Archive for ‘bloggers’

September 9th, 2011

Ten Things About Me

by Holly Dodson

I’ve been tagged by the lovely Miss Cole to share with you all ten things about myself!  Aren’t you excited?  I know you are.  She also gave me an award, which I am going to share with the people I tag.  So, thank you very much and enjoy!

I really like this award, it matches my blog! ;)   Thanks, Miss Cole!

On with the show…

10 Things You Didn’t Already Know About Me:  (How’s that for a title?  Ha.)

  1. I can’t stand peanut butter.
  2. My favorite thing to do when I get stressed out is to get my hair cut.  Short.
  3. I frame Super Spawn’s “art” and hang it in my office.  
  4. I found a book from when I was seven years old the other day — Boxcar Children.  I had written all sorts of notes in the blank pages in the back.
  5. When I was in elementary school, my best friend and I would have sleepovers so we could read together.
  6. I’m scared of tall bridges.
  7. I have a texture issue — and Super Spawn loves to use it against me to make me gag.  He thinks it’s funny.
  8. I really like lists, and although you may already know that, I just feel the need to share the fact that I’m loving this list.  Super fun listmakeage.
  9. My new WIP is now a good bit over the 10k words mark.
  10. I only need glasses for reading.

There you have it!

Now, I think I’ll tag…

Meredith, Lindy, Ghenet, and Kirsten!

Have a great weekend, guys!

Categoryabout me, blog award, bloggers | CommentNo Comments »

August 23rd, 2011

Taking the Plunge

by Holly Dodson

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LY0Bc43-X5k/TlDxNcsdO1I/AAAAAAAAAqo/l69shgZf9zg/s1600/I%2527m+a+platform-building+campaigner+badge%25281%2529.jpg

I’ve decided to take part in Rachael Harrie’s Platform Building Campaign this time around!  Several friends have participated before, and it looks like a lot of fun, so I figure why not.  :)   I look forward to meeting some new friends, and discovering some new blogs.

Who else is joining in?

The details are over on Rachael’s blog.

Categorybloggers, blogging | CommentNo Comments »

July 28th, 2011

Again With the Mommy Thing, Plus a Blog Award

by Holly Dodson

Sorry, but I’m bursting with Mommy pride this week.  Just look at this cuteness!!

We don’t start lessons for at least another week, and I don’t know how I’ll contain him until then.  lol  He’s so enthusiastic about the violin — and he’s so, so careful and thoughtful with it.  It’s quite the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.  (Although, my folder and notebook of revision stuff beside him isn’t so cute.  Heh.)

This was the first time I let him hold the violin and the bow together.  :)   If you’re wondering…that’s a 1/10 violin.  They actually come even smaller!  It’s crazyness.

Okay, I’m done being THAT mom now.  I promise not to bombard you with pictures again any time soon.  Or, well, until he starts lessons or something.  Hehe.

On the writing side of things — I was given an award by Brit over at Pages and Stardust!  Thank you, Brit!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eU5OomBiE0A/Tizus5BGB8I/AAAAAAAAADU/-wBQmrKMtcA/s1600/Liebster+Image.jpg 
I’m supposed to pass it on to five other bloggers with less than 200 followers, so here we go:  (It’s always so hard to pick just a few.  I feel like I’m cheating you guys out.)
Erinn
Alicia
Sarah
Meredith
and last, but most definitely not least Yahog Chi!

Categoryblog award, bloggers, life, Super Spawn | CommentNo Comments »

July 15th, 2011

Friday Fives — Hangouts

by Holly Dodson

It’s that time again over on Paper Hangover…

1) Blogs – Does that count as a writing community?  I think so.  I’ve met most of my writing friends and beta readers through my blog.  *waves*  <3 you guys!

2) YALitChat – I’ve been a part of YALitChat for a long time now, and I’ve always found great support over on those boards.  I also met my fab critique partner over there.  :D

3) Absolute Write – An invaluable depth of information on every aspect of writing can be found in these forums.

4) Query Tracker – Between the comments on the individual agent’s pages and the forum where everything from critiques to success stories are shared, you can learn a lot about agents, writing, and the publishing process.  I probably spend way to much time there actually.  lol

5) I don’t actually have a fifth.  Hmm…drawing a blank.  I know I’m forgetting something.

What are your favorite writing communities?

Categorybloggers, friday five, Paper Hangover, Writing | CommentNo Comments »

March 1st, 2011

Attention!! I have an announcement!!

by Holly Dodson

Today is THE day!  What day?  Well, it’s the grand unveiling of a secret project I have been working on with some AMAZING people!

Are you excited yet?  You should be!

I am happy to announce to you: Paper Hangover.  A group blog dedicated to bringing you fresh, informative content on the publishing industry.

To kick off our first week, we’re hosting GIVEAWAYS today through Thursday!  Today we even have for you an ARC of DIVERGENT, a copy of LIKE MANDARIN, HAVEN, and UNEARTHLY! 

*SQUEE!*

With each day of giveaways, we will also be introducing you to our contributors.  And we have some AWESOME contributors, guys!  I’m so excited to be part of such a talented group of writers.

Head over, check us out, and enjoy!

Categorybloggers, contest | Comment7 Comments »

January 19th, 2011

BLOGFEST!!

by Holly Dodson

The 99th Page Blogfest 

 

So, what’s more fun than a blogfest hosted by your very own blogger buddies?  Nothing!  That’s what.

