Poem - Tough Times

Thought I'd re-post some of my old work while trying to update all my networking sites. Here's a poem written a few years ago!

Poem - Tough Times 

(March 13, 2009)

Though there are tough times here and near

There still shines a brightness within

When times get tough and hopelessness sets in

Remember the strength lies within

To conquer, overcome, and come out above

For without this test

You’d never feel pain

You couldn't truly appreciate the joy

You wouldn't be alive

So take that baby step forward

For soon it will be miles

And know you are never alone

And as a special way of giving back, not just the advertising of all the wonderful blogs under my blogger friends link, but I thought I'd link a blog I've read that day, or previous days, to feature to drive up others' traffic as well. I want to help them just as much as they help me when I read what they post!

So today's featurette will be to the absolutely adorable and wonderful Word Nerd whom I adore SO SO much and her post - 50 Things I Know at 50 You have GOT to read that list. Such a great one for everyone to read... and remember.


Tootles!! 
Lots of warm hugs and love, free from me to you! :)
x<3x<3

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Questions of the Day and Information on their return.

Just a really quick blog for you guys... just not a short one.

This is to let you know that yes, Questions of the Day are STILL set to start after the first of the year. Yes, along with Awakened: The Beginning being available for purchase on the Kindle! Yay!! And fshewies...

Questions of the Day will start posting the first week of the new year of 2012 (yay, woooohoooooo right?!)
Where's the apppplllaaauuuuseeee????
K, thought so.

I plan on taking over the world , and dominating the online world with my Questions posting them on every service that people who may want to participate are on . I've been holding back on posting them all over but frankly, I'm sick of it. Tired of holding myself back for anyone as I'm done with it all.

SO.

I will be posting the Questions everywhere I am/can, which means the sites that I'm on, even if I'm not active on them. You may answer wherever you wish, but I will enable FB comments along with Blogger comments on my site and the blogs I publish so that you can use FB to answer on my blog. The FB comments will be posted along the same line as the Blogger ones. Not the system in place now where you have to click on each tab. I think it will be easier, and a lot better way of allowing conversation to flow between anyone who comments and anyone who participates. Right now, you have to click each tab to see each one, and the Twitter tab is useless because it will only show comments made within the past four days. Maybe, if (a big if) the conversation starts on Twitter more then I will bring it back, but the way it stands, it's always empty and how many of us (I don't even like to and it's my site! lol) click on all the extra tabs to comment?

When you post a comment using FB, it will post to your wall (if you allow it, which I would hope you do so that others may participate in the Questions of the Day).  I'm not going to lie and say it's only about people participating in the Questions, obviously it'd be about driving traffic to my site as well. That being to help drive traffic to my writing, which would drive traffic to the books I have up for sale. I'd be lying if I didn't mention that as part of the reason and I'm not going to do that to people.

So it is a combination of getting people to my site, helping get others to participate in the Questions of the Day, and hopefully more people will get to enjoy my writing; which is really behind everything I do: helping others to read and enjoy my work in the same way one loves to read any book, newspaper, or written item! Offering an escape from the big bad world for a few. :)

I'm making a lot of changes to this site, as well as the design, opening up blogs for behind-the-scenes for any book I get published, getting my AWAKENED: THE BEGINNING up on Smashwords and Lulu perhaps too. Also, my own life I'm doing a lot of changes in: cleaning out old junk, redesigning my bedroom, my own attitude, and much, much more. I'm doing a total and complete overhaul of every aspect of my life, my sites, my everything and anything so bear with me as there will be a lot of upcoming changes happening surrounding me in the month of January AND 2012!

(sidenote: as I write this gremlins are destroying my room... already helping me with the redecorating aren't they sweet?)

And if curious, the new theme for everything will be: elegance, grace, manners, and bringing back the "lady." Cheesy, but whatevs. My language however, as you may tell, much does not change in that way. lol

(pause to go chase down gremlins and bite their little legs off for eating newspaper...)

Where was I?

Oh yeah QOTD's...

