Local Saturday - Goodbye to An Average Superwoman

Farewell, Sandi Tuttle, an Average Superwoman.  You were anything but average.

I cybermet you at the very first Author Blog Challenge in June of 2012 (along with several other awesome writers who also became my Facebook friends).  I won a prize from you - a T Shirt that said "If I have wings, why can't I fly?" (For those not of a certain age, that refers to, umm, certain flaps that develop under your arms.  Don't smirk.  You'll see.)

You gave me my 30 minutes of fame.

You interviewed me for your Internet radio show, where you talked with me about one of my passions, community gardening.  I thank you for the opportunity to get the word out about community gardening and local food growing.

Meanwhile, you were doing so much more in your community.  You fought the good fight against bullying and battled against the fashion industry tears down women's self image.  You made wraps for people with breast cancer.  You declared your intentions to one day write a book.  You called yourself an Average Superwoman.

Through your blog and Facebook, I felt that I knew you, even though we never met.

And then, you were diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. 

At one point you blogged about a tenacious leaf you looked at, outside your chemo room, and how it clung on despite everything the winter weather could throw its way.  Another time, you blogged about losing your mojo.  When the infrequent Author Blog Challenge started up this past September, you tried to participate - this was your last post.

I learned about your death earlier this week the way so many of us do nowadays - through Facebook.

Today, we mourn you, Sandi Tuttle, a way Above Average Superwoman.

Cancer sucks.

Time (WABC #15)

(If you are here looking for my Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post, it will be forthcoming later today. I'm still on vacation today and have the luxury of TIME...)

Day 15 and the final prompt in the 15 Day Winter Author Blog Challenge asks us....

What was your biggest takeaway from participating in the Winter Author Blog Challenge? What is your plan/strategy for integrating your social media platforms? What would you recommend to a new author who’s just getting started on social media?

My response is thanks to a blog challenge that asked us to examine various forms of social media: from the well known Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, You Tube to the less commonly known Quora, Four Square and others, and analyze how we could best use them in our writing/authoring/business worlds.

My biggest takeaway is: the true meaning of social media is to give us a means to connect with other people, to share our knowledge with them, to (in turn) drink in their knowledge - and again, to connect with people.  To this end, use the social media that "calls" to you, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or whatever.

Everything else is just a distraction.

I've treasured this 15 day challenge (although I was on vacation for almost the entire 15 days) because I was able to reconnect with bloggers from the previous Author Blog Challenge and meet up with new bloggers.  I did that mainly by commenting on their blogs, and using the WABC Facebook page.

If I was giving advice to a new author who was just getting started on social media I would say this:  Don't do what I did four years ago, which was to think about a blog and then suddenly do it spur of the moment.  All my social media efforts surrounding my blog came later, so I have a mishmash of user names and a blogging platform I am not totally happy with. (It was there, it was free, and there was a small learning curve.)

But I ended up outgrowing it and would now have a nightmare in trying to move four years of blog posts and photographs.

My plans for integrating? I could use the excuse that this is not a business for me, and I work full time at another job (plus I'm a part time caregiver for an elderly in law and my developmentally disabled brother in law) - right now I don't have the luxury of TIME.  Or, I could find the time. I could examine how I fritter and waste the time in an offhand way, to paraphrase Pink Floyd's Time (oh,how I love this song....)

My suggestion:  Take your TIME.  Before you start out, TIME is your friend.

If you are starting out: please give it more thought than I did. Take your TIME to plan. Give your blog, your Twitter name, your other account names - the same name. (Thank you, Jo Michaels, for this suggestion).  Call it "your brand", if you will. 

Read up! There are many blogs which will help you "learn how to blog/learn how to write". Besides Jo Michaels above, could I recommend Merlene Fawdry, Robert Chazz Chute (an author who has a talent for titles that will amaze you), Tia Bach, and...well, there are so many others.  I don't have the room to list all of my mentors, those people who freely share their knowledge.

Use a platform you will not outgrow right away.  (How do you learn that? Join a challenge!) and find out...)

And, finally, join a challenge.  Join more than one!  You will get into the habit of daily blogging (a must, I feel, at least when you start out) and you will read other blogs, and comment on them - something I do not do enough of.  You will quickly see what works and what doesn't.  I would also suggest a November event, NaNoWriMo, where you will write 50,000 words in 30 days. It's crazy. It's insane. And it will amaze you with the support. (I'm thinking about Camp NaNoWriMo in April because I can actually write non-fiction, but haven't decided yet.)

Do not "fritter and waste the moments in an offhand way".  Don't wait until tomorrow.  Seize today!

Author Blog Challenge - A Flock of Seagull

I am pre-writing this post as I will be on the road today, returning to my home in upstate New York from a vacation in Florida and Georgia.

I was part of a 15 Day Author Blog Challenge during this time, but didn't have time for much participation.  But, I did learn some lessons.  One didn't come from the Challenge.

Yesterday a new Pope was elected.  Before that happened, a seagull that perched on the chimney where the ballot smoke would appear became famous.  The gull was caught on "camera" - the voting-smoke cam, to be exact.

Reporters speculated on the symbolism.  Fake Twitter accounts were set up.

And then, white smoke flowed out of the chimney, and the seagull was forgotten.  Old news.

How did this relate to the Author Blog Challenge?

The 15 Day Author Blog Challenge asked us to explore types of social media most of us we are familiar with:  Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, GoodReads, Pinterest - and less well known sites - FourSquare, Quora, and Ning, among others.

It could be because most of my life took place before the Internet came into its current state of being, but I find social media to be a huge time-suck.  In other words, there are only so many hours in a day, and using social media is like falling into a hole - a hole without a bottom.  

Authors can use social media - but, if they are not careful, social media will use them.

