Late, late, always late

Bwah... So, I slacked off again but last week I was in San Jose for the Teen Top concert and didn't have a chance to be online much. It was so much fun though! I missed three days of work but it was a good mental health break and the concert was just so amazing.. And I have an autographed poster and got to shake all the members' hands. Seriously, was an amazing experience! ㅠㅠ I really hope they come back for another concert soon.

Needless to say, I also didn't get much writing done and missed the deadline for <i>Bygone Beasts</i>. But, I still want to finish the story I started. Maybe, I'll find a place for it later or I can put it up for free! \o/ I wonder if anyone would read it or anything. Would be awesome but I have a lot of work to do before I get that far. The idea is really exciting though!

The next submission call I'm trying to submit to isn't due for a couple of months, so I have no excuse about getting it done on time. It's a trans* submission call and I started the story a while ago now and so I need to refresh my memory on it and then get to work on continuing and finishing it up.

But, now, it's time for free fiction. I still haven't been able to get my website off the ground so I'm going to keep posting it in my blog posts for now until I find someone that can help me design my website at relatively low expense.

I don't think I've posted this one yet. It's called <i>Thoughts of the Past</i>. I wrote it seeeeeveral years ago and I haven't really reread it at any depth. It's g rated m/m romance theme though. When I wrote it I said it might be part of a bigger story and I still think that could be true. Who knows what will come to me. :) Let me know what you think as always!

<blockquote>Word Count: 573


~~~

His stormy blue-grey eyes stared out the window, watching the droplets of water roll down the glass in slow intricate patterns. A soft sigh passed through his soft lips, closing his eyes slowly.

The view outside this window was so vastly different from the view he had known all his life. Instead of the wide-open Kansas plains there were crowded buildings and streets. Where once he could look up and see billions of bright twinkling stars, he only saw a few dull lights, blurry with the smog that weighed heavily of the Tokyo skyline.

With a sigh he finally turned away from the window, eyes traveling over the comfy chairs and the other couch scattered across the living room. A coffee table was in front of him; an arrangement of various flowers in an ornate vase adorned the center. He was happy here, but still, at times he missed the home of his past.

The sound door of the apartment opening caught the man's attention, drawing his thoughts from the musings as he glanced up. "I'm home, Kenton," the person called and Kenton smiled, listening to the shuffling, knowing the other was taking his shoes and coat off. Finally, he stood up, his footsteps making a soft padding sound on the wooden floors. "Welcome home, Shiro," Kenton said, pushing his black hair out of his eyes, looking up at his Japanese lover.

Shiro smiled down at Kenton, his black eyes sparkling. "How are you, my little butterfly?" he asked, pulling Kenton to him, tilting the other's head up with one of his fingers and pressing their lips together lovingly. The taller man finally pulled back, letting gentle fingers caress lightly over Kenton's cheek. "You should smile, my love," he chuckled, nuzzling the other.

"Why," Kenton asked, leaning into the nuzzle, resting against the taller man.

"Then I will know that you are happy," Shiro answered, running the pad of his thumb over Kenton's soft lips. "I took you away from everything you know and love…I need to know that you are happy here, Kenton."

Kenton's lips twitched into a small smile. "Shiro…you're a silly man. Just because I don't smile much doesn't mean that I'm not happy," he said gently, reaching his arms up to lock lightly around the back of Shiro's neck. "I love you. My heart is with you. My home is with you. My happiness –is- you."

Shiro chuckled and rubbed Kenton's nose with his own. "All right," he conceded, running his thumb over Kenton's lips again before kissing him. "I love you, also," he murmured.

Finally Kenton pulled away from Shiro. "Do you want me to make dinner tonight?" he asked, heading towards the small kitchen.

Shiro grabbed Kenton's arm, pulling him back. "What's wrong, Kenton?" he asked, looking deep into his eyes as he held him firmly.

Kenton looked away but finally leaned against him. “I just miss my old home sometimes…It’s so crowded and noisy here…Sometimes it just gets to me,” he admitted, looking down almost ashamed of how he felt. “I am happy here, Shiro, but sometimes I miss the open fields and star-filled skies.”

Shiro chuckled softly, brushing his long fingers through the smaller man’s hair. “Then we will go visit your home,” he said simply.

“My home is here, but I would like to visit my past,” Kenton whispered. “I love you, Shiro.”

“As I love you,” was the man’s simple answer.</blockquote>

A new start!

A lot has happened since I last made an entry. Mainly, I'm now jobless again and so I'm taking the time while I'm job searching to get into the groove of writing seriously again. It's hard to get in that habit even more the more time you have. Life's kind of funny this way. But I've got a lot of ideas and I'm currently in the process of starting a novella with my roommate, Sammy. I'm also pulling out some of my old short stories to edit and finish and then use as free fiction here.

I talked about before how my first novel was going to be a WWII setting but the story is proving much more heavy and difficult to write. It is coming slowly and well... I think I just need to let it come naturally as it does. If I force it I don't think it's going to turn out the way I want and it's too important of a story to me to do half-way!

That's kind of where things are now. I just wanted to note turning over the new leaf and hopefully I'll be making blog entries at least once a week if not more! Once I get my short stories in line I'll start having Short Story Saturday. That'll be my little corner where I can share some free fiction with y'all!

I'm also opening to doing reviews of any sort! So please if you want a short story, novel or anything else reviewed please let me know. I do have limited funds so I cant purchase too many books to do this but I'm willing to purchase as many as I can. I do know sometimes authors will gift a book in return for reviews. I've done this in the past and I've found some great books this way and I know it helps my fellow authors. I'm also looking for blogs to follow and read as well as more friends on twitter (@jongupped) or goodreads!

That being said. I'm going to get my writing on for the night and possibly get some more reading done on The Hobbit which I've been making my way through again!

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?