Slogging 'Round My Website

Thought I'd have a new short story up by last night.  I wasn't looking forward to all the formatting etc., but formating didn't delay me.  Revisions did.  All in all, the Half-Elven are taking entirely too much of my time.  Mostly because I don't know what I'm doing.

I put myself between a rock and a hard spot.  I need to promote and have a website since I have an e-publication coming out in 2011.  I need new material to keep my website interesting.  Since I'm not a sales machine, I decided on the free short story bit to create new content.  Only problem.  I'm lousy at writing short stories.  My ideas always have a long back story ... plus a forward story about what happens afterwards.  I think my anthropological background has doomed me to getting mired down in context.

So, I'm trying to give my stories a context.  I started out thinking that I'd do a few short "Renna's Tales" based on an old lady gossiping. ... Only the background events and people are complex ... and get more complex as my main Half-Elven characters live out their 400+ year lives.  My solution?  Renna's Tale is now the story of the days immediately after the Rebellion created the Marches, and the Half-Elven fought among themselves over who would rule.


Now, all I have to do is revise ... revise ..., and probably revise again.  Ugh.  Maybe next week?


An illustration note.  Mr. Glushkin is in the process of creating the last illustration for the site ... in between taking care of a new baby.  Would you believe babies take a lot of work?

Them Dern Meta Tags

and other search engine optimization problems.

In the course of building a writer's website for my Half-Elven fantasy world -- because I sold something [ Taking Vengeance to WolfSinger Publications ] -- I learned why novices need expert help in building a website.  Bottom line:  If the search engines can't find you, you loose a great share of your potential audience.  Granted some search criteria [keywords people use] that show up in your statistics are just plain weird, but you need to have words that match your subject matter in both your blog ... and your url.

I didn't when I set of the Half-Elven website blog,
but hope I've now corrected it.

Writer's websites offer another unique search engine problem, though.  Meta tag word density.  I don't think I'll be able to correct my lack of meta tag density/frequency.  It's just not good style to mention your keyword in every sentence. 

On a happier note:

Have a joyous and productive 2011, all.

Also, congratulations to artist Igor Glushkin and his wife's on their first child -- Sasha.

So, what else is going on since I last blogged?  I've been writing in and out of the Half-Elven world, but have nothing to show yet.  I'm still struggling to get a new Renna tale up.  My first crit readers put their finger on my problem.  I introduce too much information in the first few pages.

Then, an editor, who recently rejected another Half-Elven story, validated their comments.  Too many characters make a short story too confusing and hard to follow.

Blech.  Guess I get the fun of trying to cure the problem.   So, back to the drawing board ... sorry, computer.  The editor suggest I lengthen the story -- which is what I have been doing for the non-Half-Elven story.  My critiquers wanted more back story.  Can you believe that?