A to Z Challenge - M (and Award!)

For the A to Z Challenge, I am featuring some awesome bloggers. These individuals have offered so much support of my book, CassaStar, and me on my blogger journey. Of course, I’ll be keeping up with the world of movies, music, and pop culture stuff as well! Ninjas are just talented that way...


Musings of a Palindrome
Hannah is a beautiful person who’s full of enthusiasm and spirit. I called her Palin for the longest time, but now I always say Hannah because it’s a pretty name for a pretty gal. She shares my science fiction passion and on Tuesdays, she posts the coolest photos and pictures. Hannah does more than muse - visit her today!

Mithril Wisdom
Jamie is an amazing young man. Possessing a Masters in Egyptology, he also does reviews on his site and for other publications. He’s very involved in the book world and loves fantasy. Someone this talented is going to go far in life! Visit my buddy Jamie and tell him the Army is invading!

Jeffrey Beesler at World of the Scribe passed this award on to me. Thanks, dude – great timing!

And I am passing the Creative Blog Award along to:

Karen at Following the Whispers
Liz at 8-Bit Words



Have an awesome weekend, everyone! Any big plans? Movies? Writing? Ninja attacks?

How to Improve your A-Z Challenge (and Blogging) Experience

As we gear up for the A to Z Challenge in April, I and the other co-hosts are posting tips. Today I am tackling comment boxes and word verification, and how to speed up the process and encourage more comments. Remember, these are just suggestions. No one throw crap at Captain Ninja Alex! However, Hot Tamales are always welcome…

There are a dozen different ways to do the comment box, but here’s where it becomes challenging. Some blogger backgrounds load and scroll slow. Some blogs load slow due to graphics. (Yes, I am aware mine is one of them!) But what really cripples this process is an embedded comment box, because the page needs to reload again. (And if there’s word verification, three times!)

The solution? If you like your background or don’t want to remove all those images, change the comment box. Try using a pop-up box like mine or a separate page like Stephen’s.

Next is the issue of word verification.

If at all possible, drop it.

The solution? Blogger's spam filter works great. (I almost never receive spam comments.) If you’re still concerned, you adjust the settings to not allow anonymous comments like Hannah or require blog owner approval like Yvonne. You can also require blog owner approval on older post comments.

There are only so many hours in the day to visit blogs, and those two issues can really slow down the process. During the A to Z Challenge, time will be important as we try to visit as many blogs as possible. Make it easy for people to leave comments!

Any questions? Thoughts? Hot Tamales you’d care to throw?

Announcements...

First, some things happening around the Internet...

I won the book trailer contest at Spunk on a Stick’s Tips! Thanks to everyone who thought my book trailer was awesome. I’m thrilled CassaStar’s trailer has won two contests now.

Jamie at Mithril Wisdom is hosting a 100 followers giveaway! The prizes include some cool books, so go to his site now to enter: Mithril Wisdom
Jamie reviews books and graphic novels and talks about movies and Egypt. He’s also a panelist for the Indie Lit Awards. He’s an awesome young man with a cool site – if you’re into fantasy, you NEED to follow his blog!

Ali Cross is hosting a 300 followers giveaway! Two Amazon gift cards are at stake, so visit her site to enter: Ali Cross
Ali is just a doll! Go check out her site.

Prayers for L’Aussie - she lives in Brisbane, which recently experienced flooding and a flash flood. Many are dead or missing. L’Aussie is all right, but the destruction is devastating. Please keep everyone in the area of Brisbane in your prayers.

Now for some awards – because I try not to hoard!

You Inspire Me Award from Yvonne at Welcome to my World of Poetry. Thanks Yvonne!

Passing it on to
Hannah at Musings of a Palindrome
Hannah (whom I always call Palin, as it was months before she ever fessed up her real name) just celebrated one year in the blogging world and never fails to inspire – especially on Tuesdays!

The Stylish Blogger Award from James at Dance on Fire, J D Brown, AND Margo Benson! Wow, didn’t realize I was stylish.

Rules:
1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award... thanks James, JD, and Margo!
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Pass the award on to ten newly discovered bloggers and let them know.

You’ve already heard about me! And in the interest of time and keeping this post short, I’m passing it along to three bloggers, each possessing a unique style:

Anne R. Allen
Alex at Breakfast Every Hour
The Happy Whisk

Happy blogging and stay safe!

