Wordless Wednesday

The Vicissitudes by Jason de Caires Taylor was installed in 2007 at the Moliniere Bay Sculpture Garden in Grenada, at a depth of 14 feet. It is Taylor’s most recognized work in the park, a ring of 26 standing children, holding hands and facing outwards into the current. The design took six months to make, weighed 4 tons in dry cement and was constructed to withstand strong currents and tidal motion. The ring symbolises the concept of life’s ongoing cycle and highlights the importance of creating a sustainable and well managed environment for future generations, holding reference to the ability of children adapt to their surroundings.

Answers to FAQ for Bloggers

Like many bloggers I'm often asked many questions when approached by other bloggers that are just getting started or that may have a very small following. So I've decided to cover six of the most common questions I'm asked by other bloggers. If you have some of your own questions, leave them in the comment section and I'll will try to answer them on the next round of FAQ's.



How do you keep your readers interested in what you write?
I don't know if I can answer this thoroughly, it's probably best suited as a question to my readers. But I would like to think it's a combination of being informative, personable and sorta funny on a good day. :-)

My advice to bloggers...be interesting. Be odd if necessary. But don't be mediocre. Offer your readers something. That something can be updates on current trends, news or reviews. It can be giveaways, contests or information about giveaways or contests on other blogs or websites. It can be funny joke to brighten their day, a picture that puts a smile on their face or even a rant about current trends or something that ticked you off that we can relate to on a daily basis.

How long should my blog post be?
However long it needs to be. But shorter is better every time. Readers come in a combination of skimmers, voyeurs and hungry word consumers. I'm a combination reader. I look around like a peeping tom and then I skim til I find something interesting and then I read the complete post if it keeps my attention. So the shorter the better. But whatever the length make every word count, so I would say one to two paragraphs. And don't forget to add some photos. Readers love visuals. We want to know how the photo relates to the post. It also helps readers decide if the post is something we are interested in reading in the first place. Think of it as a book cover.

Can you tell me where to go to get free photos for my blog posts?
Use your camera. Try Getty Images for royalty free photos, Picnik (Picnik will be free until April 19th. After April it will be taken over by Google Creative kit.) You can also use the Creative Commons search tool, FIST (Free Image Search Tool for Wikipedia) and Instagram.

What are some ways I can get more visibility for my blog?
Try guest posting. Guest posting gives you an introduction to new readers, provides backlinks to your blog and it's a great addition to your blogging credentials in the blogging community. To get a guest post, research blogs that may be similar in content to your own. Introduce yourself to the blog owner via email and politely ask if they'd be interested in hosting you as a guest blogger. Make sure and provide your blog URL, the theme of your own blog and the topic you had in mind. Or you can be open and state that you'd be happy to write according to what their own theme may currently be. Bloggers are fairly protective of their blogs, so make sure you have something to offer when approaching a blogger. Have some great ideas handy.

Another way to gain visibility is to visit other blogs, frequently. I personally believe you should visit other blogs more than you visit your own to foster a community of blogging and relationship with other bloggers. Once you make your post for the day, make a list of blogs that you will visit each day or every other day or weekly. Whatever the frequency is, just be consistent.

How do I get more comments on my blog?
Simple. Ask. Don't publish your post without asking a question, asking for feedback or ask the readers for help with a current task or future post. Also, remember when I said, visit other blogs? Well, when you visit other blogs, leave a comment. Hopefully, they'll reciprocate.

How can I grow my blog?
One post at a time. If you get involved in the blogging community, you will learn something from other bloggers. You'll find out about new gadgets, informative blogs to visit, innovative blog designers, new books being released or you may find a post on how to fix a particular bug on your own blog that you've been trying to figure out since day one. But you must be active. Every time you leave a comment on a blog, you leave your calling card...basically your blogging profile for others to see or visit, which in turn leads them to your blog. So tell the world in a meaningful way who you are. They don't know you have a blog if they don't know you exist.

Have questions or advice for other bloggers? Please share.

