After my debacle with Facebook last month (see my post HERE), I thought it might be helpful to write something on the importance of backing-up your social media accounts.
Honestly, even though I back-up my website/blog regularly, I never even gave a single thought to Twitter or Facebook.
Below, I show you how to make an archive of Twitter …
First, open the ‘Settings and Privacy’ option on the dropdown menu when you click on your profile image …
This will bring you to the following page …
Click on ‘Request Your Archive’.
You will receive the following message from Twitter …
In a short time, you should receive an email that contains a zip file with your entire Twitter account backed up. You will need to extract the zip file and open it.
Teri Polen is a big supporter of mine. I recently finished her debut novel, Sarah, and gave it five stars. She’s here today to share a cover and blurb from her newest project.
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The Gemini Connection
by Teri Polen
Paperback Release Date: May 31, 2018
E-book Release Date: June 7, 2018
Young Adult > Sci-Fi/Fantasy > Thriller
Teen twin brothers Evan and Simon Resnik are fiercely loyal to each other and share an unusual bond—they experience each other’s emotions as their own and can sense where the other is.
On their dying planet of Tage, scientists work tirelessly on its survival. Like the twins’ parents, Simon is a science prodigy, recruited at a young age to work with the brilliant creator of Scientific Innovations. To the bitter disappointment of their parents, Evan shows no aptitude or interest in science. As a Mindbender, he travels into the minds of scientists…
This is another excerpt from War of Nytefall: Loyalty. It’s one that I’m rather amused by even now because it sets an interesting tone. A rough slapstick comedy that shows up from time to time since the characters take advantage of being able to regenerate and having immortality. This isn’t much of a spoiler since I’ve explained what Dawn Fangs are capable of before. Still, the cut is there just in case.
Ever have a time when you were writing or doing something else creative, and you just couldn’t stop? Words or ideas poured out of you, and you had to implement them. We call this a state of flow. (And yes, I wrote a post about this five years ago. I’m taking a different angle on it this time.)
[F]low, also known as the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, formerly the head of psychology at the University of Chicago and currently the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University, is known for his study on flow. Flow, according to Dr. Csikszentmihalyi, is also known as ecstasy. And no, I’m not talking about drugs…
I’ve wanted to bring you guys some folks who provide auxiliary services for a long time. We’ve been able to bring a few of them out of the woodwork, but these are usually folks who shun the limelight. There are any number of people who will take your money, but deliver questionable results if they deliver at all.
We write the stories, but we can’t do it all. We need cover artists, beta readers, editors, formatters and more. One of my goals is to introduce you to folks who can get the job done and done right.
Today, Michele is here to give us an idea of her services and provide all of us with some contact data. Make her feel welcome.
Thanks for having me, Craig.
Let me introduce myself. I’m Michele Jones, and I own a small company, Articulate It Write, dedicated to helping authors with all of…
In War of Nytefall, I had to change mental gears because the Dawn Fangs aren’t exactly heroes. They could be considered that by their own species, but they’re still fairly monstrous in that they kill and destroy a lot. I considered them to be antiheroes because of their violence, but there were moments where I wondered if that was still the case. I remember reading stories with heroes like Punisher and Venom, but they had limits to what they would do. Clyde and the Dawn Fangs don’t always have those in regards to mortals. So, I’ve been thinking a lot about antiheroes and the fine line between them an villains.
Reading up on the character type, I can see how Clyde fits in since he isn’t your typical hero. When compared to Luke Callindor, he’s fairly monstrous and selfish and gives in to violence very easily. Yet, he does care about his gang, so he isn’t all bad.  I tried hard to make him somewhat human without removing the predator and monster sides of his persona. It’s really the massacres that he unleashes that has me wondering about how far he’s gone. The other Dawn Fangs are slightly better even though they all seem to have a very cavalier attitude towards death. Simply put, they have very little problem unleashing such a thing.
Entirely possible that I’m overthinking this too. The basic definition of antihero is one who doesn’t fit into the standard categories. Once you go beyond that, it becomes fairly subjective. Some people will consider cursing a big sign of antiheroes while others wait until the character amasses a high body count. I have a rather high tolerance for what a hero will do, which might be why I have Clyde meet those top levels. Yet, I consider that readers might expect more heroics than I do. On the other hand, these are vampires, so you can only expect so much. Here we find that my mind keeps going in circles and this post is probably not going to create a conclusion.
