~~I've decided that this weekend is the best ever. I mean it. ; ) It started on Saturday with the mail. I received my official notice that I'm a nominee for Georgia Author of the Year. The GAYA is the oldest literary award in the Southeast and the Georgia Writers Association administers it. Go to www.georgiawriters.org for more info.
~~Sunday morning brought the Times-Georgian to my door with the article that Spencer Crawford wrote about my books and my journey in writing. He does such a great job helping members of CCWC promote their work. Here's a link to the article-- "Author uses religion as a foundation for her writing."
~~All I can say is, a few more weekends like this one would be more than I could stand--NOT! ; )
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Three, Two, One
Three white balls of snow stacked up just so in the classic snowman form.
Two bounding barkers bouncing around in the flakes that nearly rise to their bellies.
One Southern Snow Storm of three and one half inches deep, lovely and white.
~~I know that it's not a lot of snow by northern standards, but it's wonderfully heavy for north Georgia. Of course, it is a strange winter with this second snowfall on Friday, February 12 and another expected late tonight and into tomorrow. Talk about a Valentine's Day Gift! ; ) Our puppies loved it. After an initial caution, they bounced and bounded so fast that we didn't get a photo of them. When you are only ten inches tall, snow of three and one half inches is a bit of a challenge. Add the snowman--the intruder in our midst--and you have a noisy, fun time.
~~John and I have never "rolled" a snowman before. All our past attempts have been the mounded variety. Either we haven't had this type of wet, heavy snow before, or we have waited until the next day when the drier air has stripped it of moisture...But this time, the snowballs rolled into the perfect sections for a lovely snowman. Add a red hat, green towel scarf, carrot nose, and two broccoli floret eyes and you have it.
~~John and I have never "rolled" a snowman before. All our past attempts have been the mounded variety. Either we haven't had this type of wet, heavy snow before, or we have waited until the next day when the drier air has stripped it of moisture...But this time, the snowballs rolled into the perfect sections for a lovely snowman. Add a red hat, green towel scarf, carrot nose, and two broccoli floret eyes and you have it.
~~Enjoy the photos of our latest, but not last snow. ; )
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Do You Have A Website?
~~"Do you have a website?" and "Can I buy it online?" Well, as a matter of fact, I do and you can--Now. After having to answer these two questions with a negative over and over as I told people about my new book, An Easter Walk, I got the message. I needed to get more than a blog going. With two interviews planned, it became more important. In fact, I have just finished the first interview with Spencer Crawford for the Times-Georgian on Wednesday afternoon. So, on February 21, readers will get an article about me as a writer and about the book and will be able to buy it that day. ; )
~~After deciding to get the website started, I had to figure out how to do it. Since my only foray into programming was way back when I created mimeograph worksheets for my students with basic run/print statements on my Apple IIc, I couldn't create a website from scratch by myself. I do love Diana Black’s web designs, but I couldn't to use her wonderful services on the meager profit I'm making so far. Diana encouraged me try to find a web host with a template to use. She thought I could manage that. ; )
~~First, I looked at Intuit.com and their small business website builder, but it was still too rich for my pocketbook. Beautiful templates, though. John suggested I hunt for a list of rated web hosts and I found one. I figured I'd start with the top. There was one problem--I had tons of questions about just what the things listed on their service meant. I took me two days to get a person on the support line and then I couldn't understand him at all. Don't get me wrong, I'm very good at understanding accented English. Maybe it's because I speak with a strong Southern accent myself. Only the young man had the thickest, most rapid British accent I've ever heard. I'm sure he thought my questions were ignorant and stupid. He answered me like he assumed I was "a hick from the sticks" and "dumb as dirt." I take exception to both assumptions. That told me to keep searching. Add the fact, that he didn’t send me the link to the sample templates just made the decision to go elsewhere easy.
~~I went to the second site in the list—iPage.com . They did assure me on their homepage that all their agents were in North America. I figured there wasn't an American or Canadian accent I couldn't understand and Mexican wouldn't be too bad either. ; ) I was right. Not only did the agents I've talked with help me, they didn't talk down to me either. The templates were simple Drag-and-Drop and there were several I liked. The challenge then became how to link my favorite image of a tree-lined walk in autumn to what I write. Once the title "Walk Among the Leaves With Me" with its lovely double meaning clicked, I was off. It has taken me a week to create the five webpages and publish.
~~So, if you have a minute, take a look at http://www.zanmariesteadham.com/ . I welcome all comments and suggestions. Many of you know so much more than I do about this. For those of you in the dark like I was, let me encourage you--you can do it, too.
~~Now to find the courage to try facebook and connect with my thousands of former students...
~~After deciding to get the website started, I had to figure out how to do it. Since my only foray into programming was way back when I created mimeograph worksheets for my students with basic run/print statements on my Apple IIc, I couldn't create a website from scratch by myself. I do love Diana Black’s web designs, but I couldn't to use her wonderful services on the meager profit I'm making so far. Diana encouraged me try to find a web host with a template to use. She thought I could manage that. ; )
~~First, I looked at Intuit.com and their small business website builder, but it was still too rich for my pocketbook. Beautiful templates, though. John suggested I hunt for a list of rated web hosts and I found one. I figured I'd start with the top. There was one problem--I had tons of questions about just what the things listed on their service meant. I took me two days to get a person on the support line and then I couldn't understand him at all. Don't get me wrong, I'm very good at understanding accented English. Maybe it's because I speak with a strong Southern accent myself. Only the young man had the thickest, most rapid British accent I've ever heard. I'm sure he thought my questions were ignorant and stupid. He answered me like he assumed I was "a hick from the sticks" and "dumb as dirt." I take exception to both assumptions. That told me to keep searching. Add the fact, that he didn’t send me the link to the sample templates just made the decision to go elsewhere easy.
~~I went to the second site in the list—iPage.com . They did assure me on their homepage that all their agents were in North America. I figured there wasn't an American or Canadian accent I couldn't understand and Mexican wouldn't be too bad either. ; ) I was right. Not only did the agents I've talked with help me, they didn't talk down to me either. The templates were simple Drag-and-Drop and there were several I liked. The challenge then became how to link my favorite image of a tree-lined walk in autumn to what I write. Once the title "Walk Among the Leaves With Me" with its lovely double meaning clicked, I was off. It has taken me a week to create the five webpages and publish.
~~So, if you have a minute, take a look at http://www.zanmariesteadham.com/ . I welcome all comments and suggestions. Many of you know so much more than I do about this. For those of you in the dark like I was, let me encourage you--you can do it, too.
~~Now to find the courage to try facebook and connect with my thousands of former students...
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