If You Like "The Forbidden Game" You Might like My Novel (minor spoilers for both works...though nothing that gives the stories away)

This

The original Forbidden Game book cover I picked up over a decade ago found via google.

VS

This

Follow Me: Tattered Veils wide image art work created by Jake @ J Caleb Designs

The Forbidden Game: A series by L. J. Smith about a highschool girl Jenny who's gained the attention of an immortal being, Julian.  After many years of watching over and protecting Jenny, Julian lures her and her friends into his world through a board game.  The group needs to make it to a tower before dawn to escape his clutches, but to do so they will have to each face their own worst nightmares.  

What does this series and Follow Me: Tattered Veils share? 

Gerry, like Julian has an obsession for the protagonist, Roxi and Roxi, like Jenny, is unaware of Gerry’s obsession until he enacts his plan to capture her.  Both stories have a friend group whom the protagonist must save.  Both characters romp through a supernatural world that doesn’t seem to follow any hard and fast rules.

The better question might be why two separate books for what feels like very similar ideas?  It's hard to spell out the difference without spoiling each individual story, but I will try to hit some larger points.

Julian is portrayed in the first two books as an all powerful being.  He is far more powerful the the human protagonists.  However book three reveals Julian to be a young and far weaker member of his race.  Book three also shows that Julian, who is portrayed as lacking empathy or emotion actually has more than he revealed and is an emo kid compared to the elders of his race.  

Meanwhile, Gerry is the king of the fae.  He is the most powerful of his people and expects praise, worship, and deference as his due.  Gerry shows emotion often, it isn't alway in sync with how a human would react to a situation but he shows joy, amusement, boredom, anger, and frustration to mention a full range of emotions.  There is no emotional moment where are tearful Roxi says something like "you don't care at all do you?" and Gerry smiles and shrugs, though Julian and Jenny get this moment multiple times in their work.

Jenny and Roxi are very different characters.  Jenny's popular, has a long term boyfriend, and still in high school.  Roxi is isolated and resents the society she lives in.  Jenny is used to people and systems that work for her while Roxi is more used to fighting for things.  This creates a harder protagonists vs one who can fall weepy at times.  

Roxi is older than Jenny too.  At twenty-three she stands in the "adult" camp, though her actions indicate she has some emotionally stunted growth related to an unrevealed past.  Roxi sometimes acts with a younger character's immaturity but she never hesitates to take advantage of all the rights and privileges adulthood bestows.  She doesn't answer to parents or any other authority structure.

Jenny is attracted and repelled by Julian at the same time.  There is no romantic subplot between Roxi and Gerry.    Some of this may be a when it was written and who the works were written for situation.  There was a period in the 90s when a boy/ immortal being stalking you was considered very romantic, especially when written a certain way.  I never agreed, so I'm thankful that now we call this kind of story out for promoting unhealthy creepy behavior.

The Forbidden Game is a young adult series, a good one adults may also enjoy, but the story beats, the scares, and so on are geared for a fourteen to seventeen audience.  Follow Me: Tattered Veils is geared for a new adult audience.  The situations, scares, and story beats are all for a more mature audience.  I think if you like one series, you'll like the other too.  And I'd love to do a more detailed post comparing and contrasting all the little tidbits, but I don't want to spoil a novel I haven't released yet!  

Did you love The Forbidden Game?  Were any of these elements you loved?  If so consider picking up Follow Me: Tattered Veils when it releases in February.  Check out my website jessicadonegan.com for more details.

If You Like "The O.A." You Might like My Novel (spoilers for the show—not my novel)

This

promotional imagery from The O.A. found via google

VS 

This

Follow Me: Tattered Veils wide image art work created by Jake @ J Caleb Designs

This is part of my Honest Comparison series.  Hopefully, it helps you decide if my novel might be something you'd enjoy reading.  Thanks for tuning in!.

The O.A. : A Netflix show featuring a female protagonist who disappeared years ago and when she resurfaces, the once blind woman can see.  Prairie, now referring to herself as the O.A. has been through something traumatic, but she won’t share with the FBI or her adopted family.  Instead, she recruits four highschool students and a teacher whom she tells her story to and asks they help her save four other captives she left behind.  Teeming with supernatural, scifi, and fantasy elements, the show is a slow burning mystery told at the survivor’s pace.

What does this series and Follow Me: Tattered Veils share? 

Follow Me: Tattered Veils and The O.A. season one share a slow burn full of tension.  Both stories unfold at the protagonist’s pace instead of the viewer’s desired speed or the speed the surrounding cast may prefer.  The O.A. and Roxi make readers wait for it, but the release is all the sweeter because of the building.

Both the O.A. and Roxi have spiritual and esoteric knowledge the world around them doesn’t value.  As their respective stories unfold, their knowledge gains value, and becomes the key to their ability to survive their situations.  

