Note: Welcome to my first post under this hashtag. I see this hashtag with all sorts of pictures posted on Twitter and blogs. I had browsed around to see if I could find the creator of Wordless Wednesday and found nothing leading back to a particular person or group, but then with one final search leading from another blog, I came across this BLOG and then this BLOG. These two ladies could be who started #WordlessWednesday, so I’m posting their banner and linking to them. Anyone correct me if I’m wrong. 🙂 I’m not sure I’ll post each week because time gets away from me, but I’m giving it a try.
From WordPress– We wanted to update you about an upcoming change Facebook is introducing to their platform, and which affects how you may share posts from your WordPress.com website to your Facebook account.
Hey there, fellow bloggers. I’m on a “Blog Break” right now, but I thought some of you might be interested in this if you publish your Blog Posts to your Facebook account. ~Mary
Sorry this is late getting out this morning. Wow, week fourteen? I act like it’s a surprise. We’re back with another Marketing For Romance Writers 52-Week Blog Challenge using the hashtag #MFRWauthor.
Hmm, how do I choose? Hah, those words are something to laugh at if you’ve never received a bad review, and congratulations to you if you haven’t.
I don’t want to dwell on bad reviews. They make me sick for days, and now I have to recall those feelings as the bad ones flash before my eyes. Yes, I’ve learned that you aren’t going to please every reader who picks up a book. I understand. I can’t possibly love each and every book I choose to read, either, but I do read the blurb, “Look Inside the Book” sometimes, and take a glance at reviews. Try to please everyone if you dare.
The key is finding the readers you will please.
Through reviews in one book, I’ve learned what readers didn’t like, for example: rambling in a book that was already too long. Fear not, dear readers. This has been taken care of and in a major way.
In another book, I’ve learned that it has too much sex yet not enough. This can’t be fixed by anything I do unless I publish two versions.
For this post I’m picking one review that won’t go away, but it isn’t necessarily my worst. It’s at the top though. The worst reviews are the ones that attack and insinuate stupidity and being uneducated.
I knew better. Honest, I did. Too late. Too bad for me:
As I said in last weeks topic about research, I suggested triple checking, and then check a few more times before using the info in your book or whatever you’re writing for the public eye. I have no one to blame but myself. I knew better!
Yes, I made an error. (Not for the first time in my life, either.) I’m sorry for it.
I admit it. Ugh. 😦
It makes me sick to my stomach to have made such a silly mistake.
All it would’ve taken was one teeny minute to triple check a fact instead of depending on a street view thingy. Better yet, I shouldn’t have mentioned the real name of the damn town.
Yes, I corrected it in the book after the fact, but that doesn’t matter because the review is still there for the world to see. Potential readers don’t know I learned a lesson and fixed it, or that I had beat myself up more than they ever could. On my own defense… When I handed the manuscript over to someone who lived where my error appeared, and didn’t catch that freaking, glowering, embarrassing error, (insert a 4-letter word), it added to the painful burn inside of me.
Through this review, I also learned not to depend solely on others when my name is on the cover. It’s my job and my book. It’s my reputation. Boy, did I learn the lesson the hard way, when I knew better all along, anyway.
Too late. Too bad.
Y’all know the drill. This is a BLOG HOP. Feel free to visit the other participating authors. They’ll be as glad as I am that you stopped by.
Enjoy your weekend. I can’t believe it’s already Friday.
Happy Friday! The Marketing for Romance Writers bunch is back with a brand new topic. Are you ready? What is my inspiration to blog? Well, your guess is as good as mine. That’s what I thought when I began writing about this week’s topic.
Week 41: My Blogging Inspiration (Or not.)
I’m afraid I will fail miserably with this week’s topic. I can’t put a finger on what or who is my inspiration to blog, other than my readers. Of course, I want to be available and have a place to communicate with readers and my blog followers.
Sometimes “inspiration” comes because I have something to say. Other times I have news about my books like cover reveals, a new release, or a snippet/excerpt. On occasion I’ll mention a contest. Other times you’ll meet a guest. And last but not least, I’m inspired by others when I follow along in a blog hop like #MFRWauthor.
I’m not good at sticking to a set day to blog. This becomes apparent when I’m beginning or ending a book, and then when I prepare to launch a new release, like recently. This time, I’m preparing for two launches. Last year, I came up with topics to help me blog more often:
Short Snippet Saturday
Tuesday Inspiration for the Muse
Meet Our Heroines (This is more like a mini-series since I can’t post a new heroine each week or month.)
