Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Lynn Nodima Included in Paranormal Romance Blog Tour 2019

Paranormal Romance Blog Tour 2019 Oct 28 - Nov 1

Paranormal Romance Blog Tour 2019


I've been included in the Paranormal Romance Blog Tour for 2019!

To celebrate, I've set Wolf's Man to be FREE on Amazon for the day (Oct. 30 only)!

If you don't have the first book in the Texas Ranch Wolf Pack series, now is your chance to grab it.

Other authors on the tour are offering giveaways, too!

Take care.

Later,

Lynn Nodima







Texas Ranch Wolf Pack Series


Monday, October 28, 2019

Wolf's Rage Available in Large Print Paperback

Wolf's Rage in Large Print


Wolf's Rage has been published in a large print paperback format. 

I hope to have the entire series (books 1-12) in large print before the end of November. So far, the first nine are done.

Sometime early in 2020, I plan to publish the second book set (books 7-12). It will be in ebook and paperback. 

The book sets will not be published in large print paperback. 

The number of pages will exceed the number allowed for print-on-demand services unless the book is at least and 8.5" X 11" book.

 In my opinion, that's just too big. If you disagree, please let me know.

WIP Report


We had a computer snafu at our house over the weekend, so as the resident computer tech, I didn't get to spend much time writing. 

My word count is over 51,000 and climbing.

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping nothing else happens to interfere. I really, really want Wolf's Duty published by the middle of November, or sooner if at all possible. 

I guess that means I need to get to work writing. 😀

Later,








Texas Ranch Wolf Pack Series




Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Author Helps: Ping Your Blog Post

Author, Ping Your Blog Post


This is a revision of a post I made on a different blog several years ago. At the time, I was teaching computer information system classes. Now that I am working to build my authoring career, it seemed this information would be helpful to other authors, too. 

The basic information has not changed, but I have added context for authors trying to find new readers through their blogs. For purposes of this article, I am assuming you know little to nothing beyond using a browser and posting on your blog. This is not intended to insult anyone, but I want to make sure authors unused to technical aspects of the Internet understand.

Get Your Post Indexed by Search Engines


You might ask why you want your post indexed by search engines, such as Google. If the post is not indexed, it won't come up when someone searches a key phrase for your page. Eventually, search engines will find your post, anyway, but why not give them a boost and help them find it sooner?

What is a ping? Why should I ping my blog posts? This article will answer those questions and give you some pointers on how to go about it. Before readers can read your blog post, they need to be able to find it. While you may have some faithful, regular readers, everyone wants their blog to grow in readership. Like a single drop in a calm pool of water, a ping ripples throughout the Internet (figuratively speaking) and notifies search engines that your post exists.

What Does Ping Mean?


Ping, in the computer world, is a software utility program that allows users to determine if a site or connection is working. A message is sent to a site or connection, which results in a message back to the originating computer that the connection worked.

Pinging is one of the most important SEO basics that every blogger needs to know. What is SEO? SEO stands for search engine optimization and simply means to use techniques, such as pinging, to help search engines find your posts.

In blogging, the definition of ping is a bit different. Blog pings send a message to a server, search engine, or another site to let them know there is something new to crawl. When you ping your site or your post, search engines send spiders (bots or programs that read and index the information on a site)  to crawl your site or page to index it.

Once the page is indexed, it is searchable through search engines. This will help others find your post since it will now come up in the natural (i.e. unpaid) search engine results.

Why Should You Ping Your Blog Post?


Again, pinging notifies search engines, directories, and other websites that your post exists or has been updated.

The coveted, but elusive natural traffic afforded by Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines comes from being indexed by these sites. They can't index sites they don't know exist.

Will they find your post without pinging? Yes, eventually, but we all need traffic sooner than that.
Pinging reduces the time it takes to get your post indexed, therefore, it reduces the time it takes for your post to come up in natural search results when users search for your key phrase.

How Do You Ping Your Blog Post?


There are many web sites that provide this service for free.  To use most of them, navigate to the site, type in your post title, then type in (or copy and paste) the URL to your post. My favorite pinging site only requires the actual URL of the post and allows you to post multiple URLs at once, one per line.

Some services will require you to fill in a captcha textbox.  Many people consider captcha tools as annoyances, but they are important to separate human generated requests from machine or computer generated requests for pings.

This reduces the load on the service provider's server and makes it possible for you to use it.  Otherwise, it would be like getting a busy signal every time you try to call someone.

When Should a Blog Post be Pinged?


