Oh yeah this is my Saturday night

I’m actually going to skip boring you with the details of my weekend. They’re not exciting. You should know that already, because I’m blogging on a Saturday night. The truth is, I had to check the calendar on my laptop to verify that it was, indeed, Saturday. Say no more, right?

During the past few days, I’ve spent some time with a couple of the stories set to release during our catalog launch in April. Formatting them. Reevaluating placements for artwork. Proofreading. Again. And working on some synopses that (hopefully) will make you all KILL to read them.

Because you’d kill for a good story, right?

It seems like these stories have been in the illustrators’ hands forever, but that’s just my impatient inner enthusiast talking out of turn. And needless to say, this artwork was worth the wait. I’m super happy with the way everything turned out, which is getting me geared up for all things emotobook.

And all things blog. Like this one. And like the several other ones I run. But especially this one. It needs a makeover. Maybe just something subtle. I… don’t know yet. BUT one thing this blog definitely needs is a better blogroll. I have this crappy list of links on the left sidebar that I haven’t updated in years.

For a while, I was visiting over 100 blogs. I didn’t have time to give everything my full attention, of course, but I wanted everyone I knew to discover these resourceful sites and network with all these people- these fellow writers and creative souls. But having long lists like that is a huge turn-off.

If every blog had a button, I’d snag them all instead. Not a hundred of them. Maybe ten. But maybe I could create a page for other blogs and include whatever photos or logos I can for them. My question is, what would you like to see? What kind of presentation would make you most likely to check out those links?

I’ve learned so much about blogging just from doing it and from reading other people’s blogs over the years. I’ve read countless articles on how to blog successfully and I’ve helped people set up their blogs and websites. I’ve taken document and web design classes. This is very obviously not apparent by looking at this particular blog, but I do know something about this stuff. Not the technical stuff, but the other happy nontechnical stuff.

Tomorrow I’m supposed to help a friend create a blog. I figured I’d show him some of mine so he can see different styles and layouts on different hosts. But as I’m texting him, giving him solid tips for blogging success, I realize I don’t follow most of it. At all.

So the first thing I need to do is try some kind of schedule so I’m not posting so erratically, start posting some more substantial stuff, and then maybe attempt some kind of organization.

Any suggestions about organization or content?

 

Dear Wannabe Guest Bloggers (and other news!)

I love you all. I really do. But here’s the thing: I don’t actually know most of you. So here’s the deal.

Until now, I haven’t set up any guidelines for guest post submissions. I liked the open-door philosophy: if you write it, I will take it! But I’m receiving a lot of prefab propositions that all sound eerily alike and don’t lead back to a blogger. Instead, it’s always someone who just wants to advertise a commercial website. Which is fine. But that’s not why I do this.

I want to support the blogging community. So to guest post for me, you have to have your own blog. It doesn’t have to be about writing, or reading, or anything specific. It can be about rutabagas. In fact, your guest post can even be about rutabagas- if you’re very clever and you somehow make it relevant.

This also helps to ensure that I’m receiving original content. If I know where you live, so to speak, I can trust you more. If I can trust you, then I can ask my readers to trust you, and ultimately this trust upholds the integrity of my site.

Sound fair? I think it does.

Otherwise, my guidelines remain the same. Include a bio and a photo and a good, original post (recycled or new- doesn’t matter), and I will let you hang out at this blog as often as you like. I’ll even give you content in return, if you want it.

In other news!

The talented Connor at Cities of the Mind- Freelance Writing recently reviewed this blog. You can read the review and his other reviews HERE. This is definitely a good place to get overviews on potentially awesome blogs. And who doesn’t want an introduction to that? Connor’s reviews are concise, informative, and accurate. It’s like going blog shopping with a blog expert. I doubt he’d claim to be an expert, though, but then that’s part of the reason we like him, right?

 

Also, speaking of guest blogging, I’m the guest this week at the Gritty Blog. Some of my regular readers might recognize this post about Believability in Fiction. It’s a good one, I think, and it was a fun one to write.

And speaking of GCP, I’d like to give a shout-out to some of our writers. Check out:

Jodi McClure’s blog, “The Swing”

Cynthia Ravinski’s author site

Will Kosh’s author site

I’d also like to note that I’m looking forward to reading and reviewing Will Kosh’s book, Little Winged One: The First Book of Guardians. There are other books on my “to-review” digital stack, too, I know- I haven’t forgotten you… One I should probably mention is Liz Schulte’s Secrets: Guardian Trilogy Book One (what’s with all the guardian stuff, I wonder?) Out of the five authors that participated in the Blog Tour de Force, she was the only one who emailed me about a review. And I’m not including the prefab mass email requests. But honestly, these authors all gave their books away for free; of course they all deserve reviews. Secrets just got bumped up the list because I appreciate the personable approach.

One other thing. My son turned ONE YEAR OLD yesterday. Where did this year go?! My little monkey is growing up. He’s not even technically a baby any longer- he’s a toddler. I have a toddler. What?!