South Jersey Writers Conference Media and Mayhem!

Was YOUR November busy? 

Ditto, in no small part thanks to the South Jersey Writers Conference that was November 7&10. This 2 day conference is the inspiration that keeps on, well, inspiring thanks to the wealth of photos, videos, and media captured by Yours Truly!

To those who didn't want to be photographed and were reluctant to be on video, I am so, so glad we have your words of wisdom and author stories now saved for posterity! 

 

But enough grandstanding! Here is a complete rundown of the videos and playlists from the South Jersey Writers Conference on my Youtube Channel, and dual coverage can also be found at HorrorAddicts.net.


Networking Night speaker Ilene Schneider

Brainstorming 101 Workshop

Authorship 101 Workshop

NaNoWriMo Community speaker K.A. Magrowski Part 1 and Part 2

Paranormal and Horror Author Panel Parts 1-5 Playlist

Fantasy and Speculative Fiction Panel Parts 1-5 Playlist


You can also follow along with more happenings from the South Jersey Women Authors or visit the South Jersey Writers Conference on Facebook for MOAR!

 (Meta...)

In case you haven't heard yet, we're also taking the Conference theme one step further, as Horror Addicts.net is hosting a Free Online Writers Conference this February! If you're interested in participating, visit the HOW (get it?) forum. Register early and join the Pre-Conference area or submit your workshop!

Keeping it simple, right? http://horroraddictswriters.freeforums.net/



And lastly, my article on Military Records Research is feature in the latest All Veterans issue of Search Magazine. Hip, hip huzzah!

Horror Addicts.net Round Up and Beyond!

Happy Halloween one and all!!


For those looking to revisit my Halloween DIY Craft series at Horror Addicts.net - you know this November when you are supposed to be writing for NaNoWriMo! - here is the complete run down:

DIY Stuffed Pumpkins Video
How to Make a Pumpkin Cat House
Creepy Cloches 
Tea Stained Labels and Spooky Bottles
How Not to Make a Spooky Spell Book

I was also able to take in a Batty for Bats visit by the Rancocas Nature Center at the Monroe Library, and you can find my write up of the event on Horror Addicts.net as well.  Everyone is all up in the spooky events for October but they forget how the rest of us morose folks remain so 365 days a year. Now that things have somewhat quieted down, I'm hoping to do some scary Pine Barrens reporting, but we'll see. 

I enjoy doing audio, video, and new types of media as a companion to my writing work. The key is to not let all the fun extras or bells and whistles over take the "real" writing job. 


Which means we can't forget about the big South Jersey Writers Conference! 

Sign Up ASAP with our Online Registration Form:
https://goo.gl/forms/OI7e16s1dlDKjsYL2


Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/2166228133640112/

Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/southjerseywritersconference


This has been a tremendous undertaking expanding the Conference to multiple days and venues, but our local author community, including the South Jersey Writers Group and South Jersey Women Authors, is ripe and eager for area opportunities to hone writing skills, network, and learn from other authors. I enjoy working with authors who are a step above me, gaining insight from their experiences, so I am looking forward to all the speakers and panelists at the Conference and I hope to see YOU there!


For those taking part in NaNoWriMo, you can also join us at South Jersey NaNo. I don't officially sign up as November is truly the worst time to try and rush the writing journey, but I enjoy the extra motivation and write ins. There were times in my youth when I would take November and December off from writing, it was too busy and I needed the time away from writing in order to want it more. Now, I just want more time to write!

 

Crafts, Crafts, and More Crafts!

So I'm supposed to be a writer, right? Above all, the things writers are supposed to do is write. 

This month, however, I'm crafting, yes crafting, and it has been quite a boon to stretch my creative muscles in a different way.

Like an athlete who cross trains in a different sport, this October at Horror Addicts.net, I've done a series on Halloween DIY Crafts that are affordable and recyclable. I'm a cheap pack rat writer, but maybe there are crafters out there who can benefit from the ideas that came out well and the crafts that almost didn't turn out so great. 


Here's a List thus far of where you can find my Articles, Step by Step pictures, and How to Videos:

How to Make a Pumpkin Cat House (That your cat ultimately probably won't like but whatevs...)

How to Make Stuffed Pumpkins (That's Puffed Stumpkins according to my on camera flub)

Tea Stained Labels and Spooky Bottles (with Shakespearean quotes because I'm a dweeb like that)

And if you can imagine, there's more to come! Follow my Kbatz tag at HorrorAddicts.net or join our Facebook Community to share your thoughts. 


Do please also note that HorrorAddicts.net is a ten year old podcast and publishing brand by Horror Addicts, For Horror Addicts. There is a new upstart company going by HorrorAddictsTV soliciting for pay on Patreon and everywhere else. It is absolutely irritating to see our Amazon anthology links and Itunes podcasts intermingled in a search with these obnoxious swindles.

