New Author-Blogger Facebook Group

I should totally NOT start any new Facebook groups, I know, but I do blog about blogging on my main book and I've written an ebook on blogging called 'Getting More Blog Traffic: Steps Towards a Happier Blogging Life.' So I thought I'd start a new group called 'Making Author Blogs Great Again!'

The idea is for author-bloggers to get together, follow one another's blogs by various means, and have the more experienced author-bloggers with good blog traffic make simple suggestions on what to do to make your blog better. I'm also planning to put up a post once a week where people are invited to post a link to one of their recent blog posts in a comment.

I personally am planning to follow all the blogs of group members on Bloglovin' and perhaps put them into our blogroll on this blog called 'Author Blogs.' (I'm also putting up some blogs of more famous authors in that blogroll, though I've had a hard time finding famous-author blogs where the most recent post isn't expressing hatred of a certain political leader that they didn't vote for. I'm not cool with hate of anybody. OK, well, Hitler. If you have to. I don't hate Hitler, I just wish he'd have stuck with his artist career instead of going into the people-killing business.)

So--- if you are reading this and you have an author blog, you are welcome to join the group. So long as you can be civil and not try to post private-parts pictures, anyway. But I'm sure if you have read this far into the post I'm sure you are cool like that. (Readers are generally cool, aren't they?) The link is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/310331253293318/

I have not designed a Canva cover graphic for the group yet, as I'm hoping one of the group members with more design gifts might be moved to do that. And of course if everyone hates the group name but me the name will be changed and if it is part of the cover graphic the cover graphic will be changed.

I'm hoping some of you that read this will come to my 'party' and join my group. (In which case, it will be your group, too.) But if you would rather do something else, that's good, too.

Thank you for reading this post on this almost-abandoned blog which I only keep for the blogrolls.

Nissa Annakindt

"Getting More Blog Traffic"

I'm about to publish a short nonfiction ebook about blogging, called "Getting More Blog Traffic: Steps Towards a Happier Blogging Life."

In connection with that project I'm reworking this blog a little, consolidating the blogrolls which are now the main purpose of this blog now that my main blog is over at Wordpress . com. I'm also going to add a new blogroll just for members of my Christian science fiction & fantasy Facebook group, which is at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/366357776755069/

The FB group is open to all sorts of Jesus-followers who write in the science fiction & fantasy genres--- Anglican, Catholic, Evangelical, LDS/Mormon, Lutheran, Orthodox--- and also, per FB's non-discrimination policy, to persons of any faith who have a positive interest in Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy. Mean & vicious people of any type will be removed from the group if necessary.

If you don't want to join that group but you want to be in one of the blogrolls, add your blog link and your blog niche(s) in a comment.

I'm also considering changing the name of this blog, maybe to 'The Blogroll Blog' or 'The Blogging Blog' or some such, though it's a pang to remove 'Lina Lamont' from the blog name, since for years my main blog was called 'The Lina Lamont Fan Club,' named after that mean lady in 'Singing in the Rain.' Even though some people thought I was Lina Lamont and was vain enough to start a fan club for myself. I AM that vain, but I don't normally let people know it!

Anyway I am open to 'audience' suggestions about this blog. I may even start posting regularly again, or even take on a co-blogger or two if I can find one that is mildly agreeable & willing to post once a month or more.

Thanks for reading this post so far,
And Lenten greetings from:

Nissa Annakindt and her cats & critters
Except Kitty Eleanor who's been banished from the house
For being annoying too early in the morning.

How to find the 10 best Twitter hashtags for YOUR content

There are hundreds of blog posts about the best 10 Twitter hashtags for writers, or for other topic bloggers. But they may not be the best Twitter hashtags for what YOU write about.

Think: Each Twitter hashtag you use has the potential of introducing your post to a new group of readers. But if the post and the topic don't match, they won't click on your blog post. If they do relate somehow, you have a shot.

Think about what you generally blog about. There is #writing #writers and #amwriting for general authorly use. But if you blog about writing or about your writing, you've probably used the hashtag many times.

What if you write #Christian and/or #Catholic fiction? You could try either of the hashtags, or try the more specific #ChristianFiction. I have tried #CatholicFiction when appropriate, but not enough other people use that hashtag.

Genre-specific hashtags can be good if you write in popular genre. Try #scifi or #paranormal  or #romance.

Trending hashtags are popular topics. Your general Tweets and retweets will sometimes be right for such a topic. But should you write a blog post specifically to fit a popular topic? Not unless it fits your blog's themes.