Both The O.A. and Roxi share stories of strife and survival against all odds.  Their antagonists have an insidious obsession with them and even when they break free of these men’s power, the men refuse to leave them alone.  Questions of stalking, possession, and the toxicity of the male gaze are rife in the narrative.

Lastly both stories use established myth as a connecting foundation.  Even though views consider these myths and not truths in their lives, the audiences' familiarity with the original myth helps to build credibility and a sense of realism to the experiences the O.A. and Roxi go through.  Like an urban legend one might debate the validity of because a cousin's friend once said something like that happened to them, these old myths help ground the fantastic and bring it into the realm of possible.   The O.A. uses angelic myths and after life experience stories to weave it’s narrative.  Follow Me: Tattered Veils uses a collection of Italian, Greek, and Irish mythology to grow its own story.

Did you love The O.A.?  Were any of these elements you loved?  If so consider picking up Follow Me: Tattered Veils.

Still unsure about purchasing my novel? Check out  Lost Girl Comparison and American Gods Comparison for more context.

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Turth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?  Check out my childhood stories recapping themes in my life I hope prepared me to write this book: Remember the Magic of Santa?, Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?, and Garden Gnomes and other Evils.

Need an introduction to Roxi Starr? Here's her performing an Imbolc ritual to help whet some appetites.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

And for updates please check out jessicadonegan.com and subscribe.

2019 In Review! Did I Meet My Goals?

Me and Roxi in Big Spring Park all rights reserved

In January last year I set up some personal writing goals.  For fun I want to review them and see what I accomplished vs what needs work.

Accomplished: 

I wanted to finish my second draft of Follow Me: Tattered Veils and succeeded (what's the difference between the 2 drafts?  Talked about that here). More than that!  This year I:

-Sent Tattered Veils off to a copy editor (some further blogging about that experience here) 

-Made the corrections from the copy editor

-Have a Copywrite on Tattered Veils—which means a copy of my work will be available in the Library of Congress

-Commissioned a cover artist and have cover art complete for Tattered Veils

-Got a publishing team together and have that team:

       -Created a website for me and a landing page for Tattered Veils and future works

       -Created an author’s Facebook page

       -Discussed, created, and sent A.R.C.s (advanced reader copies) to people for an early review

       - Had a proof copy of my novel in my hands

       -Chose a date of publication (and I’m thrilled to announce I will self publish Follow Me: Tattered Veils on Amazon this Feb the 29th a leap year ^_^)

I taught a free Intro to Creative Writing class with Ashley and we plan to run our course again this year.  It is exciting to continue refining our class. Hopefully this class will turn into a way we can give back to the writing community, inspire other writers, and create a closer community of people with similar goals.

I met my book reading goals for 2019 and reviewed most of the books I read (check out my Goodreads profile).  I also created shelves for my read Goodreads books so they are easier for other readers to sort through.  

2019 was a great year for esoteric folklore.  I learned about this thing called “#folklorethursday” on Twitter and it’s awesome.  The community connecting and telling different little bits of trivial there is soooooo cool.  I read a couple great pagan books that reconnected me earth based traditions, some will even work in my southern environment even if British weather is colder and rainier.  I also had the chance to write up a bit of info on traditional holidays and some different writing prompts to accompany the holidays.  My well for inspiration seems full.

Opportunities: 

I didn’t maintain a constant blogging habit.  At my personal blog, I posted about 11 times.  I posted 12 times in the N.A.W.G. blog.  Along with less frequent posting, I’ve dropped the ball in my social media game.  This may have cost me an audience or sense of reliability.  I promise I’ve been very busy in my writing life, it just hasn’t all been on display for the people who might watch at home.

My goals for blogging and social media were too lofty.  Given how much socializing even online takes out of me and given how each blog post takes time I could write creatively off the table, it was never realistic I would both complete my Tattered Veils goals and maintain an active blog presence.  No regrets over which I chose.  Now I have a book, if I’d stuck with the blog who knows how far away holding a copy of my work would have been?  

While blogging and social media has to play a role in my writing goals, it will have a lighter touch in 2020.  If these posts help or interest other people, I see it as “worth it,” but I can’t say this style of writing is a “passion" of mine.

I kept making new goals for myself as the year went on.  Some of that was beneficial and some of it was a time waste under the guise of “being efficient.”  There were days  that planning took the place of “doing”—so not the goal of making plans.  As this new year rolls in, I plan to compromise with the person who wants to plan vs the person who wants to do work.  More on that in 2020 goals though.  

Overall, I think I had a powerful 2019, even if it wasn’t everything I wanted.  How did your year go?  What was a major accomplishment for you?  What was a major failing?  What are your plans for 2020?

Not sure how to create good yearly plans?  Try my post that helps break down goal planning.  Or try a post I have exploring Habitica and how it can help you meet your goals. 

Curious about my my 2020 goals, check out this post!  Wondering how I track my goals?  I've written more here.

Garden Gnomes and Other Evils

Emma, Jessica, and Kyle.  Photo taken by Elena Lewis.

