Well, today's post has much to do with bugs, imps and other pests. The ones that creep out of dark corners, drop from the ceiling and scamper across your path. Now, one could reasonably say, what do these things have in common with writing? Other than the first thought that pops into one's mind after the initial reaction "Ick!" Plenty. If one watches them enough, they could stir the imagination in ways never traveled.
For instance, I would sit and wonder what an ant thought if it noticed me watching it. What was that antennae waving about for? How did that one get so big? Bringing me to the next thought-mutations, bringing me to the next one-chemical, natural, no enemies? Fine and dandy. 'Cept those aren't exactly what I was referring to when dealing with this month's bugs, imps and other pests.
As you know, if you've been following my writing career, I've been accepted over to the JukePop Serials site. Whereupon, I happily proceeded to post my chapters. Being as this particular book is a set of short stories with a Storyteller as the link between each, I've had to publish it by scenes of about 1000 words. I thought I could save the chapters in draft form, you know the review button which saves the chapter whilst one tweaks little things, such as typos, spelling errors and anything else one didn't notice before submitting. Therein lay the start of this months particular adventure. Or rather,misadventure.
I had made an edit to the very first chapter, adding in a suggestion from a reader over to the Camp NaNoWriMo site. Duly hit the publish button. Next, having inherited some of the impatience I occasionally complain about from my father, I hit the back button on the wrong tab. Thereby, reminding me that I mustn't ever have the million and one tabs, windows and documents open. Apparently, I am one of those who do not pay as much attention to the clicks on the many tabs on the task bar of my trusty computer as I've discovered time and again, resulting in my determination to change my ways after discovering another error in my ways.
Discovering a loop in the book caused me to send an email to the overworked personnel over to the site. As it was the start of a holiday weekend, I duly notified my readers on my Facebook page and maybe Twitter (or not, can't remember.) Then, impatience reared it's ugly head and I notified JukePop on their Twitter account. Searched in vain for the DM and once again, discovered that all the millions upon millions of Twitter users have discovered how to disable the DM and I haven't.
So, a dilemma presented itself to my weary little bird brain. Should I or Shouldn't I? I contemplated, meditated and debated this question with myself over the course of the next 24 hours or so. Yep, I tweeted a message. The guys at JukePop proceeded to fix my mistake. Yay. All was back to normal.
I thought.
I got a question or two from a trusty reader who was having a bit of a problem with Chapter 5 sending her into a loop. Of course, I had noticed this myself. But I discovered that if I went to the chapter links, I could get to the right chapter. So I proceeded to show her the tabs, etc that she'd need, i.e. Bookshelf, chapter and Voting button. We got her safely past the redirect loop. That reminds me, she wanted my PayPal email which I still haven't put up on the site. Now, should I rush off and do that now whilst I'm thinking about? Best not.
Anyways, I discovered the same loop redirect and this time, finally hit the "learn more" link. Whereupon, I discovered that I needed to clear my cookies and cache. Which I happily did, forgetting that I would need to sign in to all the various sites once again, as I haven't mastered the art of clearing just one site's cookies.
So, I proceed to my Blogger dashboard, intending to finish my post I had started at the beginning of this current fiasco I created for myself. Much to my dismay, I couldn't bring up my post editor. Spent a vicious headachy period trying to discover what I had done. Those moments weren't as frantic as the time a year or so ago, when I had clicked on one of those imps of the spam world, but still threatened to send me into a full blown panic.
Then, I remembered that I had bookmarked another trusty helper on the Blogger forums known as Nitecruzer. Yes. Paid attention to his remarks, which happily didn't confuse me more as my headache disappeared. He asked a couple simple questions and I clicked the links and read his posts. I was just about to send the overworked team over to Blogger forums a request when I remembered an extension had been added, enabled and left to work it's mysterious ways upon my browser.
I disabled that pest and voila! Here I am, happily posting and reading and going about my business as usual. Hmmm. I saw a big ant making it's way across the boardwalk outside. Thinking I'll check it out.
26 May 2014
04 May 2014
The Inner Workings of Marketing my way
Sad to say, I've been so busy the past couple months, what with reality, getting my short stories up on Jukepop, trying to get this and that done, I've only now gone to check Google Analytics. Ohhh. I really need to get some income from my books in order to keep up with that sort of stuff.
Well, analytics is something I've always tried to keep to the basics until I can get someone to do the stuff for me. I consider the basics as a better read on who is reading my blogs, when the most traffic is. And no, it doesn't give me personal info. That sort of stuff is not my cup of tea. At any rate, I decided in the wee hours of the morning to check my account.
Huhh. A whole new setup met my wide eyes, confused my poor little bird brain and sent me scrambling to find out why I had errors. Two of them, mind now, it shouldn't make that much difference. Says two of my blog posts weren't verified or some such event. Whilst checking that out, I found out that I had indeed verified these things during the last round of marketing stuff which I totally added to the longish list of things for my marketing analyst to do. If and when I ever get one.
