Who want to be a guest Blogger?

OK, today, I am not doing Blogher’s topic of the day, which is, “If you had to be trapped in a movie for 5 days, which movie would it be?”  OK, I am going to be honest for a moment and say this woman does NOT want to be trapped in a movie for 1 day, let alone 5 days.   I like Disney movies and I like musicals (modern day), and being trapped with the likes of Timon and Pumba from The Lion King or Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz would  drive me insane enough for me to dislike Disney and musicals forever.   Do not pin that one on me, Blogher.

Instead, I am going to find out if anyone has a taste for being a guest blogger.  Yes, I am running with a theme, so bear with me for a moment.  

I am going to ask you a couple of questions and depending on how you well answer them, it will determine if you have the knack to be a guest blogger.

photo by Get snazzy.com

Do you have a post stuck in your head?   In other words, do you have a topic you know something about, and you have all the resources lined up and have put your thoughts to electronic pen to electronic paper (AKA a good word processing program). 

If you do have one, is it ready for the type of blog or website you are looking for?   Let me clarify…. An example would be I have a blog about organizing the home and I am looking for a guest blogger.  The type of post I am looking for has to do with organizing a child’s playroom, because this is time of the year, when children receive lots of toys, and mom does not have the time to step on or over every piece of toy (old and new) the child takes out to play with?  Would you have a solution for my reader who happens to be a mom?  The post has to be copy ready to submit. 

One of the misconceptions about being a guest blogger is you need to have a blog.  No so, but it would help.   You could be a first-time writer looking for exposure.  If you write to a popular blog, you can add this to your resume.  

Another important thing is that you are a good writer.  

• Is it well-organized? 
• No misspelled words, grammar mistakes
• You must writing it in the language of the owner, unless they have a multi-language blog.  Yes, there are translator software out there, but do not count on it.
• Another thing is do not depend on the spell-checker either.  Both may not be up-to-date with current rules for spelling and grammar.   
• Non-Americans, there is a difference between words like favor/favour, color/colour, and organize/organise.  Americans do not use the Queen’s English, like the rest of the world does. Sometimes we have be reminded that a lift is an elevator and a flat is an apartment/condo. 
• Dates, do not get me started on the difference between July 21, 2013 and 21 July 2013.  We just know that any date past 12 is the date, because there are 12 months in a year.   
• Watch your flow, and be careful that you do not have a run-on sentence because these things can be a bit messy when a person is trying to read and they do not know when to STOP!  (Yes, that was intentional, are you out of breath yet?)
• Finally, we have not gotten use to the metric system.  the government tried, and we failed miserably.    

On a serious note, if you keep all of these things in mind, you can be successful as a writer and a guest blogger.   Oh, and another thing.  READ ALL OF THE BLOG OWNER’S RULES AND REGULATIONS BEFORE SUBMITTING A POST.  Nothing irritates a blog owner more, than when a guest blogger submits a post, and the blog owner has to say no the guest blogger, because rules were not followed.   Rules are there for a reason.   Before you submit, if you do not see the rules, ask the blog owner if there is anything that you should watch for when writing.   It is common courtesy and the end of the day, when you submit a post, and you can imagine the blog owner reading your post, smiling because this is the one day they can rest and not rush.  This the point where you can also relax, because you have been published, and it feels good.   Who knows, they may ask for another one, and another one still.  Just be ready to submit it.

Be blessed, my friend, and write on.

I Have No Heart for Christmas.

I have no heart for Christmas, tho snow is dusting sweet

Up and down the silent town, whitening the street.

For I am all but homeless; my wages are reduced.

What be the treat if I must meet my friends in rags unspruced? 

I have no heart for Christmas, for jolly present giving.

It’s been a year of shifts austere; I’ve been through quite a sieving.

The government spreads folly, the people whine and slink.

Corruption stands in many lands, refreshed with food and drink.

I have no heart for Christmas; its meaning is concealed

By bearded guys in cheap disguise with candy canes congealed.

Better to forget about the chants and boundless junk

For tawdry sale through hill and dale – I’d rather be a monk.

I have no heart for Christmas – but stay!  What’s this I feel?

Kindled slow but like a blow from some great bell’s first peal.

My heart is but an organ; it cannot stop the Spirit

Of Joy sublime this Christmastime, if I but choose to rear it!  

About the author:  Tim Torkildson is an editor of online websites, including Scripture Poetry. http://www.scripturepoetry.com/  

Guest Bloggers R Us

Today, I am taking a break from journaling blogging for Blogher, because for one, there is not prompt for today. (And the last one I just posted a few hours ago because I was late.)  Anyway, I am on here to introduce a Guest blogging post.   I did it before, and the results were not so great.   I gave my requirements, and people gave me posts that were not right for my blogs.   I went ahead and published them anyway.   One post I got like over a hundred hits, because it talked about internet marketing, something I never covered, except in a two month old blog that never amounted to anything.   Are people that interested in making money on the web, I asked myself.  

