Still not giving up...and an Award!

I've been tagged with an award!  First I must link back to Kathleen, then answer some questions, and tag more people/blogs.  Here we go!

WOW!  AN AWARD!

                                        

Thank you, Kathleen Doyle ( http://writingreadingandlife.wordpress.com/ ) for thinking of me! 

I think I will answer her questions with photos! (pretty funny, huh - seeing as I love to write so much?!)  


1. What is your favorite Christmas/festive movie?  
     

I Love both of these movies.

2. What is your favorite flower?

Lavender

     
3. What is your favorite non-alcoholic beverage? 

Hazelnut-Cream Coffee

4. What is your passion?

Writing

       5. What is your favorite time of year?   

Autumn is gorgeous!

6. What is your favorite time of day?
   

   
   


7. What is your favorite physical activity?
       Does typing count?
   

If I lived near the ocean, I'd do this every day!
Really!

   


8. What is your favorite vacation?
      It's a toss up between my Arizona trips (the Grand Canyon is awesome) & San Diego

The Pacific Ocean in San Diego, CA

                                                     


9. And now I am supposed to nominate Ten other people (blogs) for this award:

     Stephanie Poscente

     Vampire Maman

     Gina McKnight

     Dixon Rice

     Rachael Soderstrom

     Dean Pace Frech

     Jamie Raintree

     Birds Eye View

     Brenda Giguere

     Roz and Patty Write

   

On another note:  I'm still waiting for Avon Publishing to get back to me...and if they send me a rejection letter, I'm still not giving up!

 
 Have a great week.
 

 

   Check out my Writer's page.  Here's the link:
  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sharon-Jones-Writer/185943308108341

First Paragraph Saturday!

After several hours of wracking my brain
           trying to come up with  new

for today's blog... this is pretty much how I can sum up my feelings:

So I decided to go back into my list of previous blogs and see which ones generated the most comments.  It makes sense since many of my readers are writers, that the one with the most responses was First Sentence Saturday:  http://color-me-read.blogspot.com/2011/04/first-sentence-saturday.html   Wow- 28comments!  Now that may not be a lot for some of you who have been writing blogs for years but, for me, that was awesome!  (compare that to last week about the "End of the world" - there were only 7, and I think two of them were my responses!)  Another thing I've noticed is that I never get many comments on my Holiday posts, but that could be because I only advertise once during the following week, and I suppose it leaves many more out of the proverbial loop (at least on facebook).

OK, so here is my idea for today.  First Paragraph Saturday!  Since the first sentence went over so well, perhaps my fellow writers would like to indulge me with their first paragraphs whether in their current WIP (work in progress) or any other novel, poem, or short story.  You choose, we'll read!  This will be fun!  

                                  

                                                   

The first paragraph of Ravenswynd 

    The sound of blood rushing past my eardrums echoed the roar of my pounding heart.  What the flaming hell was I thinking?  My only solace came from knowing I wasn't the only idiot waiting on a dark pier on Friday the thirteenth at exactly seven-thirteen.  There were twelve others.  Had anyone else noticed all the thirteens?  Although I hoped that this was only a series of coincidences, an icy chill coursed through me as I tied it in with everything that my best friend, Fiona, had been saying all along about the secret party.  Without question, something strange and frightening was about to take place. The air bristled with a weird intangible energy.  And this weirdness was only a taste of what was to come – the party is the main entrée.  I didn't even want to think about dessert.  

Feel free to comment on my first  paragraph, but don't forget to add YOURS too!  

Have a great

 

Thanks for reading and participating!!

The Power of Words

I posted a video from YouTube a few days ago.  I posted it on my personal facebook profile and on my Writer's Page - which automatically posts it to twitter as well. I was surprised at how little response it generated.  I have no way of knowing how many people bothered to look at it, nor how many saw it and scrolled right on by as they looked at their homepages. But it made me wonder.  Am I wasting my time with all this "social networking" ?
                                                      

     My facebook profile shows that I have 169 Friends and my Writer's Page says that 90 people Like this.  My twitter account says I have 137 followers.  Out of all these potential lookers, there were only 4 comments and 4 likes, with 3 of those being the same people. Does this mean that most people just don't take the time to click 'like' or make a comment - even if they are actually reading and not just scrolling?