Anyone who uses social media for business (in my opinion) needs to be strong, needs to stay focused and to ignore (literary expression) the siren call of the Internet.  Authors need to weigh carefully the time spent vs. the return in time.

Some users hit the big time:  the founders of the Huffington Post and Boing Boing, the woman who founded the blog Bakerella,  and the people whose blogs have led to book contracts and even movies.  But for too many of us, we will never hit that big time. Not that we shouldn't try, but we should be aware of the risks.

I'm still trying to analyze how to use social media but, thanks to this Challenge, I now have the experiences of different authors and others to guide me.  Thank you, all participants in the WABC!

Social media is not "bad". But, it should just be another tool in the utility belt of the author.

Otherwise, authors may end up like a certain seagull living in the Vatican - finding that the world has moved on, and wondering what the heck happened.

Have you had success with your writing or business, and use of social media?

Good Reading on GoodReads

It is Day 11 of the 15 day Author Blog Challenge. Since I must prewrite this on day10, you will be reading my day 10 post on day 11- a day late. Confused yet?

On Day 10 of the Author Blog Challenge the prompt was:
Are you on GoodReads? It seems a pretty obvious place for authors to hang out, yet I’m not sure authors are using it to quite the maximal benefit. If you are on GoodReads, how often do you visit/use the site? How often do you update your reading list? What other kinds of things do you post? Are you finding yourself using it the way social media was intended: to create a community? If you are NOT on GoodReads, have you made a deliberate choice to skip it? What other mechanisms do you utilize for meeting other readers/writers/authors? How else could you begin to create your very own community?

I am on GoodReads.  But, I rarely update.

Why?

I like to browse around in my local library.  Most of what I read is books in the new book (new to the library, that is) shelves that catch my eye.  Sometimes I'll devour the book in a couple of sittings.  Sometimes it will sit for most of the three week period my library allows you to take books out for, and then "suddenly" I'll get an urge to read it. Sometimes, time's up and I haven't even cracked the book.  Back to the library it goes.

Other times, I read 3 or 4 books at the same time.

So, enough times, by the time I think about getting onto GoodReads, I'm done.  So, unless I have a lot of spare time, I don't update my statuses.

And then, I just don't have the normal, everyday statuses, and GoodReads doesn't have anything for me to explain my true statuses with.

For example, the books on my current profile:

Want to read:  The Bird, by Jo Michaels.  I won this in a contest Jo put on (thanks, Jo!), and last Saturday, planned to read it on the Auto Train.  But when I opened my Kindle app on my iPhone in the train station The Bird had flown! Seriously, the Kindle app had updated and the book (which I KNOW FOR A FACT WAS THERE) is now missing.  So seems to be the email where Jo sent me the file.  Sigh.....no status button for "book mysteriously disappeared from my Kindle and it isn't listed on my Kindle page on Amazon, either.  Too embarrassed to contact author because it would show what a cheapskate I am since I really should buy it from her."

Reading:  Outpost, by Ann Aguirre. It is a great book, but I had to return it before I was done, and haven't found it since.  There is no button for "I had to return it to the library before I could finish it." (same thing with another book, The Age of Miracles...which, by the way, would deserve 10 stars if I could give that many.)

Another "currently reading" book, The Help - I gave up on months ago and have no intention of ever going back to it. But, I can't figure out how to delete it.

Finally there is no status button for "I get most of my books from the library because my husband will divorce me if I bring in one more book into the house, thereby causing the house to collapse into itself due to all the weight of the 1,249,556 books I already own, including the Edgar Rice Burroughs books my Mom bought me in 1963 when I had a broken leg, that would crumble into dust if I look at them but I can't bear to get rid of those remnants of my childhood."

So...that's my GoodReads story.

What's yours?

Civil War Sunday - Led Zepplin and the Civil War

I admit....this one is offbeat. 

 
What does a former British rock group that formed in 1968 and disbanded many years ago have to do with the U.S. Civil War?

Two weeks ago, when I was researching my Civil War Sunday blog post, I visited a couple of newspaper and magazine websites and read some Civil War related articles.

Have you ever noticed what happens when someone writes an article about the United States Civil War (or any other subject), posts it online and allows comments on the article?

Allowing people to comment on newspaper and magazine articles online is a form of social media I could normally do without.  It's one I find distracting and not as successful as some other social media ideas.  For some reason, when people comment on articles, it very quickly degrades into a middle school type of insult/discussion with little substance.  In my opinion, who needs it?  (In rare instances, you do find clever discussions.)

When you read the comments on Civil War articles, it quickly becomes obvious that we, the American people, are still fighting the Civil War that officially ended in 1865.  Usually, within 5 or 6 coments, the posting people, North vs. South, are going at it with a ferocity that makes you wonder if this war, 152 years old in our hearts and minds, will ever end.

But this time, in one of the comment sections, there was a difference.

I don't remember how, but in the midst of Civil War cyber battle someone mentioned the former rock group Led Zepplin.  Suddenly, tone of the entire discussion changed.  Everyone propelled themselves back into the present when we live in (one would hope) a united country.  Suddenly, the contestants in the commenting battle were talking about the Kennedy Honors tribute to Led Zepplin in December of 2012.  These honors, held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, were attended by many celebrities, including the President of the United States and his wife.

Every one of the battlers united in their love of Led Zepplin.  They were all fans of this former rock group.  They had all listened to the concert honoring them.  They commented on how the members of the group, up in the audience, got teary eyed over the performance of their music by other famous musicians.  They marveled at the President, who did everything short of getting up and dancing to one of their songs.

Eventually, the commenters returned to battling over a war that's been over on paper for 148 years.  But for a few minutes, the Civil War was forgotten.  They were united.

Do you ever read the comments under online newspaper and magazine articles? Do you think it is a practice that adds value to any article?

