Gwen Gardner's Blog, page 35

Friday Funnies: You Have to Let Go

Thank you Debbie Ohi

It's hard to let go of your baby, that bun you warmed in the oven and nurtured for months and then gave birth to. And then it grows up and goes through trials and tribulations, but you stick with it through thick and thin, sickness and health, for better or worse...oh...wait - forgot where I was going with this. just to send it out into the cruel world where people see it's faults and flaws, and after you raised it to be so good, too.

But sometimes, you just gotta kick it out of the nest and hope it can fly!

Am I trying to tell you something here? Why yes. Yes I am. *winks*

Come back on Monday to find out...

How To Install Social Media Icons On Your Blog

Courtesy of Creative CommonsI have noticed that some of you have social media links/icons on your blogs and some don't. When I was gearing up to do the Buccaneer Blogfest, the hosts suggested that we have links readily available for people to follow as part of our platform building campaign. That put me on the trail to learning how to do it. I'll admit, I got incredibly frustrated. Mostly because the URL I was copying didn't work. And then in the process, the html code got altered, and then of course it didn't work.

So, I thought some of you who are thinking of adding social media links to your blogs might appreciate some hopefully easy instruction on how to do it.

First, no need to be fearful. Installing social media icons/buttons on your blog is simply a matter of copy and paste. You are not going to write html – it’s already written below. What you will be doing is copying and pasting the social media URL (i.e. your Facebook page URL) and the URL to where the social media icon is stored (i.e. Photobucket) into the html code below.


Step One

1. Find and download, or create the social media icons for your blog. Icons are readily available. You can do a google search or go to these sites: Web Design Ledger or Naldz Graphics.

2. Upload your icon images to an image hosting site. I used Photobucket after trying all day to use Picasa Web Albums where my blog photos are stored. For some reason, it didn’t like the URL’s I pasted in. It’s simple to open a photobucket account to store your icons (you will need the link to the icon/image later when you start copying and pasting into the html code.)

Step Two

3. I recommend pasting the html code below into a Word document to start out. (Once everything is copied and pasted into the Word document, all you have to do is copy it into the HTML/JavaScript on your blog. I’ll explain how later.)

4. Copy the code below into a Word document. This is enough code for four icons/links – it’s pretty easy to see that it is actually four html codes that are exactly the same. Obviously, if you need more, you just copy as many as you need. NOTE: It is okay to separate the codes by adding a line in between for easier reading. You can take out the extra line later.


<a href="insert URL/web address of where you want to be directed to here" target="_blank"><img src="http://gwengardner.blogspot.com/2012/... URL/web address of the social media icon you want here"
<a href="insert URL/web address of where you want to be directed to here" target="_blank"><img src="http://gwengardner.blogspot.com/2012/... URL/web address of the social media icon you want here"
<a href="insert URL/web address of where you want to be directed to here" target="_blank"><img src="http://gwengardner.blogspot.com/2012/... URL/web address of the social media icon you want here"
<a href="insert URL/web address of where you want to be directed to here" target="_blank"><img src="http://gwengardner.blogspot.com/2012/... URL/web address of the social media icon you want here"


  5. Choose which icon you want to appear first. I started with Facebook. Go to your Facebook account and copy the URL.

6. Then go back to the Word document and past the Facebook URL over the part of the html (between the quote marks) that says “insert URL/Web address of where you want to be directed to here”.

7. Next go to your photobucket account and go to your album. Double click on the Facebook icon to open it, then copy the HTML code over on the right (it’s a little different in that all you have to do is click on the html and you will see the word “copied” flash so you know that you’ve copied).

8. Go back to the Word document and paste the html from the Facebook icon in photobucket, over the part that says "insert URL/web address of the social media icon you want here".

9. Repeat the above instructions for each icon.

Step Three

10. Sign in to your blogger account and go to: Layout, Add a Gadget, HTML/JavaScript. In the title bar, type in the title you want to head your social media icons. Mine says Stalk Me Here, or it could say Find Me Here, Visit Me Here, or whatever you want.

11. Next, paste the html code from the Word document you created into the Content section of the HTML/JavaScript and Save.

12. Now you can go to Preview or View Blog to see if the icons look right and that they lead to the correct sites when clicked.

13. REMEMBER – if you separated the html codes earlier for easier viewing, then go back and delete the extra line. It may or may not view correctly on your blog if you don’t.

