Friday, October 30, 2009

Funny!

HA!


Just today, I told my editor my goal was to have book two done by the end of November.

Then I saw this...





Inkygirl.com

Halloween Chat!

Well, I finally got the skinny on the Mistress Bella Halloween Bash...

We are each having our own personal chats at Tinychat! I have never used Tinychat, so this should be fun...

The link for my chat is:

http://tinychat.com/eetne

http://tinychat.com/eetne

And I'm on from 1pm - 2pm Central Time.

Please feel free to come join me and hangout for a little while, and we'll talk all things Halloween!

EDIT: Whew! I'm warnin' y'all....I have NO IDEA what I'm doing with Tinychat. This ought to be interesting....SCARY!

Friday Finds!

Friday Finds!


I have all kinds of interesting stuff for you today!

First off is the link that revolutionized MY LIFE. Seriously.

Read It Later

This is a spiffy little system that lets you save websites and blog posts to your Reading List for later use - which is nifty enough on its own if you're like me and usually have forty-two tabs open with things you want to read but haven't had time to yet. The Reading List compiles them all in one place and you don't lose them when your browser crashes. (Under the weight of forty-two tabs).

What makes it revolutionary is that there is an iPhone/iTouch app that allows me to download those webpages and blog posts to my iPod (Jeeves) and read them later OFFLINE. This is the big beautiful kicker. OFFLINE.

I have been struggling with all sorts of ways to convert the text of blog posts so I can read them even if I'm not in range of an open wireless source. Not only does Read It Later save these as they appear on my computer, but saving them in the first place is far easier than my usual cut-n-paste or save as, convert, load, blah blah blah. Now, I just click a link in my favorites list, and TA-DA! the page is on my Reading List. At the end of the day, I sync my iPod to my reading list and I'm good to go!

I didn't look too hard, but I understand they have ways for other smart phones to access your reading list, and they apparently have a killer FireFox extension.

Sasha White has an interesting post on Tracking Your Work over at Genreality. There are several good suggestions for websites and downloads that allow you to track works in progress and submissions you're waiting on.

Some I'm planning to look at:

Writer's Database

Downloadable Writer's Database

Sonar 3



Smart Bitches has an interesting post on publishing your work as an APP for smart phones and ipods. Apps for Authors

And finally Carol Burge at Romance Writer Woes has compiled a list of Writing Contests that are currently open.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Interview!

Oh! I just noticed my turn is up at Marianne Arkins's blog!

What, When, Where, Why and How with Elle Parker

She's been doing this series for a long time now, and it's always worth the read.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Friday Finds!

Friday finds is back!


Cerebral Reviews is offering a free download of their editor's advice writing manual: Sharpening the Quill

(Shout out to Obsidian Bookshelf where I originally found the link - Thanks!)

Dame Jackie of Deadline Dames talks about Making Time to write. (A subject very dear to me right now)

And an interesting follow up: Gina Badalaty explains Five Minute Editing at Mama Writers

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Halloween Contest!

Happy Halloween!!!

This is my favorite time of year, and Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so to celebrate, I'm taking part in a few Halloween contests and promo events!

The first, which is going on now and runs for quite a while is Romance Junkies Halloween Contest. You guys...this contest is so COOL! They've set up a virtual haunted house for you to explore, filled with giveaways and promotions from a whole bunch of authors and publishers.

The link takes you to their contest page, and from there you scroll down to find the graphic like the one posted here. That will take you to the haunted house! There is music on the contest site, so turn your speakers up or down depending on where you are *g*.

I'm giving away an ebook copy of Like Coffee and Doughnuts and a bag of coffee beans. I won't tell you where my trivia question is hidden, but I will give you a hint...It's where you would expect to find an author! Good Luck!

The second one is Mistress Bella's Halloween Bash. She is putting together a whole weekend of chats and giveaways at the blog, and it sounds like it's going to be a blast. I don't have all the info on the where's and how's yet, but I can tell you that I'm signed up for 1-2pm US Central Time, and plan to hang out for much of the rest of the day. I'll post more info on that when I get it.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Friday Finds!

Friday Finds!



Moonrat, over at Editorial Ass, has posted a whole slew of links to previous entries on writing and publishing and there's a lot of great stuff there: Moonrat's Publishing Backlist

Lesli Richardson has a clever trick for an easy start to historical research: Historical Research Quick Tip

Which reminds me of my favorite way to name American characters: I take a search through the Social Security Popular Baby Names which allows you to enter a birth year and find out the most popular names in that year.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Really?!

Did I just see a TV commercial advertising a Sony Reader for $199.00 ?????

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Welcome!

I'd like to introduce you all to the new kid on the block...

Gwenna Sebastian


http://gwennasebastian.blogspot.com/


She happens to be a great personal friend of mine, and is an all around marvelous person. She's also a great writer, and I wish her the best of luck as she starts out!

Friday, October 2, 2009

Friday Finds!

Friday Finds!


This week Wave posted the results of the Readers’ Favourite Gay Books project at Reviews by Jessewave, and it's just marvelous.

I'm deeply honored to be on that list for Like Coffee and Doughnuts. Right alongside Victor J. Banis, no less! (Okay, that's because it's alphabetical by title, but STILL...)

Here's an excellent post on internet marketing that goes beyond the usual ones: Pimp My Monkey (Guest Blogger: Chris Eldin)

Referenced in that post is another one I've had open in my tabs for a couple weeks now: The Ten Commandments of Blogging

And since we're talking about blogging (and cleaning out my tabs as well), here's another I've been sitting on for a bit: How to Build Traffic on Your Blog, Part 2 by Jennifer Fulwiler!