Friday FIll-Ins: Edition 140 (my edition 2)

Graphic courtesy of Tonya!

1. That's a bitch to be.

2. You who! I'm over here!

3. The possibilities include: life and death.

4. Chili spaghetti & cheese is one of my favorite cool day recipes.

5. How will you know me after all these years?

6. A day off, a soft bed, a hot guy and a stormy sky. If no hot guy, then a steamy romance novel.

7. See my other # 7 from #140

I'm a week late for this version #140 so if I get the chance after the day job tomorrow I'll add edition #141 beneath this. 1. I feel inspired - I just watched Julie & Julia again and have a lot more ideas for my blog. For instance, I'm still going to write about writing and my books, but I'll add more tidbits for transparency, like Julie did with her cooking project. 2. Blogging is always fun. - Even when it feels like working. :) 3. Right now, I can hear these things: my husband complaining, my daughter rolling her eyes (yes, I can HEAR that very LOUDLY!), the TV in the other room (undoubtedly a cop show knowing my hubby), and the hum of the ceiling fan. 4. It's TGIF and I'm glad I don't have to wear fancy shoes and clothes for the next two days! 5. The last time I saw people dress like Julia Child was in my parents' wedding photos. (It was pretty cool to imagine what it was like when my parents got married in 1950 about the same year Julia Child's sister Dorothy got married. I'm a genealogy buff so I love this sort of thing). 6. Except for seeing Transformers 2 at the theater, I vegged out this past Labor day weekend. 7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to blogging and Twittering probably, tomorrow my plans include baking in the Sun and walking at my daughter's softball games and Sunday, I want to see Star Trek at the dollar theater - I hope it's still there! Let me expand on what I mentioned in fill-in number one: Although I've done it to a point, I'm going to TRY to express more of my feelings about writing and the publishing and promoting process in this blog. I'm also going to TRY and log at least one promotional thing I've done new each day. To kick this off, I found "LinkMommy.com" through a tweet on Twitter which I'm exploring as I blog. Did I mention I was ADHD? I have to multi-task or die. My idea of the worst torture is to make me do only one thing - well, maybe it's second next to getting eaten alive by an alligator or shark. On LinkMommy I found job ads which isn't exactly promoting, but if you've been following me, you know I'm anxious for my adult daughters to get gainful employment. I very happily and quickly sent the link to them to check out. I can't exactly vouch for LinkMommy, but I am going to check it out. The quote about free and very low cost advertising caught my interest. Of course, "low cost" is in the eye of the beholder. My idea of low cost is usually no more than $30.00 and really more like $10.00 or under. Free is extremely good for me. :) Weekends, like I mentioned in Fill-In #7 is the time I usually tour blog land and surf the net looking for promo opportunities and fun things. While most other people are taking weekends off, this is my main time to partake of my second job (writing/promoting). You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

RT Promo iIems?

For the past several days, I've been checking out promo items to have made for the RT convention in April. I can't make up my mind. Of course all of us authors want items that will compel readers to buy a gadzillion of our books, to buy all our backlist and all our future books. We want items the readers will keep and thus remind them of us for a long time into the future. We want items that will stand out in the crowd. And we want items that won't make us go broke. Um... That's a pretty tall order. At least it's perplexing the heck out of me. There's a couple things I'm thinking about. I hesitate to mention which things here because if hundreds of authors haven't already thought about them, I want to keep it unusual. When I'm at a readers' conference, I love to pick up pens. I usually look at the author's website. But does everybody? Hopefully. I definitely don't want to invest in something like a candy bar wrapper that'll be thrown away after one use and at most get one glance, however much appreciated. Bookmarks are another good buy for the money, but there are usually hundreds of them. How many will a reader honestly use and reread? Yet again, what other promo item can you purchase 100 for $17.95? You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)