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Gutsy Blogging for Writers

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Public speaking ranks up there with the fear of death, and yet I discovered that being prepared and passionate about your topic makes it fun, instead of scary.

On June 12th, I was asked to make a presentation at the California Writers Club on, “Gutsy Blogging for Writers.” Most of the audience were eager to start a blog, and my goal was to help them develop their author platform via blogging.


First five minutes of my presentation at the CWC-OC Branch
You can view the entire presentation on my videos page of my blog.

One of the books I find very helpful for writers who wish to learn more about promoting their book is:
Get Known Before the Book Deal, by Christina Katz. She offers ideas, through examples, on how to build an audience for your book. Yes, this also applies to novelists.

Angela Ackerman, author of The Bookshelf Muse, writes a blog loaded with helpful tips for writers.Her guest post titled, “Blogs: A Writer’s best Friend” hosted on The Sharp Angle, is geared towards writers and blogging. (An excerpt below.)
 
“So how does a writer build a platform and go from unknown to known? Blogging is one of the most effective pathways, allowing others to get a good feel for who you are. By posting regularly and providing good content, you encourage people to visit and word will spread about your blog and you.”

Also check out this article mentioned by Angela.

FYI: The Bookshelf Muse offers many “goodies” for writers I haven’t seen elsewhere. An emotional thesaurus. Say you’re writing a scene where someone feels guilty, but you don’t really know how to show it. I counted 43 ways to show it through action or expressions.

Female Nomad and Friends by Rita Golden Gelman–A must Read for all who seek travel, adventure and connection.

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When asked if I would like to host Rita Golden Gelman’s online book tour, I was honored to be a part of this Gutsy woman’s amazing life. She is all about connecting with people from around the world, and in her own words she says, “I opened my life to otherness; it becomes addictive. I still have no fixed address and hardly any possessions.”

I discovered her book, Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at large in the World, after returning from a year of adventures and personal growth in Belize, Central America. I can relate to what Gelman says about having hardly any possessions being addictive, as I experienced this with my own family in Belize. Having less gave me time, something I learned to value as more meaningful than having stuff. The time to connect with family and friends.

Gelman’s latest book: Female Nomad and Friends: Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World is a moving anthology of essays that celebrates traveling, connecting, and eating around the world. Also included are more than 30 travel-inspired, taste-tested and author-approved recipes.

Many of you are familiar with Karen van der Zee’s blog: Life in the Expat Lane. She has four amusing stories published in Female Nomad and Friends: Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World. One of her tales, “Wild for Worms,” starts off, “I had planned to eat worms tonight, but instead I’m facing a hamburger and fries. I am not amused.” Talk about a hook to get you reading. Another tale entitled, “Cow Feet Soup for Breakfast,” brought back memories of when my sons were so hungry one day, they ordered a bowl of cow foot soup on their way home from school in Belize. My sixteen-year-old said, “Mom, you should have seen the hoof. It was right there in the middle of the bowl covered in hair.”

In the opening chapter of her book: Female Nomad and Friends: Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World, Gelman explains that the profits and author royalties are going to a special fund to send high school graduates from the slums in New Dehli to vocational schools. Gelman says, “Most young people are taken out of school as they are old enough to contribute to the family income by working in construction for one or two dollars a day.” This reminds me of the young caretaker we had in Belize who told my teenage sons he quit school at thirteen, and worked in the sugar cane plantations to put food on the family table. My boys learned more from listening to this young Belizean, than any lecture I could give on how lucky they are to have an education.

After suggesting Rita Golden Gelman’s book to my book club circle of friends, they decided to select it for our next meeting. I hope you will read it too. Please share with others and remember to connect.

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Female Nomad and Friends: Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World- From the author of the international bestseller, Tales of a Female Nomad, Female Nomad and Friends is a moving anthology of essays that celebrates traveling, connecting, and eating around the world. Also included are more than 30 travel-inspired, taste-tested and author-approved recipes.

Rita Golden Gelman is the author of Tales of a Female Nomad and more than seventy children’s books, including More Spaghetti, I Say!, a staple in every first grade classroom. As a nomad, Rita has no permanent address. She is currently involved in an initiative called Let’s Get Global, a project of US Servas, Inc, a national movement designed to bring the gap year to the United States. Learn more at www.letsgetglogal.org

 We invite you to join us on the Female Nomad and Friends virtual tour. The full schedule can be seen at http://bookpromotionservices.com/2010/05/17/female-nomad-tour. You can learn much more about Rita Golden Gelman and her work on her website –www.ritagoldengelman.com

Changing Your Blogger Template: What’s your theme?

