Fall Fun

Fall Time

Summer has come and gone and I didn’t accomplish all that I wanted to.  Worked on upgrading and redecorating the house and forgot all about writing for a while.

Actually, I got stuck on the cartoon drawings that I wanted to achieve.

I studied hard and drew a lot of different characters but couldn’t quite come up with the kind of drawings that I wanted for a comic series that I started.    If you haven’t read the short story My things that I posted on this blog, then I hope you do,  the comic takes off with Nick the rock hound.  It’s Nick’s story down to the last gory detail, Gargoyles and all.

hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will have some of Nick’s finished pictures to add to this blog.  Until then….

The leaves are starting to fall, the wind is howling, thunder strikes closer each second and the time draws near when goblins, ghosts and ghouls come out to play. Monster time.

Monster Classics Presents:

Mother Ghoul’s Curses and Rhymes is a collection of monster’s myths and legends gathered for the benefit of a ghoulish posterity.  The curses and rhymes are read to all monsterlings as they gather around the camp fires of burning villages.

Maxie, Scampy

Maxie, scampy,

Bloody vampy,

How does your garden grow?

With ghostly wails,

And dragon tails,

And gargoyles all in a row.

Read them at your own risk.

I dare you!

Sondi Miller
Author of
There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch dp/B001G0N5CI
How Do You Sign an E-Book dp/B001CNG4ZY
Recipe for a Book Trailer dp/B001NXC19G
and the Monster Classics:
Mother Ghoul’s Curses and Rhymes dp/B001AA0162
The Three Little Trolls dp/B001BMQEYC
The Night Before Halloween dp/B001BOPJ2I
The Monster Love Book dp/B001T4YTZ8
Paper edition
Mother Ghoul’s Curses and Rhymes dp/1440436614
The Night Before Halloween dp/1440487561

The Monster Love Book dp/1441481389

And The Winner Is…

The winner of the 10,000th post on the amazon thread “Have you published a book on the Amazon Kindle” is…

Edward C. Patterson.

And since he has already bought all my books and posted them on his shelf, I offered him a choice of a signed book or a personalized painting.  He chose the painting, which by the way I am now painting.

Congratulations Edward and I promise I will have it done soon.

Best Wishes on your books.

Sondi

Frogs!

kissing frogs

It is Spring in North Carolina and the rains have hit hard.  This much rain brings out the tree frogs and I get chirped to sleep every night.  It is a wonderful chorus unless they get in the house or too close.

One small frog decided that my stove vent makes a great megaphone for calling its mate.  And this frog seams to stay awake all day as well as at night.

I can’t figure out how to get him out of the vent.

Just think, I have my own prince just waiting to be kissed if I can get to him.

Frogs! Yuck!  I think I’ll wait.

Sondi

Marketing Roses

A Rose by any other name...

Marketing has always been an enigma to me and I still feel that way.

I had  my highest monthly sales report last month and still can’t quite figure out why.

The only thing I can attribute it to was my readers.  So I sincerely thank all of you and wish you the best.

For a monster maker, it becomes apparent that as long as you have a rose, it doesn’t matter what you call it.  A rose by any other name is still a rose.

Thank you once again dear readers.  May the wind howl at your heels and push you into the wildest ride of your life. May the monsters part at your coming and bow down to your screams.  May the bats fly free of your hair and scare those that would trample you into dust.

May rose pedals sprinkle before you in the path of your life.

Sondi

Updating Uploads and Websites

Working on two computers can become a problem when you are uploading new files.

I saved the files to both computers so that I could work on updating links and pages.  Unfortunately I forgot to get rid of the old files.

The website I was updating had working links and was fine. I just wanted to add a new link and some graphics.  Jumping from computer to computer, I work on one computer sitting relaxed on the couch then at the desktop when I need a change of position.  What I failed to realize was that I was updating the wrong file when I changed computers.

Forgetting to remove the old file is a hazard when you are trying to upgrade.

I added the new links and graphics to an old file that the original links did not work on and when I uploaded it to the server, none of the links worked.

An organized person, I am not.  But I need to become one.

Delete the old files after you upload them and save the current file directly from the server before you work on it so that you have the current file.  This is my new philosophy.  Let’s see how long it stays in effect, shall we?

Now I have to go back to the uploaded file and see what needs fixing, remembering to save it to both computers.  Yeah right!

Then I also need to check the paths of the pages in all uploaded files, and links.  I have drawn a map and taped it upside the computer to remind me where links and pages go so that when I adjust them I can also verify that they are correct before uploading.

They are listed by the title of the page with the path to them underneath and all graphics used on that page.

EX: Mother Ghoul’s Curses and Rhymes

http://www.SondiMiller.com/pages/motherghoul.htm

mgcover.jpg- Cover Pic

motherbutton.jpg- Button

home.jpg- home button

guest.jpg- Home button

That is just a few but hopefully you get the idea.

And the map looks approximately like this:

/books

Home- Guest book

\contact

Only it has a lot more pages than that and extends from each secondary page as well.

Maybe this will help others with their own organization of web sites.  Then again maybe not.

Good Luck.

Sondi

Embeding videos and games

(In case the above code doesn’t work with WordPress here is the link:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfrQ-1JL5h0

Working on my web site, I wanted to add some videos and games.

I found You Tube to be very easy to use for videos.

After making an account, I uploaded a few videos that I wanted to use.  there is a time limit of 10 minutes and size limit of 100 MB.  As long as the video is under this limit they will upload successfully.

After the video is uploaded it may take a while for the video to process.  I found it easy to just wait a day and then pull up my account to find the video ready to play.

Next to the video, when clicked, is the URL as well as the embed code to be used for web site.

I just highlighted the code, copied it and then pasted it into my web page.

I then went hunting for some games that I would like for my web site.

The site addictinggames.com was a great find.

I found some monster games that I could link to my site as well as embed.  Not all games can be embedded but those that can, also have the code available next to the games.

I added a game here but it wouldn’t embed so here is the link

http://www.addictinggames.com/allhallowseve.html

I am looking forward to a rematch.

Sondi

Widgets

I was adding some widgets to me new website.

Linking up with Amazon Associates, I was able to add two so far to one of my web pages.  it is very simple and easy to use except  on Web Press when you have a free blog.

It doesn’t work on the free blogs.

Sign up with Amazon associates giving your web site address and then choose from different widgets or customize your own.

Copy and paste the code into your web html page and it automatically shows up in the browser when you pull up your page.  I was extremely pleased.

I just wish I could use them here.

oh, Well.  You can see them on my new site:

SondiMiller.com

Sondi

Grey, Gray or Green

rey, gray, or green.  Which color is which.  According my computer, while writing the html code for my web site, grey really turned out as grey!  Then again once the site was posted the Grey turned green.  So I decided to look up the color’s spelling and found that Grey could be spelled Gray or Grey!

And the difference is explained very well in an article  at this post:

http://www.bernzilla.com/item.php?id=232

According to the post:

Gray is a color

and Grey is a Colour.

Then why did it turn out Green?

Who  knows.   I decided to try using the hexadecimal color instead of the word, just in case.

 Gray is #736F6E  or lt gray is #C0C0C0

Hopefully it will be updated shortly.  Until then I will try not to make any more Monster-ous mistakes.

 

Sondi

SondiMiller.com

Web Site Blues

Setting up a web site may be easy according to the web site builders.  They have all these nifty gadgets that help copy and paste, drag and drop, button makers, movie embedders, and all kinds of neat things to build a web site.

Searching for free web builders is easy until it comes to where you want to put your sight.  It seams that each builder will only save the web site to their server.  at least the ones I have run across.  Sure you can save it to work on , but if you want to add your own html by editing through note pad or some other editor, it becomes difficult because of all the files that have been saved and can only be read by the builder.

So I am back to building my web site the old fashioned way.  Lots of reference books and trial and error.

It is enough to give a person the blues.

And a Monster-ous headache.

Here is what I have come up with for different pages so far:

1 Opening welcome page- leads into the sight.

2 Intro to subject- Author and Author’s Books plus links to all pages.

3 A page for each book- Mother Ghoul’s Curses and Rhymes, The Night Before Halloween, The Monster Love Book, The Three Little Trolls, There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch, How do you sign an E-Book?, and Recipe for a Book Trailer.

4 Author’s Bio- I’ll hide it in with the stuff somewhere.

5 Future works- Maybe some free stories too.

6 Fun Stuff- cookie recipes or games, what ever catches my Wimsey

7 Email or contact page

8 Maybe a guest book.

9 Store- T-shirts for sale with pics from books or cups or stationary and the Books themselves!

That’s all I can think of to include at this time.

Now to figure out how to make all those pages. Yikes!

Blue, Blue, my world is Blue…. Then again Black is better, more mysterious and Horrendous, Monster-ous even.

See you soon.

Sondi

New Monster Web site

Waiting! and Waiting! and...

The process of setting up a web site is a monster-ous task.  The waiting alone can drive you to become a zombie.

I have to wait for the pictures to get drawn, wait for the html to be compiled, wait for the design to be finished…. Oooops I just realized that no one is doing all those things except myself.

Ahhhh, well!  I had better get busy so that you don’t have to wait.

SondiMiller.com is under construction and hopefully will be up and running within a week!

Unless the monsters get in the way and I have to go monster hunting.

Hope to see you soon.

Sondi