TROUBLESHOOTING:

1. It is so easy to accidently delete some of the code when you are copying and pasting. If your icons are not showing correctly, check that the html code is correct by going back to the original html and comparing it.

2. If your icons are not showing up at all, you are probably using the wrong URL (like I did when trying to use Picasa Web Album).

3. If your icons are showing, but are not in a straight line, check that the html is correct. The biggest problem (besides being unable to find the correct URL in Picasa Web Album) I had was that I accidently deleted some of the code when copying/pasting in my URL’s.

4. If html code is showing up on your actual blog by your icons, you probably copied extra code and that part needs to be deleted.

5. Sometimes during the copying and pasting, you will end up with spaces between some of the characters. This may interfere with how the icons are displayed, so you will need to delete the spaces.

I HOPE YOU FIND THIS HELPFUL! LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR IF I CAN HELP. I'M NO EXPERT, BUT I'VE BEEN THROUGH THE FRUSTRATION.

STOP THE PRESSES!

Photo from creative commons STOP THE PRESSES!

I've always wanted to say that.

And this is sort of serious, too. I might have alienated a whole country.

A WHOLE COUNTRY!

Here's what happened:

My book, Givin' Up The Ghost, is done except for some final edits. Okay final, final, final edits, but it's pretty much done. Two years in the making. Some of you are already familiar with it, but basically, my MC is an American girl living in England.

Photo by Gwen GardnerNow, we do speak the same language, I mean, it's our mother tongue, right? But sometimes, not so much. Over there, "knocking up" means to go visit someone, not making someone pregnant. The "loo" is the bathroom. A "torch" is a flashlight.

And then they have signs like the one on the right. I couldn't help myself, I had to take the picture. As far as I know, we don't have anything like that here in the United States.

But do you see what I mean? You'd think we were speaking the same language.

I was doing some research the other day, just trying to look up British slang words that people might use in England. You know, like "arse" and "bloody hell." And what did I find?! One of my characters name was another word for "vagina" or "female genitals."

What?!

Photo by Gwen GardnerOf course I had to consult an expert on this, so I emailed Claire Hennessy from the blog Crazy California Claire, who is British - I mean she owns her own red phone box (like the one at the left), so you don't get more British than that. She was able to confirm my research results, and added that in the UK, the offensive word (rhymes with Canny and is another word for rear end in the US) was actually quite rude!

I'm so glad I didn't publish the book yet, because I do plan to release it on Amazon UK as well as Amazon US.  I would have hated offending anyone and getting banned from Amazon UK as well as a country that I love!

I will have to rename the character, which shouldn't be too bad - just "find" and "replace."

But here's the sort of funny part - the character is a nineteenth century ghost madam who owned her own brothel in life! I find that hilarious.


Has anything like this ever happened to you?

Friday Funnies: Writer's At The Beach

Thank You Debbie Ohi
Right about now I'd be searching my beach bag for something to write with/on: gum wrapper, envelope, bill, book. Otherwise, I become so preoccupied with trying to anchor my brilliant idea in my brain that I can't relax in case I should forget.
That's a writer life!
But seriously, wish I was them right now! A cocktail with a cute little unbrelly. Hmm, all they need right now is a cabana boy to bring more cute little coctails with umbrelly's.
How about you?
HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE! HAVE A FUN BUT SAFE WEEKEND!

Winners! And Secret Paranormal Happenings.....

The Buccaneer Blogfest is over - EXCEPT for the announcement of the rafflecopter winners!

Lots and lots of excitement going on - be sure to read until the end, so, you know, *whispers* I can tell you a secret.

But first things first......

First, my BuccFest giveaway was a $10 Amazon gift card. It was a two-way tie so I am happy to announce Sharon Bayliss and Claire Hennessy as the winners of a $10 Amazon Gift Card each!

Second, the Curiosity Quills sponsored giveaway had tons of winners, and guess who won twice? Someone we all know and love; that's right, it's me! I won a copy of One Ghost Per Serving by Nina Post and my choice of a whole list of things from free books, a 10-page critique, query critique or an interview on Sharon Bayliss' or Courtney Young's blog. I haven't decided what to pick yet!

I am so lucky. I'm always winning awesome swag from my writer pals. You guys are the best!

And now...

Shhhhh!

