Blog Archives
Celebrate the Small Things: Every day is Another New Day
Fridays are all about celebrating the Small Things thanks to a weekly blog hop created by author Lexa Cain. Joint co-hosts this week are authors L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog The mission coincides with what I’m hoping to do with my own writing, inspire and focus on the light when those slippery shadows creep around our shoes. Want to sign up? Click Lexa Cain’s link to find out more.
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- I helped my kiddos make teacher appreciation thank you cards. I love to see what makes them happy about their teachers. My favorite thought was how my daughter’s teacher made her feel safe.
- The gym! Finally! I made it made four days this week. Being the high energy person I am, I NEED the gym. LOL
- Hero Lost: Mysteries of Death and Life is here! I am honored to be one of the 12 authors chosen this year in the anthology. Here’s a link to our website with how to purchase it.
- A book signing! I scored a book signing at a local bookstore in town called Inklings Books and Coffee Shoppe. Come and join me. I’ll post the info on my author facebook page later today. I’d love to see you there.
- Lastly, I bought a new house! I’m so excited! I might be busy right now as the end of the school year wraps up, a new house and a book launch, but sometimes you don’t get to pick the timing. You put on your best most fanciest shoes and you dance on.
How about you? Did you have any pleasant surprises this week?
It’s Friday! Yay! That’s reason to celebrate in my eyes.
Friday Celebrations: New Story Beginnings and Author Stephanie Faris
This week, I chose to do a couple of things to lighten my heart. First of all, I joined a Celebrate the Small Things blog hop. The mission coincides with what I’m hoping to do with my own writing, inspire and focus on the light when those slippery shadows creep around our shoes. Want to sign up? Click Lexa Cain’s link to find out more.
So this week, my accomplishment is starting a new manuscript. My writing partner Becky challenged me to start a series of flash fiction pieces based off of Pinterest images for writing prompts. I turned out three really great pieces, and one of them stemmed from a really crazy nighttime dream. I don’t care too much for alien sort of stories, but my dream wouldn’t let me go. So I transformed my strange dream of outer space beings into Star People. I always have to add that fantasy sort of twist. And no, there will be no spaceships. I will leave it to those creative tech authors to provide those wonderful details. I’ll keep you posted as I continue to brainstorm my whole new world.
My second good thing I’d like to share? Piper Morgan Makes a Splash, a new Children’s book out by Stephanie Faris. I’ve only recently met this sweet lady. I love the cover art, and I think Stephanie’s smile is really great too. So happy Friday all, reflect on the good things. And yay for Friday!
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Piper Morgan Makes a Splash
By Stephanie Faris
Blurb
Piper Morgan tries her hand at acting in the fourth book of the charming Piper Morgan series.
Piper’s mom is helping out at a local pool shop, and the owner wants to shoot a commercial for his store. Piper thinks it’s the PERFECT opportunity to get in front of the camera and experience a little bit of showbiz. But will Piper’s contribution to the TV commercial make a splash—or will it go belly-up?
Where can you buy the book?
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
Bio:
Stephanie Faris is the author of the middle grade books 30 Days of No Gossip and 25 Roses, as well as the Piper Morgan chapter book series. An accomplished freelance writer, her work has appeared in Writer’s Digest, The Writer, Pacific Standard, Mental Floss, and The Week, among many others.
How to Find Her?
Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
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IWSG POST 19: Honest Marketing Platform Tips I Need Now
[I wrote this post as a member of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group where we share our worries and also offer support and encouragement to each other on the first Wednesday of every month. If you’re a writer like me and you’re looking for a bit of support, you can click the link and sign up here]
This month’s awesome hosts are, Christopher D. Votey, Madeline Mora-Summonte, Fundy Blue, and Chrys Fey.
Thank you so much! And thank you founder Alex J. Cavanaugh!
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This month’s IWSG Post is all about time and promoting. As a busy mom of two kiddos most days, and also managing them alone quite often, I fight time on a minute-by-minute basis. Especially lately where I’ve tried to jump back into the marketing world hardcore, only to find myself struggling to dog paddle above water.
So in a spin-off on the IWSG post question this month: “Have you taken advantage of the annual A to Z Challenge in terms of marketing, networking, publicity for your book? What were the results?” I choose to think about social media and time. I am insecure about it all, and how to make marketing easier. Is that possible, by the way? 🙂
Blogging every day is not a doable feat. What is doable is a quick post on tips I’m currently studying on writer platform. I haven’t started these tips yet, but by golly, I intend to.
