This has been a monumental week. This is going to be a short highlight reel and then Clyde is going to take the floor. Grab your cuppa and snuggle into a rocker. Isaac may have the power out, but the fans are running and keeping the mosquitoes at bay. Let’s talk.
Books
I cannot imagine there is a way to have missed the fact Mantra for a Muse was released this week, four days before schedule. A page where my books are available (and cheaper than everywhere else they are selling) was born.
MJ did a terrific interview of me. Be sure to enter to win an autographed copy. I am offering one for every 100 entries. And since you can enter a couple dozen times per day, I will probably be giving away a ton.
MFM got its first five star review on Amazon. My author page is finally live there as well. Unfortunately, it will take them up to a week to find and attach the book to my page. My other author page has the same issue.
UPDATE: Based on the number of entries to the book giveaway, I will be giving away one autographed copy per hundred entries. If you have already entered, enter again. Increase your odds. There are currently nearly 200 entries, now (Friday morning). I issued a challenge on Twitter and Linked In. I want to see if you and your networks can force me to give away five copies. I ordered them today. As of Saturday evening, I am giving away three as there are over 200 entries. You in?
2d UPDATE: For all book giveaways, beginning with this one, the top speaker will get a freebie entry into the drawing. Look at the bottom of the left sidebar and see if you are there. How do you get there? Comments. The more you talk, the more rewards come your way!
T3 is free until midnight PDT (GMT-8) on Amazon. Stop by and get a copy. I would love to see some reviews.
Killing Us Softly is moving along. It is not an easy book to write and has been moving slowly, but is over 15,000 words. There are another 10,000 words written, but they must be adapted. Early reviews revealed a different format was more reader friendly, thus the change has meant completely rewriting what had previously been written and scrapping a good portion of it.
Darkness Introduced is finished and nearly ready for press. At nearly 54,000 words, it is a novel addition to the erotica genre. A warning will issue with it: Intended for mature audiences only. Oh, and not the squeamish. To say it is graphic would be understated. My graphic artist and photographer are busy working on the cover art for it.
Flash in the Pan, Fall 2012 has 46 flashes in it!! There are still words which have no entries, and I would love to have a few more to the first words. I think it would be awesome to have five for each word. So far, the authors who have their profiles to me for the book are Prenin, Wendy, Laurie, Raymond. If you have written one, but have not sent me your bio, check your junk folder for my email or shoot me a line so I can send you what I need for your credit page.
Networking?
I need a show of hands who is on Pinterest and who is following Book Junkies. As most of you know, I am not on Pinterest. I am interested in networking with Pinterest, but not looking to open an account. Comment as to whether or not you think it is worthwhile and how one thinks marketing a book (or twenty) would work.
The networking the M3 Readers have been doing is paying off. M3 broke the 16,000 mark for Americans, is very close to the 3,000 mark for Brits (and other UK residents) and knocking on 1,500 Canadian viewers. Which leads me to the poll…
Stalking
If you would prefer to get email from Feedburner when posts go live (as opposed to waiting for the email which goes out at 2000 EDT), simply put your address in the Feedburner box in the left hand side bar. You can read in any reader or subscribe by email…or so they claim. If someone tells me it is broken, I will find a way to fix it.
Poll
As much as I appreciate the other responses laughing at the question, I am asking for a very important reason. It is anonymous unless you identify yourself in the other box.
One of the mainstays to M3’s traffic is the Writers Spotlight. Interest in it has dwindled to an abysmal level, as has the interest in three other features. Since the four most popular features are (in order) Saturday Evening Post/Friday Follies, Muse for Monday and MAD, I am considering changing something, but not willing to do it without valid input.
Gauging how much the M3 Readers like something around here is a complicated algorithm. It includes the variables of traffic (raw hits), comments (engagement), sharing (and engagement on the shares), ratings (stars and love button), hatemail generation (hitting a nerve) and how much my BlackBerry rings. Yes, there are still M3 Readers who call rather than comment. All of that is being weighed on which elements change around here.
