We Have Pictures!

As some of you know, Herself, my esteemed editor, and I have been going round and round about what book I should write next. Of course, I could write anything I felt like and then hope that Ann, my esteemed agent, could sell it. But I keep hoping to tantalize Herself into offering me a contract. 

I want to write a kind of multi-generational story, set in Marshall County and beginning around the time of the Civil War --which was especially uncivil in these parts. 

Think Gone With the Wind    meets Cold Mountain.

Lots of romance, lots of lush scenery and period dialog, lots of fascinating characters.... I think it could be really good.

But in today's skittish publishing climate, They want something more, something that would really get people's attention. So...

What if I make some of the main characters vampires?
   

We could call it The Wind on Blood Mountain . . .

What day is it? Oh, yes, April 1.

Temporary Insanity

I recently had a moment of insanity.  I did something I normally wouldn't.

Now, I'm not one of those people who resents happy people...or hides under the covers on Valentine's Day or complains loudly that it's a day manufactured by the greeting card companies.

But, this Valentine's Day, I stepped out of character and did something a little crazy.

I've always had a boyfriend.  The same one, for most of middle school, high school and then we married. I've never really dated anyone else.  We got married young and have been together ever since.  But, then, a year and a half ago, I left him.  And now I live alone, with my two boys.

And this last V-Day (about a month ago), I gave in to temptation and signed up for an online dating site.

There, I said it.
It's out.
I'm hiding my head, I'm blushing. 

I got on the site, made a profile and looked around at available men...

and haven't been back since.


I'm not ready to date.
I don't need a man.
I NEED to fix myself first.
Get my life in order.
And then maybe I'll find time to date.

I'm not ready.

It was just a moment of temporary insanity.

Alas...

BLOGGER! 
You're breakin' my heart!
You're shakin' my confidence daily!

Oh, Blogger,
I'm down on my knees;
I'm beggin' you, please

LOAD MY PICTURES!


(Apologies to Simon amd Garfunkel and their "Cecelia")

Still not loading.

I've switched to Google Chrome per one suggestion and checked to see that I still have plenty of storage space and still this...nada.


Frustrating . . . 

The Science of Timing

Yesterday I participated in a HubSpot webinar hosted by Dan Zarrella, Social Media Scientist.
The topic was The Science of Timing.

24,000 people signed in and listened to learn the best times are to publish blog posts, send emails, or post updates on Twitter for marketing activities.

Here's what I learned:

Twitter

2-5pm ET is the most retweetable time of the day. 

Tweets are more likely to be read late in the day and later in the week.

Don't be afraid to tweet too much.  Some people have pretty heavy Twitter steams, and you won't show up if you don't tweet often.  An average of 22 tweets a day would be good.

It's OK to link as much as you want to other sites, but don't send out links to your own site too much.

Facebook

Don't crowd your content.

It's probably best to post every other day.

It's best to post in the morning hours, but weekends are the biggest times for sharing.

People are much more likely to share content on the weekend.

Email

People usually check their email in the morning and early afternoon.

Email gets more attention on the weekend.

It's a good idea to send email very early in the morning.

You can find your most retweetable time by going to TweetWhen

Blogs

People read blogs more in the morning and during the week.

Know your audience.

The best times to post are probably 10am-11am for page views.

The best time to post for comments is on the weekend.

The more you post, the better, the more views....more than once a day is great.

Find your sweet spot in all these areas. 
Experiment to find the best times for your audience
and then use that timing to make more money. 

Have you ever sat in on an online webinar?

On what subjects?

At a Loss

Yikes! Blogger is not loading my pictures!

 Is it just me (sniffing armpits) or is it a more general disruption in The Force?

Ah, well, you can always check out some older posts (below) or some of the many blogs in my sidebar. Or perhaps you have other things to do...

In any event, I'll be back tomorrow --  with pictures, I hope. Just now, words fail me.

My 5 Dream Jobs

When I was younger, I wanted to be Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.

And then as I grew older, I figured I either be a writer or a doctor.

Everyone now and then I get a wild hair and decide there's something I absolutely MUST do. 

Recently? I decided I wanted to train Annie to be a search and rescue dog so we could help out when children go missing or during tragedies...

And I really wanted a farm so I could grow fruit and vegetables and have lots of animals, including a dairy cow and chickens...

Which led me to ponder 5 jobs I'd enjoy:

1. Professional Traveler - I'd love to be paid to travel and write about it.

2. Island Caretaker - Pay me to live in your exotic island getaway

3. Book Reviewer - I'd love to read books all day and review them.

4. Electronic Gadget Reviewer - New technolgy, fun, fun, fun!

5. Best selling author - paid to live out your imagination on paper.

What about you?

What did you want to be?

What is your dream job?

One Was A Soldier

 I've just read an amazing book.  Julia Spencer-Fleming's One Was a Soldier is one of the most enthralling novels I've read in quite some time. And as most of you know, I perused about five hundred mysteries last year.

Spencer-Fleming's award-winning series, set in a small town in New York state tells the story of the tangled relationship between  Clare Fergusson, an Episcopal priest, and Russ Van Alstyne, the town's police chief.  One Was a Soldier, though the seventh in the series, could be a standalone, so seamlessly does Spencer-Fleming weave in the back story. 

I was particularly interested in this book because it deals with the long awaited marriage of the two main characters -- the same premise  as in my forthcoming Under the Skin.  It seems as though everything is set for happily ever after and then . . . complications ensue.

