Book Release Party, Contest, and More

My steampunk erotic romance Mrs. Bright's Tea Room will be released on Wed., Dec. 15th. I'll be having a release party and contest on the next day on Nights of Passion blog. http://nightsofpassion.wordpress.com
Join us enter the contest, asks questions, dress casually, have some fun.


Also the voting for the Bookie Awards is still open.
My work has been nominated for 3 Bookie Awards. If you haven't gotten the chance to vote.

If this is the first you’ve heard about it, I’d love your vote at: http://www.authorsafterdark.net/bookieawards.html

Vampire in the Basement – Best Shifter Short Story in Poll 1 & Vampire Short of the Year in Poll 4 and

Poseidon’ s Catch for Best Fantasy Short in Poll 2.

Last but not least, this is an invitation to receive my occasional and very confidential newsletter. All you have to do is email me at onlyladyknight(at)yahoo(dot)com and put Newsletter in the subject line. I will be having a special contest for the Newsletter subscribers in January.


Thanks.

--Susan
Susan Hanniford Crowley
http://www.susanhannifordcrowley.com

Bookie Awards, Voting, Newsletter, and Party

My work has been nominated for 3 Bookie Awards. If you haven't gotten the chance to vote.

If this is the first you’ve heard about it, I’d love your vote at: http://www.authorsafterdark.net/bookieawards.html

Vampire in the Basement – Best Shifter Short Story in Poll 1 & Vampire Short of the Year in Poll 4 and

Poseidon’ s Catch for Best Fantasy Short in Poll 2.

I've just sent out my Winter Holiday Newsletter out to the subscribers. Thank you. If you didn't get it and would love to get my newsletter, just email me at onlyladyknightatyahoo.com with Newsletter in the subject line.

Don't forget the Nights of Passion Blog Holiday Party from Nov. 29 to Dec. 5 -guest blogging, recipes, fun, and contests. That will be at http://nightsofpassion.wordpress.com

Best to everyone. Talk to you soon.

An Excellent Day

Today was an excellent day. The air was soft, warm, and sweet. It eased all the worries out of me. I've just finished my steampunk romance and now I'm proofing it, but I did take a break to go to the bead store and get groceries.

I bought some Trinkette stuff to make a bracelet. It's a lot of fun.

It's been such a beautiful day that rests the heart. We opened windows in the house. I guess you'd call it an Indian Summer day. The dog was happy in the yard and the kittens kept sitting in the windows. LOL

Great Time at Authors After Dark 2010 and upcoming Guest Blog

I'm home after a fantastic weekend at Authors After Dark Romance Unlimited Convention 2010. This is the ulimate romance readers convention. I had the most awesome time meeting people. Fun panels, chocolate everywhere, free stuff (including lots of books), great food, rocking parties, a huge book sale and autograph session, great raffle prizes. Everything was just so much fun at a very reasonable price. Next year it will be in Philadelphia. If you love romance books and hanging out with other devotees of romance including the authors, please, come. Jacquelyn Frank is the mostest hostess ever. So when December comes around Google "Authors After Dark" and sign up fast before it's filled.

Thursday, Sept. 23, I will be guest blogging at Fang-tastic Books. Join me for the mischief. I feel Halloween in the air and can't help myself. See you at
http://fang-tasticbooks.blogspot.com/

New Book Trailer for THE STORMY LOVE LIFE OF LAURA CORDELAIS

Please, celebrate with me. It's a new book trailer. I'm passing out cyber cigars to some, cyber ice cream to others.



The ebook is available at http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-thestormylovelifeoflauracordelais-374695-139.html

The Kindle edition is available at http://www.amazon.com/Stormy-Love-Laura-Cordelais-ebook/dp/B00318D5VY

and also at fine ebooks stores everywhere.

The Author's Blog at Fiction Fest

Hi Everyone,

I had a great time at CTRWA's Fiction Fest. I did on workshop on "The Author's Blog", and I wanted to bring up another matter that I didn't bring up.

Back up your work and the materials on your blog. The world changes and things happen. There are good prices out there on portable hard drives and then again there is Sky Drive. Make sure your materials are backed up.

That's me with Erotic Romance Author Collette Thomas and here's her blog newsletter about the event: http://www.newsletterofcollettethomas.blogspot.com/
An excellent way of using a blog. I encourage you to check it out.