Unique Christmas Gifts and Blogfests!

Still searching for that perfect Christmas gift? Look no further!

Cthulhu Plushie
Let your kids snuggle with a Lovecraft demi-god!
$19.74

AK Bullet Ice Cube Tray
For that killer drink...
$15.95

Samsung 65" Class 8000 Series 3D 1080p LED HDTV
Because you know you really want one!
$6,000.00

Alien Queen Lifesize Prop Replica Statue
Besides, how on earth would you take care of a real alien queen?
$24,999.95

Bugatti Veyron
Second fastest car in the world and my choice when playing Need For Speed. Enough said!
$1.5 million

Blogfests!!

January 1, 2011 – Eye Candy Blogfest
Post a favorite picture, any picture you want (ummm...PG-13 please) as long as it's something that makes you smile or say 'ahhhh' every time you see it.
Hosted by Vicki at Rambles and Randomness
And I've a great picture for this one! (No, it's not Kate!)

January 3, 2011 – Show me Yours Blogfest.
The point of this blogfest is to share an excerpt of your NaNoWriMo novel. It can be any scene but try to keep it at 500 words so we can all get around to as many blogs as possible.
Hosted by Falen Formulates Fiction, Musings of a Palindrome, and And This Time, Concentrate

So, who’s buying me the Bugatti this year? Anyone?

Party Time!

Parties around the web and in real life. Some all in my mind…

Horror at Hannah’s! Musings of a Palindrome is hosting a cool writing contest for the month of October.

Brad Jaeger’s “The First Novel that Moved Me” blogfest is Monday, October 11th. Sign up HERE (I’m participating.)

Cerebral Lunch Box is featuring the Small Packages Blogfest for those with 150 followers or less

Stephen Tremp is looking for young adult authors for a special project – see Breakthrough Blogs for details.

Tuesday I kick off the virtual tour for CassaStar, which is available October 19. Yes, I’m getting nervous!

In addition to doing NaNoWriMo, I’ve been participating in NaBloWriMo. (Whew! Too many acronyms!) A post every day. Then it’s much writing every day. Yes, I am crazy. Work with me!

My mom’s birthday is next week, so I recorded an audio track of me playing an Elvis song for her. Took several tries, but I think I got it. No, not ready for a world tour just yet!

Those who’ve been with me a while should remember my high praise for “How to Train Your Dragon.” Well, it comes out on DVD next Friday, October 15. If you haven’t seen it, just go buy it. Trust me!

And to round out this party post, I intend to post a movie review this weekend. Not sure which movie yet. I’ll let you know when I know!

You Guys ROCK!!

My review of Centurion will have to wait, because you guys rock – and I have great news!

My publisher informed me of some early reviews for CassaStar, including one from Library Journal that will appear in their September 15 issue. Is that cool, or what? Okay, it could be or what if they didn’t like it. Dear Lord, I hope they didn’t think it sucked!! I'll have to change my name...

You guys have been so supportive of a newbie author and blogger and I wanted to do something nice for my friends. You visit and leave comments, you’ve posted my book trailer and video – I’m just overwhelmed by the generosity. So, this is officially Alex’s You Rock! Award, signifying that you are one cool dude – or dudette. (Is that a word?)

Since it would be crazy to give it out to just everybody – and I’d like to see the recipients pass it on to others – I’m going to limit myself to just four people. Yes, that will be nearly impossible! But the first four recipients of this award are:

Hannah at Musings of a Palindrome She eventually put her real name on her blog, but I still affectionately call her Palin. I think she was one of my first blogger buddies and never fails to stop by and comment. My favorite Palin chick – you rock! (And you have such a cute smile.)

Lee at Tossing it Out Dude, had it not been for you’re A-Z Challenge, I would’ve never found my blogging rhythm – or gained so many followers! Dude, you really made a big difference with that challenge, and I know most of those who participated will agree. You’ve kept me going strong, too – even helped me launch my own blogfest with The Movie Dirty Dozen. Lee, you rock!!