Pining for Pinning - Winter Author Blog Challenge #5

I am up before dawn, this 5th day of the 15 Day Winter Author Blog Challenge.  Instead of heading to Pinterest, I am blogging about it today.  Our prompt is:

One of the newest and fastest growing social media platforms is Pinterest? Have you jumped onboard? What kinds of images do (or could) you post that are related to your book or the topic of your book? What other kinds of images do you post? Are you linking each post back to your blog, website, or Amazon page? IF YOU’RE NOT USING Pinterest, what’s holding you back? Take a look at book marketer extraordinaire John Kremer’s Pinterest Boards. After perusing them, how MIGHT you use Pinterest to brand yourself and your book? Is it something you’re considering?

I love Pinterest. Why?

I am a visual person.  Photography is an important part of my telling of the story of my life.  So, when Pinterest came along, it was a natural for me to join. (Here is my Pinterest home page).  Pinterest is where my blogging and my "me" intersect.

First, some quick terminology for Pinterest newbies.  "Boards" are the places where you put visual images.  You can organize them however you want. I have boards for gardening, the United States Civil War, crocheting, wildflowers, birds, autism, sunsets, books I feel are worth reading, and favorite recipes.

"Pinning" is the art of capturing a visual image with a Pinterest tool, and placing it on one of your boards.

You can search, and can follow one board, or all boards, of a given person whose pins you like. You can put up your own pins, repin, like a pin, and comment on someone's pin.

Pinterest is ideal for planning weddings (visual!), planning dinner (visual!), selling crafts (visual!) and yes, branding your books (visual! Why else would books have cover art?).  But, so far, I have not used the power of Pinterest to promote my blog the way I should.

I pin photos from my blog, but they are not organized in one area. My photos are all original work: flowers, other nature photos, gardening, Civil War related, farmers market related. Photos here and there of my crochet projects.  And, when I travel, sunsets.

 I have a "Blogging" board but I do not have pinning buttons on my blog, because (as of now) my blogging platform and Pinterest do not seem to "play together well". When I see Pin share buttons on Wordpress, I get frustrated that I can't have those, too.  Meantime, my blog does not have a clear pinning policy posted.  Oops! (I will need to change that).

I can easily get lost on Pinterest, which is another problem for me. I try to verify images I use, and that is time consuming.  Many people will pin photos from Google or Bing searches, for example, which I refuse to do.  If an image comes from a blog, I check the blog to make sure the blogger is allowing pinning.   Authors should be concerned that images that belong to them might be pinned without permission or full credit.  Photographers already have that problem, big time.

Not much content?  Don't pin regularly?  Don't bother.  Truthfully, I don't tend to follow people that just have 5 or 6 scattered pins on their entire account.  Pinning is something you either love or don't love.  There is no in between. It sounds harsh, but on Pinterest, you MUST be authentic.  You don't have to pin daily, but you do need to provide fresh content to your fans.

And please, don't spam! Spamming is ruining Pinterest, the same as it has ruined some other forms of social media.  Sad.

I also feel if an author doesn't share a bit of his or her interests on a board, people will lose interest right away.  Author A promoting books? Meh. (sorry.) Author A promoting book, posting favorite recipes, or showing us his/her hometown, or his/her hobbies?  A winner.  Guess whose boards I will be following?

Do you use Pinterest?  I look forward to exploring some of your boards.

Author Blog Challenge #4 - Why I Can't Link on LinkedIn

Welcome to Day 4 of the 15 Day Blog Challenge for Authors.  I am writing two posts today, one for the challenge and one because - well, you'll see it when I post it.  And, concerning the post I will be making later tonight, I want to thank everyone who commented, or otherwise contacted me, concerning my Saturday post.  The blogging community is wonderful! 

Meanwhile, today's prompt is, in part:

"Are you using LinkedIn to promote yourself as an author? Does your professional profile include or feature your writing? What is the best connection you’ve made through your involvement on LinkedIn? With whom would you still like to connect? Might LinkedIn be a good vehicle for making such a connection? What is your biggest question, frustration, or suggestion regarding LinkedIn?"

This one is hard.

I am on LinkedIn, but my career is not connected at all with my blogging.  So, no, I do not promote myself as an author on LinkedIn - nor do I mention my blogging.  For reasons I will not go into here,  I do not discuss my job on social media. My LinkedIn account is only for people I connect with due to my day career.

It's not that what I do for a living is such a deep dark secret (nor am I in the witness protection program, nor do I work for the FBI, the IRS or the CIA.  No, nothing that fascinating/exciting/dangerous!)It's just how I have to manage things for right now.

So, what happens if I do become an author one day?  I don't know if I can have two separate LinkedIn profiles.  That might be one frustration.   Because, I wouldn't mind connecting with other writers.  I just don't know how to go about it on LinkedIn.

So, I will not be including a link to my LinkedIn profile here.  And, unless you are in my field...I regretfully will not connect with you on LinkedIn.

As for who I would love to connect in on LinkedIn: if I ever become an author I have a long list:  Harry Turtledove, for starters.

Wouldn't it be so wonderful if some of my favorite authors considered me "equal" enough to connect with on LinkedIn?  Here are some others I would love to LinkedIn with:
 Scott Westerfeld.  
Jonathan Maberry.
And, Susan Beth Pfeffer.

And, of course, all my readers, because you are the best.

I'm just sorry I can't do it yet.  Unless you know how I can have two profiles!

Civil War Sunday - What If Social Media Had Existed During the Civil War?

I love historical "what if modern ___ was around during (some other point in history)" as long as they are done well.  They help people grow in their understanding and love of history if they can frame something that happened in another time and place within the context of their own lives and culture.  As long as it is done with accuracy, I think there is a place for something like what I am about to describe.

