Jacqui Murray's Blog, page 202

Take a Break for Humor

This has nothing to do with humor, but it might get your creativity going… Hilarious

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Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-fifth grade and creator of two technology training books for middle school. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter's journey from high school to United States Naval Academy midshipman. She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything and Technology in Education. Currently, she's working on a techno-thriller that should be ready this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

Filed under: humor Tagged: creativitiy, humor, writing

Book Review: Facebook for Business in 10 Minutes

Sams Teach Yourself Facebook for Business in 10 Minutes

by Bud Smith

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Note to Readers: This is part of my Amazon Vine Voice reviews.

I was very excited when Bud Smith's Facebook for Business in 10 Minutes (SAMS Teach Yourself, 2011) became available through my Amazon Vine gig. I've wanted to get my business Facebook account going and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do that while reviewing his book. I've been putting that task off because I expected it to take hours, but if I could really do it in ten minutes, all the better. So, book in hand, I sat down at my computer and started.

Smith begins with a solid introduction to Facebook and a nice offer to explore the online edition for FREE for 45 days as part of the purchase. I know a lot about Facebook–I have a personal page–so I skimmed the overview first chapter to get to Chapter 2–Setting Up a Business-Friendly Profile Page. Turns out this chapter was mostly about getting onto Facebook, though I did learn you can't have a business Facebook page (what used to be called a 'fan page' and is now simply called 'Facebook Page'. Who forgot to mention that was confusing when they made that decision?) without attaching it to a personal one. That explained a lot about my past FB set-up failures. I hurried onward and arrived at Lesson 3–Finding and Installing Apps.

Which is where I discovered two nasty habits of Smith's. First, he finds it difficult to stay focused on FB for business. He keeps wandering into the personal FB territory. For example, he starts his discussion on Apps with the personal page. I angrily explained to the chapter pages that this was supposed to be about business, but as I got into the book, I realized this was probably because FB for business doesn't exist without being the stepchild of a personal page. He even warned me–"Installing apps on your business fan page is a bit different and is covered in Lesson 7." That brings me to the second nasty habit: Smith introduces an idea and then says he'll cover the steps later. Same thing happened with Places. This jumping around takes half my ten minute allotment before I even get started.

And about that ten minutes. I guess you can sign up for a Facebook page in ten minutes, but each task takes much longer. Smith begins each with a thorough discussion, including how it relates to the personal FB account before even introducing the business FB steps. Maybe this is important because of the critical differences, but it ended up confusing me. My guess: readers who spent a lot of time setting up personal accounts will find this less confusing, but I'm just speculating. I only spent about an hour setting up my personal account. To be honest, each STEP in this book took about an hour. I found the descriptions not as thorough as I needed and a bit confusing. Adding apps , creating tabs and claiming my Place–I never did figure these out (though that could be me). I think I got on the wrong page, mixed up between the personal mother page and which of my three business fan pages I needed to be on to accomplish the task.

My conclusion: Facebook is a good business tool, but still awkward for that purpose. I get lots of visitors to my business blogs and websites from FB so I know it works. I wish they'd allow businesses to sign up as account holders. That's not Smith's fault. He tried to write a book to maneuver these minefields. For that, I applaud him. Despite the many ten minute increments (more like hours) I spent getting a rudimentary page established, if not for Bud Smith, I wouldn't have my business FB page at all.

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Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-fifth grade and creator of two technology training books for middle school. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter's journey from high school to United States Naval Academy midshipman.  She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything and Technology in Education. Currently, she's working on a techno-thriller that should be ready this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

Filed under: book reviews, business, marketing Tagged: facebook, marketing, sales, writers resources

Tech Tip for Writers #23: I Deleted a File By Accident

[image error] As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I'll share one of those with you. They're always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: I deleted a file! I need it back! What do I do?

A. Here's what you do:

find the recycle bin on your desktop
right-click on it and select 'restore'

If it's there, restore it. It'll end up back where it was before you deleted it.