This is a secret, so come close so I can whisper in your ear. No one knows this yet *glances around covertly* but I wanted you to be the first...I just have to leak a little bit of the secret.....keep your eye out for Partners in Paranorm YA , a new team of experts in all things paranormal. They'll be wandering the streets of Blogtown over the next couple of months. Got questions about ghosts? Or maybe dark angels, lost souls or god forbid *crosses self*, the master of hell? From light paranormal to the darkside and everything in between, these gals got you covered.

And remember...you didn't hear this from me.

Concilium: Men, Men, Men, Men!

I'm so excited to host Michelle Pickett today on her blog tour for her debut and new release, Concilium! I'll bet you can't guess what's she'll be talking about today...okay, maybe the blog title gave it away. That's right, the MEN of Concilium. Put on your eye candy blinders and get ready for some heart fluttering.




**********


Thank you, Gwen, for letting me hijack your blog today. I hope the topic will make it worthwhile. Of course, I'm going to shamelessly plug my newly released novel, Concilium. Here's the jacket blurb:





Leslee hit a strange animal with her car. Now she’s marked for death.




It was a simple car accident – the animal didn’t even die – but it drew the attention of the Cruor Imbibo. Driven by their insatiable need to feed, the secret society of Imbibo has devoured the dregs of civilization for centuries. Afraid Leslee will expose them, and put an end to their meal ticket, the Imbibo want her dead.




The Concilium is Leslee's only protection. Guardian of the ancient secret and the protector of humans, the Concilium fights to control the Imbibo and end their feeding frenzy. Miller works for the Concilium. Keeping Leslee alive is his next assignment.




Now Leslee is on the run, and the only thing between her flesh and the snapping jaws of the Imbibo is Miller. He and Leslee quickly form a bond, but will falling in love make Miller’s job more difficult? Because if he fails, Leslee will be next on the Imbibo menu.




The Cruor Imbibo are coming, and they're coming for Leslee.



I've had butterflies the size of Montana flying in my stomach since my book's release. Having my debut novel published has been something that is both exciting and scary all at once. Exciting because I've worked toward this for years and scary because my baby is out in the world for people to see—and judge.




Concilium is an Urban Fantasy with a big dose of romance and little touch of horror. But rather than telling a lot of details about the book, I'm going to give you a glimpse of some of my favorite parts. The Men!




There are six men that play an essential role in the book. They make up the team that protects Leslee from the clan of Imbibo that is hunting her. So to thank Gwen for allowing me to take over her blog today I'm going to share some major eye candy…













The first man is Quinn. Clocking in around fortyish, he's the oldest of the six. We don't get to know a lot about him. He's unhappy working for the Concilium and the type of life he's forced to live. He and Leslee don't hit it off right away, but he turns out to be a decent guy. You could almost say he sweeps her off her feet…literally.















Second is Chace. He's a southern boy—full of southern charm and a lazy drawl. He hates to cook and when it's his turn to cook for the team he loves to intentionally make slop for them to choke down in retaliation.





























Flynt is the team's comic relief. He flies under the radar, doing his job quietly and effectively. He and Chace hula together—you have to read the book to know why.


















At twenty, Alex is the youngest and newest member of the team. He's the closest to Leslee's age and she and Alex form a quick friendship. He often looks like he forgot to brush his hair and most of the time walks around in his own little world. It must be a happy place because Alex is always happy, a ball of energy.












Brooks is the first team member Leslee meets. She forms a tight friendship with him. We'll see more of their friendship in the sequel, but we get a good glimpse of it in Concilium. Brooks is caring and easy-going. Leslee thinks he'd be voted most lovable if they were all in high-school together.








That brings me to the last of the sixth. The best. Or the worst, depending on your perspective. Miller. Tall, lean, muscular with jet black hair and emerald eyes. He's every woman's idea of tall, dark, and handsome. But as gorgeous as he is, and he is all that and a bag of chips, he has an attitude to match. But somehow Leslee sees past the cool, indifferent exterior to the man beneath, and she falls hard. Of course, it didn't hurt that he's easy on the eyes…










So there you have it, the men of Concilium, at least how they look in my head. When you read the book you may see different faces. That's what makes reading so much fun. We can make the characters fit our dream guy, or girl.




Thank you, Gwen, for letting me share my vision of the men of Concilium. I hope everyone enjoyed a little piece of eye candy.



Don't forget to enter the giveaway below for a free copy of Concilium and a $10 gift certificate to Amazon for, what else, books!




Michelle's Bio:

Michelle has been an avid reader since a young child. She began writing for personal enjoyment in college, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in accounting. Deciding sitting in a cubical all day was her form of cruel and unusual punishment, she decided to do what she really wanted to—share her passion for reading and writing with others.




She wrote her debut novel Concilium in 2010. The sequel, Concilium: The Departure soon followed. Both will be published by Muse It Up Publishing with scheduled released dates of July 27th and November 2012 respectively. Her Debut young adult novel, PODs, will be published by Spencer Hill Press and is scheduled for release in paperback June 4th, 2013.




Michelle was born and raised in Michigan. She now resides in a small community outside Houston, Texas with her husband, four children, a 125-pound lap dog, a very grumpy cockatiel and a cat that thinks she's queen.




Michelle writes adult and young adult Sci/Fi and urban fantasy romance.




I LOVE to hear from readers and other authors!




Here's how to find me:




Website: http://www.michelle-pickett.com/




Email: Michelle@Michelle-Pickett.com




Blog: www.Michelle-Pickett.com/blog




Facebook: www.Facebook.com/michellepickettauthor




Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/michelle_kp




Goodreads: http://goodreads.com/michelle-pickett




Trailer: http://youtu.be/dxLvVQ9s7u4




Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellepickett




Book: htttp://www.conciliumbooks.com




PODs: http://www.site.spencerhillpress.com/PODs.html





To Purchase:



Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Concilium-The-Series-ebook/dp/B008QWIC3G/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343678496&sr=1-3&keywords=concilium



MuseItUp Publishing: https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=537&category_id=232&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1







And Finally, the giveaway!



Blog Tour Give away:
1) Concilium E-Book
2) $10 Amazon Gift Card

Rafflecopter Giveaway Code:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

End of a Blogfest and Goals

Woo Hoo! Happy Friday, everyone!

It's the last day of the Buccaneer Blogfest marathon hosted by Sharon Bayliss and Courtney Young.

Today's post is about reflecting on this month-long experience and talk about where I go from here. So, this is the perfect opportunity to talk about my goals - from July, and for August.

First, reflection time.

A month-long blogfest is always tough - I've done a couple and it requires a lot of time and committment. Not much else gets done, really. But the benefits! I've met tons of cool people - writers like me - in all different phases of their careers; beginners, contracted but not yet published, and published authors.

I could have done better at visiting, of course, but it's an all-day event to get to everybody. I think I visited everyone - hard to tell because I skipped around a lot.

What I learned most about is social media. We're all doing it with our blogs, of course, but interacting on FaceBook is quicker and more informal. I had a few author friends on Facebook before the start of this blogfest, but now I have dozens. And I'm loving it so much. It's a fun and informal way to get to know everyone. And lots of notifications of awesome deals. I'm talking notices of FREE books and other FREE swag. It's so cool!

Not so cool is my understanding of Twitter, which I just started for this blogfest. I do all right with clicking the button and sharing a tweet and I managed to get it linked to my FaceBook page. Ah well, I'll get there.


Now for July results!Goal or No Goal? Write a synopsis of a novela idea I had during BuNo which involves some different sort of characters in a different sort of world. Intrigued? Good! Hmmm, does copying and pasting a section from my BuNo writing efforts count? No? Okay - No Goal. Complete 150 pages of final (hopefully) edits on Givin' Up The Ghost. Yes - and No. I did complete 150 pages of edits, but I'm thinking I need to go back again....No Goal? Paste together A Guilty Ghost Surprised. This is what I wrote during BuNoWriMo, but I zipped through the outline and ended up writing a bunch of separate scenes that now need to be added. Not a small job, as I have to now figure out where the buggers go! Yes I did this, but have yet to go through and make sure they are actually in the right order. But I'm calling this a GOAL!Read three books. Why yes, yes I did do this - definitively and without any qualifiers: Urchin King by Katharina Gerlach, On a Hot August Afternoon by Bridget Straub, and End of Days by Roland Yeomans. GOALPlatform build for my new blog. And yes, I did this as well, all month long. GOAL! Contact 50 followers from my old blog and invite them to re-follow me on my new blog. Um, sort of, hehe. I went through 50 names on my Follower list and retrieved email addresses - if there was one. I think I ended up with about 15 in the end. I emailed each one separately and invited them to follow me on my new blog. Didn't hear from any of them. Is that a No Goal? Visit 25 awesome blogs per week. Since I participated in a month-long blogfest, of course I reached this GOAL!So I've had some hits and misses *sigh*.

