An Open Book

Where to you social network? 9 places I am checking out.

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

So what do you think of when you think Horror? Usually not my thing, but I have of late. been enjoying a pod cast called Horror Addicts produced by Emerian Rich. I thought this week I would ask the readers what scares you? Emerian has challenged me to write a horror short for her new season of www.horroraddicts.net. Which I believe kicked off this weekend! This show is not for children! If you like horror, vampires, zombies, listening to horror addicts can keep you up to date on new and old films and information of what is happening in the Horror community.

Social networking is becoming great fun and I am enjoying meeting all of these new people from all over the world. Were do I go? Well I am checking out many sites to see if they call to me. Here is what I have found.

Tagged… Sucks! I swear I did not get one follower of my over 200 followers that was more than interested in poking me with a silly or provocative message. I closed the tagged account. Yuck. I am married and happily and have been for 20 years so I am not online or networking to get a date.

Twitter… Digging Twitter.com I don’t profess to know how or why it works, but I am having fun and meeting people and not once has anyone hit on me. YES!!!! I am seeing things on the web I would never have seen if not for whom I am following and who is following me. I have actually sold books and built listeners for the podcast which totally rocks and it has been a great way to meet others who are doing interesting and fun things on the web to promote their books or music or art and even there creations and work. I do want to say that is not just about your work but Twitter is about “What are you doing right now in 140 characters.” If you are interested in social networking Twitter is one of my favorites. http://twitter.com/rhondacarpenter

Myspace… Well I have a myspace page but I find the format hard to use and a tad frustrating. Granted, because of that I have not spent a ton of time developing contacts there. http://www.myspace.com/rhondarcarpenter

Facebook… Well I started out apprehensive about face book. I have since changed my mind. I don’t use any of the give a person a flower or grow your garden widgets basically because I just don’t have time. I field about 3 to 400 emails a days and these emails and actions seem a waste of my time. But I did just recently build a The Mark of a Druid book group to see if it would be an easy way to contact my fans and readers about what is going on. I like the ease of facebook and we will see how far it goes! http://www.facebook.com/rhondarcarpenter#/profile.php?id=748048511&ref=name Sign up for the group to get updates.

Yahoo360… I have been on yahoo of years and find that it is a constant and reliable place to post a blog or update what is happening but they seem to be falling behind the times in what is happening in social networking.

Linkedin… I built a professional deatailed profile from linkedin but I find it hard to use. This week I plan on learn the ins and outs of linked in. I still have not figured out how to tell people how to find me on facebook. But my username is Rhondarcarpenter. And I come up under hypnosis and www.lifefirst.com.

Plurk… is also on the list to learn in the next few weeks.

Tailcast.com Which I totally love! It is a great young community that focuses on your creations. Check it out! http://www.tailcast.com/member-rhonda-r-carpenter-409.html My son is showing his artwork there too.

Dig… Hmmm singed up and did nothing with it yet. So add that to the list of things to learn too.

Selfgrowth.com… this is really a professional site and while I think it is a great and informative site. I plan on writing some technical information for the site as soon as The Mark of a Druid is complete as an audio book.

I have received several requests to join many scocial networking sites. So this week I will have a look at some of them again but I have to say it is hard to follow and keep up with too many sites at once.

How do you use the net? What do you find helpful and where are you hanging out? Let me know I am always interested in new and fun social networking sites and fun things to do on the web.

Thanks again for all the support and keep the comments coming I am grateful to have them.

Seasons Greetings!

Keep Writing! I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

1. Never ever tell your computer person that you may be interested in doing some quality video in the near future, because inevitably that will lead to a new this or a better that for your computer. Not that upgrading is a bad thing. Just don’t do it in the middle of a podcast.

2. Never change up your equipment in the middle of the podcast. If your settings are good then stick with it. And if you must do #1 above… Write your setting down!

