Write Anyway

It seems the fun isn’t quite yet over at 451 headquarters.

451 management recently purchased all kinds of new equipment and is in the process of switching everything over to those new systems. As you can imagine, doing all that isn’t easy and comes with its own hiccups.

I’ve been told that the blogs shouldn’t experience a lot of down time, but you can expect hiccups, burps, and maybe even the occasional fart in the next few days. Be assured that everything will still be puttering along and you should definitely come back!

I promise you that we are just as tired as you when it comes to the sites’ down time. Hopefully everything will be switched over by the end of this week and next week we will be running back to normal next week. (Or maybe even starting this weekend…)

Again, I’m so, so sorry for the down time. I know that, even when it’s out of your hands, a blog having down time can reflect negatively on the blogger. I have some interesting things coming up in the future, though, so I hope that is enough to keep you coming back.

And, just to keep you entertained while things are getting taken care of (not that I think you can’t entertain yourselves), here is the link to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along blog. There is a lot of fun to be had and the final installment is coming soon!

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Be well and have a fantastic rest of the week.

Writing prompts come in many shapes, types and sizes. I try to provide a good assortment here on site, but I’m not always sure I’m doing the right thing. However, I have decided to spread out and try a few different things.

There are a couple weekly memes that I participate in on other sites that I will be including here from now on. I’ll also be continuing on with random work banks, Thursday thirteen writing prompts and Friday Feasts as well, but I’ll try to spice it up in coming weeks. If you read my other sites, I apologize for the doubles, but it’s the only way I can get more variety here on WA.

I have not lost my passion for music, however, so you don’t need to worry there. Today is still Musical Monday and, while I don’t really have a theme for this week, I would like you present you with a few of the music videos that have been inspiring my writing lately.

I hope they inspire you as much as they do me, and I hope you have a great Monday and rest of the week.

Maroon 5 - I Won’t Go Home Without You

Maroon 5 has long been one of my big inspiration bands. While I can’t claim to like all of their songs, there is a soft spot in me for many of them.

How Can I Not Love You (From Anna and the King)

This is a very sweet and romantic song that I have loved since I first saw Anna and the King. Very appropriate if you have any characters going through romantic strife.

Hi all! Man it seems like forever since I’ve been able to post here. Do you feel the same?

Anywho, because of what happened, it came to my attention just how many people read here that have no way of getting in touch with me when the site is down. For the majority of you, that’s not a problem. Either you have my email address or you’re just not that upset about not being able to contact me for whatever amount of time. And that’s okay because I’m not always the best correspondent.

However, it would have been very nice to be able to let you know what was going on.

Because of that, I have been ‘inspired’ to tell you about a few of the other places you can find me, should something like this happen again. (Let’s all hope that it doesn’t.)

Twitter

Facebook

I’m at other places to, but these two are the ones I generally check in on every day. If you have any recommendations of other things I should join, let me know. Just keep in mind that I’m usually quite lazy and I’m proud of the fact that I have two social sites that I visit daily.

Feel free to friend me on any of these sites. It would be great, though, if you could let me know that you’re friending me because you saw this post. (“Hi, I’m ___. I read you on ___.) That’s not possible for all the sites, but I will definitely appreciate it if you put it in when you can.

Thank you all. Now it’s time for lunch.

Hi everyone!

Phew! We are back in action (as you can see). Did you miss me? I missed you!

Group hug!

Too much? Okay. I’ll behave.

I am very glad to be back in action and posting here on site. I apologize for all the down time, but as happens with technology sometimes, we had a bit of a technology burp. Apparently some drives and servers went down at headquarters and things were a bit messy for a while.

Don’t ask me to go into it further because it’s probably, ultimately, quite boring.

Thank you all for your patience (and for coming back after such a long gap). I know that going too long without posting can be a bit of a ‘virtual death’ for any site, so I doubly appreciate all of you who have been checking in with me via email, twitter and other things.

If any of you are interested in alternative ways to contact me (should the sites ever go down again, heaven forbid), leave a comment and I’ll post up some of my information.

