Posts Tagged ‘reincarnation’

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

Sunday, December 7th, 2008

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

5 Things You Don’t Want to do While Podcasting

Sunday, November 30th, 2008

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

Happy Thanks Giving!

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008

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

So much work to do.

Sunday, November 9th, 2008

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