10K Word Day

Devotion, Bible reading and Prayer enjoyed. Downed two boiled eggs, have a bowl of raspberries and cherries cleaned and ready, a pot of coffee on, and water bottles chilling. Hubby's off to work, and the girls are away at horse camp. Canines are behaving nicely.

I'm set, ready, and typing away to attain at least 4,000 words, but aiming for closer to 10,000 words before hubby returns home from work.

Will I make it?

Will you make it? [Check out the challenge here if you care to join me. I'd love the company. A special thanks to Megan for revealing this challenge to me.]

Due to this crazy word challenge, I hope you don't mind me ducking out of cyber hopping today. I'll check in here periodically to drop my progress report into the comment section so I'll have statistics to go by for the next 10K challenge I endeavour.

Have a blessed day everyone, and may God infuse mounds of creativity into the minds and hearts of all facing today's 10K challenge.

Surrendering to Him,

Eileen

Postings

I've been in the gardens way too much. It's messing with my brain. Seriously, I can't even remember my sisters' phone numbers lately. It's like I'm in a fog. I wonder if it's sun stroke? Anyway, I'm going to blame it on that and to show you just how out of it I am, I'm going to attempt to explain what I feel reveals a professional looking post.

The link I had kept to exemplify professional posts was this, but as you can see, that's a website, not a blogger blog, so it doesn't work for what I wanted. But, it does reveal several things that can be applied to postings and making them look professional.

1) Inserting pictures or snapshots of pieces of interest. The more accurate the picture is, the better the effect. I love it when people are able to import a word document that shows graphics, etc. But how do they do that in blogger? Anyone know?

2) Like I'm doing here, creating number lists. Though some have a really cool way of doing it. They indent and make the numbered section look so professional, like a separate entity to the post. Wish I knew how to do that, too.

3) And the number one thing that I feel is the coolest tool for posting like a professional is using that hyperlink icon. You know, the thing that looks a little like a green globe with some black circuit graphic up on top. That links readers to other URL's without having to write out the whole long URL that just looks nasty and uninviting. I'd much rather see the name of the site in a bright color that I can click on, then have to read the whole path to get to the page. And this, thankfully, I have figured out.

So what other tools or aspects of posting do you find give the impression of a professional post? And if you know how to do it, please do tell.


Surrendering to Him,

Eileen

A Little of This, and a Little of That...

It's vacation week in our household and as a result I'm scatter-brained and still in a lot of pain due to pulling too many weeds and transplanting too many varieties. We dropped our girls off at horse camp yesterday after a weekend of packing and preparing for it. They were so excited!

Hubby is off for a few days this week, one is today, and maybe tomorrow--his work load is dictating day-by-day. So depending on his schedule I may not be around much this week.

Twitter and Facebook runners, have you got yourselves linked? If not, check out this article on Connecting Twitter to Facebook. It's simple enough that it worked for me. I'm in search of an article that links blog updates to Facebook and Twitter too, so if you find one please let me know. Or something that reveals how to create a tiny URL would be helpful too.

No writing happened this weekend for me, what about you? What about today? Who's going to join me to aim for 2000 words today? I better get writing before hubby wakes up. I pray we all have a productive and blessed Monday!


Surrendering to Him,
Eileen

Being Flexible

Okay, I'm deferring the professional looking posts post due to technical difficulties. I had a couple links saved in an email to refer to for this post and now email is down for me.


But if anyone knows how to upload snapshots of screens in their original rectangular form, I'd be interested. That's something I'm still trying to figure out, among many others. When I do get that post up (hopefully on Monday) it'll be more interactive than anything because I have soooo much to learn.


On an aside. My body aches.


Seriously, I love looking at gardens, enjoying all the different flowers, but man, I could do without all the work it takes to buff the gardens each year. I got a late start and now am pulling half of my foliage out to be able to see the little gems hidden beneath the overgrown monster flowers. And I haven't even got to my largest garden yet.



I'll be tackling this one over the weekend and throughout next week, I suspect. It'll look a little different as this pic was taken last fall, so some of these flowers are just starting to awaken. I'll try to take a pic when I'm done and post.

In fact, I think we should have a garden blog party once I complete my gardens. Yeah, I really like that idea. Motivates me to get mine all done. Care to join me? If your gardens are buffed and ready start taking pictures for a future garden party in cyber space. I'll be bringing fresh squeezed old-fashioned lemonade to share.

Surrendering to Him,

Eileen

Fun with Dialogue and Winner Announced after Noon

Hey, all, I'm over on Writer's Rest today. Hope you'll come join me there.

I'll update this post after noon as to the winner of Betsy St. Amant's Return to Love. If you haven't entered yet, and want to squeeze a ballot in, go here and leave a comment in that post.

And on Friday we'll be taking another look at postings. Think professional layouts. How do they do that?

Prayer for us all today: May we see God's hand in all we come in contact with today and take a moment to praise Him for His graciousness. Amen

UPDATE of winner of Betsy St. Amant's Return to Love:

Congratulations, Jessica Nelson! I shuffled the little pieces of paper, didn't look inside the bowl, and drew out your name. Please send me your snail mail address. I don't harvest them, so no worries there.

Posting Length--What's your pick?

First, if I knew how to create blog awards, I'd be giving Booking It by Jessica Nelson a Consistently Concise Award. I love Jessica's posts. I never have to skim; they're always so compact. And her material never ceases to make me think.

So I have a couple questions for you all today:

1) What length do you desire blog posts to be?
&
2) If a topic is lengthy, how do you feel about it being split up over several posts? Would you welcome it being broken up, or prefer to see a single topic in one lengthier post? (I know, that makes it three, but they're so related.)

My prayer today: May sparks of creativity ignite during our writing/play time today!


Surrendering to Him,

Eileen

Age Criteria...Sadly Overrated & A Giveaway

In books and at conferences I've repeatedly heard reputable agents and editors say something to the tune of: "You need life experience to write, so people in their twenties or younger aren't likely to write saleable books."

I've always questioned that theory in the quiet recesses of my mind and heart, and not because I'm young. For the record, just so we're clear on this, I didn't start writing until I was nearing thirty-seven, and I'm now forty-three. I questioned it and still question it because it seems so unfair. No matter what age we are, if we're living, we're experiencing life, and thus we have experiences to draw on to write about. In some respects, being a young writer can be a huge advantage. Many firsts are still very fresh in your mind and what better time to get those firsts down on paper then when they're nearest and dearest to you?

Well, in these past few days my thoughts on this have been affirmed through reading a wonderful Steeple Hill book by Betsy St. Amant (a twenty-five year old wife, mother, and wonderful author). Return to Love just released on July 1st and it proved to me that not all agents and editors know it all.

It's sad to think that some young writers might take these naysayers to heart and set aside their dream for years, just to gain some experience before feeling worthy to share the stories that come to them. Think of all the wonderful stories we're missing because of this condescending attitude. So sad. I say, if you're old enough to put words together on the page, and study the craft of fiction writing, I don't care how old you are, write what you know! And if you're disillusioned and believe you know nothing, take a gander at Cindy Wilson's article about this very topic here.

I'll be interviewing Betsy on July 30th, so I won't say anymore about her and Return to Love in this post, but instead, to celebrate I picked up two extra copies of Return to Love for giveaways. One for this week, and one for the week of her interview post. If you're interested in reading an Inspirational romance fit for you and your teenage daughter(s), neice(s), friend(s), let me know in the comment section and I'll add your name into the drawing. I'll draw the winner next Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at noon, and hopefully the winner will have a chance to read this wonderful fresh story before my interview is posted on the 30th. Good luck everyone!

Surrendering to Him,

Eileen