3. Never loose that editing groove. I’ve found while podcasting The Mark of a Druid that I do much better cranking out a couple of episodes a week. But with the holidays and work demands it is not always easy to do. And because #1 and #2 above happened… I found I had a hard time finding my groove-thing with the editing.

4. Never assume that since the microphone hasn’t changed that it will sound the same after an upgrade. I ran headlong without doing one darn sound check and recorded 4 chapters only to have a hideous buzz that I could not get out… And because #1, #2, #3 above happened… I lost two full nights of recording and it was all my fault.

5. Never give up. Listen, if I can do this podcasting thing and do it from my office and turn out good quality listening, have fun in the process, learn as much as I can every day—then you can do it too.

Bonus #6 On the never do this when you are podcasting list is: Never tell your audience that you will be on time and then be late. Have a reserve. Don’t give away everything all at once unless you can release the whole book in one shot. And yes, I have heard of that being done from a few authors on podiobooks.com. The idea of a serialized podcasted novel is to let the listener listen at their conveyance either as it comes out or to wait and listen when the entire book has been released. But as a listener here and I listen a lot. I tend to get discouraged when a book is rolling along and I am ready for my weekly fix only to find the author didn’t upload it. Now I know life happens. Heck it happens to us all, but if there is a reserve then the reader doesn’t feel that sense of being forgotten.

In short never ask for more until you are ready and then you will not have to hassle the change until you are ready. That being said I love the new system and the sound is wonderful.

Last announcement! Thanks Gary and Ruth of Celtic Myth Podshow for playing the promo and all your kind words about the book in Episode 18. Love your show!
You can hear it too at http://celticmythpodshow.com/ Subscribe by RSS, Zune, iTunes or listen on their site!

Keep Writing! I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

What an interesting week, and I mean that in the most sarcastic of ways. My computer went bye bye after installing an upgraded video card. Which made me seriously grateful for several things.

1. My husband is a genius when it come to PC’s. (thank you honey!)
2. I always back up my system off the computers to a server once a month sometime more if I am writing something new. As you would have it that was the case and I had just backed up. So no lost data! Soooo Grateful.
3. I am ahead in the recorded and ready episodes for The Mark of a Druid podcast. Again so grateful.
4. After having some new trouble with my injured right neck, arm, shoulder, arm and hand… a cortisone shot, while it hurt like heck, really helped, just in time for the new system to be up, loaded, and running. Grateful!
5. Which all gave me a really big head start on the holiday decorating! Yes, that is right, the tree is up and the house beautiful. I love the holiday season. Grateful to be here this year.
6. While doing cooking prep for this coming Thanks Giving Feast, I caught up on my listening of my new favorite podcast www.celticmythpodshow.com If you are interested in Celtic lore and myths then you will not want to miss this pod cast. The voices are wonderful it would be great to listen to it with the kids most of the episodes are kid friendly and the ones that aren’t are clearly marks. So I am grateful to Gary and Ruth for their extraordinary efforts to bring us the old tales and some glimpses of newer ones too. This pod cast will become a family tradition of listening for my family. My husband is listening on his commute on disk and two of my sons are listening as well. Grateful to Gary and Ruth for doing the Celtic Myths Pod Show.

This week is all about getting the rough draft of a new horror story for the next season of http://www.horroraddicts.net/ done, so I can go into edit along with recording new episodes of The Mark of a Druid www.themarkofadruid.com, for more info. Wednesday family arrives (I here there may be snow!) for the celebration of giving thanks. This tiny touch of a vacation will not stop or slow the releases of the podcast.

This week in promotion: I am also working on press releases and booking one book signing well be scheduled if all goes right and maybe a newspaper article put on the books to go with that signing. I will be twittering and updating some of the new social networks I have joined this week. I am meeting some of the most interesting spirits! Again Grateful!

Now, where am I going to put those 2000 words for Truth Slithers… Here space.. This will likely happen on Friday.

Thanks gain for all the support and keep the comments coming I am grateful to have them.

