Cate Russell-Cole's Blog, page 32
August 4, 2013
Crime Writing with John le Carré
“A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.”
“By repetition, each lie becomes an irreversible fact upon which other lies are constructed.”
“The monsters of our childhood do not fade away, neither are they ever wholly monstrous”
“Our power knows no limits, yet we cannot find food for a starving child, or a home for a refugee. Our knowledge is without measure and we build the weapons that will destroy us. We live on the edge of ourselves, terrified of the darkness within. We have harmed, corrupted and ruined, we have made mistakes and deceived.”
“The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other cat’s mat is a story.”
“A good writer can watch a cat pad across the street and know what it is to be pounced upon by a Bengal tiger.”
“Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes”
Filed under: Writing Resources Tagged: Crime, John le Carre, Writing Rocket Fuel
July 31, 2013
Why Authors Should Be "Selfish" Bloggers: And How To Be One
Reblogged from Creative Writing with the Crimson League:
Blogging as an author is fun, but it's also hard work. (Check out this list of the biggest minor inconveniences of being an author who blogs). One surefire way to make it easier and worthwhile--one way to make sure you enjoy rather than grudge blogging--is to be a "selfish" blogger, as strange as that may sound.
Being a "selfish" blogger doesn't mean the following:
A thought provoking post from Victoria. Please also check out her new book for fiction writers, which is soaring up the charts. Congratulations Victoria.
July 30, 2013
Slack, Fake and Egocentric Followers: How to Pick Them!
Are your followers real, shallow, spam or marketers? How do you tell? When Kristen Lamb threatened to block anyone inappropriately using the #MyWANA community tag in June, her action to cut down on the automation used by spammers and freeloading promoters made me think about what was going on among my “followers.”
I had a dig around Twitter, and was surprised at the amount of automated direct messages I was getting: particularly the lightning fast follow-backs. I have used Just Unfollow to unfollow inactive user accounts, so I know you can auto-follow through such services without lifting a finger, or checking a new follower out. “Untouched by human hands…” I began to question just how many people were following me that had never heard my name or read a tweet. As it turns out, there were quite a few…
This may not be an issue for you, but I run a business. I am trying to keep track of how effective I am. I don’t want auto-followback to swell my numbers and give me false stats. I want to know whether or not I am providing a service that is used and needed.
So after watching responses to my follows for the last few weeks, and being disturbed by it, today I embarked on a clean out. I went through my Twitter messages, located everyone who had sent me a clearly automated missive… (which they hadn’t even edited to sound like human contact) and I checked their feed. These are the characteristics of all the automaters I found. These traits repeated consistently:
1. The most forgivable transgressors had over ten thousand followers and to be fair, would be swamped in saying hi to everyone. (This was very rare.)
2. They tweeted about nothing but themselves: their books, their book characters, and/or their daily stats on how many people followed or un-followed them. (One writer was musing over why he’d lost over 50 followers that week, when the sum total of his tweets for that time, was how many people had read his dying follower stats and run away. Action = Reaction) There were few re-tweets of others’ work, little goodwill-building interaction and almost no conversations.
3. They tweeted so rarely, I would call them superficial or slack tweeters. Then, most of the tweets were purely book promotion or reviews they wanted shared. Was it that they didn’t understand social engagement, were over-burdened by too many social media obligations or were they just ‘fishing marketing’ and they felt they had to use Twitter?
So if you are looking for a way to find out who is real and who is just taking you on their promotional journey, check your direct messages on Twitter, or new follower feeds, then see how many people they talk to and share tweets from. You will see a clear difference.
Follower numbers are just a rough guideline. It’s interaction with people that shows you where you’re really at.
(My next wish from the techie genies, is for a “block follower” button here on WordPress. I am noticing how many followers I am getting who are not reading my blog, but just looking for me to click on their link and follow them. How did I find that out? When I started a new personal blog, and the total followers I had outweighed the number of post hits by 300%. I had thought that growth rate rank of steroid enhancement…)
P.S. I am overdue in apologising for all the times I haven’t sent anyone a tweet or message to say “thanks for following.” I used to, however, work has become crazy busy, and my follower numbers get on top of me very fast. I just don’t have the time to catch up with everyone. I also know a lot of people hate DMs and I swear I will never automate and join the ranks of the shallow! If I like your work, you’ll see the RTs and I will chat where I can. If I used Twitter the way I wanted to, in itself, it would be a full time job. *sigh*
This blog post by Cate Russell-Cole is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You are free to share and adapt it.
