Two-for-Tuesday: Katie tries to be useful for once.

It’s Two For Tuesday! Thanks again to Kate at My Sphere of Domesticity for the idea!

Ironically, I posted two quilt pictures yesterday, not even thinking I could have used that post for today! Boo on me. But I guess it’s rude to poach from Crafty Monday.

So today I’ll talk about Two things I’ve done that increased my productivity and organization.

#1: All hail mighty Gmail.

Yes, I know that lately Google is taking a lot of flack for sorta kinda not abiding by their own “Don’t be evil” mission statement. And there’s that whole highly annoying “Buzz” thing. BUT I can let that go for now since migrating my mail to Gmail totally made my life about a hundred times easier. Here are some ways in which it rocks:

1. All of my email addresses go to the same place.
   My good friends and relatives are constantly puzzled by my multitude of email addresses. I have a bunch of them for different purposes–some for mailing lists, some for personal email, some for not so personal email, some for bills, some for shopping. I have a Yahoo address and an old work address from the dog show. Not to mention other Gmail addresses and a MobileMe account. Yes, I’m an email hoarder. In the old days, this was a total mess, because some of them were web-based accounts and some were set up using Apple Mail (which is like Entourage). I would often forget to check one for a while, and then I’d find it full of important, expired messages. So now every account I have (except the Yahoo address, because Yahoo remains unhelpful in this regard) goes to my Gmail account. My family still get confused and ask me which address to use, and I say, “Any of them!” They are usually still confused, but it works great on my end.
2. BUT I can send from any of my addresses.
   It’s very simple to validate an address so that you can send an email from it. You simply have to be able to check the email coming to that address. Gmail will send you a link that you click, which tells them that it’s really you, and then that address gets added to a drop-down list on your “Compose email” page. I’m not sure how this works with group email addresses. It could probably be abused in some instances. But I adore it. Especially since you can set it to default “reply from” whatever address the email was sent to.
3. I don’t have to worry about what emails are on which computer.
   For a long time, I used my home computer at home, my work computer at work, and a laptop for traveling. With my old accounts, once you download your emails to a certain computer, they are removed from your server (there is a way around this but it really just means you are going to run out of account space before too long). But since Gmail is web-based, there is no downloading. Everything lives online, and that means I don’t have to bcc myself on everything sent from one computer to make sure it ends up on the other one. I don’t have to have a separate email address for every computer. I just go to one website and everything is right there where I left it. This is also amazing for travel.
4. Gmail has very handy organizational tools.
   I make extensive use of labels, which are little colored tags indicating whatever the heck you want them to indicate. For instance, I have a label for “Hyperion.” I have a label for “Agent”. One for “BGDD” and “Promo” and “BGDD2.” I have “Statements & Bills” and “Travel.” And then I have “To Do” and “Reply.” You can apply as many or as few of these to an email as you want. For instance, if my agent sends me something about Book 2 that needs a reply, I will tag it “BGDD2,” “Agent,” and “To Do”. (If I REALLY need to get it done, I use the bright red “TO DO FOR REAL” label.) It is easy to switch labels so that something that was “Reply” easily gets moved to “Replied.” Or everything labeled “Current contest” gets changed to “Old contest.”
   You can even have a label for “Stuff I don’t know what to do with.” And labeling something, by the way, doesn’t automatically hide it from your inbox. Though if you want something out of your inbox, it’s as easy as clicking “archive.” If it has a label, you will be able to find it by clicking on the corresponding button displayed on the left of the screen. You can choose which you want to see and which you want to hide. For instance, I hide “travel,” because I don’t use it very often. But if I want to see it, it’s one extra click to show the hidden labels.
   If it doesn’t have a label, you can either search for it or look through “All mail.”
5. Gmail has innovate features that help you work smarter and faster.
   Google has an area called “Labs” that features new little functionalities they develop in-house to enhance their service. For instance, my main email page is divided up into panes. The leftmost and largest is the main inbox. On the right, there are panes for “TO DO,” “REPLY”, and “ACTIVE/HOLDING.” At a glance, I can see what needs attention. And then I can ignore it because I am a weak person and bad at getting things done. But that’s neither here nor there. The point is, I can see it.
6. Gmail has a lot of storage.
   As I mentioned, I have email from about ten addresses going there and I’ve used 4% of my storage. By the time I get anywhere near the current limit, I’m sure they will have increased it tenfold.
7. Gmail is free.
   Need I elaborate?