This year the Marketing for Romance Writers 52-Week Blog Challenge Blog Hop came into being. You know I don’t write a post for #MFRWauthor each week. I’m okay if I don’t write a post.
Well… Some of you are laughing because I skip days weeks in blogging. “Where is my inspiration then?” you might ask. Well, my muses aren’t feeling the inspiration. Instead, they’re heads are filled with novel writing ideas, and they’re pounding it into my head until it releases through my fingers on the keyboard. My lady muse has a split personality with a male who takes her place at times. Is this why I enjoy writing hero-focused romance? They’re both bossy, but their lassos don’t scare me.
While writing this, I learned something… In truth, my blogging inspiration comes from YOU. I see you post on a regular basis. It inspires me when you blog consistency. I look forward to your posts. I look forward to your blogs. And, I look forward to your comments and Likes on my barely-breathing blog. There you go. I found my inspiration for blogging. Maybe I didn’t fail miserably. Hah!
I’m curious to see what inspires the other participating authors to blog. Blog hop with me to THEIR PAGES.
Weekends are a bit like rainbows; they look good from a distance but disappear when you get up close to them. ~John Shirley
Enjoy your weekend.
I’ll be a little busy today, but I’ll hop over to your blogs later. Thanks for visiting.
Blogger Milly Schmidt says she “went out on a limb” to contact some of her blogging idols… Check out Milly’s post to see how many took the time to answer her question:
I was awarded The Sunshine Award from Gus Sanchez at Out Where the Busses Don’t Run. (I wonder if I’ll get out where the busses don’t run if I have a walk with words.) I’m sorry, I crack myself up sometimes. Many thanks, Gus, for nominating me for this award. It was very unexpected and appreciated. Now I need to answer a few questions and nominate some bloggers with the Sunshine Award so they can answer some questions. My nominations are at the end of my answers.
~~
What inspired you to start blogging?
I first started blogging around 2006 when I published my first book. I use that blog for archives now because I couldn’t bring myself to close it when I started this one. I wanted a way to update readers and friends on book info, plus I had a personal blog for family. Now I blog here about a variety of topics.
How did you come up with the name of your blog?
I brainstormed the name until it felt right. I actually looked at the header of an old theme I had with a path down a tree lined road, and it reminded me of taking a walk. I’m a writer so I put different things together to go with “walk” and what my blog was about, which was words. So, A Walk with Words was born.
What is your favorite blog that you like to read?
There are too many to choose one. Barbara Conelli writes about travel and Italy, and since I love Italy and travel, I enjoy hers, but to say I have one favorite would be cheating the other bloggers I follow.
Tell about your dream job.
I’m living my dream job as a full time writer. I waited a long time for this.
Is your glass half full or half empty?
I like my glass a little more than half full. Since I’m human, once in awhile it gets close to empty.
If you could go anywhere on a week’s vacation, where would you go?
At first I thought this would be easy. If I have to choose one place, it would be Tuscany, Italy, but I’d rather have longer than a week in Italy. Since I only have a week, I’d go to Arizona, preferably Tucson. I can be there in a few hours on a plane and have almost the full week. There are many things there I want to explore.
What food can you absolutely not eat?
I can’t stand the taste of cilantro.
Dark chocolate or milk chocolate?
Dark Chocolate. Yum—85% isn’t too much.
How much time do you spend blogging – in other words, are you one of those lucky people who can dash off a blog post in no time, or like me and take forever on one post to get it just right?
It takes me forever to write a blog post most of the time. I have to start it, let it rest, go back later, finish, and then let it sit at least overnight. I’ll reread it the next day before copying to my blog—preview it, change something, correct something else, preview and then hit publish. If I’m really lucky I catch any errors before it goes out to my subscribers. I had to do it with this post, too.” Sigh”
Do you watch TV – if so, what are some of your favorite shows?
I’m not a big TV watcher, but when I’m in a mood (if the glass is close to empty) I’ll turn it on so I don’t have to think about anything. There are a couple shows I try to always watch—Scandal, Hell on Wheels, Dancing with the Stars, Top Gear, Longmire, and some movies on the Hallmark Channel. If anyone knows me personally, they’ll see why I like Hell on Wheels. Bad boy weakness syndrome for those of you who don’t know me. I always go to bed at night with the Golden Girls. Watch it—I mean with them on my TV. I have to laugh at Gus who gave me this award—sometimes I watch Duck Dynasty too, usually if my son is home. Don’t tell, but I got a great line for my book from the show. Video of HoW is for season two. Waiting diligently for Season 3 to begin.