One of the features I would like to introduce is a twice monthly guest post feature. The other one is not done brewing. It is something like the A to Z, but going to be a weekly instead of cramming it all into a month. Is anyone planning on doing A to Z next April?
Right Turn, Clyde!
One of the downsides of virtual living is the complete lack of information on the information highway. The personal information which goes missing is tremendous. No, I am not talking about the last four of your social or your credit card number or your grandmother’s maiden name. I am talking about the human interaction information which is lost.
For example, one person reaches out to another in a friendly gesture and receives instant hatemail for it. You have seen it. A meme is posted on social media. Friends are tagged. It is all in camaraderie or fun. One person decides they are utterly offended by the gesture or what they misunderstood the meme to mean.
The torrent of hate speech which follows is fodder for the iggy bin and the delete and block buttons. Seems like a simple solution. Until you realize the fountain of the vitriol is the the child of the poster.
Adult?
A funny thing happens when children reach the age of majority. All the things we have told them are in the domain of Adults Only are now accessible. Once in their grasp, they are imbued with a sense of power which makes them drunk.
The illusion, which borders on delusion, is they have the abilities to judge anything in the moment it is provided them. In their naïveté, they assume age inherently brings the wisdom of their elders, the vision of the eyes in the back of the head and the right to judge events to which they were not party.
It may take them a lifetime, having children of their own or losing a parent to understand. Most often, it requires being hurt deeply to learn age did not infuse them with wisdom to avoid the pitfalls in the paths they chose. The emotional (and sometimes physical) cataclysm is the source of I told you so, even though the words are never spoken. What is a parent to do?
Hope the child comes to some sense before a disaster strikes where the child should admit: >>>
Often, even after disaster strikes, and the parent comes to the rescue, the child will persist in trampling down a path headed for another fall. Despite the evidence the parent has persisted in doing things in the best interest of the child and offering the wisdom of (personal and observed) experience, the child insists its version of reality is the one and only truth.
This means:
- Parental intervention on behalf of adult child is dismissed as obligation.
- Questionable judgments of the parent’s past are judged without mitigation.
- Parental success is overlooked or dismissed as happenstance.
- Child dismisses all own indiscretions as youthful folly.
- Parental advice is rebelled against as control.
- All parental input is viewed as skewed, false, misleading or abusive.
What reality bares is all of the above are erroneous.
Conundrum
Children have no concept of the reasons parents tell them to do or not do certain things. Society blares examples of abusive behavior and conditions children to believe any measure of intervention is abusive control. In fact, the opposite is most often the truth. Entitlement sets in the moment parents label things Adults Only. Once the child is chronologically an adult, it is entitled to view or do what was forbidden in its minority.
Nowhere in the choice of age for majority is the itinerant observation of emotional maturity. Much of what parents shield from their children is the precise learning opportunity which produce wisdom. It is the poignant Catch-22. Without the traumas which would damage their childhood beyond repair, they cannot learn the life lessons to prevent situations which damage their adulthood to and beyond its breaking point.
In the end, parents hope they and their children live long enough to see the Mother’s Curse come to be fulfilled, when their children appreciate the sacrifice necessary to see children fail and blame it on those whose advice would have prevented it had they listened.
~~~~~~~~~~
Not only adult children make these types of judgments. When do we grow out of thinking the world is only the way we see it given the first information we receive? Did your parents get smarter as you aged? If there is one thing you could tell your parent now, what would it be? Do more parents get it wrong than right?
Did you take the poll? Will you be doing A to Z in April?
Laurie
/ September 1, 2012I only see free supersaver shipping, when does the book go free?? I”m confused…I’m also broke and cheap at the moment…….school uniforms, sick children and morons that can’t do anything while I work but nap……oh well, when they run around naked next week it’s not my problem.
