The results of Sean’s experiment revealed!
Category: Blogs on blogs
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The results of Sean’s experiment revealed!
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This post by Victoria is from earlier this month, but do read and also read the comments. There’s a good discussion on how often bloggers should/should not post and why.
Creative Writing with the Crimson League
I love this blog. I love blogging. And I make a point–or at least, I have since late July 2012–of putting up a new post daily, one related to creative writing and marketing creative writing through social media / the blogosphere.
As an author, I know any amount of practice connecting words into sentences, and sentences into paragraphs, is worthwhile practice. It’s training and maintenance work, so it’s never a waste of time. Blogging has the benefit of giving me that practice while also connecting me with other people and drawing attention to my work.
I’ve written a post about everything this blog and its followers have given me, so I won’t go into that again. But I have been considering of late why I chose to blog daily, and why I continue to do so.
Having a new post every day can be difficult and time-consuming, not to…
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Thank you so much to Jade Reyner (Jade’s Jungle) for tagging me in her Work In Progress Report Meme. As is customary I shall share my WIP and then pass the meme on!
Photo credit: Wikipedia
1. What is the name of your current WIP?
The Widow’s Club: Book 3
2. Ready to do a cover reveal?
Oh, god, no, I haven’t even outlined the novel (whoops, should I have admitted that?)
3. How many words are you into it?
Ahem … (cough) … 0 … (cough)
4. Goal word count by the end of the week?
This week? Let’s just say I plan to produce at least 50,000 words by end of July.
5. Goal word count for the entire manuscript?
Hmmm, I don’t do word count goals, except during NaNoWriMo writing challenges. As long as a novel tells a story well, what matters if it is 50,000 words or 500,000 words?
6. What genre does your work in progress fall within?
Mystery/Suspense
7. When would you *like* to publish this project?
Within my lifetime or by end of 2014, which ever comes first.
8. Go to page 5 of your manuscript and pick a sentence at random to share with us!
Mary would have preferred a simple divorce case, the old “spy on my spouse so I can get evidence for a divorce” type of investigation.
(I’m cheating. This sentence is from The Widow’s Club: Book 1.)
9. Will this WIP turn into a series book?
Actually, Book 3 is the end of the series, unless the series becomes wildly popular. Then perhaps 6 or 9 books. Must be divisible by 3 because I love the number 3.
10. What has been the hardest challenge in working on this WIP?
Right now answering these questions because the WIP is still in my head. Seriously, convincing myself that I have a viable enough concept to continue writing. I have three main characters–Mary, Maggie, and Melissa–and the novels alternate among their POVs as well as other characters such as the victim and the perpetrator.
11. What has been your favorite part of working on this WIP?
Writing from different POVs. The cousins (Mary, Melissa, and Maggie) are very different from each other and it’s a fun challenge to write from the perpetrator’s perspective as well. (My husband worries that I enjoy imagining the mind of a sociopath much too much.)
12. Any special treat planned for when you finish the final draft of your WIP?
Eat a whole pint of Americone ice cream.
13. Tag three people to complete this WIP meme!
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What’s this? Another award for moi? I was dumbstruck to receive two awards in as many days. I have to give a BIG thanks to Lissa at http://thelissachronicles.wordpress.com/. She kindly nominated me for this award, and I am truly honored. I love Lissa’s blog and I love that she’s a Supernatural fan :) Without further ado, let me proceed with the rules for this award:
- Include the award’s logo in a post or on your Blog.
- Link to the person who nominated you.
- Answer 10 questions about yourself.
- Nominate 10 Bloggers.
- Link your nominees to the post and comment on their Blogs, letting them know they have been nominated.
Since I am new to this award, I’ll answer some of the same questions that Lissa did.
- Favorite color: Pink; but I wear a lot of black and gray and white … go figure.
- Favorite animal: Cat (domestic)
- Favorite number: 3; I have 3 cats and that seems like an ideal number since I’ve cared for as few as one and as many as six at one time.
- Favorite non-alcoholic drink: Earl Grey tea with a touch of milk and a packet of Equal; it’s what gets me going in the morning.
- Favorite alcoholic drink: dirty gin martini; I had my first one ever two years ago in New Orleans and loved it, and so far, New Orleans is the only place where I’ve had dirty gin martinis
- Prefer Facebook or Twitter: Twitter these days; I have a Facebook account but it’s not as much as fun as it used to be.
- My passion(s): My husband, my cats, my writing, my friends, my knitting
- Prefer getting or giving presents: I prefer giving. I have everything I ever could need or want.
- Favorite city: San Francisco; I only lived there 3 1/2 years, but it feels like home for me whenever I go back.
- Favorite TV show: Supernatural; the boys just get better as they get older :)
Drum roll for my 10 nominees:
http://shareenayoub.wordpress.com/
http://thejennymacbookblog.wordpress.com/
http://myownfantasys.wordpress.com/
http://mrsfletcherscloset.wordpress.com/
http://writingsofamrs.wordpress.com/
I notified every one of the nominees. Life is good! Thanks again, Lissa, and thanks to everyone who follows my blog ;)
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Wow, I have been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by Valeriu dg Barbu (http://valeriudgbarbu.wordpress.com/) who writes truly lovely and provocative poetry. I am honored. The rules for this award, as I’m sure many of you know, is to: (1) thank the blogger who nominated me and provide a link to his blog, which I have done; (2) nominate 15 other bloggers for the award, which I will do shortly; and (3) reveal 7 things about myself.
(1) Again, thank you to Valeriu for the kindness of nominating me.
