Jackie Rod, author of Georgia Stories On My Mind, is visiting us while on her Wow! Women On Writing tour. Please give her a huge welcome. Choices is especially pleased Jackie has shared her experience and expertise in marketing on social media. I know I very much need that kind of advice in marketing my own books. Here's Jackie. Marketing on Social Media by Jackie Rod Every writer needs an online presence, a platform. Having an online presence provides opportunities to engage directly with readers. Be consistent with your posts on social media. When you post regularly, your readers can see and engage with you. Post at different times of the day to increase the number of viewers who will see your message. Comment on the posts you are tagged in. It could be a simple thank you. When you make readers feel appreciated, they will likely become social media friends. You are building relationships with others online across miles, building a tribe. Your tribe can help … [Read more...]
May flowers and memories (small stones)
I just finished my tenth month writing small stones. The only break was during my husband's Grand Canyon accident and recovery in November - December 2016. Here are my May small stones, including a couple of photos I posted with the words. By the way, the admin of the small stones Facebook page, Ger O Neill, creates a new name for our group every month. Last month the name was May flowers and memories. This month we're writing Jewels of June. May flowers and memories May Day and the beginning of mental health month. A great day for people watching and writing at a little café. Congress is trying to decimate mental health care. If they pass the amended American Health Care Act (AHCA), millions of Americans will lose their mental health coverage. Please tell your congress representatives to vote No on AHCA. How can so many things in my house go wrong at the same time? My stove cooktop, a water heater, and dryer are all dead. And service people are nowhere in sight. … [Read more...]
How not to ask for a review
I thought this piece in today's New York Times magazine, in The Ethicist section by Kwame Anthony Appiah, is something all of us authors should think about. My husband pointed it out to me, and I totally agree. The Question More and more of my friends are self-publishing books; some I purchase just to support their writers. In this new situation, a dear old friend wants me to give him a five-star review on Amazon and post it on Facebook. I've seen a few pages of his book, and it's a piece of self-indulgent drivel. I don't want to hurt my friend's feelings, but I don't want to sell out either. What do you suggest? Name Withheld Appiah's Answer If you are such good friends, wouldn't it be better to give him, gently, your opinion of some of the book's weaknesses? Possibly without actually using the words self-indulgent drivel? Self-published books have taken a long dive since the days of Jane Austen, and the new ease of making them, in the digital era, has turned a river of … [Read more...]
Through My Eyes by Regina A. Walker
I have always loved New York - the sounds, the smells, the people, the sights. I love it even more after experiencing Regina Walker's new book - Through My Eyes, a photo journal in photography and poems. I wrote on Facebook the other day, "Everyone needs this book." I think the beauty of the images and words in it will grab you as much as they do me. My fellow poet and dear friend, Keith Alan Hamilton, wrote the Foreword. He says, "...I think you will find in this book the combination of her imagery and words go way beyond the magical, as well as the mystical...." Her publisher, William S. Peters, Sr. at Inner Child Press also raves about her work, "The first time i had the opportunity to view Regina's work through her lens, i was tremendously intrigued by her eye and her ability to Capture a unique perspective of the subtleness of life all about us. Over time i knew i had to get more involved with her work. . . my soul screamed it's necessity for it … [Read more...]
We Love Memoirs – Sunday Spotlight
I had a fabulous experience yesterday - Sunday June 21. I was in the hot seat for the We Love Memoirs' Sunday Spotlight. We Love Memoirs is basically a Facebook social group consisting of memoir writers and aficionados that allows no self promotion. That is except for the Sunday Spotlight. For that one day I was told I could promote, post relevant photos, links, and information about my writing work, and talk about it until I couldn't talk (actually tap on my computer keys) anymore. Also those coming on-line to chat with me were told they could ask me ANYTHING, and that I'd be there to answer their questions ALL DAY LONG. So I sat down at my computer at 9 am and except for two 15 minute breaks and an hour for lunch (I needed to pay some attention to my husband on Father's Day), I was online fielding questions and comments until 5:15 pm. The interesting thing is the people on-line were from the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, other foreign countries, and the US so when … [Read more...]