And now to setting August goals:

Work on final final edits of Givin' Up The GhostWork on scheduling blog tour for GUTG self-publish releaseWork on marketing plan for GUTGWork on posts for the blog tourWork on synopsis (for real this time) for BuNoWriMo idea, keeping in mind that 19th century ghostly madam's have no place in an MG novel:)Read 3 booksVisit 20 awesome blogs per weekIn my spare time *winks* work on 2nd draft of A Guilty Ghost SurprisedAnd I hope to be able to announce a partner in crime on my book release blog tour very soon!
How was your July? What are your goals for August?

Insecure Writers Support Group: Blah Blah Blah

Wow, has it been a month since my last Insecure Writer's Support Group post? Many thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for hosting!

I'm trying to think of something new that I'm insecure about, but really, it's just the same old stuff: Should I self-publish and is my novel good enough? I know, blah blah blah! 

Well, I've decided to self-publish. My final critique is due in the next couple of weeks and I'll be working on final edits during August and hopefully setting up a blog tour for a mid to late September release. *Yikes!*

So, of course, any advice is welcome. AND if you're interested in hosting me, posting about a cover reveal or the new book release, please let me know. If not.....I'll be stalking you.

That's about all I have for today, EXCEPT , that I'm hosting a giveaway today in celebration of the month-long awesomeness of the Buccaneer Blogfest. One of the giveaways is mine, and the other is sponsored by Curiosity Quills - lots of good stuff will be given away.

Oh, and since this is the IWSG post, I'm pretty insecure about whether or not the rafflecopter will work. Yep, rafflecopter virgin here. Moving on...

So I will have two posts today! Look for my second post either right before or after this one.

Hmmm, I can't help thinking what would happen if I scheduled them to both post at the same time...yeah, cuz I think about strange things like that...

And what are you up to on this fine hump day? 

Giveaways! Giveaways! Giveaways!

It's Wednesday of the final week of the Buccaneer Blogfest hosted by Sharon Bayliss and Courtney Young.

Today we are supposed to host a giveaway or participate in Curiosity Quills sponsored giveaway - or both.

Since I'm not prepared, I'll be giving away something really simple, but something we all know and love: A $10 online Amazon gift card. That way you can choose whatever book you want.

You have several options as you'll see below - it's pretty simple. The person with the most points wins! It ends on Friday and I'll notify the winner by Monday.
a Rafflecopter giveaway And - here's Curiosity Quills giveaway as well: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Social Media: Love It or Hate it?

It's the last week of the Buccaneer Blogfest and I've had a blast meeting everyone.

Many thanks to Sharon Bayliss and Courtney Young for hosting this month long get-together.


Free Photo From FlickrToday's topic is social media: Do you love it or hate it?

I don't want to bore you with all the pros and cons of social media. We all know what they are. We all know what a time-sucker it is.

I've read that social media is a must for authors trying to build their platform. I could, and have, spent all day going from blogging to Facebook and GoodReads and LinkedIn and YouTube. I've recently joined Twitter (but have yet to really figure it out) and Pinterest.

But social media is not the most important part of building your author platform. After all, your work has to be good in the first place for any of this media to work. You have to give your readers and followers a good product to begin with. You have to be interesting. And of course free stuff is always welcome. So in essence, social media is only a small part of building your platform.

And frankly, I'm not there yet. Sure, I have some faithful followers. I appreciate them/you so much! I love rubbing elbows with other writers and authors, and really, I take a lot of pride in it - sinful, I know. It's just that I never dreamed that I'd be in the same league. But why not? Most of us writing bloggers are on the same path, just different locations on the trail.

The reason I know all of you is due to social media.
I want you all to know how much I appreciate you for so many reasons.
Even after all the books about writing I've studied, I've learned the most about the craft from you, in bits and pieces, through following your blogs. Then of course there's the endless support, encouragement and friendship. I have friends all over the world! England, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Australia, South Africa, Mexico, India. That's right, I'm cosmopolitan. A world traveler. A citizen of the world.
And it's all due to knowing you through social media.
Yep, gotta love it!
WHAT'S YOUR OPINION OF SOCIAL MEDIA?