Thankfulness #37: A Successful Takeover
vampire christmas
I had a takeover in the Book Born facebook group today. It lasted eight hours (wow!) and I am thankful to those who turned out to make it successful. We had some good participation, plenty of fun comments, and since I am leaving the games up for a day I know I will collect some more. Whether these facebook takeovers generate new readers or not is up for debate. I know that I have done some before that did – both the Vampire Authors’ Celebration I did in October and a couple I did previously in Book Born – but I have also done some that didn’t generate anything (not listing them, ha ha!) I did get some new contest entries, so that’s something, and even if I don’t get a single new download, I had fun, and that’s what matters.
I have to get to bed early tonight so I can go to the dentist tomorrow and they can steal my teeth. (They’ll hopefully be sending them off to get that broken one replaced). For reasons I don’t understand. My appointment is at like 9 a.m. Ugh.
So I shall go finish watching the news, then shower, give the cat her pill, and go to bed.
Have a happy takeover kinda day!
Jo 🙂
PS here are the cool character graphics I made – click them to make them bigger (and readable):
Thankfulness #36: Cheap Stock
I know I’m writing this late, but the net was not cooperating last night and I’ve been elbow deep in a Facebook takeover all day (which is still going on if you want to come play!)
Anyway, yesterday I was grateful for the cool promo Dreamstime had going on – five images for $.05. I used it to get some stock and make some new book teasers (for said takeover today)
Pretty snazzy, huh?
All right, back to it. Have a cheap stock kinda night!
Jo 🙂
Thankfulness #35 & New Banners
Today I was thankful for the brother and hubby getting the outside lights up. Though there is a strand that needs fixed, so pics will wait until tomorrow, but I’ll give you a hint: it looks festive. 😉
In other news, I wasted some time today making new banners for this blog. Now when you load a post, you’ll get one of 26 snazzy banners (including the original one). Go on. Hit refresh. you know you want to. Yeah, it’s just the photos thumbnails that change. but, for people like me who want to see them all, I won’t make you refresh a billion times.
Ta-da:
It’s weird. I skipped winter photos, because they’re too “seasonal” but found autumn pictures “okay” for year round use. Go figure. I guess it’s the same kind of thing that lets me leave skeletons up all year, but not elves and reindeer.
And now I go to take a shower. Oh! wait! I did have one other exciting thing – I caught a second ditto! Right here in Villisca. Boom!
And now I am going to take my bath. Have a ditto number two kinda day!
Jo 😉
Thankfulness #34: Clever Hubby
I have a takeover coming up in Book Born (I think we’re gonna go the 7th. The problem i we were both disorganized, so, LOL!) and I’m planning a vampire Christmas theme, but just try to find vampire Christmas items on the cheap for giveaways. So, I thought I’d make some ornaments (I stole the idea from a magnet I saw at walmart – for 3$ it was a tiny square of wood that was badly painted with a vampire face) but instead of a squre I wanted a circle, only, have you ever tried to cut a circle from wood?
But being brilliant, hubby used the hole saw! Then I painted the little blighters, and now I just need to glue ribbon on the back:
One set of three goes to this month’s Street Team winner, and the other six will be for the takeover. I haven’t decided how I’ll do it yet.
Not much else. Watched WWE TLC last night. Alexa Bliss’ winning surprised me. AJ’s didn’t, though the way they had him win was a surprise. In retrospect they already told us that would happen (when Ambrose talked to Ellsworth on Smackdown) but I just hadn’t really thought about it. The pre-show tag team was no surprise. Vaudevillains and Ascension can’t win anything, which is a shame IMHO. I had a hard time picking who to root for on the tag team belt, though seeing Wyatt win was good, though I have become fond of Slater, and I was also sad to see Kalisto lose. I wanted him to go over on Corbin, but I guess this cements Corbin’s spot as a “bad dude” (as if he needed that), and Kalisto’s as a poor underdog. Carmella/Nikki went about the way I figured it would, and her revelation about who really attacked Nikki wasn’t a huge surprise either. I seem to recall at the time that it was fairly obvious who did it, though maybe I have attacks mixed up. We’ve been a bit spotty on the weekly shows, so I might. All in all it was entertaining though, and had some good moments. Becky and Alexa were fun with the first women’s table match, and it was interesting to see two women’s matches at a PPV. I do think WWE is really working to make the women’s division equal to the men’s, though they’re doing a better job on NXT. But, it’s easier to do that with a brand new brand than it is to upgrade an existing one. I’d like to see them get rid of all the Barbie girl dancers in the women’s division (like Summer Ray, for example) and get more like Nia Jax and Asuka, or heck even Becky and Charlotte. You know. Girls who can actually wrestle and not just dance.
And that’s all I got. I need to get some work done!
Have a happy ornament kind of day!
Jo 🙂
Thankfulness #33:DITTO!!
Yesterday I was grateful for finally catching a ditto!
Yes!!! I was so excited that I actually shouted that. He came from a rattata at Walmart where we went to get Christmas lights.
While we were in town we took their gyms.
Snory II and my Kingler are quite happy there .
Now I’d be happy if everyone will just shut the f*** up about politics . I’m tired of it. Everyone grow up.
End rant.
Have a politics free day.
Jo 
Thankfulness #32: Understanding
I mentioned when I posted yesterday that I felt pretty blech (I even forgot to use my new banner!), well it got worse and long story short I didn’t get the Turtles page done for the week (I’m gonna try to belt it out this weekend, though). Anyway,so today I am thankful for Jonathan’s being understanding and not being *too* disappointed (though I know he is a bit disappointed, as he writes the pages and enjoys sharing them with everyone).