Filed under: Writing Resources Tagged: automation, block, blog, egocentricity, fake followers, followers, lazy followers, promotion, respect, rules, social media, spam, spammers, Twitter, writers, writing
July 28, 2013
Indie Author Organizations for Publicity
One of my marketing tasks for this year was to join as many Independent Author associations, groups and organizations as I could. In the process I found that some were expensive, or were of the calibre that gives Indies a bad name. Poor and cheaply done sites with an unprofessional image did little to inspire me. However, there are gems out there.
Here is the list of the sites I have found so far. Please research them and use your discretion before joining, especially if payment is required. As usual, I am not liable for your experience. (I hate having to say that!) If you find a great one, tell everyone. I have comments switched off for this post as I don’t want anyone in this list being openly criticised or unreasonably praised as subtle promotion.
Good luck!
Ebook Author: http://ebookauthor.com/
The Independent Author Network: http://www.independentauthornetwork.com
Ebook Freeway: http://www.ebookfreeway.com/p-ebook-directory-list.html
Independent Author’s Guild: http://www.independentauthorsguild.com/
Independent Authors International: http://independentauthorsinternational.org/iAi/Welcome.html
Coalition of Independent Authors: http://www.coalition-independent-authors.com
Independent Author Index: http://indaindex.com/submit-your-author-profile/
Authors Social Media Support Group: http://asmsg.weebly.com
This blog post by Cate Russell-Cole is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You are free to share and adapt it.
Filed under: Writing Resources Tagged: author, books, fiction, goals, Indie publishing, resource, success, writer, writing
July 26, 2013
What Is a Beta Reader, and Why Do We Need Them?
Reblogged from WordServe Water Cooler:
How exciting. Your manuscript is finished. You have edited it. Had it critiqued by writers you respect. Possibly even had it edited by a freelance editor. It’s time to shoot it off to your agent or publisher. Right?
Not so fast. Your grammar may be immaculate. Every i is dotted, every t is crossed, and you are sure you watched your ps and qs.
Essential! Please soak this in and pass it on!
Written Acts of Kindness Award: Authors Social Media Support Group
I work alongside numerous Indie authors and writers who find the Internet a confusing and stressful place to be. They are not alone. Even as a geek, I still pull my hair out on a regular basis! Anyone who assists with promotion is a godsend.
This is the first time I have given an Award to a non-profit writer’s organisation. It is being given jointly to R. Grey Hoover and Christopher Shields who run the Authors Social Media Support Group. Grey set up the Group, which is also manned on the Facebook front line by Christopher.
It is one of the friendliest groups I have found online. ASMSG works through both Twitter and Facebook to promote authors, and takes care of it’s members in a sensitive and helpful manner… and it’s free.
If you go to Grey’s Twitter feed, you will see how much work he puts in. It is an enormous effort. I had to create a special list on Twitter just to be able to follow his tweets, which he uses to support member’s work and pass on resources. You can find Grey’s book, Kicker, on Amazon.
The generosity of these two gentlemen with their time is outstanding. Thank you both very much.
Please go to the ASMSG web site to join. While you can find their groups on Facebook, you must have officially joined to be entered. Also, remember #ASMSG is a community hashtag: do not use it for your own publicity, unless you are a full member.
Please follow Christopher on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WealdFaeJournal
Enjoy his blog at: http://wealdfaejournals.wordpress.com
Grey and Christopher, if you so desire, please take this badge below and use it as you wish. The rules for passing this Award on are very simple:
You are welcome to give it out as many times as you like, but it is only to be given to a maximum of one person per blog post. If you wish to give multiple rewards, please space the blog posts by at least a week so the sincerity is maintained.
Introduce the person; say how they encourage, help or inspire you; then link to their work and/or social media profiles. There may be a specific post you wish to link to which helped you. It’s up to you.
Please publicise your award post to Twitter or Google Plus using the hashtag #writtenkindness so that others can find and follow the award winners.
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Filed under: Written Acts of Kindness Awardees Tagged: #ASMSG, author, Authors Social Media Support Group, Christopher Shields, Indie, promotion, publicity, R. Grey Hoover, social media, Written Acts of Kindness Award
July 24, 2013
Resources for Writing Factually About Adoption
Whether you are a fiction writer who is representing an adopted child or the relinquishing mother; or if you are an adoptee or birth parent writing your life story, these resources will help you. However, be warned that some of the information I am sharing may bring up painful issues.