It scared me to go to my great grandmother’s house.  Her home was clean and silent, which unnerved me, but the true terror awaited me in her gardens.  She had lush vibrant flowers I enjoyed exploring, but waiting in those flower beds was something old and malevolent.

Garden gnomes.

Before Travelosity, before Gnomeo and Juliet, and before R. L. Stine, I knew the true depth of depravity in these ceramic figurines.  I’ve always suspected figurines with humaniod forms, but unlike my dolls or horses, these gnomes were taller than me and had small squinty eyes, pointy ears and hats, and it was always pointing and laughing with its white teeth.  What was so funny and why did the thing need teeth?  It was alive and coming to get me.

When my great grandmother passed, my mother brought the gnomes home and put them in our gardens.

Seems simple as an adult, but as a child these gnomes materializing was a nightmare.  One morning my home was free and then our gardens were contaminated with the spectral evil I knew they held in their stone hearts.  All this time my great grandma had protected me from them, appeasing them and keeping them on her lawn, but with her gone, they were here and going to kill me!

I wasn’t going down without a fight, though.  I gathered my sister and brother and we launched a full war campaign against the ugly invaders.  We threw rocks at them.

When they didn’t retaliate, we got bolder.  My sister and brother would load up in the peddler car and I‘d ram them into the gnome, hoping to knock it down.  They would flail their arms and scream, stuck staring at the killer’s dead eyes. I fled from the scene screaming how it would get us.  They would remember how to use the peddle car doors and escape the staring contest.  We spent hours roping the car away from the gnome and start the process again.  Slowly, the thing crumbled. Sweet victory.

Except, my mother loved her great grandmother’s gnomes.  She did not understand why it deteriorated—could it be acid rain?—but she would preserve them.  While we napped, she would glue the gnomes back together.

Words can not express the doom we felt when we woke from nap time to find the garden gnome whole again.  Before, there’d been a chance the gnome wasn‘t a living creature— I was known to have a wild imagination—but after the gnome regenerated?  And if there’d been a chance for peace between gnomes and children, it was long gone.  How could it want anything but our demise after all the times we’d torn it down?  It was him or us and he seemed poised to win.

But how does this gnome saga end?  Eventually our nightmares built and my mother learned about our campaign against garden gnomes and our all amorphous childhood fears of stone golems coming to life in the night and “getting us.”  She laughed.  We all laugh about it now.

Except I also tear up when I tell this story, because terror that bone deep marks a person.

What does this have to do with “Follow Me: Tattered Veils”?  My battle with garden gnomes went on for months.  For a child this was a brutal war of attrition.  Seasons changed and our enemy remained laughing and menacing.  I had the stamina as a child to face this horror.  My capacity to stare down all that terrifies me grew as I’ve aged.  Unshaped consequences that made me quake as a youth still live in dark corners of my mind just outside my ability to grasp.  Linger with me and face the unnamed possibility.

And ask: if a sheltered innocent child could inspire months of imaginative nightmares, what might a more worldly adult produce?

Like this post and want more?  Check out here where I reminisce over that time in our lives where we still believe in Santa. Or look at the terror a closet monster can add to one's childhood here.

Like this, there's a whole series!  Check out  Remember the Magic of Santa? and Closet Monsters: Gone too Far? for more childhood stories. ^_^

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Turth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?   Check out my series where I find similarities between my novel and other popular media.  Hopefully it gives you a better idea whether there are elements in my book you may enjoy.  Lost Girl Comparison, American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

Want more information?  Check out my website jessicadonegan.com and subscribe for updates.

Closet Monsters: Gone Too Far?

Jessica, Emma, Maurice, and Kyle going on a floom ride.  Photo taken by Elena Lewis.

Remember when the closet monster was a real prospect?  There are many varieties of the beloved creature.

First is the tidy child’s monster.  Their closet door presses shut, but somehow in the shadowed night, the door looms like a dark doorway, waiting for brave children to traverse to a realm of unspeakable horror.  

Next is the messy kid’s monster.  They shove their toys into the closet at the last minute, and the door never quite closes.  Frustrating in the day when they try to convince their guardians the room is clean and can they please go out and play.  At night, the door gapes open, a toothless maw.  The dark beyond is bottomless, any evil could await them.  

Third is the run down home’s monster.  This closet door never fully shuts.  Maybe the hinge isn’t lined up or maybe the door lost its latch.  No one cares about the why.  These children go to bed with a closed closet door, secure in their knowledge that nothing will harm them and wake up for water or to use the restroom, to an open door.  They race for the light and throw the switch like a medic to a defibrillator.  The world is incandescent, but it’s too late.  Something old and terrible lingers.  No light or company will ever make what crawled out of the closet go back in.  Creaky floorboards are its footsteps, drafty windows become its breath.  Whatever that thing is, it’s living in your house now, and there’s no way to exorcise it.  

