Added Bubblews Highlights to the Page

This is a lame beginning to something that I hope will be an epic improvement to the site here and make it more worth regular visits. Brandon one of my boys is working on created an RSS Feed which would automatically show my five latest Bubblews posts in the sidebar here. I write there almost daily. This type of addition here would be a big win for me.

There are two ways it will benefit me. Number one, it will provide daily updated material right here on my author's blog. New material is the life blood of any good blog. It will increase my readership and give another reason for those readers to keep coming back for more.

The other way I benefit is that everytime someone clicks on one of those links and visits my Bubblews content I earn a penny. If they hit like on it while they are there I'll earn another penny. This potentially pays out better than any ad programs I brought on to the site.

The downside right now is that the automatic updating with my latests post isn't working. Brandon is not sure he can make it work. I know it's possible. The big question is how? Besides that it looks lame. Not inviting at all but like I say to my internal editor. Everything can be fixed. Any suggestions as to how to make this happen are more than welcome.

Belated Update

I was very pleased this week to have one of my sons and my daughter create their own blogs. My daughter is going to be focused on her writing with a passing interest in her cake decorating. Her blog is called "Fantasy by Antonia 'Cereye' White". My son is focusing on his photography and his writing. I really like the title we managed to brainstorm up: "Journey of a Thousand Images". I am hoping they will both do very well as they learn and grow as writers.

Pico's Cycling - Tales of the Road continues to have moderate success. Four months published on time and counting. We are slowly developing a readership. I've added a Zazzle gift shop both to that site and this one. Don't know that we'll make much money from that but it can't be worse than the advertising I've already put on my sites. They have effectively been generating nothing. I will likely start replacing that space with something I think has more value.

I continue to write on Bubblews. I'd love to create a news feed and post it here on the side allowing readers to go straight from here to my latest posts there. I write almost daily on that site and making a little money every time someone goes and looks. Only trouble is to figure out how to do that. I will devote a little time trying to do just that. I don't think it will be very easy to do though.

State of the Brand

The year 2013 is almost over and this is probably the last chance I get to post something here before it's gone. It has been a very eventful year for me as a writer and I just want to write a few words at the end of it here.

My novel "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" has not vaulted me into the literary spot light neither has it made me filthy rich. Looks like I might actually have to work at it. I am happy with the accomplishment though. The feedback from the readers that chose to express their thoughts have almost all be positive. The general assessment is that the book kept their attention and it was easy to read. It's gratifying to have several people tell me that they didn't want the story to end as soon as it did. They want a sequel because they like the characters so much. On the flip side one person did tell me they found the action and language of some the characters a little more intense than she would have liked. That's fair. Overall I'm happy.

I read somewhere that an author doesn't really get his or her name out there until they have three books in print. My goal is to get on my horse and get the rough draft of my sequel done. If I don't get too caught up in the day to day of my own personal drama, I might be able to manage that by the end of 2014. That's what I'm shooting at this coming year.

My webzine Pico's Cycling - Tales of the Road http://picoscycling.blogspot.ca. Is off and running. At this point the readership nearly tripled in the second month. What do we do for an encore? I'm hoping to continue the momentum. I did sacrifice a bit of effort here and on Bubblews to make that happen but it looks like it will be worth and eventually pay off.

Bubblews... What can I say? The most money I've made on a website in a single year to date. Keep it up and I will blow that away in 2014. Interested in signing up? Here is my referral link: http://www.bubblews.com/?referral=51f5bbc90f3fe9.59547344 . Seriously, where else can you get paid as an author to do you practice or warm up writing?

2014 is going to be another big year for me.

A Good Writing Day

Just a quick post today.

I started out the day with high ambitions and I've come close to completing them all. I'd planned to try and write three articles for my webzine and two of them are done. I'd planned to write at least two posts on Bubblews and they are done. Finally I planned to write a brief post here and by the time I get to the end of this that'll be done too.

I wouldn't feel so great about it except that this isn't all I had to get done today. I worked on our snowshoe trail helping the family escape for a shopping trip. Got our outdoor well in working order again as well as caught up with my Bubblews friends. Wanted to get more done but that will always be the case with me. There is always more than I could possibly get done. I'm pretty happy with what I've managed.

If the Internet holds up I might even complete the stuff I didn't get done tomorrow evening.

Third Annual Family Writing Awards

This year we made no attempt to invite anyone. We were more worried about keeping ourselves warm during this cold snap than preparing for guests. Our muted festivities did include a movies and potato chips. We did however have more to shout about that the previous two years. Here is a quick list of the family accomplishments.

Pico Triano

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie - Published
Pico's Cycling - Tales of the Road - Webzine Launched
Payout at Mylot
Multiple payouts at Bubblews

Brandon

Galdathor: Legacy of the Lost King - Camp NaNoWriMo

Mieke (Antonia Cereye White)

Shadow Alliance - Camp NaNoWriMo
The Veresone Edge - Camp NaNoWriMo
Crystals: The Badlands - NaNoWriMo

Andrew

The Lost Medallion - Camp NaNoWriMo
The Crimson Spear - Camp NaNoWriMo
Till After Death - NaNoWriMo

Sheldon

I Never Would Have Guessed, Victoria - NaNoWriMo

Francine

Payout at Mylot
Multiple payouts at Bubblews

All I can say is wow! If we are going to top that next year, we have our work cut out for us.

Tweaks But Not Much Writing

Bubblews is down and I feel like I haven't accomplished much in regard to my writing. The day hasn't been a loss. I finally added a link in the righthand column of all three of my blogs to buy a copy of my book. It routes to Amazon.com. Most of my pages views come out of the USA. My apologies to everyone else. From there it is easy enough to get to the Canadian or the UK site anyway. Here's hoping that addition will lead to more sales.

For the cycling site I dug up two of my old cycling photo albums. Lots of pictures with stories to develop. This will allow me to write a couple of articles that I have been planning. May even get to that this evening. My enthusiasm for this project is still pretty high. I don't foresee any problem getting the next issue out on time. My biggest challenge is to build interest in the site in between published issues.

Webzine Launch!

Pico's Cycling - Tales of the Road officially launched yesterday with the december issue. Five articles/stories. The reception has been better than expected at this point in spite of the lack of time I've had to put into this. Given my enthusiasm for the project a boost. I'm hoping to have a couple of selections that are written by someone other than myself. I've got a month of encouraging and maybe arm twisting in that department. Looks like putting together the next issue is going to be fun.

Since the launch I have added a page for links to friendly cycling sites. The page address is http://picoscycling.blogspot.ca/p/cycling-friends-and-websites.html There are a couple other riders I met on Bike Forums that will likely post their sites there as soon as they see it's available.

Only real hiccup that I ran into yesterday when I was trying to make some noise on Facebook about the site. In the past I always got to post the link along with one of the pictures I added to the post. Suddenly all it will let me use is my Google account avatar. Very frustrating. I'm hoping that the problem will resolve itself. How's that for putting my head in the sand like an ostrich.

Link for the webzine is http://picoscycling.blogspot.ca/