All Fired Up

Playground 51: The American Magic School

2011-04-05T05:09:00.000-07:00

Finally got the website up, with a sample chapter, and the first book should be up for sale on Amazon this weekend (depending on how long it takes me to format everything).

http://Playground51.com

Focus Driven

2011-01-29T03:03:00.000-08:00

I admit it, I lost my focus. You could probably tell because blog updates have been few and far between the last couple of months. Sure the holidays had to have a lot to do with it, and personal relationship problems had a lot to do with it, but the other business i'm trying to run has a huge part of it too.

As the saying goes, you cannot serve two masters. And Lord, if that ain't the truth! ,I'm sitting here 5:40 in the morning, reassessing my goals and trying to get back on track.

The good news is, I finally got myself a domain name and a web hosting package. My site is there, but since my laptop isn't working right now, i haven't been able to design the site yet. Should be up and running soon though, income taxes are on the way and I'm planning on buying myself a nice desktop computer, with plenty of space for all my web-design/writing programs.
I'm also getting a nice new desk where I can keep all my stuff organized, maybe a new all-in-one printer, since the one I'm using now is acting funny.

Inclosing, I'm just glad a i caught myself worrying about my other business too much. I was about to drop another $100 to buy domain names for it, and I still might, but I have to remember, the writing comes first. The writing is what I've been dedicating most of my life too. The writing is where my focus needs to be. Even though the other job offers quick, easy money, and lord knows writing full novels (which is what I'm presently doing, haven't gotten into writing novellas yet) is anything but easy. But as morbid as it sounds, when I'm dead, i'd rather be known as a great writter then a great internet marketing person. Sooo this is me, getting back on the ball. Very happy I caught myself before I fell off completely. :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011-01-01T15:18:00.000-08:00

Okay,so I've been gone for over a month! Sorry, I don't plan my vacations so i can't alert people when i decide to take one. I knew the holidays were going to make me too frazzled to concentrate on my writing, so I decided to take that month off that Steven King suggested in his book "On Writing". Now when I do the final edit I can decide if the story is going the way I wanted it to, and edit it with new eyes. I also got a job blogging for someone else so that takes up a lot of time as well. Still, the ball is rolling and i'm ready to get this book out there!

Plus, I got someone to draw a pic of one of my characters, VEGAS! LOL! I think it's cute, not exactly how i pictured him, but I love other peoples interpretations of my characters. Just the kind of boost I needed to get me motivated and get my story out there.

What sweet early Christmas gift for me! Ohh, and sample chapters of the book are coming soon!

Back From the Holiday Hussle

2010-11-27T20:02:00.000-08:00

It’s been a bit since my last posting (you can thank holiday insanity and trying to raise funds for christmas) and I have so much on my mind, I don’t even know where to start. :P

First thing is I want to sing the praises of my Natural Reader. This little gizmo can valuable to any writer. I use this thing to read my story back to me when i've had enough of reading it myself. Editing with this program is awesome, because it reads your story back to you and you can hear when something isn't right.

Usually the advice is to read your book outloud, but I find this kind of tedious and less effective than natural reader. Even though you are less likely to see words that aren’t there when you read out loud, I find that I still make that mistake sometimes. The natural reader doesn’t make that mistake, it see’s only what’s there and it makes re-reading the same book (that you’ve read 300 times already, no doubt) a little more fun.

Another thing I wanted to talk about is Amazon and how it almost totally DESTROYED ITSELF over a book about how to molest children. Unbelievable! I'm late with my rant so im sure everyone is over it, but this really pissed me off. And not just for the reasons everyone else is pissed off about it either, uh-uh, I have some completely selfish reasons for being upset :P

I was one of the, i'm sure, THOUSANDS of people who wrote angry letters to amazon telling them to pull the book out of their stores. If nothing else, think how bad this makes the self publishing industry on Amazon look? I KNEW there was going to be the industry slaves who were going to use this as evidence that no book should be published without gatekeepers making sure it's proper for the viewing public.

Yes, during a few online discussions about this fiasco, a notable one being on the Huffington Post, I saw people stating exactly that!

As if all self published authors are just trying to slip complete anarchy past the publishers and get it to the public to dismantle what's left of our good society. And look, to be fair, my book does contain a pedophile in it, but rest assured, my pedophile is attacked and humiliated in just about every section he appears in! And that's good, that's how it should be.

Because pedophiles are DEFINITELY bad people, and we cannot make fun of people because of their race--we cannot make fun of people because of their religion--But damn-it, do not tell us that we cannot make fun of pedophiles!!!!!

Evil does not deserve civil rights!

Btw, while we're on the subject of pedo's...the news and media beats it into our heads that you can't tell a pedophile by how they look, and i do believe that's true...but every pedo I ever seen on the news LOOKS exactly like you would expect a pedo to look...

BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!!!

Anyway, that's my mini rant. I was feeling guilty for not blogging here. On top of everything else I'm working on my new blog so that's another reason for the slowness getting the post out.

Hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving. I did, now to go bust my ass to see if I can top it come Christmas.

My Secret

2010-11-08T20:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, the truth is there's a little secret about my work that i've been keeping. I was going to explain myself eventually...after I felt like I was really a success at this self publishing thing.

The secret is that I actually did have an agent that was interested in this work. A very big agent (in the YA fantasy world anyway). Now, he asked for a copy of my manuscript, but I guess I didn't feel the work was ready to send it to him yet. Then by the time I felt it was ready, I had gotten all swept up into the idea of self publishing. Even though a lot of people were telling me I was crazy for it.

And I did feel crazy for doing this up until a few days ago. I mean, who the hell doesn't jump at the chance to work with an agent? Only a moron right?
Imagine if I fail at this self publishing thing. OMIGAWD! I gave up the chance to work with a real AGENT! What a failure!

Except, the more blogs I read, the more I talk to other authors in and out of the industry, the more unspectacular the whole traditionally publishing route sounds to me. And at this point no matter what happens, I know I wouldn't be happy publishing traditionally. Why? Because I know my personality and I am not the type who can tolerate suits telling me what "art" is. There are suits and there ate artist. Suits know marketing, they know distribution channels, they know other suits, but ART? No.

Now, I get it. To be a rich, super successful writer you need marketing, you need suits. So rather then deal with suits I've restructured my goals, career wise, a little. My dream is no longer to be a multi-millionaire. My dream is to be one of the best writers ever. Not "the best that I can be", the best writer, PERIOD.

A suit isn't going to help me accomplish that goal. A suit is going to kick my book into shape so that it sells lots and lots of copies. An editor? Yes, they definately help. An agent? Hmmmm.... Publisher? Not really.

I'm putting this out now rather then when I become a "successful indie writer", because a successful indie writer is someone who sells more then 100 copies of their book. Call me conceited, but I'm pretty sure I can sell more than 100 copies of my awesomeness :) . So, I'm going to say that I'm successful enough to be sure about the path I'm on.

Another thing about the agent that contacted me. He has an author in his stable ("stable" i don't know what else to call them)who is very successful. I see her books everywhere, that's why I got weak in the knees when this particular agent seemed intrested. I went to this authors website and a read an except of her book..hmmm what can i say. I was not impressed. A little chigrined may be better wording for it. But at the time it was cool to me. I mean if he liked her book he would certainly LOVE mine. Better chances for me right? And maybe that was true, maybe it wasn't. But now looking back on that, it just proves my point that suits know marketing. They don't know art. The fact is you can sell ANYTHING if you market it, just right.

