Follow Friday

RULES
To join the fun and make new book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:
(Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts {Parajunkee & Alison Can Read}
(Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers - Hands & Home & www.memyshelfandi.com
Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts.
Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say "hi" in your comments and that they are now following you.
Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don't just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don't say "HI"
If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers
If you're new to the follow friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

Happy Follow Friday!

Q. Talk about the book that most changed or influenced your life (was it a book that turned you from an average to avid reader, did it help you deal with a particularly difficult situation, does it bring you comfort every time you read it?).

Dangerous Angels: The Weezie bat books was one of the first series I ever read. I devoured the series in one week. Practically reading a book a day because I had to get to the end.

I could relate to the character of Weezie and how it followed her through her life.

I've loved Francesca lia block ever since.

This reminds me I need to read more from her.

!00 Books in 2011 Book challenge

Challenge Details

• Timeline: 01 Jan 2011 - 31 Dec 2011

• Rules - Read 100 or more books in 2011

• All books can crossover into other challenges you have on the go.

• Only print books and ebooks count (no audiobooks).

• You can join anytime.

• At the beginning of Jan 2011, I will add a link so you can add your reviews but this is not obligatory.

• You don't have to have a blog to join in - for those without a blog just FILL IN THIS FORM and I will add you to the list - just join the discussion in the comments section to let us know when you've read a book and what you thought of it! :)

• You can also follow each other's progress and chat about the VC books you read on twitter too - just use #100BooksInAYear :)

Follow Friday

Q. Let's step away from books for a second and get personal. What T-Shirt slogan best describes you?

It's Monday! What are you reading?

Is a Weekly meme hosted by bookjourney.

Where you list books that you finished reading this week and what your upcoming reads are.

I'm still reading Jane eyre it is a long book after all. I wish I had more time to read. I also hope to start reading pride and prejudice this week.

Jane Eyre [Hardcover]
Charlotte Bronte

Pride and Prejudice [Hardcover]
Jane Austen

http://gnbstacks.blogspot.com/2011/07/whats-beside-your-bed-18.html?zx=19ae1012ba5f310d

What's on my wishlist

Meena Harper has a special gift, but it’s only now that anyone’s ever appreciated it. The Palatine Guard—a powerful secret demon-hunting unit of the Vatican—has hired her to work at their new branch in Lower Manhattan. With Meena’s ability to predict how everyone she meets will die, the Palatine finally has a chance against the undead.

Sure, her ex-boyfriend was Lucien Anton­escu, son of Dracula, the prince of darkness. But that was before he (and their relationship) went up in flames. Now Meena’s sworn off vampires for good . . . at least until she can prove her theory that just because they’ve lost their souls doesn’t mean demons have lost the ability to love.

Meena knows convincing her co-workers—including her partner, Über-demon-hunter Alaric Wulf—that vampires can be redeemed won’t be easy . . . especially when a deadly new threat seems to be endangering not just lives of the Palatine, but Meena’s friends and family as well.

But Meena isn’t the Palatine’s only hope. Father Henrique—aka Padre Caliente—New York City’s youngest, most charming priest, has also been assigned to the case.

So why doesn’t Meena—or Alaric—trust him?

As she begins unraveling the truth, Meena finds her loyalties tested, her true feelings laid bare . . . and temptations she never even imagined existed impossible to resist.

This time, Meena may finally have bitten off more than she can chew.

Pandora English is no ordinary small town orphan. When she's invited to live with her mysterious great aunt Celia in New York City, she seizes the opportunity to escape her stifling hometown, break from her tragic past and make it as a writer. Things, however, are not what she is expecting. For starters, her great aunt's gothic mansion is in a mist-wreathed Manhattan suburb that doesn't appear on maps. And then there's Celia herself a former designer to the stars of Hollywood's Golden Age who is elegant, unnaturally young and always wearing a veil. Pandora lands a job at a fashion magazine and her first assignment is covering the A-list launch of the latest miracle cream, BloodofYouth. But something is not right about the product, nor Athanasia, the drop-dead beautiful face of the brand. It seems there may be a secret ingredient in BloodofYouth, a secret worth killing for...

Book Blogger Hop

While you are creating your post, answer the following question (there’s a new prompt each week)!
What’s the ONE GENRE that you wish you could get into, but just can’t?

Thriller books. I try to get into them but they are just not really my thing. I am not much for mystery though even though I will watch mystery/thriller movies but for some reason I just can't seem to get into it with books.

