7 Tips to Blogging: You Would Think I’d Have a Category for These Things By Now

Posted on November 6, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

I’m not going to talk about how to make money off your blog.  If I knew how to do that then I wouldn’t be where I am now.  This is all about how to enjoy and stretch your blog to the point of mild success.  Okay, tiny success . . . I make no promises.  With that being said:

  1. What works for one blogger, might not work for you.  This doesn’t mean to avoid things, but don’t get upset if you copy someone and it fails.  Maybe people notice you copied and compared it unfavorably to the original.  Perhaps you missed a few key points in the delivery or it doesn’t match up with your theme and style.  Never be afraid to put such post types down and only go back if you think you figured out the problem.  Although, you might want to return only a few times if it keeps failing.  Don’t want to be seen as a glutton for disaster.
  2. Open the door to as much as your life as you feel comfortable.  I’ve been told by many to throw everything into the light, but that doesn’t work out very well.  You can end up pulling in friends and family members who would prefer not to be hinted at on your blog.  That leads to drama, which you’ll put on your blog, make things worse, and continue the cycle because you get a ton of hits.  Seriously, think before you share because there are consequences.
  3. If you’re running out of topic ideas then try to get some public input.  This helps with interactions and makes you more relatable.  It will reveal some topics that you might have overlooked as well.  This can also show you how many people are paying attention as you get a request for something you’ve written about 5 times over the last year.  Some people might be new and missed them.  Others might have forgotten.  Either way, you need to decide on politely skipping or finding another avenue to touch on it for a 6th time.
  4. Be careful changing the physical theme of your blog.  The wallpaper and header is one thing.  Those are designed to change around at times.  When you swap out an entire theme, you might find that some of the toys you liked about the previous one are no longer available.  Gets worse if you learn that you can’t go back because they took that other theme away.  Not all themes are created equal and you can knock yourself back to square one in terms of design if you’re not careful.
  5. Use your blog as a hub for other social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and whatever else is there.  This keeps you active on all of them . . . Except Facebook, which no longer allows WordPress posts to show up for some people.  At least you might get a few curious guests with the others.  That is unless the LinkedIn connection is lost for the 10th time this month.  Does anybody use Tumblr any more?  It’s the thought that counts here.
  6. Do not think that every comment in the spam folder is spam.  Yes, the porn, medication, sneakers, porn, gibberish, porn, badly written offers, porn, porn, and porn are obvious problems.  Yet, you might have a new face hidden in there.  Older ones can be randomly shunted there too because only Cthulhu knows the requirements for banishment.  Just be careful and accept that technology can be a pain.
  7. Go to other blogs and comment.  This is really important at the beginning when you have no followers.  You can learn more about the platform such as picture usage, tags, categories, and whatever else the veterans are willing to share.  Eventually, you will find yourself in their shoes, so you better be ready to give sage advice.  That or shrug and admit that you have no idea what you’re doing.
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How to Back-up your Manuscript Easily and for Free

Posted on November 6, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

Harmony Kent's avatarStory Empire

Hello SErs. Harmony here. It always saddens me beyond measure when I read that a fellow author has lost all their hard work due to a computer failure, lost laptop, or any number of other reasons. While I have an Airport Capsule attached to my Apple Mac, I also ensure that I back-up my work another way too. Just in case. After all, the Capsule is hardware that will one day fail.

So, how do I give myself an easy and free back-up of my manuscript?

I email a copy to myself. Any basic Word file isn’t going to take up that much room on your server and will send quickly. If, like me, you use Scrivener, you will find that far too bulky a file to try and email. My work-around is to compile to a Word doc and then email that to myself. I let the email sit…

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Dirty Dozen Author Interview – L L Thomsen #Meetanauthor #Fantasy

Posted on November 5, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

eranamage's avatarLibrary of Erana

Author name: L. L. Thomsen

*Please tell us about your publications.

I write character-led high medieval fantasy with a good slash of epic. I am working on a series titled, The Missing Shield – originally one large book that has been split into 11 episodes in order to make the workload more manageable. The 8th book (titled: All in a Day’s Work) is out now, and I am currently working on book 9. What you get in my books is lots of flawed characters that you may not feel quite sure about in the beginning. There’s magic, mystery, darkness, crime, plots, romance, backstabbing, manoeuvring, different races, and an end-of-the-world kinda deadline & quest.  I enjoy painting an immersive picture of the world I write about, so expect lots of depth and world-building. I try not to hold back and I try to write as close to real life as…

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Revisiting Legends: Sari the Soul Scarred Gypsy #fantasy #adventure

Posted on November 5, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

Sari entered Legends of Windemere with a vicious impact.  She comes from a nomadic people who are called gypsies.  This is the fantasy version where they are almost thief-like, but I never got far into the culture.  Mostly because Sari clan was attacked and slaughtered in the Prologue of her debut book.  She escaped only to be captured, handed over to a vampire, and put through a nightmarish life until Luke and Nyx stumbled onto her during their own adventure.  This is where things changed from the paper version.

