In the whirlwind of discussions on the Internet, or perhaps because I'm having a toddler moment ("ooh, a shinier toy"), I can't remember whether I met Laurie on Kindle Boards, or in the Amazon Discussion Forums. But meet her I did, and she offered to let me guest on her blog.
Go visit Laurie's Interviews & Guest Blog Spots today. She asks fun questions.
As a matter of fact, put her on your regular reading rotation. A lot of nice people show up to talk about books.
Showing posts with label kindle boards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kindle boards. Show all posts
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
I'm not here
Well, I am, but I'm not. I'm really over at another blog today, sharing a few laughs with a new friend, Karen Cantwell. She and her friends, Barbara Silkstone and L.C. Evans share a little corner of the Internet called "A Moose Walked Into a Bar." It's a serious examination of alcoholism in the moose population.
Just joking. It's a comedy blog. (Really? You thought I was serious?)
I met Karen through, hmm, either the Amazon Discussion groups or Kindle Boards - I don't honestly remember which, but we hit it off and she invited me to be her guest. Karen also writes humorous mysteries. Her Barbara Marr Mysteries are about a suburban mom who, like so many sleuths, is constantly in hot water because she can't keep her nose out of things.
Karen has four books out: Take the Monkeys and Run, The Chronicles of Marr-nia, Foxy's Tale, and her latest, Citizen Insane.
Check her out at www.karencantwell.com.
Just joking. It's a comedy blog. (Really? You thought I was serious?)
I met Karen through, hmm, either the Amazon Discussion groups or Kindle Boards - I don't honestly remember which, but we hit it off and she invited me to be her guest. Karen also writes humorous mysteries. Her Barbara Marr Mysteries are about a suburban mom who, like so many sleuths, is constantly in hot water because she can't keep her nose out of things.
Karen has four books out: Take the Monkeys and Run, The Chronicles of Marr-nia, Foxy's Tale, and her latest, Citizen Insane.
Check her out at www.karencantwell.com.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Tweedly-deedly deet, tweet, tweet!
In pursuit of readers, I try to be out on the social network, working it every day. Facebook, Twitter, Kindle Boards, Amazon discussions, Scribd, I'll go any where I can find people. The trick is, of course, to not look desperate. You don't get readers that way, any better than you catch a spouse.
So you talk about your personal life, and ask people about theirs. You recommend and encourage other writers. You post something interesting you saw somewhere else, or ask a dumb question. And every so often, you say, "hey, I got a book here you might like."
The tool I have the worst time with is Twitter. I spend some weeks with multiple daily Tweets, then I kind of fall off the map for awhile. It's been a hard groove to get into; however, I have learned some Twitter-Tips I'd like to pass along.
1. Don't over-tweet. If you're tweeting once an hour, I'm okay with that. Even a few times within a single hour is okay. But when I see multiple tweets in a row from the same person, I'm convinced they must have gone off their meds. If you do this, call your doctor immediately. I worry about you.
2. Say something interesting. I don't want to know that you just brushed your teeth, or that you hate your job, or you bought new shoes. I'd want to know if you bought new shoes for me. I also don't care what you just had for lunch, unless you say it in the most amusing way.
3. If you feel the need to tweet and can't think of anything interesting, find an interesting tweet from someone else and re-tweet that. In the Twitterverse, it's not plagiarism, it's a trend.
4. Don't just constantly tell me to buy your book or your product or sign up for your service. The only personality I get from you when you do this is that used car salesman with the plaid jacket and the slicked-back hair. It's like staring at frickin' billboard.
5. DON'T TWEET IN ALL CAPS. IT'S ANNOYING (see this for why - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vRiA91O14U&feature=related). I can read you perfectly clearly when you use lower case. If you use caps all the time, how am I supposed to tell when you're excited about something?
6. Reply to people's Tweets. If you just keep typing those tweets without any interaction, it's like, hmm, like that other activity people do alone that gives them intensely personal pleasure. You know - eating chocolate.
7. Follow folks. I mean, come on, Mr. Look-I-Tweet-But-I-Don't-Read Celebrity. If you want me to read your brilliance, have the decency to follow me back. It's not like I'm gonna stalk you. I've got a few more things on my to-do list first.
