S.M. Bjarnson's Blog, page 6
June 28, 2014
Love Story: Hula, S.M. Bjarnson
Love Story-Hula
Fuji, the mountain of Hula covered most of the land in Japan. Hula was a dream to me, it was like a religion when you danced its way. Great and wondrous she would cloud over the people in japan. Leaving the world to Aw in her amazement to glaze the nation of Japan. Fuji is the place where the world seemed to be at peace it seemed to be calm and one with everything around it. Hula is that feeling when you wake up and you know and believe it will be a wonderful day. The feeling of hope. Hope, it lies in the movements of the dance. Day came and waved its sun beams unto my face. Today was a new and yesterday didn’t matter. I arose to the mirror where I found myself staring back. Black mid-length hair, brown eyes as almost black, Asian was feature that 1/4 of the had in genes. Smiled and walked away from the person I saw in the mirror, but did not remember I pulled on another grassed skirt and take a breath of cleansed air. Hula again today, Hula again tomorrow. I hula right, I hula left. I can hula all around. There's something about' my hula, that I love. It’s an amazing feeling that the world has forgotten."Let's go swim with the mermaids, Lakea". "Trip, come on the mermaids have gone away from the islands". "No they are still here waiting for the people to come back again, do you remember the story of the mermaids Lakea?” "How they would lead the sailors with their beautiful singing, their words sweet and humble". Trip takes a couple steps beyond her, he begins to sing a song; a mermaid song. "The cherry blossoms seem to be embraced with a fire, the sailors hum the mermaid song. As we dance around. The mermaids come and whisper in the cold ears of sailors, they fall into a deep spell of enchantment overboard. The mermaids sweep them under into their depths of underwater gardens. Sing oh sing that sweet toxic rhythm. Turn around, turn around, and see the secret melody. Hear its words, feel the beat. Seek its individuality. You knew once, you knew twice you saw it all across the day. There was a certain love that encircled me when I danced the hula. It took on a whole new meaning by love. I fell in love it was like a whole other meaning of my love hula. Dreams are meant to be dreams to make us believe in something greater than our own realities. When LOVE seeped into my heart, the world came to a slow. He saw me, he looked into my eyes and say my heart filling up with joy. Then he spoke so sweetly in his daring voice "I feel the same way, I always have since that day you danced the hula for me". He kissed my lips with such a precious kiss it was tender like just when the perfect ray of sun and you see your first love. It seemed that many times I glanced inside my locket of love and found that it echoed more than ever. I know pain too well. It comes and lingers around my heart. Mocking the temptations that are hidden in it. The love that is needed to be seen.
Photo Credit: https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS8N66Th5_epdoZ7Fzs8gRhjMQMk9ypgvXRaKnXg1vyRGCvDr14aA
June 27, 2014
June 25, 2014
Amazon Author Central Page – Your Own Promotional Billboard! Alexander von Ness
Amazon Author Central Page – Your Own Promotional Billboard!
In the era of self-publishing, there should be one thing on your mind at all times:
You are responsible for everything that happens to your career!
If you fail, it’s your fault; if you succeed, it is your glory! Indie authors don’t have it easy given that they don’t have someone watching their back, but this is also the reason why they HAVE to be up-to-date and shouldn’t miss out on any available chances for self-promotion. If you want to grow into a professional and highly reputable author, or if you already are one, be aware that your presence on Amazon is crucial. This could be your billboard to the world! There is one very powerful way to get the most from Amazon, and that is to create an Amazon Author Central Page of your own.
Amazon is probably the only platform which is treating the indie author the same way mainstream – published authors are treated when it comes to marketing and promotion. By taking advantage of theAuthor Central Amazon, Amazon allows potential clients to find out more about you and your life. Apart from your photo, they will be able to learn about other books you have written over the years. The main goal of the page is to allow visitors to see your whole working opus where you will be able to demonstrate your expertise. If you present yourself as an expert in your field, the customer will be more confident that the book they are about to purchase meets their criteria and specific needs.
What does an Amazon Author Central Page includeThe Author Central Amazon Page is very easy to set up and enables a lot of the marketing and promotional space that every author, indie or otherwise, needs. Your author page will include the following:
- Your photo- A brief biography of yourself- Your blog posts (if you own a blog, and as a professional author, you should have on)- Your bibliography (with contents for sale on Amazon)- A discussion board- Facebook, Twitter, and Email integration- Highlighted reviews of your book
If you want to appear to be a serious writer and you want to have a flawless reputation on this very powerful promotional page, make sure that your biography and bibliography is up to date and that your basic information is correct. Be very detail-oriented and be committed to excellence in everything that you do. Your biography has to be very descriptive and strong. Provide some interesting information about yourself, but don’t be too detailed! Use plain text only, with no formatting such as bold or italics.