It's important to evaluate a potential hashtag you are thinking about using. Try a Twitter search on the hashtag. See how many people have used it recently. You want one that's about medium in popularity. Rarely used hashtags won't get you many new viewers. Very, very popular hashtags won't get you many, either, because many of the viewers may not be interested in your specific content.

You need a hashtag that fits your specific niche, or the specific niche of the piece of content you are promoting.

The important thing to remember when using Twitter to promote your blog is you do not want just anyone to read your blog. You want the kind of reader who will like your blog's content. If what you have is an author-blog, you want those who might read your books as well. It does you no good to gain thousands of new blog viewers if most of them hate science fiction and that is what you write.

The best advice is to experiment. Try a new hashtag and see if you are getting more readers from Twitter that way. Just because a hashtag didn't make it onto a 'best hashtag' list doesn't mean it won't be a winner for YOU.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This post is an experiment. I may turn this blog into a blog about blogging to keep from cluttering up my other blog with that content. If this possibility is of interest to you, please do comment.

New CSFF blogroll and what it's for

Early in my blog writing life, I found out about this blogging event called the Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy blog tour. Each month the leader of the blog tour would arrange for us to get a free copy of a Christian science fiction or fantasy book and we would read it and review it on three specific days.

In those days you could go to a site called Technorati and see how our all blogging on the same day had made that book into a Trending Topic.  Doesn't work quite that way now, and the CSFF hasn't had a blog tour since last December.

I met a lot of good bloggers over the years doing that and some have become friends. So I decided to go over to the CSFF blog and start adding the blogs of participants and former participants that still have active blogs.

Joining this blogroll: If you have ever participated in the Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy blog tour, I will probably be adding you anyway. Comment on this post and tell me when you participated and what your blog link is and I will add you. If you never participated before, you can join up but the blog tour doesn't happen very often any more. (I will investigate and see if the blog tour can be revived with more help.)

New Asperger/autism blogroll

Since my real blog is focused on writing for people with Asperger's Syndrome & autism, I've decided to start a new blogroll on the topic. Mostly Aspie writer blogs, but I'm flexible.

Don't have time today to accumulate a lot of blogs for this list. But if anyone for any reason reads this blog, please suggest any Aspie writer blogs you know of. Or generally Aspie creative blogs or other Aspie blogs. And do follow my other blog--- link in right sidebar--- if this topic interests you.

New Keto/Low-Carb blogroll

I've added a new blogroll for blogs about ketogenic and low-carb diets. Ketogenic diets are diets that switch your body over into burning fat instead of glucose (sugar). Keto has long been used as a diet for epileptics, and now there is research that shows it benefiting many other health conditions from diabetes/prediabetes/obesity to Alzheimers to autism spectrum disorders.

Ketogenic diets are naturally low in carbohydrates. Any low-carb diet that actually works well cuts back the carbs enough to be ketogenic.

In my own life I've found that keto is the only thing that works to stop me from compulsively eating carbs and gaining weight. It also controls my diabetes and helps with other problems. It even makes me feel energetic.

I sometimes blog about keto diet matters at my 'real' blog, My Antimatter Life . And so I put up the blogroll so I could follow other keto-related blogs. I hope to add to this blogroll from time to time, as I find new, worthwhile blogs.

This is my blog-reading blog

I used to have a blog called 'The Lina Lamont Fan Club'.  Then I replaced it with a Wordpress blog called 'My Antimatter Life.' I liked it a lot. But it didn't allow you to put up blog lists with previews of the posts on each blog.

I set up this particular blog mostly to read blogs with. I put up lists of blogs in order to read them. But I haven't worked for a while.

I'm starting a new list for members of a Facebook group we nickname 'CLFA.' Many of the impressive writers in the list blog, but don't have enough traffic to their blogs. When I get the group members I know on the list, and clean up this blog a little, I will post in that group to try to get more blogs on the list.

I am also going to be adding some other lists, most of writers' blogs. I hope that this blog's lists might also help some other people find more blogs to read.

Cry of Cicadas

Cry of Cicadas
cry of cicadas
cover the sounds of the knife
slayer in night fog

9/6/2014 – haiku
5-7-5, autumn season words (cicada, night fog)
(c) Nissa Annakindt


My book:
http://www.amazon.com/Where-The-Opium-Cactus-Grows/dp/0557939135

My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

CSFF blog tour day 1: Too Many Dragons? | My Antimatter Life

CSFF blog tour day 1: Too Many Dragons? | My Antimatter Life



I'm doing the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour on my other blog--- follow the link above. 

