Writerly Ways

A couple things this weekend to talk about. One comes from a link from my friend, ES. You can check it out here

I find this vaguely disturbing. I do understand what they’re doing. They’re trying to find proven sellers. That’s great if you’re a big name looking for a new agent. How about all the ones trying to break in? More importantly IS this a good gauge in the first place? I know I asked this before but I’m asking again. I know I have a lot of big-time readers on my list. How many of your routinely check out an author’s website?

I don’t. Almost ever. It is of little importance to me. That could be my age talking. I think about authors I never miss a book from, Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Charlaine Harris, JD Robb, CS Harris and the list goes on. Want to know how many times I’ve been to ANY of their websites? Zero. I went to Douglas Clegg’s a couple times because I’m on his blog and he was giving out nooks and you had to go to the website to win. There’s what motivated me to go to it. Free stuff.

I’ve probably been to more erotica author web pages mostly because I work with a lot of them and I’m checking it out for them to see if it’s easy to work. I never go back. I’ve been to the webpages of my friends on this list as they try to put up theirs but for the same reason.

I’m far more interested in blogs, hearing what they have to say. I have some on twitter but I don’t particularly like it. I’ve friended one author on facebook but I knew her from before that. I do have a few well known authors on my flist and Richelle Meade, Barbara Hambly and GRR Martin all do blog on a more or less frequent basis. Wonders if any of these parameters agents look for now apply to blogs?

The other thing I wanted to talk about is how do you get yourself back on track? Right now I feel off the rails. I’ve nothing I want to use as a reward. I do GOOD when I have a challenge like gsd_rtfn but that’s a very hit and miss community. I would probably do good if I had people to word war with (get the idea I might be a tad competitive). How do you all do it?

And a big thanks to zippitgood and catw00man for the beta help on my and ELD’s story. It’s much appreciated!

I didn’t edit a damn thing this week because I had my writers group due in and that took up all my editing time. I DID however get the holiday story sent out there. About time I did something (honestly this year wasn’t fond of any of the open calls so you’d think I’d work on the novels but you’d be wrong).

Yearly word count -

132063 / 175000 words. 75% done!

And the bad news parade marches on

Grandma has blurry vision but she did hit her head and probably has a concussion but otherwise is doing okay.

My brother came home yesterday from his vacation to find out he was robbed. His sister and brother in law were in to feed the cats and discovered the kitchen window busted out. He's pretty sure he knows who it is who did it and will be talking to detectives tomorrow. WHoever it was knew exactly where the money was hidden and touched nothing else which if you think about it, is stupid. It indicates a working knowledge of the house.

Mom and Dad went to a family reunion/baby shower today (which if they had reminded me WAS a family reunion and not just a shower, I might have gone home. I like this part of the family). And my cousin B is in bad shape, having ballooned up to well over 300 pounds (he didn't look that bad in april). Part of it could be his meds (I think he takes steriods for his asthma) but from Mom's description it sounds a lot like ascites and he got hep c from a blood transfusion as a kid which means he could be in liver failure. Sigh. B and I look a lot a like. You'd think HE was my brother if you saw him and I and my actual brother together.

Thanks everyone for weighing in on the web site stuff. I need to get down to making a web page, probably via word press but looking at the walk thru I'm not sure I get all the nuances.

Thanks to geeky_ramblings, winters_queen and evil_little_dog for the pretty bronze pencils!