Thursday, January 7, 2010

Time Zones - Cities - States - Revising The Calamity Girl Manuscript

In my woman's fiction manuscript for The Calamity Girl - The Promotion ,
Rachel Tornquist and Michael Ferraras fly from Toronto, Ontario to Tucson, Arizona.
I found out it takes 3 hours and 45 mins on a cool site called Travel Math to help you determine the amount of time in your dialogue for your book.  They watch two movies during the flight, so I wanted to make sure that it would coinside with their flight time.

Not only is this a great tool for your books, but you can use it for when you actually do travel!

Travel Math

I wanted to check the time zones for Toronto and Arizona , to calculate what time they would arrive there.

Time and Date Calendar

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

59 seconds think a little change a lot - photo book cover richard wiseman- the idea girl says - linda randall writing

59 seconds think a little change a lot - photo book cover richard wiseman- the idea girl says - linda randall


I posted a video with author Richard Wiseman on The Idea Girl Says, with Harry Smith from CBS, talking about Shortcuts to a new attitude.


In 2010, you can make a difference in your life.


The things you don't like, change.


Follow your dreams.


List your goals.


And do whatever it takes to reach them!




Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Creating Media For Your Blogs


When I look for photos to post with my idea girl consulting youtube videos, I like them to look professional, bright colors and awesome poses.

At times I wonder if some of the people are professional models.

If not, then they should be.

I spent over 4 hours today working on a video to promote my Homework Help for Kids website on Squidoo.

It gets some traffic, but I'd like to see some more.

It's a useful site for kids, to help them with their homework, and school assignments.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Helium - Idea Girl - Linda Randall





It's been awhile since I wrote anything on Helium.  I find it difficult to write over 400 words at a time.  I get all muddled up in my thought and my typing becomes painful in some cases.

It's frustrating at times, because of my fingers or my brain not functioning the way it should.

A three year struggle for me to learn how to write novels and now I struggle to write articles too.

I like the shorter tweets on twitter or on facebook, because it doesn't take a lot of thought.

I'm still polishing my grammar skills and if I use Microsoft Word, it catches all my poor sentence structures.

In the old days, we would just write and that was it, now I have to correct my grammar and writing skills, because I want to do this professionally. :)

Marketing Yourself as a Writer


It's easy to say your a writer, but how do you show the world you are what you say?

Writing isn't always easy to do.

At times, when I can't think of anything to say, I'll find a cool youtube video and post it.

Then I'll write about what I think about the topic on hand.

I like doing that, because it gives me fresh ideas and it educates me on all sorts of topics that I wouldn't normally look into.

One of the things I've started this year is blogging daily on The St Catharines Standard site.

It's my local newspaper.

Sure people around the world know about my blogs but no one in my own neighbourhood does.

There are a few hundred that are aware of my writing, but I've never really put myself out there.

And now I am.

It's cool because I'm starting to get to know fellow writers in my area!

Its all part of marketing yourself as a writer.

When the time comes for you to sell your book, you need to know the local newspaper, media, radio stations and  book wholesalers.

Don't wait till after you're published.

Start working on your network of contacts, before you even submit a book to a Literary Agent.

I think they will be impressed if you have lots of connections, it makes the publishers job easier and you will have some decent book sales.