Don’t include links. Be sure to say as much as possible in only a few sentences. You don’t want to bore your potential customer, you want to encourage him or her to read the entire page and see a lot of interesting material.
Choose a thoughtful photo of yourself, giving a sense of your personality. Don’t use silly headshots, only professional photos with a slight personal touch. A lot of people use photos of their children or pets, but please make sure not to do so here.
How to set up your Amazon Author Central PageSetting up your central page is very easy, so don’t worry about this being a difficult process. First of all, you do need to have an Amazon account. It also doesn’t matter if you have one as a consumer or a self-publisher as because both types are fine for signing up. However, you will have to confirm your identity, so be sure to sign in with the same name you have next to your published books. Visit the Author Central Amazon and log in while providing the necessary information to create a page.
After you have done that, you can go to the “Books” tab and add all of your published material on Amazon. After a confirmation, they will show up in the Bibliography section on your Author page.To add your profile photo and a brief biography, go to the “Profile” tab; the photo and biography will appear on each of your book’s Amazon product pages, just like on your author page. The “About the Author” section will include a link to your Author Central Amazon Page.
The “Sales” info tab provides information about how and where your books are selling. You can view BookScan sales data and graphs of your books, but only if you have added them to your Bibliography. The results will usually take a day or two to appear. BookScan provides mostly sales from outlets that choose to report to BookScan, which includes Amazon and larger bookseller retail chains, so it can provide a good idea of how things are going.
The “Customer Review” tab is here for you to see all Amazon reviews of your books in one place. This applies for listed books only.
On the home page, you can link to your blog. Once you have done that, the three most visited posts will be listed and linked in the “Most Recent Blog Posts” section of your Author Central Amazon Page. By doing this, more traffic will arrive to your blog, so please make sure that your blog contains topics that could be interesting to your target audience. If your topic selection isn’t similar to what you are offering in your books on Amazon, it might be better not to link it and instead considering opening an alternative blog. After you have decided to link your blog, you will have to provide the URL to your blog’s RSS feed.
(Here is a short “How-to” to establish that. Find an RSS Feed icon on your blog. It is a square, orange icon. Click on it to enter your blog’s RSS feed page. Copy the URL of the page and paste it into the RSS Feed area on your Author Central Amazon Page. If you can’t find the icon, then your RSS hasn’t been enabled. Enter your blog’s dashboard to enable it, and the icon should appear after that. Now continue as described previously.)
If you want to integrate your Facebook, Twitter, or email, you don’t need to do anything. It is automatically enabled.
After following these steps, you will have successfully created your own Amazon Author Central Page. This is a great starting point for every author who has started his or her career as a writer, but is also a valuable addition to all those who have already established their reputation. There really isn’t a way to describe how important it is to own such a powerful promotional profile.Not only will you be able to provide a lot of information about yourself and your work in one place, but you will be able to give a certain message to your target audience. Anyone who cares a great deal about his or her work should create a profile because, just like that, you can expect people to see you as a professional author. A very intelligent friend of mine, This is why every author needs to have an Author Central Amazon Page.Out of respect for all of the nights and days spent writing something you truly believe in!
http://www.nessgraphica.com/amazon-author-page-your-own-promotional-billboard/
In the era of self-publishing, there should be one thing on your mind at all times:
You are responsible for everything that happens to your career!
If you fail, it’s your fault; if you succeed, it is your glory! Indie authors don’t have it easy given that they don’t have someone watching their back, but this is also the reason why they HAVE to be up-to-date and shouldn’t miss out on any available chances for self-promotion. If you want to grow into a professional and highly reputable author, or if you already are one, be aware that your presence on Amazon is crucial. This could be your billboard to the world! There is one very powerful way to get the most from Amazon, and that is to create an Amazon Author Central Page of your own.Amazon is probably the only platform which is treating the indie author the same way mainstream – published authors are treated when it comes to marketing and promotion. By taking advantage of theAuthor Central Amazon, Amazon allows potential clients to find out more about you and your life. Apart from your photo, they will be able to learn about other books you have written over the years. The main goal of the page is to allow visitors to see your whole working opus where you will be able to demonstrate your expertise. If you present yourself as an expert in your field, the customer will be more confident that the book they are about to purchase meets their criteria and specific needs.