It's not like I was the creator of that video or anything.  But what it had to say in such a short amount of time was absolutely astounding. ( 1 minute and 47 seconds) As a writer it showed me how important words can be, and as a human it showed me there is yet hope in this world of ours.


Perhaps waking up to another dreary, gray day has dampened my outlook on social networking.  When I looked at today's weather on my computer it said: drizzle.  Now they have upgraded it to: Overcast.  Yay.

Perhaps I am spending too much energy wondering why people don't care enough to interact within this social networking world.  Or maybe I am spending too much time clicking like on my friends updates and videos and photos and quotes - making comments when I am moved by something they have posted or Blogged.  Lets face it - it is hard to keep up with all of it.

Looking up right now at my Google reader notifier, it says I have 30 blogs to read and my Google mail  checker says there are 20 emails, some of which will be Blogs I have subscribed to from WordPress. That's not counting both of my facebook account updates, twitter tweets, nor my Writer's Circle group posts.

I think I am trying too hard. And when so few people interact back, I tend to take it personally.  Or, like I mentioned earlier, perhaps it's just the bleak day.  It is only 29 degrees.  And did I mention how gray, bleak,  drizzly and overcast it is?  Oh, I just looked outside.  It's snowing.  Sideways.

In case any of you missed it, and are interested in the video that got me started on all of this...here it is:

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DHzgzim5m7oU&h=b5cc8

There are over 3 Million hits on this video. 3,700,755 to be exact.
What did you think the woman wrote?  Were you surprised?  How did the video make you feel?

And now I am going to get off of all the social networks and spend some time editing and writing.  That always makes me feel better, no matter what's going on outside.  Not to mention the great feeling that comes with knowing I am not wasting my time!

As always, thanks for reading!

♫ Bloggin ♪ Twitterin ♪ Facebookin ♪ Writin ♫

My Blog

Okay, so I've taken loads of advice over the past two weeks regarding the importance of blogging- getting yourself out there and visible to the world.  I've written only two blogs so far (this being the third) and I have gotten some feed-back, a few nice comments, and met many new friends. Yay!

I am also following roughly  29 blogs here on Blogger Dashboard...and about 16-18 more from Networked blogs and miscellaneous other sights.  I love reading blogs!  I love learning new things about writing and publishing and how other writers spend their busy days.  It's really exciting to hear when they have a new/first book coming out! I share their joy!  :)

I've gotten a little better at Twitter too.  Learning all about the #ff and the @so and so, the difference between the home page and the Profile page, re-tweeting and messaging people.

My Twitter

So far, I have 30 followers and I am following 63!  Awesome, right?  The most awesome thing about Twitter is that if you are following someone who is "in the know" they will help you understand what the heck is going on.  Oh, and through Twitter, I found out how important it is to have an Author Page on Facebook!  My friend's link took me to another author's page who gave fantastic directions to set one up!  And so I did...  Why wouldn't I?  Many authors that I follow have two FaceBook profiles...one personal and one for writing.

My Author Page

So last night, about 7p.m. or so, I go to the Page section of Face Book and begin filling out the data for my new Author Page! Whoopee!  About 8 1/2 hours later...I go to bed.  Yes, after 3:30a.m.  I am far more computer/face-book/twitter/blog- illiterate than I ever realized.  But now I know.  And after all, we should never stop learning.  What I've learned is this:  I have not spent nearly enough time actually writing lately.  (Other than my three blogs)  I have met many wonderful new friends, and hope to meet many more.  I have gotten excellent information and advice from being so "connected."  And for that I am grateful.  But my new goal is to get on a better schedule.  To set aside specific time just for writing.  Because after all, that is what I want to do above all else.  Write!

But heck - as long as I spent the time setting it up, feel free to check out my Author Page and Like me!  :)

There's a link on the right side of this blog ----------------------------------->

Again I must ask:  Wish me luck!
PS.  I just looked up at my Google-Reader-Notifier...There are 20 New Blogs waiting for me to read.  I think I may need a bit more than just luck. :p

How do you other writers out there schedule your time to include reading blogs, writing blogs, tweeting, face-book updating-- and still find enough time for writing? I'm thinking the answer may be not getting online until the writing goal is met for the day.

Here's a link to the awesome Nathan Bransford whose blog tells you how to "Facebook for Authors"
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2011/02/facebook-for-authors-how-to-get-started.html

For reading! 

               Sharon :)