So, knowing that fact. I thinks to myself "If a suit can pretend to know art, maybe a writer can pretend to know marketing". Marketing is an ART in a way, isn't it? Yes, there is an art to it. Red paint here, in this portrait, bring out this emotions, expresses this idea. A finely worded ad, placed here, will get me X amount sales. Check stats to see if my message is reaching the public. HAZAH! My bank account will show that my art is relevant! AHAHA!

Everyone always uses the music industry as an example so im going to do it to. Industry music today SUCKS. Everyone knows it. The stuff on the radio is crap and you have to be drugged up to stand to listen to it. That's probably why so many American teenagers are hocked up on anti depressants and ADHD drugs.

Just sayin'.

Industry music sucks butt. And why is that? Because suits don't know shit about art. They'd rather brainwash the public into buying nonsense because it's easier and less risky for them. You can't tell for sure how real art will catch people, because all emotions aren't the type that lead people to buy stuff. And the emotions that lead people to buy stuff are the only emotions suits care about.

The suits jobs just keeps getting easier, they don't have to put any work into an artist anymore. Computerized voices and the artist are already trained to follow orders by the time they reach that level.

Now I will admit, industry books aren't anywhere near as bad as industry music. There are some pretty good industry books out there. But the devil is in the process and how the authors get treated. The writer has already cleaned and polished the book by the time an agent reads it. The writer has done all the hard work, yet gets somewhere between 5-8% of the profits. Is that fair? Doesn't seem it to me. If it seems fair to you then by all means go for it.

But before I sign on with anyone, I want to see if maybe I might be as good at playing a suit as the suits are at playing artist. Gotta be brave, gotta be bold and sometimes do things that are a little crazy.

Bad Writer, BAD!

2010-11-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

To be honest, I've been slacking off on the writing this past week. Posting to my blog took a long time coming this week, and I haven't gotten as much work done as I would have hoped too.

My excuses are good, so I can't be too hard on myself. I've been sick with the kidney problems, my son is sick with a fever and I had a fight with the hubby that resulted in him being kicked out.

Why? To be honest i'm not sure if i'm ready to get THAT personal over the internet. But let's just say it's bad and a resolution won't come easy.

Everything is upside down and chaotic right now. There has been some good news, but the bad news has just sapped a lot of the energy right out of me.

Anyway, i'm going to try to get some writing done today. If i don't set fire to my computer and just chuck it out of a window from stress, then I guess it'll still count as a successful work day. : )

Cheers

Interesting Article I just read from Self-Publishing Review

2010-11-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

I thought this article was interesting and I had to repost. Hope you enjoy if you haven't read it already.

http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/blog/2010/07/19/the-trouble-with-amazon-critics/

The Trouble with Amazon Critics

There’s an interesting post at the Nation called The Trouble with Amazon that’s a few shades too negative about Amazon’s influence on publishing. Though Amazon has done some seriously shady things regarding pricing and strong-arming publishers, it also has advantages. The main issue I have with the piece is this:

Take the issue of choice: when it comes to the books it stocks, Amazon makes no pretense of selectivity. Provided it carries an ISBN and isn’t offensive, Amazon is happy to sell any book Joe Schmo cares to publish. “We want to make every book available—the good, the bad and the ugly,” Bezos once said. Spurred on by Amazon and the growth of self-publishing companies like XLibris and Lulu, the number of new books being published has soared. According to industry statisticians Bowker, just over 172,000 titles were released in 2005. Last year “traditional” output had risen to 288,000 titles, a significant enough increase by itself. But adding what Bowker describes as “self-published” and “micro-niche” books, the total inflates to a staggering 1 million new titles in just twelve months….
This apparent anomaly of greater choice resulting in a narrower selection finds a corollary in Amazon’s use of metrics to recommend titles based on previous purchases. The algorithms at work here are highly sophisticated and are widely credited with expanding consumer choice. Yet such metric-based systems can simultaneously increase the variety of books purchased by individual customers while decreasing the overall variety of books bought by everyone. This is because, as blogger Whimsley explains, “In Internet World the customers see further, but they are all looking out from the same tall hilltop. In Offline World individual customers are standing on different, lower hilltops. They may not see as far individually, but more of the ground is visible to someone.”
The loss of serendipity that comes with not knowing exactly what one is looking for is lamented by ex-Amazon editor James Marcus: “Personalization strikes me as a mixed blessing. While it gives people what they want—or what they think they want—it also engineers spontaneity out of the picture. The happy accident, the freakish discovery, ceases to exist. And that’s a problem.”

There are a number of ways in which this is wrong. For one, to think that surfing on Amazon from book to book, listmania list to listmania list, does not offer some amount of serendipity really doesn’t understand how people discover things on the web. But more importantly, Amazon is just better at linking people up with books. You can make a good argument that it strips away the personal touch of a bookstore, but there are some things at which a computer is better, especially considering it’s accessing every book that’s ever been in print.

An example – I recently bought my brother a couple of books for his birthday. They were:

and

He works in psychology and loves graphic novels so these books were perfect. And they were linked up side by side on Amazon. The odds of me going into a bookstore and the store having one or both of these fairly obscure books – plus an employee knowing about a book if I ask, “Hey, this looks good. Any others like it?” is small. Not small: impossibly small. I have found a great many books in this way, as I’m sure have other people.

At the same time I acknowledge what is being lost with this new system. I recently watched this documentary (recommended):

What Wal-Mart has done to communities (not to mention its own employees) is a nightmare. Amazon’s discounts are having the same effect. Bookstores are going out of business. Additionally:

Blocked at every turn in their attempts to escape this relentless race to the bottom, publishers have seen their revenues fall, forcing many to make cutbacks and concentrate more on lead titles, the blockbusters that, accountants tell them, are the most profitable component of their business. Fewer staff and falling promotion budgets mean that books by less established authors—the “mid-list”—receive ever shorter shrift.

So Amazon is having an effect on publishers in the same way that brick and mortar Barnes & Nobles have had a negative effect – forcing publishers to go for the big sale. It goes on:

Look at books like Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies or Roberto Bolaño’s Savage Detectives,” says Paul Yamazaki, chief buyer at City Lights in San Francisco. “These are serious, sophisticated books that began life with modest expectations, but after dedicated work by the publisher and independent booksellers, they went on to reach wider audiences. This sort of publishing is under threat today.”

I don’t buy it. Are you telling me that Amazon played no part at all in the popularity of Savage Detectives? Of course not – and if there’s evidence of anything it’s that this new system is much friendlier on independent writing than the old gatekeeper/brick & mortar bookstore system. Especially if you take into account ebooks, a revolution spurred by the Kindle.

Here’s where I get lost:

“If left unchecked…predatory pricing policies will devastate not only the book industry, but our collective ability to maintain a society where the widest range of ideas are always made available to the public.”

The logic here makes limited sense. A site that carries everything gives less choice than a store that carries a couple thousand titles because of…human nature. My proselytizing about self-publishing is predicated on the exact opposite idea – the gatekeeping-obsessed publishing industry means that many ideas won’t see the light of day. An important book never finding a publisher is more pressing an issue than a “vetted” book being priced too low. Theresa Neilsen Hayden’s argument is thus:

A fixed $10 price point would certainly be good for Amazon’s ebook business, but it would take a shark-sized bite out of the market for hot new bestsellers, which is trade book publishing’s single most profitable area.
That revenue source is what keeps a lot of publishing companies afloat. It provides the liquidity that enables them to buy and publish smaller and less commercially secure titles: odd books, books by unknown writers, books with limited but enthusiastic audiences, et cetera.
My honest estimate is that the result would be fewer and less diverse titles overall, published less well than they are now.