I would like to reward everyone who stuck around through all this by holding a contest. I know I just held two big contests, but that doesn’t mean I can’t hold a few more, right?

If you have any ideas for a contest, please let me know. I’ll be taking your suggestions for the next few weeks so we can hopefully get something going soon.

Once again, my apologies, and thank you to everyone for your patience. I’m very glad to be back.

Have a good one!

Hello everyone.

As you likely already know, many of the sites on the 451press network are down and have been down for some time (what seems like forever!).

I would like to apologize on behalf of 451press for the technical difficulties we have been experiencing lately. There are problems at 451press headquarters right now involving the equipment and machines we use to keep the sites up and running. The good news is that these problems are being addressed and hopefully we’ll get things up and running sooner rather than later.

Thank you very much for your patience. At this time, about half the sites are down so a lot of people are unable to post and a lot of readers have been left in the dark. If possible, if you know other people who read blogs here at 451, please let them know that the problem is being worked on and the sites will hopefully be up again soon.

Thankfully, this site is still up and working and I will continue to post here for as long as I can.

Remember, if you need to contact me for any reason, you can use the contact me button below the site description on the right. If these sites go down for any reason, you can also find me twittering away at http://twitter.com/JaimeMcD . Just remember that I’m in a different time zone so responding to you might take a bit longer than you anticipate.

Thank you again for your patience. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon.

Hello everyone!

As you have all probably well and truly noticed by now, 451press blogs have been having a few… problems lately. The sites take a long time to load sometimes and it’s not always easy to comment.

I want to apologize for all the problems and let you know that you aren’t the only ones having difficulties. It’s not just you, not just your computer. Even we bloggers are having difficulties just posting.

Why is it happening? Well, going by the amount of spam comments I have to clean off my sites every day, I think being attacked by one or more spam monsters is driving our servers down into the dumps a bit. Day in and day out of offers to increase the size of your man parts and show you free cartoon porn would do that do anyone, I think.

Hopefully we’ll have everything sorted out very soon and will be back up and running normally soon.

Always remember that you can feel free to contact me using the ‘contact me’ button under the site description. I’m not sure if anything would be so urgent that you would need to let me know, but hey, I’m always up for a casual chat as well.

Please bear with me as all this stuff is happening. It’s not fun for any of us and we certainly don’t like it when our readers are unhappy.

And, just to occupy your time, here is a link to one of my favourite web comics:

Questionable Content

Lately I have been struggling with this site, not feeling quite sure what to do with it. I’ve been trying a few new and different things, but it doesn’t seem to be helping.

Honestly, I’m a bit tired of doing the same thing most weeks. I have been trying to mix it up a bit in past weeks, but I keep coming back to the same formula with different themes. I’m not sure what is working for people, what isn’t… I like what I’m doing, but some feedback would be helpful.

Should I do more memes and/or tags? Something you can bring from my blog over to your blog? I have Thursday Thirteens and Friday Feasts, but maybe I can hunt down some other tags and memes to do here. Or maybe I can try starting one of my own.

Is there anything new or different that you would like to see here? Are there any prompts you find especially helpful? Should I take a break from prompts and talk about other inspiration and projects? I could talk about taking trips, making idea jars, anything at all. Well, not anything, but whatever would inspire you more or that you would like to read more about.

The bottom line is I’m feeling a bit lost for words and could use your help. I’m here to try to help inspire you in any way I can, so if there is anything more or different that I can do…

Let me know. I’d love to hear from you.

Dear Readers,

Recently my blog posts haven’t been coming up at all regularly. Sometimes there have been no posts for a length of time and then BAM a lot of posts, and other times it has been at least a little steady. I want to apologize to you all for not at least warning you that my life has been a bit wonky lately.

A few weeks back, I got sick enough to take me away from the computer some days. While I tried to stay caught up, it wasn’t easy.