So they will be posted EVERYWHERE (be prepared world for I'm taking over!!! ahem...) and you may answer wherever you feel is best for YOU. However, on my site WILL be the comment system for Facebook (you can easily use hotmail, yahoo, and I think AOL as well on it, if you don't want use FB) and the comments (if allowed) will post to your Facebook wall, in turn bringing more into the conversation. When one comment has been posted to the Facebook comment system, it will STAY on YOUR Facebook wall, so you don't actually have to go back to my site I believe. I'm not sure if it will show up via mobile however. I tried, and it didn't work, but it did on the mobile if I used "web version" so I think it depends on the phone and how you access my site. So don't quote me on all that.

(pause to take a gremlin off Sabrina's face which is annoying her and making her grrooowwwrrrroooowwwooooowwrrrr... very distracting... gremlin removed... continuing on...)

Where was I?

Something about comment however you want on the QOTD's and wherever they're posted. I'm going to make it simple and copy and paste this note onto all the sites too (try to) so that you can just read it via wherever you're at for now.

They will be posted first thing in the morning, but it won't be a scheduled time. Say my morning-ish, which means anywhere from 6am-10am. I'll try for around 8 or 9 AM PST everyday, but I will have to do it manually so it depends on when I can get on the computer, which is tough at times with my life.

(pause to deal with whiny gremlins...)

What else, what else... oh! If I post a blog that day, the Questions will be located at the bottom of it. That way I'm not posting tons of tiny blogs posts, and tons of posts in general, they will be pretty stream-lined... hopefully. Otherwise my whole blog listing gets a little long. I'll be making a Table of Contents page too so that if you click on it--in the top bar--you'll be able to easily scroll down to the tag "DOTD" or "QOTD" ("Question of the Day" or "Discussion of the Day") and find all of them listed easily. I have to first fix all the tags on my posts or everything will get linked funky right now, which will take time, but that too, I'm going to be working on. I'm just trying to get everything in "usability" order right now, then will come details. I have to get my book up on Smashwords and Lulu and then behind-the-scenes extras before that, before I can get to all the rest of the details.

I think that's it. Remember, (I'll list it here on Monday or so) that you can find my book via Kindle: AWAKENED: THE BEGINNING starting January 1st, 2012!! Look it up and please remember to leave a comment. Or criticism (yikes!) too. So far I'm keeping it on the low end to drive sales. It will probably stay that way untillllll February, so be sure to get your copy while you can! Anyone who'd been editing it... yeah, I pretty much changed a LOT of the book from what you'd had. lol

Tootles!!
xoxoxo
<3

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E-book/Digital book formatting basics tips and tricks

E-book formatting tips for all my lovelies who've been wanting some help and what I've been reading on all the sites. Information for those getting into it, and if you have done it, feel free to add to what I've added, or let me know of things that have changed, whatnot. This is all things I've learned right now, but can change.


Info:


1) Don't have more than five hard returns (clicking the enter button) between paragraphs, headings, what have you. It ends up reading wrong on the e-reader and you'll end up with blank pages.


2) Indent using Microsoft's formatting, not the Tab button. If you don't know how, go into your paragraph formatting and you'll see the Indents and Spacing, then Indentation, then in the drop-down menu, you'll see "Special" and "First Line" and choose .5 or less. .25 (have to manually type it in probably like I did) is better, unless you want a large looking gap between the side edge and the indented words.


3) Insert page break after the end of your paragraph (insert one hard return after the last line of your paragraph, and one before your Heading for the chapter is best, that way if the e-book formatting gets screwy and your pages do run together, you'll be left with a gap between the end of Chapter One and say Chapter Two), where you'll move to the next page [or chapter]. Don't use only hard returns or your pages will run into each other.


4) Indent special at .25 is what Smashwords wants, and most do best at, but can go up to .50. Don't go over.


5) Use easy on the eyes font (stick with  Times New Roman, Garamond or Arial {Arial being a sans-serif tends to be easier on the eyes when read on digital means}) and set it at 10pt, 12pt (best), but don't exceed 14 pt. Exceeding 14 will make your readers eyes have to refocus on the words which won't make them happy (may lose readership) and most of the time, the font will be forced smaller anyway by some vendors.