I should point out something from the beginning.  Like the other champions, Sari was in the Dungeons & Dragons game.  She started up a relationship with Luke Callindor and  then . . . the player left college after most of a semester.  This left Sari in limbo, which was a challenge because she’d already been revealed as essential to the prophecy.  She spent the rest of her time either captured, comatose, or quietly following the group.  Due to being barely there in the game, I only had that first adventure to work with when it came to the books.  Honestly, I don’t even remember if the clan slaughtering was part of the game or something I added. Unfortunately, this didn’t really work in Sari’s favor and I kind of regret that.

Being a champion fueled by love, Sari spends a lot of her time being involved in the groups’ relationships.  She’s either struggling with being the third member of the Luke and Kira open relationship or meddling in Nyx’s love life.  This leads to more heartbreak and pain for her, but she never really dulls in power.  Sari always manages to find a new source of love to gain energy from even though she doesn’t notice this power.  It took me until near the end of the series to figure out why, but I don’t think it ever came across because she never learned this herself.  Another downside to Sari is that she is so focused on the outside world that she doesn’t really look at her internal world unless plagued by visions and spirits.

The thing I realized about Sari is that she never healed from her first trauma.  Similar to Nyx, her childhood friend, she is creating a family, but there is still a distance.  She fears losing loved ones again, so she ignores how deep her feelings run.  This doesn’t always come about because she’s a very loving and playful character, but you can see that she doesn’t spend a lot of time on herself.  I tried several times to give her more, but nothing stuck.  Sari routinely found a way to slip out of the deep relationships and became more of a cheerleader for the others.  Part of this might be caused by the addition of Kira Grasdon, which gave Sari competition for her original, uncontested relationship with Luke Callindor.  It was a shocker when I found that Sari wasn’t the better match and I tried to force it a few times with disastrous results.

I would actually say that Chastity Sullivan from War of Nytefall is closer to what Sari was originally going to be.  Seductive, playful, charming, powerful, and having no shame to counter the more uptight characters.  It never happened because I could never convince her to shed the emotional scars of losing everything.  Even if she ended up with Luke Callindor, I couldn’t see her being entirely happy because she’d wake up every day thinking it was the one where he would die.  Sari hated being alone and needed someone with her when she slept, but she could never let herself get so close that the loneliness would go away entirely.  I’m torn between thinking of her as a lost opportunity or accepting that some characters, much like people, can’t be put back to 100%.

A fun aside for Sari is that she still had a better post-prophecy plan than Nyx.  It ran contrary to Luke Callindor who wanted to settle down, which was another nail in their relationship’s coffin.  Sari wanted to build a magical cart that contained every candy in the world.  She would travel around to villages and throw parties where she would give the candy away.  It really worked for her and I did give her something similar to that, but it had to be changed to accommodate her situation.

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It worked. It’s a book

Posted on November 4, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

Grab the newest release from C.S. Boyack.

coldhandboyack's avatarEntertaining Stories

I allowed myself that extra hour of sleep the time change provided. This isn’t my first book, so I didn’t completely panic when I got up.

I went through my morning routine, fed the dogs, etc. When I check email, Amazon said it was a book. I dedicated some time to updating BookBub, Goodreads, claiming the book for my Amazon author site, all those fun things. I also updated Entertaining Stories so Serang shows up in the sidebar.

I’m too lazy to cover my banner image with bamboo or jungle vines, so I’ll leave Clovis’ car and dog there for now. I could ask Sean for an art update, but I’m trying to save a buck here and there.

As of now, the cover in the sidebar links to Amazon. Then I did something unusual. I added another 1500 to 1800 words to Grinders. This one is racing toward the…

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Thoughts on Blogging: No Tips on Catchy Titles

Posted on November 4, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

I’ve been blogging since December 2012 and I’ve posted my thoughts about the platform a few times.  Figured I should revisit the topic since this is the only social media platform that I’ve consistently maintained.  Twitter moved too fast for me to feel like I was getting anywhere.  Facebook’s algorithm changed to make it harder to use for personal and business use.  At least, I couldn’t do it because I didn’t have the money and time to sink into it.  LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest, and the rest come and go from my attention.  That leaves WordPress, which I’ve used as a hub.  Has it been working out?  I can’t tell, but I have learned a few things.