#2: Wordpress is your friend.

I am a dyed-in-the-wool do-it-myselfer. I hate the thought of paying someone to do something if I can do it myself. I especially love the “figuring it out” phase of doing things. For a while, my website was constructed like so: the front page was a Blogger blog. All of the interior pages were created in iWeb, which is a Mac application. I designed the menu in Photoshop and created a clickable HTML version which I then manually inserted into my Blogger template and then copied manually to each of the individual iWeb pages.

Was this fun? At first? Yes. Girl power all the way!

But as time went by, did I find that this took forever and made changing my website a tedious and horrifying process? You betcha!

After blogging at The Debutante Ball for a year, I became familiar with the Wordpress platform, which supports not only blogs but the websites around them as well. With Wordpress, you create a single header and a single sidebar and they are applied on every page (or on every page you want them on). It’s very easy to use on your own domain (which Blogger is not, in my experience), and for a DIY’er, it was not much of a stretch to learn how to customize where I wanted to customize. I was able to import all of my old Blogger entries. Last week, I was even able, with no fuss, to make the main page a static page without affecting the blog or the RSS feed (which is used for things like Google Reader–which would be #3 if this were Three-for-Tuesday).

Plus, if you just let them host your blog for you, Wordpress is free. If you are just starting a blog/website, you will find a multitude of free templates and themes to choose from as well as tons of free help and info. As yet, I haven’t not been able to find a solution to any of my issues.

And this would be a good time to give a shout-out to my old buddy and your friendly neighborhood image-hosting workhorse, Photobucket. I don’t know why I have an aversion to hosting my own images, but I do. Heaven knows it’s not a showcase like Flickr, but it gets the job done with minimal drama.

Okay. Hope that was informative! Now. Back to work with me.

7 comments March 23rd, 2010

Secrets of the control panel…

Apparently, at various times, I have started to compose a blog entry and then found that I didn’t have time or the proper inspiration or whatever, and just saved it as a draft.

Without exaggeration or editing, here is a fascinating (or should I say “fascinating”) selection of items from my blog’s “drafts” folder.

Fun With Post Titles
“NaNoWriMo: so this is why you’re all ignoring me.”
“Katie Alender, mistress of the omelette de micro-onde”
“The plague and other fun things”
And an empty post entitled “Wednesday thoughts”

Fun With Unfinished Posts
In my old neighborhood…
When we heard helicopters, it was because someone was setting off fireworks in the alley and someone else thought it was gunshots.
In my new neighborhood, when we hear helicopters, it’s because somewhere Britney Spears is spiraling a little bit deeper.

Voila…
Dear Internet and all who use it,
The word is not “walah” or “walla” or “woila”. It is “voila,” with a “v,”

I like rules.
There, I said it.

Five Things You Will Never Find in My House
(1) Floating toilets.

(After a significant, “What the taco truck?” moment on finding that particular draft, I realized that I meant, I will never have a toilet that doesn’t rest on the floor, the kind that is just stuck into the wall and hangs there. And I find myself agreeing with that statement, no matter how odd it might have sounded, left all by itself in a forgotten blog entry.)

Names.
Bad Girls Don’t Die

(Um, yup, that should just about do it.)

And we’re off!
First, check out these awesome squirrels.

(Except “check out these awesome squirrels” was a link and now it’s BROKEN and I’m DYING to know about the awesome squirrels. Ugh.)

And, in conclusion, I found an unfinished post where apparently I had decided to create poems out of sentences I found on other people’s blogs that happened to catch my fancy. Such as this little masterpizza unwittingly written by my good author friend Eileen Cook (I’m sure she won’t mind):

I would like
to go on the record
that while I’m sure my parents
had my best interests at heart,
it is quite possible
that I would prefer not to work,
and have things just given to me.

