Month: June 2015

Tumblr Follow Fest

Find your Tumblr blog URL
Click to enlarge

There’s been a lot of talk about Tumblr lately. Seems all the cool kids are migrating there from Facebook. If you aren’t sure what that is, Kat Cantwell wrote an introductory post about it. And our Kat Brooks wrote a tutorial to show you how easy it is to get up and running. Don’t forget, Instagram makes posting to Tumblr super easy! So come on down and join in the Tumblr follow-fest!

This is how it works: If you are an author, publisher, publicist, literary agent, book reviewer, librarian (or especially a book-lover), etc., in the comments below, paste in the link for your Tumblr blog. Make sure you show some love to the blog in the comments above yours, and check back throughout the day to catch up. to get your ID, merely go to your dashboard and copy the link next to the BIG pink arrow in the picture above (i.e. – http://ksbrooks.tumblr.com/).

Click on the person’s link in the comments section below, and you will go to their blog. Then click Follow. (See photo below.)
follow a tumblr

This should be fun and should generate a lot of exposure for everyone who plays. Let’s get the party started!

When a Novelist Writes Non-Fiction

Marcia Gates Angel of BataanRecently our own Big Al wrote a post about non-fiction and how it is largely missing in the annals of IU. True enough, most of our emphasis here is on fiction. Some of us, however, have waded into the cool waters of non-fiction, and I for one found the experience totally different than crafting a novel.

One thing I’ve learned is that fiction and non-fiction have very different roles. Broadly speaking, fiction’s purpose is to provide entertainment while non-fiction’s purpose is to provide information. These two things are not mutually exclusive, of course. If you read the novel Congo, you no doubt learned quite a bit about extracting data from digital video. By the same token, a non-fiction book like American Sniper is certainly entertaining in a dramatic, thought-provoking way.

Non-fiction, like fiction, can be broken down into several sub-genres. Continue reading “When a Novelist Writes Non-Fiction”

How to Remove a Pirate Site from a Google Search

www removing a pirate site from searchI recently wrote a post instructing how and where to send a Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice when you find your work has been pirated. My experience has been that this is usually all that’s needed to ensure the offending site removes your content.

Usually, but not always. Some sites, particularly sites based in countries that don’t recognize U.S. Copyright law, may refuse to respond, or in some cases (as once happened with me), may respond to inform you that they don’t have to obey no stinkin’ law. Continue reading “How to Remove a Pirate Site from a Google Search”

Grammar Tip: There Is vs. There Are

grammar there is there are“There’s two ways of disliking poetry; one way is to dislike it, the other is to read Pope,” said Oscar Wilde.

No, of course he didn’t say that.  What he said was:

 “There are two ways of disliking poetry; one way is to dislike it, the other is to read Pope.”

When I’m in grammar-nazi mode, I’ll often find myself jumping up and down in front of the TV, yelling and growling at the misuse of basic grammar. One of the errors that’s guaranteed to get me into a right lather is the incorrect use of ‘there is’ and ‘there are’. For instance: Continue reading “Grammar Tip: There Is vs. There Are”