I am an adopted person. I was bought up knowing from an early age that my mother was too young and unsupported to care for me. Adoption was a good thing and one day, I could find my mother. I have also always been aware that being adopted means I carry some permanent wounds related to being terrified of loss and rejection, and not really knowing who I was.
My adopted family was emotionally abusive. I was bought up with my mother’s martyr complex about how awesome she was to take on someone else’s child. I have been repeatedly told that I “owed them.” I felt like a possession. That is only a small sampling of the damage done to me by my adopted family with their own psychiatric issues. When I reached my late twenties, I finally gave up trying to play happy families, changed my name to one I chose, and started a new life away from them all.
It was easier to do than I thought. The connection to them never really was there. My mother and I had so little in common, we didn’t even wash plates the same way. I had only ever bonded with my dad. When I got my DNA test done, it turns out we both have some matching ancestry. He is the only biological match I had in that entire family.
Clear state of mind.
As my family is so dysfunctional, when I did search for my birth mother in the mid 1990s, I never told them. It is just as well. I received an almost hysterical phone call from a complete stranger in deep grief, begging me never to contact her again. I have given her sixteen years to change her mind. It looks like she won’t. Knowing from my adoption records what she went through, I forgave her readily at the time. It wasn’t until I hit the statistic that 96% of birth mothers want a reunion that I went to pieces. Why was I in the 4% that was rejected? I could have helped her. Why didn’t she have the guts to try and heal? She could have been at my wedding. I could have been at her 60th birthday last year.
This is not an easy issue. Parents are given adopted babies not knowing how damaged they are. It is presumed that babies are emotionally undeveloped, thus they’ll adapt and are OK. Any child who has bonded to their mother is torn apart by the loss. If like me, they were in a humidicrib for months, or it took time for adoption to go through, the lack of early bonding and affection is a life-long scar. It does not heal. You cannot compensate completely for that early loss. If you grieve any loved one that died, how is this different? Age does not matter.
Toxic state of mind.
Studies have shown that adopted children suffer clinical depression, bonding issues, relationship problems, identity disorders, eating disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, attention deficit disorder, infertility, suicide, unwanted pregnancies, homelessness, criminal lifestyles, and will push connection with other people away for safety. Why so much damage from an early bad start? Replacement love is just not enough. Counselling from an early age is not given. No fairy story of “your mother loved you” is entirely believable… especially if you happen to be in the 4% who are rejected a second time.
If you do find your parent, you are confronted with a stranger, their family, their lifestyle, their mistakes and wounds. It does not always have fairy tale ending. Often, it goes very wrong or contact is minimal to keep the pain under control. The hope that all the pieces will suddenly fit together is a myth. A child growing up in a their world, may find it a challenge to accept that their biological mother is also in her own world. They can be very different and conflicting. In some ways I am grateful I never met my mother. What if she is an alcoholic and I am part of the cause? How would I deal with that? Would she take her hurt out on me, regardless of the fact that I did not cause it? That Australia Day long weekend was her choice. It doesn’t reflect on me, but it’s easier to have a scapegoat.
Adoption is no small issue for the biological mothers who were often forced to give their children up either. They have a clinically unique grief which also never heals, and can be made worse by contact with their removed child. It does not necessarily get better with time. 30-40% choose to have no further children. The infertility rate in relinquishing mothers is 170% above the norm. They too experience as many psychological illnesses as their children are prone to; deal with difficulties in parenting subsequent children, have failed marriages and suffer from the shame and secrecy that surrounds having had a child before marriage. In short, it is perpetual punishment. (Source Statistics on the Effects of Adoption http://www.adoptionhealing.com/ginni.html)
My mother was a foster child. She passed on the cycle of pain and alienation. Please pray for “Lynette.”
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More information on adoption is available here:
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Adoption.com is the authority for all things adoption. Check out our resources about pregnancy, domestic & international adoption, parenting, adoptees, fostering etc.
