Looking Over The Edge

How has the internet changed the way writers use their words today? Do you know how many writers are writing about writing to other writers? It seems they are on, or quickly getting on, the promotion bandwagon of writing about writing on their blog, newsletter, guest blog or reviewer site. Soon, we will get so saturated we will all puke. I’m still on the learning curve lapping up what I don’t know and appreciate the free advice from seasoned writers writing about promotion, but I can see the cliff ahead over which all the lemmings are going. Maybe it’s just me because I always have a different take on things (my theme being #on the edge,--and thus possibly seeing what's on the other side).

Now, before you jump on my case, I realize writers have to lure readers to buy their books, like spiders have to lure victims to their webs. Sorry for the analogy but it’s applicable, all except the wrapping up and eating part. And how do spiders lure their ‘victims' to their web? Offer something enticing. Isn’t it more fun for readers to find something they are interested in (what interested you to write), rather than regurgitate information about writing which is only of interest to other writers? (Teachers, agents, promoters who are in the business of book sales are exempt, of course.)

           

While reading a pep talk on the NaNoWriMo web site (from Erin Morgenstern http://erinmorgenstern.com/blog/) I found her writing so fascinating and visual, I linked to her blog and then had to immediately buy her book. Her words intrigued me, but she grabbed me with the story behind her story. I think it is fine to promote our work and talk to other writers about our work but we need to keep our mind focused on the main goal of selling our work to our readers and building readership. Just my opinion.

Any writers who differ, I’m open and anxious to hear from you.

#coraramos #writer #blogger #blog #fiction #paranormal

What is Déjà Vu?

The main thrust for writing my first novel (not yet published) is that déjà vu experience and what would happen if you took the trouble to follow where it led.

“We have all some experience of a feeling, that comes over us occasionally, of what we are saying and doing having been said and done before, in a remote time - of our having been surrounded, dim ages ago, by the same faces, objects, and circumstances - of our knowing perfectly what will be said next, as if we suddenly remember it!” (Dickens in David Copperfield - chapter 39)

The term déjà vu is a French term meaning, “already seen.” It can be a fleeting or an overwhelming sense of familiarity with something that we have no recollection of; something we have never done before. Often the experience is striking in its clarity and detail but difficult to recapture or recount. As much as 70 percent of the population reports having experienced some form of déjà vu.

Swiss scholar, Arthur Funkhouser, makes the distinctions that déjà visite, already visited, is one phenomena and another phenomena is déjà vecu which means already experienced or lived through and a third is déjà senti, already felt.

Apart from a medical condition like temporal lobe epilepsy, when déjà vu can occur just prior to a temporal-lobe seizure, there is much specualtion as to how and why this happens.

Many parapsychologists believe it is related to a #past life experience. And others point out there is a distinction between déjà vu and precognition. In déjà vu we feel the sense we have done this before and are now doing it again. Whereas in precognition, we see something (in a dream or vision) that then comes to pass exactly as seen and felt. I think in some instances they could be the same, the difference being that during déjà vu we don’t remember that we had the prior dream and so we’re left with that familiar feeling of having experienced it before.

What do you think? Have you experienced #déjà vu or #precognition?

#coraramos #writer #fiction #blog #paranormal

Connections and Being Real

After wading through ten Google pages of handcuff, travel agency, sewing, jewelry and cooking sites, etc., I gave up searching the listing for my blog, Travel Off The Cuff (http://www.travel-off-the-cuff.blogspot.com/) that I’ve been posting for friends and family since 2007. So many other sites with the same name have popped up since I initially began it that it's made me painfully aware I’ve been slowly falling behind understanding and using the internet machine, or more correctly the social internet machine.

Time has come to gear up and begin again, this time with a new focus on writing. But, since there are so many endeavors I love—photography, art, writing, gardening, and interests like the paranormal, Sci-Fi, mystery-suspense and history of ancient cultures (to name a few) it’s hard for me to settle on a simple writer-only blog.

While attending another great SLO Writer’s conference at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California this September, I sat in on “Social Media for the Anti-Social” given by Anne Allen (http://annerallen.blogspot.com) and was awakened (more like slapped-up-side my head) to the need to step up and get serious about marketing. Since I am a writer with award winning short stories (Valley Fever, Where Murder is Contagious anthology) and a pre-published paranormal fiction novel (Dance the Dream Awake) awaiting a home, I realized the need to jump into the internet stream and begin swimming (preferable to sinking). I am one of those people who prefers to remain anonymous but that’s untenable if I hope to make a living as a writer in this new internet-connected world.

One suggestion from Anne Allen was to follow Kristen Lamb (http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/) which resulted in my buying her book, We Are Not Alone-The Writer’s Guide to Social Media, and following her suggestions which are given with humor (sort of like taking medicine with a spoonful of sugar). I am light years away from where I need to be, but hey, everybody has to start somewhere so here is my first writer blog. Thank you Anne & Kristen.

I will not be writing only about writer concerns, because I am more than that. It will be flavored as well with my interests. I am taking a cue from Hope Clark’s website (http://www.fundsforwriters.com) which I’ve followed for years not only for writer information and writing opportunities but also because she brings in love from her garden, animals, etc. and maintains a personal presence I can relate to.
*(Reread those last eight words for my message for the day—it’s what will keep readers reading and coming back for more. And I hope you will, too.)

#coraramos #writer #writing #blog #paranormal