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!

 

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)_/¯