ARMS – Association of Relinquishing Mothers, particularly, read this page http://www.armsvic.org.au/about-relinquishment www.armsvic.org.au
Impact of Adoption on Adopted Persons: Child Welfare Information Gateway (US)
https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_adimpact.cfm and
Understanding child development and the impact of adoption: www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/parent_school_age/parent_school_age_a.cfm
Life Issues for Adult Adoptees from adoption.com
http://www.adoption.com/articles/life-issues-for-adult-adoptees.html
How babies respond to adoption: yes, they do grieve and feel separation and react – adoptionvoicesmagazine.com
http://adoptionvoicesmagazine.com/adoptee-view/adoptee-view-what-can-a-tiny-baby-know/#.Uey4MxYyH8s
Nancy Verrier’s website, home of the book, the Primal Wound http://nancyverrier.com/the-primal-wound/
www.adoptioncircles.net
www.birthpsychology.com – critical site for information, scientifically based.
www.bastards.org – adoptee rights organisation.
Links to a wealth of other information such as search and support services, libraries for research etc from Canada’s Forget Me Not Family Society http://www.adoptioncircles.net/cms3/weblink_directory
Mental Health Of The Adopted Child – Origins Inc
www.originsnsw.com/mentalhealth/id4.html
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FINDING YOUR FAMILY
Oz-Reunion, commercial online search site
http://www.ozreunion.com.au/
General Register Office in England
http://www.direct.gov.uk
General Register Office in Scotland
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk
General Register Office in Ireland (Eire)
http://www.groireland.ie
General Register Office in Northern Ireland
http://www.groni.gov.uk
Adoption Jigsaw was founded in Perth, Western Australia in 1978, and provides search, mediation and counselling services to anyone involved in adoption.
This article / blog post is Copyright Cate Russell-Cole 2013. All rights are reserved Internationally. You may not reproduce it in any form, in part of whole, without Cate’s prior written permission. That includes usage in forms such as print, audio and digital imaging including pdf, jpg, png etc. A fee may be requested for re-using her work if it is for a commercial venture. Link sharing and Pinterest pins are most welcome as long as Cate is the attributed Author.
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Filed under: Life Story / Memoir, Writing Resources Tagged: adoptee, adoption, adoption resources, biological mother, birth parent, characterisation, conflict, fiction, finding your family, grief, ideas, inspiration, life story, loss, memoir, mental health, motivation, plot, psychology, rejection, relinquishing mother, resource, stress management, writing, Writing Rocket Fuel
July 22, 2013
Would you like a spotlight with that?
One of the things I enjoy most about writing, is not only that it goes hand in hand with reading, but how it brings you in contact with all those others who put their blood, sweat, tears and more into their work. Writers, cover designer, film maker, advertising artist alike.
I'm well aware how tricky it can be, making first steps on the road of writing and publishing.
If you need promo, please check out Mack's post. It covers the genres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Action & Adventure and Mystery & Thrillers, including Steampunk, Survival and Horror. "The scope is on books, short stories, graphic novels, short films, trailers (feature and book), advertising (art, promotion, marketing) and cover design." Good luck everyone!
July 21, 2013
Blog Survival Tools
The Liability terms and conditions of this blog apply to the services listed below. (See the Copyright page above.) Sorry to have to say that…
http://www.copyscape.com Search for where your work has been ripped off on the Internet
http://akismet.com Excellent protection from web spam (comes with WordPress.org blogs automatically.)
http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/ Spam Karma is another comment spam tool.
BlogSitter.net and http://www.bloggersforhire.com Guest bloggers to write for your blog, while you take a holiday. If you are commercial, this could be worth it. The rest of us just write ahead and schedule posts…
http://www.sitening.com/tools/serp-tracker/ This is a Search Engine ranking tracker.
http://topix.com/ Topix is a news service which you can use to find ideas and sources for your blog posts.
http://www.delicious.com Use Delicious to bookmark web content you want to research or write about later.
http://www.webmasterworld.com/ Forums for webmasters and wizards who can help you with that confusing technical stuff.
http://adwords.google.com/ Advertise your blog on Google to gain traffic.
http://web.blogads.com Another way to buy advertising to promote your blog.
Filed under: Writing Resources Tagged: advertising, blog, blog tools, copyright infringement, Search engine ranking, SEO, spam, Writing Rocket Fuel
Google Plus for Writers (Build a Social Media Platform)
Reblogged from WordServe Water Cooler:
Google+ offers unique benefits for writers wise enough to take advantage of them. Why do we need another social site when there's already Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter? While these social sites are great networking tools, they don't have all the capabilities of Google+.
Another consideration is cost. Only a fraction of those who sign up to receive your Facebook updates are allowed to see them.
This is a great writing blog to follow and a great post... There is information in this post about registering with Google as an author so you can be found more easily. I didn't know that feature was available.