PS – Don’t forget to enter my mini-contest!

1 comment March 11th, 2010

One additional note for the book bloggers…

There are some fantastic posts out there right now with advice for the blossoming book blogger community.

Kristi, a.k.a. the Story Siren, has gathered a fantastic amount of info from her own experience, from publishers, and from authors. Alexandra Bracken shares the author’s POV.

So there has been a lot said and I don’t feel the need to add very much more. Except this one note.

You can kill two birds with one stone by following one very simple step (Why are we killing birds? That’s so violent. Let’s call it “feeding two birds with one bag of chips.”):

Post your good reviews on Amazon, B&N, and other online retailers.

How does this feed two birds?

(Bird 1) It gives you a place to promote your own blog. You can write your thoughtful review and include a link/reference to your blog. People who read Amazon reviews are probably people who like to read book reviews in general. If they like what they read from you, and see that you have a whole website/blog where you post other, similarly thoughtful reviews, chances are you will get a new visitor to your blog.

You can increase this referral rate by making sure your reviews are interesting, unique, and spoiler free. Also, if you don’t like a book, you don’t have to cross-post your review. But if you do like it, why not get your name out there AND help the author?

(Bird 2) It will make authors, agents, and publicists feel serious warm fuzzies toward you. As everyone knows, the book blogging community is growing faster than the number of available ARCs.

For instance, before Bad Girls Don’t Die was published, I was able to accommodate almost every ARC request. If things keep going the way they’re going, this is not going to be the case for Books 2 and 3. So when it comes time to print up & send out the ARCs, I will probably send my publicist a list of book bloggers who went “above and beyond” for Book 1. One great way to be considered for this list is to post well-written reviews on the major retail sites.

You may even attract other authors and publicists. If I read a high-quality review for another book at B&N or Amazon, and it has a link to a book blogger’s site, I will probably start to covet this person’s eyeball time and may even start to relentlessly and obsessively stalk their website and try to psychically convince them to review my book. (Or maybe not the creepy part of that. I’d probably send a link to my publicist.)

Voila! Two fat and happy birds.

Thanks for reading!

7 comments November 12th, 2009

Crouching author, hidden manuscript.

Please excuse my scarcity lately. I’m hammering away at BGDD2–turns out that writing a book is a lot of work, who knew?

The weird thing is that it IS a lot of work and it ISN’T. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve never been the world’s fastest writer–not because I can’t write fast, but because I can’t make myself sit still long enough to write fast for any prolonged period of time.

True, you can’t force these things, but on the other hand, sometimes you have to put a little force behind it.

In the style of yoga I practice (because it’s what my friend teaches, mostly–not from any sort of exotic choice-making process), there always seems to be a focus on achieving a balance between discipline and surrender, the “yes” and the “no”… that which comes easily and that which is difficult.

I’m applying that a lot to my writing life right now. In my life, there is that which comes easy: “Yay! I’ve done my writing for the day! I have free time!” and there is that which does not come easy: “Wow, it’s four o’clock and I haven’t come anywhere near my wordcount. Blaaaaaaaaaarrggghh.”

The problem is, as anyone who has ever had a large project set before them knows, you can never really get away from your project. Even if you’ve done your work for the day, there’s still a part of your mind that is anxious, that wants to get back to it. And ESPECIALLY if you haven’t done your work for the day.

And then, for an author (and probably for other professions, but I don’t know because they aren’t my profession), there are the forces that keep you from your work–primarily the abject sense of terror that what you’re doing is a load of useless nonsense and no one will like it and then no one will like YOU and you are a failure and all that.

So the yin and yang are operating strongly on me right now; in all the push and pull I find I am neglecting my blog. Please bear with me for a few more weeks.

k.

3 comments October 10th, 2009

My (current) favorite blogs

You know how, when you log on to your computer in the morning, there’s that one blog you always look forward to checking? (Obviously we’re not counting KatieAlender.com, because this is your homepage, right?)

