What a week. As I write this, I sit at the brink of 200 followers, a milestone I never thought to reach this soon. After all, I've only been blogging for 6 1/2 months.So I look at my follower widget and see the number 198 and my brain goes "Woah..." It totally blows my mind, man. Some time ago I said that when I reached 200 followers I wanted to host my first blogfest. I thought at the time that it would take longer, but with the Writers Platform Building Campaign in the works, 200 is just around the corner. I still want to hold a blogfest, whether I feel prepared or not. So look for that coming soon!
Until then here are a few fun blogfests I've signed up for:
Talli Roland is celebrating the launch of her book Watching Willow Watts on September 14th by organizing an
'If I Could Be Anyone, I'd Be...' party. Come dressed as that one person you've always admired, longed to impersonate, or just plain envied. Now is your chance to make your superhero, film-star, or Rock God fantasies come true (okay, maybe not
all your fantasies...). If you have a blog and you'd like to take part, all you need to do is post a photo of your chosen one (dead or alive) along with an explanation why you've picked that person. Sounds like fun! I still have to decide who I want to be.
Alex J. Cavanaugh's
Worst Movies Ever Blogfest! On Monday, September 19, post a list of up to ten of the worst movies you’ve ever had the misfortune to watch. Films that just oozed awfulness and featured plot holes so big you could drive a bus through them. Any genre or year, but only theater and straight to video/DVD titles. (Otherwise we’d all list every movie ever made by the SyFy Channel!) Sign up, grab the button, and on September 19, give us the worst! And be sure to visit others participating in the blogfest.
Margo Lerwill's
I AM LEGEND blogfest, to celebrate the one year anniversary of her blog. On September 29, 2011, stand up to say I AM LEGEND and tell us why. One of the participants will win either a copy of Donald Maass's The Fire in Fiction or a hardcover edition of George R. R. Martin's A Dance With Dragons, winner's choice. The winner will be picked at random and announced here on Friday, September 30th, 2011.
And something truly epic: the
Rule of Three blogfest, hosted by Damyanti Biswas, J.C. Martin and Stuart Nager. This blogfest is too awesome to sum up briefly, but essentially our hosts have outlined a Shared World setting: the town of Renaissance. The blogfest participants are invited to create three characters to inhabit the town and each Wednesday in October to post a piece of 500 word flash fiction to introduce each of the characters with the final Wednesday to finalize the story you fashion around the three characters. All genres and styles of writing are welcome. I haven't explained it very well, so go read the post and sign up to support this unique blogfest challenge!
So can you guys believe it's September already? I feel like this year is vanishing under my feet. I wanted to accomplish so much more than I have. Still, I have accomplished more than I have in any other year so that is something. I've spent a lot of time focusing on the big picture in my writing: worldbuilding, outlining story arcs. So much do I enjoy these activities that I am afraid I'll be forever caught up in it and never get the actual stories written. And yet, for the kind of mythopoeia that I want to accomplish with my writing, these things are very necessary.
I've decided not to push and pressure myself too hard. A novel this year was too ambitious. So I have decided instead to write and finish and self publish at least one short story before Christmas. Also, I want to have the worldbuilding and the story arc planning mostly done before the new year.
This is the time of year I need to frantically start sewing if I want to make Halloween costumes (and possibly a little something to wear to the Ren fest in a couple of weeks). My oldest daughter, Luthien, is crazy about Halloween. She likes it even better than Christmas. This year she's been watching Thundercats a lot (we bought a DVD set recently) and has decided that she wants to dress up as WilyKit (one of the Thunder Kittens) and she's decided her younger brother should dress up like a Thundercat too. We figure he'd like Lion-O best. I'm not sure how I'm going to make them Thundercats costumes that will still keep them warm. It gets cold up here that time of year. For those of you interested in sewing (particularly costuming) I'll be launching a second blog where I can chronicle my sewing projects. It is National Sewing Month now, after all.
My other big project for this fall? Finally turning part of our basement into a personal writing room! I'm really excited about that. It can be really hard to write in my house with all the kids and distractions. My husband has promised though to give me time to sneak down into my new writing retreat and do some focused work. (He's wonderful.) It just needs to be cleaned up a bit and painted and then maybe decorated to provide maximum inspiration. Pics when it's done!
So, another other fun blogfests going? What are your plans for the fall?
Congratulations on almost two hundred followers! Glad you have your own place to write now. And thanks for plugging my blogfest. You should host one. It's a lot of work but ten times the fun.
ReplyDeleteSarah, I don't think you've ever met a blogfest you didn't like LOL.
ReplyDeleteThis fall is all about working on the first draft of my current WIP. I'd love to get the thing written by spring, but that's ambitious for me. We'll see. The holidays tend to throw me off my schedule A LOT.
Have a great holiday weekend.
Thanks for the blogfest shout-out, Sarah!
ReplyDelete200 followers in 6 months is damn amazing. It took me that long to get 5 :P
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you so much for posting the upcoming blogfest. I completely lost track of what I'd signed up for. I shall update my calendar now *hurries off*
I tried to convert my attic into a writing room once, but my family quickly filled it back up with junk :( Now I yearn for a basement that I can turn into a den :D
Wow, congrats on those followers, that's a lot in such a short time. I don't do many blogfests, but I'm liking the one about 10 worst movies
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on all those followers! That would be awesome to have your own writing room. I use to have my own office, but my husband had to give up his man room to the baby and now my office is the video game room too. I use to love the Thundercats! That would be very interesting to see how you'd do the costumes.
ReplyDeleteYou sure have a lot going on in your life, and yet you continue to do more! You are incredible.
ReplyDeleteI was planning on joining the Writers' Platform Campaign, but there is something keeping me back. Like God knows what is up ahead...
Anyway, Good Luck!
200 in 6 months is impressive. I know you talked about a lot of other stuff, but I'm stuck on that. I've got less than half that, and I've been at it longer.
ReplyDeleteYes... impressive...
You do have a full plate! Congrats on everything. And I think setting aside a writing space is a great idea - since I set up an actual office, I'm far more productive than when I was struggling to write at the kitchen table surrounded by the day's detritus.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from a fellow campaigner! I'm in your group and making the rounds. You signed up early in the list, so you should get extra traction! ;-)
ReplyDeleteIt's good to have goals, and good to set deadlines, but it is important to realize when the deadline is taking the fun out of the activity. That doesn't mean you failed, it just means you underestimated the scope of the task.
I'm in a similar situation. I planned to write and release my first book within one year, but I'm starting to think that was too ambitious. I haven't given up yet, but my confidence is flagging. The good news is that I will probably only slip the schedule by a month or two.
See you around on the campaign trail.
Congratulations of hitting so many followers in such a short space of time.
ReplyDeleteSounds like fall is going to be exciting! I've joined Rach's campaign and Talli's blogfest too. Don't even mention sewing - I'm so behind on my knitting projects, it's not even funny.
ReplyDeleteA writing room sounds like a great idea! Congratulations on hitting 200 followers!
Goodness, that's a lot of blogfests! Good luck! And congrats on the 200 followers. I love your background image!
ReplyDeleteHi fellow campaigner! Hmmm...you have a busy fall ahead of you. I plan on finishing my revision on 'True' and beginning my revision on 'the rock walker' we'll see!
ReplyDelete