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Add comment April 7th, 2009
Posts filed under 'Blog Business'
Blog Business Post
Hi everyone. Long time no post, eh?
There are a number of issues that I wanted to address:
SPAM
First on the list is the Spam issue, but more importantly the incorrect classification of good comments as spam. I’ve run out of options with the current configuration. Our choices at this point are:
- Leave things as they are and try to train the filter to leave the people we like alone.
- Increase the number of permitted links in a comment. This will reduce the mistaken classifications slightly while also slightly increasing the number of spam comments getting through. Some of our friends will still be sentenced to purgatory by mistake.
- Require commentors to be registered and then remove the filter. This will probably be the most effective means to solve the problem, but will likely put a damper on the voices of those who prefer more annonymity.
COST
I’ve received several e-mails asking whether hosting this site is costing me any more than hosting my own sites. The answer to that is emphatically “No”. However, my life is drastically different now than it was then. Sooo…
I would be uncomfortable just taking money from the kitty. If you want to help, consider buying a photograph or hiring me to shoot an event. Here’s what I can offer:
For portraits, I can be hired for the cost of gas if you are within 200 miles of Indianapolis, IN or Baltimore, MD or Greenville, SC or Memphis, TN (or enroute from Indianapolis to one of these cities). If you are further than 200 miles, I need a place to stay. This cost will be in lieu of a sitting fee. For weddings, I will pay for gas and lodging from my standard fees without adding travel costs. Advertising images may or may not require travel or model hire. If you have something in mind, contact me and we’ll see what we can work out.
If you are interested in buying a print, you can go to http://bjwcreations.lifepics.com/ and use the Event Code PUBLIC (or for prints of the nudes which hang in the Kinsey Institute Gallery use Code FINE ART). Various print sizes are available, as well as coffee mugs, etc. Right now the selection is limited. I just started loading images. If you have something in mind, whether a particular subject matter, or a different size or product, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. To order the mugs or mouse pads or framed gallery prints, click on “Gifts” toward the bottom of the screen once you are in the image collection you want.
The point of all this is that while I don’t need to be paid to host the site, my budget is very tight right now and photo sales could keep me in coffee.
PERSONAL STUFF
I’m no longer a reference librarian. A year ago I made the move to full-time photographer (just in time for the floods and slow economy). To fill my spare time, I’m training to become a CASA/GAL (Court Appointed Special Advocate or “guardian ad litem”) and I’ve been writing. Mallory has his own story now (woebetidehim), and Ian and Gabby are doing well also. The photography business is profitable, but making the personal ends meet can be interesting sometimes, especially around dinner time when some items which were never intended to be served on the same plate wind up supper mates.
I’m running late… so I’m going to close for now and hope to be able to come back for a further update later.
Bye for now.