It changes for me depending on where my interest and discipline levels lie at any given moment. For a long time, it was dear old Miss Snark, the take-no-prisoners literary agent. Then there was a period where the first thing I wanted to catch up on was lolcats.

Right now, for me, it’s blogs about minimalism. Here are three I’ve been hooked on lately:
Unclutterer
Becoming Minimalist
Zen Habits

Being a repentant packrat and a semi-repentant procrastinator, I’m always in the mood for a little motivation toward a simpler and more efficient lifestyle.

What are your “Good morning!” blogs? Please share them in the comments!

PS – My September contest entries are closed; I’ll announce the winner soon. And hurray for Kate, who gets five extra entries for guessing my obsession du jour–learning Japanese!

4 comments September 12th, 2009

Who’s got a hankie?

It’s my LAST day blogging as a Debutante over yonder at the Debutante Ball. Thank you all so much for continuing to support me over there.

My mom is especially torn up over it. I was like, “Mom, you know I have another blog, right?”

So the bad news is, no more Tuesdays at the Ball! I did actually get a little sniffly writing my final post.

The good news, however, is plentiful:

* A whole new and exciting class of Debutantes to befriend (they start next Monday!)
* I have had just an incredibly good time blogging with my sister Debs
* More time to devote to this website!

So let’s all look on the bright side… after all, it’s Good Time Tuesday. So let’s remember the good times!

PS – Wnt a sneak peek at next year’s Debutantes? The Debutante Ball’s semi-official fairy godmother (and fairy godmother to all authors), Larramie, is featuring at the Deb class of 2010 all week! Check it out!

August 25th, 2009

Ask not what you can do for your author…

So, here’s the deal. I have been ALL over the place for like two weeks, and many of you have come along for the breakneck ride with me, which has been super duper fun and amazing.

But I feel like I’m totally missing comment replies, visiting everybody else to see what they’re up to, and stalking new visitors and making them be my BFFs. Which is totally my favorite thing to do.

So my blog is going “low pro” for a week. I’ll post little tiny blogs, because if there are bits of news or whatever, I want to share those (or opportunities to win a signed copy of the book, such as over yonder at FreeBookFriday.com), but I am not going to be the “Go here! Click here! Post this! Come back tomorrow! No, in three hours! Do as I say! Vote for Beaker!” maniac that I feel like I have been for the past 10 days. I might even post a couple of pictures or something.

So I’ll leave comments open, but you don’t have to feel obligated to comment, or even to come by.

With all the time I’ll be saving doing THAT, I’m going to catch up on lots and lots of stuff that I’m behind on, including going around and seeing how all of you guys are doing in your own, less-bossy lives.

So THANK YOU for all of your wonderful support, and I’ll be seeing you soon! (I’ll still be over at Twitter, so if you think you just can’t live without me for a week, find me there!)

Now initiating Low-Pro Blog Sequence…

k.

PS – I’m going to the doctor today, but not for swine flu. I was totally sick two months ago, and my voice still hasn’t made a full recovery. I can be chattering along and suddenly my voice cracks and dies. I know it’s not my lungs because I can exercise without getting short of breath… I’m starting to think my allergic heartburn-attack thing burned my larynx. Whee!

3 comments April 30th, 2009

Tuesday beeswax

I don’t know why, maybe because I’m mentally and emotionally about six years old, but I love using the word “beeswax” when what I really mean is “business.” Go figure.

Anyway, I am blogging at The Debutante Ball today, on the topic of cooking, and avoiding it. Please come and see me if you have a minute! (Been missing my posts there? Click here to see the complete Katie archive… and/or mentally insert, “I wouldn’t say I’ve been missing them” joke.)

Also, I’ve added a little spamcatcher plugin, hopefully one that won’t ban everyone I know and like from commenting like the last one did. This is just a little word “captcha” thing, which was standard on my old blog. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but the amount of comment spam I get is just mind-boggling, and even just deleting it makes me have to catch glimpses of a fairly disturbing variety of descriptive words. So I’m hoping this will help, and that it won’t be too much of a pain for anybody.

(On the “happy nerd” side, I get to make my own word list and use fonts of my own choosing… and if that just gave you a little thrill, I’ll bet you’re also one of us people who loves office supply stores.)

