I've Got The Fire Back!

Since Nanowrimo, I've been on a little hiatus. I edited all through December, but when January hit, I was in a slump. February didn't see an end to it. But here we are in March, and suddenly I have found my fire again.


Firstly, I have been working hard to maintain my blogs and website. I'm tweeting like a madwoman and writing ficlatte's while looking up writing contests. I have found a few that strike my fancy.


While puttering around on my blogs, I found my niche! That's a good thing because now I can try to market myself. I've been trying hard to do that for a while.



The one glitch in the system is that MailChimp and I have been fighting each other. Apparently, I need to build an email list to work on promotion. MailChimp is free, but not the most user-friendly. I have been trying to give out a free PDF and people aren't biting. I realized that the links are not working and the free stuff does NOT integrate with MailChimp. I even tried avoiding the PDF file altogether and just linking to a view only version on Google Docs and when I clicked on it from my test email, it failed.

Anyway, I'm reading , writing, and pushing forward after a rough start to 2018. I expect more hiccups to come, but for now, I'm enjoying the escalating ride up the hill. I hope it leads to an exhilarating ride.

Wordpress Website Fun

I found out, months later, that I actually paid for two domains when I paid Wordpress for my website.

I spent some time fleshing out those two and creating links and funnels between them. Basically, one is a landing page of sorts, complete with our short stories - hawkandyoung.com -

hawkandyoung.com

hawkandyoung.wordpress.com

 - and the other has our blog.  - hawkandyoung.wordpress.com Both have the same information for Contact and About and What We Do.

The trick was to make the link for 'blog' go to the wordpress.com site as well as link back to the main site when you clicked on 'home' while you were on the blog site.


But this all came about because I found my OLD Wordpress blog Spoonfuls of Sugar and I decided to use what I've learned from website building to make Spoonfuls better.

dailyspoonfulsofsugar.wordpress.com  (old website design)

And I edited the content and started using it to share positive posts. I'm a pretty laid-back and positive person, but I've noticed a growing trend with bouts of loneliness and depression in myself. I think it's something I'm going to keep track of.

Back to the websites...

It took me several hours to figure out what each tabbed part does on the Wordpress dashboard in order to customize my website. Some themes do things differently. I found a new theme I liked and changed Spoonfuls. There are a couple basic things I need to edit, but I like the thumbnail images for people to select the positive message they feel they need right now, or what speaks to them. I know that's how I want to use it.

dailyspoonfulsofsugar.wordpress.com

New website design!

I thought about making a website, and paying for it, for ElshaHawk, but having two sites for HawkandYoung, one for Spoonfuls, as well as two Blogger blogs, two Facebook pages, two Twitter accounts, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, two Amazon author pages, and multiple ebook sites, I'm pretty busy!

I'm getting good at automating these accounts, however. Wordpress is great at sharing across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and other social media sites. Blogger, not so much. Marketing is getting faster. I only need some sort of money maker and I'm golden!

If You Can't Think of Anything to Write, Insert A Dragon

I Did It!

I overcame my fear with a compromise. I started a webpage for my co-author and myself.

hawkandyoung.wordpress.com

I went with the free version for now, to learn how to add pictures, choose a theme, and post blogs. I am paying for hosting. Perhaps I will one day upgrade to a paid domain, but for now I am content.

Hawk and Young have a Facebook page, a Twitter, and a YouTube, but there are only two videos. My goal for the summer is to script some video.

Why the dragon? The book we are currently working on involves a dragon.

Plus, 'if you can't think if anything to write, insert a dragon'. :)

We haven't been stuck without anything to write with this story. Young had an outline planned a year ago. Outlines rock!

This story started out with a dragon and has grown to be so much more. When we work together, we have more ideas. You'd expect that with two brains instead of one. The fun part is listening to them and working them into a cohesive whole.

We've stuck pretty closely to the outline. I expressed an opinion about a female character that we need to do more with, and he agreed, so we'll add that when we get there. I've done some research into Flora and Fauna of the area, as well as fishing practices and old legends. Good writing takes research.

#Didyouknow that the dragonship of the Vikings used to be thought cursed and ships bearing the dragon were not allowed on the coast of Iceland. Now the boats are part of their heritage and embraced.

BIG SPRING BREAK Project

Instagram.

How many of you have it?

This is my BIG SPRING BREAK project: Implement Instagram.

I can link to blog posts like these, where I talk about being an author. I can link to my other blog where I talk about love and wellness. AND I can link to LinkedIn, my Facebook author page, and hopefully very soon my author webpage.

I have learned how to use hashtags, how to engage people, and how to network.

#Didyouknow @Elshahawk is a #YA and #fantasy #author? She dabbles in #nonfiction too. She has an awesome #coauthor. Together they are @hawkandyoung.

Oooh, I think I have to create a Twitter account for HawkandYoung...

After I see what awesomeness I can create for ElshaHawk, I'll try to do the same for HawkandYoung.

All I have to do now is