Beyond that, a job opportunity recently came up. My husband and I discussed it and, while it was completely my decision to go for it, we could definitely use the money. I am paying bills just fine with my freelancing, but I’ll be paying them for the next ten years if something doesn’t change.

So I had to put together a resume and then go for the job interview after the week or so of being sick and along with road trips and volunteering.

Even with all this, I do know you all understand that life gets in the way of blogging sometimes (as it should). Despite that, I still wanted to apologize for things. As you can see, I have been a bit busy.

Thank you to everyone who has been commenting and participating in the contest going here until June 5th. Remember, we have to reach 100 comments before the 5th so someone can win the lovely Aussie prize pack I have on offer.

Thank you also to everyone who stops by, contest or not, and chimes in. It’s always nice to know I have readers out there who care enough about what I am saying to say something back.

Hugs and appreciation to you all. I hope each and every one of you has a wonderful weekend.

Yes, I’m not holding just one contest – I’m holding two. On two of my blogs you have the chance to win some very sweet treats just by doing one simple thing…

Stopping by!

Having recently celebrated my first wedding anniversary, I want very much to spread the love and happiness to the most people the best way I know how: my blogs. That’s why I’m holding contests that are easy to win and have some (in my opinion) lovely prizes to win.

On Long Relationships you have four chances (we haven’t had a winner yet) to win a very yummy block of milk or dark chocolate. (Be sure to let me know what kind you like just in case you win…)

On Fiction Scribe you have three chances (we have had one winner so far) to win either a block of milk chocolate or a (very cute) stationary pack along with other goodies picked out by yours truly.

On both sites I have a special prize pack to give to the 100th commenters. I have some very nice Aussie prize packs full of Aussie goodies I love and have picked for this contest. (Ever heard of chocolate covered honeycomb?)

All you have to do to win either contest is stop by and comment (on posts on or after May 5th). That’s right; it’s that simple. If your comment lands on the right number then you can win. As long as you leave a valid comment (no spam) then you’re in the running.

Best of luck to everyone who enters.

Today is my first wedding anniversary, and because of that, I am putting up the love theme week again. Be sure to check out my other sites like Fiction Scribe to see where I’m spreading the love with fun contests to celebrate the occasion.

I wish you all a wonderful Monday and a wonderful week as well.

I have picked a nice, feel good theme. And what better feel good theme than love?

(Unless you have gone/are going through some even that would put you against love and the whole ‘love’ thing. If you are, I apologize. You might want to come back next week.)

I have mentioned love before, but this week I’m going to talk about the lovey-dovey, squishy, butterflies in your stomach kind of love. Long relationship kind of love.

I’m lucky enough to have a wonderful love in my life. I try not to talk about him too much because I still remember what it was like being single and having happily coupled/married people talk about how happy they are, but I do think my husband is one of the best guys around.

So occasionally I gush a bit about how much I love him.

In honour of the theme (and my husband), here are a few of my favourite love songs:

(more…)

Interested in reviewing books on your blog? Would you like to interview authors?

We are seeking qualified bloggers who would like to become tour hosts for our clients. If you are a blogger who would be interested in either interviewing our authors, letting them guest post on your blog or would be willing to review their book and posting their review on your blog (or any other type of promotion) on a certain day that both you and we set up together, we would be interested in talking to you.

We are only looking for blogs who receive substantial traffic and are updated frequently.

All our tour hosts receive a link on our sponsors’ page (if you prefer hosting your banner, that’s fine, too), links on our in house blogs, and will receive copies of books where applicable for their time and effort in hosting our authors. You will also receive substantial traffic on your blog while the author is touring as we highly publicize each and every one of our tour stops.

We also spotlight our tour hosts at random in our monthly newsletter. All tour host spotlights will include blog information and an interview with the blog host as part of their feature in the newsletter. More added exposure! And…not only that…we will include your link on this page so that others can see what an outstanding blog you have.

If you are interested, you can visit Virtual Book Tours for Authors, look in the right hand sidebar for the list of authors touring, and let us know which author you would prefer to host.

