Discovering the Wonderful Universe of Pinterest

As usual, I'm behind the curve on investigating new social media sites. This weekend I finally created a Pinterest account and immediately got lost in collecting quotes, landscapes and story inspiration images.

Oh wow! This is fun! And EASY! Who knew?

But it's more than just playtime for me, it's also letting me connect with a lot of the other geek-minded (I still prefer the term Space Chic) pinners out there who love space, Sci-Fi, the stars, sweeping landscapes, ancient civilizations and profound sayings.

I'm in heaven.

And as I begin my evolution from writer to author, I'll be able to post my cover images and other related specifics that pertain to my books. And share those of other authors, too. In fact, I already have a few book covers included in my Sci-Fi Culture board, but I'll be adding many more.

What I really enjoy about Pinterest is it seems to come naturally for me. It's not a struggle like putting together words for this blog can sometimes (*cough* often) be. In a little over 24 hours, I've already collected a nice little gallery. Want to check it out? So glad you asked! Be my guest:

Visit Laurie's profile on Pinterest.

As much as I hesitate to invest more time in yet another social networking site--hence my unfashionably late arrival to this community--I think this particular venue will be a boon for my muse. Whenever the words don't flow, the scene doesn't gel, or the characters just aren't speaking to me, I'm betting a few minutes perusing images and thoughts on Pinterest will help me re-gain both my inspiration and my perspective.

If you're one of my peers or you have an account, it's likely I've found you already. If not, please send me a subspace message (or follow me or my boards) and I'll be sure to return the favor asap.

If your focus is only on particular things, I'll post my individual boards below. (Sorry, no foodies or fashionista, but I'm guessing if you're reading this blog there will be something you'll want to take a peek at.)

STARS, GALAXIES AND SCI-FI (54 pins)

SCI-FI/SFR CULTURE (149 pins)

GREAT QUOTES (14 pins)

RANDOM FUN STUFF (21 pins)

ON BOOKS AND WRITING (1 pin) << Needs a little help here

PYRAMIDS AND ANCIENT CIVILIZATION (119 pins) (Some modern coolness too)

TOO CUTE (9 pins) [I can't resist this stuff!]

STORY INSPIRATION (33 pins)

INSPIRING LANDSCAPES (26 pins) Landscapes=real and created, indoor and outdoor.

Let me know if you think my boards are a little...shall we say..."space-centric."

So how exactly can Pinterest be of value to authors and readers? Well, for one, so much can be communicated to others via images and like interests. It's a way to paint a picture mosaic of what your passions are, what topics you love, or what your books are about. So it's all about reaching out with pictures and graphics, which is what you probably already do on Facebook and Twitter, but with words.

You can find a plethora of user tips about Pinterest...on Pinterest. :) I followed this board which has quite a few:

PINTEREST FOR READERS AND WRITERS

Many bloggers have weighed in on Pinterest too. Just Google "How Pinterest Helps Writers" or something similar to find assistance and information.

Rachel Gardner gives a few tips and cautions in a blog, but the post is over two years old, so I've followed up with a second blog that explains the major copyright issues have been resolved, but also spills how law enforcement is using Pinterest. (I wanted to include historical information on the copyright thing, because this is another reason I've avoided Pinterest for so long. I imagine it might be why others have too.)

Rachelle Gardner: What Every Writer Should Know About Pinterest

Pinterest's Most Wanted - March 2104, The Daily Beast

Do any of you pros and long-time users out there have any must-know tips or must-read articles? I'm eager to learn all I can.

PING PONG

Pippa, I hope you're having a blast with your Restless in Peaceville tour. For any readers who may have missed it, Pippa's zombie-esque story has been out a little more than a month. Check it out here (love the uber cool cover!): Restless in Peaceville by Pippa Jay.