What does an Amazon Author Central Page includeThe Author Central Amazon Page is very easy to set up and enables a lot of the marketing and promotional space that every author, indie or otherwise, needs. Your author page will include the following:
- Your photo- A brief biography of yourself- Your blog posts (if you own a blog, and as a professional author, you should have on)- Your bibliography (with contents for sale on Amazon)- A discussion board- Facebook, Twitter, and Email integration- Highlighted reviews of your book
If you want to appear to be a serious writer and you want to have a flawless reputation on this very powerful promotional page, make sure that your biography and bibliography is up to date and that your basic information is correct. Be very detail-oriented and be committed to excellence in everything that you do. Your biography has to be very descriptive and strong. Provide some interesting information about yourself, but don’t be too detailed! Use plain text only, with no formatting such as bold or italics.
Don’t include links. Be sure to say as much as possible in only a few sentences. You don’t want to bore your potential customer, you want to encourage him or her to read the entire page and see a lot of interesting material.
Choose a thoughtful photo of yourself, giving a sense of your personality. Don’t use silly headshots, only professional photos with a slight personal touch. A lot of people use photos of their children or pets, but please make sure not to do so here.
How to set up your Amazon Author Central PageSetting up your central page is very easy, so don’t worry about this being a difficult process. First of all, you do need to have an Amazon account. It also doesn’t matter if you have one as a consumer or a self-publisher as because both types are fine for signing up. However, you will have to confirm your identity, so be sure to sign in with the same name you have next to your published books. Visit the Author Central Amazon and log in while providing the necessary information to create a page.
After you have done that, you can go to the “Books” tab and add all of your published material on Amazon. After a confirmation, they will show up in the Bibliography section on your Author page.To add your profile photo and a brief biography, go to the “Profile” tab; the photo and biography will appear on each of your book’s Amazon product pages, just like on your author page. The “About the Author” section will include a link to your Author Central Amazon Page.
The “Sales” info tab provides information about how and where your books are selling. You can view BookScan sales data and graphs of your books, but only if you have added them to your Bibliography. The results will usually take a day or two to appear. BookScan provides mostly sales from outlets that choose to report to BookScan, which includes Amazon and larger bookseller retail chains, so it can provide a good idea of how things are going.
The “Customer Review” tab is here for you to see all Amazon reviews of your books in one place. This applies for listed books only.
On the home page, you can link to your blog. Once you have done that, the three most visited posts will be listed and linked in the “Most Recent Blog Posts” section of your Author Central Amazon Page. By doing this, more traffic will arrive to your blog, so please make sure that your blog contains topics that could be interesting to your target audience. If your topic selection isn’t similar to what you are offering in your books on Amazon, it might be better not to link it and instead considering opening an alternative blog. After you have decided to link your blog, you will have to provide the URL to your blog’s RSS feed.
(Here is a short “How-to” to establish that. Find an RSS Feed icon on your blog. It is a square, orange icon. Click on it to enter your blog’s RSS feed page. Copy the URL of the page and paste it into the RSS Feed area on your Author Central Amazon Page. If you can’t find the icon, then your RSS hasn’t been enabled. Enter your blog’s dashboard to enable it, and the icon should appear after that. Now continue as described previously.)
If you want to integrate your Facebook, Twitter, or email, you don’t need to do anything. It is automatically enabled.
After following these steps, you will have successfully created your own Amazon Author Central Page. This is a great starting point for every author who has started his or her career as a writer, but is also a valuable addition to all those who have already established their reputation. There really isn’t a way to describe how important it is to own such a powerful promotional profile.Not only will you be able to provide a lot of information about yourself and your work in one place, but you will be able to give a certain message to your target audience. Anyone who cares a great deal about his or her work should create a profile because, just like that, you can expect people to see you as a professional author. A very intelligent friend of mine, This is why every author needs to have an Author Central Amazon Page.Out of respect for all of the nights and days spent writing something you truly believe in!
