Marketing Make A Wish

Scapegoat Review emailed me to publish my flash fiction piece Entropy out of the sky.

Dandelion seeds I blew into the hillside seem to be flourishing as the intentions appear.

This same morning a gull billed tern popped upon the glass wall looking for some treat.

"I only have nyjer thistle, sunflowers and millet for mourning doves and towhees. You Sir, are no slender necked rummaging sparrow."

He whistled "Chewh ahw."

"All right, you brought me good news after months of stabbing rain."

So with the filling the hummingbird feeder, as they dive bomb to remind me,

I now have adopted a bossy white tailed kite.

Hopefully he likes to eat wild dandelions to help spread the word.
Do birds know anything about austerity?

photographs Copyright Caroline Gerardo 7/26/2011

Caroline Gerardo Being a Writer

books
Caroline Gerardo
photograph by Blair Barbeau copyright  2011

I need a black and white photograph for the Thriller Fest catalogue. I just signed up. I fussed over this weekend. Daughter says I need to look tougher. I was thinking the turtle neck beatnik look. She says NO smiling Mom. I think I have settled on this image.
All these silly decisions can make a person wake up thinking.
Learning curve for an author: it is not just about writing a great book.
1. Edit like a demon - use words as clean as arrows or ones with secret sauce. Writing is not just a process it is an art. (background ballet dancers, symphony and  Musée d'Orsay )
2.know formatting for epub, pdf, word, HTML, paperback sizing. I love Garamond and some formats don't - why? Know why. Understand everything about publishing.
3. Learn to produce and worst of all edit a video trailer ( I wake up hearing the word string) Perhaps my next thriller is about an author killing a video editing program/softwear.
4. Social networking: finding your posse. They call it platform I think of it as posse. Manage the time reading all the fabulous things the posse is doing .I find myself lured by the siren song of now twenty one books on my nightstand that I am dying to read. I think there is some procrastination self-sabatoge in the pile of books. Share with anyone all the great opportunities in the world today. We live in such an amazing moment in time.
5. Memorize new poetry to keep word choices with a sound and a fury ( thank you William F.)
6. Keep taking photographs for blogging and visual cues for the writing. I am playing with the idea of using the thousands of pictures I have in a online reading version.
7. Promptly answer emails and incoming requests This task surprises me. I am hearing from strangers who now are friends.
8. Ask for opportunities for reviews, ask people to listen to me read, ask for people to buy my books
as I write this please link on the Smashwords site and order a FREE BOOK or go buy one at AMAZON .
9. Exercise, keep up the day job, feed and water the children -garden and pets.
10. Pray, be thankful, and tell everyone how dear they are to me. Show my joy and love to them. Write some more.
If you are attending Thriller Fest email or tweet me I plan to have fun.

News Lady

I met Carole Simpson at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival.  She gave me her book for free. Carole is gorgeous in person. Her writing is tasty. Her memoir of sorts is about her climb in the white male dominated world of broadcast journalism. Despite all the backstabbing, Carole's voice rings positive and clear. I stayed up late last night to read the whole book. It is funny, bright and I highly recommend you read NEWS LADY. I love the part where she married her best friend, one smart lady. Carole Simpson offers us inspiration to get the job done, despite pregnancy, prejudice and pride. Carole I wish you happiness. Please write another one for your readers to enjoy...

Caroline Gerardo Author: ROW80

        Caroline Gerardo copyright April 24 2011

Caroline Gerardo Author: ROW80: I am over my target. I feel happy to report 9230 words this week. Good words. The novel is 93% of my first draft. Working title - LUCKY. Seth is a psycho who stalks a girl, kills another by accident, promotes bum fights for money, lies, takes drugs to dull the pain and becomes a huge success.

The word count is 146223 and needs cutting. I hate editing.
4 plugs for indie authors
1 poem
I finished short flash piece, not certain on title.
The story is about a song writer recluse.
I need to add images.
I exercised every day.
Job was busy and happy got some deals.
All pets and children still alive and kicking.
I am not making big Easter dinner fuss- #writing.
Didn't complete reading books, they are calling but saving as
reading is not on my list for this coming week either.