Once you have decided which author you would like to host, copy and paste the below information into an email and send it to us at thewriterslife(at)yahoo.com. Please put “I Want to Be a Tour Host” in the subject line of your email.

Interested in reviewing books on your blog? Would you like to interview authors?

We are seeking qualified bloggers who would like to become tour hosts for our clients. If you are a blogger who would be interested in either interviewing our authors, letting them guest post on your blog or would be willing to review their book and posting their review on your blog (or any other type of promotion) on a certain day that both you and we set up together, we would be interested in talking to you.

We are only looking for blogs who receive substantial traffic and are updated frequently.

All our tour hosts receive a link on our sponsors’ page (if you prefer hosting your banner, that’s fine, too), links on our in house blogs, and will receive copies of books where applicable for their time and effort in hosting our authors. You will also receive substantial traffic on your blog while the author is touring as we highly publicize each and every one of our tour stops.

We also spotlight our tour hosts at random in our monthly newsletter. All tour host spotlights will include blog information and an interview with the blog host as part of their feature in the newsletter. More added exposure! And…not only that…we will include your link on this page so that others can see what an outstanding blog you have.

If you are interested, you can visit Virtual Book Tours for Authors, look in the right hand sidebar for the list of authors touring, and let us know which author you would prefer to host.

Once you have decided which author you would like to host, copy and paste the below information into an email and send it to us at thewriterslife(at)yahoo.com. Please put “I Want to Be a Tour Host” in the subject line of your email.

This week I am in the mood for something different! (I get that way every now and then.) I wanted to do something other than the usual weekly routine. That’s why, for this week only (maybe?), I am declaring a random writing prompts week.

I like doing my usual schedule of prompts, but every site needs a bit of spicing up every now and then. I hope you agree with me and enjoy this week of “something different than the usual”.

Today isn’t exactly a day for prompts, though; it’s more a post of nostalgia. Today I am listing all the Musical Mondays I have ever done (with links) so if a subject (or two) grabs your attention, you can go straight to it and have that week’s prompts easily.

I hope you enjoy this links post as well as the change of plans for this week.

Musical Mondays of the past…

Heroes
Royalty
Truth
Music
Men
Women
Write
Work
Dancing
Rain
Goodbye
Laughter
Money
New Year’s Eve
Christmas Eve
In Love - Butterflies and All
Loss and Remembrance
Getting Back to It
Passion
All About You
All Around the World
Time
Freedom
Wishes
Food
Unrequited Love
Respect
Forgiveness
Gratitude
Lying
War
Colours
New Beginnings

And now, for your listening enjoyment, (and because I simply can’t have a Monday with at least a little music in it) I have posted a song by one of my favourite groups – Maroon 5. This is “Won’t Go Home Without You” one of their most recent hits.

Interested in reviewing books on your blog? Would you like to interview authors?

We are seeking qualified bloggers who would like to become tour hosts for our clients. If you are a blogger who would be interested in either interviewing our authors, letting them guest post on your blog or would be willing to review their book and posting their review on your blog (or any other type of promotion) on a certain day that both you and we set up together, we would be interested in talking to you.

We are only looking for blogs who receive substantial traffic and are updated frequently.

All our tour hosts receive a link on our sponsors’ page (if you prefer hosting your banner, that’s fine, too), links on our in house blogs, and will receive copies of books where applicable for their time and effort in hosting our authors. You will also receive substantial traffic on your blog while the author is touring as we highly publicize each and every one of our tour stops.

We also spotlight our tour hosts at random in our monthly newsletter. All tour host spotlights will include blog information and an interview with the blog host as part of their feature in the newsletter. More added exposure! And…not only that…we will include your link on this page so that others can see what an outstanding blog you have.

If you are interested, you can visit Virtual Book Tours for Authors, look in the right hand sidebar for the list of authors touring, and let us know which author you would prefer to host.

Once you have decided which author you would like to host, copy and paste the below information into an email and send it to us at thewriterslife(at)yahoo.com. Please put “I Want to Be a Tour Host” in the subject line of your email.