If you deleted it from your flash drive, it's gone. There are programs for undeleting from external drives, but they cost money. I'll cover those later.

Questions you want answered? Leave a comment here and I'll answer it within the next thirty days.

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Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-fifth grade and creator of two technology training books for middle school. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter's journey from high school to United States Naval Academy midshipman. She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything and Technology in Education. Currently, she's working on a techno-thriller that should be ready this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

 

Filed under: tech tips for writers Tagged: deleted a file, tech tips, tips, writers

Writers Tips #81: 11 Tips on Writing Thrillers

Great tips for soon-to-be great writers

When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can't quite put your finger on it, but you know you've done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. These writer's tips will come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments.

These come from James Frey's excellent guide to writing a d*** good thriller. If you can't get your hands on a copy of the book, at least own these:

Commit yourself to creating strong conflicts in every line of every scene
Have fresh, snappy dialogue and not a single line of conversation
Write quickly when drafting.
Have production quotas of at least a thousand words every day. three-four thousand is better
Have no bland, colorless characters
Trick your readers
Dump your characters into terrible trouble from page one
Have powerful story questions at all times
Have a hook at the end of each chapter
Be fresh in your writing
Keep the clock ticking and the excitement mounting

Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-fifth grade and creator of two technology training books for middle school. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter's journey from high school to United States Naval Academy midshipman.  She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything and Technology in Education. Currently, she's working on a techno-thriller that should be ready this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

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Filed under: thrillers, writers tips, writing Tagged: thrillers, writers tips

What's a Versatile Blogger Award

Laura Stanfill has shared the Versatile Blogger Award with me. I've gotten to know Laura as part of the online writing community. Her insights into successful writing are unique and fascinating. For example, she recently posted an article titled The Barbie Jeep Method of First Drafts. Who could not read that?

Thanks, Laura. I am honored to receive this award.

Here's what I'm supposed to do:

Thank the awarder and link back to him/her
Share seven things about myself
Pass this award to 15 blogs I've recently discovered

Here are seven things about me.

I just found out my son will deploy with the 160th Signal Brigade to Kuwait or Afghanistan. Further details in spring.
I thought my yellow lab, Casey, would miss my black lab, Stoney, when she died. Casey got over it in a nanoday. Me, I still miss her.
When will Notre Dame get back to their glory days? I can't watch them for fear they'll play lousy and depress me.
I'm as busy now that my kids are adults as I was when they were home, but the busy's different
I  never weigh myself anymore. I used to worry about that piece of my appearance. Now, if my clothes fit, I'm fine.
I like being alone. I rarely go out to parties, dinners.
My husband is my best friend. I wouldn't be the same without him.

It's time to pass the award along to 15 bloggers. Some are new discoveries, but many I consider cyber-friends. I have no doubt if we knew each other in the physical world, we'd hang out.

Cheri Laser–her blog chronicles her publishing adventure from start to publication. You won't want to miss it.

Cat at Cafe Girl Chronicles–She has an international life most of us only dream of and a new book that shares all the fascinating details. I learn a lot about the world through her eyes

Nicky's BioScientific–Nicky is a trained veterinarian and freelance medical writer/editor. She blogs about biology and science and food and volunteering and how to be a better person. Though I've never met Nicky in person, I feel like I know her from our back-and-forth-almost-daily-comments.

Ramblin' Rick's What's on my PC–some of the best tech tips I've read on everything from hardware to recommended websites. He has a great resource section, too, to feed our inner geek

Julia and her Tales from the Head's Office–Julia is a retired headmaster and an inveterate traveler. It strikes me a lot of my favorite bloggers write about the world (if not about the craft of writing)

Elizabeth of Myrth and Happiness–She has the most upbeat take on life. It is contagious. I can always count on her posts and comments to pick me up on those black-and-blue days

Ollin of Courage 2 Create–Ollin shares himself in every blog he writes. Though he is an accomplished writer, he is also a good person to chat with. His business is helping writers improve and I have no doubt he can do that well.