The Great WordPress Experiment

Blogger annoyed me today. Which is not a rare thing. But finally the Blogger-annoyance made me decide to start a blog on WordPress to see how the other half blogs.

I started a new blog called Nissa Annakindt: My Antimatter Life. It might end up being a replacement for The Lina Lamont Fan Club on Blogger, or it might not. It depends on how it goes, how long it takes me to learn how to blog on WordPress, how long it is before WordPress starts annoying me the way Blogger does….

Anyway, I’d like some feedback: is blogging on Blogger better than blogging on WordPress? What do you think of the new blog, Nissa Annakindt: My Antimatter Life? What do you think of The Lina Lamont Fan Club?

My current intent is to keep both blogs going for a while, just to see how it goes, and then when I know what’s what, discontinuing one blog or the other. If I keep the new blog, I’ll lose all the history of the old one. But if I keep the old, that history may end up being a burden.

If you visit the new blog, I have a poll there where you can express your opinion on which is better, Blogger or Wordpress.


My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Have You Used Beta Readers?

Have you ever tried using a beta reader to get reactions to your writing? I haven't yet, though it seems like it might be something to try.

You see, I am NOT a believer in critique groups. I'm already hypercritical of my own work, and I KNOW what's wrong with it--- everything. And since I'm a person with Asperger Syndrome (autism spectrum disorder) and seem to radiate a 'vulnerable person' vibe, I'm afraid I might end up being the target of the über-negative critique group members (and every group has a few).

A number of people have written blog posts on beta readers. Here are a couple:
Beta Readers: The Magic Elves of the Publishing World
Ask Jami: Where to Find Beta Readers

I think one has to be very selective about a beta reader. They need to know and enjoy the genre, and they have to be OK with you and your personal style and, well, everything about you that might affect your story. For example, if you write faith-based fiction from an LDS church or Catholic point of view, you don't want an Evangelical beta reader who insists on correcting your 'wrong' theology--- even on points of your story that you didn't think HAD a theology. Or if you write a lot of sports activity into your story, you don't want a sports-hater who can't enjoy that aspect of your work.

There are two extremes people go in to when asked to read someone's unpublished work: the cheerleader and the critiquer. The cheerleader lavishes insincere praise on almost everything, the critiquer comes up with laundry lists of things allegedly wrong with your story. Both extremes are unhelpful.

What I think a writer needs from a beta reader is REACTIONS. Good or bad reactions. They don't have to come from an expert writer or editor, either. An ordinary unsophisticated reader can tell you whether your story was something they couldn't put down or something they couldn't manage to finish. They can tell you it was boring for the first 30 pages and then got exciting. They can tell you they identified with THAT character but found THIS character unbelievable and boring.

The writer using beta readers needs to be clear to them about what he wants from them. Some writers use beta readers to check out a specialty subject they don't know much about: a hunter or gun owner to make sure they didn't make any firearm mistakes, or a cop to catch police procedure mistakes. From these beta readers, you don't need or expect any remarks about plots or characters, and you ought to make it clear that this is what you are looking for.

For the general beta reader, specify what you in particular are interested in knowing. For example, if you have a tendency to write un-compelling characters, you might ask for reactions to the characters--- which ones they liked or disliked, which ones they would liked to have seen more of, which ones they would have liked to have seen less of.... If you write great characters but dull plots, ask plot questions.

When you receive your responses, you must remember that you aren't a schoolchild and your beta readers aren't your English teacher. You need not 'correct' everything they see to be a flaw. You need not 'correct' anything! It's still YOUR book. You should feel free to ignore anything you don't think is valid, and also anything that may well be valid but you can't do anything about. For example, if a beta reader didn't like your 'voice' or your 'style'.

How do you go about finding a beta reader? I haven't a clue. I'd use my writing friends, but as a not-untypical person with Asperger Syndrome, I don't have writing friends that think of me as 'friends'--- more like 'that annoying gal I once interacted with online'. I suppose when the time comes I might put out a call on this blog and on the Facebook groups I founded and take part in.

One suggestion that I haven't yet read elsewhere: why not ask for beta readers for your first chapter only to start with, or for a short story? It's less of a commitment for them. And if they beta read chapter one and didn't find it utterly awful, they might be willing to read more.

In fact, for short first chapters and sections of longer first chapters, you might post it on your blog and ask for beta-reader reactions there, and offer the rest to anyone who liked it enough to read on.

How about you: have you used beta readers? Did it work out well, or not so well? Do you have any ideas to make the beta reader process go better? Or on how to find good beta readers?

My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Support the #MarchforLife, turn Facebook Blue!

 

Today is the 41st March for Life in Washington DC, USA. If you can't be there, as I can't, you can stay home, watch the March for Life on television (EWTN), and be an internet activist.

Besides retweeting and Facebook-sharing appropriate items, you can also show your support by changing your Facebook profile picture to a prolife image. The image above is the one I'm using, on my personal Facebook page, my author page, and my 'controversial' pro-marriage page.

 

If your native language is not English, don't despair. The web site that provided the English graphic also provides other languages on this web page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.341227172650616.68524.326003860839614&type=3

I'm old enough to remember when abortion through all nine months of pregnancy was legalized by the Roe v Wade/Doe v Bolton decisions. (Both 'Roe' and 'Doe' are now actively prolife.)

The idea was that once the old people had all died off, everyone would accept that abortion was OK. The older generation did indeed die off. But the majority of young people today are prolife. Looks like the issue isn't going away any time soon.

My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

CSFF Blog Tour Day 1: Outcasts vs The Hunger Games

It was about two years ago that I discovered The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. I devoured the books and have reread them many times since.

I had a similar feeling when I discovered Captives, the first book in Jill Williamson's The Safe Lands series. The book was temporarily free on Kindle and I snapped it up, just because I wanted something new to read.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the book. I loved it in pretty much the same way that I loved The Hunger Games. And I was very impatient for the release of Outcasts, and the day I downloaded the book to my Kindle I got absolutely nothing done around the house until the book was finished.

Now, I'm not saying that The Safe Lands series is 'just like' The Hunger Games. There are major differences. And for all I know author Jill Williamson hasn't even read The Hunger Games--- The Safe Lands series is by no means a 'copycat' effort.

But there are some similarities that I think will make the books popular with those who enjoyed The Hunger Games. They are:

1. Both books are set in the future, after apocalyptic events. In The Safe Lands, the apocalypse is caused by a plague.

2. Both books contrast an evil and decadent power against less-powerful and more down-to-earth people. In The Hunger Games it's the Capitol vs. the Districts, in The Safe Lands the decadent power is the Safe Lands, while the people living outside the Safe Lands are the more down-to-earth people.

3. In both books, young people must struggle to survive the outrages perpetrated on them by the decadent power. In The Hunger Games, it's Katniss and Peeta trying to survive the Games, in The Safe Lands it's Omar, Mason, Levi, Shaylinn and others trying to survive their kidnapping by the Safe Lands authorities, who mean to use them to produce healthy children as they are uninfected with the plague.

There are some major differences in the books as well. They are:

1. In The Hunger Games, the very concept of religious faith is not mentioned, even in passing. In The Safe Lands series, the major characters come from a Christian community, and the non-Christian beliefs of the Safe Lands are also mentioned.

2. The Hunger Games is very bloodily, explicitly violent, and much of the violence affects young people. In The Safe Lands series, there is some bloodshed but it doesn't dominate the story.

3. In The Hunger Games, the subject of temptation doesn't seem to exist. We never see Katniss or Peeta expressing a desire to live in the Capitol and enjoy the decadent lifestyle there. In The Safe Lands, we see that some of the young people are very tempted by the lifestyle of the Safe Lands, and a few go out to experience the decadence for themselves.

4. The Hunger Games is centered on Katniss, in The Safe Lands series there are a number of different viewpoint characters the reader can identify with, including some strong male characters (guys need that the way girls need strong female characters.)

I feel that both Outcasts and the first book in the series, Captives, are very powerful fictional works that will appeal to a great many readers--- both fans of The Hunger Games and critics of it. And although it's Christian fiction, I don't think non-Christian readers should rule it out. It's a great series.

Outcasts – http://www.amazon.com/Outcasts-Safe-Lands-Jill-Williamson/dp/0310724244/
Author Website – http://www.jillwilliamson.com/

Red Bissell
Thomas Fletcher Booher
Beckie Burnham
Pauline Creeden
April Erwin
Victor Gentile
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Jason Joyner
Julie Bihn
Carol Keen
Shannon McDermott
Meagan @ Blooming with Books
Melanie @ Christian Bookshelf Reviews
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Nissa Annakindt
Jalynn Patterson
Writer Rani
Chawna Schroeder
Jacque Stengl
Jojo Sutis
Steve Trower
Phyllis Wheeler
Deborah Wilson

My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt