Learning new tricks

Changes for a new, summery feel, done on a day where the temperature in our garden has reached 26 degrees. (I'll see how I feel about it on a cold, rainy day.) Even Tim the dog has laid around, curled up or sprawled out behind me, his back touching mine as I pulled some weeds, which is why I've posted a nice cool picture of the stream that was roaring down the valley in flood not so long ago.

I'm making a determined effort on using social media after attending out training day at Shepherd's Dene on Friday, focussing on on Facebook and Twitter. I've never been very sure of what I was doing with Twitter, but I have a better understanding  of it now. I'm busy searching out hashtags - it took me a long time to realise they existed so that like minded posts could be grouped together - and collecting @addresses. Heaven knows if it will make any difference, but I'll feel as if I've done my bit and made it worth Caroline's time teaching us all.

I'm also editing for the umpteenth time, and still making changes. It is amazing how much I can still sharpen the dialogue and tighten up the plot when I thought I'd "finished it" ages ago. I thought I was editing for typos and silly mistakes only. Of course, I still find quotation marks missing at one end of a sentence, and sometimes there's a full stop instead of a comma. Occasionally predictive text has gone and done something silly, so I've learned to look for that now. But the Dowager Queen is slowly emerging from this edit as a much more active character determined to save the Scots throne for her daughter Mary.

If anyone has comments on the new look of my blog I'd like to hear them. I think some people found the black background difficult. I hung onto it for so long because I always thought it showed off the photographs as nothing else could. I still think that, but recognise it is time for a change.

Shepherd's Dene and websites

Crinan Hotel

Missed my entry yesterday because I was out all day at a Border Reivers Retreat Day. Ten of us got together at Shepherd's Dene and listened to Jan and Graham tells us how Jan has built up an astounding following for her self-published books. Later in the day we discussed adding emotional impact to our writing, and then tried our hand at writing a short story in 50 words. Easer than you might think. Everyone came up with attempts in only ten minutes. All very different, too!
Jan's website is here: http://www.janetmacleodtrotter.com/

I enjoyed the day but came home very tired. One of the things about writing is that it is essentially a lonely life (unless the family is still at home and rampaging around you!) and a day talking and chatting is wonderful but leaves me drained at the end of it all. Toady I am exploring building a website. So far, I've made my blog do double duty as both blog and website, but perhaps the time is right for a venture into a website. We'll see.

Viking Magic, in its third day of life, has sold a few copies already, so now it is up to me to promote, promote, promote. I must spread the word!

This picture shows how close the hotel is to the water! The weather changed on our second day there, and the hills on the horizon have disappeared in the murk. But they are there, I promise you. The island of Jura shows up beautifully on a clear day.