A Blog Award!

Roar like a dragon. Be the dragon….My blog won the Dragon Loyalty Award.

I want to thank Allison Bruning for nominating me for the Dragon Loyalty Award. I feel so blessed. I had never heard of this award before. It’s a combination of the “Very Inspiring Blogger” and the “Versatile Blogger” awards. I don’t know who first started this award, but I’m pleased that someone thinks I’m versatile and inspiring.

The rules are simple.

1. Display the Award on your Blog.

2. Announce your win with a post and thank the Blogger who awarded you.

3. Present 4 deserving Bloggers with the Award

4. Link your awardees in the post and let them know of their being awarded.

5. Write seven interesting things about you

Seven Interesting Things About Me

1: My favorite drink is A&W Root Beer.

2: I was once bitten by a dolphin. 

3: I have interviewed my favorite Star Trek author.

4: I want to cosplay at San Diego Comic Con. 

5: I have seen Morning Musume in concert 9 times. 

6: Our cat’s name, Coko is from the CO in Cody and the KO in Yoko.

7: I like volleyball. 

Four Deserving Bloggers

1: Nikki Bennett

2: Lynn Rainey

3: Elizabeth Delana Rosa

4: Linda Cordes

Once I Started...

Why did you start blogging?

That’s a fairly easy prompt to answer. I first started blogging in connection with being an author. I used it as a marketing tool to get my name out there and help promote the first edition of Adventure Hunters. (FYI, the second edition will eventually be published by Mountain Springs House). 

I keep doing it because it is fun. It’s hard finding new topics to write about, especially on a daily basis. I went months on my original platform without anything, then came back to it. I tried blogging once a week, but most social media experts say at least three times a week is good. I’m proud of the fact I have had 32 posts so far this year. I’m not sure if I can keep up this pace, but I’ll try.

I’ve enjoyed blogging much more than I thought I would. It’s fun, especially for people who have a strong interest or skill set. It is a great way to impart knowledge, give your opinions, rant (as long as it isn’t hateful or spiteful), and share your passions. It’s nice when someone ‘Likes’ your post, comments, or, the Golden Snitch, thinks what you have written is valuable enough to be shared and reposted somewhere else. (I haven’t got there quite yet).

Any fellow bloggers out there? Why did you start writing? Thanks for reading.

Blogging To Connect

Do you feel starting a blog has improved your life or added one too many things on your plate? That’s a good question, one I haven’t really seen before.

I think it has improved my life. As a writer, it is imperative to write as often as you can, hopefully every day. I may not get to work on my novels or outlines every day, but having a blog has helped me get into more of a writing habit.

After reading Kristen Lamb’s Rise Of The Machines: Human Authors In A Digital Age, I really thought about her point about connecting to readers. And the points was that most readers don’t want to read about writing. Looking back on it, I’ve realized some of the most interesting blog posts, tweets, and Facebook updates, I’ve read from authors and artists have nothing to do with their craft. It’s the fun everyday mundane details that make the person seem more real. I’m not a basketball fan but I know Rob Liefeld is, because he tweets a lot about basketball. I favorited a Twitter picture by Will Wheaton, who complained about his cat purring too loud. I related to that photo. 

That’s what I’m trying to do with this version of Resonant Blue. Yes, I can still post about writing, and I occasionally will. But this isn’t a writing blog. It’s a Cody L. Martin blog. It’s about Wyoming, Japan, Battlestar Galactica, and Apple products. Because that’s me. When I started this thing on Blogger, I thought I had to post about writing, because I was a writer. Now I am freeing myself up to write about whatever strikes my fancy.

As always, thanks for reading.

Balance

How do you balance blogging? That’s a good question, and for every blogger out there you’re going to get a different response. I am trying a new system this year, using Tumblr instead of Blogger.

I think the most useful feature of blogs is scheduling posts. This can a great time saver if used properly. Tumblr has a queue system as well, where you can line up your posts to be posted up to 50 times a day. Once a day is enough for me, thank you very much. I wish Tumblr offered the same thing but on a weekly or monthly basis. You can also schedule the posts, but that takes more effort because you have to type in the day and time for every scheduled post. With the queue system, you just mark it as ‘queue’ and you’re done.

Having topics in advance is wonderful. There isn’t anything much worse for a blogger to say “I have to post something today, but what am I going to write about?” There are many websites and ebooks that offer blog prompts. I copied many, more than a year’s worth, into Evernote, and just pick one at random. Any time I have an idea for a topic, I write it in Evernote.

Writing ahead is one of the best ways to balance blogging, in my opinion. Depending on the topic, some posts don’t take long. If you can afford an hour or two to write a novel every day, take an hour to blog. The nice thing about this is that you can write several posts then schedule/queue them for the week. Once you give yourself a little leeway, you don’t have to hurry yourself with a topic idea and a post to get up by the end of the day.

Also, all those scheduled posts can be edited. If you want to add more to a topic, or you found the perfect picture to go with the post, you can still add it before it hits the Net.

My advice: plan ahead and write as often as you can. If you can write more than one post at a time, do it.

As always, thanks for reading.