Yvonne at Welcome to my World of Poetry We met during the A-Z Challenge and continued to visit each other’s blogs. It’s funny – I’m not usually a poetry guy and she’s not familiar with my movies, music, or book genre, but that hasn't stopped us one bit. And if Yvonne doesn’t visit my blog on a given day, I feel ready to send out a search party, because she’s so faithful to her blogging friends! Yvonne, you are a dear, sweet lady – and you rock!

And finally, RaShelle at A No. 2 Pencil Stat! RaShelle is just such a sweet lady. She never fails to stop by and has such a caring spirit. I grin when I see my book cover in her side bar – right below Dezz’s elephant photo! RaShelle, you are generosity in action. You rock, chick!!

I could’ve named about fifty more people – Rayna, Stephen, Cruella, Simon, Hart, Bryan, Ted (I still want to read your book, dude!)… just about everyone in my blogroll. I’m sure this award will arrive at your blog soon!

And the awards keep on rolling…

Award from Rayna at Coffee Rings Everywhere – the Sweet Blog Award. And she made sure all of her recipients were men. (That’s right – we’re sweeter!) Thank you, Rayna and I am passing it to:

Gail at Familiar Spirit
Holly Ruggiero
Jules at Trying to Get Over the Rainbow

Award from Mel at Writings, Musings, and Other Such Nonsense – One Lovely Blog. This is the second time I’ve received it, so thanks, Mel! She also gave me permission to rename it the Frilly Beer Award! Sounds more manly…

Not one but TWO flying cars!

Rogue Evolent featured this craft on Wednesday and it blew me away! (He posted a full description and the video, so visit Roads of Autumn Dusk for the low down and skinny on this flying car.) This is the Transition Roadable Aircraft by Terrafugia.  It received certification as a Light Sport Aircraft and will begin production soon. The plane will cost almost $200,000 and requires 20 hours of flight certification. Its function is a plane, but once on the ground, the wings fold up and it can be driven like a car. So basically, after you land, you just fold up and drive home! I want one. Think it comes with photon torpedoes? Then on the heels of this news came something from Sci-Fi Wire - “Looks like Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov's next project could be to out-Bay Michael Bay, because he's in talks with Universal to create an English-language blockbuster based on his Russian-language hit Black Lightning. Bekmambetov has described his original film as a "Slavic Transformers meets Batman," and based on the action-packed trailer below, we can see what he means. The Russian-language original was a hit, taking in nearly $10 million during its first weekend.” I’d like to see the Russian version!! And finally… No flying cars, but something really cool – the Fantasy & Sci-Fi Blogger award from Ted Cross Thanks Dude – this is awesome!! I’m passing it on to four bloggers – Jamie at Mithril Wisdom Bryan at SF Daddy Stephen at Breakthrough Blogs Hannah at Musings of a Palindrome

Two Awards and Books to Come

Tuesday is usually my book day, but I'm moving that to Thursday when I discuss influences on my writing. So join me then when I talk about sci-fi author, Timothy Zahn.

Today, I gotta take care of two blog awards. Two in one day! Yeah, I can't believe it either.

Over the Top Award

This is a cool award. The rules are that I must mention Cassandra’s name and blog - Cassandra Jade in the Realm. Also I must answer a string of questions with one-word only answers and pass the award to five other bloggers.

Your Cell Phone? iPhone
Your Favorite Food? Thai
Your Hobby? Guitar
Your TV? Big
What Are You Wearing? Sweats
Your Life? Cool
Your Music? Loud
Where Did You Grow Up? Everywhere
Your Car? Sporty

Short list - it's harder than it sound!

I pass this one on to:
Hannah at Musings of a Palindrome
Sarah at Falen Formulates Fiction
Galen at Imagineering Fiction




Creative Writer Award

This was from Helen at Straight From Hel

The rules are fairly simple. Recipients must -
1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you.
4. Tell us up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth. (I'll do two lies and one truth.)
5. Allow your readers to guess which one or more are true.
6. Nominate seven "Creative Writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.
7. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate. (Gonna do three.)
8. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them. (Okay if I forget this, sorry!)

1. I burned down a shed in our back yard when I was ten.

2. I drank three day old Oriental hot sauce when I was three.

3. I played hockey in college.

Passing this on to:
Michele at Southern City Mysteries
Marvin at The Old Silly
Stephen at Breakthrough Blogs

Thanks guys!