Photo courtesy of www.transitioning.com

Anyway, this time, I went on Blog Linkup to request guest blogging for the holidays.   These reason is clear, we all need encouragement and a little plug in our lives, and I hope to do that for all 5 of my blogs.  

So if you want to submit something, let me know through my email address, plogan721@att.net (subject:  Guest blog) with your idea, or if you are or want to be a Facebook friend (TriciaLynn Logan) or through Twitter (DM @tricia721).

The next post is by Tim Torkildson.   I hope you like it, and show him some blogging love by going to his blog and follow him.  I will have rules for guest blogging on a separate page.

Be Blessed, my friend

Tricia 

Tell us what you've learned so far about daily blogging.

Today, is the 6^th day of blogging daily, and the hardest so far.  First of all, I love blogging, and I have made a commitment to blog at least 3 times a week.  Some weeks are the hardest, because I can be easily distracted by other things in my life.  Some people think, why blog if it hard?  To that, I say, that is the fun part.  I want to teach, to vent when I do not like something, to encourage someone who thinks they do not have it all together when it is really the opposite, and get someone to think and try something new for once.   This is the why I blog.

A week ago, I decided to give myself a challenge and that challenge is to see if I could keep this up on a daily basis.   After all, the experts say that is how you gain traffic, right?  So far I have learned that you need to have something to say, before you gain a following or traffic.  I have learned over the past 5 years that I have been blogging, a following does not necessarily constitutes traffic, and unless you put your blog on an RSS feed, you are considered a pass through.  Your content has to have meaning and promotes an interest with people.   You know what else I have learned from this experience?

I have learned that you need to set aside a time that you are comfortable with, that does not interfere with me time, family time, and the all-important meditation time.   For the moment, I must admit that I have not found the perfect time to sit down and write a post at the same time each day. (Like morning time) In case you are wondering how I started blogging and how I blog, you will have to check out a post that just popped into my head on my SimplyOrganized Crafts blog.   By the time you all read this, I would have posted it there, but I will have a back link to it on this post.

Other things I have learned:

When you do not have to come up with a topic is not part of your planning phase, life become much easier.  I do recommend you sit for a few minutes and have a planning pow-wowwith yourself.  Do not just start writing, because you can become easily distracted and next thing you know, you are talking about pink elephants in tutus, instead of talking about the meaning of “the elephant in the room.”  Believe me, I have been there.

Lastly (Hallelujah, it is short post tonight), I have learned that you are going to get some days where you look at your pageviews and see that 400 people like what you have to say about the Justin Beiber’s brothel scandal, because you have said exactly what they wanted to say, and then there are days where people do not care what you have to say about it, because they are tired of the topic.  That is the day where you will see 0-20 pageviews, and you want to quit.  Do not worry, as a friend once told me, pageviews do not matter.  What matters is that you got your point across and you are posting on a consistent basis.

Be Blessed, my friend.

Day 5: If you had to switch your first name, what name would you choose and why?

Pick a name.  Any name.    Photo from Google images.

What is in a name that is so sweet?   Ok, I am not exactly quoting Shakespeare, but it is a line in the play Romeo and Juliet.   (I switched the word “tis” for the words “that is.” ) I have never been big on the thee and thu) (or the spelling apparently).   Anyway, Blogher has thrown me a curve ball on this one.

Switch my name?  Who me?

I had to learn to love my name.  Back in the 1970’s, there were so many girls named Patricia, until one 7^th grade English teacher of mine, named Mrs. Toth, had to call me “Logan”, when she wanted my undivided attention.   No Patty (we were all Patties it seemed), and to call me “Tricia” (which by the way is my preferred nickname now) was unheard of.    If you call me Pat or Patsy (a name which one neighborhood family insisted on calling me) I may have to resort to violence in the worst way.   I do not like neither nickname.

Does anyone remember an SNL skit where a person named Pat was a featured character?  You did not know if it was a man or a woman.  I felt like that come mail time, because once a month, I would get the iconic, “Mr. Pat Logan” mail.   I would mumble to myself, does this person know that I am and will always be a woman?

For most women (and girls) named Patricia, you got one of two middle names, Lynn or Ann.  My middle name is Lynn (spelled with no “e”), at least that is what I thought most women named Patricia had for a middle name.   I have a friend, whose name is Patricia Lynell. (Well, it was close to Lynn).  Mom said she loved the name Lynn, so she had to come up with the iconic name to fit Lynn.  Well, she had two boy names that she and my father agreed to, Reginald and Ronald.   I could have been a Regina Lynn or a Ronalda Lynn, but she did not think of it that way.

