Patricia Stoltey

Author

Wednesday Potpourri

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Thursday’s Guest

My guest author tomorrow is historical novelist Mary Schoenecker. Her post is about family history and how it triggered ideas for her novels.

This Week’s Blog Post Links

From Traditional Publishing to Self-Publishing: Should You Jump by John Barlow at Janet Rudolph’s Mystery Fanfare.

Tattered Cover EBM Pricing is Ready by Dave Stover at Writers on the Brink blog. (FYI — EBM is Espresso Book Machine, and Tattered Cover Press is part of the Denver Tattered Cover Bookstore family).

#atozchallenge: Getting to Know Me — Arlee Bird. (FYI — Arlee Bird is the founder of the A to Z April Blog Challenge, which by the way, is already over 600 participants and we’re not even out of February yet. If you want to join us for a lot of fun in April and the chance to make lots of new friends, head over the the A to Z signup page.)

Making More Time in My Life

I not only need to make room for my writing and revising, but I also want to create a better balance to my life by reading more and reviving some of my favorite hobbies. One of the things I plan to do is reduce the number of times each week I post to this blog beginning March 1st (except during the month of April, of course, when I’ll post the 26 days of the A to Z Challenge).

My plan is to continue the Tuesday post at Chiseled in Rock, my Thursday guests through June to be replaced by posts about the writing life, and then add a new Saturday post which might include reviews of writing books, photos, or random topics. Three times a week, with no Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Sunday unless an author on blog book tour requests one of those days. The Wednesday Potpourri is going away.

If you’re a regular follower and don’t use Google Reader, consider signing up to receive my posts by e-mail. I’ve added that option to the sidebar, just below my profile.

The Blogger “Please prove you’re not a robot” Security Captcha Thingie

If your blog’s security is set to include this feature, I suspect you’ll see a reduction in comments from cranky people like me. My new policy is to try once and then quit. Maybe it’s my eyes or maybe it’s my trifocals, but I’m having a terrible time reading those things.

Unless you’re a regular (meaning many times daily) target for spammers, I recommend you get rid of the word verification requirement and take away the privilege of anonymous comments instead. I also have comment moderation activated for my older blog posts as that seemed to be where a lot of spammers were depositing their links. My problems are minimal…so far.

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Comments

  1. Thank you for the A to Z shout out. Either I’m getting good at the new word verification or it just accepts anything that’s close to being right. Either way it’s an annoying hurdle to jump just to leave a comment.

    Lee
    An A to Z Co-Host
    Tossing It Out
    Twitter: @AprilA2Z
    #atozchallenge

  2. It’s so hard to have limited time. I think your plan sounds like a good one and hope it works to get you the time you need.

    (That word verification thing IS irritating, eh? I see it most often with paranoid new bloggers)

  4. Looks like we’re starting a trend. Yay! Is it just too mean to boycott blogs that keep on using it? I don’t want to be mean…

    And lol for Marsha — I never would have guessed!

  7. I’m so with you on removing word verification! It’s so annoying and is adding so much time to my commenting that I can’t around to as many blog as I used to. Luckily, I think many people are now turning it off.

    (Oh, this is Talli, by the way!I realised I’m signed into the ‘real’ me, ha! I think I need pen name verification.)

  8. I hate those security captchas….I can’t read half of them…and even when I can, I often get an error message, even though my message goes through…grrrr…

    I’m glad to see that you’re going to make more time for writing. Fortunately for me, I get to read your work every month!

  9. Hi Pat .. well I’ve followed your thoughts – removed anonymous and put it on registered users … is that what you’ve done? I guess so ..

    and I’ve put on comment moderation for posts over 30 days too ..

    I hope like you I don’t get any more pain from them ..

    The captcha codes are terrible I agree –

    and as for wanting more time .. I don’t post that often, but struggle to keep up .. am thinking of only Reading and Comment two days a week .. obviously replying to my commenters —

    Have to see how it goes .. cheers for now – Hilary

  10. Pat – I agree with you 100% about the word verification change. It’s annoying!! I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels that way.

    And good for you to decide what you need and adjust your blog schedule accordingly. Smart idea.

    I look forward to Mary Schoenecker’s visit tomorrow!