Yesterday and today, in the 15 Day Author Blog Challenge I am participating in, the prompts involved if we, as bloggers, have a Facebook fan page for our blog and if we tweet.  (I'll answer that for this blog at the end of this post.)

So I got to thinking:  what if social media had been around during the United States Civil War?

Various satirists have done article or books on the subject of "what would have happened if Facebook had been around for _____" 

So, I thought about it some more.  Had anyone actually set up parody or serious "what if" accounts on the real Facebook or Twitter for Civil War historical figures?

Apparently, there is at least one Twitter account for the Confederate General Robert E. Lee (not kept up for very long) and one for Union General U.S. Grant, which is being kept up.  Robert E. Lee has a Facebook "public figure" page, which is not the same as a "fan page" (I don't think, anyway).  The links earlier in this paragraph are what I found out in a brief search.  You may discover something unique (or not) if you look - who knows!

As far as my own Facebook and Twitter accounts for this blog,if you are interested:

RamblinWithAM has a Facebook Fan Page.  I use it mainly to post links to my blog (not every day, but usually) and I also post articles or posts from other blogs that fit into some of the themes I discuss in my blogs - farmers markets, local food, gardening, the Civl War, and autism, for example.  I find I am using Facebook less and less - and I use it mainly to keep in touch with far flung relatives plus some game playing.  It excels at visual content. 

I have a Twitter account under @RamblinGarden.  I do not automatically follow back anyone who follows me, nor do I expect anyone I follow to follow me back.  I use Twitter mainly as a way to keep track of breaking news, which I have found it excels at. I usually tweet my daily blog posts and also retweet tweets that interest me.

It would have been interesting to know if any actual Civil War figures would have utilized Facebook or Twitter (or You Tube, as another example of social media) if they had been around 152 years ago.  Do you have any opinions about that?

Unplugged - Winter Author Blog Challenge #2

I am pre-writing this post because I am going to be out of the house before sunrise.

Today I embark on a journey.   I leave on a vacation just as my best friend's mother enters the last part of her journey on Earth.  She is under hospice care.  My friend, meantime can't be with her because her husband was just diagnosed with cancer.  The first indication of his cancer came 2 1/2 weeks after her oncologist told my friend of 50 years that she was in remission from her cancer.  Her mother lives a couple of hours from her.

And now, I am leaving her, because for part of my trip, I will probably be out of email and cell phone range.

Thanks to social media, we take being connected for granted.

On Facebook, we can share (if we want) the most minute details of our lives.  Of course, most of us don't - thank heavens.

On Twitter, if my phone was near a tower, I could tweet my entire journey.  But again, too much information?

Sometimes, quantity just isn't quality.

Why now, of all times, am I unplugging myself?

On my blog, though, I can reveal my feelings.  My writing isn't transitory, the way it would be on Facebook or Twitter.  Because my friend reads my blog, she will know that I will be thinking of her for the entire journey.  It will be like writing an electronic letter to my friend.

Her Mom was like a mother to me at times after my Mom died, back when I was 12 years old.  In those days, telephones weren't mobile.  Mail meant you wrote a letter and your recipient got it several days later.  Twitter was something certain birds did.  Facebook was....well, its founder hadn't been born yet.

Sometimes, we just don't know what the future will bring.  The situation is what it is.  We both will make the best of it.  My friend's husband's cancer was caught early, which is something all of us are grateful for.  There is one good thing in this story.

We may be apart in distance when her mother's journey is completed, but we will be together in spirit.

My Blog - Author Blog Challenge #1

I've been writing since - forever, it seems. 

Welcome, fellow writers, to my blog, as I embark on the 15-Day Winter Author Blog Challenge.

Today's prompt is: Tell us about your blog. How long have you been blogging? Do you write on a regular schedule? Do you plan your topics in advance or write as the spirit moves you? What was your favorite post? At which post do you look back and wonder what you were thinking when you wrote it? What has been the best feedback you’ve ever received? Have you ever written anything that was perceived as controversial, though you didn’t intend it that way? What tips would you offer other author bloggers?

I've posted daily for almost two years (it will be two full years as of the end of April).    I may not be able to write posts related to this Challenge daily due to circumstances, but I intend to blog all 15 days, and continue my daily blogging streak. So, usually I write whatever interests me that day - within the confines of weekly themes on Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday.  Ironically, I won't be following that schedule exactly for the next two weeks.

Four years ago, I decided to start blogging, almost as an impulse, shortly after a mass shooting mere blocks from where I work. 14 lives, snuffed out in an instant, in an adult classroom. Their voices stilled forever.

My mission statement is to tell some stories of the human experience.  I enjoy history and I blog about the U.S. Civil War on most Sundays.  I blog about "sustainable living" on most Saturdays, post something related to the season (currently, winter) on Wednesdays, and blog about what is growing in my yard/house each 15th of the month as part of a "Garden Bloggers Bloom Day" monthly meme.

I write because I must.    I write about things I am passionate about.  I practice my photography, which is another childhood interest.  Blogging allows me to combine both. I plan, when I approach retirement, to take a photography class. I don't think I've written a "controversial" post.  My personal favorite is a post I wrote about a childhood coloring set: "Memories of Paradise". I will probably rerun it sometime in the next two weeks for your enjoyment.  Best feedback? Reading the encouragement you sent a friend/guest poster this past week, when I posted (with his permission) his guest post about his struggle with Bells Palsy.


Social media is a tool for me now, as the manual typewriter was when I was 12. I am an introvert by nature, but my blog frees my voice. I've met writers online.  I've met published authors.  I've met journalists.  I've met many wonderful people through social media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other blogs.  I can relate to other people on my terms. 

I am not using social media to its fullest, and I hope to learn more about its use in the coming two weeks from more experienced writers participating in this Challenge.