When you create a new post, you should ping the page. If you return to the post and make changes or improve the page, you should ping again. If you reference the post anywhere, ping the URL (the Internet address) of the reference.

Consider this example. When I post to my author's blog, I open a new NotePad window. I copy and paste the following URLs to NotePad, one URL to a line:

  • the URL of the actual post  (find this in the browser address bar)
  • the URL of the Home page of my site
  • the URL of each Facebook page where I post about the blog post (my personal Facebook page and my author page)
  • the URL of the Pinterest pin I make for the post. 
Next, I select and copy the list of URLs, open the pinging service site I use, and paste the list into the box. While there are others that are effective, I prefer to use PingFarm, because I always have multiple URLs to ping.

At PingFarm, you can ping a hundred or more sites at one time. Just paste a list into the box (make sure there is only one URL per line) or you can upload a text file (the file ends in .txt) list of URLs only. You won't need the blog title for this service.

Alternatively, you can paste individual URLs to the textbox, one to a line. If you post more than one URL to the line, the ping utility is confused. When all the links you want to ping are pasted or typed into the box, click Mass Ping, and you are done with all of them at once, which can save hours if you have lots of pages to ping. This is the reason I use PingFarm almost exclusively.

However, pings should only be done occasionally. If pings are done too often, you will first be warned, then possibly banned from the pinging site. Only ping your URL when you have made changes, such as added or updated content.

Some pinging services ping the same sites, directories, or search engines as other ping services do, so it is important not to use overlapping ping services. Choose one and stay with it.

Why? If you use http://www.pingler.com/, don't also use http://www.pingomatic.com/. These sites ping many of the same index sites and will cause issues for you.

How Soon will my Post be Indexed?


You might ask, "How soon will my post be indexed after it is pinged?"

Your post will be indexed after the search engines or directories send spiders to crawl your site. There is no way to determine exactly how long it will take, but if you wait until the spiders eventually crawl your site, it may take months.

Using Ping ensures that your post will be indexed as soon as possible. It could take as little time as twenty-four hours, or as much as a week or more. It depends entirely on the workload on the servers sending spiders to crawl your site. Pinging reduces the time required for indexing.

Recommended Ping Services


Ping services I have used:


There are others, but if you use too many or ping too often, you risk your efforts being considered spinging, or spam pinging. Again, choose one and use it, rather than using all of them.

If you want to know more about pinging services, a quick Google search on "ping services" will provide you with several sites that have comprehensive lists of these services.

Later,








Texas Ranch Wolf Pack Series Link
Texas Ranch Wolf Pack Series



Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Vignette: Nate

Think this could be Nate? Let me know!

Vignette: Nate (the Teen Years)


Sometimes, when writing a book, the events in the book are so emotionally draining that I have to take a short break and write something else.

My WIP, Wolf's Duty, is like that in several scenes. While contemplating how to resolve the most current problem facing my Alpha Were King, I started thinking about something Eli remembered in Wolf's Claim. This vignette resulted. It may be included in a book someday, but for now, it's just a tiny slice of Nate's adolescent years.

Vignette: Nate at the Police Station



Fifteen-year-old Nate Rollins sat on his hands to hide his skinned and healing knuckles. He didn't know anyone else who healed so fast, and it worried him. He leaned forward, chin tucked against his chest while he side-eyed his foster brother, Eli Thomas. Face pale as his t-shirt, Eli sat stiff and stared straight ahead, almost unblinking, jaw clenched, fisted hands resting on his thighs. Around them, ignoring the two teenaged boys sitting on the bench against the wall, police officers milled about the room doing whatever it is police officers did when they were on duty but in the department building. Murmuring voices, keyboard clicks, and the sound of boot heels hitting the tile floors filled the room.  

Two bloody, bruised teenagers sat at a desk across the room, loudly accusing Nate and Eli of assault and battery, while another officer listened while Charlotte accused the injured teens of attempted rape and argued that Nate and his brother defended her against the two making the charges. Even over the background noise, Nate could hear every word, though he couldn’t begin to explain how. His ability to hear sounds and voices from a distance was something he tried to keep to himself. 

Beside him, Eli took a deep, quivering breath, then glanced at Nate. Suddenly more worried about Eli than the accusations made against them, he leaned toward the only brother he’d ever known. “You okay?”

Eli blinked and raised one shoulder in a slight shrug. He swept a gaze across the room, then leaned closer and whispered, “I thought you were gonna kill them both.”

Nate took a deep breath through his nose and released it through his mouth, then gave Eli a single nod, and whispered, “I would have if you hadn’t stopped me. When Clive ripped Charlotte’s blouse, I . . ..” He broke off when one of the officers walked closer and stopped.