Laurie recently posted..Sunday and a Flash In the Pan to Kill Some time
Red
/ September 1, 2012I will have to run a special for the actual book itself. That or do another giveaway here or on GoodReads. I know you like books with paper pages 😉
Laurie
/ September 1, 2012Yes, yes I do…….I am addicted to the feel and I can’t break the habit no matter how hard I try 😉
Laurie recently posted..Sunday and a Flash In the Pan to Kill Some time
Alexandra Heep
/ September 1, 2012Interest in the author spotlight is dwindling? Oh oh, that does not bode well.
A – Z in April: Right now, all depends on the end of the month for me. Hopefully that will start a new chapter. Other than that, I can’t resist a blogging challenge.
Alexandra Heep recently posted..Balancing the Energies in our Lives
Red
/ September 1, 2012The biggest thing I am basing it on is the authors’ lack of engagement. History holds the authors who engage the M3 Readers and promote their interviews are the most successful. In the last two months, the authors have been scarce or have not shown up at all.
I am already building the posts for next year’s A to Z. The last one for me was very successful. I would like to repeat it…but with a different arc than last year.
Alexandra Heep
/ September 1, 2012I did notice that on the Writer’s Spotlight. I stopped checking to see if my comments were answered.
Mhm, maybe I should start thinking about the A-Z theme. This year, I wrote just about every post on the day of posting and by the end of April, I felt like never blogging again.
Alexandra Heep recently posted..Balancing the Energies in our Lives
Red
/ September 2, 2012For everyone who is not a daily blogger, A to Z is a tough challenge. When you pick out a topic like I did, and need research, it can be even tougher. I advocate having a couple in the kitty in advance just to stay on top of the game without going bald.
Noeleen
/ September 2, 2012NEXT YEAR’S A-Z? You work FRENETICALLY. You’re such an inspiration as a motivating woman.
Noeleen recently posted..I regret I must close my blog, due to an online hate-campaign against my son & me, by my eldest “sister”
Red
/ September 2, 2012I claim OCD. And I am sticking to that…
Alexandra Heep
/ September 2, 2012Haha, I have OCD as well … I plan way ahead in my head usually (drives my bf nuts), but it has not reached the A-Z challenge. Well, now it has because it was brought up!
Alexandra Heep recently posted..Balancing the Energies in our Lives
Red
/ September 10, 2012With the drain of the daily, especially for blogs which are only a few times a week/month, I cannot imagine not getting ahead.
Androgoth
/ September 1, 2012I have just been reading segments from your book on Amazon and I hope that it sells big time, as from what I have read so far it is lovely work my great friend 🙂
Have a sweet weekend Red 🙂
Andro XXx
Red
/ September 2, 2012Thank you, Andro. The long weekend has begun well. I hope it is a best seller!
Binky
/ September 1, 2012I think, until you start to decline, you continue to learn and grow in many ways. Parents know more than their kids of course, but grandparents are more knowledgeable still, and generally have a much more balanced understanding of things.
Binky recently posted..Birthday of Ages
Red
/ September 2, 2012One day we will unlock how to get children to know they are not the top of the food chain, although I believe it will take a societal shift to get it right. I treasure the time I got with my grandparents and great-grandparents. Wish they were still here for me to take notes.
Gail Thornton
/ September 1, 2012Dear Red, I am so excited! I just ordered an autographed copy of Mantra for a Muse from your site! Can’t wait to read it and reread and put bookmarks in the pages—-ahhhh sweet work!
I think Book Junkies on Pinterest can help promotion and sales if a number of us post the twenty or so books and repin on our own boards. This brings our followers to repin the books and so on. I will be creating a board just for indie books with room for your books and all of the Redmund books coming out. I am going to look into the A-Z challenge, but can’t post more than every three days.
I think some people come to emotional maturity early and I know others who never do. Protecting older and adult children isn’t the job, but trying to teach them to protect themselves when they are young can give them a life lesson.