Goal:
4000 on the novel Lucky
3 plugs for indie authors
Finish flash piece with an image and post.
Exercise 5 days.
Get deals at work closed for a paycheck.
Need to follow back with four magazines that requested the book last week.
Pray, meditate and smile every day.
New writing group Thursday night.

Planning Write It Down.

It is spring time for cleaning, polishing and sharpening my pencils for great writing.


This is not my ordinary blog post. I am making it public.

With all the demands in my life, I need to write out my goals and stick to a schedule.

There are six key areas for my five year and one year plan:

Spiritual, Financial, Health, Writing, Family, and Fun.

1. Spiritual Life

I have grown closer to God by daily prayer. The rosary comforts me when doing the most menial tasks. I feel closest to Him when I am gardening. I will add ten minutes of meditation. This daily meditation is a big request. My life is packed with work, writing and raising two children alone. As the weather warms, I can sit outside and have this silent time.

2. Financial

I will monitor my stocks each morning for an hour. When I read about trends in the market, I can determine timing on buys and sells. I am not going to purchase commercial real estate or residential for three more years, as I believe the worst is not yet over. My house is upside down and I must continue to work full time. I must market my mortgage origination business to sustain my children and myself. I will keep to my budget. I need to save $ X dollars (number withheld because this is public) more for Carson’s college fund. In order to do this I need to put ten percent of my earnings a year into his accounts for the next five years. Blair’s college fund is completed. I want to purchase the video equipment she is eyeing for her possible explorations for her career. This is likely a large Christmas expense. I also want to send her to some film school this summer. I want to put the maximum into my 401k each of the coming five years.

3. Health

After surviving the big C, I need to be mindful of my health. The huge stress of the personal loss this year has worn upon my cells. I am buying organic produce. We have organic vegetables in our garden. I do not eat red meat or pork. I need to exercise six days a week. Walking, really hiking two days with my camera and three days running or something aerobic. Avoid stress, laugh at life and smile at everyone. Attitude is the key to health.

4. Writing

I want my writing to be my full time career by 2015. I will complete four more novels by that date. I will have a full time agent who assists me in marketing the work. I want to write well and reach a large audience. This entails a following of two hundred thousand. Publishing business is shrinking in these economic hard times. Art will be seen as an unnecessary commodity. My work must be general fiction, and genre specific as well. Focus on the novel, full-length work. I enjoy short fiction and it is fun to write flash but there is no financial market for poetry. I am expanding my reach in social networking, but it is slow brick building. Keep positive, write 4000 words a day. Do not whine about editing.

5. Keep my children healthy and learning. Teach them by example. Lead them to great things. Show them beauty in the sky. Talk about love and show everyone kindness. Take care of my Mom, she is getting frail. Spend time listening to my Mom. Talk with my siblings who I love so very much. Be helpful to those I hold dear.

6. Walk to the beach more and get in the water- this combines a couple goals. Light the fire at night and the Jacuzzi to hear the ocean with the lights all off. Joke with my children. Enjoy the people at work. Share some baked things I make with the office. Build the team at the office to be working together. Vacation plans in the US to visit independent bookstores. Get together with friends who are happy. In the past I did volunteer projects and fundraising for fun, I am not going to focus on this going forward. I am running an idea in my head to invite authors to come stay a weekend and brainstorm edit and help each other. I have the blessing of a beautiful home and amazing location, I can share that alone as a gift. Be creative in all things. Blair and I bought all the parts to make a chandelier out of Kerr jars, and the wine bottle wind chimes. Make things and give them to others. Paint, take photographs, cut flowers from the garden and put them in the house and give them to others. Laugh much more.

Charlie Sheen's Launching a Leadership Revolution???

I recently started using Twitter. A dear friend was shocked that the third person I "followed" was Charlie Sheen. I have never watched his television show. I make no comment about his personal life that I know nothing about.

I sought to understand why Americans would be engaged to follow that leader, how his platform of come-back #winning, digging out of a fox hole, and media fervor would result. I come out of the experience thinking Americans love a fallen from grace star and they want all those men and women to get back up and dance.

This brings me to why I read Launching a Leadership Revolution, in a roundabout method. Orrin Woodward "followed" me for some arbitrary reason perhaps, or found me posting positive words to stir up some change in this world? The book runs fast and neatly. It is not a textbook, but has many factual references. They review Tom Brady, George Washington and my all-time favorite the Apostle Paul. Just what does it take for thousands, perhaps a million twitter followers in days?