6) Edit, Edit, Edit the piece (unless using someone with editing experience, copy editors and the like) until you don't think anyone can do better. Look at it with fresh eyes: leave it and come back to it; edit one more time and make sure it is the best you can do because when you hit publish, you will be faced with all critique and when working with e-books, the grammar and spelling errors do stand out to everyone, not just friends and the world is critical.


7) Don't think that when you format it for one vender (Amazon, B&N, etc) that another will want the exact same formatting. Go through their guidelines as one person's formatting isn't anothers and the e-readers will change what it looks like.


8) Don't worry too much--for the Kindle particularly--about exact font type. Your font will be changed to what the Kindle chooses. They have their own particular font and you'll give yourself a severe headache trying to figure out what the heck you're doing wrong with the converter... I should know. Been there done that. haha


9) Line spacing should be at single break or up to 1.15, don't make it bigger just to fill pages because then the e-reader again, changes it, and you'll end up with a bigger looking book then people will want to touch. Make sure your space between paragraphs is zero. It will show up better on the reader than a big paragraph break. Don't use a hard return between paragraphs if you're doing most fiction style books.


10) Don't worry about page numbers when formatting for an e-book. Remember this guideline: less is more. Simpler is better. The eyes will see different on the e-reader.


11) Table of Contents is not absolutely necessary, but is recommended. Just remember... there will always be that one person who now has no interest in the book because they don't have it and would like to be able to skip ahead to chapter twenty and go back to one, and it's much easier to use the TOC than figuring out what page it was since pages are always a little different on e-readers (see number 10). So just take the time to put one in yourself and don't worry about it later. It's really simple to do, but if you can't figure it out, I found that this video here - Microsoft Word 2007 - Generating a Table of Contents cloudDVD Tutorial helped me the most. I was having a terrible time figuring it out until I watched this video.


ETA: Step 20 in the Smashwords Style Guide talks about manually doing your TOC so that there aren't any funkies happening when your e-book is converted. I was having issues so I decided to go that route. It IS more time-consuming, but you have the option to link your chapter headings back up to the TOC in which case, it provides your readers a more advanced way of playing around with your book. For me, I like that idea so I'm actually changing over to that method. It's not as complicated as you may think. Just read each step in the Style Guide and take your time. 


12) Bookmark your TOC, cover, etc. Guidelines for making sure that your converter program is using them (especially if using MobiPocket) can be found on this site - Cj's Easy as Pie Kindle Tutorials - Add Guide Items to Link Table of Contents and Go to Beginning Best one I found anywhere.


13) When making a Table of Contents, don't forget to give people something extra at the back (like a message thanking them for reading! Read Smashwords Guide on how to do it Step 22), which you can incorporate into your TOC. Smashwords Style Guide is a wonderful help for all that and has some great information on everything. Basic steps are adding a "contact me" option and include info at the back of the book, which you then click on a "Header" format and label it, then go over to your TOC and click update, then it will automatically add a bookmark to the front of the book in your TOC where readers can just click on it and be taken to your info.


14) Text Alignment. The two best chosen are Justified and Left alignment. Now personally I think Justified reads much better on the e-reader and I like books that are Justified and indented properly. But Kindle will do it automatically for you anyway, and other places, like Smashwords (the style guide) recommends using "left" alignment. That one seems to be more a personal choice, but stick with one or the either.


15) If writing a book of non-fiction, use the block method of writing, and not the indented paragraphs. I don't worry about that since I'm not, but they say it's better format. In which case you will want to use space between paragraphs, but only for non-fiction. Read the - Smashwords Style Guide for more information on it. Step 7 gives the paragraph information.


Now I know a LOT of this may be confusing so feel free to ask me anything you're confused over! And if I find out something is wrong, or has changed, I'll try and come back and update this. :D




Tootles!

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Some really adorable ideas!

From here - http://mrg.bz/BsegVh

Okay, so I got my daily dose of Jenny on the Spot this afternoon while I ate (yes... I read while I eat) and if you haven't read her, you MUST!