Molly Greene of Worth Becoming–Molly shares great writing hints while seeming to be like all us mid-listers. I suspect she's an NYT best-seller in disguise…

Sana Johnson-Quijada MD at A Friend to Yourself--so much loving advice. How's she do it?

The folks at XKCD Comics because they always–I mean always–make me laugh

EdTEch Sandy–Sandy's a knowledgeable tech educator who shares info and resources–and insights–through her Twitter feed and her blog. I stop by often to stay up-to-date

Yuvi Zalkow–I recently discovered Yuvi, but have already benefited from knowing him. His take on writing is refreshing, hilarious and allows us all to be ourselves–insufficient that may be. His byline–Welcome to the desperate website of a desperate writer. Stick around. I am lonely–says it all

Nicole Basaraba and her Uni-verse-City blog. She writes about travel as well as book reviews. I think she'd like Cat (see Cafe Girl Chronicles above)–they both know so much more than me about the world.

One Cool Site–TimeThief writes with passion about how to blog. She covers everything beginning bloggers need to know and midlist bloggers need to remember. We've had many a spirited discussion in the comment section of her posts.

There's my list. I hope you-all check them out. Thanks again to Laura for the award!

Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-fifth grade and creator of two technology training books for middle school. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter's journey from high school to United States Naval Academy midshipman.  She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything and Technology in Education. Currently, she's working on a techno-thriller that should be ready this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

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Filed under: bloggers resources, blogs Tagged: blogging, resources, versatile blogger

Does Group Marketing Work? Here's my story.

Network with fellow writers; build a community

I decided to join an organized marketing effort for my writing. It's like the hops you see all over the place, but with its own twist. Here's how I did:

Week 1

I had a bit of a rocky start to my #Campaign. First, I put myself in the wrong group–adult fiction. Woah–not me. I'm way too conservative. Rachael fixed that for me by adding me to the #thriller list. Then, I didn't do my Linky link correctly–dunno what I did there. So, again I emailed Rachael for assistance and she corrected the link for me. Already, I'm sure I never want to host one of these campaigns. She has over 450 writers participating. What if all of them had two problems the first week. She'd be up forever fixing and answering emails.

Looks like all is good now, so I'm busily contacting my fellow #campaigners in my group, dropping in on their blogs to say hi and developing my community.

Week 2

I've commented on everyone's blog in my group. Only 2-3 people responded. I'm disappointed. As a rule, I reply to every comment and drop in on their blogs to chat. I don't see myself so much as the 'teacher preacher', sharing my wisdom to the masses, not getting my hands into the real world communities, as part of the masses. We are all sharing what we know to hope the rising tide lifts all boats.

I guess some people don't follow that path.

There are also weekly challenges I could participate in, but haven't yet. There was a flash fiction–not me. Writing fast! So not me. And an 'Introduce yourself'. That one I should have done.

Week 3

I'm starting to realize that you only get out of this campaign what you put into it. Gee, where have I heard that before. So far, I've visited all of the blogs in my group about once a week–twice each. I had imagined that people would likewise find my blog, follow it, or at least check in weekly with my posts in an effort to support a fellow writer. I see other bloggers who continuously have 10-20 comments on each blog from the linked blogs they are involved with. That's where I thought this would go.

Not so, at least not yet.

Rach does offer opportunities to do flsh fiction or short responses to fun ideas she posts on the Yahoo groups. I haven't done those because they don't interest me. I do so much writing every week–20 blog posts, 3-5 monthly columns, responded to my loyal fans, working my non-fic and developing my fic mss–that I don't have time for unfocused writing. Maybe to succeed in this campaign, you have to participate there.

I'm not ready to give up. I'll let you know next week.

Week 4, maybe 5

I haven't done much, nor have I gotten much. As a result, there isn't much of an uptick in my visitors or subscribers. It's become clear that success in this program requires a lot of work. Unfortunately, I am too busy writing, editing, working, to put that kind of time into it. I had hoped to find a like-minded group of writers, where we'd routinely visit each other's blogs, add comments, develop a community that would last. I wanted to create on a larger scale what I have with a few bloggers whose posts I never miss, always participate in.

