How Many Accounts is Too Many? #SocialMedia #MondayBlogs

Great post on social media for authors. What’s your opinion?

Mae Clair's avatarStory Empire

Happy Monday, SEers!  It’s a new week and a new subject. Lately, friends, family, and I have been discussing social media. Even co-workers. I’ve come to realize many people have a love/hate relationship with social media, or at least some of the platforms, and the bulk of activity that takes place there.

I’m not here to debate the merits of social media, rather to offer some suggestions on how to best use it as an author. As writers, we need to have a social media presence. The world exists online, therefore it’s a necessity we’re there too. Obviously, there are tons of social media outlets available, but when does your message become diluted?

Eggs with funny faces in an open egg carton on wood floor

In the world of advertising—regardless the nature of your product or service—the goal is to achieve Top of Mind Awareness. TOMA is the golden standard everyone hopes to attain.

If I say “dandruff shampoo” you’ll probably think…

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Music Videos Brought to You By the Munchkin

My son wanted to do a blog post, so I gave him Sunday.  He’s been listening to a lot of music on the radio, so he wanted to share his favorite songs.  I’d let him type, but he’s already come very close to various deletion and log out buttons.

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A Week of Re . . . Ha! Not With the Kid Around

Gandalf

I write this the night before while I listen to my wife realizing that I wasn’t lying about the munchkin being hyped up all day.  That’s been the theme of the week.  If he wasn’t playing with Legos throughout the living room then he was playing the Lego Batman game.  If he wasn’t doing those then he was asking me about songs on the radio, trying to type on my blog, pouncing, or finally succumbing to his cold for a few minutes.  Seriously, he would rush himself around until he was wheezing and then be off again once he could breathe.  I got him to lie down twice on Tuesday and that was it.

As far as activities go, it was fun and fairly simple.  We saw ‘Peter Rabbit’ on Sunday and then made a Lego set with Lex Luthor, Firestorm, Cheetah, Batman, and Wonder Woman.  Monday was a full day at the zoo.  Tuesday he went with my parents to a stage showing of ‘The Lion King’ for kids.  Wednesday was relaxing with game and toys.  Thursday was martial arts camp.  Friday was relaxing with game and toys again.  All of this made me realize that there really isn’t much to do on the February break when the weather is messy and the kid gets a cold.  Best to stay warm and regain energy for what ends up being a busy 5 weeks before the Spring Break.

Speaking of that next break, the space gives me just enough time to write the first draft for War of Nytefall: Lost.  People might be wondering why I’m diving into the next book before the first one is published.  All I can do with War of Nytefall: Loyalty is wait for a final editing run by the wife.  Instead of twiddling my thumbs, I’ll dive into the next one.  This is good for me because I won’t be getting much done over the summer beyond editing and maybe the Dawn Addison finale.  The reason is because my son won’t be in school like previous years, so July and August will see him home.  He might be in camp for a bit, but that can’t be depended on.  Judging from this break, I need to get myself ahead in my projects.  This is where my years of outlining and planning really save my kiester.  As far as War of Nytefall: Lost goes, I should be able to write it in 4 weeks and I’ve been studying my outline.  More so than any other time because this is going to be a really wild ride.

Thankfully, I was able to get some work done this week.  When my son played with his Legos, I set myself up in the dining room to schedule blog posts for April and May.  This will cover the promos and hype for War of Nytefall: Loyalty.  Means I have very little idea what I’m going to do in June, especially since I’m hoping to release Quest of the Broken-Hearted in July after the 4th.  That one still needs editing, beta reading, and cover art.  It was tough one to write because it was very action-based due to the story, so I won’t hand it off until I edit it in April.  That’s going make things pretty tight as far as beta reading though.  Another challenge for 2018.  This is what life may end up being with the kid not have summer school.

In other news, I will be having the house to myself for a few days coming later in the week.  At least during the day, which will be both good and bad.  I can work anywhere in the house without interruption, but I have to do all the cooking and errands.  Since my wife and I will be able to use the Internet-capable TV, we’ll be watching some things at night, so that will cut into the writing time.  Think we have Castlevania, live action Full Metal Alchemist, and a few other things saved on Netflix.  There’s one anime called Gurren Laggen that I want to check out, but we might not have time since it’s only going to be for a few days.  Not to mention, all of our other shows come back and it’s a mighty weight that you don’t want to fall behind on.

I realized something with Facebook recently.  I happened to be on my mom’s account and didn’t realize it until I saw my last post turn up at the top of her news feed.  It was there and then it disappeared before I could click on it.  This made me wonder if people are seeing me at all.  A lot of pages that I follow do this on my feed like The Daily Show and Humans of New York.  I have to go directly to their page to see anything, but they do work on my phone.  Is this what Facebook considers an improvement?  I’m having a lot of trouble rationalizing staying on there since it feels like only 4-5 people ever see what I’m doing.

So, what are the goals of the week?

  1. Start writing War of Nytefall: Lost.
  2. Cook Penn with Vodka Sauce on Friday.  This is always fun.
  3. Get back into biking.
  4. Drive kid to school.
  5. Do a few May blog posts if unable to write books.
  6. Watch some Netflix if possible.
  7. Mourn another long delay of pizza reward since I refuse to do it during a project.
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Reviews 2018 – Victorian Murderesses: A True History of Thirteen Respectable French and English Women Accused of Unspeakable Crimes

eranamage's avatarLibrary of Erana

Victorian Murderesses: A True History of Thirteen Respectable French and English Women Accused of Unspeakable Crimes

3.5 stars

This is not a bad book, but it’s not particularly good either.