Now I have to nominate a few bloggers to give this award to. Ready?
Debra Andrews
Teagan Geneviene
Christine Rice
Barbara Conelli(I nominate Barb for this award, but she is on hiatus at the moment.)
Virginia Plantation(When they open I’m going here on my own personal writing retreat.)
Lord David Prosser (David, I’m giving you this award because you deserve it. I know you’re going through a difficult time, and I want you to have the Sunshine Award because you need some sunshine right now. No need to answer the questions. My gift to you.)
This is a Reblog from one of my previous NaNoWriMo years. My second day of NaNo happened to fall on a Thursday and I needed a Thursday Thirteen Meme for that day. If you’re new to NaNoWriMo, take a look, because you’ll probably find yourself doing the same thing, although I must admit, 10k words in two days might be a little rare. You have to get a jump on it when you can. Here goes–
When you’re writing 50,000 words in 30 days, forget the rules of writing. You’ll kick yourself in the rear for it when it comes to editing in December, but it’s all part of it. For the 30 days of working on your Nano novel, just WRITE.
1. Wrote a lot of Words so far using as few contractions as possible
2. Created many paragraphs 🙂
3. Shame on me for using too many adjectives
4. Yikes, lots of adverbs
5. Misspelled words
6. Drank a lot of Coffee
7. Deleted a few words, sentences . . . (Shhh, don’t tell)
8. Wrote run-on sentences
9. Challenged myself to sprints
10. Wrote almost 10,000 words in less than 3 days (Will be over 10,000 by tonight)
11. Stayed in jammies most of the first day
12. Created a dilemma for myself and the characters
13. Used a lot of strikethroughs instead of deleting
NOTE: I can see my editor cringing right now if she reads this.
Update: Well, here it is, October 2015 and it’s time to update this post. First off, I no longer do what that above lists suggest. Nope, not anymore. Of course the above list follows the rules. Each year I participated, brought new experiences, and I’ve learned a lot since then. This new post link might help even more– https://maryjdresselbooks.com/2014/10/21/my-nanowrimo-experience-has-evolved-2/
Thursday Thirteen
1. First list item starts here…
Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun!
No Internet! ACKKKKKK! It’s horrible not being able to get online. I typed into Word because I had to be at my keyboard doing something! It’s so boring here without it. Yesterday, I didn’t know I would get up today and be without an internet connection. I woke up, had coffee, and then reached for my laptop. All I really wanted to do was write in my journal written in Word. Then I noticed there was no internet connection. No big deal at the moment because I wasn’t doing anything online.
All I wanted to do was write, but I couldn’t remember the password to my journal. I don’t usually keep passwords, but on this one I do, and I hadn’t checked into it for a few weeks. It took forever for me to remember it. This, I found, is caused from stress. It affects how you think. Stress steals your memory.
I’m okay without being on the Internet as long as I can write. But, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m addicted to my laptop, and sometimes the Internet. I think because the TV is always on to something I don’t want to watch. (Other people in the house are watching.) I don’t mind watching the news, and I like to stay informed, but when they repeat the same thing over and over, it gets to you. Know what I mean? And a person can only watch so many Judge Judy’s!
Not long after I started writing this blog that day, I had to make the call to the Internet provider. I have an experimental WiFi service, and I guess it’s cheap enough not to complain. When it works, it’s great! And it does work most of the time. When I called them, it only took a short time for them to check the radio box on the telephone pole down the street, and then they detected my nanostation. Is that all confusing? Its okay, if you don’t have WiFi, I guess you don’t have to worry about it.
After they told me they saw my computer on a radio at another pole, I told them the first pole was the closest to my house. They said it wasn’t. I live here–I should know which pole I’m closer to. Anyway, they fixed me up and I was happy!
I discovered that even though I can write without being on the Internet, I can’t write without doing research. Therefore, a writer needs the Internet to work, all the time. I can choose to use it if I want, or I can choose to not click on Internet Explorer. I admit, when I do make that click, and I see my homepage load, it’s not hard to get distracted. There are too many things to choose to do. I’m an adult. I should be able to discipline myself to write or to play. This was one of those times. I wrote this whole blog post without clicking on IE. I noticed one problem, though. I use Outlook for my email, and I did have to stop and read my email during this writing. I’m disciplined, but I’m also tempted by my cyber-world.
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Blogger Milly Schmidt says she “went out on a limb” to contact some of her blogging idols… Check out Milly’s post to see how many took the time to answer her question:
Mary J. McCoy-Dressel ~ Contemporary Romance 
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