Alabama Writers' Conclave Conference 2012

I will be a speaker at the annual writers conference held by the Alabama Writers' Conclave, partnered with the Alabama State Poetry Society. The Alabama Writers' Conclave was organized in 1923 and has been in continuing existence since. Through the years, the Conclave has moved its conferences around the state to provide writers everywhere better access to its resources. The Conclave is today one of the oldest continuing writers' organization in the United States. Writers, aspiring writers and supporters of the writing arts may join. Sharing information, developing ideas, honing skills, and receiving practical advice are hallmarks of their annual meeting. The Conclave is also responsible for nominating, for the governor’s appointment, Alabama's Poet Laureate, a post currently filled by Sue Brannen Walker.

The Alabama State Poetry Society was founded in 1968 and is a member of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS). Their purpose is to promote poetry as a vital cultural medium, to improve their own skills, share opportunities, support one another, join with others who enjoy the written and spoken word and to delight in good poetry of every form and persuasion.

I will be conducting two workshops at the conference this year. One titled, Low Cost Creative Marketing Strategies for Authors. The other workshop is titled, How to Blog, Tweet and Facebook Your Way to Book Sales. The conference is held for three days and there is always a tremendous amount of information shared amongst authors and writers. If you're looking for a writers conference to attend this year, please consider attending the writing conference held this year with the Alabama Writers' Conclave. For more information you can go to the website at www.alabamawritersconclave.org. Also please take a moment to Like their Facebook Page and tell them Lena sent you. :-)

Top 20 Sites for Free Ebooks

Well, with a heavy heart, I have decided to suspend Friday's Free eBooks. The reason being, it's very time consuming. Even with the help of my book loving friend, Ollie Moss, it still consumes the better part of my day to format, link all the books, double check to make sure they are still free the day of and to cross check and see if they are available on other formats aside from Kindle. Another reason is there are tons and tons of blogs and websites that are solely dedicated to informing readers about free books that I'm just a tiny drop in the bucket. So I've decided to list the several sites that list free ebooks for your enjoyment. This list is in no particular order. I've used many of the sites, some may require that you register for free first like Smashwords and Amazon. You can bookmark this page and use it as a reference.

Thank you for tuning in every Friday for past weekly lists. Hope you'll still check back throughout the week for other book related news, resources, updates and giveaways. Thanks again for staying with me on this journey! You can still keep up with Ollie on Twitter for her daily updates about free ebooks. If you know of some other great free ebook sites please leave a recommendation in the comments section. So here's your top 20 sites for free ebooks, plus a bonus one. Blessings!

Google Books
This Google mega ebookstore is loaded with books, most of them aren't free. However, there are a lot that are. Scroll down and look at the Best of the Free section.  



Amazon Free Ebook Section
A great listing of the most popular free Ebooks available on Kindle.

Project Gutenberg 
Project Gutenberg is the place where you can download over 33,000 free ebooks to read on your PC, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, Android or other portable device and too in different formats. 

Smashwords 
Smashwords is an ebook publishing and distribution platform for ebook authors, publishers, agents and readers. They offer multi-format, DRM-free ebooks, ready for immediate sampling and purchase, and readable on any e-reading device. 

Scribd
Scribd is the site where the world comes to read, discover, and share reading. It's like Youtube for documents.

Free Ebooks.net
An online source for free ebook downloads, ebook resources and ebook authors. Besides free ebooks, you also download free magazines or submit your own ebook. We tried the search function and weren't really impressed. Instead, try clicking on the categories or headings and browsing. 

The Online Books Page 
A listing of over 1 million free ebooks. It is hosted by the Library of University of Pennsylvania.

ManyBooks.net
You can browse through the most popular titles, recommendations, or recent reviews from the site visitors. There are more than 29,000 free eBooks available here. 

Neotake
Neotake is a new eBook search engine which has indexed several eBooks in various formats like ePUB, PDF, LRF, TXT, Mobipocket etc. It also has a mobile version of the site. More than 200,000 eBooks have been indexed currently. 