8. #Don't #put #a #hashtag #in #front #of #every #word #just #in #case #one #of #those #words #is #the #trend #for #the #day. Gah.
9. Don't put the hashtag trend word in every Tweet, even if the Tweet has nothing to do with the subject. That's needy.
10. Do give your followers a shout-out on #FollowFriday, #WriterWednesday, whatever #MM stands for, etc.
Those are ten that came to mind pretty easily. Did I miss any? If I did, just Tweet me - http://www.twitter.com/GeeCarl
So you talk about your personal life, and ask people about theirs. You recommend and encourage other writers. You post something interesting you saw somewhere else, or ask a dumb question. And every so often, you say, "hey, I got a book here you might like."
The tool I have the worst time with is Twitter. I spend some weeks with multiple daily Tweets, then I kind of fall off the map for awhile. It's been a hard groove to get into; however, I have learned some Twitter-Tips I'd like to pass along.
1. Don't over-tweet. If you're tweeting once an hour, I'm okay with that. Even a few times within a single hour is okay. But when I see multiple tweets in a row from the same person, I'm convinced they must have gone off their meds. If you do this, call your doctor immediately. I worry about you.
2. Say something interesting. I don't want to know that you just brushed your teeth, or that you hate your job, or you bought new shoes. I'd want to know if you bought new shoes for me. I also don't care what you just had for lunch, unless you say it in the most amusing way.
3. If you feel the need to tweet and can't think of anything interesting, find an interesting tweet from someone else and re-tweet that. In the Twitterverse, it's not plagiarism, it's a trend.
4. Don't just constantly tell me to buy your book or your product or sign up for your service. The only personality I get from you when you do this is that used car salesman with the plaid jacket and the slicked-back hair. It's like staring at frickin' billboard.
5. DON'T TWEET IN ALL CAPS. IT'S ANNOYING (see this for why - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vRiA91O14U&feature=related). I can read you perfectly clearly when you use lower case. If you use caps all the time, how am I supposed to tell when you're excited about something?
6. Reply to people's Tweets. If you just keep typing those tweets without any interaction, it's like, hmm, like that other activity people do alone that gives them intensely personal pleasure. You know - eating chocolate.
7. Follow folks. I mean, come on, Mr. Look-I-Tweet-But-I-Don't-Read Celebrity. If you want me to read your brilliance, have the decency to follow me back. It's not like I'm gonna stalk you. I've got a few more things on my to-do list first.
8. #Don't #put #a #hashtag #in #front #of #every #word #just #in #case #one #of #those #words #is #the #trend #for #the #day. Gah.
9. Don't put the hashtag trend word in every Tweet, even if the Tweet has nothing to do with the subject. That's needy.
10. Do give your followers a shout-out on #FollowFriday, #WriterWednesday, whatever #MM stands for, etc.
Those are ten that came to mind pretty easily. Did I miss any? If I did, just Tweet me - http://www.twitter.com/GeeCarl
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Look fast! A guest flashes (fiction) by
Seriously, if you haven't checked out Kindle Boards, you need to. I don't care if you don't own any kind of e-reading device. I don't care if you're not an author. Kindle Boards is a forum where you can join in discussions about books and blogs and publishing and all kinds of topics that appeal to readers.
It's where I found Thea Atkinson, who writes psychological thrillers and historical fiction. This month, she's doing a fun sort of blog tour, where she streaks through 30 blogs in 30 days, posting flash fiction in each and linking them together so you can follow along. At the end of her piece here, you'll find the link from yesterday's post, and a link to tomorrow's blog.
Feel free to leave a comment to let her know if you enjoyed the streak, and you are welcome to tweet it or share it on Facebook. You can also follow the chain through Twitter with the hashtag #blogstreak.
And now, take it away, Thea:
* * * * *
Elspeth
By Thea Atkinson
http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com/
Elspeth sat on the floor arranging and rearranging her cheesies. Tiger-orange in perfectly straight stripes against plush green carpet pleased the three-year-old no end. One after another, she popped them into her mouth and watched her mommy clean.
