F is for Facebook, Friends and Fan Pages

Facebook...that all inclusive not so exclusive venue where people can stalk, talk, and balk at anything.

I remember when it was still a new "thing." It was inhabited by professionals only, college students looking to break into a new career and make contacts. Then MySpace made some mistakes and the teens came rushing over in mass. Adults, too for that matter. Why?

Because we like to have things within our control. We like settings and privacy and yeah...how's that working out for everyone these days? But you have to admit that Facebook is a lot more secure than it used to be. Still, I've heard a lot of concerns (especially from authors) on the lack of privacy that persists. But you say 'Why are they complaining? Don't they want all the attention? What's wrong with being stalked??? (cue sarcastic voice--I've been practicing it for years)

The issue becomes one of personal matters being made public versus those things that would be natural for the general public to know, SHOULD know.

The creation of Facebook's FAN PAGE was a welcome venue for artists to have a following and connect with those who were interested in their work or themselves personally. It was perfect. No limit as to how many friends (which was later enacted by Facebook policies for Profiles), and you could be whoever you wanted to be--Pseudonyms included. It was perfect. Then there were pages for businesses, pages for groups, pages for EVERYTHING.

What beauty! What perfection! What a...what is this timeline thing? Wait a minute...

Facebook has undergone a lot of changes, but not to fear, a lot of good has come out of those changes. The new look has professionals looking even more like professionals, with timelines that resemble an actual webpage or blog. With all the new features it's become a true forum for those who want to connect with their audience.

I have a new "page" though it has few followers so far. I'm just not one to beg (hint--that was a subtle plea to click on the link to the right and like me--wink wink). I can post, update, and link to twitter through my fan page and I love it!!! I'm excited to have more people to interact with on my author page, so that it can become a true venue to discuss what I love.

WRITING!!

So how about you? What features do you love best about Facebook? Ideas that you have for improvement but the restraining order Mark Zuckerman has against you prevents them from being implemented?

E is for Education

Wait! Wait!!! Don't leave. Sheesh. This isn't about school, even though I'm sitting here in between two classes myself. And there's no test at the end. I promise.

You'll stay? Whew. Thanks.

So I've learned so much about writing over the last *mumble* years. I've attended conferences, read books on writing, taken classes, and written....a lot. But out of all the writing education I've received, turns out that reading books...for FUN...was one of the most influential.

I found my genre through reading. I garnered my style through reading. I fostered my children's love of reading by...yup, reading to them. It's no wonder that it's one of the fundamentals of learning we're taught from early on. You remember the 3 R's: Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic.

If you know how to do all of those things you're pretty much set in life. Everything else, language and otherwise, is based off those important fundamentals. So here's to getting an education and spreading the wealth and love of reading, writing, and *sigh* arithmetic.

Guess which one I struggled with in school? So, okay, this was a LITTLE bit about school. But there was no test involved!

What about you? What was your favorite subject? Was reading and writing amongst them? Favorite book you read or had read to you?

D is for Dreaming!

Dreaming...exactly what I was doing today instead of posting.

Sometimes I dream with my eyes open and sometimes with them closed. And let me tell you, the insides of your eyelids? Yeah, they're pretty nice sometimes.

I feel truly blessed to have dreams, and not just outlandish "they may never happen" dreams, but ones that I believe will actually come to fruition someday. Why?

Because I'm going to MAKE them happen. Muwahahaha. I'm graduating with my Bachelor's degree after 20 years of working on it. I have a beautiful family and supportive husband (supportive is code for sexy, awesome, sexy...wait, did I just say that. Well it's worth saying again....sexy. Hehehehe). So I've already got it pretty good in the dream category.

I have a dream of being published someday though. I really love writing, but I also want others to enjoy it as well. I feel so blessed by the things I've read and how they've changed my life. I would love the chance to offer that to someone else.

Someday. Someday soon.

Have a great day! Zzzzzzzzz

C if for....drumroll please...

COOKIES!

Wait, sorry, that was a reaction to the sight of something wonderful in my kitchen.

Of course C stands for children. At least in MY house, although cookies and children DO kind of go together here.

You see, we have a long standing tradition in our house that says when Mom makes cookies everyone gets a scoop of cookie dough. Yes, raw. I can't possibly have as many children as I do and honestly worry about every possible neurotic danger the world throws at them. And yeah, I've been eating raw cookie dough since I was like four so let's just throw out that horrible, diet-fad producing rumor shall we?

But as I was saying, there are a lot of wonderful traditions we have in our family. Many of them I brought from my own blessed childhood. I grew up in a large family as well. What can I say, my mother and I both love children. My mother's been gone for two years, but happily the traditions she started have continued on.

That's a lot of the reason that I love writing so much. Our work is a tribute to our life, others' lives, and for those who have yet to be born. We can learn so much from others' experiences and reading is a great way for us to get the most out of them (second best to living them ourselves).

We don't need to sky dive to experience the ultimate terror it is to be hurtling towards your death (though I'm highly considering it these days), or be born into a royal family in order to feel like a princess (or prince--equal opportunist over here). :)

We just need to know how to read. I've helped teach all my children. And I help them find books worthy of their time and interests. That's my role as a parent and writer. To help my children and others find joy in reading. Joy in learning. Joy in experiencing life when you may not have the opportunities for yourself...yet. I'm a firm believer in being able to make happen whatever you put your mind to.

Hey, I just went up in a prop plane and I'm scared of heights. I know what I'm talking about.

How about you? Who do you write for? And why?

A to Z blogging challenge

I'm baaaaaaaaaack. And just in time. It's April, which means the A to Z Blogging Challenge.

So my brief hiatus (it was brief right?--checks previous postings--crud) has now ended and I'm excited to once again be blogging. It wasn't for lack of things to write about I assure you. But you really didn't want to read about my Senior Honors Thesis that I've been writing. Or did you?Maybe that will make it on one the postings this month. Not the whole thing, it's freakin' 100 pages long, just the arduous process that it takes to write one. I highly recommend it. If you want to go insane that is. Somehow my family managed not to starve during the process, which gives me hope down the line when I get my story published. :)

So to begin (again), yesterday was the letter A, but I was finishing my thesis. So you get a double dose of me today. Aren't you so lucky? (Please nod, you'll make me feel a whole lot better about not blogging lately.)

For the magnanimous letter A, all I can say is that I love it. I love how sharp it is, I love how they look on my transcript. I have quite the collection you see which makes my family so proud. It's been a joint effort collecting them and I have my family to thank for all their help. *waves at family* *waves again because they don't recognize me obviously* *HEY! I'm the one who puts the frozen dinners in the oven. Yes, thank you. Love you too. :)

I have a couple of B's in my collection as well though, because those illusive A's are sometimes hard to find. Trust me. But B's are just as beautiful. In fact, beautiful starts with the letter B so there you go. My middle name also starts with a B so it's a double pleasure to behold.

But honestly I'm happy that my time for formal schooling is coming to an end. I learned a lot and it's been a great experience, but there's a few more things I've collected over the years that are well overdue for some much needed attention. Can you guess what they are?

I'll give you a hint. It's starts with the letter C and I'll be posting about it tomorrow. So until then...

Have a great day!

(man, I've really missed posting that...)