This is persuasive. If publishers are losing money due to a dwindling book market, this will cut into their bottom line even more. Once we go all ebook and publishers aren’t making $30 on a hardcover, this will get even worse. No wonder they’re terrified.

The Music Industry

At the same time, this seems a bit of their own doing. Publishers seem to have fallen into the same trap as the music industry:

They can’t afford to cultivate bands for years and years. They can’t help them grow their fan bases one member at a time.
They need the artists in their stable to pump out the hits. They need their albums to go gold and platinum. They need to sell high volumes of the albums they have in their stable.
Why?
Because if they don’t they won’t be able to cover their huge overhead and won’t turn a profit.
This is why record labels love to work with other people in the music industry that are built around the top 20 “hits” model (i.e. MTV, radio, retail stores, Rolling Stone Magazine).
This is also why the music industry is failing. It’s built around the top 20% “hits” model and it has failed to adapt and move to the Internet and its bottom 80% “non-hits” model.

In part, we’re in a phase where publishers are obsessed with the hit model because that’s what Barnes & Noble – or Amazon – demand. But I have a suspicion this has something to do with the amount of overhead – i.e. giving a celebrity 7 million dollars, while not nurturing first-time writers who may have longevity. Publishers are terrified of the Brave New World of e-publishing because it will so drastically cut into their revenue. The answer isn’t to overcharge for ebooks – it’s to reform their overhead.

There are many things to fault Amazon for, but this seems like a fault – not with Amazon – but with traditional publishing. “A boss at Scribner, where I was a senior editor for two and a half years, announced at an editorial meeting that when it came to advances, “$50,000 is the new $100,000.” For one thing, $50,000 isn’t a terrible amount of money – but how many advances could be given out for Justin Cronin’s $3.75 million advance for The Passage?

I can hear writers thinking – but I want a million dollars! I do too: but I’d also like to see publishers publishing the widest variety of voices. Amazon has horrible faults, but this criticism seems to overlook traditional publishing’s own culpability. The end result of all this is more and more people looking to self-publish to avoid these pricing schemes and take more royalties.

The piece ends:

A healthy publishing industry would ensure that skilled authors are recompensed fairly for their work, that selection by trusted and well-resourced editors reduces endless variety to meaningful choice.

Ah-ha! That’s what this is about: gatekeeping. The subtext to this whole thing is aimed at self-publishers, not Amazon – “selection by trusted and well-resourced editors reduces endless variety.” I’m all for writers making a living, but suggesting that strident gatekeeping will increase our choice is frankly absurd.

17 Important Things To Do After You Start A Wordpress Blog

2010-10-25T03:26:00.000-07:00

Like I mentioned in my last post, i'm learning about blogging from a 12 year old. Lol! He has some awesome tips too, so awesome I think i'm seriously going to go back to WP to implement some more of his suggestions. I did one of his suggestions (joined feedburner) and I have noticed a dramatic increase in hits to my blog. HOORAH! Plus finding out somethings wacky with the posting option in my blogger blog is just giving me more incentive to go back to word press (I will miss this beautiful blogger theme though, it's going to be hard to find a WP theme i like).

Here's his page: http://www.glosonblog.com/17-important-things-to-do-after-starting-your-wordpress-blog/

Okay, here's his post. Another great resource for writers page, coming up!

his post will tell you what you need to do after you start your wordpress blog.

If you already have a wordpress blog, you can still do these things if you haven’t done them yet .

So, here is my checklist of the 17 important things to do after starting your wordpress blog! Enjoy!

(Psst…If you’re thinking about why you should start a blog, >> 22 Reasons for You to Blog
And if you don’t use wordpress, click here to read about why you should use wordpress).

1. Decide whether you want to ‘www’ or not

If you have noticed, some blogs, likehttp://mashable.com/, don’t use the ‘www’ in their address. And some blogs, likehttp://www.techcrunch.com/, use the ‘www’.

So if you type http://www.mashable.com, it will redirect to http://mashable.com, and vice versa.

One advantage of having a www is your blog address will look more formal.

And if you don’t use the ‘www’, your address would be shorter.

To decide, go to yourblog.com/wp-admin/options-general.php and change both the ‘WordPress address’ and ‘Blog address’ to http://www.yourblog.com, or vice versa.

WWW Image by bull3t

2. Set up a feed so people can subscribe to your blog

If you are wondering what a blog feed is, it is a slimmed-down version of a blog that is created to be easily syndicated. You can subscribe to it using email or an RSS reader. A feed is represented by the orange RSS icon.

Many people prefer to get updates of your new blog posts through this easy way.

You can set one up at feedburner (Here’s how mine looks like). It’s free and easy! Just type in your blog address and click Burn Feed .

After that, set up email subscriptions, which enables your readers to subscribe by email. Go to Publicize >> Email Subscriptions in order to activate it and get the form.

Not setting up email subscriptions is a big mistake when it comes to getting subscribers to your blog because most people don’t know about RSS readers. Also, about 50% of my blog subscribers subscribe by email, so email subscriptions is a must!

After that, put the form and the RSS icon on your blog and link it to your feed at feedburner so people can subscribe.

3. Install Feedburner Feedsmith

Feedburner Feedsmith is a plugin that detects all ways to access your original wordpress feed and redirects them tohttp://feeds2.feedburner.com/yourfeed.

This plugin is needed for feedburner to track every possible subscriber to your blog by redirecting those who access http://www.yourblog.com/feed to feedburner. So, click here to install this plugin!

4. Subscribe to your own feed via RSS and email

It’s important to subscribe to your own feed, because it lets you see what your subscribers see, and when something is not right with your feed, you’ll notice. Besides, it boosts your subscriber count by 1 too . Hehe.

You can either use an RSS reader or email to subscribe to your feed, but it is best if you subscribe to both of them.

If you have a google account (which you most probably do – if you use Gmail, you have one), you can go to Google Reader. After logging in, click ‘Add a subscription’ and type in your blog address there.

5. Get your blog a favicon

A favicon is the icon you see next to your browser address bar and in your browser bookmarks. Gloson Blog’s favicon is .

It helps you brand your blog and also helps people locate your site more easily in their bookmarks.

To do this,

1. Create a square image and upload it to http://www.html-kit.com/favicon/ to generate a favicon.

2. Download it and upload the .ico file it using an FTP client to /wp-content/themes/yourthemefilename.

3. Go to the wordpress administration area and then go to Appearance >> Editor.

4. Click on “header.php” to edit it.

5. Add this code on the line just before </head>:

<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”wp-content/themes/yourthemefilename/favicon.ico” type=”image/ico” />

(Be sure to replace ‘yourthemefilename’ with your theme file name )

6. Press Ctrl + F5 (Clear cache and reload) on your homepage. You should see it now!

6. Change the permalink structure

A permalink is the address of a blog post. This post’s permalink is http://www.glosonblog.com/17-important-things-to-do-after-starting-your-wordpress-blog/.

By default, the permalink structure is like this:http://yourblog.com/?p=123.

Instead of the post ID, I suggest changing it to http://yourblog.com/your-post-title in order to gain SEO benefits. Also, if a visitor looks at it, he will know what the post is about before clicking it.