First, you shouldn’t run around copying everyone else.  Instead, you need to come up with your own identity because the blog is an extension of that.  This is regardless of the topic too.  Much of it comes down to writing style, but also usage of pictures and videos as well as any recurring post types.  For example, I do a 7 tips and a Ye Olde Shoppe skit from time to time.  I talk a lot about writing, my books, and do poetry.  Other people having weekly story entries or views into their minds if they’re an artist.  Standing out from the pack is easier than one would think, but it takes bravery.  Just put yourself out there and adjust as you move along, which is an endless process.  Also, avoid plagiarizing and apologize if you accidentally take something that you shouldn’t.  That happens a lot with art that we think is public use, but isn’t.

Interaction is another key component here.  Commenting on other blogs helps to bring attention to your own.  This can be difficult since it takes a lot of time to read and think of a good response.  I’ve become a little hermit-like here ever since the divorce and new job, but prior to that I tried to move around.  You’ll find another challenge here is that bloggers disappear all the time.  You might have a vast network at one point and then it dwindles to a handful as people quit, groups that you can’t join are formed, and interests divert.  It’s hard to rebuild, especially if you can’t figure out what happened.  Still, that is the nature of the beast.  You also have a lot of people who only ‘like’ a post and those who will never return the comment favor.  That’s everywhere, so don’t think it’s only a blog thing.

I’m doing a tip post on Wednesday, so I won’t go into too much.  Personally, I find blogging to be the most worthwhile even though I’ve been so busy that I can’t wander around WordPress.  Not even sure how to do it these days.  I read a lot of posts that I can’t think of comments for and hit a point where I feel lame hitting ‘like’ and walking away.  Reblogs are another challenge since I’m usually on my phone, which tends to have me follow a reblog link to a page that it won’t let me comment on.  It’s been that way for about a year, which is frustrating.  Technical issues are always going to be a headache for any social media platform.  Still, I hope to keep this blog going for as long as I can.  Considering I schedule posts like this months in advance (I’m writing this in August while in Baltimore), this blog might last longer than I do.  That’ll be awkward.  People get 3-4 months of posts after I’m long gone.  Yeah, that’s morbid, but I get an odd chuckle out of the thought.

What do you think about blogging?  How has your blogging adventure gone?

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Research: How deep do you go?

Posted on November 4, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

Great topic. For me, it depends on what I’m researching. Not very deep for my fantasy stuff since I’m making it from scratch. Kinda deep for my dystopian stuff since I need to know about the areas my characters will be in.

Mae Clair's avatarStory Empire

Hi, SeERs! It’s another Mae Day on Story Empire 🙂

I know research has been discussed multiple times, including some brilliant posts by my colleagues at SE, but  I hope you’ll indulge me with my take on the subject.

Digging deep into research is something all writers face. No matter your story arc or characters, sooner or later you’re bound to run into a subject that requires deeper knowledge. As an example, it’s hard to write a believable airline pilot or land developer, if you don’t know how they operate. We all know the internet is a great resource, but you can only go so far in tracking down information. Ideally, if you’re researching a profession, speaking to someone in that career is going to net the best return. Pretty much a no brainer.

What about settings? It’s hard to visit Sedona, Arizona for your romantic suspense set among red…

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War of Nytefall Sale: Looking Back on The Event

Posted on November 3, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

This basically sums it up.  For those who didn’t know or forgot:

I had all 3 War of Nytefall books priced at 99 cents each for the month of October. I mentioned it a few times on my blog, left a pinned tweet about it, and a few people mentioned it on their blogs.  This netted me . . .  10 sales total.  Needless to say, I put the price back up to $2.99 and will NOT be dropping any Legends of Windemere books to that price. First one there is free, so that’s it.

Now, I will admit that I didn’t do a lot of promoting, but I never intended to do so.  A big reason is because I don’t have thousands of dollars to spend in the hopes of getting maybe one hundred bucks.  That may have hurt me, but then it would have also raised the bar much higher.  I couldn’t promote the sale every day on my blog either because I wanted to do other things and it would eventually be static after a week or two.  So, that’s really the end of that.

I swear, there was some story that I was going to share today.  I mentioned it in passing in a comment last weekend or the week before.  Remind me and I’ll post it for next Sunday.  I think I’ll keep this short since I had to change the clocks and lose an hour of sleep.  Maybe things will improve when/if I release War of Nytefall: Eradication.

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5 Ways Authors Can Use Social Media to Promote Books

Posted on November 3, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

Nicholas C. Rossis's avatarNicholas C. Rossis

Ronita Mohan | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's booksUsing social media to promote your books is all I heard when I started publishing. But how relevant are they today? To my surprise, there are now many more ways to use them—ways you may not have even heard of!