(2) Here are 15 bloggers that I now nominate (and I will try to inform each of them of the nomination as quickly as I can ;)):
http://ericjohnbaker.wordpress.com
http://literarylandofalysia.wordpress.com/
http://thelissachronicles.wordpress.com/
http://rickmallery.wordpress.com/
http://sarahcradit.wordpress.com/
http://spilledxink.wordpress.com/
http://kmoonstone.wordpress.com/
http://expateyeonlatvia.wordpress.com/
(3) Finally, seven things about myself:
- I’m comfortable with making lists
- I spent the first 21 years of my life in central New York state, where there are more cows than people (at least there were before the dairy farms folded)
- I drove cross-country to Oakland, CA, in a 1966 Dodge van, in the late 70s, a truly amazing feat for a serious introvert
- I left my heart in San Francisco and eventually moved to the South, to an undisclosed location
- I have now lived in the South for more years than my original birthplace. I’m sure that means something but I don’t know what (or don’t want to know)
- I left my heart in San Francisco … oh, I said that already. OK, I want to move back to San Francisco before I die
- Yup, I’m old enough to be most of y’all’s grandmother, but I work hard at keeping my figure and staying sexy at 55 (whoops, TMI!!)
Disclaimer: At the time of this posting, I’ve managed to only notify half of my nominees because my DSL is tired and wants to go to bed … needs its beauty sleep, I guess:( Will try again tomorrow!
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I am slowly … ever so slowly … getting back into writing. I’ve been on a self-enforced hiatus for the last several months, where I allowed myself to be suck up into a lifestyle that I wasn’t enjoying a whole lot because it left virtually no time (or energy, which is more important) for writing. I’m writing this post with a bit of trepidation … am I really ready to take up my blog again? Or am I just going to make one lame post and then disappear from the blogosphere for an undetermined length of time?
Well, I’m here now, and I think that’s all that really counts … And it’s not like I’ve been totally unproductive. During my hiatus, I’ve had the pleasure of coming across a delightful blog called Dollar Bin Horror. It’s a fun blog by “Rhonny Reaper” (not entirely her real name, of course) where she writes about finding great horror films for cheap and also interviews horror writers. Yes, one of my (many) guilty pleasures is horror films, especially the old classics with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, and Roger Corman films. Check out Dollar Bin Horror and see why I’ve been smittened.
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We have finally arrived at a point in our maturity as a society that a woman could at least be a serious contender for the presidency. Women of my generation have had the satisfaction of seeing glass ceilings shattered, from corporate offices to the US Supreme Court. But where one glass ceiling may be removed, another will take its place. According to this Sunday’s NY Times, the blogosphere (purportedly a true democratic marketplace of ideas) has its own glass ceiling. The article states that while 14% of men and 11% of women blog, women’s contributions to the web are much less likely than men’s to be noted: “Yet, when Techcult, a technology Web site, recently listed its top 100 Web celebrities, only 11 of them were women. Last year, Forbes.com ran a similar list, naming 3 women on its list of 25″ (click here for the full NY Times article).
Sigh. Do female bloggers need to use male pseudonyms to be taken seriously, as did our scribbling ancestor George Eliot (nee Mary Ann Evans)? Consider Techcult’s methodology for selecting the “top 100 Web celebrities”:
“We gathered around 200 potential names and queried them on Google to see how many results they would generate. Some minor adjustments were made, and the 100 names with the highest number of results were profiled […]” (click here to read the full article). As someone who works in the social sciences, I had to wince when I read this. So not scientific! From whom did they gather 200 names? If you were not in that first 200, then you were SOL. Judging from the comments to the article, a number of male “Web celebrities” were overlooked, but, really, only 11 out of 100 are women in this list? And one of the women is Tila Tequila?
Perhaps my sister bloggers should take comfort in knowing that at least this list was so unscientifically produced but it’s not worth taking seriously … except that it’s cited in the NY Times, thereby giving it a broader reach than it deserves. But let’s take heart. The blogosphere is relatively new, and it is a great tool with which to connect with each other, giving us a strength in numbers that would have been unimaginable in the days of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. We can start by joining networks such as BlogHer.
Blog on, sisters!
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I know that good writing can make me laugh, and I got more than a few chuckles over at The Interminable Writer. The blog won my heart with this quote:
“Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterward.” ~ Robert Heinlein
KJ, the Interminable Writer, has that straight-talkin’, potty humor that reminds me of the late great Molly Ivins, except that KJ makes humor out of her writing (or efforts to write, hence her choice of quotes) while Ivins made her humor out of politics.
Writing is a lonely, solitary business. A sense of humor is necessary for survival, so if you ever need a quick pick-me-up, click on over to The Interminable Writer.
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Today’s guest blogger on the Writer’s Resource Center is … moi! Check it out by clicking here. My topic is oversharing AKA TMI (too much information). In my guest post, I lay out some of my precepts for sharing or not sharing. However, as I note in a comment to my post, its the context of a blog that may drive the extent to a blogger shares or doesn’t share:
“The trigger for my post was the Emily Gould article that was printed in the Sunday New York Times some weeks ago (click here for the article). I still haven’t fully sorted out my feelings about the extent to which she overshared (and even the idea that she was paid to do so). Some of my favorite essay writers use personal disclosure as a way to draw in readers and also lay bare any biases they might have toward their subject. So part of me really doesn’t want to sanction oversharing in general. It all depends on the context.”
I think this is a topic that has a long life ahead of it. So how much of yourself do you share in your blog or on your website?
Marie at 1 Write Way 