To do this, go to yourblog.com/wp-admin/options-permalink.php and then, type in “/%postname%/” in Custom Structure.

Don’t worry about broken links because the default structure will redirect itself to the new structure .

For example, this post’s old permalink structure is http://www.glosonblog.com/?p=1833. Click it and see what happens .

Link photo by cindy47452

7. Write Your About Me page

An ‘About Me’ page is essential for every blog. When your readers are interested in your content,they want to know who wrote it. That’s when they go to the ‘About Me’ page.

Basically, it is just a page that tells who you are, what is your blog about, interesting things about you, and of course, a picture of yourself.

It really helps your readers to know you and your blog better! (Here’s my ‘About Me’ page by the way.)

8. Set up a contact form

A contact form is an professional and easy way for your readers to contact you. It also protects your email address from spammers.

There are some wordpress plugins that allow you to put up a contact form. I recommendContact Form 7, a very popular contact form plugin.

After installing it, make a new page called ‘Contact’ and insert the form into it. (Here’s how it looks like on this blog )

9. and don’t forget the archive page too!

An archive page (here’s mine) is where people can find all the posts on your blog, from the first post to the latest post.

An archive page is important because it lets people discover your older content easily (and generate more pageviews).

To make an archive page, I recommend SRG Clean Archives, the one I’m using now. It’s clean and displays all your posts neatly.

If you are looking for a more creative and fun archive plugin, you should try Snazzy Archives, and here’s how it looks like.

10. Find a free theme and tweak it to make it unique

or hire someone to design it or design one yourself .

A theme (design) is really important to a blog because it represents the blog’s brand. Because if content is king, the design is the shiny robe and crown.

So I recommend you to find a not-so-common theme that you like. Then tweak it and make it a little (or better, a lot) different than the original.

One way is to change the structure of the theme by going to the Theme Editor (yourblog.com/wp-admin/theme-editor.php) in wordpress.

Another easier way is to change the images of the theme. The images are located in the theme’s folder.

After editing the images (like changing its color or texture), you can overwrite them to your blog using an FTP client like Filezilla.
(In the directory /wp-content/themes/yourthemefilename/images)

Be sure to press Ctrl + F5 to clear the cache to see the new design.

11. Set up your ping list

A ping list is a list of services that will be pinged each time you post. The services will notify sites and directories that you have posted a new post, thus giving you more exposure.

To set up your pinglist, go to the Update Services section in yourblog.com/wp-admin/options-writing.php.

And paste the sites you want to send a ping to. Note that the more pings you list, the more server resources your host has to use. So you might get suspended on a shared hosting if you use too much server resources.

This is a short recommended list of pings.

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2

http://bblog.com/ping.php

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://topicexchange.com/RPC2

http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates

http://xping.pubsub.com/ping

12. Install Google Analytics (or any site stats counter you want)

Site statistics counters are important for you to monitor, analyze and study your blog’s traffic, so you can get to know your visitors better

I recommend Google Analytics, because it’s quite advanced and has lots of features. It’s free and all you need is a Google Account.

Google Analyticator, a wordpress plugin, allows you to easily add a Google Analytics tracking code.

Note: And please don’t become a stataholic! Write more posts!

13. Install WordPress DB Backup to schedule blog backups

WordPress Database Backup, a wordpress plugin, allows you to schedule blog backups (hourly, twice daily, daily, weekly) easily and have them automatically sent to you by emailor stored in the server.

Backups are really important because if anything ever happens to your blog, you have the backup, your best defense.

14. Change the admin username

Most of the login usernames of wordpress blogs is ‘admin’. If your wordpress blog’s login username is ‘admin’, too, you should really change it to something that can’t be guessed easily because the default name makes hackers’ lives so much easier.

Changing it is super duper easy. Here are the steps to do it:

1. Go to the wordpress admin area.

2. Go to Users >> Add new

3. Fill in the details with a different username and give it administrator privileges.

4. Log out and log in with the new username.

5. Delete the ‘admin’ user.

6. When you do so, it will ask you whether you want to move the posts and links of ‘admin’ to another user or delete them. Attribute the posts to the new username you have just created.

Photo by Darwin Bell

15. Install the All-in-One-SEO Pack Plugin

All-in-One-SEO-Pack is a really popular wordpress plugin to do all the basic SEO things on your blog like page titles, post titles, meta tags, descriptions and those kinds of stuff. By default, the browser title of a wordpress blog post is:

Blog Title >> Blog Archive >> Post Title.

If you install All in One SEO, the structure will be changed to (or you can customize it):

Post Title | Blog Title

Which looks simply much better and shorter.

It also noindexes the date and category archives so that it won’t appear in search engine results pages and won’t receive duplicate content penalty.

16. Create your own 404 page

A 404 page is what your readers see when they go to a non-existing page on your blog. Like this:http://www.glosonblog.com/thispagedoesntexist.

By default, the page is just a ‘404 error – Page not Found’ 404 page that isn’t much help to your readers. Why not make it more helpful instead?

To do this, go to the wordpress admin area and then Appearance >> Editor. Click on 404.php to edit it.

Find the part of the code where it says <h2>404 Page Not Found</h2> or something like that. Then overwrite that line with this code (My version of a 404 page).

Be sure to make a backup of your old code before overwriting. It will probably work on most themes, but in some cases, it won’t, then you need to have a little bit of HTML knowledge in order to make it work.

<h2>404 Page Not Found</h2>
<p>Oopsie! The page you are looking for cannot be found! It might be renamed or removed. Please check your spelling or return to the homepage.</p>
<p>Or, you can also view our latest posts below. Hope you’ll enjoy them. Thanks! </p>
<p>
<h2>Latest Posts</h2></p>
<ul>
<?php
query_posts(‘posts_per_page=10′);
if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<li><a href=”<?php the_permalink() ?>” title=”Permalink for : <?php the_title(); ?>”><?php the_title(); ?></a>
<?php endwhile; endif; ?>
</ul>

Feel free to edit and customize the code! Do tell me if this code doesn’t work!

17. Write a post!

Still, without any content, a blog won’t be a blog.

So go on and write a post! Write a unique high-quality thought provoking post on a topic you are passionate about!

After that, promote it on twitter, facebook, stumbleupon, and so on and on. Ask your friends to read it too!

Photo by KatieKrueger
_______________

So here are my 17 things to do after starting a wordpress blog checklist. Be sure to bookmark this post and read it when you start a new wordpress blog!

A New Direction

2010-10-25T02:27:00.001-07:00

I've been spending a lot of time gearing up for the release of my e-book, but now I think I'm having a change of plans.

See, I have been totally jazzed about this becoming an Indie author thing. I'm getting swept up in the indie revolution, but really I have been stressing myself out to the point that this was becoming less fun and more of a drag. The biggest problem was my book just wouldn't be finished. Every time I think it's finished, it just didn't feel finished. There were some characters who I wanted to get into more, some scenes I wanted to add in and for some reason I couldn't wait for the second book to do it. It just didn't feel, RIGHT.

And believe me, I've been trying for a VERY long time to get this done. But recently I realized that there is just something about this story that cannot be contained in a standard 300+ page novel. It's not working, So, recently, I was on J.A. Konraths blog and someone dropped a post about creating a series of short 20,000 page (approximately) novels and placing them on Amazon.