In case you missed last week's discussion with author Pauline Baird Jones on the newly dubbed category of Top Gun SFR, you'll definitely want to backtrack and give it a look. Until now, we had no solid identifying tag for these edge-of-your-seat, turn-and-burn Science Fiction Romance reads. They feel the need...the need, for speed!

Wishing all the best to Sharon, who's probably up to her ears in edits, and Donna, who's no doubt up to her ears in boxes! Looking forward to hearing more from you both very soon.

Have a great week!

~~~ * ~~~

THOUGHTS: YOU CAN'T HAVE JUST ONE

Some of the swag from Behre's book signing

I had a few thoughts this week.

“And one year, at RWA . . .” Last week I waxed eloquent about all the fun to be had at the RWA National Conference in San Antonio.  Each conference has its own unique flavor and new ideas to offer, but one thing that is always a feature of Nationals is the opportunity to meet other writers and make lasting connections.

I met fellow bloggers Laurie and Sharon at my very first RWA conference in Washington D.C. five years ago, and look where that has led us!  The three of us have come a long way since that day we met in the lobby of the conference hotel at the beginning of our respective journeys.

I’ve met others at Nationals whose progress I can cheer from year to year, including, of course, my Golden Heart® sisters, the Firebirds.  Many of the members of my cohort have found agents, publishers and sales success.  I made a point of going through the vast ballroom that held the Literacy Signing event in San Antonio looking for folks I knew so I could celebrate the moment with them.  Of the Firebirds, I found Heather Nickodem (w/a Heather Ashby), Terri Osburn, Susan Boyer, Lorenda Christensen and Kim Law signing in the same room as Nora Roberts, Nalini Singh and hundreds of others.

I was also surprised to see my friend Mary Behre, a writer of light romantic suspense who only a year or two ago had been working the Literacy Signing with me as a volunteer usher.  There she was, signing her first book, Spirited, the first in the Tidewater series from Berkley Sensation.  Mary lives in nearby King George, Virginia, but it took traveling to the national conference for us to meet.  As is not uncommon in our state, I attend the Richmond-based Virginia Romance Writers chapter meetings; Mary meets with the D.C.-based Washington Romance Writers.

Mary’s second book, Guarded, just launched last week with a signing at the local Barnes & Noble.  I went out to show some support.  She had a decent-sized crowd, and she was well-received, but reading to a bunch of strangers can be an intimidating moment.  It can help to have a friendly face in the crowd.  Because we have our RWA connection, I know she’ll show be there to back me up when I need it, too.

(Mary describes her Tidewater series as “humor, suspense and a psychic love connection”.  Her writing voice is just as much fun as her own genuine personality. The first book was a great read; I can’t wait to get to the second one.)

Come and get your love . . .  Mary had plenty of goodies to give away to readers at her Barnes & Noble book launch.  Those who bought a book came away with not only the author’s signature, but a pen, a notepad, a goodie bag with the book and author’s name, a drink coozie similarly printed (drink not included), and a bookmark.  Visitors to the RWA National Conference Goody Room  will find all of these items, plus chocolate; rulers; postcards and business cards with book covers on one side, blurbs on the other; keyrings; magnets; calendars; pins; mugs and cups; trading cards.  I’m sure I’ve missed something.  

The purpose of all this swag at book signings is clear:  readers love free stuff and will think kindly of those who provide it.  At a conference for writers, though, one wonders why you’d spend the money.  Yes, writers are readers, too, but do any of those writers go out and buy the book based on what they pick up in the Goody Room?

Stuck . . . According to one of the workshops I attended at the conference, Pinterest is the hottest social media thing going right now.  (Right behind Twitter, I guess.)  I have a hard time seeing the benefit for writers, beyond the obvious example of pinning covers with a link to your other sites.  The only time I’ve used Pinterest is to look at possible hairstyles.  I did notice, however, that when I Googled the hairstyle question, Pinterest literally took over the search, sending me there whether I wanted to go or not.   Hmm.