This is the blog post from today - Socio and Enviro-minded Gift-giving. Which led me to this one about Leg Warmers! How freaking cute are they? I'm so trying them. As a girl who has an extreme amount of "I is COLD" moments, I can fully appreciate the snuggly goodness of leg-warmers inside meh boots.

Which by the way, if you don't know?
I LOVES.

Another blog of note that you must, must, must (that's a lot of musts because you what? MUST) check out is Home Stories A to Z and  the post from today... well, yesterday, but I just read it today, isssss (drumroll here) this one - Chocolate Covered Christmas Cake Balls {cake ball}.

I'm getting that.

Look at those possibilities! Instant brownie bites?

You can read the comment at the bottom I left, but the possibilities are endless for making goodness. Maybe you can make cornbread balls,
muffin balls,
chocolate brownie balls...

Lots of stuff. So we'll stop there.

Off to work on my book. I'm still on for the first of the year, with publishing (on Kindle, then Smashwords and perhaps Lulu) AWAKENED: THE BEGINNING. I'm halfway done and giving myself headaches trying to finish it BEFORE Christmas. I hope I can. Then I'm taking a few days break to enjoy the holidays and publishing it, then making the page so people can access behind the scenes goodies from purchasing the book. Oh! And getting the cover done for it too.

Can't forget the best part!

And one last thing too!

This site will be getting a brand-spanking-new look come the new year! And lots of other goodies! :D

Tootles!
xoxo

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My dear fellow bloggers and readers I've found a prize!

From - http://mrg.bz/xqZicj - morguefile

So I'm not entirely sure how I found this site, but I just entered the gates of Utopia and got a glimpse!

[insert angel song here]

Okay, so technically I'm a total book-crazed girl who loves to read so to MOI that is my version of Utopia. Endless books I can read, I just have to offer up a review as well!

http://booksneeze.com/

the site.
a.k.a. Utopia

If you haven't heard of it, let me explain a bit.
You're a blogger and you like to read.
Check.
You send an application (moi did) and they approve or not.
Check.
You sign up to read a book and they send you a copy, you read, you review, and post it on your blog.
Check check check.
You know, if I get approved and all.
[crosses fingers and wishes reallllllllly hard]

That's it!
How cool is that?!

Applause. Oh no, I'm applausing myself.

Whether or not I get approved, I am letting you know about it because I think that is an absolutely wonderful way of getting books to read and review if you're a blogger. I'm personally going to try and review more of the books Kindle has been bad about stealing my money and giving to me, okay technically I'm well aware of the stealing, and double technically it's not stealing since I'm BUYING said books (details), but either way, I have more books loaded on my phone to read from Kindle then I would care to admit.

Some I went...
why again did I buy this?
Because I could!!!
And it's a BOOOOOKKKKKK to read.
Following?
0.o
<--book crazed girl
a.k.a.
...
nerd
cute one so you know... I can get away with it.

Tootles!
xoxo

P.s. I just love the name of it too. Book... SNEEEZE. hehe Ahem.

...

:D

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Tell me your ideas

So I've been thinking about this for a while and wanted to get your opinion on it finally.

I was thinking about the way that other authors will tend to make fan pages, and blogs, just for their books (or series) as a way for fans to interact more with them, and the like.

So I was wondering YOUR opinions on doing just that for my books as well

BUT

Instead of just having it a fan page, the thing I would do was take it one step further. I would include "lost diaries" or "deleted scenes (lost pages)" much in the same way that movies now have a behind-the-scenes ability with their DVD's where you can explore and watch other parts of the movies being made.

Now obviously the blogs/fan pages would end up with the similar ideas of updates on the upcoming releases, deals, etc., however, I'd take it one step further and make it so that people who purchased the book and were fans, would have the ability to go there to the sites and read actual lost entries from the books characters. Even diary entries that the characters write, or letters to other characters, which you may not read about, or see, in the books, but you can on their OWN personal site! Bringing them to life even more so for the people who enjoy reading up on them, or helping them stick around in ways that the books can't.

What do you think?


Any other ideas/suggestions, feel free to offer some.


xoxo

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I can't take it anymore!!!

So. Yeah.

I'm tired of being dark brown.
Really, I'm not that dark. I keep choosing colors that pretty much look just like I was born with them and this one is no different.

Thanks to the lovely Jo (Her Blogies) who advised me to use the "L'oreal Dark Brown (Natural)" as opposed to the L'oreal Dark Chocolate Brown (Warmer) as I was (because I wanted to erase my natural reddish tendencies and really go BROWN, not red) I actually got a more dark brown.

The one I used "L'oreal Dark Brown (Natural)"

And then I used WEN . No offense to Chaz Dean cause I loves him and he's too adorable but... it washed the color out so I'm left with more of a Dark Chocolate Brown (as in red highlights and caramel are showing up more than dark brown). Oh boy oh boy.

More of what it turned out to be NOW. After messing with the Wen. "L'oreal Dark Chocolate Brown (Warmer)"

Is it because I did anything wrong? Oh no, not at all. I just LITERALLY watched the brown run down the drain the day I used the Wen, which made me sad. Still love you Chaz! And the products as they're GREAT for the dogs hair. hehe 

The color I'd used previous to this one was - the above. Loreal Dark Auburn. It turned out pretty good, but I like the Dark Brown Soft Mahogany color I'd used from Garnier even more previous. lol Yes, I've been playing with colors. This is a video I made while having the Dark Auburn color in my hair.

As you can tell, looks good! But... I'm not an "auburn" girl. At least not the dark one. Too something for me. Don't know what, but nah. I'd gotten loads of compliments from the Dark Soft Mahogany I'd used though.

But...

I was born a REDHEAD.

'nuff said.

But I'll keep saiding... 

It's true. I don't feel myself in browns. 

THIS is what I am talking about.

Now THIS is a gorgeous color and I LOVE it. I've just never been brave enough to try it.

I was too scared to go this bright

until now...

I mean why not play? 

I LOVE to play. Don't care that I'm above 30. I love to play and will always play.

Boo to you if you don't want me to.

I'm bubbles after all!

I'll always look 16-21 and always will I be playful. 

She started all this. Even though that's "technically" not red. It's a burgundy, plum, ruby. But I still love her.

I saw the ad for something in the paper, talking about the show Sharon is in, The Talk, and I mourned my red hair 

[pause to mourn for a sec]

So... drumroll please. 

I'm going back to RED. 

Boom. 

Can't help it. I feel like hiding as a dark brown haired person.

Not. even. kidding.

I am too LIVELY to be dark brown. 

To untamed and WILD!

Too vivacious!

Grooowwwr.

Not to mention the Irish blood screams for RED HAIR... as I've got the pale skin, freckles and naturally red-ness to my hair to prove it. Red always wins out with my hair colors and it BARELY fades out. Look at the box above and the video after. That was months after it'd been done and it still held a lot of the colors.

:D 

You wanna know who I am? 

I was born a redhead.

'Nuff said.

Loreal INTESE dark red ;)

Stay tuned! 

Okay and if you want get all technical I WAS going to get Colorsilk Dark Red, but on the box it said Medium Red color, not really a DARK red, and hey, it's winter. 

And double technically you could say I'm a chicken and I chickened out of too bright for now. 

I'm staying dark and working my way up people, working my way up.

Not to mention the whole "colorsilk" was a meh. I like me some L'oreal. 

Garnier I lost a chunk of hair. 

A CHUNK people. 

Yeah. No. 

But I'm still sticking with box dyes. Easy + less time-consuming to mix and do = I can do! 

Otherwise I'd never get my hair colored. 

My fun time people. My hair = my showcase. lol

My hair is extremely healthy thanks to this new Miracle in 10 product I've been using so it don't look like I even have been coloring my hair. It's healthier now thanks to L'oreal than anything. Love. Them. 

Short and all over, but I've been wanting to get something up for a week and haven't, so I'm doing so now. 

xoxo

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