At first I rejected that idea for this book because I've worked SOOOOO hard getting it to be a proper novel. It would have felt like all my hard work would be going down the drain if I changed the format now. Also, it's kind of scary because it's a new method of producing books online. Someone suggested the idea but I don't think anyone has actually done it before…or at least…they haven't done it and become commercially successful at it. So, even though I have found some wonderful Self-Publishing/ebook guru's like Zoe Winters, Deana Zhollis and J.A. Konrath, producing a series for release on the web is sort of new ground. Would fans really buy the books every week that they were released? How long would I be able to produce the books for one series before I move on to the next? A lot of questions and I'd have little guidance or a road map. I'd be learning through trial and error.

Another problem, releasing an e-book series on kindle would definitely make me a not-really-real writer according to the industry supporters. Self-publishing your own e-book makes you less than the industry writers, but self-publishing mini novelettes would be perceived as being even less then self-published authors who produce full length books. Why? I guess the further you drift away from the conventional rules of publishing the less of a "writer" you become. It would also probably kill my chances of ever being picked up by a big traditional publisher, but I have no interested in going with the big houses anymore. So I say: onward march! Part of the joy of going indy is I have room to experiment. I plan on turning the little novelettes into novels anyway, but I want to experiment with this new idea and see how it works. I own the rights to my story and characters so I can do whatever I want with them J

I got a message from Deana recently. She tried to post something to my blog but it wouldn't go through. I just tried myself and yeah, something is wrong with the posting option. ARGH! I apologize to anyone who was trying to post a message but couldn't. I just moved this blog from wordpress and now I'm debating moving back. I found this great website written by a twelve year old and he gives some great tips for maximizing your blog for hits. I tried just one of his suggestions and yeah I've been getting a ton of hits to this blog lately. I can't implement some of his suggestions though because I think they are specifically for WP blogs. Now I'm trying to decide if I'm going to buy a domain name with WP or get my own hosting/website package.

Anyway, back to work. I'm redoing the first seven or so chapters of my book to make it a mini novel. Be back soon with more nerdy, writer goodness!

Feeling under the weather

2010-10-20T23:11:00.000-07:00

PHOTO CREDIT: BLEND IMAGES PHOTOGRAPHY/VEER.COM

Yep, I've been feeling strangely weak lately, but I definitely have some exciting news. Advancing, advancing, advancing....that's the focus!

I also I have to update this blog more then once a week. I'll try to keep a schedule but who knows how that'll go. Anyway be back soon! Cheers to everyone.

The Power of A Good Outline

2010-10-13T03:15:00.001-07:00

I have been driving myself bat shit for two years trying to complete this book. I'm always at the point where I think it's done, but then when it's "done", I get this over whelming feeling that it isn't finished yet.

I have been so frustrated for such a long time with this. Finally, I decided to do an internet search to see if there was any advice for a writer who is in this kind if a slump and what they should do about it. I found this website that speaks about the "snowflake method" for designing a book. Now, first let me explain that I didn't have any kind of design or diagram or outline when I started this book. I had the ideas for a shit load of cool scenes in my head, comedy bits, dialogue and I just started typing. This has been an absolute failure of a writing method. Don't ever, ever, EVER DO THAT!! A total nightmare! Constantly writing and re-writing, trying to make this story make sense. Trying to make sure everything comes together seamlessly. Please, never do it that way! It will turn your hair grey! Yes, SERIOUSLY! I found grey hair!

The problem is though I TRIED to make an outline for this book but it never worked for some reason. I don't know why; It just didn't. I would sit there and write Chapter 1: such and such and such. Chapter 2: such and such and such. I would still write the book and feel like it wasn't complete and everything didn't match up. So I figured maybe the whole outline thing wasn't for me, even though I wrote two books in highschool using loose outlines that worked out fantastic.

Anyway, out of desperation I tried the snowflake method, cutting a lot of corners. I want my book out by December and his method of outlining a story would probably take at least a month. A month to outline a story is too much, especially since I have 300 pages already written. But I did the first two steps, writing the basic idea for the story, which was easy enough. Then writing detailed character outlines and writing the characters personal story.

As soon as I finished the character outlines for the story I started to feel better. Then hen I got to the character stories something amazing happened. I realized I could just link up each sentence of the characters story to a chapter/portion of my manuscript. For instance: "Character A wants to find the mystical key of light." (that's just an example, my story has no mystical key of light).All I had to do was take a pen or a pencil and draw an arrow to a little note that says "this is shown in chapter 3 when he's explains this to the hobgoblin king." Then, if there was a part of my character story that wasn't matching up to the manuscript, I would be able to see it clearly and change it.

After I did that I went back into my story and changed the titles. Rather than writing random titles for each chapter I wrote a very brief description for the major points in each chapter. I saved the descriptions, so that it created a big story/outline combining all the character stories. Now I had a real outline for my book and reading it over I could see what needed to be fixed, what didn't make sense, what could be cut, what could be saved and how to alter things so it blends together cohesively.

Whew! I know a lot of work but it's paying off. I can plan what's going to happen in each chapter and I have a clear definition of what these characters are all about and how to execute them. Now the funny thing is, if I had tried to make an outline from scratch before I started writing the book, it's wouldn't have been as dynamic and cool as the outline I've just made. The reason being that some things just don't make sense, but I force them to make sense in a way because I think it's a cool idea. Personally, I think it adds more drama and excitement to the story. It's like seeing a very serious room full stock brokers or something having a sort of "gathering of witches" for business types. Then an Italian guy with one of those curly mustaches, walks into the room and smacks one of them over the head with a giant halibut. Now, afterwards, I fully explain why the guy just got whooped with a dead fish, but stuff like that is a nice little wake up to anyone reading the story. That's the kind of thing that I might miss out on if I try being very organized and plotting my story out in the beginning. But I suppose this is why the creator of the snowflake theory makes the entire process last 1-2 months. You can't plot a whole story out in one night, it'll be lame.

Anyway, this all just goes to show that not everything works for everybody, but if you try you will find something that WORKS. Some people do perfectly well with the "Chapter 1-Chapter 2-Chapter 3" kind of outline. Some people might benefit from the writing out the story and then plugging in how and where you're going to show this and this and that.

This is a long boring post that only writers care about. And maybe not so much even then. Hope I didn't put anyone to sleep but finally making an outline I could work with just felt good!

Getting Distracted

2010-10-07T20:32:00.000-07:00

So, I was going to make a nice long post about getting distracted...but I haven't for a while because I figured "this writing in my blog thing is a distraction", so I've been delaying it and engaging in other distracting activities instead.

I learned something last night though, when I spent a few hours ours playing "City of Wonder" on facebook, feeling guilty the whole time because I should have been editing my book. There's a difference between "getting distracted" and needing a break. I felt great after I finished playing the game and was excited about getting back to work. Today, while I was at dialysis (I have severe kidney problems), I was watching a movie while adding some new parts to my book. It felt weird because that's the kind of writing I use to do when I was a teenager and in college. Serious writers do not sit in front of their television sets with their very serious novels trying to add in some extra chapters. I was totally distracted, but somehow, I produced some good writing. Yeah, come to think of it, my writing WAS a lot better back when I wasn't stressing over it.

I think maybe I've been --too--focused on this project. Being ambitious and going hard for your dreams is good, but there's some days when it seems every waking moment is focused on my story, and that's really too much.