Happy Thanks Giving!

Keep Writing! I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Welcome all!

This week in writing. I actually had life take over this week. There were a ton of meetings and medical things that I had to attend and I was out of the house and off the mountain for three days this week.

I did manage to can and upload another audio episode and edited half of another but I truly did not get the chance to do anything new. Sad I know. But I was challenged on horroraddicts.net  to write a scary short for next season. If you haven’t listened to Horror Addicts you should it is a cute, fun and interesting look at horror and the season of horror. Thank you, Emerian Rich, for the big shout out about the print release of The Mark of a Druid.

It was very cool to meet, Mathew Wayne Selznick  author of Brave Men Run, this week. I am posting his promo and cover with links on the hot promo page. Thank you, Mathew your insights into creating communities and marketing they were very helpful. You can also hear Brave Men Run on Podiobooks and itunes and I understand he has bridged the e-book/iphone media sources as well has being available on Amazon and I am sure everywhere else.

This week I have slatted to work on Truth Slither, a murder tale that takes place from 1890 ish to 1920 ish. As well I have recording and editing to do for the pod cast and I have to say thank you to all of the great folks who are leaving comments it really helps and truly appreciate it.

We are working on the new website for The Mark of a Druid and the contest prizes. Look for announcements on www.themarkofadruid.com.

Announcements this week in time for the holidays if you hurry!

Bookplates are available so you don’t have to ship me your book and pay to ship it back. What is a bookplate? It is a sticker basically that I personalize for you and send back to you in a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope). Make sure you go over to the book Send me a note and enclose a SASE and I will be happy to autograph the plate and you can place it in the front of the book. Go to http://www.themarkofa druid.com for details.

This proves to be another off the charts busy week! Nose to the grindstone and all that! I am so blessed to be doing something so exciting and to love it so much.

Keep Writing, I know I will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Welcome all!

Releasing a novel can be intimidating for a new author! The Mark of a Druid is now available in print versions. Click the buy now button to go to Amazon and get your very own copy. If you want to know, more go over to the book site. http://www.themarkofadruid.com

The advice I received this week is to look at this as a 3 year project. This gives it a bit less of a sense of urgency and gives me some room to look at what I need to do to market this project to the general public in the biggest way possible. But to be honest I love deadlines. I know, I am weird. But if you say to me, by this date, I will have it done and usually before. It is just who I am.

There are so many things to think about when sending your work out into the world. As some of you may have heard I am podcasting the novel on Podiobooks.com, itunes and may other venues on the web. It has been really well received to date and I am only half way. I am on schedule and plan on getting a jump this week on recording again.

Here is what you can do to help… Go to www.podiobooks.com listen and leave some feedback or listen anywhere and leave some feedback. Your comments help me to do a better job and it helps others to know is this novel is for them.

Please stop by the interview lick here for the Dr. Sally Witt show on Blogtalkradio.com http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Dr-Sally-Psychic-Healer/2008/11/08/Rhonda-Carpenter-and-Mark-of-the-Druid Sally also does some amazing social networking training and I am proud to call her friend.

Marketing is a interesting thing fro this book and I find myself flowing into it more easily than I thought. Now I have to say Video is not my thing but I did shoot an oovoo interview that is playing on u-tube now. Here is the link. Can you say bad Godzilla flick! We have ordered some equipment that should get me to be able to move my lips and have the voice actually be right in the next few weeks. I am looking forward to making the websites more accessible to the disabled. And if you all can talk me into it I might make these blogs audio if you are someone who needs to listen instead of read. Just send me a comment and let me know.

I am so very excited to kick off the contest for the book. And we have set a date to do that! The contest will start officially on January 1, 2009. With a new website over at www.themarkofadruid.com. There are some great prizes to be won and we are working on the contest being interactive. There will be an ask the characters a question section and a ton of other things including a very cool leave a comment or testimonial that you can record right on the site as well as a fan forum to discuss the book and the things in the book. There is a lot of work yet to do to have the site ready to kick off this contest but I invite you to stick around and watch the progress. Should be a really fun ride.