The closet monster fascinated me.  How did it creep in at night and why did so many children assume it fled in the morning?  Does light hurt its skin like a vampire?  Does it sleep during the day like a bat?

And what did the monster want?  Was he guarding something on the other side of the darkness?  Did he eat socks, is that why I could never find matching pairs?

“Oh no,” my uncle told me, “he just wants to get you.”  

“Get me?” I asked. 

“Yeah you know, take kids.  He got my younger brother,” he said.

“No you’re the youngest brother!  Everyone says so,” I said. 

My uncle shrugged. 

“Yeah, now I am,” he said with a wink.

My siblings and I were hooked.  Yes, the closet monster lived in everyone’s home, but my grandparents' home, became its main den.  When we were there, we hunted it in cupboards, basements, and closets.  Why, because there was a missing uncle we might save.  Even if that uncle was long gone, we could at least “get” the monster back and keep it from ever taking another child.  Bring the fight to its home and all those great metaphors.  As eldest, I was good at rallying the younger ones to a worthy campaign.

And my uncle played his part.  He’d hide in basements and closets waiting for us and then roar and grab us.  We’d charge the monster and hit it or kick at it and he’d let the trapped sibling go and we’d run out, believing we’d narrowly escaped the monster’s clutches.  

As I grew older, and began to understand the game we were playing, I added new rules to keep my siblings believing for longer.  We would use flashlights and “light” formations to keep the monster back.  In reality, my uncle couldn’t sneak up on us if we all used our flashlights together, but the reasoning I gave was that the monster’s eyes were photo-sensitive.  The light blinded it, giving us time to move past it.  

When one of my siblings would doubt the closet monster’s existence, I’d dare them to go in alone to the closet.  There in the dark my uncle would shake clothes hangers and growl, stomping closer and further away.  The terrified sibling would go to the door and try to open it, only to find it stuck closed (I was barricading the door).  

They’d scream and plead for help and I’d say things like: 

“It’s sealed the doors, I can‘t open them!  I think it’s mad you don’t believe!  Quick say you believe in it before it gets you, maybe then the door will open!”  

My sister or brother always agreed. 

“I believe, I know you‘re real, I’m sorry, please!”

And I’d let them out.  We’d go eat cake, because sweet things help you recover and then we’d play in the sprinkler, because the monster can’t get you outside.  It hates fresh air.   

So how do I capture this dark childish terror for adult readers in “Follow Me: Tattered Veils?”  Instead of using an uncle to help make the monsters more real, I use old myths.  Stories told and retold in many time periods with different players but the same over reaching themes.  Hear the same story enough but different people and anyone will wonder— is this real?

And I use humanity’s limited scope of empathy.  I terrified my siblings, not just with stories of monsters, but actions that validated those fears.  I thought nothing of this fun game, but there was casual cruelty in the act.  We all carry a thoughtless capacity to scar each other.

Lastly, I use the closet monster himself.  Because the fathomless darkness where all kinds of good or evil could spawn lives in my heart and I think it might live in your heart too.  Don’t we all have a certain wardrobe we think might take us to Narnia or a certain set of words we think will release Bloody Mary?  “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” lives in a world where we investigate the wardrobe or we say the right words.  The roads to different possibilities open and I hope you’ll walk one of them with me.  

Like this, there's a whole series!  Check out  Remember the Magic of Santa? and Garden Gnomes and other Evils for more childhood stories. ^_^

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Turth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?   Check out my series where I find similarities between my novel and other popular media.  Hopefully it gives you a better idea whether there are elements in my book you may enjoy.  Lost Girl Comparison, American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

Want more information?  Check out my website jessicadonegan.com and subscribe for updates.

6 Steps To a Twitter Success: Altered Plans

image from openclipart.org by Luen

After 15 weeks on Twitter, I thought I’d update my Twitter routine.  There are little tweaks here and there.  It turns out I only continue to use six of the eight original points in my plan and the steps I keep, I‘ve altered.  Want to compare? Check out the old 8 step plan

1. Create and Share Interesting and Unique Content

This is the foundation of my Twitter process.  In the past week, I‘ve done more straight Retweets because I haven‘t had time to share my own thoughts, but even then I share what I like.

2. Schedule Posts. 

Post scheduling makes everything else in my writing plan work.  Without Hootsuite, I wouldn’t be able to maintain a presence on Twitter.  My style of interacting is less constant than some of my more outgoing peers.  Post planning allows me to use that time and spread it out across the day so I can look outgoing while I’m sitting cozy with my dog or at work going through the motions.  Plus, when I have the “bright” idea to share blog content, I can spread it out across days instead of dropping too much self promotion all at once.  

3. Create More Personal Connections on the Medium

This happened/ is happening in unexpected ways, but yes.  I have a sense of “regulars” whom I Retweet or are most likely to respond to my posts/comments.  I’m getting more comfortable and can maintain a conversation for longer.  Sometimes I worry I talk about the same thing too much or my Tweets might bore, but then I remember that almost no one consumes my Twitter content all at once.  Their feed shows it intermittently and people go days without even seeing anything from me (when they have larger followings).