So here goes ALL, MY QUICK AND HONEST writing tips for marketing from two sources: The Book, Create your Writer Platform by Chuck Sambuchino, and a fantastic website I stumbled across The Write Life. WOW.
According to the book, Create your Writer Platform by Chuck Sambuchino, every writer should start with a website, a blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts. I, however, am currently testing the waters of Instagram and Tumblr. Recently, I stumbled onto Quora for some reason. LOL. I have no idea how I signed up for that one, but I keep getting subscribers. 😉
- Sambuchino, says, start by defining who you are, your strengths and market to those strengths. Review your top trafficked blog posts for ideas to see how others connect with you.
- Sambuchino suggests writing short posts with pointed headlines of about 5 words. Consider catchy statements, and spinning your posts in a way to entice the reader like a cat and mouse game.
- Twitter and Facebook are two of his tops marketing vehicles along with Google+. Posts should gear to 10% promoting, and the rest should be filled with personality.
- Use links, hashtags, and always keep an interaction going by answering comments or starting conversations, and also share posts.
- One tip I liked from The Write Life mentioned scheduling tweets in addition to general social interaction. They suggest 3 scheduled posts a day via HootSuite, Buffer or MeetEdgar. I have yet to check these links out.
- Pick two platforms to focus your efforts. Post once a day and the suggestions were also Facebook and Twitter.
- Lastly, another tip from the website came from “Live Periscope broadcasts” of writing and brainstorming topics. I haven’t ventured into podcasts or live streaming, but maybe in the month of May, I’ll tempt something to promote Hero Lost: Mysteries of Death and Life, by visiting my dad’s farm country in the middle of Kansas. I haven’t decided if I can make the trip happen yet.
Question: What’s your favorite social media vehicle? How many posts do you make a day or week? Do you find success with scheduling posts?
Thank you.
IWSG VI: When Research Turns Scary, How Do You Sleep?
[I wrote this post as a member of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group where we share our worries and also offer support to each other on the first Wednesday of every month. If you’re a writer like me and you’re looking for a bit of support, you can click the link and sign up here]
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I sat at my kitchen table just the other night, flipping through a couple of different research books I’d ordered from the library.
* Note the photo to the side, Exhibit A: my kitchen table, my I-Pad, my son’s dinosaur pen, and my favorite purple notebook. The stack of books you see in the picture is one of two stacks.
I had just read through an entire introduction on benevolent spirits and first hand accounts from a demonologist when my heart sped up. I glanced from wall to wall, back over my shoulder, listening for any unusual sounds in my house.
Is it real? I wondered.
Part of being a writer for me, is the ability to feel and see things as if I’d actually been through them. My body certainly believed whatever I was reading was very real in the moment. And when my cat turned the corner in the kitchen, just a moving shadow in the corner of my eye, well, he scared the holy Moses out of me.
Research can be a wonderful thing. In science, it gives you the what’s been done, the next questions, basic facts and formulas to use as a foundation. In writing, I follow the same steps to bridge the histories with whatever world is stirring in my own mind.
Then the fears kick in.
I admit, I was the kid with my head in my own mother’s lap at the movie theater after I’d begged to see Aliens 2 with her and my brother. “No mom! I’m not too little! I’ll watch the whole movie, I swear!”
Wrong.
I, again, was the little girl too scared to walk across the floor in the basement, seeing imaginary JAWS coming out from under the couch hungry to eat me. So I jumped from couch to couch to the stairs if I ever had to go down the basement for who knows how many months.
Research is critical, and I thought I grew up. I thought I could wear an investigative hat this time.
So I face a dilemma. Finish the research, or manage my heart rate so I can sleep. Last week, I think I went three or four days wondering what was really hiding in the shadows late at night. Every groan in the house, every little shifty shape on the walls or the carpet set my imagination into a full on sprint.
Exhibit B: The shadow stalking cat, Mr. Maverick.
Sigh. I have to finish this book though. After a week of rest from my research I am finally sleeping again. But I have to go back.
Question: Ever been there? I’d love to hear how you manage to sleep and research scary things.
Thank you 🙂
And a big thank you to this month’s hosts:
Lauren Hennessy
Lisa Buie-Collard
Lidy Wilks
Christine Rains
Mary Aalgaard
Cloud Nine Girl 