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On January 28th, Alicia, Erinn, Pam, Quita, and I will host the first ever 99th page blogfest. This was inspired by page99test.com.

The basic idea is that you post the 99th page of your manuscript on your blog and we blog hop and comment on whether or not we would continue reading.  They say that the quality of page 99 will tell the true quality of the whole work.  Here’s an article on the idea if you’d like to read it.  Neat concept, right?

Right.

So, to join in on the fun all you need to do is sign up using the linky below. Please spread the word!

Categorybloggers, Writing | Comment10 Comments »

January 17th, 2011

Using Analytics – An Overview

by Holly Dodson

Okay, at the request of a few lovely followers, here is how I track my site’s analytic details.  Let’s get all technical up in here!  Woot!

Whaaaaat?  I’m a writer, not a techie!

Yeah, well, I’m not a techie either.  But if we’re serious about the business side of our writing, it’s something we’ve got to learn to do.  :)

Isn’t it hard though?

Ummmm, no.  Really, it’s simple.  It seems daunting at first if you have no idea what you’re looking at, but it’s actually pretty self-explanatory.  Here we go.

I use Google Analytics.

 
When you sign in, this is what you see…  Whatever websites you have set up to track will be listed with their reports.

When you click on view report it takes you to the dashboard, which looks like this:

 

Lots of interesting information, right?  When you start clicking on the different reports, you can learn things like: search terms used to find your site, the popularity ranking of your posts, how people are finding your blog, who’s linking to your blog, etc.  Awesome.

This is the Traffic Sources page where you’ll see what websites have lead people to yours, and what search terms people found you with:

Your Content Overview pages looks like this:  It shows page hits and post popularity.

You can also use the Stats function on blogger (if you use blogger that is):

 
The blogger Stats page looks like this:

Not too hard, right?  I love checking my analytical data out.  It’s so cool to see how people find me!

Anyway, if you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Categorybloggers, techie stuff | Comment9 Comments »

December 10th, 2010

So, I did an interview…

by Holly Dodson

Between the excitement (and 70+ emails) of planning the writing retreat, craziness at work, attempting to break myself by falling down stairs, reading, and revisions…  I deserve a cookie.  No, a cupcake!  With the chocolate butter-cream frosting.  (Susan knows what frosting I’m talking about.  The best dang frosting in the whole wide world!)

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining.  It has been an awesome week.  Well, except the falling down the stairs part.  I might complain about that.

Anyway….

My sister started a blog this week called The Simple Pleasure of Reading.  She’s going to be posting book reviews through the week, and featuring authors (aspiring and published) on Fridays.  Today, I’m the target!  So, if you’d like to see my interview, head on over!

In other news…. If you signed up for information on the retreat you should be getting your surveys today!    Let me know if you don’t have them by this evening.

If you missed out on signing up, never fear!  Send me an email, and we’ll get you looped in.

Categorybloggers, interview | Comment8 Comments »

June 18th, 2010

Friday Fun – Blog Award!

by Holly Dodson

The super awesome Blue Lipstick Samurai gave me a blog award!


The rules:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason! (In no particular order…)
4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.

7 Things About Me:

  1. I CANNOT WAIT to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando. It is, conveniently, only 4 hours away.
  2. Super Spawn is turning 3 TOMORROW! OMG how did that happen?!
  3. I’m a habitual email checker, even when I’m not expecting anything.
  4. Oh, I cannot stand Thomas the train. I’ve seen every. single. episode. five. hundred. times.
  5. I prefer Pepsi over coke.
  6. My favorite food – hot wings!!
  7. Annnnd Super Spawn just spit in his bowl of popcorn — gross. (Well, while I’m writing this he is even though it won’t post until tomorrow.)

15 bloggers I think are full of awesome:

  1. Pam and Marquita
  2. Sarah Enni
  3. KO
  4. Erinn
  5. Creepy Query Girl
  6. Kate Hart
  7. Abby Stevens
  8. Susan Dennard
  9. The Alliterative Allomorph
  10. Renae
  11. Leila Austin
  12. Jen
  13. Michelle Schusterman
  14. Emilia Plater
  15. Elana Johnson

And a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my big guy who turns 3 tomorrow!!

Categoryblog award, bloggers, moms, parenting | Comment9 Comments »

May 28th, 2010

Friday Fun

by Holly Dodson

So, my lovelies, what’s fun about this Friday? Lots of cool stuff to report!

I won a contest this week! Over on Eleana Johnson’s blog, and I’m totally excited!

AND I hit 30 followers this week! You guys are awesome, that’s the truth.

All of this excitement makes me want to have a contest of my own. Then I’ll have an excuse to use a bunch more of these – !!!!!

Tell ya what, I’ll start scheming, planning, begging, and whatever else it takes to come up with some cool prizes. And when I hit 50 followers, we’ll have that contest, oh yes we will!

For now, I’ll leave you with some of those inspirational quotes I mentioned in Tuesday’s post.


Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. ~E.L. Doctorow

The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. ~Sylvia Plath

Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very;” your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain

I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent re-writer. ~James Michener

Writing is physical work. It’s sweaty work. You just can’t will yourself to become a good writer. You really have to work at it. ~Will Haygood

A writer never has a vacation. For a writer life consists of either writing or thinking about writing. ~Eugene Ionesco

Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position. ~Stephen King

We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to. ~Somerset Maugham

Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet. ~Anonymous


Categorybloggers, contest, funny, inspiration, Writing | Comment4 Comments »