SUMMER IS THE PERFECT TIME TO BEGIN AGAIN

It's the perfect time to drag out that manuscript you have been working on for years, or months, or weeks.

It's also the perfect time to look at how things may have changed in that novel that you started on. 

Speaking to Author Austin Camacho recently, he had been working on a novel for a couple of years and pulled it out since he was now retired and is a full time author.

First, congratulations and secondly I asked him how it was being a full time author.

He said that while he enjoyed working on his latest Hannibal novel, he found that he had to ; hold on to your computer, delete almost half of what he wrote because it was no longer relevant to today's world.

See when you begin that novel; you have to make sure to go back, no matter how much you loved it when you first wrote it, it may not be relevant in the time you are working on now.

When you first started that novel, pagers where the in thing. Now; even doctors use their phones as a paging system. So that delete key becomes your best friend. 

I know it is hard to see those words disappear from the page. The same words that took you almost three months to write just four chapters are gone within 10 seconds. 

You may even shed a tear but remember, when you get over the demise of your precious words; the words that come back will be so much better.

So, the summer is a great time to look at that novel again and tweak, delete or continue but whatever you do; make sure that you are writing the best book possible. 

Social Media Mistakes You Want to Avoid

In the age of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many other social media outlets, you don't want to become known as 'that' person.

You know who that is. It is the person that uses ALL CAPS whenever someone says something they don't like. They are the people who use the forbidden four letter words. They are the people who call you names when you express an opinion.

Yes, they are called "those people" to the rest of us who follow all the rules.

Here are five things you should know before you log into your account today, tonight or tomorrow.

Number 1: Don't lash out.
It's hard to deal with criticism from others but if you don't want people's opinion, than don't put it out there.

Number 2: Don't buy followers/fans.
The more people that 'follow' you or 'like' you the better, right? No! What gives you an edge, is the people that 'click' your content, not the number of people you have on your page that never click a thing you post.

Number 3: Don't create fake comments.
Never comment on your own posts. Create 'call-to-action'  For example: "Like this post if you agree" or ask questions that entice people to respond.

Number 4: Don't be Mrs. and Mr. Spam-a-lot.
We all know them. They are the people that we see post something 15 times in a row. The same thing! over and over and over. Don't be one of them.

Number 5: Don't plagiarize.
Stealing content is a sure way to make 'social media" enemies. Give credit where credit is due.

Like I am about to do.

These tips are courtesy of +VerticalResponse and I think they are the best thing all of us can use, especically us authors.

Remember this; the simple things that we do on social media will translate into our names being known for good or evil.

Let's hope that everyone that reads this post, takes at least one tip and uses it everyday. For those of you that do all of those tips; thank you.

If you have more tips, feel free to share them here.

Friendships via social media

Sometimes in our lives we come across people who become our friends and we have no clue as to how they became that way.

I have many friends that I have met due to our similarities or our work environment or by just being an author. I also have many friends on social media. Friends that 'friended' me or 'liked' my page or 'connected' on the more professional sites but I call them my friends.

One day those friends, for whatever reason may stop commenting on your blogs, or your FB 'status' or your 'comment' but you don't think much of it and you may forget all about them. But not me. I remember every person that has ever posted a comment on my page and one woman in particular has stuck with me. Her name is +Sandra Humphrey and she became my 'friend' on LinkedIn. We belonged to almost the same groups and we 'connected' via the blog posting group.

Every mornning we exchanged a 'good morning' email to each other because we shared one thing in common. She reached out to me when she saw me join the group and even bought my novel. Every day was the same thing...a good morning email and then at least three or four emails throughout the day as we talked about grandchildren and her children's books. Then one day it happened, no email. Hey, we all get busy but I figured I'd see one before noon. Then noon came and no email! and then a whole day went by and no email!

I logged into 'our' group and tried to find her and the strange thing was, she wasn't there. What was going on? I then got a notification that there was a fire and that Sandra Humphrey and her husband had been killed. I burst into tears. I knew it had to be a mistake, but as I tried to search for something that would make that horrible news go away, all I found was a picture of her burned to the ground home and the picture of her signing her books with a big brown teddy bear sitting next to her. That was on November 23, 2012. Our 'community' was shocked and saddened. She and her husband were the love of their community and although I never met her in person, I felt a true sense of loss.

It has taken me six months to finish this post because every time I thought about it, I would cry and now although I am misty eyed, I know that she wants 'our' group to continue to show support to each other and to continue to do what we love; which is to write books that inspire, and help children believe in themselves. For all of the authors that knew Sandra...count yourself fortunate that you knew such a great person; I know I do.

The power of...

The power of the social media.

People are using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and many other social media outlets to get the 'word' out.

Using social media can lead to arrests in such cases like the Boston Bombers or to raise money with sites such as GoFund Me.

In any case, make sure that when you use social media, that you use it responsibly.

Facebook had a video posted of a woman being beheaded and when people complained about it, their answer was. "This video did not meet the criteria of graphic violence". Really? What is more graphic than a woman having her head cut off while she is alive.

Now, the video of the man whipping his daughters with a cable cord for dancing inappropriately; was taken down IMMEDIATELY...but a video of a woman getting her head cut off WASNT...what is wrong with this picture.

Did this woman not deserve the same level of respect that those two teenagers did..I ask you...where does social media's responsiblity begin and end?

The power of social media is such that if it is violent or graphic they have to 'determine' if it is 'too graphic'.

News outlets have an obligation to 'warn their audience' of graphic content. Why doesn't facebook have this same obligation?

The power of social media...use it responsibly