Pat Bertram's Blog, page 316

The Mythic Journey Behind Daughter Am I

Today is the last day of my Daughter Am I virtual book tour, and what better place to end it than here, at my own blog. Thank you everyone for your support during the past five weeks. It was a wonderful journey!

Daughter Am I was the combination of two different stories I wanted to write. I'd read The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, and the mythic journey so captured my imagination that I knew I had to write my own quest story. I also liked the idea of telling little-known truths...

Creating Perfection

Today I am at Mark David Gerson's blog talking "All About Balance," and he is here with an article about creating perfection. As you know, I'm planning to start writing again, so I am taking special heed of Mark David's words. Mark David says:

Have no fear of perfection, you'll never reach it. 

Are you frustrated? 

Do you struggle to find the perfect words that consummately evoke the depth of your passion or flawlessly paint the fullness of your vision? 

Are you frustrated...

My Books, My Way — Yay!

This is the second to last day of my blog tour. I wasn't sure I'd manage to do all the work — 52 stops in 35 days. When you count the posts I did here to promote the tour, that means I wrote eighty-seven articles in five weeks. Whew! I truly did not intend the tour to be so long and involved — somehow it just took off on its own. I have a lot of sleep to catch up on — too many late nights – but the tour was worth it. Not in sales so much, but in what I learned about my books, me, other...

Three Discussions with Me!

One of the real joys of my Daughter Am I blog tour has been the people I've had a chance to talk to. Dave Ebright, author of Bad Latitude was kind enough to be a host — twice — and he also followed my tour. How cool is that! He left a string of questions for me at Bobby Ozuna's blog where I was being interviewed, and what ensued was a fascinating discussion. Well, fascinating to me. I like knowing how other writers work and how they think.

Dave: A few Qs, Pat – if you don't mind:
Do you...

Judi Fennell — Going with the Flow

I have an exciting day ahead of me today. I am a guest on Judi Fennell's blog talking about mermaids and mountains, and Judi is here talking about mermen and humor. Judi is the author of  In Over Her Head, the newly-landed Wild Blue Under, and the soon-to-be-netted Catch of a Lifetime. As you will see in the following article, Judi writes fairy tales with a twist:

Thanks, Pat, for having me here today. 

As some of you may know, I write a paranormal romance series about Mermen. Yes, Mermen. I...

Googling Sex With Your Sister

Who knew that googling sex with your sister was a bi-monthly activity? The last time I had a spike in blog readership it was due to an article I wrote when I discovered how many people were finding me using search terms involving sex with sisters. Sex With Sister Tips. Um…Yeah got 402 hits in July, 67 hits in August, 235 hits in September, 10 hits in October, and so far 280 hits in November. Each of these spikes in hits occurred within a short span of time, which makes me wonder what happens...

First Lines and Free Time

Can you believe it? This is the thirtieth day of my Daughter Am I blog tour! Only five days left. Oh, dear . . . what am I going to do with all that free time? As if I don't know.

For one thing, I'm going to get back to writing. I figure if I tell myself this enough, it will sink in and I will actually do it. I keep hoping I'll stumble on a new idea to give me a renewed enthusiasm for the story, but perhaps that idea will come during the writing. I've been rereading what I've already written...

News from the Blogosphere

I'm exaggerating a bit – whatever news I have is from my own private byte of  the blogosphere. 

I just finished reading Jeffery Deaver's Roadside Crosses, and I sure am missing out on all the excitement of blogging. Hundreds of thousands of people do not read my blog, and I can't imagine that anything I say could inspire murder, except in a literary way. And perhaps not even that.

I hope I'm not as obsessed about blogging as Deaver's characters, though I might come close. I wasn't going to...

Daughter Am I Blog Tour — Final Week!

My Daughter Am I blog tour is winding down — I have seven days to go (eight if you include today) and I don't know whether to be sad or to rejoice. Since my promotion motto is "Promotion is just another word for party," I decided to rejoice and have an end of blog tour party on the 22nd and 23rd. You are all invited, of course.

The most interesting aspect of the tour has been coming up with unique guest posts that highlight various elements of the story. Unique, in this case, meaning that all...

Tweet-y Bird

I received a direct message from someone I was following on Twitter. (Notice I said was following? Anyone who sends me junk gets unfollowed.) The message included a link to a site that promised to automate my Twitter. It will find followers for me, it will Tweet for me, and it will read the feed for me. Well, perhaps I exaggerating a bit when it comes to the last point, but the first two are true. It makes me wonder what the point of it is. Who are we tweeting to? Birds? Bugs? Bots?

Even...