Thrill Me, Kill Me

 Hey, Everyone! Today I'm doing my monthly blog spot at Through Heart-Shaped Glasses. I'm talking about some of my favorite authors.

So stop on by. Tell who your favorite author is.  Don't forget, every comment is entered into a monthly drawing for swag!

Through Heart-Shaped Glasses, Our Group Blog Opens Today!

I'm excited to announce the debut of a group blog that's been in the works for some time. Eleven spectacular authors, and you-know-who, have come together to share our writer's world with you.

Today is the first post of our brand new blog:

Through Heart-Shaped Glasses

From suspense to sweet or sinfully erotic, or in the past, present or future...we write to entertain our readers. From aspiring to multi-published, we are romance authors, seeing life through our own heart-shaped glasses. Enjoy the view!

Everything from romance, novels, life and family and writing will be shared through our eyes...yes, we're romance writers...we look at life through our very own pairs of heart-shaped glasses.

I'll still be blogging regularly here so don't worry. My day at THSG will always be on the 19th. And we'll be taking guest bloggers on the 1st and the 15th of every month.

The theme for May is "Firsts" and with 12 ladies...you never know what you're going to get...from first dates to first contracts to that first time at a conference, you're bound to find someone to connect with, laugh with or cry with.

Let's not forget, there's Blog Swag to be had. Every month one of our authors will be sponsoring our blog swag gift. Any comments during the entire month are entered to win a $10 amazon e-card - chosen at random on June 1st.

Come on over and welcome us to the blog world!

A Blog Award!

I've been given a blog award!

Thanks to Debora Dennis for the honor of nominating my blog for the Reality Award.

Now, according to the rules of the award, I need to share 7 facts you might not know about me... (and probably don't care to know, but rules are rules)

1. I don’t like to go barefoot. I feel naked.

2. I love cheese. Just between you and me, there I days when I choose cheese over chocolate.

3. I still work on stories writing longhand sometimes.

4. I love action movies. If it’s blowing up, burning, or there’s a car chase, I’m there.

5. I really don’t like it when people casually use the word “hate”. To me it’s serious; it’s powerful, and should be saved for special occasions.

6. I drink as much black/green tea as I do coffee. I believe in equal opportunity caffeinating.

7. I don’t like horror movies, but have no trouble reading paranormal/horror stories. Go figure.

And now the rules say I must nominate other worthy bloggers because they inspire me with their ideas, their creativity and their positive words!


Chelle Sandell at http://chellesandell.blogspot.com/

Tina Vaughn at http://tinaevaughn.blogspot.com/

Rebecca Rose at http://authorrebeccarose.blogspot.com/

Autumn Piper at http://piperpatter.blogspot.com/

Kate Reedwood at http://katereedwood.blogspot.com/


And because every award comes with a few rules, here's the rules of the Reality Award:

1. Thank the blogger who gave you the award.

2. Post the award on your blog.

3. Share 7 little-known facts about you.

4. Nominate 5 bloggers to bestow the award upon.

5. Contact them and let them know to come pick up their award at your blog!

The Shine is Worn Off

Are blogs dying out? I wonder. I subscribe to many blogs for one reason or another and one trend I’ve noticed is that many of the people who used to blog religiously three times a week or more, only blog every so often now, or hardly at all. And I know of some writers who’ve actually shut their blogs down claiming its stealing away time from their writing.

What’s an author to do? Does a publisher still want an author to have a blog? Is a blog with only a few followers better than no blog at all?

Perhaps people are tired of trying to come up with more amusing anecdotes after working at it for years. Let’s face it. Life has its boring moments. A lot of times it’s ugly or harsh, not cute and funny. Not to mention private, pain-filled or (insert other angsty adjective here) and not the proper fodder for an audience. If you don’t have a platform, like say, marketing, best-selling, self-pubbing, etc. What are you going to talk about? And beyond that, who will care?