RFW Coming Home

Delaney was waiting by the window. She was so excited she could hardly sleep. It had been 8 months since she last saw Derek. His boyish smile and sandy brown hair. He had the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen.

They had gotten married just three years before in front of a judge. But, Delaney didn't get to see him as often as she would have liked to because Derek was in prison. He did the crime and was sent to prison. He was a changed man. Delaney suspected he always had a good heart he just was taken off the right path when his father died.

It had sent him into depression and drug abuse. After that everything went down hill for Derek. He got into trouble with the law for stealing a car to sell for drug money. He admitted he did a terrible thing.

Now 10 years later he was finally coming home. Delaney's stomach was in knots with both excitement and nervousness. She had been waiting for this moment since they first got together.

It was spring and the sun was out. But, it was raining and Delaney thought it would be fitting to have a rainbow on the day her baby came home to her.

It was 11 AM and she saw him walking up the driveway with a  bag filled with the stuff he could carry home with him. Delaney smiled and a tear of happiness fell from her hazel eyes.

He saw her looking out the window. She was going to wait for him to come inside but instead she pushed open the door and jumped into his arms knocking him down on the grass. She kissed his soft lips with her's. This was another moment she had been dreaming of. When she could be in his arms just the two of them no guards watching or other inmates. Just the two of them free to love each other.

Derek smiled and Delaney kissed him again. Derek picked Delaney up and carried her over the threshold. Something he couldn't do the day they got married. He looked into her eyes and she knew that things where finally going to be okay.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read.
2. Open to a random page.
3. Share two 'teaser' sentences from somewhere on that page.
4. Add the title and Author's name too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR pile.

BE CAREFUL NOT TO ADD SPOILERS



moon was set, and it was very dark; Bessie carried a lantern, whose light glanced on wet steps and gravel road sodden by a recent thaw.


Brontë, Charlotte (2010-12-16). Jane Eyre (Kindle Locations 698-699). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition. 



wanted but a few minutes of six, and shortly after that hour had struck, the distant roll of wheels announced the coming coach; I went to the door and watched its lamps approach rapidly through the gloom.


Brontë, Charlotte (2010-12-16). Jane Eyre (Kindle Locations 701-702). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition. 

It's Monday! What are you reading?

I'm currently reading Rebecca

Jane Eyre

Pride and prejudice by Jane Austen

What's on my wishlist

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Book Blogger Hop

Q. What do you do when you are not reading?

Blogging and more Blogging. I also watch movies. Write short stories and poems. I am also currently working on my second book.

RFW Surrender

I surrender to his warm embrace
I surrender to his sweet kisses
All the tender moments I  surrender to
I surrender to my racing heart beat when he is near me
I surrender to his loving arms
I surrender my heart to him
I surrender everything that I am
It is because of him
So I surrender it all to my dear sweet man

Review- The SITS girls e-book

In honor of Sits having there birthday party this week they are giving away tons of great prizes they are also giving away there e-book on how to be a better blogger and get the word out about your blog. It's free so you really have nothing to lose by checking it out. You can find it here to download.

The SITS girls free e-book 

It is a short book I read it in a few minutes but I wasn't expecting anything long since it's free. It gives some good but short tips. Most of the things it talks about I've heard of before like networking using facebook and twitter for your blog.

Adding ads to your blog and joining as an affiliate and post banner ads or button and text ads to your blog to promote your affiliate links.

Even though it's short and most the information I already knew since it's free it's still worth reading especially if you are just starting out in the blogging world. It's a good book to help you get started in blogging but if you are advanced in blogging it will probably be a simple read and all things you've heard of before.

What's on my wishlist to Read

RFW Forgiven!

She opened up the book and looked at there old pictures. She remembered the way he would caress her cheek. She knew he was a liar and a cheater. A jerk who only cared about himself. All he cared about was drinking and hanging out with his friends. She always felt like she came in second best to him.

One night he came over and told her how sorry he was. She took him back once again and fell into his strong arms. She loved the way he smelled. The way he held her. She felt safe when she was in his arms. When she was alone she felt so depressed. She knew that he was no good for her but she loved him since she was 15 years old. he was her first love.

They say that your first love is the strongest love you ever have for someone. She never thought she could ever love anyone else like she loves him.

Even though he would make her cry and all the lies he blatantly told her like she was a fool. Many times she felt like she was a fool for once again trusting him only to be let down time and time again.