Anyways, the whole thing was actually quite simple. Seeings how I hadn't visited that much put upon site in a few months, which I frantically decided to just leave for the time being the last time, most of the work had already been done for me. Yay. Doing cartwheels. Now, all I had to do was add the tracking code.
Happily I proceeded to do so. That's relatively easy, since I had spent quite some time learning to do just that. For further enlightenment, you can check out various blog posts on any of my blogs which can be gotten from my Google+ page, I think, I hope. Thus I made the following discoveries:
1. Dashboard made more sense. Only a few clicks to get to where I wanted to go.
2. Easier for me to find out where the confusion sprang from when last I tried to get something done over there.
3. Put the code exactly where it needed to be, found out I hadn't even put one in one or two places, so I renamed the 'properties." (teehee, makes me think of wealthy land barons, for some reason.)
4. Now, there are a whole lot of other thingamabobs, thingamajiggies, bells and whistles that can be added. Happily, I don't need them at this time.
Now, I'm hoping that I really can leave the current setup until I can hire that marketing analyst. For now, I'm content with my blog being read, my short story collection finding its place in this big wide world and my social links appear to be working just fine. Adios, aloha, giigawabimin noongom.
Well, analytics is something I've always tried to keep to the basics until I can get someone to do the stuff for me. I consider the basics as a better read on who is reading my blogs, when the most traffic is. And no, it doesn't give me personal info. That sort of stuff is not my cup of tea. At any rate, I decided in the wee hours of the morning to check my account.
Huhh. A whole new setup met my wide eyes, confused my poor little bird brain and sent me scrambling to find out why I had errors. Two of them, mind now, it shouldn't make that much difference. Says two of my blog posts weren't verified or some such event. Whilst checking that out, I found out that I had indeed verified these things during the last round of marketing stuff which I totally added to the longish list of things for my marketing analyst to do. If and when I ever get one.
Anyways, the whole thing was actually quite simple. Seeings how I hadn't visited that much put upon site in a few months, which I frantically decided to just leave for the time being the last time, most of the work had already been done for me. Yay. Doing cartwheels. Now, all I had to do was add the tracking code.
Happily I proceeded to do so. That's relatively easy, since I had spent quite some time learning to do just that. For further enlightenment, you can check out various blog posts on any of my blogs which can be gotten from my Google+ page, I think, I hope. Thus I made the following discoveries:
1. Dashboard made more sense. Only a few clicks to get to where I wanted to go.
2. Easier for me to find out where the confusion sprang from when last I tried to get something done over there.
3. Put the code exactly where it needed to be, found out I hadn't even put one in one or two places, so I renamed the 'properties." (teehee, makes me think of wealthy land barons, for some reason.)
4. Now, there are a whole lot of other thingamabobs, thingamajiggies, bells and whistles that can be added. Happily, I don't need them at this time.
Now, I'm hoping that I really can leave the current setup until I can hire that marketing analyst. For now, I'm content with my blog being read, my short story collection finding its place in this big wide world and my social links appear to be working just fine. Adios, aloha, giigawabimin noongom.
03 May 2014
Niiganabiik's World
I've started a separate page for Niiganabiik's World on Facebook. Links will be posted on the page for books set in my world. Of course, the first book I've released is a serial on #JukepopSerials Stories of the People Niiganabiik's World. Now that the first bit of excitement has passed, I am settling down and extending an invitation for you to join me in Niiganabiik's World.
The Storyteller* - recounts history, adventures and visions of the People. They are chosen for their acting ability in childhood, trained in memory techniques and practice every day until they can pass a rigorous test. They tell stories each Moon detailing some important event that occurred in that Moon, sometimes, two or more events.
Stories are divided: those for the People are told during the cold Moons of Winter, those for Clans at various clan gatherings during the other seasons, and ones for Family are bedtime stories. Naturally, being fun-loving people, the stories for the family are the most repeated, the most loved and may or may not be included in the great, formal stories told for all the People. Clan stories are only told during Clan gatherings for the specific Clan.
Thus, ends the first look into Niiganabiik's World. For more, please join me on Facebook or Jukepop Serials. Chii-Miigwitch, many thanks for reading, for supporting me and having faith in me.
*A link that explains Storytelling within the Anishinabe culture for those so minded to know.
The Storyteller* - recounts history, adventures and visions of the People. They are chosen for their acting ability in childhood, trained in memory techniques and practice every day until they can pass a rigorous test. They tell stories each Moon detailing some important event that occurred in that Moon, sometimes, two or more events.
Stories are divided: those for the People are told during the cold Moons of Winter, those for Clans at various clan gatherings during the other seasons, and ones for Family are bedtime stories. Naturally, being fun-loving people, the stories for the family are the most repeated, the most loved and may or may not be included in the great, formal stories told for all the People. Clan stories are only told during Clan gatherings for the specific Clan.
Thus, ends the first look into Niiganabiik's World. For more, please join me on Facebook or Jukepop Serials. Chii-Miigwitch, many thanks for reading, for supporting me and having faith in me.
*A link that explains Storytelling within the Anishinabe culture for those so minded to know.
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