Three quick reasons:
1) I've been obsessively re-writing one of my young adult novels in order to submit a query to an agent who is looking for strong voice from a male narrator. The novel is a mystery and was written in third person omniscient (so that the reader could hear the thoughts of every character and could glean information about the case from all sides). Talk about tough. It is quite challenging to still convey important information while limiting the reader's insight down to one primary character's perspective. Thank goodness for small town gossip ... otherwise, I don't think I could have completed this re-write. I finished the first person version today. Now I will obsessively begin editing the re-write (especially aiming for an enticing beginning). Yippee!
2) I think I've lost my reading mojo. When a Newbery Award winner seemed to inch along for me, I was already on the alert to something being up. Now, I am slogging through a book about ... creating enticing openings for a novel. Somehow, the writing isn't very enticing, even though it is talking about inciting incidents and being enticing to a reader. Then again, as I said, maybe it's just me.
3) One of the blogs I follow recently went private. The author explained why - because she was receiving numerous hits from one location and they were clicking on photos of her sons extensively. I would have been creeped out, too. As I read of her experience and related my own, with a stalker from Michigan who used to view my blog almost hourly (and stopped the minute I drew attention to the stalker on my blog), I began to notice that a few different IP addresses from Russia are repeatedly hitting my son's art blog (two posts in particular - a birthday card he made for me and a post about getting a fake I-phone and finding a snake). These seem like innocuous posts. I can't understand how they would appeal enough to return to every other day. Now, they're also hitting my blog. While I'm not intending to go private (then there would be only one person reading my book reviews - my mother), I'm still a bit put off by it and don't really know what, if any, action should be taken. Stat Counter can be a blessing and a curse.
6 comments:
I'm excited to hear about your book progress. :)
But I'm sorry to hear that about someone viewing your son's pages like that. Is it definitely someone clicking onto the same page again and again? I'm asking because I often have a habit of opening a new tab for a page and then leaving it there for ages. I've always wondered if the site's owner thinks that I'm camped out on their page, when really I'm just lazy about clicking the page closed.
Sheila - I know what you mean about worrying someone will think you're camping out on a page, when really you've inadvertantly just left the page up and gone to wash the dishes. This is different. It is three different IP addresses and they return every other day to the same pages (pages from a year ago, not recent). I can't understand what would attract that kind of attention. Since they're from Russia, it's not like I'm worried they're stalking him with evil intent or anything. It is mostly just perplexing.
That is weird.
I don't know what to tell you but feel your pain because certain behavior just doesn't make sense. I could tell from the hits that it wasn't just an open visit. This person was coming, staying on for about an hour and clicking on specific pictures over and over and over and over. Made me sick. But, being private stinks. So, yeah, if you can avoid that...do!
Congrats on the novel! I think that kind of ambition and drive is really incredible. I have never had it. I wish I did because whether it gets published or not...you wrote a novel!!!!
Lucy - I completely understand your desire to go private and the sadness that brings.
Thanks for your encouragement about the novel. I've only had one reader for this one, so I'm not sure whether I think it is a worthwhile venture or not. It is often hard to assess whether one truly has the talent to pull off a novel or not. After reading an acquaintance's novel and thinking it really needed far more editing before he self-published, it makes me less confident about my own writing.
Think I've figured out these weird Russia hits. It is just spam and they are hoping I will click on their IP add. to check them out. Thankfully, I haven't done that - just been weirded out by their presence. Darn spammers!
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