• Skip to main content

Nadine Feldman, Author

celebrating strong female characters and whatever else strikes my fancy

  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Contact
  • Book Clubs
  • About Nadine
  • Sample Chapters
You are here: Home / Archives for blogs

blogs

A to Z Blogging Challenge Theme Reveal!

March 23, 2015 by admin

Good morning, everyone! This year I venture into new territory: my first-ever Blogging from A to Z. Thanks to all the great folks over at the Insecure Writers Support Group for their guidance as I navigate these new waters.

Today’s the day we reveal our themes for the month! And mine is…drumroll, please…

atoz-theme-reveal-2015 Dishing the Dirt: My Gardening Life

After all, it’s springtime, so that means I’m outside. We live on a double lot that is almost entirely garden space. We dug up most of the grass a few years ago so I wouldn’t have to nag my husband to mow. Last week we installed a new front yard fence so I can continue working on my “food forest” concept without having the local deer munch everything to ruins before it can grow.

Gardening makes me more peaceful (no small feat) and reflective of the rest of my life. I’ve only gardened for five years now, so I still have a lot to learn, but the garden teaches me…and it’s fun!

The Blogging from A to Z Challenge begins Wednesday, April 1. You’re welcome to join us, too! It’s not too late.

All of these blogs will be participating in the Challenge, too! I’m still getting to know a lot of these blogs, but there’s some great material in this group, and I’m looking forward to reading what everyone has to say.

See you April 1!

 

Filed Under: blogs, gardening, writing Tagged With: A to Z Challenge, blogging, Blogs, garden, gardening

Hope for the Insecure Writer

January 28, 2015 by admin

Do you ever have those times when you are bored with yourself? I had one of those mornings as I struggled (and failed) to come up with meaningful, eloquent prose to share. I have plenty to say, but my words came out plain vanilla instead of Rocky Road.

This happens from time to time. I’m in the midst of some deep structural revisions to my novel, and am adjusting my approach as I study my craft. It’s like rewiring the brain, and right now I feel like I did in junior high when the girls’ clothes no longer fit, but the women’s clothes didn’t work, either.

I was so depressed I set aside my blog. Instead, I decided to shop for bedspreads online. Why bedspreads? Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I had a deep-seated urge to crawl under the covers and hide. In a few days, as my purchases arrive, we will know how much folly I have wrought with my purchases.

There is hope, however.

First, a small group of us on Goodreads plans to do an informal NaNoWriMo in February. Since this isn’t a formal, sanctioned NaNoWriMo event, writers can choose to work on either new or existing material. This has provided me enough psychic juice to get back to work on my novel without waiting until February.

Then, I learned about The Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Insecure? Me? Yes! And I’m not alone! *happy dance* We’re doing a blog hop in April. Since I’ve wanted to perk up my blog, this is a good way to kick into gear.

Yes, I know. Blog hops mean reading lots of blogs as well as writing them, and that’s a time challenge. However, I can prepare blogs in advance of the hop, and now that I’m breaking the Facebook habit…

Finding the ISWG felt like receiving a Message from God. Or am I a Mission from God? Let’s take a moment to pay homage to the Blues Brothers, shall we?

The ISWG is organizing a blog hop for April, so if you’re an Insecure Writer like me who’s looking to re-energize, take a look and see if it looks like fun for you.

Already I am feeling better. Just knowing there’s a group for Insecure Writers like me gives me the extra steam to keep going.

Hope to see you there!

Do long-term projects get you down? How do you cope?

Filed Under: blogs, writing Tagged With: getting help, goodreads, insecurity, NaNoWriMo, support, writing

Small Town Life and the Random 5

July 26, 2013 by admin

It’s time again for Random 5 Friday, thanks to Nancy over at A Rural Journal, with a special shout-out to Tina Fariss Barbour of Bringing Along OCD. Check them out!

Here’s my Random 5:

  1. Ever since I moved to a different webhosting service, I’ve had problems getting my blog out to my readers. It’s all been user error. Sometimes I wish this techie stuff were easier to deal with. I’m lucky to have in-house tech support since hubby is a software developer, but still…sometimes I feel like my day is spent with updates and troubleshooting instead of the tasks that really need to get done. Hopefully I have things fixed now, but I’m not so sure.
  2. I just joined the “Farmgirl Sisterhood,” and I’m thrilled about being a part of this wonderful concept. The more I immerse myself in this new life, with my gardens and my knitting and whatnot, the more I see the eyes of family and friends glazing over. My stepdaughter calls me a hippie, but I like Farmgirl a lot better…not that I have anything against hippies, but I think Farmgirl is a closer fit. Besides, they have merit badges. Maybe I can redeem myself for my failure as a Girl Scout (another story for another time).
  3. This week I finished reading Erica Bauermeister’s The Lost Art of Mixing, which is a sequel to her first novel, The School of Essential Ingredients. Both are full of heart and interesting characters and, well, food. Lots and lots of mouth-watering food. Now I’m reading The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love, by Kristin Kimball. It starts out with a scene describing a fresh, home-cooked meal, that takes you right into the smells and flavors. I’m sensing a pattern here.
  4. Speaking of food, I picked plums off the tree to have with my breakfast. Woo hoo! Happy dance!
  5. Last night I listened to a webinar by Ram Dass, the spiritual teacher known for his association with Timothy Leary at Harvard back in the 60s. Ram Dass is 83 now, with slow speech due to a stroke some years back. While I didn’t hear anything new from him, watching his commitment to teach and share at his age inspired me. He’s one of my “wise elders,” which I’ll share more about in a future blog post…though since I saw him in person in the 1980s, I was reminded that we are all getting older, like it or not.

How are you doing? Join us in the Random 5 by linking up with Nancy at A Rural Journal! Happy weekend!

Filed Under: blogs, books, Yoga

Random Five Friday

July 19, 2013 by admin

Thanks to my friend Tina Fariss Barbour of Bringing Along OCD, I have hooked up with Nancy’s A Rural Journal for Random Five Friday. Don’t know what I’m getting into yet, but I’ll see how it goes! I invite you to visit these blogs and participate in Nancy’s Random 5 if you so choose.

My Random Five for the week:

  1. It’s been a great harvest week for the garden. Blueberries, onions, artichokes, and lots of tomatoes! I’ve had a bumper crop of peas and have frozen several batches, but they’re just about done for the year. The pumpkins are blooming and zucchinis are forming. 
  2. I volunteer at the office of our local public theatre, Key City Public Theatre. We’ve had a hectic week, selling lots of tickets to a musical history of the world, The Big Bang, and getting ready for Shakespeare in the Park. My husband is an actor who will be performing in Much Ado About Nothing.
  3. I didn’t write a regular blog post this week. Well, actually I wrote several, but nothing feels ready for prime time. Bear with me. I’m hoping that by doing this Random 5, I’ll get back to a regular routine, including book reviews and blog recommendations.
  4. My latest novel concerns a Manhattan-based financial planner who gets unwittingly swept up in the Madoff scandal. At the same time, her estranged aunt has died and left her a house on *cough* the Olympic Peninsula. Soon I plan to start sharing my draft with you.
  5. I’ve learned that it’s impossible to predict the weather here on the Peninsula. When we lived in Houston, we would not only know that a storm was headed our way, but we would know when it would  arrive. Here, the forecasts are useless. The other day we had a predicted high of 81, but it hit 63. There was no rain in the forecast, but my deck was wet this morning. Go figure.

Have a great weekend! See you next week!

Filed Under: blogs Tagged With: A Rural Journal, Bernie Madoff, Blogs, fiction, gardening, Great blogs, novels, Random 5, women's fiction, writing

I Don’t Have Enough Time in a Day Part Two: Social Media and Mushroom Hunting

November 21, 2012 by admin

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I hope you have a great holiday. I’ll be entertaining family, so this is my last post for the week. I hope to see you again next week!

***

A group of us wandered in the woods in the rain, empty egg cartons and mesh bags in hand, looking for mushrooms. Our guide, Caroline, had covered a picnic table with many local varieties with a variety of taste and, of course, safety levels. This was my first adventure as a forager, and my first thought was: I am totally overwhelmed.

Social media has been like that for me, too, and from what I’ve heard from several of you, you feel the same. If we’re writing books and/or blogs, it’s hard to manage our time to get it all done. We’re supposed to create content, read and comment on other blogs, and otherwise engage, engage, engage with others. It can be exhausting. Believe me, I know.

—–

We trekked carefully, eyes trained on the ground. People peered under leaves and near trees. I struggled to see anything, and once found myself standing next to a fallen tree, surrounded my mushrooms, that I couldn’t see until someone pointed out to me that they were all around me!

As we spread out, I looked down and saw a mushroom at my feet,  which I picked and showed it to Caroline. “That’s Hideous Gomphidius!” she announced. I was crestfallen. That didn’t sound good to me!

Turns out, though, that she had brought along a cooked version of it and its cousin, the Rosy Gomphidius, for us to sample. She cautioned us that some people don’t like it, but I thought it was tasty.

I had found my mushroom! From then on, I saw them everywhere, and picked several to bring home.

“My” Mushrooms

—–

If we look at all of social media, we will get overwhelmed and see nothing. I tried Triberr, and that drove me crazy. Pinterest scares me. Yet I know people who swear by both of them. Your best bet is to try something and see if it feels okay to you. I stick with Facebook and Twitter. I’m getting into Goodreads and Shelfari, mainly because I am looking for readers who might be interested in my books. Other than that, I leave the rest alone.

We can be efficient, too. Yes, we’re supposed to read and comment on others’ blogs, but we don’t have to do that with EVERYONE. I routinely comment on a few blogs that I genuinely enjoy, but I also seek out blogs where my comments might get read by my desired audience. I’m also experimenting with registering my blogs on other Triberr-like sites to expand readership, but we’ll see if that’s effective!

—–

After a few hours, we had lots of samples in hand of mushrooms, some tasty and some not, some poisonous and some not. I realized that I couldn’t learn all the mushrooms in a day; many of us had different varieties, and some look very different when they’re young from when they mature. It will take many more visits to scratch the surface of mushrooms. According to Caroline, even experts are often stumped by what they see, and some varieties have yet to appear in a field guide. It takes time and patience.