Tips I would offer to new bloggers:  before you begin, decide on the (themes) of your blog. Themes may change, but start with a plan. Also, choose the title of your blog well, and choose your platform (Blogger, Tumblr, Wordpress, etc.) only after careful investigation. Both will be hard to change once you've been at it for a while.

And finally:  commit to a challenge right away.  It's the best way to "plunge in" and get instant readership.  If they like what they read, your readers will stay with you and spread the word.

Hope to Read You At the Challenge!

Almost Time for the Winter Author Blog Challenge

So....on the eve of the sequester, on Pope Benedict XVI's last day in office, and the last day of the shortest month of the year, I prepare for my next blogging challenge.

This Winter Author Blog Challenge will be an interesting one.  It is only a 15 day challenge and is supposed to center on authors and social media.

Why is this interesting?

1.  Because I am not an author;
2.  Because I have written the grand total of one manuscript  - unfinished and unedited.  Certainly unpublished.  I did that during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), the 30 day period of insanity each November where aspiring writers attempt to write a 50,000 word first draft of a work of fiction- and trust me, IT IS HARD. (I did succeed.)
3.  Because I do like to cyber-hang around authors.  A published children's book author, Billie Noakes, introduced me to blog challenges.  One of these challenges, the Ultimate Blog Challenge, led to the first Author Blog Challenge last year.  I cyber-met some wonderful people in the Author Blog Challenge, and hope to reconnect with them, and new authors, in the next 15 days.

And best of all...

4.  Because the authors have welcomed me into their midst.

I enjoy using social media, especially Pinterest, which could easily become an out-of-control endeavor for me.  I am shy and introverted by nature, but the Internet, and social media, frees me.  I've even met two bloggers in "real time" and, perhaps one day, I will get to meet others.

If any or all of this sounds interesting to you, please go to the Author Blog Challenge website and sign up!  You don't have to post every day (and, due to circumstances, I won't be able to do Challenge related posts every day, or even most days of the challenge) but the more you post, AND visit the more than 20 blogs registered so far, the more you will learn.

I'm excited, and I hope to meet YOU at the Challenge.

See You In December

Today, hopefully, as you read this, I am hard at work in a 30 day writing contest called NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month.  50,000 words in 30 days.  Only crazy people do this, which is why I knew I had to sign up.

You "win" by writing a 50,000 work of fiction.  What you call a novel is up to you.  This works out to 1,667 words a day.  I am doing this as a "pantser" (by the seat of her pants) no plot, no characters, no nothing, watch me be a crazed woman.  Actually I sort of have a plot, which I am sure will last about 2 days before I find myself in a total, sweaty panic regretting that I even thought about trying this.

I'm very fortunate to have an empty nest, and a husband who does all the cooking - because he loves to cook. (No, ladies, he's been mine for 38 years plus, and you can't have him.)  But I also have a full time job, which involves things other than novel writing, and they sort of expect me to be there daily, pounding away at what they consider important.  And sometimes, it is just totally draining.

Which brings me to a dilemma.  I have this blog called "RamblinWithAM". I've also been posting daily on my blog since late April, 2011.  I've been able to do this through thick and thin. Fortunately, the thick hasn't been as thick as it could have been. 

I even fell flat on my face once - literally.  Not that I'm bragging....

But I can't do NaNoWriMo and this blog all all at the same time.  So....

I am writing some posts in advance.  And other days, you are going to get reruns.  Still other days, updates on my progress. (Right now I plan to do that every Thursday).

I still hope to be able to blog daily, somehow. 

And then, on December 1, you will have me back, hopefully, full time.

In the meantime I am telling you about NaNoWriMo because then the guilt monkees will come after me every time I flag in my writing.

Wish me luck!

NaNoWriMoOhNo

Why did I start cyber-hanging around with a bunch of authors?  Maybe it had something to do with this Author Blog Challenge I did earlier this year. 

I feel like my life has turned into an exercise from the What Color is Your Parachute book - you know, the one where you attend the party where there are groups of people in all these corners.  One corner has mathematicians.  One has painters.  One has writers.  One has geeks.  One has people who love to cook.  And you can hang out with whichever group appeals to you.  You don't have to know anything about their craft.  You can just hang out. (and by knowing who you want to hang out with, you figure out Your Life's Work.  In my case, my Retirement Work, as I am about to enter into my 60's and I do plan to retire one day.)

And that's what I did, sort of, thinking of what I would do in my retirement years.  I hung out with writers and I wrote my blog and I was so proud of myself because I had blogged every day since, oh, late April of 2011.

But then, my hanging out people started to blog about something called NaNoWriMo (or NaNo, not to be confused with what Robin Williams used to say on a long-ago TV show).  This NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, which takes place every November. 

The Oh No part I'll get to later.

During the month of November these brave souls endeavor to write 50,000 words, which comes out to 1667 words a day.  The purpose, as I understand it, is to get off your sitting part and Write That Novel that has been knocking around most people's heads for years. 

Wow.  Novels get written, and some even get published.  Just thinking of all those people pounding away on their keyboards was dizzy-making.

I said to myself "But I don't HAVE a novel knocking around my head."  And, I suspect, that puts me in a small group, maybe 1/2 of 1% of the American population.  Because everyone is supposed to have a novel rattling around up there somewhere. What I have rattling around in my mental attic is a bunch of file cabinets with overflowing drawers and papers tumbling everywhere onto the floor of my mind.  No novels.

But then I went to the NaNo website and started to read it.  And I saw the part where you could meet fellow writers online. And there would be Actual Published Writers there to lend encouragement through pep talks.  For some reason I started to read through the list of writers.  And came across the name of....

Scott Westerfeld.  My heart skipped a beat.  Because Scott Westerfeld wrote one of my favorite series of all times, the Uglies series.