By the time she was 15, Elspeth couldn't stand wrinkles in her sheets, or kinks in the elastic band of her panties. She wore gloves to school because the janitors were lax. Her best friend constantly sullied her room with paper when she came to visit, so Elspeth had to stop calling her.
Chris seemed perfect when she met him: clean cut, respectable. He even lined his french fries up like little soldiers before he ate them. Elspeth married him after only three weeks.
She shined his truck for him when he complained she wasn't good enough for him to shine his shoes, made his bed with toe corners because hospital tucks wouldn't do. She popped birth control pills for fear he'd hate the fat collecting on her midriff, but still it kept collecting there and she had to stop popping bread, and then meat, and then stale crackers, and then, finally, food altogether.
They invited guests for dinner parties and Elspeth did her best to cook calamari, crisp, like he wanted so he could be proud of her, of himself, and what a trophy he’d found in Elspeth.
Her friend Lise said, "You've outdone yourself."
"They taste like rubber bands," Chris said, throwing one to the dog.
Elspeth swallowed down the bit of calamari she'd managed to force into her mouth. She slipped into a polite smile the way she’d slipped into the silk cocktail dress earlier that evening, and then she excused herself to the restroom where the eyes that met hers in the mirror were strained and red.
She heard him through the door, laughing with his guests, his nasal snort a sound that made her stomach squeeze and her throat burn until she had purged every stale thing within her stomach.
For one moment, she felt clean. Blissfully clean. And no one could take that away from her.
* * * * *
april 13 flash:
http://jpgwriter.com/
april 15 flash:
http://jarrettwrites.blogspot.com/
Thea's ebooks: http://www.amazon.com/Thea-Atkinson/e/B0046DIT0U/
It's where I found Thea Atkinson, who writes psychological thrillers and historical fiction. This month, she's doing a fun sort of blog tour, where she streaks through 30 blogs in 30 days, posting flash fiction in each and linking them together so you can follow along. At the end of her piece here, you'll find the link from yesterday's post, and a link to tomorrow's blog.
Feel free to leave a comment to let her know if you enjoyed the streak, and you are welcome to tweet it or share it on Facebook. You can also follow the chain through Twitter with the hashtag #blogstreak.
And now, take it away, Thea:
* * * * *
Elspeth
By Thea Atkinson
http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com/
Elspeth sat on the floor arranging and rearranging her cheesies. Tiger-orange in perfectly straight stripes against plush green carpet pleased the three-year-old no end. One after another, she popped them into her mouth and watched her mommy clean.
By the time she was 15, Elspeth couldn't stand wrinkles in her sheets, or kinks in the elastic band of her panties. She wore gloves to school because the janitors were lax. Her best friend constantly sullied her room with paper when she came to visit, so Elspeth had to stop calling her.
Chris seemed perfect when she met him: clean cut, respectable. He even lined his french fries up like little soldiers before he ate them. Elspeth married him after only three weeks.
She shined his truck for him when he complained she wasn't good enough for him to shine his shoes, made his bed with toe corners because hospital tucks wouldn't do. She popped birth control pills for fear he'd hate the fat collecting on her midriff, but still it kept collecting there and she had to stop popping bread, and then meat, and then stale crackers, and then, finally, food altogether.
They invited guests for dinner parties and Elspeth did her best to cook calamari, crisp, like he wanted so he could be proud of her, of himself, and what a trophy he’d found in Elspeth.
Her friend Lise said, "You've outdone yourself."
"They taste like rubber bands," Chris said, throwing one to the dog.
Elspeth swallowed down the bit of calamari she'd managed to force into her mouth. She slipped into a polite smile the way she’d slipped into the silk cocktail dress earlier that evening, and then she excused herself to the restroom where the eyes that met hers in the mirror were strained and red.
She heard him through the door, laughing with his guests, his nasal snort a sound that made her stomach squeeze and her throat burn until she had purged every stale thing within her stomach.
For one moment, she felt clean. Blissfully clean. And no one could take that away from her.
* * * * *
april 13 flash:
http://jpgwriter.com/
april 15 flash:
http://jarrettwrites.blogspot.com/
Thea's ebooks: http://www.amazon.com/Thea-Atkinson/e/B
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