Oh well.  Maybe another time.

Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-fifth grade and creator of two technology training books for middle school. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter's journey from high school to United States Naval Academy midshipman.  She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything and Technology in Education. Currently, she's working on a techno-thriller that should be ready this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

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Filed under: bloggers resources, marketing, writers resources Tagged: campaign, networking, social networks [image error]

Tech Tip for Writers #22: Quick Exit from 97% of Programs

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I'll share one of those with you. They're always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: My child has a program on the computer and I can't figure out how to get out of it. There's no File-exit, no menu. What do I do.

A: Try the old standby from Windows earliest days–Alt F4. It works on almost all programs. I use it on the kindergarten programs in my lab all the time.

Questions you want answered? Leave a comment here and I'll answer it within the next thirty days.

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Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-fifth grade and creator of two technology training books for middle school. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter's journey from high school to United States Naval Academy midshipman. She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything and Technology in Education. Currently, she's working on a techno-thriller that should be ready this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

Filed under: tech tips for writers, writers tips Tagged: tech tips, writers tips

Writers Tips #80: Strunk and White's Reminders

Great tips for soon-to-be great writers

When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can't quite put your finger on it, but you know you've done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. These writer's tips will come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments.

These are from Strunk and White's classic, Elements of Style. In their little 105-page book–still considered the gold standard in writing rules–they include what they call 'reminders'. These are tips essential to good writing, easy to follow, but sometimes forgotten in the flush of prose. Here they are:

Place yourself in the background
Write in a way that comes naturally
Work from a suitable design
Write with nouns and verbs
Revise and rewrite
Do not overwrite
Do not overstate
Avoid the use of qualifiers
Do not affect a breezy manner
Use orthodox spelling
Do not explain too much
Do not construct awkward adverbs
Make sure the reader knows who is speaking
Avoid fancy words
Do not use dialect unless your ear is good
Be clear
Do not inject opinion
Use figures of speech sparingly
Do not take shortcuts at the cost of clarity
Avoid foreign languages
Prefer the standard to the offbeat

I confess, I use #17 and #18 too often, and have a large section in my first thriller that tramples all over #20. How about you?

Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-fifth grade and creator of two technology training books for middle school. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter's journey from high school to United States Naval Academy midshipman.  She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything and Technology in Education. Currently, she's working on a techno-thriller that should be ready this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

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Filed under: Uncategorized, writers resources, writers tips, writing Tagged: elements of style, writers resources, writers tips

How to Hook Agents–SCWC Shares Idea–II

This latest iteration of So. California Writers Conference again exceeded my expectations. It was run by knowledgeable people, taught by caring presenters and peopled with energetic writers. In short, it was three days of a positive, motivating

a good, personal, well-rounded experience

environment that rekindled my writing fires.

Let me reiterate something I said in my last post: I become more and more convinced that most agents and publishers miss the big point of why writers want to be published. It's not to 'hit it big' although we'll take that. It's often to make a living doing what we love. We don't need to get rich at it; we just need to get by.

Here are more of my take-aways:

agents will not continue reading if they find typos. Edit your work
agents read the first sentence. If they like it, they read the first paragraph. If they like it they read the first page. And so on. Place your hook early.
narrative hook must answer as many of who-what-when-where in one sentence as possible
hook the reader by posing a question they want the answer to
create a compelling event the reader wants to find out about
create an interesting character the reader wants to get to know better
present your ideas in an unusual fashion so readers will want to see more about how you think
narrative thrust makes readers want to turn the page
risk points are where you risk losing your reader. The first one is also the hook

Since I've finished my book and am working on sending it to agents, I was particularly interested in this process. Here are some hints on that:

query must provide compelling prose that makes the agent want to read more
get your characters in early in the pitch
get the hook in early
don't tell the agent what to feel about your writing
don't say your story is humorous if you don't make the agent laugh in the query
make it clear who the main character is so the agent can follow
'people problems' are always interesting
a query isn't a plot synopsis; it's a sales pitch with a one-sentence plot summary
don't tell; show–as you would in your novel
three-paragraph query: plot, about you; how it relates to the agent
don't pub your picture on your self-pub book because you aren't well-known so it won't sell books
Book marks are the #1 marketing tool.

Finally, here are a few off-the-cuff observations:

I love my iPad. It was easy to use, light-weight, and the battery lasted an entire day of note-taking. Plus, I could take notes on the 'notes' app, toggle over to a drawing app in a second and replicate the drawing done by the presenter. Try doing that on a laptop!
Interestingly, most people took hand-written notes (unlike a tech conference I attended in June). I was one of the few with an iPad or computer. This might be the foundation for opinions that writers didn't need to be digital yet. It's human nature to go with our comfort level
Google docs doesn't work when the conference venue doesn't have free wifi.
Publishers aren't interested in mid-list writers
I am really tired of hearing how busy and tired agents are. Attention: Writers work day jobs–then go home and raise a family and write a novel. That's busy.

Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-fifth grade and creator of two technology training books for middle school. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter's journey from high school to United States Naval Academy midshipman.  She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything and Technology in Education. Currently, she's working on a techno-thriller that should be ready this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

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Filed under: business, writing Tagged: hooks, queries, scwc, self-pub

Self-Pub or Not? What SCWC Writers Conference Said–I

This latest iteration of So. California Writers Conference again exceeded my expectations. It was run by knowledgeable people, taught by caring presenters and peopled with energetic writers. In short, it was three days of a positive, motivating

a good, personal, well-rounded experience

environment that rekindled my writing fires.

I attended many seminars, met with agents and editors to assist me in my writing, met a few i**** I'll be happy to forget (one particular person: you know who you are), and learned a lot on topics like queries, characterization, marketing my books, managing my time, and more. Here are some of my take-aways:

self-pub is no longer a dirty word. There were many examples of writers who have dumped their traditional publisher in favor of going it themselves. Why? Control over their material. Ability to get it to market faster. Stability in their lives (not at the whim of an editor/publisher, a trend). Money, too, but not the primary motivator. This extends well beyond JA Konrath and Amanda Hocking
self-pub is still a dirty word with agents. Konrath and Hocking are not the tip of the iceberg as self-pub authors home but the entire thing. Agents are 'gatekeepers', tasked with protecting readers from lousy books (they said this, I swear. I just took notes).
publishing for traditional publishers is a business decision, not personal. (Hunh? And they think it isn't for the writer? BTW, doesn't this prove that if a self-pub author is successful, publishers will chase them?)
share your self-pub creds, ie., reads on Scribd, in query letters (this surprised me, but I love it because I have huge reader numbers on Scribd)
Mixed opinion on whether writers should be electronically active (Cheri–weigh in on this. Your Writers Digest conference said writers should do as much blogging, etc as possible). Some adamantly felt we should. Others were ambivalent. Is this reflective of the speaker's comfort level with the digital world?
Writing trumps creds (absolutely)
Midlist writing is dead. Agents/publishers want the next blockbuster, not a book that does fine, but doesn't break out.
self-pub authors: don't be afraid to give everything away for free. It spreads the word (the speaker–Scott Seigler–meant dole it out in bite-size pieces. Patient readers will get it all for free. Eager readers will be hooked and buy your book so they don't have to wait. It works for him.)

Let me pause here to say that most agents and publishers missed the big point of why writers want to be published. It's not to 'hit it big' although we'll take that. It's often to make a living doing what we love. We don't need to get rich at it; we just need to get by.

OK. That was from Friday. Check my next post for more

Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-fifth grade and creator of two technology training books for middle school. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter's journey from high school to United States Naval Academy midshipman.  She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything and Technology in Education. Currently, she's working on a techno-thriller that should be ready this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

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Filed under: writers resources, writing Tagged: midlist writers, self-pub, writers conference, writers resources