Yesterday I had a different blog in mind, so I uploaded some more habi pictures (aren’t you excited?) So I’m gonna go ahead and toss those in a gallery to bore – I mean entertain- you. Plus that way I don’t need to try to think of anything interesting.
Have a feel better kinda day!
Jo 🙂
Thankfulness #31: Google
Yesterday I was pretty blah.I finished NaNoWriMo, but in doing so I’ve hurt my neck, and I think I’ve come down with Jonathan’s superflu, so…I didn’t do much. I did manage to get Habi Makeover done – the theme was decorating:
Quickness decorates his first apartment while wearing his hamster kigurami/jammies
Clucky helps decorate the office
Which brings me to what I am thankful for. Now this may seem odd, but I am thankful to Google for closing Superpoke Pets when it did. Why? Because we were the FIRST big money game to shut down. We got lots of press, and to try to appease people, they made a very cool SPP Lite program that let us export and save all of our habitats. Using this program, Neil managed to engineer and editing program called HabiMakeOver, and created a community around it, so we can continue to decorate our pets habitats literally forever.
Other games have since ended- games people had big money invested in – like Sims Social, Pet City, on and on,and the players of those games got nothing. No downloads, no cool programs, no way to keep going after the developers quit on it. So, if SuperPoke Pets hadn;t been the first, we wouldn’t have gotten any of that either. And that’s why. though it was horrible at the time, I am grateful to Google for closing it when they did so that we could get to keep playing forever.
If you don’t know what HabiMakeover is, you can check out all the details here, and join the community here.You no longer need to install any items- they are all stored online now – you just need to install the program. Heck, you technically don’t even need to join the community, but you should!
Still not convinced? Here are some more of Clucky’s great habitats! Click the thumbnails to make them bigger!
I think I’ll post some more tomorrow – won’t that be fun? Also, I did say that I wanted NaBloPoMo Badge? Well Green Embers made one!
How cool is that?
Have a tiny pepper badge kinda day!
Jo 🙂
Calling all Writers!
The Ink SLingers League, in conjunction with Book Born, is ready for it’s annual anthology – only this year it has a twist.
The Legends of Ol’ Man Wickleberry
Ol’ Man Wickleberry, rest his soul, died in the 1920s, attacked by a bear…or was it a zombie? I heard he was rabbit hunting…or was he prospecting? Or maybe he was defending his cabin from wild squirrels? At least we can all agree he died in northern Michigan – or did he? Maybe he was in California and his body was brought back to his family, and so now his ghost walks the beaches of lake Huron. Or maybe he spends his everafter trolling guests at a vacation lodge, or interrupting writers who stay up too late, or…
That’s the trouble with Ol’ Man Wickleberry, there are just too many legends! Heck, we’re not even completely sure when he died! In an effort to find the truth, Book Born, in conjunction with the Ink Slingers League, has decided to gather those legends into a single volume – an anthology if you will – where the proceeds benefit the Book Born 2017 Retreat Fund.
AUTHORS:
1) You do NOT have to be a “published” author to join us! Even if you’ve never published before – whether indy, self, or traditional- you can still submit a story
2) All stories must be between 1,000 words and 10,000 words.
3) All stories must be about Ol’ Man Wickleberry. They can be in his PoV, or anyone else’s – someone he is haunting, his dear old mother, whatever you can think of. They can be about how he met his end, or they can be about his ghostly afterlife (though they should at least mention what led to his grisly demise).
4) Stories can have adult components (such as language or violence) but please no erotica or heavily sexual stories. Ol’ Man Wickleberry doesn’t seem like the type to be gettin’ it on.
5) You MUST have a Smashwords author account. Smashwords’ rules, not mine. You don’t have to sell any books on Smashwords to make this account – it’s free and easy – but you have to have one for us to link to in the metadata.
6) We don’t guarantee any editing, so make sure you’ve done it before you submit. If a story has a lot of typos or errors we will reject it. We will also not update your story later. If you write a “better” version or a new author bio, or anything else. Once it’s published, it’s published, so make sure it’s the way you want it before you submit it.
7) You will NOT be paid. Though the anthology will be for sale, all proceeds will go to the Book Born 2017 Expo & Retreat Fund. This fund helps offset the cost of the first ever Book Born Expo and annual Book Born Retreat, which is currently set for October 2017 (pending finalization). If you’d like more information on either, please join the Book Born Facebook group where more it will be posted.
8) We do NOT require exclusive rights. It’s your story, and if you want to publish it elsewhere, go ahead. However, because there is money involved I will send you a basic contract that just says yes we have the right to use it and no, you know you’re not getting paid. You can get a copy of the contract here – it’s a word document, so please fill your info in and include it with your story. You must sign the contract for the story to be used.
9) All entries are due by January 1st, 2017. This gives us a month to compile the anthology and have it ready for a February 1st release on Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.
9) Cover, formatting, etc. will be provided by the Ink Slingers.
10) The only file types accepted will be .doc, .docx, .txt, and .rtf. We will NOT accept .pdfs.
11) Send your short story of no more than 10,000 words to joleene(at)joleenenaylor.com and include:
- the signed contract as a separate attachment
- your smashwords link
- your author name and story title
- a short blurb/synopsis of the story
- your author bio
- your website or blog link (optional)
- a short blurb/synopsis of another work available for download (optional)
If you have any questions, please leave them here or drop me a line at Joleene(at)JoleeneNaylor.com. Thanks and I’m looking forward to what you come up with.
Most of the photos and art on this site, by Joleene Naylor are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
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