Gailxxx
Gail Thornton recently posted..Poem – Something Else
Red
/ September 2, 2012I think you have hit the coop portion of the RP philosophy pretty squarely on the head.
I have known so many who never bothered to mature. Unfortunately, everyone in their lives continue to protect them from themselves. xxx
Noeleen
/ September 2, 2012HA! I will stay alive long enough just for the ‘mother’s curse’ 🙂
I am not regular in reading your posts as my time shifts a lot, and time to myself, you know, but I have dropped in on the Writer’s Spotlight & enjoyed it, though as I say, I’m no way regular. Sorry I can’t help you gauge things there. But you’re amazing how are so on the ball with it all! Talk about a BUSINESS woman!
I just checked out your A-Z too, & I do like it. They were REAL psychology terms, hey? I liked it…
Noeleen recently posted..I regret I must close my blog, due to an online hate-campaign against my son & me, by my eldest “sister”
Red
/ September 2, 2012Yes, I do a lot of psychology here without advertising it is psychology. There are lots of psych lessons to be learned around here. Some of them even arrive in the form of poetry 😉
Alexandra Heep
/ September 2, 2012I love the psych aspect of posts here … I’ve always been a nerd when it comes to that, but my daughter way surpasses me.
Alexandra Heep recently posted..Balancing the Energies in our Lives
Red
/ September 10, 2012Apple and tree concept?
Friggin Loon
/ September 2, 2012Hmm, parents should start giving the wrong advice to their kids in the hope they will rebel against it and grow up to be wise just like them.
Friggin Loon recently posted..Bin Laden Beauty Tips
Red
/ September 2, 2012ROFL! I am quite certain there were a few of us who tried that with varying degrees of success!!
prenin
/ September 2, 2012Sounds like things are beginning to ROCK!!! 🙂
Lots of luck my friend! 🙂
As for bringing up kids – yeah sometimes you have to be there for skinned knees etc. But without them how do they learn???
Every child I know that was coddled and protected by over-protective parents went bad and have done jail time.
It was only the ones I had free rein with who grew up good and decent people.
I guess there’s a lesson in that… 🙁
Love and hugs always!
Prenin.
prenin recently posted..Saturday – Big Muse day!
Red
/ September 10, 2012You absolutely have to know where to let them fall on their heads and when to protect them. I truly think it is less of a crap shoot when parents think back to the way they learned things. Unfortunately, most parent have already forgotten how they learned things by the time they are teaching children. I find the whole thing odd and disturbing behavior. {HUGZ}
Mysterycoach
/ September 2, 2012Congratulations on your book being ALL over the place! I can officially skip around saying I know an author! Look what she’s done! 🙂
Parents/Kids. My daughter, over time, has given out the advise I’ve given her to her friends. Yesterday she says, “Thanks MOM, You’ve made me into a teenage Dr. Phil.”
I guess all the “repeating myself” I do is working, despite my frustration, worrying, freaking out, confusion as to what seems to go in one ear and out the other … LOL 🙂 Then, something miraculous happens…
She will say or do something that “I know” I put in her head (good stuff … ) and I think “thank god” … It’s like, at least you know it’s in there ready to come out when needed.
I tease her sometimes when she does this. Something like “Where’d ya git that?” She’s like, “Shut up.” Shut up in my house isn’t an insult. 🙂
Mysterycoach recently posted..~ Anthony Robbins * Message on what makes you feel alive ~
Red
/ September 10, 2012For me the biggest validation came in watching my children educate their peers. Hearing them ask, “Don’t you have parents?” was big on the validation list. 😉
Derek Mansker
/ September 2, 2012Perspectives definitely change, especially when we have our own children. The cycle comes to me now as my son thinks he knows it all (already) and I assure him that he doesn’t.
Derek Mansker recently posted..Jesus Christ – The Way (Week 3) – Jesus is the only answer
Red
/ September 10, 2012And he is not even a teenager yet.