This guest post by Ronita Mohan explains the best ways to use social media in 2019 to increase your book sales. Ronita is a content marketer at Venngage, the online infographic and design platform. She is an avid reader with an interest in mystery fiction, history, graphic novels, marketing, and diversity. Twitter: @Venngage

5 Ways Authors Can Use Social Media to Promote Books

Social media on phone | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's booksPhoto by Tracy Le Blanc from Pexels

Social media has traditionally been a great area to promote books. But with so many channels available, how do you choose the right one for you and what method do you use to promote your books?

Alongside regular…

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Live Long and Prosper . . . With the Force Now that You’re a Wizard who Wields the One Ring of Aslan

Posted on November 2, 2019 by Charles Yallowitz

Seriously though, I have to figure out where to start with the wild week.  My original plan was to finish writing the chapter I had started on Sunday, but only got a third of a section done.  In my defense, I finished the earlier chapter and got cocky with my time.  This never happened and I’m working on it this morning since every night either had an event or left me exhausted.  All I accomplished was finishing all the December and Legends Revisiting posts.  Leaves me with January, but I’ll get to that later.

Monday was a normal night and that’s pretty much it.  Let’s just do a day by day:

Tuesday

Busy day at work like Monday, but it was a good kind of busy.  My son had an appointment, but we stayed up late because it was the only night I had to watch a Halloween special with him.  It was a Captain Underpants special, which we both enjoyed before going to bed.  He would wake up a few times because of blanket issues, so I got worn down right away.  Still, plenty of fun.

Wednesday

This is where the rushing around started.  My ex-wife’s office does a trick-or-treat thing, so I had to pick up my son from school right after I got out.  Then, we drove to the office and did the thing.  It was awkward.  After that, I realized we had a little time to get back to my house and get him somewhat ready for martial arts.  He still wanted his costume on, so he put it on over half of his gi.  Went driving to martial arts and he went home with his mom . . . This is when I finally got to have dinner and it was close to 8 PM.  Why do I have Taco Bell on these nights because it always backfires around 2 AM?

Thursday

And here is where the title gets explained!

Some of my coworkers were doing an original Star Trek costume group for Halloween, which was today.  I had been asked to be a part of it and was given a yellow shirt.  It was short-sleeve, but I had a long sleeve shirt that matched the color and I could wear underneath.  I knew what was going on, but was still surprised to find that part of the faculty room had been turned into the bridge of the USS Enterprise.  Captain’s chair, helmsmen area, and science area for Spock.  One thing I didn’t expect was that we’d be doing a skit for our lunch break.  I say skit, but there wasn’t much planning here and I just pretended to hit buttons.  We had a lot of fun pretending that the ship was getting hit by photon torpedoes and I couldn’t keep a straight face.  We were recorded and put on the school blog too.

Being Halloween, I got to take my son trick-or-treating for an hour before his mother came to get him.  It’s her year.  Glad to have gotten a little time.  My hope was to write while he was out with her, but I had to take care of an issue.  Something was delivered after I was told it wasn’t coming, so I bought it somewhere else.  Very frustrating and it cost me my one sure writing night.

Friday

I’m tired and writing this blog post.  Doing laundry too.

So, that was my week, which means next week will be a little slower paced.  I have a conference on Tuesday, so I might do a little blog work or notebook work while I wait between presentations.  With any luck, I can get some book work done to get that chapter completed before a 3-day weekend.  That would mean I can get another 2 done even if I take my time.  Probably won’t finish War of Nytefall: Ravenous by the end of the year, but I’d love to get more than half done.  I have a week in December where my son is with his mom, but . . . my room is being painted and my desk will be under a tarp.  I’ll have to find another place to work, which might have me move slow.  Won’t have access to my TV either, so we’ll see what happens.

Only other thing on my mind right now is what I’m going to do on the blog next year.  I have some ideas that I will present next Sunday, but I’m really running low on topics.  It was suggested that I do some of the topics I’d have in that fantasy writing book, but I find a flaw in that tactic.  If I did it for my blog then I had trouble rewriting it for the book in a way that didn’t make it feel like a carbon copy.  Was a nice idea, but my own mental issues and idiosyncrasies are in the way.  Beyond that, I do have some monster making to do and future ideas to talk about.  Maybe I’ll post more about that superhero thing that always gives me trouble.  Anyway, this will be a post I write in a bit, but schedule for next weekend to give myself some thinking time.

Goals of the week?

  1. Get some good sleep.
  2. Father/son time this weekend.  (Both of us need sleep.)
  3. Really should do food shopping.
  4. Puzzle working
  5. January posts scheduled.
  6. Write 1-4 chapters.
  7. Get my butt on that exercise bike.
  8. Finish watching ‘Daybreak’.
  9. A Given: TAing (This and parenting stuff seem to be odd on the list since I always do them regardless of everything else.  Can we have both as givens from now one?)
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