The purpose directed life. What fervor keeps fuel on the fire for us lowly workers to keep marching in paper boots? I have been a mentor, a pusher, a cheerleader, a Mom. The best success is seeing others share the glory.



Read his book. Learning one piece of inspiration will be worth the read. Perhaps together we will unlock our potential.
(The book is co-authored by Chris Brady just to give him a plug, although I do not know either of these authors)



I challenge all my indie author friends to read someone's work as suggested by April L. Hamilton.

So here I put my hashmark, being a brand new Twitterati

#indieaction #ind #selfpub #writing #reading #books

Submit Writing in Online Magazines

Submitting to magazines offers a mire of new information.

I have about thirty finished flash fiction pieces with photographs, and seventy poems. I thought I would submit them as a book to a small publisher, but am rethinking that process. I searched a few literary magazines, and there are thousands of online.
Many charge a "reading fee" which I believe is not worth the dime. Yes someone is going to jump on me and say, "What about the work and time the editors and staff must contribute?"
 I am going to share my thoughts, brain and time for free all in the name of art.

So looking for input on who is right for my work. I have had four say yes. I assume my batting average is good?

In no order here are reviews, magazines, online free sites to submit flash fiction, poetry and short stories. My (previous) as I call him agent said,
"C. G. don't waste time on shorts, there is no money in it."
Well he may be right but there is fun.


No answer back yet from:
WordRiot  Monkeybicycle  PANK  Sycamore  Scapegoat  Conclave   American Literary Review  34th Parallel  10000 Tons of Black Ink  20 X 20 Storyglossia
Slush Pile  Foundling  Hobart  3:A.M   Blackbird  Antioch  Los Angeles

Some sites are down, does that mean closed for business? - riddlefene

There are a couple services which will submit for you. They charge money. I don't see the advantage in paying for that either. Perhaps using heypublisher just helps one organize the submissions?  The process is simple enough. The important fact one must determine is: who or what is a match for me.

If  I had just a little time I would put up a website that is a match.com for writers. Writers put up profiles and tasty samples then we tumble them through the questionaire process all for say $ 39.99 a month? I have to pitch that idea to someone.

INPUT ? who else


P. S. Buy my book

Caroline Gerardo Reading "Granny Magic"

Wade Alan Steele

Wade Alan Steele's short stories have dark patches of nature and mystic sunlight. I found him accidentaly, as is the best writing discovery.

Some Girls Like it Hot, some like something else

It is controversial,  mostly for women I know. I bought it with a twinge of guilt, but read it as fast as a thriller. The Prince part is, well - a little dull to me; however her motivations were the nut inside the shell I wanted to understand. I am left a little without an answer.  Perhaps she does not know? It was not the presents. There certainly is an allure of glamour. The repression and community that exist were missed.  
An interview in person, yes some time in my lifetime is ahead.

Free Entry to Contest Like my Facebook Page

Morning Glories taking over the chairs out back Caroline Gerardo copyright 2011

Worked last night organizing the Chapter heads of my new novel, Seth. I am still thinking about changing his name. What can I call my evil child who has ADHD, burns the house, kills the wrong girl he thought he was in love with and becomes the CEO of a public company?


Other projects on the burner: make the cover into a cartoon image. I am going to have cartoon images and put them in the “Rastobator” which is this wonderful program that creates larger graphics from small simple images. I am thinking Banksy, giant posters. Do I drop my name off the graphic for fear of city fines? Also working on convincing gela-skins to use my image as an ipad screen saver or rear cover as a universal sized plastic protector to give away at signings. If only I had unlimited budget for my creative guerrilla marketing ideas.

The office has been very slow. The more work I have in a day, correlates directly with how much I accomplish. If I am super busy, my writing is at the highest level of creativity. Why would boredom slow down the whole works?

So what ideas are you mulling around to get your work read? Do I drop my prices to allow more readers? Do I run a Facebook ad? Please go look at my Facebook book page: Toxic Assets and like me. This month’s contest is as follows:

Enter to win. “Like” my Facebook page and you will receive:

1. Opportunity to name a character in my next book after yourself or a loved, or perhaps hated one?

2. Dinner at my home in Laguna under the stars, bring your bathing suit.