http://www.nessgraphica.com/amazon-author-page-your-own-promotional-billboard/
June 24, 2014
Introvert Awakening Part 4, S.M. Bjarnson
"Shall I mourn the falsified information of death or the truth of living a life worth the value of humanity? Do you ever find yourself awoken and there is an absence of a thought pattern? No wandering images of how your day must go, there is no backwards pointers of what has to be done today. My days begin and end this way. Thoughts that come to me are not my own, feelings dwindling up inside my heart and throat are not those from my persona, they are reflections of others versions of emotional throw up. That is how it feels to me, like people walk by and throw up their indecent lives all over my brand new white dress. Figuratively speaking of course. There are disadvantages to this skill/gift, the fluent language of music eludes the eardrums collecting tones in my brain waves." S.M.B
http://www.noupe.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/12hua.jpg
http://www.noupe.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/12hua.jpg
June 23, 2014
June 22, 2014
June 21, 2014
Sneak Peek: The Sacrificing Mother, S.M. Bjarnson
"There should always be two types of pregnancy tests. One, being for women who have established themselves in society or who are 30 years of age or older. The other one that is so apparently portrayed in my mind’s eye. Is for all those teenagers all those sweethearts running off to do the act they think will last forever. It doesn’t. So instead of the occasionally two lines or plus sign, for the youth of our nation there should be two replies for breaking the news: For NO it should state in all caps and in bold big blinking letters CONGRATS! As it shoots out confetti. If you happen to be as unlucky as I am, then you would read the equivalent to the overused acronym FML. These three letters do not blink or congratulate you, they stand tall and wide. Your future is carved into a plastic flamingo lawn ornament, instead of an honoree plaque for a college graduate."-The Sacrificing Mother, S.M. Bjarnson
(Still undecided about the cover)June 20, 2014
June 18, 2014
Finishing Your Story- L.E. Fitzpatrick
Finishing Your StoryMost writers will never finish a story to their satisfaction. There are always things that can be improved, chapters that can be added - or taken away for that matter. Some writers are tormented with the grand finale that their masterpieces stay forever as a WIP. Now that's not saying that the books are left teetering on that cliffhanger ending - usually the story is in place it just needs... well more work.
This is the important thing any budding author really needs to remember - when you first type "the end" you mean the end of draft one. When I last posted I was on draft four. But what do these stages even mean? Well to be helpful I can start by saying everyone is different. Some people will only do a couple of drafts, others could be rewriting for years. A lot depends on the story, what you want to do with it and how much of a perfectionist you are.
I'm a perfectionist but also a completest. I hate having things hovering over me so I will work like my life depends on it to get drafts finished promptly. Which explains the bags under my eyes and lack of social life.
The hardest draft is always the first. It can take the longest and usually, at least for me, is the most frustrating to finish. How you approach this draft is really up to you. Some people plan meticulously, others wing it. I do a mixture of both, but by the end any plans I have made have usually been discarded by the characters and I'm restructuring the story based on gut. I always have an end game though and I will always write this last. The rest is written as I'm inspired. And then it's rewritten. Chapter by chapter, two steps forward one step back. It's a familiar dance - not one I'm fond of but one I'm an expert in.
The second draft - my favorite - is taking your rough script and shaping it into something beautiful. Some writers can be more complete with this draft, but personally I like to use this as an opportunity to get things in order - take notes (because this is when you'll find if your plot actually makes sense) and put in imagery and stuff like that. I'm not smart enough to start a story with lots of clever clues and insights throughout the book. They all get added at this stage instead.
The third draft can be polishing - tidying up those tatty paragraphs and proofing. But this time for me it wasn't. For me this latest book was about consistency of authorial voice... yeah I know I sound like I know what I'm talking about don't I? My biggest problem is that I have an original first story - a story people seem to like and this story has a style. Sometimes I'm prone to waffling (can't you tell) and sometimes, in my most cringy moments I sound like someone who writes chick-lit. I have nothing against chick-lit, but that isn't my voice - I like to think I have more of a deep New Yorker voice (you know because I'm from Yorkshire living in Wales).
So during this draft I chopped the floral sections, deleted characters from scenes to make the dialogue run slicker and then headed on to draft four in the hope this would be it. Of course it wasn't because life just doesn't work that way, but finally we are on to draft five which will hopefully be the fifth nail in the perfect coffin. And hopefully then the betas will get a chance to get their hands dirty.
Whatever number it is your final draft should be a last once over. You shouldn't be chopping and changing chapters. This should be the final buff before the piece goes on display. What you're looking for is spelling errors, misuse of words, things that don't make sense. Not gaping plot holes!! And hey you are not going to pick everything up but when you read those final words "the end" in your gut you should know that this is it.
Getting to the grand finale as an indie is a very difficult step to make and sometimes you may never feel sure that you've actually made it. There is no one to slap you down and tell you to go back and try again... actually that's not true, there is - readers. But by the time readers are leaving you bad reviews you've already screwed up.
So are you there yet? Is this the end? Yes, you say. I've done it - I'm ready lets get published. NOT SO FAST. You only think you're ready. Now it's time to pass it over to the experts. Cue Beta Readers...
http://l-e-fitzpatrick.blogspot.com/2014/05/finishing-your-story.html
This is the important thing any budding author really needs to remember - when you first type "the end" you mean the end of draft one. When I last posted I was on draft four. But what do these stages even mean? Well to be helpful I can start by saying everyone is different. Some people will only do a couple of drafts, others could be rewriting for years. A lot depends on the story, what you want to do with it and how much of a perfectionist you are.
