Joely Sue Burkhart

Thirteen Things about BLOGGING that WRITERS get WrongI’m guilty of some of these–I think we all probably are.  If you read authors’ blogs, what turns you off? 1.BUY ME!! BUY ME!!! BUY ME!!!  All the time, all caps, no other content whatsoever. 2.BUY MY FRIEND!!!!  When they haven’t read the book themselves. 3.Going to another site — say a reviewer who didn’t care for your book or a ”competing” author — and posting anonymously about how FABULOUS the poorly received book was, or how TERRIBLE said competition is. 4.Sending all their fangirls over to another site to start a flame war. 5.Ridiculing readers, posting fan letters and making fun of them, talking down to readers like they’re stupid. 6. Trash reviewers who didn’t like your book. 7.TMI - Let’s just say I don’t want to read about an author’s personal sex life. 8. An honest author who has a terribly abrasive attitude that turns off readers to the point they refuse to buy the author’s books any longer. 9.Endless posts about depression, angst, sales numbers.  Don’t get me wrong–I appreciate honesty and love to read about other writers’ struggles, becaue it makes me feel like I’m not alone.  But CONSTANT downers turn people–readers–off. 10.Spam all the commenters by saving their e-mail addys and adding them to your newsletter. 11.Causing a flame war just because you believe negative publicity is better than none. 12.Irregular updates don’t encourage people to come back. 13. An attempt to be funny or snarky that ends up sounding jaded and bitter.

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Anybody who’s been afraid of a book and feels paralyzed by the writing, please go read this entry on Tracy MacNish’s blog, especially Laura Kinsale’s comment.  (link courtesy of Kate Rothwell)

Instead of an iguana, I have Gregar snarling at me with a wicked-sharp rahke in his hand.  I can’t wait to head to that beach with him.  How could I be afraid–even of RHP (Arcana)–with him beside me? 

Which begs the question:  a lot of you have no idea who Gregar is and why he’s my muse.  Why he haunts and torments me with that vicious white knife.  Maybe I should polish up some backstory I wrote for him ages ago and post it for Friday Snippets while I write his book.  I hesitate to call it a short story, because it’s really not.  It’s backstory, important and meaningful to only me.  Still, if I think about it hard enough, I bet I could come up with a real “arc” that would be interesting without giving away too many spoilers to the Shanhasson series.  We shall see.