Writer Appreciation Week

by Marsha Ward

Agent Nathan Bransford has proclaimed this Writer Appreciation Week. It's a good idea, and I encourage you to implement it by showing your appreciation to your favorite writer, living or dead.

One way you can accomplish this, if your fav is living, is by seeking out their online presence and sending them a message of gratitude. Do they blog, have a Facebook, Goodreads, or Twitter account, book trailers posted on YouTube, or have a contact process on their website? Spread the love. Tell them how much you admire their work. Go to Amazon.com and make a comment on one of their books.

And that brings up books. Have you bought one this week? Go do it!

A Glimpse at a Character in My Head

by Marsha Ward

Oops! I never should have brought up the subject of my character Elijah Marshall on my Character blog. He's demanding that I introduce him to you. Since I don't think any of The Zion Trail is on disk anywhere, I'll have to wing it from a typescript. Problem is, I have a couple of differing copies. I guess I'll try the one on top. It's probably the latest revision. Ha! From back in the late 80s! With two spaces after a period! I'll try to restrain my Inner Editor as I type. Here goes: Elijah Marshall in all his imperfect First Person glory.

THE ZION TRAIL
by Marsha Ward
Excerpt from Chapter One

As I made a half-circle at the end of the row, I pulled the horse to a halt, swept off my old hat, and wiped the trickles of sweat from my eyes with the back of my wrist. I ran my fingers through my dripping black hair to train it back from my eyes before I replaced my hat. Settling the shade once again on my head, my eyes caught a movement far up the road to my right. (Yikes! A big woopsie!)

Across the rows of fresh young corn stalks I saw the dust rising slowly into the air as two figures walked along the dry surface of the lane. I knew them for strangers by their dress, for no one in our area wore a black suit except on Sunday, and this was Tuesday.

Curiosity was part of my makeup, so I leaned on the plow a while, watching their progress and wondering about their errand. They saw me, and hopped the ditch to approach the fence as they came alongside my position.

At fifteen, I had reached nearly my full growth, and I wasn't beyond considering myself a man. I did as much as my father on the farm, except for the planning and the worrying, so I wasn't surprised when they hailed me as a man.

"Hello, Brother. Can you give us a drink?" the taller man called, indicating my water bucket under a nearby tree.

I wrapped the lines around the plow handles and strode to the fence. "Plenty, and welcome." I bent to shoo away a drinking yellowjacket, and lifted the pail to the top of the fence.

The taller man drank first, and I saw that he was older by three or four years than the shorter man. As they slaked their thirst, I wondered how long since they had tasted water, for they drank with great gusto, and an air of thankfulness.

Their suits were covered with the fine dust that abounded on our roads, but they seemed not to mind, giving all their thoughts to dipping water down their dusty throats.

While the shorter man drank, the taller one looked at me and smiled. "It's been a long, dusty walk. We're thankful for the water. I am Nathan Caldwell, and my companion is Matthew Long. We are ministers of the gospel, and would welcome the opportunity to preach in your neighborhood."

I stuck out my hand and pumped his. "My name is Elijah Marshal, and my pa will be glad to see you. He's a God-fearing man, and every man of the Lord is welcome in his house." I squinted up at the sun. "It's nearly dinner time. Come and eat with us."

Mr. Long grinned his acceptance as Mr. Caldwell nodded.

"Just follow the road to the first lane on the right," I directed them. "Tell my ma I sent you. I'll be along with the horse by and by."

They waved their thanks as I hauled the bucket off the fence and turned back to the plow. Old Tom still stood where I'd reined him in, flicking flies away with his tail and standing three-legged in the sun. His ears twitched at my approach, and I patted his flank before I unhitched him from the plow.

"Tom, boy, we've got company. Won't that make Ma's eyes dance!"

Blogging Seminar

by Marsha Ward

Last Saturday I attended a seminar on Blogging. The main speaker was Dave Barnhart, whose business in Phoenix, Arizona, is called Business Blogging Pros. He also, naturally, has a blog for his business.

Here are some of the highlights of what I learned about how a blog can help a business owner, or by extension, a writer.

• It gets you Google juice. Google loves blogs, primarily because they always have new content. Therefore, your name or business name, can be on the top of the search engine lists if you blog with regularity.
• It's free exposure. Influential people, like newspaper reporters and magazine editors, read the blogosphere. They might need background for an article, or is could be a slow news day and your input is just the thing they want to highlight.
• It provides direct access for your clients/customers/readers. Once example Dave mentioned is GM Fastlane, wherein the management of a giant automobile company interacts with customers, actually providing customer service!
• It humanizes you and builds trust in you and your business. This leads to the possibility that customers will drive past your competitors to buy your products, even when they are priced higher!
• It leads to conversation in which your business is the topic.
• It improves your business's image. Having a blog today is comparable to having a website in 1994. It brands you as a forward thinking, cutting edge business. Websites are pretty static, but blogs are highly updatable. Businesses need both.
  

Dave pointed out the usefulness of using business blogs to educate and inform, to do customer service, and to target the customer's needs. Writers do the same things with their blogs, in a writerly way.

Frustrations

by Marsha Ward

It's been a heck of a day.

First of all, I can't seem to get my fingers to hit the right keys. I think that's because, even though it's almost the middle of May, for gosh sakes, I'm freezing. My fingers are kinda numb.

Second of all, MSWord seems bent on killing my novel. It keeps telling me it has encountered a problem and has to shut down. Then it's been telling me it doesn't want to recover my book file because somewhere along the way it became corrupted. Pish and tush! Not true!

So, I decided to turn off the computer for a couple of hours and see if that helps Word get over its snit. I haven't tried it yet, since I just turned the computer back on, and remembered that I was suppose to blog here today.

