Butterfly on Sunflower

Butterfly on Sunflower, a photo by cicerocat on Flickr.

Here's a picture from the other day. Because of this little guy and his buddy (another frittillary), I decided to plant more black sunflower seeds to attract more butterflies. This one came up by accident (we feed wild birds) in the garden.

Not only do the butterflies like the sunflower, by the way, but the bees were crazy about it, too.

Seth Godin and Comparisons

And interesting Seth Godin post about comparisons  got me to thinking about how I compare myself to other writers and how when I do so, I always ended up depressed--but I like setting my own standards.  I even like setting my own goal dates and goal word counts, though I never make them.  But even when I don't make them, it is still less depressing than looking at what others are doing and seeing myself as falling short.

So, I think Godin's post is relevant to writers.  You shouldn't compare yourself to others, trying to be better than someone else, but rather you should just better yourself, period.

Sample Sunday - June 10

I'm doing an official #SampleSunday this time.  Here's mine:

RT #samplesunday Roderis gets letters from the dead. Sample chapters http://bit.ly/LcJG76 @jodiralston #nook #kindle #fantasy

#SampleSundays of Interest:

Below, I find and post links to interesting fantasy, history, science fiction, and horror from the #samplesunday list (listed in alphabetical order by title under each category).

• Fantasy: The Chronicles of Augustus Seton by William Meikle - http://www.scribd.com/doc/65780185/The-Chronicles-of-Augustus-Seton-Sample
• Fantasy: I Can See Clearly Now by R. J. Davnall - http://itsthefuturestupid.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/second-realm-11-i-can-see-clearly-now.html
• Fantasy: Prelude by Lucy Goudie -http://lucygoudie.co.uk/prelude/4561286758
• History:  Sherlock Holmes: Revenant by William Meikle - http://www.scribd.com/doc/74144086/Sherlock-Holmes-Revenant-Sample

Related Links: 

• More Info about SampleSunday
• Kindle Board-Writer's Cafe Sample Sunday June 10th

Serendipitious Finds

Sometimes you get little signs in life.  Mine was that I found a little book that includes "The Language of Flower" on Thursday at a Hastings bookstore.  It was only 50 cents. The book is A Bouquet of Flowers by Barbara Milo Ohrbach.  I've been working on Flower Language Compilation for fun and for research for my Secret Project, but I haven't worked on it for a week or so.  This was a sign to take it up again.  I have a few more public domain works I want to add to my Excel file before I am satisfied with my list.  I'll try to work on those this week.




Besides that bit of serendipity in book form, I also found The Indie Author Guide by April Hamilton.  (Not for 50 cents, but for $10.)  I've only just started looking through it, but it looks like it will be especially helpful when I do POD.

I love it when God sends good finds like this my way.  There were lots of other books I got there, including mostly 50 cent books, but these were the two finds I was most tickled with, but I'm sure the others will be unexpected sources of entertainment, research, or fiction fodder, too.

By the way, if you are interested in these books, please click on the links above if at all possible.  I'm an Amazon Affiliate and I get a little when people buy from my links.  Thanks!

Unofficial Sample Sunday

I'm doing an unofficial #SampleSunday, since I couldn't get with it today on KDP boards.  So I posted mine:

RT #samplesunday Roderis gets letters from the dead.  PDF sample of published ebook: bit.ly/KCwQ3c #nook #kindle #fantasy #writing

And I'm finding any fantasy,  history, science fiction, and horror from the #samplesunday list, and posting the links of that looked interesting below (listed in alphabetical order by title under each category).  I hope to find some more to post today yet.

Fantasy:

• Berserker by William Meikle - http://t.co/YwrBw3kg
• Hunters & Prey (Immortalis #2) by Katie Salidas - http://t.co/zyG3GQ3q

Science Fiction/Fantasy:

• The Warden Threat by DL Morrese - http://t.co/wYXObkfw

Science Fiction:

• Hidden Fires by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel - Sample

Related Links: More Info about SampleSunday

SEO and the Writer

Interesting site about SEO and businesses at Entrepreneur.com.  This article includes several interesting tips--or rather SEO mistakes to avoid--some I've heard before, but some I haven't.  The two most interesting are "Sin No. 3: Not using descriptive internal anchor text" and "Sin No. 7: Thinking all search traffic will go directly to your home page."  Both made me think more about what I am doing with my webpage. 

For instance, I should be making more descriptive links, for that affects searches.  It's an easy trick, and one I'll try to do more often.

Number seven made me think about what each of my individual pages are showing.  I'm still working on building my webpage, but as I do so, I need to think of what type of message is coming across.  What kind of "branding" as an author am I conveying.

Good stuff.  Well worth the read for authors with websites.

Two Site Updates: LOTD/Amazon and Flower Language

The first update is Letters of the Dead is now up on Amazon.com.  I'm a little behind on working on the other versions.

The second update is that I've compiled a (Victorian) Flower Language Dictionary from three public domain works so far.  Right now it is a rough version, but I do plan on adding more to it and making an html file on my site.  But for now, I only have Excel files.  Why am I doing this?  Because I intend to use it in some way in a story or two, but also because it's fun and I hope others will derive some pleasure from it.  Enjoy!