April IWSG - Negative Reviews

Click here to find out more and to see a list of other IWSG blogs.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Short and sweet on my end. I know this is A to Z month, so I'm just going to share author Beth Revis's brilliant post about handling negative reviews.

Click Here

A to Z - Protected by Cindy M. Hogan

Protected by Cindy M. Hogan

 Click here for Melanie McCullough's blog, the next link in the tour.

Protected Description:

She has the guy. The terrorists have been taken care of and she is on the brink of being popular. Life is GREAT! Until they find her. Now she must run and leave behind everything she knows, including herself.

My thoughts? This is quite the ride. I was going to take my time working my way through this book, but I had to finish it. I really felt for Christy as she enters the witness protection program and leaves behind everyone she knew and loved in order to protect not only herself, but them as well. She's told she can never again be who she was.

To help keep her safe, she is trained in the arts of protecting herself. And boy does she need it!

Protected is the second book in the Watched series. 

In the first book:

It takes more than a school trip to Washington, D.C. to change Christy's life. it takes murder. A witness to the slaying of a senator's aide, Christy finds herself watched not only by the killers and the FBI but also by two hot boys. She discovers that if she can't help the FBI, who want to protect her, it will cost her and her new friends their lives.

A to Z - Networking

Earlier this month author Robison Wells (Variant) wrote a great post about marketing that also touched on networking. He said it was a rant, and it was, but I think it was a good rant. Rob's day job for many years was marketing, and he has a lot of good information in the post, so I highly recommend that you go read the whole thing. But I want to share this from the post:

"So, let’s try to hammer one thing into our heads. If get nothing else from this blog, get this:

When you see the term “social networking”, ignore the word “networking” and focus on the word “social“. Some people act like Facebook and Twitter and blogging are a chore, and if you have that attitude, then you’ll always hate social networking. But I don’t see it that way. I log into Twitter the first thing every morning to see what my FRIENDS are talking about, and so I can join the conversation. And a lot of these friends are people who I’ve never met in real life. Some are fellow authors. Some are readers. Some are just fun people who I’ve met and built a relationship with.

Yes, that took time, and in those early days when I had few Twitter followers, it wasn’t as much fun. But it’s definitely worth the investment. Now, I feel like I always have someone to talk to, or someone to hear a joke from, or someone who has something insightful to share. It’s like hanging out with your friends all the time.

It’s not a friggin’ chore. It’s a delight. It’s SOCIAL.

And if you don’t like Twitter, then blog. Build your SOCIAL network there, and interact with your commenters. Or on Facebook. Or on YouTube, or Google Plus, or Friendster, or whatever-the-heck else. It doesn’t matter which platforms you chose. Just chose something, and have a good time. Be social. Be fun. Be interesting.

You’re a writer, for crying out loud. If you can’t be fun or interesting for ten minutes a day then maybe you’re in the wrong business."

How do you feel about social networking and how it relates to marketing your books? Is it just a huge burden or are you having fun?

A to Z - Dream Launcher

I would like to acknowledge Tara Tyler who kindly awarded this to me back in March. I just figured it would too good an A to Z post to pass up.

I've always had stories going on in my head. Over two years ago, after finding out about NaNoWriMo too late to participate, I decided to do my own personal one and see if I could even write a novel length story. Thirty days and eighty thousands words later, I found I can.

And I fell in love with writing. The stories in my head are so much more satisfactory now that they are on paper and complete.

Well, kinda complete. I've never met a page I didn't want to edit.

Consider yourself tagged.

What/who helped you launch your writing dreams?

A to Z Blogging Challenge - Letter A(rmy)

I promise that they won't normally be so long ...

I served in the U.S. Army and twas he second woman assigned to my unit in Germany. Liz was the first, and she arrived in the morning, while I got there in the evening. Cheese worried about us all the time, so you can imagine his panic, when he realized he would have to take two women on Reforger. (Reforger was 10 days, but I got sick with Strep on day 5, and Cheese gratefully sent us home early). These European war games included troops from many nations. Our unit was responsible for repairing electronic equipment, including the very early models of computers. Traditionally, for Reforger, our unit would bring a long trailer that could be hooked up to a generator to provide power, and served as a repair shop. When the guys got tired, they'd move the equipment to the floor and sleep on the work tables.

But now there were two young women, and Cheese wasn't comfortable with that. He wanted to make sure we got field experience, but he also recognized the need to protect us. As the number of women in the Army increased, the number of rapes did, too. Every new duty assignment included a seminar on rape prevention. During Reforger Cheese made sure Liz and I had an armed guard with us whenever we left our area.

  

There was one little problem.

We only found the latrine once in five days. So, you're wondering. What did we do? The guys just wandered off into the woods to do their business. If someone came upon them, it was just another guy, so no big deal. There were very few women out there, and we never saw any others. Unfortunately, wandering out into the wood wasn't an option for Liz and me. We had to wait until dark.

Reforger was held in September...12 hours of daylight.

You can imagine how full a bladder gets in twelve hours. Twelve long hours. Out unit was located deep in the German woods, surrounded by tall, skinny trees. No stars. No moonlight. We could hardly see our hands before our faces as we staggered away from the long trailer trying to find out way with only a little help with our flashlight. We didn't want to draw attention to ourselves by having the light on us broadcasting what we were doing. And flashlights ruin your night vision.

Now let me describe the lame uniforms we had to wear. For one, they were tropical lightweight. Isn't it brilliant to send women, dressed in fabric made for the warm tropics, to freakin' cold Germany? They were also pooly designed (I'm sure they were anticipating that we'd have desk jobs). Whereas a man's uniform included a zipper in the front (go figure), our fatigues had buttons on the sides. It's a little too adventurous for me to have to undo 6 buttons, when you really, really have to go.

Liz and I made our way far enough from the trailers to be sure (kinda) of our privacy, and we split up for some privacy. Remember now, there was no latrine, no raised anything with a seat. Squatting was required. I guess I was in a bigger hurry than Liz, because I'd already assumbed the position, when I heard her scream.

I immediately stood up.

And immediately squatted down again. Um ... you don't shut off the bladder after holding its contents for 12 hours. I called out to Liz, frantic to know if she was okay. She giggled. Seems she'd backed into a tree and thought someone had grabbed her. O_o

I was mortified. We only had four sets of fatigues, and we were scheduled for ten days. Now I'd soiled a quarter of my clothes.

Good thing I can laugh about it now.

What's your most embarrassing moment?

Blogging Challenge

I've been seeing a lot of the blogs I follow with this picture:

I considered doing it, but I was hoping to take a trip with a friend to Ireland sometime in April, so I figured I would pass. Well, I found out on Sunday that I'll have Internet access at least a part of the trip, so I'm going to give it a try after all. Arlee Bird was hoping for 300 participants this year, and nearly 600 have already signed up. This should be interesting.

I'm leaving on March 31st, so I may need to make a couple of posts at a time and skip a day. I hope that's not cheating.