“Your dad is on the way, boys. You have anything else to say about all this?”

The two boys exchanged glances, looked up at the uniformed man standing over them, and then shook their heads. “No, Sir,” they chorused.

“Hmph. Well, the girl claims they were trying to force her, and you stopped them. That right?”

Head down, Eli nodded. Nate met the man’s gaze without flinching. “That’s right.”

“The Chief believes her. Those two will spend at least one night in jail. When your dad gets here, the two of you will be released into his custody.” He twisted his mouth to the side and sniffed. “Think you two can stay out of trouble?”

“We’ll do our best, Sir.” Nate’s calm, firm voice seemed to surprise the man.

“Yeah, well, see that you do. I don’t want to see the two of you in here, again.” He glanced at Eli, then studied Nate for a moment. “You ever think about being a cop, Son?”

Nate blinked and caught his breath. “Sir? Me?”

“Yeah. You don’t seem to get too riled up.” He turned to look at the two bloody boys, then grinned. “Unless someone needs help, anyway.”

Swallowing hard, Nate struggled not to fidget on the bench. His face burned like he had a second-degree sunburn. He gave the officer a sickly grin. “No, Sir. I want to be a Marine. Like my dad.”

Sucking air between his teeth, the officer smirked. “Sounds like a good career choice for you.” With a single wave of his hand, he walked back to his desk and sat down.



At this point in his life, Nate didn't know of his shifter heritage, but he knew he wasn't normal.

Let me know what you think. Should this be fleshed out into a full story, or even a YA book? Does the photo I selected look right for Nate?

Back to writing!

Later,


Sunday, October 13, 2019

Wolf's Queen and Wolf's Enemy Published in Large Print


Wolf's Queen and Wolf's Enemy in Large Print Paperback


In my ongoing effort to get the entire series into large print paperback, Wolf's Queen and Wolf's Enemy have published. The text is in 16 point type. Counting the book in progress, Wolf's Duty, there are five large print editions to go.

Other News


Reminder: Wolf's Sorrow, a short story detailing Snarl's (aka Thorkell Leifson) early life is still free until October 14, 2019! If you haven't read it, don't miss your chance to get it now.

Back to writing!

Later,








Texas Ranch Wolf Pack Series

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Happy Leif Eriksson's Day! 2019

Leif Eriksson's Day Give-A-Way


Last year, I forgot about Leif Eriksson's Day until it was long over. This year, though, I want to celebrate.

Wolf's Sorrow tells about the early life of a character introduced in Wolf's Huntsman, Snarl (a.k.a. Thorkell Leifsson, Leif Eriksson's second son). To celebrate, I intended for Wolf's Sorrow to be free for five days starting today.

I made a mistake. I thought I had set the book to free, but didn't. I goofed.

So, Wolf's Sorrow will be free from October 10 to October 14!

If you would be interested in reading more stories about Snarl and Freya's early life, let me know. :)

New Blog


I have started a new blog. This blog is primarily for readers who like clean paranormal urban fantasy and romances. The new blog, Lynn's Clean Romances, won't have any paranormal books. I plan to review clean romances there on occasion. Soon, I'll have a newsletter set up for it, so if you're interested in clean romances such as billionaire, small-town, young adult, western, or historical romances, check it out.

WIP Progress Report


This book has taken longer than I expected since I was ill for a while. I'm feeling much better, but now I have some things to catch up on. I'm writing at least 500 words a day on Wolf's Duty, and I hope to finish it next week. Fingers crossed!

Later,








Texas Ranch Wolf Pack Series

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Wolf's Trust and Wolf's Reign Published in Large Print Paperback

Books 5 & 6: Available in Large Print Paperback



Wolf's Trust and Wolf's Reign of the Texas Ranch Wolf Pack Series have been released in large print paperback. Wolf's Queen and Wolf's Enemy are next on the list to be published in this format. 

Health News


I testing done, and the dreaded deep-vein-thrombosis my doctor worried about is a no-show! My husband and I were so relieved when the radiologists told me there was no sign of blood clots, and I could go home without stopping for a while at the hospital. I've been feeling better, but with that good news, I feel even better. Hopefully, it'll mean I can spend more time at the keyboard and get my WIP done quicker.


WIP News



A new surprise character has come into Wolf's Duty. I will tell you she is an orphaned female teenager, but let's leave it at that for now. At 45,607 words, I think I still have about 15,000 to go. 

How About Some Mood Music 


(If you love listening to wolves, this is great!)

Later,