The list of promo places just keeps growing and growing. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Goodreads, Pinterest, Amazon and other forums, and let’s not forget the blog tours which actually market your latest release. The list just keeps growing and spreading. Like crabgrass. Now I don’t mind most of these places. In fact I like most of them because I’m insatiably curious and want to know what’s going on pretty much everywhere. You never know when you’ll come across fodder for another story.

No one can deny they are a time sink. And yes, I’ve tried a kitchen timer, monitoring the time spent at each site and charting it, etc. And it doesn’t matter how you slice it, the time spent on marketing just keeps expanding. I think we’re lucky as authors to have all of these options. BUT, that being said, does blogging still play a viable part? Do you feel it’s still a valuable part of your marketing program?

Holiday Reading

Our regularly scheduled programming has been cancelled due to conflicting schedules. Those things happen. We'll try to get Ms. Selwyn to guest another day.

In lieu of guests, don't forget about the Twelve Days of Christmas.

The Passionate Critters are posting a great short free read every day.

Lyrical Press has fourteen authors celebrating their Christmas Bash with books that are 30% off.

Don't miss out on the fun!

Friends, Followers, and Other Stalkers

Enjoying my first cup of coffee this morning, I perused the recent posts of blogs I follow. As I read one of my pal’s posts about ‘unfollowing’ someone, I thanked goodness that I’d at least posted this week so she wouldn’t be using that term for me. At least not yet. But it did make me wonder, why do we follow people?

Continuing the morning ritual, I checked my facebook page for requests, and discovered I received two from people I didn’t know, and one from an old high school friend, which brightened the day. While there, I sent two friend requests and ‘liked’ an author whose book I recently finished and enjoyed. At the same time became irritated because there is someone on my list who posts every single day about her book being for sale. Grrr. If I buy it, will she go away and leave me alone??? But couldn’t bring myself to unfriend her, just yet. After all, she’s doing more marketing than I am at the moment, and I do applaud her for it, so for now we’re even.

I love to follow my friends and fellow authors because I feel it keeps me connected and I have a way of knowing what’s going on in their lives. I follow or friend them everywhere I can. I do it to authors whose work I enjoy as a way of supporting them. So here’s the truth of the matter. It makes me feel good. If you knew me, you’d know anything that makes people ‘feeeeeel’ good makes my eye twitch.

But strangely enough it does. It’s become more than marketing, as I find myself invested in things that are going on in others people’s lives, some of whom I don’t even know except by their avatar. When I read they’ve signed a new contract or something else good, it brightens my day.

So, I’m curious. Why do you follow, friend and tweet? And over time, has the way you feel about it changed?

Milestone

Thank you to all my followers, both new and old. The public ones, and the private ones. Yep, I'm watching all of you. lol.

Today is a milestone for this blog. I've reached my 100th post. How awesome is that? In my book it's pretty cool, because when I started this blog, I really couldn't think of anything to say. Some days I still have that problem. I mean really, how interesting is my life? Perhaps I need to change my viewpoint. Maybe it's the minutia of everyday life which holds us all together.

Either way, thanks for being here, and following along. It matters.

Have a spectacular weekend, everyone!

Back In Action

Hey everyone. Here I am, and not completely dead. Only mostly dead tired. This is my busy (okay, busier than usual) season. Since the last blog post here, I’ve spent four days in Florida, four days in Chicago, four days in west Texas, and three days in Indianapolis. And then another week in Florida. The sucky part is none of it is vacation. The great part is that I’m working. But no less exhausted, and grouchy, so you probably don’t want to talk to me anyway.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. One of my major gripes in following a blog is when you check it, and the person has totally stopped posting. Grrr. You have my humble apology for becoming one of the very things that’s on my crappy list. I will do better.

I really want to ramp up this blog, so there are some great things planned for the new year. Author interviews, reviews, give aways and more! More what? Well, you just have to check back in and see.

Here’s wishing you great last minute shopping, with shorter lines, and a clear path to exactly the right gift.