SHIRTLESS MEN

                               

What's with all the shirtless men?   Not just any old, out of shape, sweaty, shirtless men, mowing the lawn in the heat of summer, but men with visible six packs and other assorted muscles.   Hairless-chested men.   Men with pained, longing expressions on their perfectly featured faces, the wind riffling slightly through their hair.  We see them in profile, in full face, without a head and even only their, still muscular, backs.   Talk about objectifying someone.  

I've been looking at book covers.  I've recently ventured into writing a couple of novellas in the 'sweet romance' or 'clean romance' genre.   In an attempt to be a little bit entrepreneurial I decided to scope out the competition on Amazon.   That's when I realized that romance involves no shirt--at least for the men, although a few of them have merely unbuttoned their shirts and flung them open to the camera.   

I was going to add a few cover shots but I don't want to appear to be criticizing any particular author or book.   In a way, it is poetic justice that all these hairless men with sculpted muscles occupy the same position that the Size 0, airbrushed to perfection, models on women's magazines do.   Something to make the average guy feel he's just not measuring up.

Whatever you're fishing for!

                                                                           

     

One of my two cats

I had time to waste on the internet on a recent weekend and decided to read some other author blogs.   I've realized that I started this blog a year ago next month and I've been posting twice a week ever since.  Some writers have been blogging a lot longer.  So far I haven't run out of things to write about.

I visited about  eighteen author blogs and came to realize with a small amount of chagrin, that I have been doing this all wrong.   Many authors write about their books: their covers, their editing, their agents, their release dates.   I do a little of that in that I write if a new book is available.   But since I have the handy Shelfari bookshelf to the right which leads to my books, or most of them, I've decided that's almost enough.  (Since I drafted this, I wrote the previous post which does give more detail.)

It was also confirmed to me, which I have pondered on previously,  that some authors haven't posted for a long time--months or even years.   Perhaps blogging took away too much of their writing time.

Some authors put pictures of their pets on their blogs.  Since I have four adorable pets--two dogs and two cats--I've been depriving my blog readers of the opportunity to see them in all their magnificence.  I also noticed photographs of baking efforts and renovations.

Some blog posters are quite political, scorning this or that politician and particular laws or bills.   Since I'm Canadian, I try to avoid commenting on American politics.    I suppose the closest I come to political comment is some observations I've made in my travels in regards to the poverty that exists in some countries.  

Some sites have contests, freebies, pre-orders and book signing details, advice about dogs, recipes . . .   I could do that.   Maybe.

The conclusion:   Author blogs are diverse and varied and there should be something for everyone.   Kind of like books!  Whatever you're fishing for!

GETTING YOUR DUCKS IN A ROW

                                                                               

I read this on The Passive Voice today (a post by May from Smexy Books:)

"So as a consumer, I do like to know what I’m getting into. If I’m thinking about starting a series, trying a new book, or especially when I read a book I really like, I immediately visit the author’s website. I want to know if they have books I’m not aware of, what they’ll work on next, and generally any information I need to make note of for future reading goodness.

. . . .

This could be done by having an “about” page for the series, a FAQ page, or just a “thanks for visiting my site, here’s what I’m working on…” type paragraph or two that you keep as up-to-date as possible. Even if the note is “I’m writing the next book, expect it in a 2014”,  or “at this time I am developing a new series, more information to come this summer” this is information I want."

My conscience twigged me when I read this and I felt I had to rectify the situation without too much delay.   You can see the covers of all my books in the Shelfari book shelf to the right.  Here is the list of books with some hopefully useful notes:

Jaswinder Mystery Series:  

First book in series:        Operatory of Death  - takes place in a dental clinic in Surrey, B.C.
Second book in series:   Death at Table 15  -  takes place in a restaurant in Surrey, B.C.
Third book in series:      Counting on Danger  - takes place in Las Vegas
Fourth book in series:    If Llamas Could Talk  - takes place in Surrey, B.C.

These books don't have to be read in order and can stand alone but, if it was me, I would prefer to read them in order.  They do take place chronologically.

The next 'set' of books are my contemporary dystopian fiction.   I've recently read the suggestion that writers should use a different pen name for each genre.   Oops, too late!  There are two books so far in this category:

A New Premise  - a stand alone book
When Bees Die  -  Part 1 of a trilogy.   I'm working on Part 2 at the present.

Finally, as I've recently written, I've ventured into the Romance genre as I know this is a popular one.  The two books are what are described as novellas, that is, shorter than a novel.