Announcements this week!

Bookplates are available so you don’t have to ship me your book and pay to ship it back. What is a bookplate. It is a sticker basically that I personalize for you and send back to you in a SASE. Make sure you go over to the book site for more info and the address the how to of it.

The Book of Bubba has a new chapter posted this week. Lick on the link to your right and see what the happiest dog has to say and think on his words of wisdom! Thanks Bubba for being in my life. You totally remind me to smile at least a hundred time a day.

The Fox and I am very pleased to announce that The Fox, By Arlene Radasky is completed podnovel on podiobooks.com. Congratulations Arlene! Her podnovel is linked on the blog roll of this site. Go subscribe it is a wonderful Celtic story of sacrifice and love, that will warm your heart, bring your tissues. Or check out her site at www.radasky.com.

Last announcement!But certainly not least! There is a this very neat podshow I ran across because of Twitter. Check it out. I love this show. Can’t get enough of it. Gary and Ruth are doing a fantastic job of sharing the ancient Celtic Myths with all of us. Thanks to you both for doing this. Love it! Tune in at http://celticmythpodshow.com Subscribe by RSS, Zune, iTunes or listen on their site! Celtic Myths Pod Show promo! And go leave them a comment on itunes!

Keep Writing, I know I will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Welcome all!

Big announcements this week. First The Mark of a Druid is now available in print versions. Click the buy now button to go to Amazon and get your very own copy. If you want to know, more go over to the book site. http://www.themarkofadruid.com. Contest to be announced soon!

There is so much going on that it is hard to talk about it all and not sound like I am tooting my own horn. To be quiet frank, I am thrilled that I have made it this far with my dream of writing professionally.

In February of 2008 I was done hearing that mainstream publishing had no clue how to market the book because it didn’t fit into any of their categories. I was happy that the editors and publishers loved the book, I agreed with them that it needed to be edited, but I was completely disheartened that they were not willing to go out on a limb for an unknown author who did not have a platform. In other words, I wasn’t famous or known enough to create sales with just my name.

I attended a writing conference in Southern California with a dear friend. I left the conference more convinced that I needed to do this myself, but had questions about how to make it happen. My dear friend, Arlene, knew exactly what she wanted when she left the conference. She decided to podcast her novel The Fox and I am very pleased to announce that The Fox, By Arlene Radasky will be a completed podnovel this week on podiobooks.com. Congratulations Arlene, you have worked so hard and your book is out there in full for all to enjoy. I heard there is going to be a print release in the near future too! I love that we both took different routes and ended up in about the same place. Her podnovel is linked on the blog roll of this site. Go subscribe it is a wonderful Celtic story of sacrifice and love, that will warm your heart, bring your tissues. It will be a little sad when I can’t get a new episode of Jahana’s story. But I am looking forward to your new project Sea Hawk.

At the conference, there was a lot of “talk” about how publishing is changing. I listened and wondered where I was going to be in those changes. But I was unsure that I wanted to podcast alone so I decided that I was going to self publish and see if I couldn’t market the book myself, then podcast as an adjunct and a way to build a bit of a platform. I also started blogging and getting involved on net marketing for the books release. Which was this week! I am so enjoying podcasting the story as well! I can’t imagine not podcasting.

I have met so many wonderful people on this journey and here is a new friend. November 3rd on Podiobooks.com William Bostock is releasing “Searching For My Wives.” Click here to listen to the promo and subscribe for free and listen on your schedule at podiobooks.com.

Imagine how it all began, one and one-half million years ago, this marvelous,
long journey of Humanity.

“Not many protohumans were alive at any time back then, but all of us had souls, and souls persist, and there are souls which lived in hominids in Chesowanja, eastern Africa who have lived among us almost to the present day.”