So....do I dare join NaNo with no novel, and just make it up as I go along? (I take it that such a person is called a "pantser". But even a pantser has to start with an idea.)

Or do I just say:  Oh No? And give up the opportunity forever to learn from Scott Westerfeld?

No, I'm not going to do it.  I don't have the needed fire in the belly. I'm not ready. Not yet. But it will stay in the back of my mind.  Why not try next year?

It's the Finish Line!

It's the finish line!

Yesterday evening, I walked a predicted mile race (one where you guess your time, and the person who comes closest to their guess wins.)   The race was sponsored by the local YMCA.  It's called a "Corporate Challenge" because employees of participating businesses run or walk various races, and the entry fees go to charity. 

I've done this race for 5 or 6 years (I forget); I've raced in 95 degree weather and in pouring down rain.  Tonight it was in the 80's but humid - we are at the start of a heat wave so we are lucky the race wasn't today.  Last year, I did well, but it is very hard to win this race. Needless to say, no one can race with a cell phone or a watch.

On top of it, I've been having internet problems for almost a week.  Sometimes it is on. Sometimes it is off.  Sometimes it is on but really anemic.  Fortunately I've been able to make all of my posts.  My 14 month daily posting streak continues.

Perseverance is the name of the game.  This brings me to today's post.  This is the last day of the Author Blog Challenge.  Today's post is "What are you going to do to keep the blogging momentum going?  What plans do you have to continue your connection with other Author Blog Challenge participants?"

Good question.

I've been in several other month long challenges, and when the month is over, most of the participants scatter.  A few will keep in touch.  I already knew (cyberknew, anyway) a couple of the people on this challenge.  I've read several blogs that I want to continue with, and I have subscribed to those who gave a subscription option.

I will continue to read those blogs I've subscribed to.  I will occasionally check into the Author Blog Challenge Facebook page.  I may "see" some of you at the Ultimate Blog Challenge (which I will probably join since I'm blogging every day anyway.)

In other words - I am going to be one of those who scatters.   Scatters, and regroups.  I don't know if I will participate in the next challenge in December but I have a lot of thinking to do and a lot of learning to absorb.  Depending on the path I want to take, I may or may not take this challenge again in December.

Thank you for the opportunity to take this challenge.   I've enjoyed meeting you all.

AM the Author?

Today's prompt in the Author Blog Challenge is:  "What has been the best part of participating in the Author Blog Challenge? What are your suggestions for improving the next Author Blog Challenge?"

I have been bobbing and weaving around Internet problems the last four or five days, trying to continue my 14 month daily blogging streak  I thought (after a call to the Internet Service provider yesterday-thank you dear spouse) our problem was solved.  I spoke too soon.  So right now, I am crawling towards the finish line with chains attached to my ankles.  I suspect I need a new modem.



The best part of the Challenge - learning about new blogs.  Writing alongside of published authors. Reading their blogs (less than I would have linked).  To use a cliche, participating in this challenge, like others I have participated in, is like drinking from a fire hose.  It was frustrating, in this case, because this is the first challenge I've participated in that involves an actual theme, instead of just posting for x number of days straight.

I could have printed everything out but it would have been like printing out a book.

Yet, if it stays up on Facebook, I will be able to draw from it once I have my own plans consolidated.

Will there be blogs I will continue to read after the challenge?  Yes.  More of that tomorrow (Internet provider willing.)

What are my suggestions for improving the Challenge?

Well....I wouldn't hold the next one in December.   Sadly, the holidays have become too much a source of stress for too many people with too much to do.  I would ask that it be moved.  I will leave other suggestions to the actual authors in this Challenge.  I will mention though, that although some of the prompts didn't have immediate significance, they did make me think.  I didn't mind having prompts I couldn't respond to - this time.  Maybe next time I will be able to respond.  I could make that a goal.

Because I don't have a book started, and still don't have a book started, was it a failure?  NO.  It made me think.  It helped me learn.

My challenge will now be to continue to think.  Possibly becoming a published author is hard, but I now have a blueprint to consider.  I won't be going into it unprepared.

Wish me luck.

The Envelope, Please

The envelope, please.

Time for another daydream.  I have been voted Upstate New York Blogger of the Year 2012.  The vote was a landslide!

I'm floating on a cloud.  I can't believe it.  I'm pinching myself.

Since this is a daydream, I have no fear of public speaking. The ceremony is at the New Floridian Diner in Brooklyn. (Who needs stuffy hotel conference rooms?  Why not one of my favorite restaurants in Brooklyn?  This is my daydream, after all.)  Instead, I remember the 25th prompt of the Author Blog Challenge:  "Time for some shout-outs.  This may mimic your acknowledgement page, but whom would you like to publically thank for their help in creating your book or completing it to the point where it is presently?"

Where my book is presently is a twinkle in my eye. (That was one of my Dad's favorite expressions describing a time when I did not yet exist.).  So, instead, in this speech, I would like to thank the following people who, no doubt, would help make my book possible.

1.  My friend, who was my very first follower.  She has been my occasional guest photographer.  Her sister has helped me with some wildflower identifications.  She's given me support for many, many years while caretaking her late husband through two major strokes, many minor strokes and three battles with cancer.

2.  Another friend, my childhood friend living in Brooklyn.  We've known each other nearly 50 years.  I've blogged about her several times recently, and have shown you some of her backyard garden.  I would be remiss if I didn't mention her husband of 40 years.  He has sent me some photos of flowers blooming in Brooklyn, too.  I'd love more to share with my readers.

3.  My sister in law, another early fan.  She is a former blogger herself.  If I ever wrote a book, I may call on her for some editing - who knows?

4.  My neighbor across the street, and occasional commenter on my blog.  A very different man, in a good way. Keep those comments coming.

