Wednesday, June 20, 2012

50,000 Words in a month?


How many of you have ever entered a contest?

Well, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a writing contest. Thousands of writers and authors participate, play, and persevere through the month-long challenge - including many of the Indie Authors show guests.

I normally enter this contest in November, so to be honest, I don't know much about the June version. I do know the contest is all about writing and trying to write 50,000 in a month.

Win Prizes and Pride through NaNoWriMo

I've entered and won this contest in November about four times. Each time in November, I have won a prize. Four years in a row, I won a free book for participating and winning the contest. Now, of course, there is no way for the good NaNoWriMo folks to know if you are cheating or not, but they hope that you won't.

Words, Words, Words

It's not easy to write 50,000 words in a month, but it can be done. For me now it comes down to a contest against my last year's record. I try to get in one really good day with about 7000 words, so if I have a bad day, I don't get so far behind. Last year I hit 9000 words in a 24 hour period. I was stoked.

I don't think I had ever written that many words in one day. I also don't know if I will ever beat that record or not, but you can bet that I will do my best when November comes around.

June Challenge

As I said, this is NaNoWriMo in June, so I'm not sure that I will do as well at this time of the year. There are gardens to tend, grass to mow, and dogs that want to go outside and play in the grass, but I'm going to try. I'm not doing great so far, but I hope to get going soon and get some serious word counts out there.

I will add that this writing is supposed to be on a brand new story that you have never written about before. You can get writing buddies, and have word wars, and it can really be great fun. I'll be sure and let you know how I do this month. Right now, I'm just up to 7000 words.

I haven't been writing that much yet, and I must say that the fact that I don't know if there will be a prize at the end, has affected my word count. Last year the contest rewarded winners 5 free books from the company CreateSpace. Did I mention NaNoWriMo can be life changing?

This small contest is what got me started on the road to self publishing in 2009, and I'm so thankful for a good friend Tommie Lyn, who talked me into entering the contest, and to NaNoWriMo and CreateSpace for running and sponsoring the contest. Winning that first free book showed me that I, too, could self-publish and be an author, so for that, I'm very thankful.

Samantha Fury
Author of the Street Justice Series
book 1 & book 2

Learn more at the NaNoWriMo official contest/challenge web site - http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Friday, June 15, 2012

My New Office

My New Office.

I wanted to share my new office with my followers. I love to spend time outside, but I hate bugs, and I didn't like not having a nice table for my laptop. so we went shopping.  There was also a good reason to get a gazebo for me, miss forgetful.  A few weeks I was working outside in my swing, and it started to storm.  Well, when it storms the dogs go nuts, and I forgot all about my poor little laptop. It was out in the rain all night.



I know my new office is not a good excuse to leave my laptop out in the back yard, but if I'd had this, a month ago I'll bet my laptop wouldn't have even gotten wet. By the way everyone told me that my laptop was done for, I might as well toss it out. True it wouldn't come on, it wouldn't boot up, and it was pretty much dead.

I took it inside let it dry out for a few days.I told all my friends about what I'd done, some said to bury it in rice, but I didn't have that much rice. I contacted our local computer store East Ky Computer Sales and Service and they told me what to do. For a few days I was to let it just sit.  Take out the battery, and see if it would dry out. It was hard to not go in there over and over and try it, but I didn't.

I think it was about four days, when I finally decided to just go plug it in again, and see if it would come on. Thankfully, and of course after saying a prayer I plugged it in and sat down waiting. It was a bit slow but thank GOD it finally came on. It taught me a very valuable lessons and hopefully I won't leave my laptop out in the rain again, but with me it's really hard to tell.

Samantha Fury
Author of The Street Justice Series Tell next time

Monday, June 4, 2012

My New SEO Hat.

The newest hat in my collection is a SEO hat.  Until a few months ago I'd never even heard the word SEO, but once I did I figured I'd better learn all I could on the subject so I did what I don't do often.  I bought a book and started reading it.

If you've known me for very long you know I'm not an avid reader.  This month I bought I think my first ebook that I actually paid money for. I've gotten many free e-books, but never plunked down my hard earned cash for one. So what did I buy.  Get on Google Front Page my Jason Matthews.

First, I'll say for those of you that don't know me well. I don't like to read.  I know I'm strange that way.  I just feel that it is taking time away from my editing and writing.  Also, I suppose it has to do with the fact that it takes a lot to hold my attention.  By the way, this book held my attention. I only put it down because life kept calling.  The dogs wanted to be fed, hubby thought he needed clean clothes, you know things like that.

Why did I buy this book?  I want my blogs and web sites to be found not just because people type in my name. I want some day for my web site and novels to show up when someone types in Christian Romance.  Right now that does not happen, so I thought I need to try and learn how to achieve this new goal.

That said, I bought a book on the subject of SEO. Search Engine Optimization.  I've talked to Jason Matthew's, and I've heard him discuss topics on the new show Indie Authors, so I knew he could explain things well.  I'm not the easiest person to teach.  I need something written out in plain English, and by the way this book does just that.

Did I understand everything first time around.  No, of course not. Jason's a great writer but he's not a magician.  I learn slowly and it will take me a while.  You may be different. If you don't have a reading disorder you may read this first time around and just breeze through these steps with ease.

For me there were so many new terms to learn and ideas to grasp onto.  Jason Matthews provides in the book many links and suggestions. I can see this book helping me in so many ways, but it will be a process of taking each step one at a time and learning how to implement the new changes.

You can even purchase a pdf file, to make things easier to follow while you start taking the first few steps in the process.  I've started with step one, creating good content, and I'm sure that as I take these steps and I learn more about this process I'll blog again and let you know how things are coming along.

In short there are so many helpful tips in this book, on blogging, social media, tips for your web sites, that I think you will take something away from every chapter you read.  I did, and I will soon start with step one in working my way up the Google ladder.

I know that this will not make me an over night success and that with my schedule it may take me months, to get through all the steps, but as they say Rome wasn't built in a day.  It's like blogging or writing a book, or even planting a garden. 

The garden aspect works best for me.  If I just go out into my back yard and toss out some seeds and stand there watching, waiting, nothing is going to happen. It takes months and years of knowing what you're doing to reap a great crop.  You have to till, then plow, fertilize, sew, get rid of the weeds, water your plants, you maybe even do some bug dusting.  In the end you'll have a good crop if you get enough rain.. 

If you just toss your seeds on the ground, and pay it no mind and never think about it again until you want something to eat, you're not going to get anywhere.  I look at writing, blogging, and even SEO in this same matter.

I've got to work hard, I've got to put in a lot of hours, and learn new terms, and learn not habits, in order to be successful.  As I mentioned earlier being successful means wearing many hats.  Sometimes I wear my writing hat, or my editing hat, or marketing, or blogging hat.  Well now I have a SEO hat to go with the others.

It may not fit right when I first put it on but with the help of  Jason Matthews book I'll get it on straight after a while.  He gives lots of links and ideas, and if you don't understand something he even gives you the opportunity to contact him about the matter.  What more can you ask for.  How many hats do you wear? Do you have your SEO hat on yet?

Here is a list of topics, you can see this and more in the free preview on Amazon. Click on the image for a larger image.



Samantha Fury
Author of the Street Justice Series

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