I knew this starting your own business thing was going to be a journey with a lot of lessons learned. Glad this one was a nice, sweet, lesson that didn't cost me anything in my bottom line. It's alright to chill a little and have some fun. If nothing else, a relaxed mind makes my writing a better.

My hubby's asleep early so I'm going to go play with some more face book apps and then get back to work for a few hours :)

A Writing Career

2010-10-03T16:51:00.001-07:00

As expected, I can't decide on a pen name. I had a good one in mind but now I don't know if I like it anymore. Too androgynous maybe.

It's just like me to worry about silly little details like that. I think it's a Virgo thing. Some of us can be nit-picky and a perfectionist about certain things. It's taking me a while to learn things don't have to be perfect all the time, sometimes you just have to get it DONE. I'm trying to use that same logic when it comes to my book. If I waited till it was PERFECT it would never come out. I have to get it done.

I'm driving myself bat shit with all this editing. It's that perfectionist-ism (okay, I don't know the word for it) that is going to be the death of me and this project.

Alright, each chapter has to be relevant to the story. Each chapter has to be clear and add something to the bigger picture. Each chapter should be as short as possible. What's this characters motivation? What kind of emotional response will people have to this scene? Then I get side tracked by all the little details...change the story this way...change the story again to fit the other changes I made...then it's just me ripping my hair out in front of my laptop. I ain't got no more damn hair left.

I do have other books I'd like to write, plenty others. Today, I sat down and wrote the titles or general ideas of the books I'd like to write and launch after American Sorcery School. I had about 20 altogether, including a few series. I figure that's enough work for about 10 years, no? If I put out 2 books a year, which sounds like a comfortable pace, in 10 years my self pubbed books should have built me a pretty sturdy living.

In another 10 years I'll be 41. 20 books should be generating enough income for me to live off of and who knows what can happen in 10 years. Maybe I have a few really good years where I can manage more than 2 a year. Maybe one book or a series gets picked up for a movie or television show. You never know.
Either way, if I can keep a steady work pace, I should be able to say that I am making a living as a writer by the time I'm 41. If my books sell poorly, it would be because I'm not marketing myself properly and I would guess within ten years I would have gotten the jist of marketing. Either way it's going to be a wonderful feeling. Having a career that I fashioned and that I am totally in control of.

I never had "career plan" before that was so…so....simple? A career plan where I am actually as excited about the PROCESS and the WORK as I am excited about the MONEY and the TITLE. Honestly, I am more excited about the process and the work, because I know financially I am probably going to have it tough for the first few years while I build my career. I'm ready and I have my mind set and I'm going to give this all I've got.

There's a little more to the plan though, but I'm astounded by just how basic it is at the core. I mean if I had done this ten years ago…

If no one's noticed I put a new resources for writers page up.

http://allfiredup123.blogspot.com/p/places-to-list-your-blog.html

I'm still hard at work. Editing, editing, editing. GRRRRR!!! It's a labor of love. The day I have my book launched I'm going to have to run to the beauty salon and get a weave, or all the bald spots on my head plastered over or something…sigh…

Going Indie

2010-09-29T17:26:00.000-07:00

Editorial Ass is going to stop blogging. That's sad considering, I just found that blog a few weeks ago...but honey the changes it's made in me!

To be honest this post from that blog was one of the things that made me decide to go indie. I had been thinking about it, mulling it over in my head for a while...then I read that post about the "midlist", "personnel turnover at publishing houses", and "the bureaucracy of publishing". Bureaucracy is the kind of word you use to describe "unspeakable horrors" in a disinfected, corporate kind of way. I still get the jist of it though, the aura of that word is black. And as an author, I am not sure I can deal with all of that.

Talk about a broken heart thought. It's been my dream since a child to be a writer. But they sure don't tell you all about the "Mid-list", "personnel turnover" and "bureaucracy" in all of those interviews with Rowling, Meyer and King, do they? Nor do they ever really mention these things in all those "How To Be a Published Writer" books I've read.

No, no, no, no, they let these little details about the publishing industry out of the Disney stories they feed us over the big, glowing, hyp-no-box. And there's really nothing much I can do about it. Kinda made me feel like I wasted my entire life.

Dreams shattered. Now what? Suck it up? Buck up? Yeah, I guess. Destroy what's left of that "image" in my head of what a successful writer is, because it's a lie anyway and it's only going to cause pain now. Rebuild a new. Restructure in my head. Fixating on new destinations. Indie publishing, here I come!

I've been speaking to another author, Deana Zhollis and she reminded me that I haven't actually talked about my book yet. I don't know why I have this "thing" in my head that everything has to be perfect before I start advertising. Like, I don't feel I should start advertising my book until I have the PDF and everything ready for Createspace. Meanwhile, here's the real world and honestly, holding back isn't something that's good for publicity, is it? So, I placed my book cover and a short descrip down below.

Also, I'm trying to raise money to get the book published so I''m offering my design services. I can do book covers and websites; I'm working pretty cheap to build my portfolio, but I do great work :). I have gone to design school and I can work my way around Photoshop and Dreamweaver.

Here's my cover... tell me what Industry artist can do a better job then this? :P

The cover looks dark when I view it on my netbook, so I still gotta tweak it. I created it on my larger HP laptop and I may still change the title of my book. I'm sure the first thing people think about when they hear the title is "Harry Potter", which makes sense since the book parodies YA fantasy and American culture. But the story is actually about a teen boy who goes to a sorcery school in NY to learn how to resurrect his dead girlfriend. It's also edgier then most of the popular YA fantasies (contains lots of swearing, violence and drug references) which I know limits my audience a little, but hell, how can i write a book about a school in New York--even a sorcery school--where the students aren't dropping f-bombs like they've had military training in doing so? It's not pleasant but it's real. Fantastically real :)

If you or anyone you know needs a book cover or website designed, send them this way. I'll make a unique book cover for anywhere from $200-$300. And a webpages starting at about $200. I'm creating an official, "business-y" type website/portfolio for myself as we speak, so I'll post that up here. Just wanted to put a little advertisement for myself up here as well.

send me an e-mail, and well help each other out.

Resources for writers

2010-09-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

Hey, I'm scouring the net to find some help for writers, especially when it comes to advertising our books. Whenever I come across some interesting info, links, ideas, I'll make a page about it and hang it up for all of us to share.

The first page is a list of places where you can post ads for free. Might want to take advantage of these things and see if it makes a difference when it comes to hits for your site!

http://allfiredup123.blogspot.com/p/resources-for-writers-list-of-free-ad.html

Busy isn't even the word...

2010-09-24T06:38:00.000-07:00

This has to be a quick one because I'm going nuts trying to get all this work done. My to-do list has the ability to regenerate itself; as soon as I cross one task off, two more task appear in it's place like a demonic alien hydra! eeeek!!! -_-;;.

Updates?--Okay, I figured out why it's so expensive to POD my book. My book was too long. I just butchered the thing in half o_O;; WTF?! That act nearly made me quit life. After all the blood, sweat and tears (okay, no actual blood... but definitely tears demmit) to get my story to work and get it where it made sense, I had to DELETE nearly half the book, which means I practically have to rework the entire thing over again. ARRRGGHH *smoke shoots out of ears*!!!

Also, typing my book up innocently in Microsoft word I had no idea that 360 in whatever setting I was using (the "I-think-I'm-a-real-writer-setting?") translated to 466 pages in the ready for print template. At about $0.015 a page, my book would have been waaaaay too expensive.