Some souls, for instance, Shimmer, his wives Sita and Ahalya, Old Shiver,
Gliff, and Silver, work for peace and happiness. Others, though, often driven
by the trickster Murk, despoil, degrade, and kill, intent on dragging Mankind
down.

Life after life, from Kenya to the Ganges, Shimmer fights the old destroyer,
but all the while he tries to find and share lives with his beloved wives.

Come along as Shimmer leads migrations. Relive the waning of the Great Ice
Age and the planetwide disaster. And remember how Old Kingdom Egypt travelled
through a pleat in time to stabilize and rule the riverplains of Northern
India.

Re-experience Murk’s dark campaign to undermine that peaceful land, and once
again respond to Shimmer and Old Shiver’s call to arms and meet the enemy
between two rivers at fabled Kurukshetra.

Come relive Mankind’s infancy in “Searching for My Wives”, at podiobooks.com.

Last announcement!

 Click on imgase to hear the promo!

There is a this very neat podshow I ran across because of Twitter. Check it out. I love this show. Can’t get enough of it. Gary and Ruth are doing a fantastic job of sharing the ancient Celtic Myths with all of us. Thanks to you both for doing this. Love it! Tune in at http://celticmythpodshow.com Subscribe by RSS, Zune, iTunes or listen on their site!

Keep Writing, I know I will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Welcome Readers!

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

The Mark of a Druid. Is fairing better than I ever expected!

If you haven’t subscribed yet it is free!

You can get The Mark of a Druid, serialized podcast of the novel. www.podiobooks.com here is the page address http://www.podiobooks.com/title/mark-of-the-druid All of the episodes that are available now on podiobooks.com, podcastpickle.com, Mobli, Amigofish.com, Digg, Itunes and other places as well. The Episodes are available at the same time at (usually a few hours before) at www.themarkofadruid.com under the Episode sections where you can listen to them on the site with no download or download them. I am considering doing an extended version for Themarkofadruid.com but have not made up my mind yet how that will work.

And my favorite kind of writing weather is almost upon the mountains where I live. There is nothing better for me than the fog dancing on the forest floor to inspire me to tell a story. Add to that a warm fire in the hearth and the silence that comes with winter in a resort community and it makes my mind wonder in and out of plots and subplots. The voices of my characters call to me to scribe their words and emotions. They scream, “tell my story,” and I must listen.

So you might asked what is the next book? I started a historical fiction novel based on a true story that is about ¼ done called Truth Slithers. And I have the first few chapters of the next book in the The Mark of a Druid Series in the works. The title you ask? Drum Roll Please…. When Ethers Descend.

More about the contest that is coming up. As you may have read the cover of this book is mighty special as there are lots (nope not saying how many yet) hidden images from the book in the artwork. Sometime in the next month we will be launching the contest and I can’t wait. The artist who painted the oil on canvas, Miss Amie Perry will not even tell me all the locations and I have found many of them and she says there are more. Thanks Amie that means I get to play the game too, but I can’t win anything. That just wouldn’t be fair. There will be formal rules and the prizes are very cool. Posters of the cover art, greeting cards and copies of the book all dual autographed by both me the author and Amie the artist. I have my very own Web GOD! Dave from http://wrkg.com/ who is full of very cool interactive ideas for the book site and how the contest can be interactive on the web so look for announcements about that as the day gets closer and tons of other cool stuff for the readers to get involved in. I figure if we are going interactive lets take it to a new level.

The Print Version?

I have approved the final cover polish and the print versions hardback and paperback of The Mark of a Druid are in print set up right now. So in a couple of weeks tops I will be holding this labor of love in my hands!!!! Can’t wait! Then it will go live at the iuniverse bookstore website and a few weeks after that we will be announcing the contest and going live on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com as well as bookstores and outlets everywhere in the USA. .

