The Internet is my window box

I have spent the past two months living in a caravan while my house was being renovated. With a husband, two children, three cairn terriers, a cocker spaniel and a hamster, the experience was, well, let's call it "interesting". With no telephone connection, so no broadband, I have been cut off from the world. The good thing to come out of it has been the completion of my second book - yay! The bad thing has been that I've come back online and found this Internet world has moved on without me.

I was just starting to make some headway online. I'd struck up friendships and was beginning to find my feet in a world that I really don't understand. Now, I'm back to square one. My first book's been left to its own devices - who came up with the idea to renovate right after its release anyway? Um, that would be me.

I'm so clueless online, but I've learned one major lesson from all this. Whatever progress you make here, it can all be for nothing if you don't maintain it. I'm going to think of my online presence as a window box from now on. I've killed so many of those by forgetting to water them and tend to their needs. I need to tend to my online presence daily, nourish it and make sure it doesn't get overgrown or wither and die.