50 comments November 2nd, 2008
RWA: A First Time Love Affair by OH
I was going to do a scene by scene of my arrival, fun times, and departure of San Fran, but really, you don’t want that many details. But I’ll break it down to the highlights. I arrived Wed after the plane, the airBART, the regular BART, walking uphill with a suitcase (ew) and plenty of nice conversations with strangers (the book I brought sucked). First thing I did in SF was meet Kay T (aka RWA roomie). Next thing I did was walk into a lobby with at least a hundred women talking romance, their voices like “chattering birds” (stole that from someone), their energy level sparking the mind. But that was nothing compared to the “Readers for Life” Literacy Autographing that night. Over 500 authors, a lot of the RWA members, and a huge smattering of the public filled up the enormous ballroom. I made a beeline to Suz Brockmann’s table- squeal squeal squeal- and then made my rounds around the place, picking up among others Kathleen O’Rielly’s Sex, Straight Up, which I’ve read since I’ve been back and found extremely well-written. As I’m making the end of my rounds I notice the raffle board and omibob I won two gift baskets. (Let me* say right now, Kay T actually dropped off my raffle tickets while I was in line for Suz- squeal- so I did share some of the goodies, though she wouldn’t take the seagull sculpture no matter how much I insisted. *grin*)
Thurs. was the beginning of the workshops (and the Goody Room, where I saw what made good promotional items and filled up a bag with the stuff). I got to see RSS again (yay! I was very lucky and got to spend a lot of time with RSS, all of it fabulous) and then Dee (first and last time I saw her at the conference; you need to get an elephant to sit on her to keep that CB in one place). The workshop to point out for that day is Watching the Detectives: Peek Inside a Real Detective Agency with Eileen Rendahl, who basically explained all the ins and outs of PI work and life. If anybody has a PI in their story, I’ll be happy to type up my notes from this one for you, cause wow was she informative. The luncheon during the afternoon had a very funny, funny speech by Victoria Alexander, who I must now read in the hopes she is just as funny in her books. I also went to the Moonlight Madness Bazaar (aka time to sell you stuff) and met the DH of a writer/blogger who did magic tricks. Spent more time talking to him than anyone else there (until he started to look like a young Tom Cruise which was a little freaky, cause ew) but he and his wife were very wonderful. Had the best time at dinner with RSS that night too, where I found out some more cool things about her and the family.
Fri. was the first all-day workshop day. There were three especially amazing wokshops. First, The 21st C Heroine: How Far She’s Come and Where She’s Heading (which included on its panel Kesington editor Kate Duffy who is completely hilarious; if you go to RWA next year make sure you go to one of her workshops). We had a very fascinating discussion that I learned a lot from (you burst with romance pride after this one). The second was World Building: Creating Your Own Universe. A lot of it was stuff I knew, and they were referring to contemporaries, but I had a lot of little light bulbs go off, which is the best response to have in a classroom (as opposed to yawning). And third was Sociopaths vs Psychopaths and the Serial Killer with Dr. Cynthia Lea Clark, and I must buy her books cause oh boy, the stuff she knows. I talked about her workshop often afterwards, which garners more strange looks than I was really expecting considering where I was. I also should mention the workshop with SEP and Jayne Anne Krentz, which was more entertaining than informative (not saying it’s a bad thing, I just found it to be so). I’d love to see Jenny with those two doing a ‘workshop’. This was also the night of the CB Get-Togther in Chinatown. I don’t really have words to describe just how it feels to be sitting and talking with CBs face to face. Most of you have experienced it, but it strikes me* every time by how wonderful it all is. Even if they think checking up to make sure they got home safely is something only a mother would do. Like if I wasn’t walking back with Kay T they wouldn’t have made me* do the same thing. CBs. Sheesh.
[BTW: I'm mentioning the names of the omibob workshops I went to because you can download the workshops from the website and you may want to look at a few to get a feel for them if you've never been to RWA. I'm not really suggesting any of the above three- first was more about being there, second was good but basically common sense, and the third will probably have a lot of blank spots as after her first five minutes of speaking we just peppered her with questions and I'm not sure how many she repeated for the mike. I did take good notes in the last one though, so again, will type them up if you so wish.]
Sat. had one very mentionable workshop (though there was another I liked, but mostly just because the people were so wonderful on the panel, all from Dorchester Publishing House)- From Cover Concept to Finished Cover, and this gave me a great view inside the marketing/sales/art dept. Don’t bother getting this one, you needed the images too, but I would love to go to another one like this. After that it was mostly zooming through book signings (cause at this point I really needed more books) instead of workshops. Then it was the awards ceremony, which I dragged Kay T to so I could see Suz emcee. As I said to Kay T, until RSS or another CB is up for an award, or someone like Jenny is doing host spot, I’m probably not going to another one. It was fun, and we got to sit in the finalist section (didn’t see the red rope, I swear officer), but once is plenty until a CB is nominated.