Kill your darlings, Kill your darlings. Isn't that what Stephen King was talking about in "On writing"?
Well, my darling is dead and hopefully it will be born again, better and stronger. Actually it is...once you hit the delete button on about 10 chapters and realize that there is still a good story there...a more focused one...Yeah, you really didn't need that 10 chapters anyway and it was just mindless--though entertaining--filler.

I got the Lightning Source Application. **EXCITING**

It's long. I'm about halfway done with it. I'm at the part where they are asking me for banking info and I figure now was the best time for me to go open that business checking account so I can use that.

I've been struggling for a while deciding whether or not to use a pen name and I finally decided to go with a pen name. Why not? Having a secret identity is sexy :)

So my small business account will be opened under my pen name (if I can.. well see)
What else? Editing insanity. Lightning Source. Pen Name. Business Account. Oh and I still have the husband/son/life/and work thing. YESH! Better to be busy then bored though and I'm definitely not bored.

Alright, enough out of me for now...I got work to do!

More of the same and Plan B

2010-09-13T17:02:00.000-07:00

In my case, the caption should read "If father Christmas was an agent" because I haven't even got to the publishers yet. Yep, 3 more rejection letters. I know, I know, Everyone gets rejection letters you just have to keep with it. Yes, yes, I know. I still have two more agents out of my list that I haven't heard from yet. Amazingly, it's the two agents I wanted the most, including the one who had asked for sample chapters. So I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.

And I've already started looking into self publishing. Honestly, it seems like the thing to do now and it is kind of exciting. The only thing holding me back is A) I'm still editing my book B)I'm trying to decide if it's really worth it. C) I'm still querying agents while I study Self-publishing.

Now there's places like CreateSpace.com which is a great POD site that has a pretty good reputation and a message board where you can learn a lot about marketing and self publishing a book. The only problem I have with createspace is their Expanded Distribution Channel option...which doesn't make a lot of sense to me when I think about it.

There's three distribution options you can get with createspace. 1) Their regular plan (it's called something else but I can't think of it right now) which means they will sell your book only on THEIR stores. While I'm sure createspace gets a lot of traffic I don't think that's enough to make a living off of and I do plan on making a living as a writer.
Option 2) Is their Pro-Plan-- which means you'll be in their stores and amazon dot com. You make about 60% of your royalties, minus the fees for creating the book and all that. Not bad for a book priced at like 10.99, I would make 2-3 dollars royalty. Amazon is pretty big, so that's good. Still not sure if you'd be able to make a living off of that. You almost definitely wouldn't be able to make a living with just one book...but most writers who go through a traditional publisher aren't making a living off of one book either and they are almost definitely not getting 2-3 dollars per book in royalties. So far the pro-plan is cool...but...

Option 3) Is the Expanded Distribution Channel, which create space claims will widen our books distribution network and even get our book into Barnes and Nobles and Borders book stores. That's cool, and it should definitely put more $$$ in pockets. Except first of all I'm hearing claims from people on the createspace message board that Borders and Barnes and Nobles do NOT carry self published books from createspace. I didn't know who to believe, so the other day I emailed Barnes and Nobles customer service to find out. I'm still waiting on a response, but I will keep you posted as soon as I have more info from them.

*Update: I got a response letter that said they will respond to me with a response letter in a few days. Whomp, whomp, whomp!

Another thing that I'm finding not cool about the EDC. Okay, they take 60% of your earnings right off the bat. That's fine. 40% is still a LOT better then the 8-5% I would probably get through a traditional publisher. But after they take out all these extra FEE'S, i swear you end up with like 2-3%. Depending on how many pages you have (and my book is book length, so we're talking royalties in the 2-3% percent range).

Lulu is another self publishing place but with them it's almost like the opposite. You can choose how much royalties you'll make but they'll price the books ridiculously high... A YA paperback for 17.99 is just ridiculous. My book is great but that is still way too expensive.

So even if I do self publish...and I'm getting swept up into the revolution...I'm still trying to find the best route in which to go about things (P.S. I know about Lightning Source, yes I want to use them TOO, but I like CS and LL's store fronts and communities).

The Process...

2010-09-01T04:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I was warned this phase was going to come. REJECTION. When I started sending out queries I started bracing myself and got myself ready for the almighty list of rejections to start piling up.

It's still a blow to the ego, no matter how much you set yourself up and know that it's gonna happen. But seriously, my book is like my baby, you work so hard on it to polish it and get it perfect, only for someone to glance at the query letter and dismiss it. Like *POOF*.

But you know what, fuck it. I know my work is good. So I'll just keep pressing forward until I find an agent that believes in me as much as I believe in me. And if that doesn't work? I do have my plan B's and C's.

Omg! Look who's becoming miss organized? Don't let my Microsoft Excel agent/Query list fool you. I still have no idea what I'm doing. :)

Don't laugh at my whack excel skills, i'm still a beginner. Here is a list of all the agents I queried in 2009 and now in 2010. I know it isn't very much...about 15 in all (and one agent I queried twice, once last year and once this year). My responses so far are pretty good. I had one request for the full manuscript, one resquest for sample chapters, a lot of rejections and I'm still waiting on 3.

I kid you not when I tell you that I'm pretty unorganized, but I'm glad I sat down and did this. First of all, I realized that I hadn't heard from two agents I queried in 2009; that adds two more places I can query when I send out my next batch of query letters.

Also, I now can see where I've sent my letters so I don't requery the same agency...again! Yes, I accidently queried the same agency twice! I didn't even realize it until I created the excel chart and face palmed myself for sending two queries to two people at the same agency. Funny thing is though, one of the agents from this company is the same agent who requested some samples out of me. My ineptitude didn't get the door totally slammed in my face this time :)

(And I am not saying to do this, EVER, when you send out your query letters. This was a mistake and one that should have cost me a nice, blunt, rejection letter. )

Here is the list showing who gave me the boot, who gave me a hoot and who I'm still waiting for. I made the chart in bright pretty colors because if I don't, I may forget that I exist and start to fade away; like Marty Mcfly's parents in "Back to the future".

(Wow, I'm a dinosaur for remembering that...)

Also, a tip for those of you who haven't queried yet. I send my queries out in little batches. Maybe 6 or so at a time. This is something I do not regret. As I read more blogs and discover new information, I find things that make me want to change my query around. I read something on places like http://queryshark.blogspot.com that make me want to redo my query to make it better. This is great. Once a query is out there is no way you can take it back to make another first impression. But luckily, there are a lot of agents out there, and a lot of chances to make a good first impressions.

I know other writers who do the same thing and so far, they seem to pretty much agree with me. Sending 50 queries to 50 agents might seem like a good idea---but imagine getting 50 no's! It can and has happened to even FANTASTIC writers. Better to send out 6 or 15 or even 20 at a time. If you get 15 no's then you know it's time to go back to the drawing board and can do so knowing you still have a lot of agents left to query.

Seamless

2010-08-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't dropped a post in a while, so I figured I'd better leave one, even if it's really short.

I started sending out the queries last week. I haven't heard back from any of them yet. That's a good thing! The last time I sent out queries (about 6 or 7) the rejections came immediately. Some of them were the very next day, if i remember correctly. It was the positive feedback ones that took weeks to get. So when I check my mailbox and find it empty, there's a weird sense of relief there.

My son is in St.Martin with his grandmother for the entire week. Great opportunity to sweep over my work and tighten it up for when I get request for the full manuscript. I'm having a great time reading over my own story, so I have to take that as a positive. I mean, I've read my own book only about eighty-seven thousand times. The fact that I can do it one more time and enjoy it says a lot, I think.

Anyway, my sleep patterns haven't gotten any better. Got pretty much no sleep last night so I'm going to clean up and take another crack at it. Hope all is well with anyone finding this.

-Cheers

Creating Characters

2010-08-06T06:14:00.000-07:00

As a writer creating effective, dynamic,characters use to be my strong point, but lately I'm finding I'm having a harder time doing it.

I'm a little bit sadden by this and curious as to why it has happened. Off the top of my head all I can guess is that you start to see people differently as an adult. People seem less dynamic. Adults a predictable, mind controlled and so afraid to deviate from the norm.

During my teen years and early twenty's, particularly my college days, I was able to create amazing and colorful characters. I was surrounding by amazing colorful people. I could take bits and piece of people I knew, stitched it together with some strange ideas of my own and, TA-DAA! Characters I loved were born.

In any case, all is not lost. I still know how to create a good character, even if it doesn't seem to come as natural for me as it did before. Plus I know when something sounds cliché, over done, to out of the realm of possibility. I still have some of my literary "spider senses" at my command. So create a new character I have! Aren't I suppose to be done writing this book already?

The fun part about creating characters now is RESEARCH. I might not have these Dynamic people in my life, but they are out there. News clips, history, television. Yes, Personalities! Historys! They are all out there.

For this new character I've decided to base him loosely on the David Berkowitz--The Son Of Sam--and I've been researching this guy on-line. Okay, scary shit, yah? But this guy is very fascinating and the more I learn about him the more my character comes alive. You have to know what parts you're looking for though and what it is you want to take out of this persons story.

It's not the fact that this guy was a serial killer that has caught my attention. It is the fact that he is now a born-again Christian that I find most fascinating. Dude! If David Berkowitz says there is a God, I'd be inclined to believe him. Lord knows he's sent many a poor soul to go meet him!

But I am totally curious about this guys story now. All the little details I'm trying to find on the net. Like, did the dog actually TALK to him and tell him to kill people or did he just translate the barking in his own head?

What exactly was it in the bible that he read that made him convert? How did it make him feel?

He says he came from a pretty good home but I found out he was in the military and left only a few years before his first murder. I can't help but wonder if his stint in the military had anything to do with his mental problems afterwards, knowing what we know about PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) it seems possible.

Anyway, I know I'm just being attacked by distraction demons here. I need to get on and get this book completely finished. 35 Chapters complete! It's amazing! But there's no sense in quitting now.

*That pic is not of me, that's the Son Of Sam. I know! He looks like such a nice guy!He has changed though, but even so, It's still spooky...

Antoine Dodson And How Black Folks Speak

2010-08-03T20:54:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentleman, I have found a new hero...LOL

I love this guy for two reasons. 1. He's a hero and 2. He's entertaining as all fuck. It angers me though when I watch Youtube videos about this guy and all they do is trash him because he's seems gay, he seems uncharacteristically funny about a situation which most of us would find plenty frightening, and because he's from the projects.

Okay, first of all, just because someone talks with an accent doesn't mean they are intellectually inferior. People were acting as if the reporter was throwing him math equations, or he was in the middle of a spelling bee or something. How can you decipher this persons intelligence from that little clip? You can't! That was a trick question. But a ton of people seem to think they can rate peoples IQ by how they speak. So I guess the Japanese and the Chinese of America are dumb as hell because they speak that "Engrish?"? or the Russians and the Germans and The Irish, or the Scotts...who are damn near incomprehendable when they are excited...all fail intellectually because they can't say "Jamie Foxx" without making the nearest American fly into a fit of giggles.

COME ON PEOPLE! Let's evolve a little!

Another thing about this story is that it forces me to reveal a deep dark secret about myself. I LOVE HOW BLACK PEOPLE TALK!!

AHAHAHA! I grew up in very racially diverse communities and if there's one thing I've always been happy about is having black people as friends and family and getting to sit around and just listen to them SPEAK. It sounds like a stereotype but it's true, black people are probably the most entertaining people on earth, and as a writer, I know that you can place a group of black people in any situation in a story...shoveling snow...buying food at the local Pathmart... and if you get the characters right, the conversation right, it will=COMEDY GOLD!

"MARTIN" is one of the best comedies ever! What was it about? what made it so good? Black people talking! 80% of the shows comedy bits comes from conversation alone. And this isn't just a production made up to get views...this is how BLK PEOPLE REALLY TALK!

It's not just black Americans either. The blacks from the West Indies are really amusing to listen too. It's like the entire language is built on the entertainment factor. If you can s[peak Haitian and listen to two old Haitian men discuss the news you'll know what I mean. FUNNY AS FUCK!

But hands down, the best at speaking black are probably the blacks from the south (the southern part of North America). Sheeeeet! I can listen to them talk all day!

So in closing, i'd like to say that you shouldn't judge people by how they speak and stop trying to shame blacks into giving up something that makes them truly unique and interesting. I love how I talk, I don't want to sound like some stiff unless I am infact at a stiff ass job!

Anyway, if you can't appriciate the ART that is in how black folks talk, I pity you! LOL!

I didn't do it yet...

2010-08-03T03:01:00.000-07:00

Haha! Kind of a big let down after my last post I know. But I have good reason for hesitating this time...

I took someones wonderful advice and joined a writing group online. HOORAY FOR THE INTERNET!!

Yesterday afternoon I posted the first five pages of my story---which is part of my submission packet BTW---to writingforums.com (my username is Balistic, LOOK ME UP, YO!)

Ahem. Anyway, so for I only got one critique of my work but it was good advice. Also re-reading my own except at like 5 am in the morning (I'm having really horrible sleep patterns lately, I go to sleep anytime, wake up whenever and usually don't end up getting more then 4 hours a sleep a day) I found a ton of mistakes!! Okay, not a ton, but enough to make me glad I didn't send in my submission to agents yet!

The mistakes were little and I know my overall writing is good, but I can't afford any errors. Has to be PERFECT! So for any other writers out their going bitch cakes over their work, I suggest you have it looked at by a critique group, even an online one. Competition is stiff ya'll! Everyone one and their baby mama is trying to be the next "Stephanie Meyer". How good her writing is I'll let the individual decide...but my way of thinking? I can't write a book as good as "Twilight" I have to try to make something better. That's just what it takes to succeed now-a-days because honestly, the publishing hustle has become a dog race. Which is cool with me, I'm ready for battle!

*By the way I didn't draw the picture located on the top. I found it here: http://bloodylilies.livejournal.com/profile

It's gorgeous though, isn't it? People are so talented!

I'm gonna do it...seriously...I am

2010-07-31T23:59:00.000-07:00

Yeah. Eventually.

Not really. Let's just do it. Let's send out those query letters.

This book we've been working on forever. We've twisted it and changed it and re-arranged it. I'm gonna go glowing BaTShIT! Seems everyday were getting a new idea for it. Maybe it's time to just send the thing out and hope for the best? If we get rejected then we alter it, but stop altering it before we can even get the queries out.

Yeah sounds good. I'm gonna do it. Really. I'm gonna do it. Okay. I'm doing it. Oh yeah. Seriously. Here i go...

Cheers! Wish me luck!

Hello world!

2010-07-31T23:31:00.000-07:00

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