Building this Twitter empire has been eye opening.  No matter what a person does with the algorithms, nothing seems as important as connecting with other people. Granted, I got into this to find an audience so people would always be the focus, but somehow I thought I’d learn more about maneuvering around them and using software tools to get in front of the right eyes.  It’s far more organic than that, and I think with no other tools than these three, a person could find their audience on Twitter.


4. Use of Hashtags

While I’ve used hashtags to my benefit, I am a lot more relaxed about it than I expected.  Some Tweets blow up and others don’t.  Same hashtags, same time of day, but different results.  What’s more important is getting noticed and shared by someone with a large following that‘s different from yours.  

Hashtags help me find other people with like minds that I haven‘t seen yet.  They also help my posts get noticed by different but similar groups.  To that end, they are important, but again, it comes back to people taking the next step and sharing you with the audience they’ve built.  

I don’t hunt in the Hashtags as much as I should, but so many new people come to my attention in an organic method, it‘s hard to follow them and anything happening in the Hashtag game.  When I have to choose, I choose the people.

5. Check in 

So I try to “Check in” every three-ish days.  What this means is that I pick a few new followers profiles and a few profiles of people who liked or retweeted something and I look through their feed.  If I like their content or their bio, I friend them.  Doing this once a week was way too overwhelming.  Committing to look at everyone who had eyes on me was also overwhelming.  I’m sorry if I overlooked you through this process.  I can promise that if you continue to interact with me, I check out your profile and feed, eventually.  And I follow—it takes over one interaction to get my attention these days.

6.  Use Twitter Analytics:

Still do this weekly.  My updates lack my desired consistency.  I will rectify that by drafting on Sunday.  The metrics won‘t be as accurate but at least the blog will come out.  Knowing where you stand is the only way to know if what you are doing is helping or hurting your goals, but also, I love numbers.  It fascinates me.  I learn more about what is important on the platform every day.  What interests me most (that I don‘t share with you guys) is the “Audiences” tab.  The most common interest for my followers is dogs and science news.  The male to female split is 50/50.  Most of my audience is American and they prefer to use laptops/desktops.  What does this stuff tell me: I don’t know, but I like having this information.  It makes me feel closer to the random voices I stumble across on Twitter.

Talk to me.  Do you use Twitter and if so for what?  Are you building a following and if so how?  Do you have tips or tricks to help find others with shared interests?  Do you like Twitter or do you prefer a different social media?  

Looking for the numbers? Check out my Monday Metrics Posts on:  11/19, 11/12,  11/5, 10/22, 10/15 10/9, 10/1, 9/24,  9/17, and  9/10

Monday Metrics

image from openclipart.org by GDJ

If you are new, today is all about the numbers, not about my plans.   See the action plans I’m using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  Last Week’s 6 week Review!  and 8 Steps I’m Taking on Twitter.   Full disclosure: to make certain these posts happen while I'm busy with work, I had to post plan them.  The numbers where pulled 24hrs ahead of this post date.  

Twitter Analytics
I’ve been active on Twitter for 105 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 233 posts, 464 profile visits, 101 mentions, and 78 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 16%. The past month was NANO.  For me, it seems it had a negative impact on conversion.  Could be because all my fellow writers were writing or it could be because I didn’t NANO this year.
  
My engagement is 2.3%. On my daily goals is the “interact with 3 people on Twitter” but it depends on what‘s going on that day.  Plus, I can add a comment to a conversation and not be acknowledged in the flood of feedback some posts get.

I post about 8 times a day.  My goal is to sit between 6-10 posts a day, so success!


My daily view count has lowered to just under 2,000 views a day.  Fewer posts = fewer eyes, but the proportions are better per post.  This past 28 days I got 216 eyes a post.  On Oct 22nd I had 330 posts with 52,400 views or only 158 eyes a view.  Less time but an increase in views per post.

Blog Stats

I got 55 views last week spread across 10 posts and 2 pages.  I updated my list of links to my posts across both blogs organized by topic. I’ve also spent a lot of time working on my recommended writing bloggers.  Some of my December plans begin this week with the launch of my “Be Bold Blogging” series where I talk about the pros and cons of sharing site metrics and how a person achieves these.  I also brought out an introspective piece on all the blog niches I’ve explored.

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 6 views this past week.  It’s a shame I didn’t get to a Monday Metric last week because the blog had 11 views then. Of Note: because work ran away with me these past 10 days, there were no promotions for the blog and I think it sunk my traffic.

 Important for fellow writers: December Round Up of Calls for Submission is out on the NAWG blog.  If you ever wonder where I get all those calls for submissions check out my page here Bloggers and Groups I Follow for Submissions.  Also check out my list of Ongoing Submissions organized by genre and length requirements.  