Sun. was not as fun, mostly cause I was leaving and partly because I had a monster headache. RSS, Kay T and I meet up and ate breakfast as lori’s diner (judging by the car in the middle of the place, let’s not have lori doing any driving any time soon). And then it was a plane ride and home, brimming with ideas, a headache, and the desire to go to RWA next year.
I really didn’t mean to do a play by play of the whole conference, but overall I have a few tidbits I picked up during the conference. One, get the vegeterian meal at lunch. Two, find a workshop with Kate Duffy in it. Three, learn as much as possible, but go to to at least one book signing during the weekend. Four, have Kay T drop your raffle tickets in the box if possible. Five, romance writers want to meet you and want to share as much knowledge as they can. Six, it truly is their refrain that the best book to write is the one you want to. Seven, stay in the hotel where the conference is at if possible; it truly is worth the money to be able to drop off stuff you pick up during the day instead of breaking your back (RSS lent me* her room for this reason).
And eight- it’s a magical experience, and I recommend it to anyone who loves romance- whether it’s reading, writing, or doing both with it. The energy you get can bring you into a new place in your writing and life. I’m so glad I finally went to one.
And don’t forget about Dr. T’s Scotland post below.
109 comments August 6th, 2008
First Annual Bar&Grill Holiday Festivity
Okay we’re about to hit 100 so I’ll just pop this in here now.
As you all might have heard, I am decorating the tree (which I need to get this weekend) and baking cookies on 12/8. That also happens to be my normally scheduled posting date. Since we also need to get this place ready, and it being our first year to celebrate in our new home here at the Bar & Grill, I think we should do it up right.
I’ll do a post as usual and give a running commentary on what’s going on. Some of you may want to do some of your own decorating and baking on this day. Some of you may prefer to participate virtually. I think one way or another, we can all get into the spirit. If you are going to be joining in via the real world, and you have a blog, feel free to post in the spirit of the occassion. If you let me know I’ll put a link to your blog in my post so that people can bop back and forth from one “house” to another easily.
If you won’t be doing the holiday thing in your own home … well SOMEONE has to get this place decorated!
So, make your plans and get your shopping out of the way. Saturday, 12/8, we launch the first interblog, international, synchronized decorating and baking extravaganza. Oh, and Bryan? Louis? You manly men are in charge of getting us a tree. But not to worry, I’ve got your transportation lined up. 
99 comments November 30th, 2007
Posting Pictures
N.B. For this to work, you need to have your preferences set for the “visual rich editor.” Go to your user profile, the bottom of the page, to check that. If you don’t have it set for that, the pics won’t show up in your editing window.
Alrighty then. So you want to be a picture posting guru, eh? Well, listen up, ’cause we’re only going to do this once (of course you can always track it down later after you forget; I won’t delete the post).
First, you need a picture. So what about a screenshot of this here screen?
See, that’s all there is to it. Oh. You want step by step instructions? My bad. Take a look at this screen:
If you follow the instructions, you’ll see something similar to this:
So, we’re almost done. Now we need to make it so that the picture can be enlarged. Sorry, but this is where it gets complicated. First, click one time on the image in your post to select it.
Now get the link info:
Now let’s add it to the image we want:
Ta da!
Okay, this may not be the best way, or the right way, or the only way, but it works for me with the fewest problems.
(PS – I’ve been getting script errors today that I don’t normally get. If it happens to you, click Yes (twice) and go on as before. Not sure what’s going on with that.)
Edit ~ for those of you who are comment challenged and can’t see the Error Screen, here it is
72 comments May 8th, 2007
Business: Post Authors
1. If I have not already assigned you a regular posting schedule, and you want a regular posting schedule, let me know what sort of schedule you’d like. I already have 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Wednesdays assigned, as well as 1st and 3rd weekends. We have 2nd and 4th weekends available. We can also toss in Monday posts, payday posts, the 23rd of every month posts, fifth week posts for those that only want to post now and then, and completely random whenever the heck you feel like it posts.