I’ll end with a photo that shows what happens to a dog quilt when there’s an assertive cat in the household:

(That’s Angus, my friends’ Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and Ross, their assertive cat.)

Now, go on about your beeswax!

k.

PS – If you’re being locked out by my spam catcher, please drop me a line and let me know: contact (at) katiealender (dot) com.

7 comments March 24th, 2009

Something has changed…

Hi, all! I decided to migrate my blog and website to a new platform. ?The way I had been running things, by customizing every possible option and really being up to my elbows in the nitty gritty, was fun while it lasted, but I’m ready for something fun and easy. ?

So please forgive the mess over the next few days as I get the content and template up to speed. ?…What was that I said about doing things the easy way? ?I guess that will eventually be my reward!

(I haven’t finished bringing the blogroll over, so please don’t feel excluded if you don’t see yourself there yet! Give me a few days to get everything in order. Also, if you have a link to katiealender.com in your blogroll, it still works.)

If you visit my blog via a feed, please update your subscription. Here’s the new link: Katie’s new feed. (I edited this link to be a Feedburner link so you can choose your reader from their menu, or just grab the XML.)

7 comments January 25th, 2009

I found something I’m not afraid of!

Don’t forget that Tuesday is my first day as a Debutante! Please drop by and see me (and my fellow debutantes) at The Debutante Ball, although now I’m having visions of a bunch of people commenting, “You are AWESOME!” and scaring away all of the other commenters, which would be sad and hilarious and somehow fitting. So all I ask is that you (TOM) behave yourselves (TOM) around my new, sophisticated friends. The last thing any of us wants is for me to run through a metaphorical debutante ball shouting, “You’ll never take my virtual tiara away from me!”

In other news, I’ve been sick all week. We went on our annual cruise last weekend, and one star-crossed hour in a haze of cigar smoke did in my sinuses and lungs all at once. I don’t know exactly what I caught; for expediency’s sake, I’ve been referring to it as “the Plague.” I’m finally getting back up to speed, but I discovered that Nyquil, which used to be my buddy, knocks me down for the count. I’m a morning person, but one little green caplet makes me feel like I’ve been staplegunned to the sheets. And sadly, Winston has no respect for the Nyquil hangover.

Anyhoo, the rest of the cruise was great fun. I engaged in what is probably the most adventurous thing I do all year–climbing the rock wall. Climbing the rock wall is super fun because you get to wear a cool helmet and harness combo:

Don’t be intimidated by me!
I put my harness on one leg at a time just like you.

Then you go talk to the guy, and he hooks a hook-thingy to your, uh, lower harness-loop, which means you are safe and if anything happens, you will not fall to your doom but only drop to a position wherein you are essentially hanging by your pelvis. Which sounds funny, but I bet it’s not that funny when it happens to you.

He tells you to keep the rope in front of you, then releases you to the wall. At which point, you go to the wall and, in a low voice, beg it not to hurt you.

“So we understand each other, then?”

Then you start climbing, using the handholds and toeholds. Some of them are shaped conveniently like handles, while others are less conveniently shaped like blobs or the top half of an apple. There is actually a lot of decision-making at this stage. Also a lot of moments, where you have your hand on one hold and you’re looking at another one, and you think, “Wait, I have to HOIST myself up there?”

I’ll just grab onto this air.

But you just keep going, and before you know it, you’re at the top, ringing the bell that sings “I conquered man’s age-old foe, the fiberglass rock wall!” throughout the land.

Last year, I rang the bell and then let the guy lower me really fast, but this year I wanted to stop and look around. I looked at the people and the deck of the ship and the ocean beyond, and that’s when I realized… I’m not afraid of heights!

I know that sounds little, but seriously, I’m afraid of everything.

So here is the pinnacle of my rock climbing career, so far. There’s no audio, so you can’t even hear the triumphant bell-ring, but if you keep a close eye on it, you’ll be able to see the maniacal gleam in my eye when I turn proudly to survey my surroundings.

I did it, Ma!

14 comments September 1st, 2008