 I’m experimenting with adding critical content to both blogs check out my first step in “6 Reasons I Stopped Reading Daily Science Fiction."  I’m told “spilling the tea” brings the views, but so far that‘s not what I’m experiencing.  Then again, I don‘t want a ton of draining drama, I want to discuss things that work or do not work in our writing community openly.  Daily Science Fiction doesn‘t work for me.

So talk to me!  What are your numbers?  What’s your social media strategy?  Are you counting anything else in your life and what does success look like?

Still need a number fix?  Compare this week to older updates on Nov 19th, Nov 12th, Nov 5th, Oct 22nd, Oct 9th, Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

#BeBold Behind Posting Metrics

from openclipart.org by liftarn

There are many “behind the scenes” style posts bloggers and content creators indulge in.  They include: posting their strategy for social media and creation, posting results of their efforts, publishing reviews in the genre they create in, publishing fiction and short stories to their blogs, and posting a creation process behind their creations.  This series seeks to explore the “pros” and “cons” of content.  Today‘s topic includes posting strategy and results.  In the interest of full disclosure, I’m in favor of all these style posts so these posts will take on a “just go for it” style tone.

The Concerns

-Someone might “steal” the technique and implement it better

-Someone might ridicule your performance or technique

-You may not achieve your goals and when you release a goal/schedule post, it allows others to see your failure/ accountability

-Some of these “metric disclosure” or “advice posts” are deceiving or skewed and creating your own might place you in a with a crowd less than honest or only trying to sell their online course/book on how to be awesome

-The “how to rock at x” post is very prevalent, if you don‘t have specific new information, it is hard to stand out or it may just feel you‘re looking for a massive following massive metrics bump while offering nothing substantial

-You might think you’re “too small," or “too new," to offer advice or to bother sharing your metrics.  In the beginning, it’s embarrassing to be excited blog X is getting 18 page views a week.  It becomes more embarrassing if you‘re trying all these things and don’t see more hits or more post interactions.  If you’re not a person with “massive success” in a sea of people offering their “huge results” sometimes you ask “what am I doing wrong?” or “How could I have anything worth sharing?”

-Your metrics may not be impressive.  While you might “trick” a viewer with a clean professionalism, strong writing, and spam comments that build up on blogs, showing them the hard numbers may tell the “true” story of how often folks visit a site.

-Your plan may change as you write and maybe continuing to either update an original post or create a post outlining these changes is draining.

-If you like linking to related content, and if you batch blog posts, going though and updating your posts with all the related links is VERY annoying

The Pros

-People love to see hard number results. Anyone can post “How to Have a Successful Blog” or “How to Gather a Social Media Presence” on their blog.  There‘s so much generic copy and paste style blogs we tire of hearing the same advice.  Show me the results!  Prove your technique works!

-People love to know their time is invested wisely.  So comparing the views I get off of Facebook vs Twitter is a wonderful way to show why investing in one site over another might be worthwhile.  Also noting side benefits attracts audiences.

-People like to “be there from the beginning” and they like updates that show their time is spent well.  The whole underdog story or starting with nothing to gain something is very appealing.  These metric posts and plans posts let people have insight and connection to that arc

-Creating these blogs means you are checking your results often and performing an analysis on your results.  This let‘s a person course correct as they go instead of giving up in frustration because they are “doing all the things” and seeing nothing from it. You can be more pro active in driving results

-Posting your intentions helps build personal accountability

-Posting and sticking to your schedule will help build discipline, consistency and a following

-Posting my metrics every week is a simple post that keeps my blog active.  The format and phrasing is the same week to week so I/readers can use easy side-by-side comparison of each week‘s results.  But this also means it takes precious little time to write.

The Outcome 

For me the pros outweigh the concerns.  I’ve never much cared what other people think of my progress.  If I cared, I would have stopped writing long ago and gone off to do something “successful”, whatever that is.  In Fairness, no one online has been mean or belittling over my progress or plans.  I think the fear of mocking/failure/disappointment is low.  When your numbers are low, there‘s no one to care and when they‘re high, they offer credibility and transparency.

  Personally, I love metric and “how to” posts.  Hard results give credibility and when I think “that sounds terrible” I can know what the overall “gain” would be.  And I’m wondering “when/how” do I monetize or “how does this get me published” or “how does this get more eyes on my story and/or blog?”  This metrics/plan style blog gives me new ideas to consider.

Talk to me!  Do you use metric or “how to" style posts in your blogging?  Do you like reading others’ blogs on this topic?  Do you have a good tip for me about writing, networking, or some other related topic?  Who is your favorite blogger and why?

Finding You Niche: Experiments in Blogging

image from openclipart.org by Firkin

In my adult life, I’ve tried niche blogging often.  What’s a niche?  It’s an area of expertise, research or experience a person is passionate about.  Here, it’s a topic someone believes they can write with experience on.  For fun, I thought I’d review all the areas I tried to blog with authority on.  