Author schedule page has been updated. Check yours to see if it’s okay. And please keep in mind that this is more like “guidelines” than rules. If you have a hankering, post. Just try not to step on somebody else’s post. Those of us who are Random will pick up the 5th week, the 4th weekend, and anytime things seem to slow down, or we have too many comments on a single post. — Bryan
2. If you want a bio page, send it to me. I will link to it off the Author page. I do not plan on checking references, so anything goes.
I need to get a few things worked out before I start the bio pages. If I do it now, there will be too many links on the navigation bar for the main page. I’m still trying to get some of those sub-pages un-displayed. — Bryan.
3. I know we need instructions on how to post pictures. Some of you might even want instruction on how to post in the first place. Any other how-to’s will come when somebody asks questions like “How do I …?” So send me e-mails with what you want to know.
42 comments January 2nd, 2007
I think I can, I know I can!
Yes! I found my way to the secret room in the new house. Thank you to the numerous people who supported me along the way. Why my family calls me when they want to know something about their computers says a lot about my family. Or my ability to dazzle them with BS about my ability to know what I am talking about.
I am watching my last football game for the day with DH. My sons keep calling and talking with their dad from states away about this play or that play. Would daughters call about a bargain they found in a store? I’ll never know. But give me just one granddaughter……..!
I’ll check in tomorrow and see what the schedule is. Now that I know my way.
31 comments January 1st, 2007
Testing, testing … 1 … 2 … 3
What? Zaza said to test post. Or post tests. Or something. So anyway here I am on the “Post” page for the first time. There’s all this … stuff. What stuff? Umm… oh, there’s the “categories” section. Let’s see … (I got a deal on those elipses, I’m not going to waste them) how about “Blog Stuff” and “Uncategorized” (since this is just me rambling) and oh yes, “Useless Fun.” I’m tempted to pick “Sophmoric Brain Development” but its almost 5 a.m. and I’ve been awake since 3 a.m. so I might come to regret that one. And there’s other cool things here too. Like:
- bullets
- and changing margins (whoops)
-
Or I can center this puppy.
This is Kelly. She’s 10 and pretty much rules the house. She also helped decorate and wrap this Christmas. If you have a cat you know what that means.
Remember when Glamour-Geek and Mary went to Hawaii? This is the photo they never showed you.
12 comments December 31st, 2006
My Two Cents on Some Issues
Categories – They’re there if you want to use them, but they’re not mandatory. It’s like a menu in a restaurant, just order what you want to eat, er, write about. As McB said, they make it easier to find past posts by topic rather than date. Maybe there’s a way to make it a clickable drop down for the sub-categories. Not a burning issue at the mo, though.
Flexibility or Rules – remember, we voted to keep the blog format because the majority of us liked the freeform give and take. I know some of you are having separation anxiety, but, really, did we have any rules on HW/SW? Did anarchy reign? Don’t answer that. ;+)
Deleting comments – that’s another of those relatively low priority things we’ll get to. No, the comments don’t go to Bryan’s mailbox, only if they are flagged as possible spam for too many links. Otherwise, they are posted immediately.
Accessing the Category “links” – they won’t work unless there has actually been a post under that category. Try the Golden Rule one now, Mary. I used it on one of my posts.
Negative reviews – Reviews – Reviews are listed in the categories in case someone wants to write one as their post. If we say “no negative reviews,” we may appear to recommend a book etc. when we know it has problems. We’re not doing the other CBs any favors by doing that. (Kudos, Diane!)
I’ve done book reviews for a couple of online mags/sites, back in the days when you had to provide your own books or scrape the bottom of the review barrel. When I solicited books for review, from a writers group, I promised to give an honest review, but if, IMO, a book was really bad, I just wouldn’t review it. That’s not to say that I only gave A ratings, but the ones that really blew, I just set aside. And I never had an author ask why I hadn’t reviewed their book. /;+)
J&B’s blog – Mollie originally said they’d leave it up for at least a week after the end of 2006 for those of us who needed one last peek and to provide links to the new blogs spinning off from it. I don’t know if that’s changed, but she checked with Jenny after I asked, so I’d say we’re safe for at least that long.