The beauty of flowers
This past week I've been surrounded by the beauty of flowers. I took the challenge to flood Facebook with flowers to break the saturation of negative images and videos, and promised my friends who liked this post that I'd choose a flower for them. As a result, for the last three days I've been posting some wonderful flower photos on my page. Please take a look here. Also last weekend while we visited family in Seattle, we attended the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum. His glass flowers and sculptures are sensational. He says his glass subject matter was greatly influenced by his mother's flower garden while he was growing up. This museum reminds me so much of a greenhouse, as can be seen in the photo below. So if you're a Chihuly fan as I am, here are a few photos of my favorites at the museum. Note that the exhibit is both inside the greenhouse-like building and outside in the garden. I highly recommend you see them in person if you get the chance. … [Read more...]
The gratitude challenge
My Facebook friend, Dorothy Sander, invited me to take the five-day gratitude challenge and I accepted. That means for each of five days I need to post three things I'm grateful for and invite three people to join the challenge. This was a real challenge for me because I don't normally think about my life in terms of gratitude - especially in a list. I've thought of benefits and gifts that have come my way. I also very much appreciate my family and friends who have stuck with me through some extremely tough times. So it's not as though I'm ungrateful. I just found it hard to put the words down. Even so, I have completed my list of fifteen. Three went up on my Facebook timeline yesterday, three went up today, and I will post the rest in the next three days. My Grateful List For being with my godson Hugo and his brother Oscar and their mum and grandmum this morning. We got to show 4-year old Oscar the paleontology exhibit at the Page Museum and the La Brea Tar Pits. What a … [Read more...]
Change your thoughts today
I've just discovered and liked Steven Aitchison's Facebook page: Change Your Thoughts ~ Change Your Life. I feel like I've missed something not knowing about this page sooner. Over 440,900 people have beat me to it, but it's never too late. Steven's aphorisms are perfect for me and my life right now. I know they will help me at some point. I'd like to share a couple with you - the first by one of my favorite people, Pema Chodron. She always seems to show up at the right time. The next aphorism is by Dodinsky, whom I've just gotten acquainted with. Check out his website Positively Positive. Thanks so much for all you do. … [Read more...]
Keith Alan Hamilton’s photo at Times Square
I'm so excited for my poet and photographer friend, Keith Alan Hamilton. His photo, Transition Flutter-Fly, will be shown at New York City's Times Square this very day. He'll be in the crowd with a butterfly shirt on, so if you're in the vicinity, please go by and say hi. Give him a hug for me too - I wish I could do it myself. I've known Keith for several years. We first met on Facebook when I joined the Poets, Writers, Photographers, Musicians, Artists ~ Networking group he created. We later met for dinner in Boston, and he also visited my husband and me in California. We discussed putting together a book of poems with images. That is still in the works. I've written several blog posts about Keith and his poems and photos (see this one). His devotion to his creativity is catching. Here's Keith's butterfly photo: And here's a photo of Keith so you can easily recognize him: … [Read more...]
Facebook like-my-page event TODAY only
Even though I still question the usefulness of Facebook fan pages, I like the likes, so to speak. But I always wonder if my likes even care about buying my book. Nevertheless, I'm participating in an event sponsored by the Online Book Publicity Group. It's called the Biggest Ever Fb Page Like-fest, hosted by Hajni Blasko. Here's her instructions: INSTRUCTION! PLEEEEEEASE READ. - Have an active Facebook page related to the Publishing Industry - Willingness to return the favor and like the pages of others. HOW TO POST YOUR LINK - Copy and paste ONLY your facebook page URL as a Comment to the top post of mine. - This event is not to promote your book to other authors, since that doesn't really work. It is strictly to gain more Likes. Therefore, do not include any text with your link. - Once copied wait for and leave on the preview ON, allowing others to easily like your page. HOW TO LIKE OTHERS - Please return at a later time and before the 28th 10:00. - Click on View … [Read more...]