  I have a now deleted beauty blog.  As I researched monetizing blogging, I realized “lifestyle” was the most profitable category.  For me I thought “Yeah I can post on the hottest lipstick/mascara/eyeliner colors this season.”  I was wrong.  While makeup is fun, it‘ not something I have an ongoing interest in.  The constant change in the industry is expensive and often left me wonder “why” instead of feeling excited.  

I have an old passion project blog called “Southern Pagan Muses”.  Here I explored my faith and how I thought a respectful multi faith society would look.  This blog does NOTHING right in blogging.  The posts are long and meandering, they lack graphics, and I didn’t bother to proofread them so they’re littered with grammar/spelling errors.  The worst sin: there is no market for a pagan blog.  I dreamed of having a large following and of making a splash in the pagan bloggers’ world, but most “successful” pagan bloggers make extreme statements and mine were like “let’s listen to each other and have open conversations about what might lead to unhealthy lifestyles.”  I think about reviving this blog at least once a month, even though I know nothing can come from it, I love my faith and I love hitting the latest topics from a religious experience.  


Next I created “Barista to Boss”, a now abandoned blog where I try to make my creative writing a career (spoiler alert, I failed).  Working on this blog taught me a lot about blogging and gaining metrics.  This blog was only active for three months, it has 18 posts, and I got 4,209 views total.  There were a few problems with the blog that led to its demise.  First, I think my topic was too broad.  I discussed both my current day job and generic writing (blogging, poetry, other forms of creative writing).  It was too much for one blog to handle, and I’m sure I alienated audiences with too broad a topic list.  Second, I posted too often.  Since I was following blogging advice, my goal was to post once each day.  Striving for this goal, created burnout   Third, the pictures, the links, and the socializing required to make the blog appealing where draining.  It was a case of too much too fast.  Last, I realized I wanted to write creatively and freelance blogging/blogging took away from my creative writing.  RIP “Barista to Boss” you taught me so much.

 “Aquagarden: Diary in Small Scale Aquapoinics” followed “Barista to Boss”.  This blog was a TON of fun because it was like recording a science experiment for the 3 months I worked on it.  It was perfect for me because: 1. The content had a limited scope.  I expanded in the series to discuss other gardening projects and transforming grocery scraps into a second harvest but overall the focus was on the fish tank. 2. I created a picture centric blog.  Every day I’d snap some shots, edit, post, and write a few lines caption.  Much faster than planning out content for previous blogs. The results of my Aquapoinic experiment interested others without social media presence.  It has 2,800 lifetime views.  What happened to this blog?  Work picked up and I couldn‘t keep recording the tank, I was too tired.  Napoleon, my betta fish, passed in Dec and I‘ve retired the tank.  While I thought of starting the experiment again, the research I did raised questions whether a 3 gallon tank is a large enough container to ethically keep a betta fish, not to mention to whole betta procurement market seems cruel.  I’d like to run a 5-10 gallon tank with guppies one day, but I can’t finance or house such a large experiment right now.

I created this blog in 2016 when I finished my first draft of “Follow Me: Tattered Veils”.  I was sooooo excited, and I wanted to share that along with a few blogging insights I had.  It didn‘t last long as I didn’t have the right level of insight or motivation to keep working.  I’ve revived this blog instead of creating a new one.  The focus still surrounds my personal progress and personal insights (as these reflections on niches shows).  

There were three start up and deleted blogs in between this.  One was a book review blog, another was a book group blog, and the last was a blog about me picking back up my French Horn and re-learning how to play.  All three would be fun if I was a more known blogger, but as it stands, I don‘t have the brand to expect conversation out of a blog which was the goals in these three blogs.  If I gain a more interactive audience: I’d love to host a read along blog, comment below if there's interest and tell me what our first book should be.

I recorded a “let’s play” of both “Stardew Valley” and “No Man’s Sky”.  I never posted the videos online and long since purged from my computer. My “Stardew Valley” let’s play was a “no farming” challenge with in the game, and later I did a “pure luck challenge” where I could only plant whatever seeds I found or could buy from the traveling merchant.  I love “No Man’s Sky” but I have a ton of self-imposed rules I play by to keep things interesting.  I can say the same for my Pokemon runs.  While not traditional “blogging” the daily updates that come with “let’s play” series along with the conversational tone most take on, speak in the same way.  Plus the metrics/promotion technique the same.  


I somehow encouraged my Writers’ group to create a blog with me. The NAWG blog is active. It’s “niche” is in creative writing with a focus on novels and short stories in the scifi, fantasy, and horror sub genres.  My group and I offer our experiences, what we enjoy about the writing process, and our experiences as a writers’ group.  We‘re a team blog because I thought we’d have a better time keeping a consistent schedule as a group than as individuals.  This experiment drives home how hard it is to “lead” writers or to pin anyone down for a solid commitment. 