I was frustrated for an entire 24 hours until I put all this bonus energy back into some creepy crafts. It's Halloween season and I have a job to do. I can't waste my time worrying about shit people who obviously didn't google to see if the name is in use. At least there's a certain solace in knowing that not researching is the wrong way to upstart yourself.

Fortunately, my mother gave me a creepy cat doll that she thought was cute. It won't stop smiling at me. You can see him in every picture, can't you?

 

Festive Fall Appearances!

October tis the season for Horror Authors, amirite?! 

Saturday October 13 I am jumping back into the talking shop foray at the Indie Authors Day, 11 a.m. at the Heggan Library in Sewell. 

Yes that is tomorrow. Yes I realize I didn't blog about it until now. But who really reads a blog for the latest these days? Get with the social media, I've been tweeting and posting about this all over the place! If there is a real world event, and no one posts about it on social media, did that event really happen?

And now here is my obligatory picture:

If you follow my social media, you will also notice the hullabaloo everywhere about my November event. The Mount Holly Conference is now The South Jersey Writers Conference. New Name! New Venue! Even More Writing Inspiration! Our Dates are still the same with chances to Mingle November 7 in addition to an entire Conference Saturday November 10 and a Dinner Reception, however our venues are now in Berlin. 

Is it short notice to change a conference a month a way? Yes. Did I accomplish planning in a day what our old venue complicated for over a month? Also yes. The folks in Mt. Holly were great to help us start the conference, but we had a feeling it was time to leave the nest and expand, so we did. 

That is one of the biggest most important things about being an author - going with your gut. I could have delayed and risked a time with winter weather or played it safe with a sub par event, but the time was now! When you are a writer, you have to decide if you are going to write right now, sign on with that agent asap, or accept that publisher's contract. There is no time to twaddle. 

That's all my free nuggets for today. If you want more from even bigger and better and more fancy authors than me, See You at the Conference! RSVP: facebook.com/groups/southjerseywritersconference/

GASP - Sometimes I Forget to Blog!

Hello All!

It's going to be a busy Spring between book fairs, podcasts, and getting good and dirty in the garden - “I'll be planting soon....” a la Sophia Petrillo.

Between our upcoming Mount Holly Book Fair April 29, HorrorAddicts.net delectables, ten year anniversary hi jinks at I Think, Therefore I Review, and you know, life, sometimes a writer just forgets to blog. 

 (Because every fricking thing you do has to come with visual media or its trash right? Word.) 

Shameless plugs aside, there are those the increasingly turbulent and wish I didn't have to use it Facebook dramas and the murky navigation of the crowded tidewaters on Twitter. You're either a noise maker, consumer commentor, or a constant content maker. It's all self promotion at its finest aka marketing. Authors must do it. You can't not do it when every publisher wants to see your brand, every magazine expects retweets, and ever link needs a #hashtag. It's become standard, normal, spitting in the internet wind insanity. Who has time for any long form click bait when we do all the little unnecessary necessaries 24/7?

In trying to meet my latest April deadlines, I realized it was time to check on my own blog, as a stagnant post from a few months ago ( We fudge and front for everyone too when it has actually been six months!) would be viewed quite negatively by literary peers, publishers, agents, or anyone you want to find you. Even if that post proves you are on the book tour circuit, active in freelance, and involved with your writerly peers.

For writers trying to make it in this book business, it isn't enough that you are here with blogs and social media, easily found with contact information for when you want them to notice your actual writing. You have to be instant, the latest, rising with your #amwriting – which I still don't know if it is meant to be 'I am writing' or 'A.M. Writing' but whatevs – before posting a picture of your go to coffee and literary lunch on Facebook, which has to be shared on each of your book pages, your profile, all the book groups, and tagged with all your writerly friends who will totally **get** the struggle. It was all probably conveniently shared from Instagram, too.

Maybe the trending topics, food photos, challenges, or contests lead to a great inspirational nuggets and your next blog post – guilty as charged I suppose – but all the social media chasing, promotion, and forgetting to blog, pinterest, Google +, and who the heck knows what else only leads me back to one thing every single time:

When in the heck are writers supposed to actually write? Amirite?!

Oops, I can't end there, every post has to have all the big links, right?! So Be sure to

SEE me at the Mount Holly Book Fair April 29!

HEAR me during the latest HorrorAddicts.net podcast season!

READ me at I Think, Therefore I Review, or someday whenever I publish some fiction again, whenever the heck that me be.

Toodle Loo until my next two times a day post – which translates to eight months in writer time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