So, how far do you think antiheroes can go before they cross a line into non-heroes or villains?
First, some good news and a promo. I did an interview with Lisa Burton over at Entertaining Stories and it caused a really big jump in sales. Biggest one I’ve seen in a little over a month. To be fair, it was Baron Kernaghan who did the interview, which is why this is a unique experience even if you do it a few times. You pick a character to be interviewed by Lisa Burton the Robot Girl and do a fun back-and-forth. I really recommend this for authors who are looking for a fun and free promo. JUST CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!
A lot has happened since the last goal post. We bought a Roku for our TV since it doesn’t have an Internet connection. So far, only my son has used it to start in on the original Pokemon cartoon, but now my wife and I are back to using this TV. We were using the other one to watching ‘Castlevania’ (Awesome!), Full Metal Alchemist Live Action Movie (meh), and start Sword Art Online (Interesting). I spent most of last Saturday and a few random hours on Sunday figuring the whole thing out and making watch lists on Netflix and Prime. Honestly, I found more on Netflix than Prime in terms of anime and old TV shows. Was hoping to find the live action Rurouni Kenshin movies for free since I’m finishing up the manga. Sad to say good-bye this one and DBZ mangas are next. Seem to be reading this quicker than before, but I’ll get into why later.
Some rough patches did appear. A Nor’Easter hit on Wednesday with the dedication of an ice cream man who had just been fired. Seriously, it was a little rainy and very windy in our area for most of the day. My son made it through school and my only had to come home an hour early. Why? Because mid-afternoon saw snow start to fall on top of the rain and create a few inches of icy mush. Good thing I didn’t have to drive through that . . . Is what I would have liked to say. My parents had been in Iceland for a week and the storm didn’t stop their pilot. Plane wasn’t even late. I had to meet them at a train station, which was a little stressful getting to and from. The storm also created a 2-hour delay for school on Thursday, so I lost my morning writing to my son acting like it was a holiday.
Friday saw a strange Twitter event for me. I woke up to find that my account had been locked and I had to prove I was a human. Seems I got swept up in a Bot Purge. Once my account was back, I had nothing under the ‘Following’ section. The people who followed me were fine, but I’d been pushed down to zero. I tried my best to go through the 19.6K followers to get the other list, but it was too daunting a task. Thankfully, nearly everything came back just after lunch with no warning. I’m guessing the people who didn’t return were never real to begin with.
I’m going to touch on the vampires before the anaconda. To put it simply, I made some progress on War of Nytefall: Lost. Didn’t hit the mark I wanted, which is a problem because I want to spend the week before my son’s break doing a final edit on War of Nytefall: Loyalty. The issue I’m having is that Clyde is starting off restrained because you can’t punch a mystery in order to solve it. I just reached the point where he can flex his muscles, but it’s been a lot of encounters with some new characters that leave the established ones confused. I will say one of the newbies has come out ridiculously good and I’m terrified that I’ll screw him up. At first, he was supposed to be a psychopath, which he still is. Yet, he talks a lot and has this incredible level of arrogance that makes even the stronger villains think twice about him. I think I’m channeling all the insane villains I read about in comics because he’s giving me a Joker/Carnage vibe. Going to be fun seeing where he goes.
This brings me to the invisible anaconda. People may remember my revelation last weekend. The anxiety attacks haven’t gone away and I’m slowly learning more about them. Breathing exercises work most of the time unless somebody starts grilling me on why I’m doing it, which ruins the whole thing. Reading manga is helping because they’re quick and I can stop easily once I’m doing better. Again, this gets undone if someone steps in to interrogate me. For the love of Metroid, people should step back as soon as they’re told someone is having an anxiety attack. Not push harder to help. This also tends to build up over time, so Fridays might be the roughest. The sensation makes me think an invisible anaconda is wrapped around my upper body and half-heartedly crushing me. I figure it could always be worse since the serpent isn’t going full strength. Still, I did notice yesterday that I get a little twitchy if the stress remains for too. Mostly in the arms, but this went away after a few steady breaths.
So, what’s the plan for next week?
Write more War of Nytefall: Lost
Finish taxes
Start reading DragonBall Z
Try to relax a little more
Possibly watch Lego Ninjago Movie tomorrow
Start thinking of June post ideas. How do you hype a spin-off of your main series without doing spoilers of both?
Hello SErs! Harmony here. Happy Wednesday 🙂
