This Social Networking Thing - Blogging

What I'm reading: Uncertain Magic, by Laura Kinsale (print)
Slow Hands, by Leslie Kelly (digital)

Thanks to Jeffrey for his great post on finding ideas yesterday.

I've given my take on Facebook and Twitter, so I figured a post about blogging might be next in line. But this time, I'd rather know what you want, like, and don't like. I blog because it's like chatting with friends, sharing information (and maybe the former schoolteacher in me comes out), and learning from others.

What's in a Good Blog? – first my preferences, and my goals for this blog.

Readability: Simple enough fonts, not a lot of bells and whistles, and for me, that means no dark background with white text. My eyes can't read that.

Reliability: I have my list of stops on my blog hops, and if there's nothing new, I'm not likely to check back until my next trip. If you're going to blog, you need to commit to a schedule, even if it's only once or twice a week. I have posts 5 days a week, one of which is a guest slot, and one a "Field Trip" (and I'm still waiting for more pictures!)

This Social Networking Thing - Twitter

Thanks, Joselyn. I didn't accumulate many bridesmaid dresses, but I never wore them again. When I got married, since I had only 1 attendant, I let her 'recycle' any of the dresses she'd already paid for. Couldn't see making her pay for another one, since she didn't have to coordinate with anyone else. As for reusing--both my daughters wore my wedding dress, with minor modifications.

And, to continue my Social Networking impressions. Today it's Twitter – and tomorrow as well, because this got too long. Kind of ironic considering Twitter is designed for short! I'm much more of a Twitter newbie than I am on Facebook, although I consider myself a novice at both places.

I recall meeting an aspiring writer at a conference, telling me how fantastic Twitter was. He'd accumulated 17,000 followers, he said, and he'd tweet, and they'd retweet, until he was sure tens of thousands of people were hanging on his every word. He was convinced that each and every one of these followers was anxiously awaiting the publications of his book, so that if he did sell, he had a huge audience ready to buy.

resisted Twitter a lot longer than Facebook. I'd observed people seemingly obsessed with reporting their every move, and frankly, I found it a head-scratcher. Who could possibly care if I was going grocery shopping, or if I had oatmeal for breakfast.

But, when I found my kids, and even the Hubster, had set up Twitter accounts, I figured I'd give it a try.

This Social Networking Thing - Facebook

What I'm reading: Catch a Mate, by Gena Showalter

I started this blog in July of 2006, and have put up 1048 posts (this makes 1049, I guess). I did it because my publisher recommended it. Then everyone said I had to have a Facebook page, and recently, I succumbed to Twitter. I figured I might as well share what I like and don't like about these sites, starting today with Facebook.
What's my take? The following is purely personal. Things I like, things I've learned, and some of my pet peeves. And what I consider a negative might be someone else's positive, so take my comments with that salty cliché. Today, I'll look at Facebook.

Does Your Blog Roll?

What I'm reading: Straight From the Hip, by Susan Mallery.

I recently hooked up with a group of authors working on promotion/visibility, and (as I am wont to do) assumed that if I knew how to do something, especially something technical, everyone else would. However, a lot of these authors are from the world of print, and slipping into the digital realm is new to them. Since I got a late start into writing, and I've written for several e-publishers, I've been learning this from the get-go.

Sharing sites and posts is a great way for readers to find you, and the sidebar options on Blogger allow lots of options (which they refer to as "Gadgets")

Since blogging has become almost a requirement of any publishing endeavor, and thinking that maybe there are a few of you out there who haven't played with all the features of blogging, I'm using today's post to show a step by step of how to create a Blog Roll if you're using Blogger/Blogspot as your site.

Recognition

What I'm reading: A Knight's Temptation, by Catherine Kean

Many thanks to Elizabeth Spann Craig and her suggestions for using Twitter. And to all the people who popped in from her blog. I was checking the site statistics for the referral URLs and found a good number of visitors came from her place. I also discovered a significant number of people referred by Stumbleupon. That was a new one. Now I'm wondering if that's yet another networking site time suck. And how I ended up over there. What I didn't see was a lot of referrals from twitter. I'm still on the fence, but at least now I know there are ways to filter things. And I can keep on wishing that all those folks who feed their tweets to Facebook wouldn't. And I see I've picked up a few more followers. Welcome, and thanks for joining Terry's Place.



I was going to discuss my editing process, and celebrate an interview in a print magazine, Orange Appeal, but I felt that with everything that's been going on in the world, it was more important to take the time to recognize those who have served, and continue to serve our country. Please come back tomorrow, when things will be back to as "usual" as they get around here.

What is a Friend?

What I'm reading: Sworn to Silence, by Linda Castillo

First, my news. Yesterday, my Five Star release, WHEN DANGER CALLS was a featured read at Barbara Vey's Publisher's Weekly blog.

I'm still working on my short story, with a goal of a complete first draft by Monday. I'm not as far along as I'd hoped, but endings scare the heck out of me. I have too much fun with the writing, and can never seem to wrap things up effectively the first time around. Or the second. As I was told when I started writing, I have a beginning, a middle, and more middle.


Okay, and I watched a little too much Wimbledon. But I've thrown in the next plot twist, and have to figure out how to have "the end" hit at the right word count.

But none of this is related to the topic of today's post, unless you compare watching tennis to another time suck, Social Networking, which is the topic of today's post.

Keep Reading...

Back in May, I blogged about Looking at the New Old Days, and included some comic strips about Social Networking Sites.

The influence of these phenomena seem to be growing exponentially. And will Dictionary.com have to revise it's definition of "friend" which has 5 definitions as a noun, and one as a verb, which it says is rare usage, and really means befriend?

Do I play? A little. I have sites at a lot of the networks. One I haven't yet succumbed to is Twitter (and there's now a whole new definition of "tweet", which has yet to hit the dictionary).

I check in to my Facebook page a few times a day. I notice a few people have dozens and dozens of updates that are fed through their Twitter accounts. Trust me, I'm not THAT interested. And even more importantly, I'M not that interesting. I think Brian Crane says it very well in his Pickles comic strip


Nor am I that interesting. Friends, Followers, whatever. I have to agree with Wiley Miller in the June 30th Non Sequitur comic strip.



When we're lucky enough to sell our house, I'm pretty sure none of those hundreds of friends I have on my social network pages are going to be helping us move.

Yes, I know there's not a lot of "meat" in today's post. I was going to talk about the differences between suspense and thrillers, but I'm saving that for another time. Please come back tomorrow for the conclusion of Detective Hussey's Exhumation chapter.