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“How was Father’s Day?”
“Fantastic. I spent all day “playing” with Blogger templates, and FeedBurner. Good thing my husband’s computer is in the same room as mine, (the kitchen) otherwise we wouldn’t have seen each other all day.”
“Well, Gutsy Writer, looks the same. Why didn’t you change it?”

“Let me tell you what happened. It’s a bit like my shopping for cereal story.”

The first time I strolled down the cereal aisle of my local U.S. supermarket, after a year in Belize, my head started spinning, and my knees felt weak. 
“Need help finding something?” a sales person asked. I looked at him and said, 
“There are too many choices. I don’t know which one to pick.” I could tell what he was thinking and stood there like a statue, way too long compared to the average shopper. The poor kid shrugged and left.”

Photo from Flickr by a touch of dutch.blogspot.com

I like having choices, but I also like goals. Now my blogger friend, Gramma Ann, seems far more bold than I am. After I complimented her on her new blog template (which you should go take a look at), she said: 

“There are many varieties to choose from.  I found them very easy to download to my blogs… As I always say on each one of my blogs, they were created for my own entertainment.”


“GUTSY AWARD” for Gramma Ann

GUTSY WRITER BLOG SCHEDULE:

  • JUNE 29th, GUTSY BLOGGING FOR WRITERS. Learn how to build your author platform, Watch highlights from a video/podcast of my presentation at the CWC (California Writers Club) to help build your author platform. Also Angela Ackerman, from her amazing blog: The Bookshelf Muse,  has tips on why writers need a blog: “Everyone has something to offer and knowledge to share.” 

  •  JULY 5th, HOP ON OVER TO  SHE’S COOKIN’  where I shall guest post about the amazing one star Michelin “Restaurant du Vieux Pont,” I experienced in the quaint old village of Belcastel in southwest France.
I’d like to offer you one helpful tip: If you haven’t already added FeedBurner to your blog, I recommend you don’t wait as long as I did. People can subscribe to your blog and more. I should have followed Shirley’s advice from 100 Memoirs, a long time ago.

What’s important to you in choosing a template for your blog? If you use WordPress, and the Thesis or Headway themes, I’d love to hear your opinion.



    What does it feel like to go through a lock on a barge?

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    Have you ever experienced going through a lock on a barge? If not, come share a three minute ride on a barge with me on the river Lot in southwest France.

    Did you see the boats you can rent on my video? You don’t need a boat license. Only a quick demo and you’re off on your own, heading through lock after lock. Have Fun!

    Next week, I’m going through a face-lift. Well not me, but GUTSY WRITER.

    A one-star Michelin restaurant and a chopped finger.

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    Oh my God! What happened to my finger? I dare not look down in case I might find it.

    I squeeze my throbbing index finger with my left hand. Perhaps if I apply enough pressure, it will revert to its pre-accident state.

    This is not supposed to happen. Not at one o’clock in the morning in a small village in the south of France. Not after our gourmet one-star Michelin restaurant celebration for dad’s 85th birthday. And certainly not when all seven of us are back in our tiny hotel rooms and I cannot cry for help.

    I should have known better; remembered that hotel rooms in France are not required to conform to the high safety standards I’m used to in the U.S. But that’s what gives them their charm. And yet, I’m cursing at the lack of directions on how to close the metal shutters. You see, these antiquated hinges act like sharp knives, and if not folded in a manner known only to the French, result in a chop, akin to the guillotine. Why would this come as a surprise when all ten rooms sit on top of an antique store with bureaus dating from the eighteenth century, and rats scuttling under the rafters?

    Perhaps my finger is no longer bleeding? I release my tourniquet grip and squint, hoping that a quick glance will minimize the injury. There’s a deep cut. Do I need stitches? If so, is there an emergency room in Rignac?

    I have no Band-aids. Is anyone awake? I listen. The cats are screaming. They sound like newborn babies waiting for a nipple to soothe their hunger. A throat in the room next to mine sounds raw and infected.

    My neighbor is coughing. I hear the phlegm in her chest. She cannot sleep and through the walls, her bed creaks as her feet hit the linoleum and tap their way to the bathroom for a glass of water. I know her husband is asleep; his snores cause the wall to vibrate.

    I take a risk and tap on her door. This is my last hope, or I shall have to wrap a towel around my hand all night.

    She opens the door, turns on the light waking her husband up. He sees me and within seconds, I have a couple in their seventies, taking care of me as though I were their own daughter. I feel strange. No one has nurtured me like a daughter since I was a kid. Those few seconds remind me of what it must be like to have a mother still alive.

    I cherish the warmth and kindness offered to me by this couple.

    Take a look at the green shutters in my room. Those are the ones that chopped my right index finger.

    Do you have any weird stories to share about something that happened during a vacation?

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