Books make great gifts

Every year I buy books (or bookstore gift cards) for the majority of the people on my holiday shopping list, so the message in this marketing campaign isn't new to me.



My hero and favorite YA author, Judy Blume, was featured in this video. She said, "Books make great gifts because you can never have too many." I think I liked her clip the best.

If I were cool enough to be a published novelist and be featured in this video, I would have said, "Books make great gifts because they will never be replaced with newer technology." Books are probably the only source of entertainment in our culture that isn't affected by new breakthroughs in technology. I can buy a 100-year-old book and it still works just fine, but I can't buy a 50-year-old album or a 20-year-old movie (or even a 10-year-old computer game) unless I have the right technology to play it.

Alone for the Weekend

This morning, Michael left town with his mom and his brother. They are helping his dad move to Colorado, which leaves me alone at least until Sunday night.

This is the first time I've been alone since Michael went on his business trip a year and a half ago. I really miss him when he is gone, even though technically this should be an excellent time to get some work done.

I want to use this time (when I'm not moping about, missing Michael) to get caught up on work and hobby-related stuff. Here are a few things I am planning to do this weekend:

* Spend some time with my horse. Lately, I don't get to spend much time with my horse on the weekends, because we already have so much else to do. And it probably doesn't help that Michael doesn't really like doing horse the whole horse thing. We like to do stuff together on the weekends, which usually translates into NOT going to the barn.

* Work on my novel. This seems to me like a perfect chance to spend some uninterrupted quality time with my characters.

* Work. Yes, I have plenty of work to do too — and since Michael is taking Monday and Tuesday off so that we have some time together after he gets back, I want to work ahead as much as possible this weekend.

* Go to the doll show. My mom and I are selling at a doll show this weekend, which is going to take up the better part of one day.

* "Play" with my dolls. I have a lot to do in preparation for the show. In addition, I recently got a new cabinet as an early Christmas gift from Michael, and I need to finish arranging my new display. I also have some project dolls to work on and some dolls that need to be photographed for my doll blog, Doll Stringing Extravaganza, so I have plenty to keep me busy!

You know, it occurs to me that I might actually have too much to do in one weekend. Especially if missing Michael slows me down as much as it did when he went on his business trip!

17,551 words

Tonight saw some more difficult writing: Although I spent two hours working on my novel, I added less than 1,500 words. I'm not sure I liked where tonight's writing was going, but it's nothing that can't be cleared up easily with revisions later on, so I forced myself to keep going. Sometimes pushing on is the best thing to do, I've found; it's almost like you have to experiment with the plot before you can make a decision on what you really want to do with it.

As an added challenge, it seems I may have my noveling time interrupted sooner than I thought: My biggest client contacted me with a new project this afternoon, one that needs to be completed in just under a week. Although I am definitely glad to be getting a jump start on the month's billable work, I'm also a bit anxious to see how I am able to maintain my novel-writing time as the client work picks up again.

We'll see, I guess. Wish me luck!

Do you click on ads?

As someone who knows firsthand how disappointing pay-per-click ad revenue can be sometimes, when I read a blog post I like, I tend to click on a couple of ads to, er, show my appreciation. However, the other day I read something that will change how I do things.

I saw an article online that discussed Google AdSense and problems with bloggers faking clicks. Apparently many AdSense clients track visits that comes from those ads, so if someone just clicks the ad and backs out immediately, they know. And if that happens from the same website or blog too many times, it's a pretty good guess that the owner of that site has people clicking ads for him in order to artificially inflate his ad revenue.

Keep this in mind if you like to click on ads to help bloggers. It's a good idea to read through the landing page, and maybe even click through to another page on the website, to give the ad a fair chance (read: so that it doesn't look like you're faking clicks). I also like to scroll through the ads and only click the ones that might actually interest me.

Interesting, on freelance writers' blogs, how many of those ads lead to sites like Associated Content and Helium...

16,060 words: First post-NaNoWriMo installment

Tonight I worked on my novel for the first time in over two weeks. I'm happy to say that I got really into it, and added more than 2,000 words. See? I totally could have finished NaNoWriMo this year. I don't know why I didn't.

Oh yeah... Because of paying work. Gotta pay those bills...

Whenever I come back to writing fiction after some time away, I'm always surprised at how easily it comes to me. I do like writing for a living, regardless of whether it is fiction or nonfiction, but working on a short story or a novel always reminds me that fiction was my first love.

Since it's the beginning of the month, and my biggest client keeps me busiest in the middle and end of the month, I have the flexibility right now to continue working on my novel. I am going to try to get into the habit of working on it every day, and hopefully when I do get busier later in the month, I will be able to continue setting aside an hour or so to work on it every day.

No surprises here

Remember my deadbeat client, Bill Cameron, the owner of Cameron Ink and METROMODE Magazine? Well, I'm sorry — but not at all surprised — to report that he did not pay us by the end of November, as he had promised.

In fact, this morning he sent emails to all of us who are owed money that said he is planning to pursue bankruptcy reorganization. He's trying to paint it as this wonderful opportunity for us to get paid, but I am concerned he may be just trying to buy more time, probably in the hopes that eventually we will give up and go away.

I can't help but be skeptical. After all, he has claimed he's going to do numerous things, and so far the only thing he actually followed through on was making each of us a small payment of $50 in October. Two other times he claimed he was going to pay us by a certain date, and failed to do so: Once when the payment for our work was originally due, and again when he failed to pay us by the end of November. The rest of the time we've just gotten one excuse after another.

The kicker is that the man is still advertising for writers on his website. Doesn't that fall under the definition of fraud, to be hiring writers when you know — because you still owe other writers money — that you can't afford to pay them?

Don't write for Bill Cameron, Metromode Magazine, or Cameron Ink — he has a track record of not paying his writers, and still owes his last staff more than $2,000 combined!

The end of NaNoWriMo 2008

NaNoWriMo 2008 is over, and I'm sad to say I didn't finish — I never got above 14,000 words. However, I have every intention of continuing to work on my novel. I will be aiming for 100,000 words total, and I will use a non-NaNo word count widget for my sidebar.

I also plan to continue blogging about my progress, even though NaNoWriMo 2008 is technically over, so stay tuned!