First book in series:       Maui:   Here We Come!
Second book in series:  Return to Maui

Now my conscience is somewhat assuaged.   And if I haven't mentioned it before:
                                          
                                                 Thanks for visiting my site!!

Sweet Romance List

I want to mention a list of 'sweet' romances which Marti Talbott, the writer I interviewed here a week ago, has compiled   You'll find the list here.   Have a look if you're interested in romance novels of this type with great stories and characters.  You'll find my books Maui:  Here We Come and Return to Maui listed here.




                                                             

Search Engine Optimization

                                                                      

Search Engine Optimization or SEO  is self-explanatory in its meaning but difficult to achieve in reality.  Think about it:   When you search or Google a word, a phrase, a person, a topic, how many pages do you scroll through before you either find what you are looking for or give up?   Probably not more than two or three.    So the goal of every business, service or book is to locate themselves as near to the top of the first page.  

This is where I stop writing this post and spend two hours googling every possible word that could relate to one of my books and see if, unlikely though it may seen, one of my books pops up.

I'm joking.  I have tried this on Amazon (in the books or Kindle category)  and wrote about it previously and found it quite accurate but to have a book appear in a more general world wide search--now that would be something.  

It seems that the thing to do is to carefully choose the keyword that would bring potential readers of your book and ensure that word or phrase appears one to two percent of the time on each page of your website.   So for example, if I chose the phrase Bees Die to reflect my book When Bees Die, I should repeat that phrase every one hundred words or every five or six lines.    I'm not sure how I could keep working that into any discussion or conversation.   Maybe it could just float around like a piece of lint on the post that everyone has agreed to ignore until some unfortunate person decides to sweep it up.

THE COSTCO EFFECT

The title of this post refers to the propensity by some shoppers to buy a six month supply of something because the price is so good.  I'm not a Costco shopper.   I went into the store once, maybe fifteen years ago, and was given a one day pass to try it out.   At that time, the idea of paying to shop seemed repugnant to me but many others have paid the annual membership fee.

My impression of Costco then was that products were located in any location so that roast beef was next racks of jeans.   The other thing I recall was the size of the packages.   Boxes of Oreo cookies were the size of jumbo cereal boxes.  Sure, the unit price was less but somehow I predicted the savings would be lost in excess consumption.


                                                               

It's a little like the free e-books out there.   Kindle owners--or owners of other e-book reading devices--can find it difficult to resist 'free'.   Some of them have thousands of free books loaded on their devices.   Will they all eventually be read?   How many other times do you see free things?   Two for one--yes; fifty percent off--yes;  even air miles or other loyalty points--but free?   Not so much.   I recently read a book called Overdressed; The shockingly high cost of cheap fashion in which the author bemoaned the over-consumption and disposability of cheap clothes.  Women are buying multiple versions of the same item because of the low prices.   Now just imagine if they were free!

IF MY MOTHER COULD SEE ME NOW!

Another fictional offering from a prompt (If my mother could see me now!) from my Writers' Group:

                                                                     


     If my mother could see me now she'd give me a piece of her mind . . . and it would take her a long time to do it.  She had opposed my marrying Louis, right from the start.   'A dreamer' had been her pronouncement after meeting him.  What was wrong with Kristan, the shoe clerk, she had asked.

"Hush, now, Marie, let the girl make up her own mind.   Louis is a fine man--look at the chickens his family farm raises."

My father was ever the pragmatist.  They had enjoyed the one Louis had brought to the house, instead of flowers, all dressed and ready for the oven.  The chicken had won her over--that and the fact that I was twenty-seven years old.

I'd dreamed of being the lady of a fine estate--paid for by the ever-increasing flock.  Not that I planned to do any chicken work;  they scared me with their beady little eyes.  But when Louis's father died, from the stress of keeping track of the egg production, the farm went the older son, Raymond.


Louis had always resented his bossy older brother and a recruitment poster in town had persuaded him to emigrate to Quebec, across the ocean and far away from Mama and Papa.   The chickens I could live without but what was a good Catholic girl to do?  And now this war has sent my poor brave Louis off to fight--back in France of all places.  I just hope he doesn't meet up with that hussy, Olivia; she always had her eye on him.

Meanwhile, I must be father and mother to our four little ones and work every day the good Lord sends us - except Sundays, of course, trying to clear this rocky land.  Oh, Mama, why didn't I listen to you and marry the shoe clerk!