us a sample of your writing - something you’ve written in the past or something you just whipped up today, along with the subject area you want to write about and an explanation of why you’d like to write about this subject. We’ll review your materials and if we like what we see, we’ll contact you to discuss how we’ll move forward.

Send your materials to “writers (at) nepablogs.com” today.

We are pleased to introduce our first group of writers and their blogs. It is only fitting that a “starting lineup” would begin with a sports-themed blog and, with that in mind, we bring you “Boston Red Thoughts” by Christine E. with thoughts “From a Red-Headed Boston Fan in Yankeeland”. Christine, a lifelong student of the game and a die-hard Boston fan, combines her wealth of knowledge with a sometimes twisted sense of humor to offer commentary on one of the oldest traditions in professional baseball.

If you prefer the performing arts over the baseball diamond, then be sure to check out “Waiting in the Wings” which will report on our culturally-rich corner of Pennsylvania with its many performing arts organizations. The column will be a collaborative effort of local theatre veterans Kelly Clisham and Paul Winarski, both of whom are well and widely known throughout the theatre community, with additional input from the NEPABlogs.com staff. The goal of “Waiting in the Wings” is to provide a single source for local performing arts news and information at a level that is unprecedented by any other media outlet in our area.

Is your brand of theatre more of the silver-screened variety? Maybe you’ve heard your friends talking about friends of friends making a movie locally and you want to find out more. Local film buff Rich Drees will cover the area’s film industry - past, present, and future - in “Reel Pennsylvania”. With topics ranging from how Wilkes-Barre played a pivotal role in the early days of film (think 1800’s) to the opening of its newest theater downtown, to the many talented, independent filmmakers in NEPA, and much, much more, “Reel Pennsylvania” will give you an inside look into this very new industry sweeping our area.

Perhaps your interests lean more towards local music by local musicians. Brandon Nicholas promises to “focus solely on local musicians, never neglecting a talented local band to do a story on a higher-profile artist that just happens to be visiting our area” in “Bringing It All Back Home”. With insightful interviews and commentary backed by a well-trained ear for good music, Brandon will bring you news from the “hotbed of creativity” that is our local music scene.

Maybe you’re a working mother and find yourself trying to figure out how to balance your career, family, and personal life. Perhaps you’re trying to figure out how to drop those few extra pounds that you seem to be dragging around lately, or maybe you are stuck for a nutritional meal idea that your kids will love. Maybe you’re looking for the perfect book to read to your toddler. Well, “Modern Mom” is just the blog for you. Written by Kelly Clisham, “Modern Mom” will bring you answers to the questions she is asking herself on a daily basis with interviews with local nutritionists, personal trainers, children’s literature specialists, and more.

One of our area’s best assets is the vast array of experiences to be had in the great outdoors of Northeastern Pennsylvania. To those among us who believe that there is nothing to do around here, we offer “Adventure Chick” written by Kaitlin Taber-Miller. “Born and raised in the outdoors, this outdoor guru finds the path to staying sane in today’s technological and environment-unfriendly world”. If it has to do with the outdoors, she’s probably done it and will tell you all about it, where it’s best to do it and, most importantly, how NOT to do it.

Sports, arts & entertainment, lifestyles, and more - NEPABlogs.com will work to bring you the widest variety of news and information about Northeastern Pennsylvania available anywhere. Stay tuned, and watch us grow…

Nepablogs.com will build this online community by empowering forward-thinking residents of our area with all the tools they need to face this challenge. In exchange for their hard work and dedication, nepablogs.com will split the profits 50/50 with each blog author (or group of authors) based on the performance of their individual blog(s) taking out only hard costs.

Nepablogs.com will provide residents and organizations all across Northeastern Pennsylvania with the opportunity to be heard. Our goal is to give our readers a look into our area like no other media can provide. Powered by a diverse network of grassroots journalists, nepablogs.com will serve as a showcase for everything our area has to offer, and allow its readers to comment and discuss what they’ve read with the authors and each other. For readers from outside the area, nepablogs.com will provide a revealing look into the heart of our area, completely ungoverned by the cost of a column-inch.

For the businesses in our area, nepablogs.com offers the opportunity to connect with their customers at a much more personal level; in a language more like that used in a letter to friends than in your typical glossy sales piece. Businesses and other organizations can use blogs to promote their products and services, conduct market research, and build customer relationships through the interactive dialog that blogs encourage. For those organizations who already maintain a web presence, nepablogs.com provides a way to drive traffic to their current site. For organizations who do not yet have a presence on the web, nepablogs.com serves as an economical and easily-maintained first step in that direction.

To become a part of of what the May 2, 2005 Business Week cover story called “simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself”, contact us today.