Daughter Am I Blog Tour 2009 Update

Day nine of the Daughter Am I blog tour, and I am still going strong. I actually went to bed before midnight last night, and I’m a bit more rested. Good thing -- there is a lot going on today! First, check out “After the Writing Comes the Work.” Great discussion going on at that unscheduled tour stop, and a wonderful compliment about Daughter Am I.

Next, check out “How Best To Procrastinate” on Claire Collins’s blog. It was actually yesterday’s tour stop, but I kept finding other things to do and never got around to telling you about it. (Procrastination humor. Trite, but still amusing. I hope.)

Claire is a guest on my blog talking about “Welcome to the Business of Writing”, and the importance of a mission statement. Mine is: “It is my mission to become so well-known that a traditional publisher will offer me an obscenely large advance. I will turn down the advance because I’d like to show that there is value in being published by a small independent publisher, and because the resulting publicity could be worth more than the publishing contract.” Did you notice that it says nothing about writing? Hmmm.

One of these days I really do have to work on my poor stalled WIP. I’m thinking of doing WriMo -- my own slimmed down version of NaNoWriMo. Instead of National Novel Writing Month, I might do simply a Writing Month. Perhaps try to write a sentence or two each day in November to get back into the habit of writing. I did sign up for NaBloWriMo (National Blog Writing Month) and NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). Since I’ve already contracted to do a blog post every day for the first three weeks in November because of my blog tour, all I need to do is to finish out the month and I win. Win what? you might ask. Nothing, of course. It’s the challenge that counts.

But I am digressing.

Today I am again visiting Joylene Nowell Butler in Cluculz, this time for an interview. I am at Untreed Reads talking about my Rites of Passage as an author. And I am trick-or-treating at the Second Wind blog.

This is turning into an international tour. I’m in Canada today and Wednesday, in Florida tomorrow, and in Australia on Thursday. In the middle of November, I’ll be in South Africa. You gotta love the Internet!

Today’s schedule recapped:

After the Writing Comes the Work
How Best to Procrastinate
Welcome to the Business of Writing
Interview at Cluculz
Rites of Passage
Trick or Treat! Let the Game Begin!

Have fun. I intend to.



Click here to buy Daughter Am I from Second Wind Publishing, LLC.

Click here to buy Daughter Am I from Amazon.

More Blogs Than One

I love starting a new blog, though technically, my latest blog is not a new one. I set it up Wayword Wind at the end of last summer because I wanted a green blog to go along with my blue one (Bertram's Blog -- writing), my purple one (Book Marketing Floozy -- promotion), my red one (Pat Bertram Introduces -- character interviews), and my orange and yellow one (Dragon My Feet -- books and reviews). I never quite knew what to do with the lovely green blog because it seemed as if the others already deal with the topics I'm interested in, but it's been sitting there taunting me all these months.

At one time I thought of posting quotes and then giving a commentary, but I really don’t have much to say on any subject except writing. I discovered this recently when I started yet another blog simply because I like the WordPress theme. (Do you see a pattern here?) I call it The Mind of Pat Bertram, but since I seldom post to it, you can see how little is actually on my mind. Then I thought of turning Wayword Wind into a blog for posting my progress with Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way program, but since I haven’t actually been doing the program, there's really nothing to say about it.

Then I realized I have several photo essays that I've posted on various sites, so I brought them all together under one roof. And green is the perfect color to set off the pictures. So, now I have all my blogs organized. Now I just need to figure out how to organize my time so I can post to all of them!

Actually, you can help. If you'd like to do a character interview, you can find the questionnaire here: Character Questionnaire.

If you have book information, a book review, or anything bookish that you'd like me to post on Dragon My Feet, or if you have an article about book marketing, leave me a message in the comment section. I'll be glad to have you as a guest!

Pat Bertram Is Two Years Old Today!

On May 17, 2007, I --- or rather, Pat Bertram --- signed up for the Internet, and it was love at first byte. The entire world opened up to me, and I was reborn. I’d already written four books, but until I went online, I hadn’t started creating the author of those books. Who should I be? What name should I use? I considered using a male pseudonym, Cole Black, perhaps, since men with hard C’s and K’s do well in the public arena. Anyone heard of Steven King? Dean Koontz? Tom Clancy? Kevin Costner? Clint Eastwood?

In the end I decided to stick with a version of my own name, one that I didn’t use in my offline life. It’s a good name for an author with enough hard consonants to sound authoritative. And it has the whole androgynous “It’s Pat” thing going for it; I can be whoever I want. Besides, p’s and b’s and t’s and r’s didn’t hurt Brad Pitt any.

I signed up for my domain, set up a website at patbertram.com, then fished around for another way to create myself, and discovered blogging. I didn’t even know what a blog was, didn’t think it was something I would ever be able to do (my diaries as a kid never lasted more than a day or two), but I’d discovered that an author needed a blog. Since I was intent on creating myself as an author, I signed up for Wordpress, and oh! What a joy! I could write whatever I wanted, say what I wanted, be what I wanted, and people would read what I wrote. Okay, only a couple of people read Bertram’s Blog at the beginning, but I am still friends with one of them. How cool is that? I’m too embarrassed to admit how many blogs I now have -- some of which I keep up with on a regular basis, some I don’t -- but blogging remains one of my favorite online activities.

From blogging, I went to Gather.com to enter a crime writing contest, and through a series of incredibly serendipitous encounters, I found a publisher. And more friends. After that, of course, I had to start promoting, so I started social networking. I’d heard from so many authors how much they hated promoting, but me? I think it’s great fun. It’s all about making friends, and what’s more fun than that?

So, friends, please join me in celebrating this very special birthday. You don’t even have to bring me a present. I have presents for you! Click on any package to open. Or click on any other image. I hope you have fun.

I know I will.

Writing About White-Collar Crime

Since both of my Alex Bellamy books focus on some aspect of white-collar crime, (fraud in Taxed to Death and hacking in Fatal Encryption), I’ve read many articles on the topic. It’s a subject that interests me deeply. In fact, I write a blog on various aspects of white-collar crime at www.authorsden.com/debrapurdykong.

Did you know that in America, someone’s identity is stolen every 79 seconds? This type of crime is costing an estimated $50 billion dollars a year. In troubling economic times, ID theft and fraud skyrocket, so here’s some tips on what to do if you’ve been victimized:

Notify your credit card companies and cancel accounts.

Notify your bank and place a stop order on your account if you think it’s at risk. Also let them know if you’ve had checks stolen so they can place a stop payment on any checks issued.

Notify the police.

Notify utility companies and anyone else you have financial dealings with.

Change your PINs and passwords.

Contest any bill or statement when you know you didn’t purchase the item listed, even if it’s a small amount.

If you’ve lost your passport, driver's license or employee identification, advise issuers right away and request replacements.

If your computer’s been tampered with or accessed without your knowledge, scan it for spy ware as soon as you can. Also change any passwords.

Pay attention to mail delivery. A lot of ID theft begins with stolen bank statements, etc.

Create a file of everything concerning the identity theft.

Document all correspondence and request full details concerning money owed.

If you still don’t feel secure about the handling of this matter, it is best to hire an identity theft attorney.

Hope this helps, and be careful out there!

To read excerpts of TAXED TO DEATH and FATAL ENCRYPTION visit www.debrapurdykong.com

Cheryl will be guest blogging on Bertram's Blog on January 12

Mark down Monday, January 12, 2009, on your calendars and be sure to join me as I guest blog on Bertram's Blog.

I'll be talking about my iPhone novel Finding Bliss, which has created quite a stir.

http://ptbertram.wordpress.com/

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif