First of all, I’d like y’all to meet my Blogging Guru, Kristen Lamb. If you haven’t been to her website yet, run, don’t walk. Here’s her latest:  http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/asking-what-if-exploring-the-unknown-a-final-word-on-writing-horror/

Doesn’t matter if you’re a writer or not–although if you are, Kristen has plenty of good advice for your craft. But if you need help or even just ENCOURAGEMENT dealing with social media, Kristen’s your gal–and along the way she’ll make you laugh so hard you’ll probably need to change clothes.

Don’t believe me? Check out http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?s=panty+liners

Kristen’s been blogging since 2005, she founded WANA International, (“We Are Not Alone”), an organization dedicated to guiding writers toward their goal, and  she just published a book on social media. She’s all OVER the internet, and as a fellow writer and dedicated techno-wuss, I ought to have serious tech-envy of Kristen. But what I really envy is her title. Here’s what Author Magazine had to say about Kristen last month:

Kristen is the author, most recently, of the highly recommended Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World, a prolific blogger, and a social media maven. 

Did you catch that? She’s a MAVEN. 

Merriam Online defines “maven” as “one who knows a lot about a particular subject; one who is experienced or knowledgeable.” It goes on to provide examples of both male and female “mavens,” but I’m pretty sure I’ve only ever heard the word used to describe women. (Wait, so…women are mavens and men are, what, experts? Hmm.  I’ll save my thoughts on that for another post.)

I want to be a maven too! Such a cool word, rhymes with raven, bears the cachet of sophistication…really, who wouldn’t want to be a maven?

So I’ve been thinking of what I could be a maven of. I was a damn good high school teacher, but there are plenty of Master Teachers out there, so Education Maven doesn’t fit. I know quite a bit about running and hiking, but Outdoors Maven? Nope–too many REI employees out there to kick my butt.

Here’s what I settled on: I’m a pie maven. Yup. I can tell you everything you need to know about crust and filling, and I can bore the pants off you with my history as a piemaker.

I got this. (courtesy npr.org)

Pie Maven. I like the sound of that.

Gretchen Wing, Pie Maven (courtesy flikr.org)

What about you? If you could be a maven of anything, what would it be? Or…maybe you already are one??? Do tell!