A purpose – When Bob said blogs needed a purpose, he was talking about professional blogs, blogs as marketing tools, which this isn’t. This is a community blog. We’re here for the chat and the camaraderie as Louis and several others have said.
Right now, I’m wondering why I can’t see all the comments on some posts, and why the comment box is gone. Dang it.
5 comments December 31st, 2006
Business: Posting
As I was saying in my comment on the last post, I think a semi-freeform schedule would suit all of us best. Cheryl would like Wednesdays. Tal and Tigress, if they join us, will most likely prefer to have a day locked in, as well.
So, pretty much posting at will with a few guidelines.
- I’m not quite sure how we’ll work this out, but…no stepping on other poster’s toes, i.e., once a post comes up, no new posts for at least SIX hours.
- If you post something that contradicts another post, in the interest of debate only, or complements/logically follows from another post, start a post of your own, rather than writing a huge comment.
- If things are lagging, by all means feel free to throw out an idea for discussion, post a pic or whatever, just to keep the conversation flowing.
How does that sound? We can put a schedule up for those folks who want dibs on a certain day/date, and anyone else can post when they like. I think having the six hour moratorium after a post is just good manners (we can change that length of time if we want or need to). Anyone who takes the time to post shouldn’t feel they have to compete for attention. Of course, if someone’s writing a post while someone else publishes theirs (after first checking the schedule to be sure no one has that time earmarked), that can’t be helped. But let’s at least try to give each post a little face time all its own. ;+)
If one of our poster girls or boys has a lot to say on the subject of a particular post, ref it in that post’s comments (as I did for this post in my comment on the one before), and move it to a post of its own, after a reasonable amount of comment activity has taken place. Especially if it’s something controversial, give the original post it’s six hour’s grace.
We’ll probably have to redefine these guidelines as we go along and see how things work out, but let’s give them a try for a while. In fact, if anyone who wants to have their posts scheduled will email Bryan (bryanjweitzel @ bjwcreations . com), he’s offered to try to make up a calendar for a couple months in advance. Mention when you want to post and how often. I’ll write up the guidelines with specific format info so that posters will know what’s expected of them and readers can recognize what’s going on.
BTW, is Bryan the one adding all the new categories? What a hoot! I’m even using one of them on this post.
Oh, and one other thing, anyone who would like to be able to post if they get a sudden brain fart or have something exciting to share or need a poor baby or a shovel brigade should email me NOW (zlamarr @ gmail . com) so I can set them up for posting priveleges. There would be no obligation attached, but I’d sure hate to hear that one of the CBs exploded because they didn’t have an outlet for all that hot air. Heh.
Checking back on the comments on the last post, those of you who want a regular schedule, just let us know when and how often you want to post. As for topics, we’ve proved over on HW/SW that we can all pretty much enjoy and comment on any topic.
I’m not going to say “no off-topic comments” because we all have some idea pop up we want to mention or discuss but don’t want to turn it into a post. One of the reasons we chose the blog format is so that we still have that freedom, rather than being locked in to topics as on a forum. So, no one should feel insulted if someone goes off-topic in their comments.
AHA! How about anyone who does a post and wants on topic discussion only, e.g., on craft issues or some issue their trying to resolve, include in the title “ON TOPIC DISCUSSION ONLY”? I’ll add a category for that, too, so someone who wants to find those posts can have a way of doing so without searching the whole blog.
It’s a work in progress, people. Don’t anyone get tense at this stage of the game. We’ve been together, some of us, for nearly a year, and we’ve pretty much gotten along like a herd of puppies, i.e., some rough housing, but mostly playing and having fun. Remember we’ll be having a web site eventually, and that will allow some topics to be focused for anyone who wants that.
Hang in there.
31 comments December 30th, 2006