Yes, there's a mystery -- a well-plotted conundrum with a satisfying resolution -- but this book is so much more than a simple whodunnit. It's an finely rendered examination of the heart-breaking and timely topic of America's wounded warriors -- the men and women who have been and are still returning from active service, broken in body, mind, and spirit but afraid to ask for help.

And it's the deeply moving and quite passionate story of the love between Russ and Clare -- two flawed but ultimately honorable human beings.  And that's what kept me reading -- stopping only for dinner and abandoning all other intentions till I got to the end. 

Can you tell I love this book? Such real and likable characters, such wonderful, sensitive, intelligent writing! Highly, highly recommended.  

(See below on ordering a free ebook with an excerpt containing a surprisingly hot scene between a priest and a police chief in a rapidly moving vehicle.)

(You don't own an ebook reader? You can go to Amazon and download a free Kindle for your computer.)

One Was a Soldier is so good that I would suggest starting with it rather than going back and reading the series from the beginning. I suspect however, after reading it, you'll want more and be eager to know how it all began ...

The book's not on sale till April 12, though it's available for preorder now.  I asked Julia for an advance copy - and she has offered to send advance copies to 2  winners of  a drawing here on my blog. 

So if you'd like to be entered, just say so when you comment -- or send me an email (vicki_laneATmtnareaDOTnet).  I'll wait a few days before drawing two names. Check back on  April 3.  If you're a winner, I'll need your snail mail address.

And the winners are....Mamabug and Shirley! (Sounds like a sitcom.)  I'll be in touch!

If you're not a winner of this little drawing, there are some consolations below.

There is a 2.99 e -book of In The Bleak Midwinter (book 1 in the series) available.

There is a FREE e-book of excerpts, extra content and letters from the war zone, available at Amazon, B&N and Sony.  (This is where the hot scene in the truck is!)

And there's more about the books and the author at www.juliaspencerfleming.com.

Really, I think that a lot of you will thank me for this introduction, if you didn't already know this series.

Top 10 Twitter Trends of 2010

Did you know that Twitter turned 5 years old last week?
Happy Birthday, Twitter!

Do you use Twitter?
I do. 
Do you not understand why anyone would want to use Twitter?
This video is very illuminating for those who don't "get it."

25 billion Tweets were sent in 2010.  
I bet we'll be WAY over that for 2011. 
Especially since, according the Twitter Blog, the world now tweets 1 billion tweets per week!  

Want to see the top ten trends for last year?  Some I expected, some I didn't. 


10. Pulpo Paul - the Octopus who perdicted FIFA World Cup wins
9. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows - The final Harry Potter book
8. Justin Bieber - Teenage Canadian pop singer with a famus hairdo

7. Google Android - New Google Phone
6. Apple iPad - New Apple Product
5. Vuvuzela - a plastic horn used to make noise, especally at the FIFA World Cup

4. Haiti Earthquake - Catastrophic earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 in Haiti
3. Inception - A Leo DiCaprio movie about a world where technology exists to enter the human mind through dream invasion
2. FIFA World Cup - Football World Cup (soccer) won by Spain in 2010
1. Gulf Oil Spill - Deepwater Horizon oil drill spilled oil into the Gulf of Mexico for three months




I can already guess some of the top trends for this year:

Charlie Sheen
Libya
Japan Earthquake/Tsunami or Nurclear Crisis



What do you think?
Do you tweet?

Spring Blog Cleaning

Time to put, if not my house, at least my blog in order. The critters don't track in so there's no need to sweep but the lists of blogs over in the side bar needed some updating and reorganizing.

I've begun by putting the international blogs into one group. This is a cheap way to travel and I've added a few, including Marilyn (My Magpie Collection) and Joan (Sempiterna Me) in New Zealand, where the leaves are beginning to turn ...

And a special welcome to Desiree (Driftwood Ramblings), whose birthday it is, in South Africa!

Closer to home, I've added a collection of links called My Neck of the Woods --over there at the top. You can find out more about the place my fictional Marshall County is based on...

 

And even about the real life realtor who inspired Elizabeth's friend Sallie Kate!

Oh, I've fiddled and tidied-- the writing, publishing blogs are in one place, the food-related in another, the country/Appalachian in yet another. . .


I think it's time to emulate Miss Suzie and relax.

 

Texas Word Tangle on Facebook

Yep, Texas Word Tangle has a Facebook Page.

If you're interested, you can visit and "like" the page.

Then, when I update the blog, it will show up in your own Facebook feed.

Exciting, I know. (insert sarcasm here)

Do you Facebook?

Daily?

Weekly?

I have it on my iPhone, so it's super easy to visit daily.

I love being able to keep track of family and friends.

Silent Sunday in Spring

Lucky Ducks

Today Remy's baseball team had practice at the Towne Lake fields.
And I desperately wished I had my camera.

I did have my iPhone, so I snapped a few photos.








The Spring weather is beautiful in North Texas right now.
Sunny, windy, not too hot.








"Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath." -- actor Michael Caine

Silly Cat Games

Eddie seeks her here...

He seeks her there...

But he can't find Miss Susie Hutchins...

Anywhere.

Elizabeth Taylor- Cleopatra

My favorite thing Liz Taylor ever acted in has to be her role as Cleopatra. She is simply stunning.

DANBO!

There is just something about this little that I can't help but love. I think my favorite pictures of him are shot by Anton Tang. He has such and amazing eye, and his feel for micro photography is astounding. Very sensitive and intimate.

Danbo website

Danbo Flicker Group

Anton Tang's Diviant art page

Anton Tang's Blog

Steampunk Lingerie