As some of you may have noticed, I popped up over to the iHerald section today talking about some of my favorite Web sites. I do so love the Internets.

The reason for that is that the editors asked me to get behind the wheel of the section, take it for a spin and see what happens.

Bad car metaphors aside, I got on board for two reasons – I love gadgets and I love discovering all the weird new things the Internet is doing to our lives.

I love lamp. (Sorry, could not resist. I re-watched "Anchorman" this weekend.)

So as I figure this thing out, I’m going to need your help. The iHerald is going to be a work in progress for a bit. I hope we can get more ideas, submissions and content from all of you, since really, no one wants to hear what I have to say all the time.
Things like blogs, podcasts, video podcasts, I want to try it all, and I’d like to know what you think.

When they asked me to start writing for the iHerald section, I first got that nagging feeling that says "Careful, young writer," quickly followed by this scene playing out in my head: "Hey, why not tap the young guy? He’s gotta have his pulse on the Internets and the Googling and the whatnot!" (I am nothing if not a child of sitcom television.)

Courtesy Spreadshirt.com

But laugh track aside, there is some truth to that. I am young (mid-20s) and I have been known to dabble in the Internets and its interconnected series of information delivering tubes. Still, just like with any other job, sometimes you wonder if you’re getting tapped for something just because you fit a description, or because you’re the right person.

I’ll go with that "right person" assumption, for the moment. If nothing else, this whole thing will give me a justification for wasting time online.

ANYWAY, let’s talk about today’s story.

Amanda Soule appears to be spinning a lot of platesand doing it quite well. Moms, almost by definition, are busy people. She’s got what seems like a ka-jillion things going on at once – one kid wants to make musical instruments, one wants to read, another may be hungry, and she’s there keeping it all up.
Oh, but wait, she also blogs. Oh, she also sells her hand-made creations. Oh, but wait, she also just finished writing her first book, which came about because of the blog.

We’re starting to see this more often now that publishers have figured out that blogs aren’t just people’s thoughts on what they had for breakfast.

There seems to be two different paths developing in this new phenomenon – people who create blogs to get into publishing, and people who blog just to write. Soule says she always wanted to be a writer, but never had any allusions of being an author.

At the same time, you have the good and the bad of the blog-to-book transition. On one hand you have "Julie and Julia," from Julie Powel, and you also have "I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell," from Tucker Max. (Google at your own risk. Seriously.)

There’s a lot out there right now, which can be both a good and a bad thing. When I talked to Soule – who has already got another book in the works – an interesting thing she said is that she thinks it will be up to publishers to weed through the good blogs and the bad. She suspects there will only be more people trying to get an in with publishers, making it harder to pick out the ideas that are perfect for books from those that are best left on the screen.

Since most people weed through the blogs they like and dislike, that may not be too hard. But still, are there any blogs that should get the book treatment? Others that got transformed onto the page that did not deserve it?

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