Free Nook Books (Barnes and Noble)
The creators of the nook ebook reader have a spot on their ebook store called Free nookbooks.

Get Free Ebooks
You can download free books totally free. The ebooks which you find within this site are collected from all over the net or either personally compiled by founder. 

PDFGeni
A search engine to help you find out the ebooks that interests you. 

Open Library
The world's classic literature at your fingertips. Over 1,000,000 free ebook titles available. While the home page looks like it's filled with ancient texts, try out the search function and you'll be surprised at the newer ebooks you can find. 

Bibliostastic
This site is Connecting authors with open-minded readers, digitally. This site provides a great platform for new and evolving authors to reach a wide audience and for readers to give them direct feedback. 

Ebookee
Ebookee is a free eBooks download search engine where you can find relevent links for numerous e-books. 

ReadPrint
Website offers thousands of free books for students, teachers, and the classic enthusiast." Lots of free classic books and literature here.

Bookyards
Bookyards has a total of 17,008 books, 41,784 external web links, 4,197 news & blogs links, 384 videos, 32,963 Ebook links and access to hundreds of online libraries (800,000 Ebooks) for your reading pleasure. 

2020ok 
They have links to loads of specific ebooks sites for kids, so well worth a visit.  Their selection seems to be largely Out Of Copyright ebooks, so thus not the latest writings obviously, but some jewels none the less.


Globusz
Globusz provides a platform to new authors to get their writing skills test by the actual readers. And readers don’t have topay anything to read or download the content. 

Ebook Junkie
You can get number of free downloadable ebooks from this site. You also have the option of variuos categories to choose from. 

Bookboon
On this site you can download free ebooks for students and travelers in PDF format. All the books can be downloaded without registration. These ebooks are legal and written exclusively for Bookboon 

Interview with Author Bernice L. McFadden

National bestselling author, Bernice L. McFadden, probably didn't expect being laid off would lead to a rewarding career as a bestselling author. But it did. McFadden was laid off and unemployed for twelve months. She says this was a turning point in her life because during that year she dedicated herself to the art of writing. And even after she found another job, she kept on writing. Nine years, a depleted savings account, and three jobs after being laid off, and hundreds of query letters later, she sold her first novel, Sugar. The novel, which is about a woman with a shady past who moves to a small Arkansas town in the 1950s, became a national best-seller. Since then, Bernice L. McFadden has gone on to write eight novels and one novella. You can visit her blog, Naki and visit her website for more info. Her latest novel is titled, Gathering of Waters.

Ms. McFadden, would you classify your most recent works (Glorious, Gathering of Waters) as historical fiction? And why the change in genre from your other genres of work such as Loving Donovan, The Warmest December and Nowhere is A Place?


I've always tried to include some historical content in my novels, but it wasn't until I started writing Glorious that I realized how much I enjoyed creating fiction around fact. This realization was a blessing. It was also an "A-ha" moment for me. I knew I was put here to write - but was not sure of my purpose for writing. I now know that historical fiction is my purpose.


In your novel, Glorious, you cover a large time, 1910-1961, what was your reasoning behind that? And is the main character, Easter, in any reference to you as a writer?


I love backstory. Every character has a past and I think It's important to include as much of the past into the storyline. It makes for a well-rounded character and full-bodied story. I would say Easter does have a bit of me in her. We are both black, female writers trying to make a way in the white world.


Explain to the readers the significance of the pink boa and type writer on the book cover Glorious?


The pink boa represents the character Rain in the novel and the typewriter represents Easter.


Sugar began as a poem and then evolved into a short story before becoming a novel. Do you foresee a short story collection or anthology of poetry in the near future?


Funny you ask that question. I've been thinking about returning to the short form. I do have some short stories that I would like to write and publish.


How do you choose the setting in your novels? Such as Mississippi for Gathering of Waters, Arkansas for Sugar, Brooklyn for Loving Donovan, etc?


I don't chose the settings. I allow the story to form at it's on pace. As the plot, characters and come together, the "place" reveals itself and I go with it. If it's a location that I am unfamiliar with such as Arkansas and Mississippi, I research the area so that it will come across as authentic in the story.


