Shameless self promoting and some writing stuff

I'm hoping to get some more stock available but it's looking good so far. Just need to make some sales because I am in desperate need of more money, but then again who isn't these days.

So, while I am still working on The Pink Triangle and a few short stories, I have started a two part anthology series with a friend of mine. We have basically divided the seven deadly sins and are going to cowrite one of them and that is going to be the first anthology theme. The second part is themed with the seven heavenly virtues. We're hoping to put some interesting twists and have something to appeal to a wide audience. It'll probably take half a year to a year to completely be ready for submission to a press. I'm rather excited about the idea.

I am planning to get some work done on the short story with Damon and Luke this weekend. I still have so much research to do with The Pink Triangle, plus the ending has me a little bummed the more I think about it. But, it is a story that I want to write, just need more time so that I can do it correctly.

I'm thinking of dusting off Political Gamble and working on it after I have finished Damon and Luke's story, but we will see how I feel when I finally get it done and submitted!

Social Media and You

With the rise of social media, especially the use of sites like facebook, twitter and even hulu are making traditional marketing obsolete and even a waste of money for many companies, especially entrepreneurs. Affective advertising now is more dependent than it has ever been before upon making a personal connection with your intended audience and/or customers.

How do you make this connection? It's a lot easier than it might seem at first glance. The simplest and best place to begin is creating a business page on facebook. From there make a twitter and get on every single platform you can because there is somewhere you can reach everywhere; not too mention, they're all free, so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying!

Now, if you're anything like me, you're probably asking something like, what do you do with all these social media outlets?

There are so many possibilities on what you can do to be successful in using your social media. The most important thing for you to do is to control your image. You want to make sure that you project a feeling that represents your company and your product in an appropriate and positive way that will draw in your audience, bring you respect, support and loyalty, which are all vital to success. Be careful with not only what you say but how you say it. In correlation to this, no matter how many platforms you are on, make sure the message that you are sending is consistent across the board.

A third thing that is vital to keep in mind is how the generation now perceives companies (or writers, singers, bloggers, etc.) today. In the advertising world in present day it's important to make sure you make it clear to the customer that they have a voice and that you are listening and that you do care about their issues and opinions. Don't be afraid to contact your audience personally or to apologize if you make a mistake. This will change the perception of your brand and will gain customer loyalty.

In this vein, also, the generation now has become less shallow. They love to spend money on companies and products that give back to charities, causes and the community. This is definitely something to keep in mind because it makes your brand more appealing. Pick a charity, cause or community project to support and make a clear statement on how you are going to give back. Generalized statements are simply not good enough anymore.

I suppose that's all on social media for now! Any questions?

Of headaches and nonsense

I woke up this morning with a sore throat and a massive headache. The sore throat is now coming and going but the headache is a constant annoyance and I've taken just about every drug I can think of to try and make it go away. Anytime I move my shoulders or head my neck cracks and that's just a wonderful sign.

Today, I'm planning on finishing season 7 of 24. I'm on the last episode so that won't be a difficult task and then there's only season 8 left. I can see how they have to start winding down the show at this point. I'm also going to finish reading The Divide today. I have a transcription job that I was supposed to have done a few days ago and it's near done so I will be finishing that as well. After that is done I will finish reading The Catalyst and write my review and then make a WordPress entry.

Lastly, I plan to start work on my short story again. I really want to be able to finish it soon, get it edited and then submitted for publication hopefully. *crosses fingers* It's about an interracial homosexual couple and I'm about 3,000 words in.

Later, I will probably echo a post I made with all my current active and inactive writing projects and their progress so I can get a feel for maybe what everyone here is interested in. :)

Firsts

I’m starting this new blog and I’m not exactly sure what all I should be writing. It’s kind of nerve wracking for some reason, even though I’ve had a million online journals before, this one is kind of for something real, I guess you could say.

I’m hoping to be published within the next year and a half and it’s daunting to think about it now. I’m 1/4 of the way through the novel that I intend to publish first and the more I think about publishing, the more I get a little nervous about it. You know, those thoughts like, what if I’m not really good enough?

I’m hoping that through this I can start networking finding fellow people in the craft and also people that are interested in what I do and hopefully will support me when the book does come out.

I will be offering free fiction, most of these will be homo-erotic short stories, though that is not the only genre that I write. In fact, my first novel is a historical fiction novel set during World War II.

This is all I have for now. Hopefully I can find a more organized way to blog soon!!!