This year Fiction Fest sold out. Next year when registration opens, I encourage you to jump on it right away. Our focus is giving writers practical information that they can use. In addition to the workshops, we had speakers, an agent/editor panels, pitch session with agents and editors, sessions with Leslie Wainger, the book doctor, and a booksigning. With lunch and the cocktail party at the end, it was a full day. By the way Leslie is the author of Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies. I highly recommend it. http://www.lesliewainger-bookdoctor.com/

Until next time, happy blogging and writing and living.

Blog Lesson 3 - Tags and Categories, Labels

For our lesson today in blogging, we're going to look at tags and categories in Wordpress and labels in Blogger. What are they?

Tags and labels are the same as keywords. They make your blog searchable. That means when someone is in Google, they type in keywords for what they are trying to find. Simply saying if your keyword and their keyword match up, they may find you. I say may because your blog may not show up until they've gone several pages in. We'll save Google ranking for another time.

Categories in Wordpress is part of the internal indexing system of your blog. It allows you to find every entry written under the category or topic.

What does all of this mean? To make it easier for your viewers, in Wordpress, go to the right hand side of your dashboard and fill in the tags and then scroll down and enter your categories. Once categories are established, you have to check on them. In Blogger, fill in your labels in the box called Labels for this post.

That's it for this lesson.

Lesson 2 - Linking in Blogs

I received this question: How do we code to open in a new window using wordpress?

Let's just start with links. You are in the Dashboard in Wordpress. Go down the left hand side to Post, and click Add New. You put in your title. Wordpress has an automatic system where it will index your title. That entry is actually saved by the title.

Next type in the box your blog entry. When you reach a place where you want to place a link, highlight, click the chain symbol (in Blogger it is a chain symbol on an Earth. A window will open up asking for a web address.

Example Nights of Passion I would type in http://nightsofpassion.wordpress.com and press enter or submit.

When you are done with your blog entry, press Publish on the right hand side.

When you view your blog as you would a visitor, when you roll your mouse over the link, a preview window will come up in Wordpress saying it is generating a preview. When you click on your link, it will take you to that other web site. You can arrow back to the blog.

As for opening it in a new window, I have never seen that setting for Wordpress. It is a common setting for web site design. Blogs are different. If there are any more questions about links, just ask.

So enjoy playing with your blog. More next week.

Blogging, Lesson 1--Getting Your Feet Wet

Someone, I won't say her name, has requested that I give some lessons on blogging and I said, "Okay."

Lesson 1

Reason: Why do you want a blog? You're an author, an artist? You want a journal? They're lots of reasons but have that reason in mind to give some focus to your blog.

Next: Pick a name. That's right, come up with a name for the new puppy that you'll be playing with a lot. Google that name to see if it's original. You may want to change it if you find the name you've chosen is also taken by a lot of people. Anyway spend some time on a name.

Next: Location. Location is everything and if it's a good location that's free, it's even better. My personal favorites are Blogger (aka Blogspot), which is where The Writing House is hosted, and Wordpress, which is where Nights of Passion is hosted. Why do I love these two? Blogger is the easiest way to blog. Building a blog here is a very simple, step-by-step method. There are lots of pretty themes and layouts to choose from. The Writing House is my first blog. I learned a lot about blogging using it. What about Wordpress? They are also excellent. They have a lot of very fancy items you can add to your blog. I found, however, especially when I was working with pages and pages in blogs are NOT like pages on a website. They can get glitchy and do bizarre things sometimes. To have great pages on Wordpress, decide what you're going to put on them that will stay that way forever with very little changing. Then you won't have glitchy things happening. Remember the blog page is the one you will always change. The blog entry page is meant for constant changes. It's the first thing people see.

Both are lovely. People have made exceptional blogs using both.

Most important rule of blogging--Only write what you wouldn't mind your boss, your mother, your old boyfriend, every single person in the world seeing. Never say anything you would regret later.

Now choose either Wordpress or Blogger and follow their directions. Blogging is play, but take some time to learn their rules and enjoy the process.

If you want to blog, it's time to jump in. I'll be back next week.

To visit Nights of Passion to check out it's features and ask me questions, visit: http://nightsofpassion.wordpress.com Yes, I will check back and answer questions.

Ta for now.

--Susan