Then one day she met someone else. He had been her friend for years. They had grown closer over the years and he didn't like the way she was being treated. He finally let his guard down and told her how he felt about her. She always had a crush on him because he was adorable and charming. In many ways he reminded her of her love. But, secretly she knew she was falling in love with him too.

She said she would give him a chance to prove his love for her and to be her knight in shining armor. He swept her off her feet and she was head over heels in love with him. She finally had the courage to leave the guy that had always mistreated her with his words and actions. She felt free for the first time in a long time. In this freedom she learned forgiveness. She no longer held onto the hardness that was in her heart for so long. All the tears had made her jaded and she finally knew she could let it go. Forgive and remember only the happy times but not ever go back to him. To make a new life with her knight.

Photoholic on we heart it / visual bookmark #8448573

via weheartit.com

Posterous is growing on me

I gave posterous another chance. I have to say I'm loving the feature to post to multiple sites at one time. This way all my social networks and blog can be updated at one time. I have to say this is a really neat feature. 

 

It will make posting so much easier not having to go to tons of different sites to post things. Plus, I added the share button on my bookmark so if I find something I like I can easily share it on my blog and social networking sites. 

 

You can have multiple accounts on one e-mail and that is a feature I love. Plus, you can import which is a feature tumblr does not have that I wish it did. In that area it's far behind. 

 

So I say give posterous a try. You don't have to abandon your other blog or social networking sites it might just make things a little easier. 

 

 

 

 

What we like and Don't like about posterous

So I just tried posterous. I heard it was all the rage for being a new blogging site so I thought I would give it a go. First I'll start with what I like about it:

You can connect to any blog and social network so that everything gets updated at once. Other blogging sites are not quite up to date on this feature. You can post your blogspot posts through networked blogs on facebook. You can post to twitter and facebook through wordpress. You can post to twitter and facebook through tumblr. But, not other sites. Sometimes I wish wordpress had a thing so I could automatically update tumblr.

It would be nice if you could automatically update everything from blogger too. Without having to go to networked blogs to do so.

You can post to posterous through e-mail so that is great for on the go people who usually use there phone to post to there blog. I would rather do it manually to be honest and I don't have a high tech phone I can really do that with anyway. It's a pain to use the web on my phone so most of the time I don't even bother to go on it or use e-mail on my phone.

I also like the import feature so you can import from just about any site. Have a blogger, wordpress, or tumblr and want to import from there you can. Tumblr still does not have the import feature although you can link to your RSS feed but if you have to delete your domain for some reason you can't import it to another tumblr site. That's a feature I like about blogger and wordpress and posterous.

What I don't like about it is that first of all it seems to take forever to load.

There are not many theme options to choose from although I'm sure they will get more choices in the future.

You can't add Java script the same as with wordpress. I know on wordpress you can get it if you pay for hosting.

That's where blogger and tumblr are nice because you can add javascript and don't have to pay anything to do so.

You can also have a private blog. I'm not sure if this means it is totally private or only private except for the people you choose who can view it. Almost all the sites have some sort of privacy feature now.

I won't give up on posterous but I did for today since it took forever to load. I'm not a patient person. Maybe when I have more time to wait around for it to load then I can look around some more.

Happy 4th!

Today is graphic designs by tara blog hop. I just entered.

Happy 4th of July everyone. I am spending the day at home relaxing.

I remember when my godfather was alive and we would be outside with the sparklers and he would light the firecrackers. I remember one time when he used a cherry bomb. I don't recommend doing that by the way. They are way more powerful then people think.

All the alarms in the neighborhood went off. It was kind of scary actually.

Have a great Holiday!

What we like and Don't like about Tumblr

I decided to write this post because I've been using tumblr for a while now. When thinking about what sites I would use professionally and which ones I would use for fun.

I like tumblr because:
1. They have nice layouts
2. you can follow people with one click on the follow button
3. You can reblog posts you like and heart posts you like
4. They have really cool pictures
5. You can password protect a blog

What I dislike about tumblr:
1. Hard to follow with no tumblr account
2. Hard to comment unless person adds Disqus
3. They don't have an option to get your own domain you have to set it up through another site
4. Better for micro blogging meaning twitter type posts and pictures
5. You can't delete a blog individually you have to delete you whole account


Overall I like tumblr for writing twitter type posts and pictures.

It's not good for writing long posts or if you want to make money from blogging.

To monetize or not?

A lot of bloggers are now monetizeing there blog as a way to make extra money. I am all for this. I think it is a great idea.

Some ways to do this are to sign up as an affiliate for companies and post there banners on your website or blog. The best places to do this if you are using a blog are blogger and wordpress. Also if you start making money from it and want a domain they make it easy to set up.