5.  Several fellow bloggers.  Some I've met in this Challenge.  Some I've met in previous challenges I've participated in.  Because I've been having a lot of internet problems in the last day or so, I am going to save the complete list for another day and try to post this while I have Internet.  I named some of them in a post towards the beginning of this challenge (or maybe it was late May).

Next to last:  my long suffering spouse, who puts up with my wild ideas, my stopping in mid-exercise walk to take pictures, and my love of macaroni and ketchup.  Well no, he won't let me eat macaroni and ketchup in his presence.  But I love him anyway.

And finally, a shout out to my blog readers.  If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't ever think about writing a book. 

Because of my internet problems, I am posting this without looking at it in preview.  I hope I haven't made a fool of myself in this speech.  Of course, since it is a daydream the speech is perfect.

Now back to the hard work of deciding if I truly want to be an author.

The Greatest Daydream of All

It's been many years since I have daydreamed - truly daydreamed.

I didn't realize it until just the other day.  During all these years of adulthood (in my case, some 40 years of adulthood depending on if you count from 18, or 21) I forgot how to daydream.  There are various reasons. But, come to think of it, these are excuses, not reasons.

What happened to the child me?  What happened to the girl who dreamed of being Lois Lane during the end of recess when we lined up for what it seemed hours?  What happened to the girl who was going to change the world for the btter one day? 

Was the girl buried under life?  Well, I've been digging these past few days, trying to find my way to the surface.  Even if I can't break that surface, I will try to poke a hole in whatever buried me, and breathe in the fresh air of Anything Can Happen.

I've missed a couple of prompts (admission:   more than a few) in the Author Blog Challenge I have not been participating in that much.  I wish I could tell you it was because I was undergoing a Great Crisis of Belief.  In a way, that is true.  But in a bigger way, it is still another excuse.

My voice is not fully formed.  It tries to be heard, but cracks whenever I try to write, and keep up with the other participants.  Like a boy who is reaching puberty, I am beset with doubts.  Everyone is staring at me.  (Or worse, not reading me at all.) Everyone knows how inferior I am.   Why am I even here?

The Blog Challenge to the rescue.

A recent prompt was:  "Describe your first book signing.  Real or imagined."  The next day's prompt was  "If a Hollywood agent were to come knocking on your door with an offer to turn your book into a movie and told you that you could call all the shots, who would you have direct and star in it?  Write the first paragraph of Rober Ebert's review of your film."

Funny how you should ask, Author Challengers, because a couple of the most terrifying things I can think of are
a.  Being forced to interact with mobs of people at a book signing, even if they all love me.  I'm an introvert.  I love quiet.  I like people, but a few at a time, thank you very much.
b.  Thinking about Hollywood. I think back to the day we were asked to write a composition in class.  I think it was in junior high - what is now called middle school here in the United States.  Normally I enjoyed those writing assignments.  This time, the topic had something to do with the movies and our favorite actress or actor.  I froze.  I handed in a blank page.  It was humiliating.

You see, I rarely watch movies and I pay very little attention to the actors and actresses.  I will not go to a movie just because it has Tom Hanks, or Helen Mirrin, or the latest good looking hunk.

But here, in my daydream, I Am Different.  I am energetic, I am not overweight, I do not have a bad back and an arthritic knee.  I smile at my admirers.  I have no desire to hide under the table until they leave.  I am signing copies of my book "The Beauty of Upstate New York As Seen Through My Photographs".  People mob me, praising my usage of light, wondering at the ways I captured a bumblebee in flight, marveling at how I captured the essences of sunsets, the redness of a male cardinal in flight, the juicy crunch of an upstate New York Empire apple.  And then, the mobs part.

It is Mel Brooks!

Mel makes his way over to me.  "What are you doing here, Mel?" I gasp.  "This book isn't a comedy!  There is no social satire in this book!"  "No, there isn't", says Mel.  "But I was totally overcome by the beauty of the flowers in Rod Serling's boyhood neighborhood on the West Side of Binghamton.  I wanted to bite into an apple fresh from one of the farmer's markets you talk about.  I just had to visit Otsiningo Park and walk the Vestal Rail Trail.  I even had to see how your area was recovering from last year's floods.  Your book is sheer genius.  I want to make a movie out of it!.  How about Jon Steward plays your long-suffering spouse?  And if you want, I can line up Helen Mirrin to play you.  What about it?"

As Roger Ebert starts to write his glowing review, my long suffering spouse asks me when I am going to straighten out the pile of papers on the sofa next to me.

Gotta go.

In a Reblooming Kalanchoe Is There Hope?

In a reblooming kalanchoe, is there hope?

Today's prompt in the Author Blog Challenge is "What is the single best piece of advice you've ever received about the publishing process and/or what advice would you offer to a first-time author?"

That single piece of advice I learned from this challenge was "never give up hope."

Hope of what?  Hope of achieving your goals.  Sometimes, just not giving up hope of survival.  I knew, before the Challenge, that becoming a published author was hard.  Now I have a better idea of just how hard and grueling it can be.  In the midst of the struggle, a beginning author must believe in him or herself, and never give up hope that it will get better, that the goals will be achieved, that the hard work will pay off.

And then there is the story of the kalanchoe.

I have a neighbor who is seriously ill and probably will stay that way for the rest of his life. Sometimes, he sits outside in the sunshine, enjoying the small garden he and his wife have planted next to their rental house.  I  hope he enjoys the view of my front yard, with the flowers, the sometimes untidy herb bed, and my "flood angel".

Some months ago, before he was diagnosed with this illness, he was in the hospital for another reason. Someone gave him a kalanchoe as a get-well gift.  A kalanchoe, for the uninitiated, is a succulent plant with small blooms, which come in a variety of colors.  They can be quite pretty. 