—–

Just a few of the many varieties of Northwestern fall mushrooms

It also takes time and patience to build a blog audience. If we get impatient, we may find ourselves spending way too much time on social media, trying to get something to work. Part of dancing with social media is knowing when to quit. We can get sucked in and spend the entire day there, yet see little for our efforts.

If you’re testing the waters with Twitter, start with ten minutes a day. Find a few tweets to retweet. Post a few tweets of your own. Find one or two people to reply to. THEN STOP. Later, as you get comfortable, you may want to find some tweet automation service (like Tweetdeck or Tweet Adder) to help you manage your time by posting tweets throughout the day. This doesn’t take the place of getting hands on with Twitter, but it can enhance your presence and leverage your time.

When I post my blog, I can post it to my Facebook page as well, which then sends out an automated tweet. The more you learn social media, the more you can connect the various formats to keep your time investment low.

Author C. J. Lyons says that the best way to market your books is to write more books. She suggests that if we’re having trouble finding time to write our books, we should blog a little less! It sounds counter-intuitive, but C. J. is a successful author, both in traditional and self-publishing arenas, so she’s worth listening to. Less is more. Take a breath. Relax.

—–

Had I not gone out with a guide and a group of people, I wouldn’t have seen most of the mushrooms I saw that day. Having the kind, knowledgeable attention of a guide made all the difference. Now I can go out by myself and experiment, but even then I’ll need a good field guide, and Caroline has made herself available if we want to send her photos of a find. I also know now that when trying a new variety, I need to take it in small quantities; even a non-poisonous mushroom can upset a sensitive stomach, and mushroom eating can be a surprisingly individual experience.

—–

Your best bet for using social media well is to follow the experts. I’ve written in the past about Kristin Lamb, Joel Friedlander, and Joanna Penn, but I’ve also recently run across Joan Stewart of The Publicity Hound, who provides a lot of helpful information. You can also follow someone who is successful at whatever you want to do and study how they share information on social media. Again, you can get overwhelmed by the many voices offering their advice and opinions. Find a couple whose ideas speak to you, and leave the rest alone.

Which leads me to a final thought: If you read this blog, I know you’re a busy person with a lot to do. Thanks for making the choice to visit. I try to create a lot of content not to overload you, but to give you options. Some people like my book and blog recommendations, while others like my feature posts. Still others beg for photos. Feel free to pick and choose what works for YOU.

 

 

Filed Under: blogs Tagged With: no time, social media, time management

Book Recommendation: My Plastic-Free Life by Beth Terry

November 20, 2012 by admin

Beth Terry confesses that she’s shy. An accountant in the Oakland, California, area, this sprite of a woman is the unlikely David to the Goliath of plastic over-use. In 2007, though, after seeing a disturbing photograph, Terry had the light-bulb moment that made her want to try living a plastic-free life. She documented her experiences and experiments in a blog, now known as My Plastic-Free Life, and has written a book called Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too.

In our fair town, plastic bags were banned as of November 1, and our local food co-op brought Beth Terry to town to share her expertise. I knew I’d be out mushroom hunting earlier in the afternoon (more about that tomorrow) and didn’t know if I’d get back in time, so I downloaded her book and started reading it in advance of her visit. Hubby and I were already working to reduce our plastic waste, but My Plastic-Free Life has given me even more ideas.

For example, our co-op allows us to bring our own containers and buy items in bulk. This has allowed me to reduce my usage of plastic containers for automatic dishwashing detergent, laundry soap, protein powder, and more. However, I am a soda junkie (I’m not kidding, I’ve tried numerous times to quit), so what can I do? As a result of reading Terry’s book, I’ve learned that I can make my own. With some experience making kombucha under my belt, I feel comfortable with trying the fermentation method of soda, which creates the lowest environmental footprint.

Still, despite my good intentions, I’ve become painfully aware of the many ways that plastic finds its way into our lives. My Thanksgiving shop was an eye opener! Thankfully, I redeemed myself somewhat later in the day when I made my own toilet bowl cleaner and all-purpose cleaner, using re-usable containers.

Terry stresses that she doesn’t try to tell anyone what to do, and she doesn’t attempt to “guilt trip” people into living the way she does (she brought a two-pound bag of plastic to the presentation, which represented ALL of her plastic waste for 2011). She wants to demonstrate what’s possible over time, and suggests that we start with one or two small changes and go from there. She didn’t go cold turkey and doesn’t ask that we do, either. Collectively, if we all do SOMETHING, we will make a big difference.

Terry’s book is matter-of-fact and packed with resources for plastic-free products you may not realize are available. She also shares stories of some of her heroes. If you’re thinking about reducing your environmental impact or the toxic load in your home, this book is for you!

 

Filed Under: blogs, books, environment Tagged With: environment, good books, plastic, plastic-free, recycling, reuse

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 8
  • Go to Next Page »

Copyright © 2023 · Author Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in