A successful library event
Since my memoir Leaving the Hall Light On has been checked out of my local Manhattan Beach Public Library many times, the library director asked me to come there to speak. The date we decided on was last Wednesday evening, March 20. I was asked to supply the library with a jpg of my book cover and a brief description of my topic: Writing was healing because it helped me put my pain on the page. Instead of carrying it with me every moment of the day and night, I found a place where I could have a little relief. There was so much I couldn't say out loud to anyone. And since there was so much sadness, anger, and grief in me, I needed a place to put it. Writing was like repeating a mantra as I kept my fingers moving. And I wouldn't let anything get in my way. I recommend writing or another creative outlet to those who are looking for ways to heal. After that I was on my own. My instructions were: you have an hour and a half from 7:00 to 8:30 pm to speak. That was it. I was … [Read more...]
My writing life in 2012
Writing became a way to live with my son Paul's bipolar disorder and to survive his suicide as a result. However, I never dreamed it would become my way of life. I still cannot get through the day without writing something. However, in the last few years it has become more than a balm to ease the pain. It has become a joy and a way to meet and interact with some very wonderful writing friends. Like writing, I can never have enough Buddhas (Richard Stock photo) With that in mind, I thought I write down a few of the highlights of my writing life from 2012, starting with my first publisher's decision to go out of business. At first I was indeed devastated and then so angry. She closed down with four days warning and cut off our websites even before that. But the devastation and anger were very short lived. I reached out to a few writing friends especially Keith Alan Hamilton and got some suggestions about where to query. However, my dear friend and mentor Mark Shelmerdine came … [Read more...]
Another rant – this must be my rant week
So I'm frustrated. I am in the running for a prize at the My Gutsy Story contest site. Up until yesterday another contender and I kept taking the lead back and forth, but now I'm seven votes behind. I've sent out two group emails, posted the contest info all over the place on Facebook, tweeted about it, other folks have tweeted about it, and just today created an event to ask people to over there to vote. And out of all that I have forty-five votes. I need seven right now just to tie the first place guy. And I would think that wouldn't be so hard to do. Don't people respond to requests like this anymore? Is this going to make me lose some of my FB friends and make me seem like a pest? It really isn't pesty, I don't think. Just a simple request: Click on a link, look on the right sidebar, find the Polling place, and click on my name. Should be a piece of cake. I can't even get my family to do it. So now I'm at a loss as to how to draw folks in and to click where I've … [Read more...]
Blatant Bragging
Really I don't do this very often, but I couldn't help it today. Mentions of my memoir Leaving the Hall Light On or me have occurred in each of the last three days. And they are all good. On Saturday I found out that the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society Literary Landscapes magazine is now available. And an excerpt from my memoir is there. Here is the link and a picture of the cover. Please take a look. The GLAWS writers are a very talented bunch. We write in all genres. On Sunday Marty Tousley, creator of the Grief Healing website, sent me a Facebook message that she had finished her read of Leaving the Hall Light On and liked it well enough to post it on her Pinterest board called Books Worth Reading and on her list of books for adults on her websites's Grief Healing Books resource. Here's what Marty had to say: "A mother's brutally honest and heartfelt account of living through her son's bipolar disorder and surviving his tragic death by suicide. This is a powerful … [Read more...]
Enter to win the new anthology – Poetry Pact 2011
I'm so pleased to be a part of a Facebook poetry group called Poetry Pact. Started 18 months ago by my author colleague Jessica Bell, her goal was for us to write and post a poem a day for a year. When I joined the group I did not commit to either a poem a day or even a poem a week, but I did post over 30 poems onto the site in 2011. And I'm proud to say, several of them were chosen for our first (I hope annual) anthology, Poetry Pact 2011, Volume 1, edited by two of our group poets: Angela Felsted and Richard Merrill. (Angela became our Poetry Pact leader in 2012.) I can't tell you enough what a supportive group this is. The membership is small we keep it a secret so that we can all get a chance to Like, comment, and critique each other's work. I have received so many good suggestions on how to improve my poems from this group. The critiques are always given with complete professionalism and care, never making me feel put down or discouraged as a result. It is wonderful to be … [Read more...]