Then you can just add the banner to your sidebar and anyone who clicks on it and makes purchases will go towards a percentage for you.

Another thing you can do is to sing up to receive free products for review. Companies will send you a free product and then you just write a review about there product or company and post links to it in your blog.

It might take a while to start making money from these things. Another way to make money from your blog or website is to create e-books. If you know a lot about something then you can write an e-book on the subject and offer it on your website or blog for a minimal fee. You don't have to pay tons of money to self publish it or go through all the hassle of having a publishing company pick it up.

You can release an e-book on a number of sites. I have put some on lulu.com which is a self publishing site. You can also post anything on there for downloading like pictures or music for example.


blurb.com also has self publishing and you can publish e-books on there as well.

wordless Wednesday

Welcome to my Wordless Wednesday blog hop. In order to enter you must be a follower of my blog. Leave a comment on my blog after your entry. All enter and runs will be deleted. Visit some other blogs and have fun. 

What I'm loving Wednesday

I'm Loving having the day off. I love having Wednesdays off so I can catch up on my blogging and writing. 

I'm loving my handsome fiance 

I'm loving we heart it to get pictures and other neat things

http://weheartit.com/

I'm loving these earrings they would be great for my wedding

I'm loving these shoes not that I could ever wear them 

I'm loving this cocktail dress

Blogger Vs. Wordpress Vs. Tumblr

Blogger: This Site
I have to say I love all the sites. They are all cool and unique in there own ways. The first blog I ever started was on blogger. So I think blogger will always be my favorite. First of all blogger is free unless you pay for a domain. I currently don't pay for a domain but might sometime in the future. You get a lot of free things you can add. You an add linkwithin for free which directs people to other posts on your site they might like. You can add html and it's easy to do that. There is a follow button which makes it easy for anyone on google to follow you. Plus, for people not on google you can add e-mail subscriptions and feed reader subscriptions so people can keep up with your blog on anything. I love all the templates on blogger and they are free so that is something that also rocks about blogger. You can have a private blog where only people you invite can see. There is no option to make only certain posts private.

Wordpress: Wordpress Blog

I like wordpress because I think they have some very neat and clean looking layouts. I also think they are pretty simple and straightforward to use. My biggest issue with wordpress is that there are not many theme options otherwise you have to pay for some of there premium options. Also if you want to make a more complex site you have to have your own domain otherwise there are certain features you can't add for example linkwithin. It is hard to follow people as well but people can subscribe to your blog via e-mail and you can add google friend connect. You can have a private blog that only people you invite can see and make posts private as well.


Tumblr: Tumblr Blog

Tumblr is great for adding short posts and pictures. It is hard for people to follow you though unless they are already on tumblr. Mostly people use tumblr for blogging things they like and adding pictures they like. They have some cool free layouts but for some of the better ones you still have to pay for. The same as with wordpress. It is easy to blog on tumblr and you can have more then one blog the same as with blogger and wordpress. You can't import to tumblr though so if you want a new blog you will have to start from scratch.
You can have a private password protected blog and you can also make posts private that you don't want anyone else to see.

wordless Wednesday

What motivates you?

I was reading a blog from the Lady Bloggers Society. The topic was whys you can be inspired to create. I liked a lot of the ideas and the ones that always inspire me are other people's creativity. Listening to music is always a way that sparks me to come up with a new idea. I came up with a few the other night that I'm thinking about working on.

Watching movies inspires me. And so does reading a good book. Seeing how other people write helps me to get ideas about my writing style and how I might want to go about a project.

So what motivates you to write? What inspires you?

the goddess writes promotion and give away coming soon

A giveaway will be coming soon. You can buy the items right now here if you would like to look at them.


You can also find the I heart Mike items at www.cafepress.com/iheartmike I was going to do a website for this but since there might not be enough demand and all the domains I wanted where taken plus, I have enough time I'm trying to spend getting this site up and running. So you can check these items out. Like I said a giveaway will be coming soon so check back for that.

Welcome to the goddess writes

I’ve been writing and blogging for a number of years now. I currently have 3 books out that I published on Lulu. This site is about promoting my books, my writing, poetry, and just my day to day life and thoughts.
I hope you will enjoy reading this blog and take this journey with me. I am currently working on my 4th book. Hopefully it will be finished soon and I can share the process of writing it with you. I hope this blog is an inspiration to people out there.
I will be writing about my journey as well as my daily thoughts.