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Category Archives: Blogging
There’s Sunshine on My Blog Today!
I was wowed last week by author and blogger extraordinaire Suzanne Stengl when she passed the Sunshine Award on to me. Well, to ten of us, but who’s counting? So yes, in the midst of Midwest clouds and thunderstorms, the sun also shining! The rules of the Sunshine Award are: • Include the award’s logo in a post on your blog. • Link to the person who nominated you. • Answer the 10 questions below. • Pass the award on to ten (or however many you want) “Sunshine inspiring” bloggers. Ooh – does that mean I inspire sunshine? Cool! Here are the questions, along with as many answers as I’m able to come up with: Favorite Color: I used to say “blue” automatically, but it seems to have morphed to purple. Or red. I’m wearing a lot of those these days (although I’ve got a few years to go before … Continue reading
RSS and Me – Technological Alzheimer’s
Thanks to Amy Andrews, my new tutor/blogging guru over at Blogging with Amy, I’m finally getting around to adding an RSS feed. Blog readers need convenience, right? Yeah, I know. I’m not only slow, I’m almost a technological dinosaur. (And if there are any other technological dinosaurs out there, here’s a visual description of what an RSS feed does.) Since you read RSS-fed blogs in a “reader,” I decided to open a Google Reader account. To my amazement … drumroll … I already have one! Not only slow, but forgetful! So then I click on Amy’s link to Feedburner. It takes me to Google Feedburner, and guess what again? It seems I’m already set up! Not only am I already set up, but I have one subscriber. One. Pitiful, until I remember that my blog doesn’t even have a little RSS button, which is why I started this whole adventure … Continue reading
Posted in Blogging, Humor
Tagged Amy Andrews, Blogging, Blogging with Amy, Feedburner, Jennifer Jensen, RSS, RSS Feeds
6 Comments
Literary Citizenship – Pay It Forward
What is literary citizenship? How do you promote it, and are you a good literary citizen? Some of my shower thoughts (best time for thinking, right?) kept tumbling around and then mixed with Cathy Day’s talk about literary citizenship at the 2012 Midwest Writers Workshop. Cathy, author of The Circus in Winter and Comeback Season, said that being a good literary citizen is being part of, and promoting, a literary community: reading, writing, and all that goes with it. She suggested a few things we could do to build that community, and, as writers, build relationships that will benefit our own careers in the process: Talk about books with LIVE people (in person, as opposed to not-dead). Write notes to authors when we enjoy their books. Be interested in others. She quoted Dale Carnegie: “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in them, than in two … Continue reading
Posted in Blogging, READING, WRITING
Tagged Blogging, Cathy Day, Jennifer Jensen, Literary Citizen, Midwest Writers Workshop, Reading, WANA, WRITING
7 Comments
Can a Writer’s Blog Really Help You Get an Agent?
You know the stories. Julie Powell blogged about tackling Julia Child’s recipes each day, and ended up with Julie & Julia in a book and in the theaters. Stuff White People Like got a book deal three months after it was launched. And then there’s the parody blog & book, Options: the Secret Life of Steve Jobs, by “fake Steve Jobs.” But those deals were all turning the actual blog into a book. Anything we hear about agents trolling blogs for promising writers seems like rumors and dreams. Until it happens to you. I got this message in my email a week and a half ago: Hi Jennifer: I am a literary agent scouting on behalf of a major publisher for someone to write a book on a young adult topic. I found your blogs and wonder if you might have interest in hearing more. What’s that? Someone found … Continue reading
Posted in Blogging, ROW80, WRITING
Tagged Agents, Blogging, Book Contract, Jennifer Jensen, literary agents, ROW80, WRITING, Writing Blogs
35 Comments