The third thing is, Blogger is acting kind of weird. First I got the little yellow pencils that tell me I can edit the post. The problem is, I was on someone else's blog. Then I tried to log in, and Blogger wouldn't let me. I finally got on, and whew, I'm here, but I don't have much to say.

Fortunately, on the novel thing, I have backup files all over the place, and another computer with a better behaved Word. Right now, though, I'm going to bed and see if the morning brings a better outlook on life and some warmth to my house. C'ya next week.

Revisiting Spam and Other Curiosities

by Marsha Ward

Hmm. There's something so, um, cosmic about getting two spamming comments to a post where I complained about spammers. [they're gone now]

Although the comments were written in English--and were identical except for the links--they went to blogs written in Portuguese. One was for a book promising all kinds of surprises having to do with electricity, like cures for unsavory life styles. The other promised to help me eliminate cellulite.

I guess I could use pointers on cellulite elimination, but I'd have to struggle too hard to read them in a foreign language that is only somewhat similar to one I can read without too much trouble.

One wonders why these kinds of blogs only have one post to them. And no profile.

One also wonders why I get all the spammers who speak Portuguese. Do people google words like the names of languages to find places to spam? Did I ever mention that language here? Surely a blog like this would show up far down the list in a Google search. You'd think, huh?

Spanish. Spanish, Spanish, Spanish! Western novels. The Man from Shenandoah. Ride to Raton. There's some fodder for the search engine robots.

And how did Google become a verb?

7 Things About Me

by Marsha Ward

Stephanie Black's "7 Things About Me" tag from the Six LDS Writers and a Frog Blog continues:

1) One of the great things that I've discovered about Blogger is the "Post Options" feature. It allows a poster to customize his or her delivery date and time. So, although I'm posting this a day late, to you it will appear that I'm a normal, on-time sort of person, with all my faculties, instead of an ADD-afflicted klutz. Ha!

Hmmm, I'll go back and make that Number 1. Heh-heh.

2) I finished the manuscript for my next novel yesterday, um, today, er, make that on Wednesday!

3) This is the third time I've "finished" it. It's a totally different book now than it was the first two times.

4) Now I can continue in the frantic novel-reading segment of time that, I suspect, will become a January and February Tradition.

5) That's because I'm a member of the Whitney Academy, and thus a judge in the final round for the Whitney Awards.

6) I'm a member of the Academy because I'm a member of LDStorymakers, Inc.

7) I need to send in my dues. Today! Thank goodness for PayPal!

What is a Blog?

A year and a half ago, I had no idea what a blog was. I was watching Nancy Grace one night when she was talking about a man who had been arrested and there was incriminating evidence on his blog. And, I said, "what is a blog." I had never heard of the word before. A little after that, LDS Publisher announced her blog and I finally realized what it was. And, I was hooked. I checked her blog every day. My only question was, where was she two years ago when I really needed her.

Before LDS Publisher, there were the LDS Storymakers who I also love. I read both of their books- Publishing Secrets and Writing Secrets. They were both extremely helpful. And then there was the series of questions I e-mailed Tamra Norton about publishing. (I don't know if she remembers those, but thanks for answering them).

Anyway, I just really love LDS Publisher and thank her extremely for her blog. After that, I was hooked on blogs now that I figured out what they were. And thanks to her list of blogs, I started reading Six LDS Writers and A Frog, along with Josi Kilpack's blog and Tristi Pinkston's blog. Then, I was really hooked. And then, the genius ladies came up with Writers in Heels so I could check all my favorite blogs on one site and I have enjoyed the other women who blog there.

I started my own blog and will probably post there once in a while, but I think I will really enjoy blogging here at the Ink Ladies. I can handle posting once a week, and I like hearing from the others. Blogs are great, now that I know what one is.

Group Blogging

A few days ago I was approached by some authors about participating in a group blog. My initial reaction was very similar to when I was finally asked to the Senior Ball—“Yay—someone wants me!” (Okay, so my date’s name was Ralph, and we never went out again after that night, but I have photographic evidence that it took place: http://tamranorton.com/about_tamra.html . Scan down. I’m the one in the homemade red dress that really was cute back in 1982.) But I digress…


The group blog situation is ideal for me. I suppose now is as good’a time as any to admit that, yes, I’m a group-type person—groupy—groupster. Let’s just say that I enjoy my association with others. And no wonder; I was raised the fifth of eight siblings (7 girls, 1 boy). My life began as a group experience and I’ve never known otherwise. Growing up, I never had my own bedroom, I shared clothes, make-up and every childhood illness requiring pink medicine or Vicks VapoRub—Mom’s cure-all.



Now, in a matter of one generation, I’m in the same situation. I still share a bedroom (although now my “roommate” is devastatingly handsome and has the tendency to snore while sleeping on his back. But if we ever start sharing clothes and make-up, the gig is up!) Oh, and in the Norton household (7 darlings, ages 5 to 21), we recently endured a week-long strep throat epidemic: 3 doctor visits, 1 penicillin shot, a lot of the pink stuff.



Some might ask, “Isn’t writing a solitary endeavor?” Actually, I wish I had more “solitary” to support this “endeavor.” Since we’re homeschoolers and enjoy “Family Home Life,” I snag every solitary moment I can to write. Aside from the midnight hours or hiding away in my bedroom (they always find me), my favorite solitary writing situation is the evening or Saturday afternoon escape to Whataburger where I’m freakishly productive considering the “oldies” soundtrack blaring in the background, and noisy patrons eating and staring at a lady typing with one hand while stuffing fries into her mouth with the other. Hey, if it works...



Regardless of where I write, I’m never alone; I have my characters to keep me company…which is another topic for another blog. It’s late now and time for bed. My guy's already snoring. But first, I have to put on some Vicks VapoRub—I have a cough.