If you have been following the progress of the endeavor then you know there has been a lot of work and I am very excited how well it is going. I was checking the stats for hits on Friday of this week and I was shocked. In a good way. 81,219 hits between rhondacarpenter.com and themarkofadruid.com and it is not even the half way point yet. So keep coming back and tell a friend. Thank you all so much it feels great to have so much interest.

If you haven’t noticed the blog roll to your right or the Hot Promo page you should take a minute and hear what else is out there. I started Fractured Horizon by H.E. Roulo and I am totally impressed with the story so this may be one you will want to follow if you want a story that is original and read very well by the author. And congratulations H.E. For hitting the The Podiobooks Top Ten #1 slot! For the most downloads in the last 30 days! Great Job! So what are waiting for check it out. You won’t be disappointed. I haven’t been.

As I have been unable to record this week because my oldest son was in a car accident and is in living room recovering from double pelvis fractures. Poor guy! Sorry “G” But no worries I have episodes in reserve for just such a problem. How did I know??? Hey life happens you just need to be as prepared as possible. So if push comes to shove and I hope it doesn’t, I will be good for 4 more weeks of episodes before things get critical. I promise I will do my best not to let the listeners down. I know I have a problem when I get into a book and then all of a sudden there is a gape in installments. So I said I would not do that to my listeners. Hence the reserve!

Okay I have prattled on enough. Remember leave a comment either here or podiobooks.com or itunes. It helps and only takes a second you don’t have to tell your real name. But I would so help me to know what you are thinking and what you like or don’t like so I can do this better for the next books. All comments are appreciated.

Keep Writing! I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Yes! The Mark of a Druid has officially reached 100 subscribers in less than a week. And it is all because you guys! Thank you. And Enjoy the read. on www.poidiobooks.com or www.themarkofadruid.com

Keep subscribing!

Rhonda

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

What a wonderful week for The Mark of a Druid.

If you haven’t subscribed yet it is free!

You can get The Mark of a Druid, serialized podcast of the novel. www.podiobooks.com here is the page address http://www.podiobooks.com/title/mark-of-the-druid

Sign up for an account there is no cost involved. At that time you will be able to add my book to your subscriber’s list or any of the others. It is free! And you can snag the promo here! http://www.rhondacarpenter.com/?page_id=95 post it to your website send it to your email, chat buddies, put it up on your myspace, facebook and talk about it on twitter and please tell a friend! And let me know if you have a podcast you would like me to promo other podcasters.

All of the episodes that are available now on podiobooks.com, podcastpickle.com, Mobli, Amegofish.com and Digg, soon Itunes and other places as well.
The Episodes are available one week before at www.themarkofadruid.com under the podcast section where you can listen to them on the site with no download or download them.

Sunday is upload day as well as Blog night, but my son was just in an accident and I am typing this as I wait for which hospital I need to go to. I don’t think it is serious as he called me just after it happened. Back to Biz…So keep up with what is going on and get your weekly fix of The Mark of a Druid.

The Print Version?

As I type this blog I am awaiting the final cover design so I can approve it. Let’s just say it was not easy to get to this stage. Also if you haven’t paid close attention to the cover art as there are hidden symbols and I will be starting a contest with a ton of great prizes for identifying them. More on this when I have a release date from Iuniverse.

The interior of the book has been approved and now we only wait on the cover finish and we are in printer set up mode. So for those of you who are waiting for the print versions hold on it is coming I promise!

If you haven’t noticed the blog roll to your right you should stop by and check out Fractured Horizon by H.E. Roulo I am starting it this week and will leave a review when I am done.

This week is about podcasting. Out there tell everyone that the book is available. Market, Market Market. Edit Episode 14 which is recorded but not edited. And write the press releases. Scary!
 

Also this week the book was promoted on J.D. Sawyers Antithesis and Edward G. Tabolt’s New Word Order as well as Emriane Rich’s Horror Addicts. Thank you all for adding my promo. You’re the best! See these authors’ works in the hot promo section of this site. Very cool stuff.

Keep Writing! I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter