A Writer’s Early Thanksgiving Thankfulness by Wendy Nelson Tokunaga

Why am I craving a juicy turkey wing right about now? I guess it’s because Thanksgiving should be tomorrow. But it’s late this year, landing on November 28 (just in case you need a reminder to get your stuffing in order). Yet that doesn’t mean I can’t be thinking about the little things I’m thankful for in my writer’s life.

Word Games – I don’t know about you, but my writing seems to improve when I’ve spent time playing word games like Scrabble and Jumble. And I seem to unscramble Jumbles quicker and attain higher Scrabble scores if I’ve been especially busy writing. These are robust workouts for my brain and exercise that I actually enjoy doing.

Social Networks – Writing is a solitary profession, but there’s no excuse these days not to connect with other writers via Facebook or Twitter or whatever. And, if you keep your addiction under control, you can limit these interactions to times when they’re most convenient. These replace the old workplace water cooler, but it’s much easier to use them on your own terms and participate just when you feel the need to.

Google – I don’t know what writers did before Google—I guess they spent long hours at the library (and that can still come in handy at times, of course). But how great that with a few keystrokes I can check meanings and synonyms of words on the fly, specific spellings (was Lassie’s best friend Timmie or Timmy?) and trivia (what span of years was The Donny and Marie Show on?) that can add tasty (and accurate) little details to my novel.

YouTube – I’ve never been one of those writers who thinks it imperative that you must visit every setting that you depict in your novels. But with the plethora of YouTube videos that can take you around the world in eighty seconds, there’s no excuse for not “visiting” your main character’s hometown or university or favorite hangout.

My New Ergo Stool – For years I’ve been using a series of traditional chairs at my writing desk but am now in love with my new Ergo Stool. I automatically sit up straight and have cured myself of the bad habit of tucking my right foot under my left thigh. And, not to mention, I can move around and actually get a little exercise while keeping my BIC (Butt-in-Chair or, uh, stool).

Girlfriends Book Club – What a lovely bunch of writers and bloggers we have at the GBC! And they have some great books that would make lovely gifts for the holidays. Check them out HERE.

Happy (Early) Thanksgiving!

Wendy Nelson Tokunaga is the author of the novels, "Midori by Moonlight" and "Love in Translation" (both published by St. Martin's Press), and the e-book novels, "Falling Uphill" and "His Wife and Daughters," and e-book short story, “The Girl in the Tapestry.” She's also the author of the nonfiction e-book, "Marriage in Translation: Foreign Wife, Japanese Husband."  Wendy holds an MFA in Creative Writing from University of San Francisco and teaches for Stanford University's Online Writer's Studio Novel Writing Certificate Program. She also does private manuscript consulting for novels and memoirs. Follow her on Twitter at @Wendy_Tokunaga, friend her on Facebook and visit her website at: www.WendyTokunaga.com

Scoop.it Tips For Authors

by Sara Rosett 

Have you heard of Scoop.it? It is a curation site designed to help you share interesting articles and links from the web. It’s like Pinterest for articles.

I’ve been using Scoop.it more and more as I try to simplify my online life. We’re talking about transitions here at GBC and I thought instead of focusing on the thing that comes to mind first —moving boxes and U-Haul trucks—I decided to explore another transition: how I shifted from traditional blogging to micro-blogging.

When my first book came out out way back 2006 (i.e. in the dark ags, pre-ebooks) I was blogging my little heart out at my own blog, Rosett Writes. I’d joined Girlfriends Cyber Circuit and happily blogged about friends’ books. I joined with four other mystery writers and created a “grog,” a group blog called Good Girls Kill because we were nice women writing murder mysteries.

And, oh yeah, while all this blogging was going on, I was also writing books.

Then one day I realized I was spending more time thinking about my blog posts than about my WIP (work in progress).

Not a good sign.

I closed down my individual blog and said a temporary good-bye to the Girlfriends. (I rejoined later after the Circuit was remodeled into GBC). My group blog died a natural death as we all reached a sharing saturation point and mutually decided it had been a great time, but we were tried of the weekly post commitment.

Truthfully, I didn’t think I had much left to say, either witty, funny or informative. Blogging had wrung me dry and I wanted to concentrate all my writing energy on my books. And I also had a feeling that I wasn’t reaching readers with my blogs. It seemed much of the blog activity was authors busily commenting and connecting with other authors—not a bad thing, but I wanted to reach readers.

I didn’t want to abandon all on-line activity and kept up with Facebook and Twitter. I wanted something a little more interactive, but without the huge time commitment of daily blogging.

Enter Scoop.it.

I’ve always posted lots of links to book-related news and blogs, so I created a topic on Scoop.it last year called All Things Bookish, a topic broad enough to attract readers and writers. I love the magazine-style format and the easy integration tools.

I post pretty much anything that I think is interesting in a book-related way:  articles about writing, photos of amazing libraries, and publishing news. Recently, I posted an article about how to create a computer screen saver with your ebook covers as well as an article about swimsuits that resemble book covers, which was got some attention.

Five Scoop.it Tips for Authors:

Think carefully about your topic title— you can’t edit the title of your Scoop.it topic once it’s entered. Decide if you want to go broad (Publishing) or niche (Cozy Mysteries). You can create several Scoop.it topics and they will all appear on your account with you as the curator. 

Install the Scoop.it Bookmarklet—I use the Scoop.it bookmarklet to “scoop” an article or photo to my All Things Bookish page, then I edit the appearance of the scoop: pick a pull quote, change the headline, and even select which photo I want to run with the mini-post. Scoop.it has apps for the iPhone and Android phones, so you can update your site from your phone. 

Link to your other social media accounts—This is my *favorite* thing about Scoop.it. I’ve linked Scoop.it with my Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr accounts as well as my website through Wordpress. I can post the same link to them at once. Pinterest isn’t supported yet, but there is a workaround. Once the post appears on my All Things Bookish page, I can use the installed “Pin it” button on the post to send it to Pinterest.

Website Widget--There are Scoop.it widgets and buttons for your website and blog. I send my most recent posts directly to a section on the lower section of my website home page. It keeps it my webpage updated with fresh content.

Connect—You can connect with other curators and find topics similar to yours. Scoop.it emphasizes that they help you curate content, bringing you lots of articles and links related to your topic. You can create streams with info related to your topic. I haven't found their content that helpful, but you can just ignore it, which is what I do. 

If you want more control on the appearance of your Scoop.it account or more detailed feedback on visitors, you can upgrade your account, but the free account works fine for me.

You can check out my All Things Bookish topic or see the most recent posts on my website. 

I’m curious to hear from you...do you blog? Why or why not? And, what tricks and tips have you found to save time with blogging and/or social media?

~Sara

A native Texan, Sara is the author of the Ellie Avery mystery series and the On The Run travel thrillers--watch for the first in the series, Elusive, out in September. As a military spouse Sara has moved around the country (frequently!) and traveled internationally, which inspired her latest travel thrillers. Publishers Weekly called Sara’s books, "satisfying," "well-executed," and "sparkling."

Sara loves all things bookish, considers dark chocolate a daily requirement, and is on a quest for the best bruschetta. Connect with Sara at www.SaraRosett.com or on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Goodreads.

MARCH MADNESS

By Therese Fowler


Earlier today I was on the phone with an editor, discussing an essay I'd written for an anthology called The First Year, which will come out in 2012. The essay's deadline was March 1st, and I'd made it, but only by the skin of my teeth. If you read my last post, you might recall that "by the skin of my teeth" has become my modus operandi this year. So much of what I'm doing gets pushed right up to its deadline (including this very blog post) despite my good intentions to be more organized, more focused, and more productive Every Single Day (please God send me some house elves who can write).

I'd been invited to write the essay way back in October, and I'd said, No problem! The only other project on my plate at the time was my novel-in-progress, which had its own very-far-away deadline of April 1st.

But then suddenly, don't ask me how, it was February somethingth, and I hadn't done anything more with the essay than jot down some thoughts about what I would write when I actually did write it. So I got started, then put it aside because I had to write this other essay for the Portland Book Review. And then, because I'm apparently a secret masochist who is not happy unless she's under really stupid amounts of pressure, I took a good look at my novel-in-progress and concluded I needed to start it over again. I am pretty hard on myself when I'm not being a complete slacker.

But then suddenly again, it was February somethingmoreth. It was, in fact, almost March 1. So I put my nose down to the grindstone and finagled 2,971 words into essay form and sent it in on deadline. The editor said she loved what I'd written--but that is not to say the essay was ready for publication. She noted how the front of the essay seemed to be going one way, but the middle and end took a slightly different tack, as if when I'd started it, I didn't quite know where I was going to go.

Yep.

Despite the fact that I spend pretty much all day sitting down, I feel like I'm running around with my hair on fire. I have other essays to write, a book to finish, blog posts to craft, interviews to complete; I'm arranging book tour dates, tweeting links to contests and excerpts for my new book, Exposure, which comes out in May, brainstorming new ways to get the word out--because as many of you know, writing the book is only part of what authors have to do these days.

But you also know the sayings:
You can't win if you don't try.
Half of success is just showing up.
If you build it, they will come.

What I hope is that the first draft of my The First Year essay is a metaphor for the way this year is going to continue to go: Organized chaos moving into focused order and ending quite happily, with a definite to-be-continued flair.

I hope that you'll join me on the journey--and if you will, I'll do my part to make it worth your while. I'm building my official Facebook Author Page and need to get the word out, so here's what I'm offering: when the page gets to 500 members, five members will win an inscribed copy of one of my books, their choice. When the page gets to 1000 members, I'll give ten more members an inscribed book, plus one member will win an e-reader (Kindle or Nook, winner's choice). What do you have to do for a chance to win? "Like" the page and encourage fellow readers (via FB, Twitter, or even old-fashioned conversation) to do the same. Simple, right?

And if you'll stand-by with a fire extinguisher in hand, I'll be more grateful still.