In June I considered launching a Ketogenic/Paleo/Vegetarian nutrition based blog.  I‘ve read and follow a lot of healthy lifestyle information, love discussing diet and nutrition, and feel like this is a topic that can help others.  I didn‘t end up creating the blog because I think health and nutrition are personalized and I only want to give one-on-one advice to people once I get to know their lifestyle and current eating habits.  

And those are my preferred niches: religions, nutrition/healthy/green living, gaming, reading, and writing.  What niches would you like to write in/ have you written in?  Were you ever surprised by the level of interest in your writing?  Were you disappointed by the response?  How many blogs have you abandoned?  How many do you currently run?  Do these blogs provide income and if so how?  Do these blogs link back to your creative writing?  Talk to me!

Betting On Myself

image from openclipart.org by j4p4n

The Problem

Things are crazy in my professional life right now.  My “day job” is in shambles (from my perspective to them everything is the best it’s ever been or at least that’s the party line they are sticking too) and since that’s forty hours of my work week my emotional/mental life is shredded.  I feel like half a person, and that person is always on the attack, hunting for weaknesses in others to pounce on.  There’s no turning the snarky, angry, lashing aspect of myself off.  Something people don’t get: if you are a compassionate intuitive soul, you can take that knowledge and use it to be vicious.

In the middle of what for me is the worst three going on four months I’ve experienced in the last five years, I have to step back and ask myself “What can I do?”  I can’t change the policies happening at my work.  I can’t control how they are implemented.  I can’t force peers, superiors, or team members below me to be the right people to enact this cultural shift within the company.  But if you know me, there is no way in hell, I will sit back and let them wreck me without pushing back.

The Solution 

So first of the all, I’ve rejected the incompetent management and have turned around to challenge every move they make, using their own guide against them.  If I have to follow these rules, everyone will get on page now.  I will not struggle while everyone else tells me that “this is different”, and it’s “just this once”.


How I'm Choosing Me First

It’s time to come back to what I love.  What makes me passionate is writing.  I’m turning inward, back to words, and I’m turning all that frantic energy into creating space for my creative work to stand.

I’m unhappy, but part of me sees this work drama is the best thing that could have happened.  Nothing short of working at a huge corporate place that’s just shitting all over itself would have made me say: “If this is a thing, then I’m rejecting you and going back to my base.”

I’ve done a lot and continue to do a lot since I’ve turned back to reading and writing.  I’m reading more now than I ever have in my adult life, and I love that part of my life (check out my Goodreads reviews and stats here and see my "Best of Kindle Unlimited Series").  I’m writing (though mostly blogs and tweets) about 10,000 words a week.  My blog(s) pre-scheduled posts are insane.

I tried something new with the Writers’ Group where we each share a Halloween based flash fiction this month.  Chris Palmer finished and scheduled his story first.  Can I say, I appreciate how my fellow writers are stepping in and joining me on this new adventure?  I can’t express how grateful

I’ve noticed this conversation game trend on Twitter and I want in on that.  Right now I play with #theMerryWriter and #authorconfession but I’d like to play in some other Hashtag parties/conversations and I would LOVE to host a Hashtag game through NAWG.

I have more ideas and more planning than ever in my creative writing life.  I’m working in a class (the class itself isn’t going great, I’m waiting to give a full review), trying to get beta reading for the second draft of my novel “Follow Me: Tattered Veils”.  While discussing the book with my friend Ashley Sanders, I had a major break through.  Now I know what I need to do to pull the work together that I am beyond excited to dig in and execute.

Ashley and I are also experimenting with running our own writing class.  We’re talking structure and what value we could add to other writers along with all the inspiration they may bring us.  I can’t wait to work with her.  We have a very similar process and goals for our novels, and I’d love to help other people work through what their goals are.

I have an outline for a co-writing novel gig called “Familiar” with a friend in the North Alabama Writers’ Group and I’m thrilled to bits about working more with the wonderful Zach Standfield to create something cool together.

I have never chased so many avenues at once and it’s occurred to me that my job and my lack joy in my professional life brought me to a place where I had to roll the dice on my projects I'm passion about that I would normally keep as quiet background gigs.  My story telling, my ideas, my ability to network.  Stuff I’m “good” at that I figured would never amount to anything.  It feels powerful to see how things I love could bring me an ounce of professional success.  All my life, people have told me my writing would “never amount to anything” and that I “should focus on something that will make me financially stable.”  Here I am, at the worst point in my professional career, with nothing to draw on.  In desperation, I‘ve opened myself up to this blogging, social media, creative writing thing, and it seems like these “useless“ skill set has breathed new life in me.

The path to monetization is opening and new opportunities rise on the horizon.  They are taking time and persistence, but I’m seeing incremental steps towards my long-term goals. It feels like I’m proving all those people who told me my skills and me through association were “nothing special” and “not valuable” wrong.

Have you ever been in a terrible situation at your job or life where you needed to get out?  What did you do?  Are there other angles I’m not exploring?  Did you ever follow your passion regardless of the money or the risk?  What was the outcome?  Do you have advice/regrets/victory stories?  Talk to me.