Join Christy’s email list to get this story free! A notorious gang puts a bounty on Detective Cady Matthews’s head after she takes down their leader, leaving her no choice but to hide until she can testify at trial. But her temporary home across the country on a remote North Carolina island isn’t as peaceful as she initially thinks. Living under the new identity of Cassidy Livingston, she struggles to keep her investigative skills tucked away, especially after a body washes ashore. When local police bungle the murder investigation, she can’t resist stepping in. But Cassidy is supposed to be keeping a low profile. One wrong move could lead to both her discovery and her demise. Can she bring justice to the island . . . or will the hidden currents surrounding her pull her under for good? Hidden Currents is the first book in the six-book Lantern Beach Mystery series. Each book contains a standalone mystery, but there are overarching mysteries within the entire series. Get it now for
I’ve been reading a bunch of marketing books and articles, and many of them gave great advice on how to blog. So I’ve been trying to be more “formal” in my blogging lately. I don't know if it was noticeable?
Anyway, I found it kind of boring and really very restricting since I kept thinking about "value added" for each blog post and all that jazz.
But I was still blogging at my Daily Writing Blog because I'm trying to improve my writing productivity, and I was still enjoying blogging over there. I was throwing my messy thoughts up on the web (which most blogging/marketing articles tell you NOT to do) and in the process, I've been able to pinpoint some of my really bad habits. I've managed to fix some of them, and I'm still working on coming up with ways to deal with others.
I've also been doing experiments to improve my efficiency and productivity, and I use my writing blog like a lab notebook--I blog about what I intend to do for the experiment, and I record how it went afterward, both hard data (like number of words written, etc.) and also how I felt about it, which is more subjective but sometimes more important and valuable a result.
Anyway, the blogging has been really fun, which I'd lost when doing my Camy's Loft blog. And I was thinking about what the purpose of a blog was. For information, but also to get to know the person blogging.
Marketing articles tell you to give value to the people visiting your blog. But I don't think I really have that much information and value I can give to people, aside from writing books and publishing them (I promise, I'm not asking for affirmation here, I'm just stating what I honestly think about myself).
I think I have a pretty good eye for developmental editing, but I’m not an expert at writing craft, or marketing, or anything like that. I enjoy knitting and will post patterns, but I'm not a professional designer. I am a follower of Jesus, but I'm not a pastor and I don't know that I really write devotionals all that well--my devotionals tend to be more casual and sometimes very personal.
So, when thinking about my "author platform" and my "blog presence" and all that sort of stuff, I'm kind of boring. I'm a homebody and quite an introvert. I will be friendly when I'm out in public, but GETTING me out in public is a pretty difficult step. I don't have kids, and my beloved dog Snickers died a couple years ago, and we just haven't felt like getting another one after losing her was so emotionally tough.
So what do I have to offer anyone on my blog? Well, just me.
That's not very marketing savvy. I'm not a celebrity. But I do want my readers to know what kind of person I am, because I think that the person behind the art can often influence how you think about the art itself.
I enjoy blogging, but it's usually just random, silly stuff. But that's part of who I am. I'm pretty random and often quite strange. I like to tell the high schoolers and young adults at church that I'm like that weird aunt who always comes to family gatherings who nobody wants to talk to but you have to go say hi, and I'll usually get your name wrong and ask some odd question that you don't know how to answer, and then make a joke about farting, which makes you laugh but also want to get away from me as soon as possible.
See??? Aren't I really strange?
However, for my social media, I want to play to my strengths and my interests. Random blogging is surprisingly one of my strengths. Pithy, clever things on Twitter and Facebook are not.
So, in case you did notice my blog had gotten all formal and boring, don't worry, I'll be going back to my normal randomness again. I might be posting more often, I might be posting less often. I'm not sure yet. I guess I'll just try this and see.
What do you think? I actually don't know how many people read my blog, but if you have an opinion about what you'd like to see here, please do leave a comment below. And thanks for reading my blog! It makes me feel a little less pathetic.
Anyway, I found it kind of boring and really very restricting since I kept thinking about "value added" for each blog post and all that jazz.
But I was still blogging at my Daily Writing Blog because I'm trying to improve my writing productivity, and I was still enjoying blogging over there. I was throwing my messy thoughts up on the web (which most blogging/marketing articles tell you NOT to do) and in the process, I've been able to pinpoint some of my really bad habits. I've managed to fix some of them, and I'm still working on coming up with ways to deal with others.
I've also been doing experiments to improve my efficiency and productivity, and I use my writing blog like a lab notebook--I blog about what I intend to do for the experiment, and I record how it went afterward, both hard data (like number of words written, etc.) and also how I felt about it, which is more subjective but sometimes more important and valuable a result.
Anyway, the blogging has been really fun, which I'd lost when doing my Camy's Loft blog. And I was thinking about what the purpose of a blog was. For information, but also to get to know the person blogging.
Marketing articles tell you to give value to the people visiting your blog. But I don't think I really have that much information and value I can give to people, aside from writing books and publishing them (I promise, I'm not asking for affirmation here, I'm just stating what I honestly think about myself).
I think I have a pretty good eye for developmental editing, but I’m not an expert at writing craft, or marketing, or anything like that. I enjoy knitting and will post patterns, but I'm not a professional designer. I am a follower of Jesus, but I'm not a pastor and I don't know that I really write devotionals all that well--my devotionals tend to be more casual and sometimes very personal.
So, when thinking about my "author platform" and my "blog presence" and all that sort of stuff, I'm kind of boring. I'm a homebody and quite an introvert. I will be friendly when I'm out in public, but GETTING me out in public is a pretty difficult step. I don't have kids, and my beloved dog Snickers died a couple years ago, and we just haven't felt like getting another one after losing her was so emotionally tough.
So what do I have to offer anyone on my blog? Well, just me.
That's not very marketing savvy. I'm not a celebrity. But I do want my readers to know what kind of person I am, because I think that the person behind the art can often influence how you think about the art itself.
I enjoy blogging, but it's usually just random, silly stuff. But that's part of who I am. I'm pretty random and often quite strange. I like to tell the high schoolers and young adults at church that I'm like that weird aunt who always comes to family gatherings who nobody wants to talk to but you have to go say hi, and I'll usually get your name wrong and ask some odd question that you don't know how to answer, and then make a joke about farting, which makes you laugh but also want to get away from me as soon as possible.
See??? Aren't I really strange?
However, for my social media, I want to play to my strengths and my interests. Random blogging is surprisingly one of my strengths. Pithy, clever things on Twitter and Facebook are not.
So, in case you did notice my blog had gotten all formal and boring, don't worry, I'll be going back to my normal randomness again. I might be posting more often, I might be posting less often. I'm not sure yet. I guess I'll just try this and see.
What do you think? I actually don't know how many people read my blog, but if you have an opinion about what you'd like to see here, please do leave a comment below. And thanks for reading my blog! It makes me feel a little less pathetic.
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