Moving to the Granny Flat

I certainly hope y'all have been checking out my posts on the New Authors' Fellowship. I've been a Featured Author there since early January 2011. But my time has run out. It's not a sad thing, though! I'm moving up to the "Granny Flat"--our affectionate term for Alumni status. It means I won't be posting weekly anymore, but I'm still there, and I will be posting once a month.

Today, I posted my last post as a Featured Author: Up, Up...but Not Away.

To make sure you don't miss future posts on there, I'll put links up here. But you are certainly free to go follow the NAF blog--there are plenty of other awesome authors on there posting every day. Bop around the site over there and visit my page to catch up on all my previous posts.

Oh, and I'll be throwing this out now and then: I've started another blog/site specific to Finding Angel (http://findingangel.com/) that I'll be trying to keep up now that I don't have the weekly obligation to NAF. It will be focused entirely on Finding Angel stuff. News, drawings, contests, companion short stories, etc. Anything that can be directly related to the series will make its way over there. Obviously, I'll be posting about Finding Angel and my progress on subsequent books here, too, but not quite as in-depth. So head on over and follow, follow!

Making the Rounds

I have to give a speech next month about online marketing and this week I find myself working on just that. Nothing like hands-on preparation.

There are several places I lurk around online. Other than this blog, I've got a website for my novel, Finding Angel, which will be getting updated eventually. And I'm a Featured Author on New Authors' Fellowship. Those are the main stops for me online, as well as Facebook. These are pretty easy to keep up with. Planning blog posts is part of my normal schedule. I check in on FB daily.

But there are other places I need to visit and post stuff now and then, and they tend to get hit all at once when I--finally--remember them.

This week the Kindle version of There Was a Crooked House, which contains my short horror story "Cat Call," has released. That has to go on my Amazon page and then on Goodreads . As does Chicken Soup for the Soul: Just for Preteens, which has my story "Armored and Dangerous"--this one is available for pre-order right now. (BTW--if you're local and want to purchase the Chicken Soup book directly from me I'm finding out about ordering them.) This isn't too big of a deal--as my stories are released I post about them and add them to my pages, and then I update my brag books.

Yes, I print out the stories I have published online and of course keep copies of the print zines I'm featured in. At present, I've had to split my stuff into two separate binders--one for non-fiction and interviews, and one for fiction and artwork. Feels pretty good :).

It doesn't stop there, though.

I've noticed lately that everybody and their brother seem to be creating and joining social network sites. There are far too many to keep track of! I've got my blogs, my site, and memberships on Facebook and Goodreads. I joined Linkedin and find that a complete waste--I'm never over there. Ever. I'm also technically a member of a couple of other networks, like Edgy Christian Fiction Lovers, but they are sorely neglected by me. So, I'm stopping here for now. Until someone comes up with a way for me to update all those places at once--as well as my author pages and such--I simply can't add anymore.

And of course there are forums all over that I've joined and pretty much never visit. Making online connections is important, but it is time-consuming!

My other big project has been spiffing up the website for one of my local writers groups,Brandon Christian Writers. Until this weekend it was just a blog page, but I've now added other pages with info about our meetings and members. And since I'm a member, info about me has to go on there :). This also happens to be the group I'll be speaking to about online marketing--which is right back where I started this blog post. No wonder I feel like I'm running in circles!

Comments on Commenting

I have found myself lately pondering the art of blog commenting. I've realized I have many reasons FOR commenting--and probably more for NOT commenting. Generally, I DO leave comments because I've found the post interesting (maybe it's a controversial topic), I can relate exactly to what the author is saying, or it's an author I'm trying to help support (like if they are newly published and I love their work and want to spread the word). There are a few other reasons I'm sure, but I can't think of them right now, and that's not the point of the post.

This is the reason for the post--

Here's a list of why I DON'T leave comments. If you have a blog I follow, I suppose you'll just have to figure out where yours fits, like it or not.

1--I'm tired. I've expended what little energy I had at the time reading your blog post, and writing a comment would push me over the edge.

2--No time. I've read it, loved it, but have too many things going to formulate an articulate response.

3--The topic is something I feel very strongly about, and I want to write a well-worded response, but by the time I get it figured out, too much time has passed and your blog has moved on, or every other commenter has already said what I wanted to say.

4--I didn't like the post, didn't care about it, found it too boring or long or whatever to waste my time reading it, and do not want to encourage further discussion. (Of course, that can't be the case all the time, otherwise I wouldn't be following you in the first place.)

5--I disagree with you, but know that nothing I say is going to change your mind, and I'm not the kind of person that goes around trying to convert everyone to my philosophies anyway. It's your blog, you have a right to post anything you want, even if you are wrong.

6--Your blog gets gobs of comments without adding mine to the masses. Plain and simple--you don't need me, and I doubt you notice.

7--I simply had nothing to add. The post was fine--interesting, thought-provoking--but I felt that adding a comment was superfluous and accomplished nothing other than getting my name listed under the post.

There, now you have it. Not that you need it, much less asked for it. But there you have it, nonetheless. Feel free to comment. Or not.