I'm a perfectionist but also a completest. I hate having things hovering over me so I will work like my life depends on it to get drafts finished promptly. Which explains the bags under my eyes and lack of social life.
The hardest draft is always the first. It can take the longest and usually, at least for me, is the most frustrating to finish. How you approach this draft is really up to you. Some people plan meticulously, others wing it. I do a mixture of both, but by the end any plans I have made have usually been discarded by the characters and I'm restructuring the story based on gut. I always have an end game though and I will always write this last. The rest is written as I'm inspired. And then it's rewritten. Chapter by chapter, two steps forward one step back. It's a familiar dance - not one I'm fond of but one I'm an expert in.
The second draft - my favorite - is taking your rough script and shaping it into something beautiful. Some writers can be more complete with this draft, but personally I like to use this as an opportunity to get things in order - take notes (because this is when you'll find if your plot actually makes sense) and put in imagery and stuff like that. I'm not smart enough to start a story with lots of clever clues and insights throughout the book. They all get added at this stage instead.
The third draft can be polishing - tidying up those tatty paragraphs and proofing. But this time for me it wasn't. For me this latest book was about consistency of authorial voice... yeah I know I sound like I know what I'm talking about don't I? My biggest problem is that I have an original first story - a story people seem to like and this story has a style. Sometimes I'm prone to waffling (can't you tell) and sometimes, in my most cringy moments I sound like someone who writes chick-lit. I have nothing against chick-lit, but that isn't my voice - I like to think I have more of a deep New Yorker voice (you know because I'm from Yorkshire living in Wales).
So during this draft I chopped the floral sections, deleted characters from scenes to make the dialogue run slicker and then headed on to draft four in the hope this would be it. Of course it wasn't because life just doesn't work that way, but finally we are on to draft five which will hopefully be the fifth nail in the perfect coffin. And hopefully then the betas will get a chance to get their hands dirty.
Whatever number it is your final draft should be a last once over. You shouldn't be chopping and changing chapters. This should be the final buff before the piece goes on display. What you're looking for is spelling errors, misuse of words, things that don't make sense. Not gaping plot holes!! And hey you are not going to pick everything up but when you read those final words "the end" in your gut you should know that this is it.
Getting to the grand finale as an indie is a very difficult step to make and sometimes you may never feel sure that you've actually made it. There is no one to slap you down and tell you to go back and try again... actually that's not true, there is - readers. But by the time readers are leaving you bad reviews you've already screwed up.So are you there yet? Is this the end? Yes, you say. I've done it - I'm ready lets get published. NOT SO FAST. You only think you're ready. Now it's time to pass it over to the experts. Cue Beta Readers...
http://l-e-fitzpatrick.blogspot.com/2014/05/finishing-your-story.html
June 17, 2014
Introvert Awakening Part 3, S.M. Bjarnson
"I try to find reason. I try to escape the clutches and handcuffs of performing for the mediocre of men. But there is a troubling silence I cannot evade and my visions take me home to a better place. A place I cannot achieve or remember how to find. In a swift movement the leaves on the branches flinch for attention. Flutters of the wind bring my eyesight to the reflection of the blue sky. Nature surrounds me and I want nothing more than to escape the definition of a paradise.
We were weak so weak. Too weak to survive but yet am the last one alive, leading a path I know not where it leads or where it began. All I see are footprints that do not belong to my size of feet. I somehow missed a step yet there is print perfectly placed as to keep my destination in perfect order. I’m lost amongst the twigs of territory. Slaves to the ideas of modern man. I came from a historical nation that led me to believe I was special, that somewhere deep in my bones I had a talent to share, a gift to perform." S.M.B.
http://lookatmyhappyrainbow.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Reflections_by_CapturerOfLife.jpeg
We were weak so weak. Too weak to survive but yet am the last one alive, leading a path I know not where it leads or where it began. All I see are footprints that do not belong to my size of feet. I somehow missed a step yet there is print perfectly placed as to keep my destination in perfect order. I’m lost amongst the twigs of territory. Slaves to the ideas of modern man. I came from a historical nation that led me to believe I was special, that somewhere deep in my bones I had a talent to share, a gift to perform." S.M.B.
http://lookatmyhappyrainbow.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Reflections_by_CapturerOfLife.jpeg