How long has this been going on . . .?  As if my life wasn’t crazy enough, my husband and I are packing up and moving out of the home we’ve lived in for 18 years.  We’ll be renting a house here in Fredericksburg for a year before we make the big move to Marshall, North Carolina, just north of Asheville.  What this means is, I’m hip deep in the accumulated junk of most of my life, trying to “downsize”.

I came across a few pages of an old journal, started in an aborted attempt to gain control over the chaos that was our life with my oldest daughter in her early years of grade school.  The journaling didn’t last long—I don’t have that kind of discipline—but on the last page I found a note that had nothing to do with real life per se.  

 It was an idea for a story:

UFO abduction on a dark country road. Kids die in a fire.  Woman spends story trying to find out what happened to two-hour memory gap.

That note is the germ of Unchained Memory.  The date is April, 1991.  The bad news is it took me almost 25 years to get the experience that would allow me to do the story justice, to write the book, to find an agent, to find a way to publish it.  The good news is, the story that came to me so long ago will finally be published in February, 2015.  

Hallelujah and amen.

Cheers, Donna

A good day for Ghost Planet

171 days until launch. Today was a very good day!

Last year when my agent received the offer from Tor, a good friend of mine put me in touch with a friend of his who is a multi-published author, thinking I might be interested in chatting with a pro about the very big step I was about to take.

It turned out the author was Kat Richardson (bestselling author of the Greywalker paranormal detective series). I knew who she was, because a few years ago when I toured the Seattle Underground in hopes of using that setting as a sort of sanctuary for the homeless in my second novel (ECHO 8), I found that Kat had already done something similar. (I decided to use a creepy old boat instead. Kat's forthcoming release SEAWITCH is set on . . . a creepy old boat. But no homeless people!)

I found Kat a generous person full of good advice. We even have a similar marketing challenge, with our books having two distinct audiences. Since our first email exchange, I have consulted her another time or two, and have joined her local write-in group.

When the time came for blurbs, I immediately thought it would be AWESOME to get Kat. But I was nervous. She was a friend of a friend, and had been kind, and I didn't want to put her in an awkward position. Finally I worked up the nerve to ask, assuring her I would completely understand if (A) she didn't have time, or (B) she decided to read the book but didn't like it.

She graciously agreed to read it, and I heard from her today. Her email was titled "GHOST PLANET," which is of course what it would be titled, but it took me back to my days of querying, and staring at those responses, afraid to open them.

Kat is part imp. You can tell by reading her posts on social media. This is how she started the email:

I've been having a hard time figuring out how to say this, so I guess I'll just blurt it out and get it over with:

Heart drops through stomach. And chair. And floor. And center of the earth.

I was already working on my internal pep talk by the time I absorbed the rest of the email, which took a few passes. Here is an excerpt from her feedback, which included an endorsement she posted on Facebook, Google+, and her personal blog.

OH MY GOD! Finally a Science Fiction novel where the Relationship is as important as the Science and the won't-let-you-go story literally will not work without BOTH! Perfect balance! The pace was great and the story hooked me right up front and kept on twisting and turning all the way to the satisfying end...A novel about complex relationships, dependence, independence, and identity that's also about ecology, science, and coexistence...Fantastic! Congratulations on a wonderful read!

And really, there's nothing else to say about that except THANK YOU, KAT! And everyone go out and buy Seawitch. (Note: GP also received an awesome endorsement from award-winning author Linnea Sinclair, which you can read about here.)

Playlist & Pinterest

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, I had even more fun with promotion. I finally got the iTunes playlist for GHOST PLANET updated and linked from my web site. And I spent far too much time fooling around with Pinterest, so there's now a GHOST PLANET board.

I'll give the links below. If you click the one for the playlist, you'll be asked if it's okay to launch iTunes. If you'd rather skip that, you can also just search the iTunes store for "Ghost Planet playlist."

- Ghost Planet Playlist
- Ghost Planet Pinterest Board

Do you guys do playlists? Pinterest boards? Would love to see them!