The cases included in this text are:
– Marie Lafarge and Euphemie Lacoste;
– Madeleine Smith and Angelina  Lemoine;
– Celestine Doudet and Constance Kent;
– Florence Bravo and Henriette Francy;
– Gabrielle Fenayrou and Adelaide Bartlett;
– Florence Maybrick and Claire Reymond.

Good points:

  • The French cases were largely unknown to me and that aspect was interesting. The comparisons between French and English middle-class society and the position of women were fairly well discussed.
  • There was a mix of cases, although all were ‘respectable’ women from the time. What was expected of middle-class women, and her own expectations – marriage, children and running the household – were discussed at length.  Many had arranged marriages – often to men much…

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“Whill of Agora: Epic Fantasy Bundle (Books 1-4)” by Michael James Ploof

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Smorgasbord Invitation Blog Magazine – The Literary Column with Jessica Norrie – O is for Loneliness

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Winter Warmer – Last Few Days!!!!

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Close to Finishing Your Book? Guest Post by Professional Editor, Susan Uttendorfsky…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's avatarChris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Maybe you’re saying, “I don’t know! How will I know when it’s finished?” Here’s one way to tell…

Remember when your book was so cute and tiny? You loved it and couldn’t wait to spend every minute with it. Thoughts of it filled your days and nights. Every new achievement was cause for celebration—“It’s now 20,000 words!” or “I’m halfway done writing the first draft!” If you’re in this stage, your book is still an infant. It’s not finished.

Then things got hard and the newness wore off. The first draft was finished, and sometimes when you looked at sections, you beamed with pride. But most of it still had the literary equivalent of sticky fingers and muddy jeans and gum in its hair. When asked how it was coming, you mumbled, “Leave me alone” or “Shut up.” If you’re in this stage, your book is like a nine-year-old child…

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Creatures of Fear: Hungry Little Bats

Yahoo Image Search

The more I look into bats, the less I understand the fear.  At first, I thought it was because they were associated with vampires.  That might not be the case as I look at people talk about it.  Also, bats were chosen for that mythos for a reason.  Not like I can judge considering my issues with spiders.  A flying mammal is definitely unique, but there is a difference between bats and the previous entries.  I mentioned the ancient human’s fear of venomous animals creating an instinct in modern humans.  That works for snakes and spiders, but bats aren’t venomous.  They don’t even attack humans like the other two.  So, what is it about these guys that makes so many people shudder?

Let’s get to the elephant in the room, so we can shove it out the door.  Many people are afraid of getting rabies from bats.  This is a common fear, which one can’t really fault a person for having.  First, I’m getting info from THIS SITE.  The thing is that bats contract rabies less than other species with the number being less than 1/2 of 1% of bats being carriers.  Yet, it is true that human rabies cases are more commonly caused by bats because they are smaller than animals like raccoons and skunks.  A person is more likely to try and handle a bat that is acting funny.  This is an oddity in this fear because it seems we’re more scared of them when they’re in flight than when they’ve landed.  So, what could be the reason for that?

Best I can come up with is we’re terrified of things flying in our faces or getting stuck in our hair.  Bats get it worse than insects because they have leather wings and teeth.  They can barely break our skin with their teeth, outside of the vampire bat, which means there’s no real threat.  Still, nobody would want a flailing animal getting getting on them in the dark.  Humans don’t like the dark to some extent anyway, which is why we put lights up along roads and turn them on in our homes.  Add that with the concept of a leather-winged critter unexpectedly landing on your face or in your hair.  Now, you can get an idea of some of the fear.

Yet, this really doesn’t feel like enough.  Perhaps it’s just ancient misunderstanding that has continued due to modern fiction.  Someone heard the odd sounds and saw the bats in the dark.  It wasn’t a bird or an insect, so it got the imagination going.  Maybe farmers kept catching vampire bats on their livestock and came up with the vampire mythos.  This is not as believable though since I’m sure the animals are named after the legend.  Actually, from what I can find, bats weren’t added until Bram Stoker.  That means I just countered my own idea and am going in circles.

All I can really do is guess here.  Why do people think the bat gets associated with horror and fear?  Is it all because of vampires?

Besides, these guys are far too cute to be scary:

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Friday Book Cover: A few tricks

coldhandboyack's avatarStory Empire

Hi gang, Craig here once more. Toward the end of last year we adopted a group of alternating topics for Story Empire, and when the debate was going on, I was probably late for class. My first friday assignment is to bring you something about cover art. I’m making this up as I go, but my idea is sound … if I can pull it off.

I’m going to pick on fellow Story Empire author, P. H. Solomon. This isn’t a blatant attempt to promote his work, but rather because he did everything so well here. Even so, I have to acknowledge his Bow of Hart Saga is outstanding, if you’re inclined to dig deeper.

One of the things to remember about visual arts is that the rules are more like guidelines. Sounds a lot like writing doesn’t it? Once upon a time, back when I could still buy Kodachrome…

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