Author Collette Cameron
has a fabulous Five-Line Friday feature in which authors are encouraged
to post five lines from any book they've written. She has inspired Book
'Em North Carolina to do the same!
So each Wednesday, we plan Writers Working Wednesday, in which any author can post up to five lines of any book they wish to promote. Here are the guidelines:
1.
In a comment, post up to five lines from a work in progress or a
published work. You must be the author of that work, and it must be
rated PG (we have students who read this blog).
2. Add the title of your work and include a buy link if you'd like.
3. Also feel free to add your website URL.
So let's see what you have for us: start posting your excerpts below!
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Monday, October 20, 2014
The Book Blogger Platform
ABOUT THE BOOK
Book Blogging - One of the Best Hobbies in the World!
Join thousands of book bloggers in expressing their joy of
reading!
The Book Blogger Platform covers topics such as:
1. What a book
blogger blog needs to contain
2. A step by step
guide to manipulating images and videos
3. A description of
all the common features hosted by book bloggers
4. A description of
the social media aspect to a book blogger platform
5. Being Social - the
social aspect of book blogging
If you are tired of always
asking other bloggers questions
Let The Book Blogger Platform guide you painlessly. Over 80 color
graphics lead you step by step through some of the more difficult technical
issues that bloggers face.
Pick up a copy today and approach blogging with confidence!
AN EXCERPT
During
the 1990s, a blog was known as a weblog, indicating that it was something found
on the Internet as a serial recording of information—a diary, if you will.
Today blogs are quite different; they are personalized and modified to display
information in a variety of ways. But ultimately, a blog is still a serial
collection of information.
In
my experience, many book bloggers either start their blog on Blogger or on
WordPress.com because they both offer a free platform. Whether you’re a new or
seasoned blogger, I hope that by the end of our discussion of blogs you will
have a better sense of the components required for a successful blogging
experience.
This
brings me to an important point—regardless of your web designer’s opinion,
ultimately your blog must be easy to use and tailored to your needs. If you have a blog that is too complicated for your
skill level, ask for help. If you have paid someone to design a blog for you,
ensure that the designer understands your skill level and creates something you
are comfortable using.
Blogging
is a very popular activity. In February 2011, it was estimated that there were approximately
152,000,000 blogs worldwide on various platforms (according to Wikipedia). That number has only
increased since then. There are many different platforms for blogs. The most
common include Blogger, free WordPress (also known as WordPress.com), and
self-hosted WordPress (also known as WordPress.org). In addition, there is
Tumblr, Medium, Google+, Squarespace, LiveJournal, Weebly, Typepad, and Joomla.
Each platform has positive and negative aspects. For the purposes of this book,
we will be talking about Blogger and WordPress, as they are by far the most
popular of the platforms.
When
I went looking for some stats, I found it impossible to get current numbers of
Blogger blogs. Apparently they haven’t published their numbers in over a
decade. Of the numbers that are published, they are impressive! As of midway
through 2013,
·
There were 101.7 million Tumblr blogs
·
There were 63 million WordPress blogs
·
There were 62.6 million LiveJournal
blogs
·
There were 12 million Weebly blogs
As I’m sure you will determine as we go along, my preference
for blogging is self-hosted WordPress. As of this writing, a self-hosted
WordPress blog costs no more than $100.00 a year. There are some additional
startup costs (for example, how much you spend depends on the graphics selected
for your blog). If you decide to go with a “free” platform, you can register a
domain for a nominal charge. I’m not a huge fan of the massive URLs that come
with WordPress.com or Blogger blogs.
SPECIAL LINKS
Barb
Drozdowich (Author Site) http://barbdrozdowich.com
Sugarbeat’s
Books (Book Blog) http://sugarbeatsbooks.com
Facebook(Author
blog) https://www.facebook.com/BarbDrozdowichAuthor
Twitter
http://twitter.com/sugarbeatbc
Buy
link: http://amzn.to/1seIYyc (only available currently on Amazon)
Barb will be awarding a $20.00 Amazon/B&N gift card to a randomly drawn
winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $20.00 Amazon/B&N gift card
to a randomly drawn host.
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:
Thursday, October 16, 2014
My Name is Thank-You
Today's special guest is Kaizen
Love, an up and coming writer who spins words into a beautiful web that
should enrich the lives of all who read them. She has a positive and fresh take
on life, and has mastered the art of storytelling. She grew up reading books by
authors from every style, race, nationality, culture, and religious
perspective; drawing inspiration from each one. Her greatest mission is to
share love.
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR
I asked Kaizen why she chose to be an author. Here is her response:
I have been asked this question
several times over the past few years. Each time, I try to reflect on how it
feels when I sit down to write, and I base my answer off of that feeling. But
recently, this question has been affecting me rather deeply. Being an author
simply isn't an occupation, career choice, or hobby for me. It is a vital part
of my spiritual journey; it is how I connect to the infinite universe and
exercise my right as a creative being. As an author, how to describe what I get
out of the writing process is like asking a dolphin, what it gets out of swimming.
So how does one answer such a profound question?
Writing to me, is as necessary as
air, and as beautiful as the sun setting over the ocean. It is my constant
journey into the inner most depths of my mind, each trip going farther than the
one before it. When I was young, I knew
that I wanted to write, so much so that I would sit in my room and write for
hours and hours. Being the youngest of seven children and the only girl, my
words became my best friends. I created characters that I could talk to, bond
with, and share my secrets with. These characters grew with me; their stories
intertwined with my own, and eventually they have evolved into my
consciousness.
What drives me to write is in an
innate desire to pull something out of myself that will benefit others. When I
write, or create characters I don't do an outline on paper, but instead, I
allow my mind to wander into their lives. I ask myself, what kind of human do I want to create? What is their message? What
gift can I give to others through the telling of their story? It is the
ability to shine a light into the dark corners of our lives that carries me
through, especially on those days when I realize that my words don't yet pay
the bills.
I consider myself one of those lucky
people who have always known what they wanted to be when they grew up. I may
never know if I chose to be a writer, or if somehow writing chose me. When I am
asleep I dream of my stories, I see them unfold in my mind, and as the sun
peeks over the Miami sky, my eyes peek out into the world that I am able to
create through the magic of words. I am a writer, because that is intrinsically
what I am.
ABOUT THE BOOK
My Name Is
Thank-You allows us into the worlds of two very different thirteen-year-old
girls. Each girl’s voice carries its own unique tone, as the girls beckon us to
follow magically into their lives. One is a joyous story of hope against all
odds, the search for acceptance, and the longing for unconditional love; the
other a sad tale of unspeakable abuse, constant rejection, and an overwhelming
sense of loneliness. Thank-You and Josephine create around us a world rich with
emotion, one that will leave you inspired, breathless, and yearning for more
words.
AN EXCERPT
"Everybody got a story. It
don’t matter who you is or where you come from, as long as you got breath in yo
body you got a story to tell. The more people start sharing they stories the
faster we gonna learn to appreciate each other, and recognize how similar we
all is. Every human bean is connected to the other, despite the color they was
born wearing or the language they was born speaking." (My Name Is Thank-You)
SPECIAL LINKS
Amazon
Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LPLHQ3W
Website:
http://kaizenlove.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KaiZenLove
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com
Kaizen Love will
be awarding a $15 BN/Amazon GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter
during the tour.
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/09/virtual-book-tour-my-name-is-thank-you.html
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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