Can you briefly explain Seg-Book-Gation and how can readers help eliminate it?


Seg-Book-Gation covers a number of things:

1. The separation of books written by Af-Am authors from others in bookstores.
2. The absence of Af-Am authors at major literary festivals.
3. The absence of books written by Af-Am authors reviewed in major publications.
4. The fact that many books written by Af-Am authors are marketed soley to the Af-Am reading audience. Which of course limits the sales potential of our books.

I just returned from the Literary Feast Book Festival in Broward County, Florida. It was a lovely event. I was however, the only African-American author there. Readers need to make their voices heard. Call up the organizers of these literary festivals and demand that they include Af-Am authors to the roster. If the bookstore they frequent happen to have a separate "black book section" - talk to the manager and ask that the titles also be carried in the general population of the book store. African-Americans are not a genre! If you happen to be a book blogger who is not Af-Am - ask the publishers to send you titles written by Af-Am authors, so that you can review them for your readers. Contact you favorite magazine and ask why it is they rarely review books written by Af-Am authors?

Octavia Spencer won an Oscar for her role as Minny in the film, The Help. You said you saw the film, and enjoyed it. But did not read the book because "African-American writers had tackled the same story numerous times - and those writers weren't given the opportunity to have their stories read by Ms. Ann and Mr. Charlie (white people). And when I say given the opportunity, I mean to say that their books were not marketed/promoted over that seam that has turned into a chasm in the literary community - known as the color line. " Do you still feel strongly about not reading it? And who's responsibility is it to change the "machine behind the book?"


I finally broke down and bought the book. I have not finished reading it. But I think Stockett is a strong writer. The book is certainly engaging. We have to create our own machine. If we get behind a book - the publisher will automatically follow. It's all about sales and numbers.


You also write racy, humorous fiction under the pseudonym, Geneva Holliday. What has your alter ego, Geneva Holliday, been up to?


Geneva Holliday is on an extended vacation. Last time I heard from her, she was hanging out on a beach in Bequia.

I recently saw a photo of actress Kimberly Elise reading a copy of Sugar and I instantly became excited just thinking of Kimberly playing the role of Sugar. There is speculation in the literary world that Sugar may finally come to the tv or the big screen? Is this true? Please say it is so.


Yes, Kimberly Elise has optioned the stage and film rights to Sugar. I have my fingers crossed that something magical and wonderful will come of this!


You have a short story, Keeper of Keys, available via Kindle on Amazon for .99 cents. What are your thoughts about books and stories set at a low price point, especially when so many traditionally published authors seem to have an aversion to selling eBooks at .99 cents?


It's difficult. People price their books low in order to gain attention and of course make some money. I priced Keeper of Keys for .99 because it's a novella - a long, short story. I hope that people will read it, enjoy it and then seek out and purchase my higher priced worked.


If you could recommend only one of your books to a reader unfamiliar with your work which book would you recommend? And why?


That's so hard!!! I guess I would recommend The Warmest December, to start with. Only because it's a contemporary story that closely mirrors my own life with my father. I think it's a great introduction to my work.


What are 3 things every aspiring writer should do and 3 things they should not do or avoid doing?


Aspiring writers should: Read, read, read!!!
Aspiring writers: Should not be dejected by rejection. They should not worry about what's trending in the literary market place. They should not feel that if they don't write every day - that they are not "real" writers. I write when I'm inspired and that may be once or twice a month.


What's the best advice you have ever been given?


Keep the faith - all will work out in the end.


What are you currently working on?


I'm thinking about writing a book about the holocaust.


What do you want readers to know about Bernice L. McFadden that they may not already know?


That in my later life, I'd like to open up an artist colony near a beautiful beach...


Thank you Ms. McFadden for sharing with us today. It is truly in a honor and a highlight for me.


To view an video of Ms. McFadden discussing her book, Glorious, watch the Youtube video below. 
She is also on Twitter and Facebook, so stop by and drop her a comment. :-)