Ah, those hospital gift plants.  You get them from people who know that flowers may not be the ideal gift.  Flowers die after a few days, and if your recipient is allergic, those flowers are the gift that brings misery.  Now, a flowering plant, that's slightly different.  There's a hope of keeping the plant alive after it finishes blooming.  A foliage plant?  Even better.

My neighbor, after a period of enjoying the kalanchoe, offered it to me.  I hesitated for a minute before accepting the plant.  I take flowering plants seriously.  I have two poinsettias in my upstate NY yard right now, along with two amaryllis.   Any flowering plant I receive will get the best care I know how to give.  I can't bear to have one die on me, although I have blogged about my less than stellar track record with orchids.

I hesitated because a few years ago, I got a kalanchoe as a gift.  I kept it alive on my windowsill for a couple of years.  It never rebloomed and eventually it succumbed to white flies. 

I kept this one alive all winter on my living room table.  Come late spring, it went outside, where I figured it would have a better chance of escaping white flies.

Last night, I went out to water my back yard potted plants, and this sight awaited me.

Could it be?

Yes, it could.

My neighbor's kalanchoe is starting to rebloom.

There's a moral here somewhere.

"It's Just Plain Mean"

Today's 28 Day Author Blog Challenge asked a very timely question because of something that recently happened here in upstate New York:

" How are you using social media to promote your book? What aspect of social media would you like to learn more about? What are your next steps?"

Well, what about that power of the social media? 

Today, a middle school in the city of Greece, New York (near Rochester) is on everyone's lips, and not for a good reason, either.  At my upstate New York job this morning, a You Tube video was a major topic of discussion.

A school bus monitor is an internet heroine for keeping her cool as she was bullied by students on her bus.  All because a student on the bus took a video with his (or her) cell phone and posted it on You Tube.

A person in his 20's then grabbed the video (which has since been taken off You Tube at the request of the Greece school district) posted it on a social website where money can be raised for causes and is raising money for this school bus monitor.  

As of right now, the total raised is somewhere in the range of $330,000.

He wanted to raise enough money for her to have a nice vacation. 

Besides being verbally harassed, she was touched by students and was even verbally threatened.

If not for social media, this bullying incident would have stayed on the bus.   Plain and simple, her bravery would have gone unnoticed. Instead, the video has gone viral, major blogs and TV networks are reporting on it. and hopefully this will start discussions that need to happen.

All because of social media.

This afternoon, a news conference was held.  Apparently (and I say "apparently") the responsible parties are four 7th grade students.  Where did I watch the news conference?  Online, after I got home.

Earlier today, the monitor announced she is not going to press charges.

So, what was the prompt?  Oh yes.  Promoting books using social media.

I don't have a book, but I use social media (Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest) to promote my blog. If I do write a book, I'm sure I will use those and other social media to promote it.

 But yesterday, a cell phone video showed us all the power of media. What exactly it showed us, I have a feeling we still don't fully know.  Like ripples in a pond, I don't think we are finished with this story because I find it hard to believe that this was an isolated incident.

Back To The Writing Board

I have never been one of those lucky people who thought they had a book within them.   So, this prompt in the Author Blog Challenge had special meaning to me.

The prompt is "Describe the market for your book - to the tiniest detail (e.g. childless divorced women past age 50 who want to remarry). Why that demographic?  How do you connect with them to market to them?"



I'm still trying to figure out if I even want to write a book.  In some ways,. this prompt is the most valuable question the Challenge has asked.

I've been blogging for over 3 years - since late April 2011, daily.  In the past couple of months I finally realized I was a writer.  I blogged in May about my dreams of being a snowbird (I live on the edge of the snowbelt of upstate NY) and escaping the 80 plus inches of snow we get here in a normal winter.  Once I retire from my day job, I need a way to generate income which will leave me free to live in two places.

One reason why I joined this challenge was to take this next step.

If I wrote a book, the Challenge would give me lots of information on interviewing, on e-book vs. traditional book publishing, on how to market, how to outline, how to - well, write.

But this question brought me to the heart of what I am trying to do:  Who the heck am I directing my writing at?  What is its purpose?  Will anyone even be interested?

Let's take one example.  I've had stray thoughts, here and there, about consolidating many of the posts I've posted since August of 2011. Thanks to Mother Nature, many have a common theme. In August of 2011, torrential rains from Tropical Storm Irene hit my area of upstate New York. Shortly thereafter, torrential rains caused by Tropical Storm Lee hit.  Rivers overflowed and caused massive flooding.

My blog was a first person account of the aftermath in one particular neighborhood near Johnson City, NY.  I actually wasn't here when the floods hit, which was fortunate.  I would have been blogging from a shelter, which is to say I wouldn't have been blogging.  And if my house had been several blocks from where it is, it may have been destroyed.  Maybe 'destroyed' is too strong a word but there are houses in my neighborhood that will never again be occupied.  There but for the grace.....

 I wanted to bear witness to what was happening around me.  I wanted to report it to the world.

But - then what?  What if I had written a book based on those blog posts?

Would I have wanted it as a fundraiser, proceeds benefiting a charity that benefited my neighborhood?

Would I have wanted to interview other survivors of the flood?  I know some of them.  I am one of them.  We can connect.

What about a memoir?  I know there are lots of flood memoirs out there - By The Iowa Sea being a recent example.  (And, I'm no Joe Blair.)  But my life isn't exactly market material.  Parts of it would put you right to sleep.

Would I have done photo essays?

Would I have wanted to aim this at political officials as a wake up call, to transmit the message that we've had two major floods in the Triple Cities of upstate NY in the past six years and if something isn't done, the next flood might be the "last straw" that destroys this beautiful area of the country?

This prompt made me think, and I realized (after two days of thought) that I did not have a demographic.  So, back to the drawing board.

It will come.  It just isn't coming yet.