So let’s address me switching my name….

Given all of these elements that I felt had troubled my name, I really do not have a true reason to switch my name.   I love playing with my name.  My sister’s name is Schaundra, (Pronounced like Chandra) given to her by her biological mother (I am my parent’s only biological child).  My brother was named after my father when he was adopted.   So I cannot be a Sydney (female spelling of the Sidney (my father’s spelling)).    I could have been a Latricia, but I would have to congratulate my uncle and his ex-wife for naming their eldest daughter that name.   He forgot that I was a Pa-Tricia.  I guess calling me Patti or Lynn all those years did not click in their heads, since people in South do name their daughters Patty.  

If you really want to push the issue, I like the names Mariah, Tamara, and Maranda.  Those are the names I have reserved for my daughter, should I get to adopt.   I also like the name Sidnea (pronounced Sid-ne-a) and Imani.  My niece has an interesting name, Nine’na.  (Pronounced like it is spelled.)  

No, I have grown to ask people to call me Tricia, and not too many people named Patricia who can ask others to call them that.   It means noble, and that is good enough for me.  So what is your desired name to switch to?   Comment below.

Be blessed my friend, no matter what your name is.

Day 4: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

From Google images

Today, Blogher is asking a somewhat difficult question.  What would I change about myself, and it has to be one thing.  Before I give my answer to this question I do want to say this:   If you were to ask me this question about 25 years ago, I would have given you more than one thing.   I did not like myself as far as the way I looked.  I wanted to be someone else.   I always thought I was beautiful, but as a child I wanted to model, become a professional dancer, and an actor.  To get the most money out of these professions, you have to be tall enough, and I was told on several occasions by family members that I would never be tall enough to do these things.  On top of that, my forearms are short, so that also would have put a damper on my plans. 

In these professions, people are looking for long lines, not how well you can show off a dress, deliver a line, or execute a move.   They want to know if they put you in a photo shot, play, or dance number how well you look with others.   In other words, these professions will do the old “school yard” trick, where they taunt and tease you for your looks, before they praise you for your talent.  What they do not realize is that a person who is 5 feet can display objects and do well as a person who is 5 feet 10 inches.   So, what do you think my answer will be in the next paragraph or two in today’s question?

My answer is not a physical change.   I stopped growing at age 13 like most girls, and the doctors told me that due to a couple of bone problems in my arms at birth, my forearms were not going to get any longer.  Only pixie dust and a bit of magic could change that.   Leave that one to Tinkerbelle, another Disney fav of mine. 

My answer is simply about how I open my mouth.   I have always been a quiet person.  I get that from my mother.   I would love to be able to talk a little more and I have gotten a little better.   I do not like talking over people, because I feel like I am not getting my point across when a lot of people are talking at once.  Is it frustrating? Yes it is, because I often do not get a chance to say what I need to say. 

A perfect example was Sunday.  It was All Saints day, and during the sermon, my pastor asked members of the congregation to list the saints who have go on and have help that person to be where they are today.  I stood up at the last minute, she did not see me.  She went on with her sermon.   Mommy urged me to speak up, but I said no.  I was going to mention my grandparents and a friend who had died in 2002.  If I had been a little more aggressive about it, I would have interrupted before my pastor could go on, but I did not.   This is the time I needed to change.   I would have said, “Excuse me, I have something to say, “And said my peace.

Sometimes, being quiet is a good thing.  I can listen to someone, without interrupting, and say something after that person has vented, cried and basically get it off their chest.  Sometimes all a person needs is for someone to talk to and to listen to them.  If you always have something to say, you may miss things, because you are always talking.   This is what I always tell my sister, who is the opposite of me.  She is also taller too. 

So sometimes, wanting to change something may be a bad thing too.  I learned to accept the physical things that are wrong with me, to love myself.  I had often wondered if I had the opposite problem of being a tall girl, what that would be like?  That problem came to a girl I knew in the 5^th grade.  I was the shortest and she was the tallest at 6 feet.  We were both teased.   So think about it?

Comment below, and be blessed my friend, and love yourself the way God intended you to be. 

Writing Prompt Day 3: Tell us about your writing space. Where do you write your blog posts?

www.home-designing.com -

Today, I am being asked by BlogHer to tell them about my writing space.   Before I go into where I write, I want to talk about writing space in general.  This is what I love about writing.   Finding a space to write is so non-constricted.  You can take an old beat-up typewriter or computer and find a space for a desk and write there, to cuddling up in a chair with just a pen and piece of paper and start writing.  In fact, I am coming up with some challenges for the first of 2014 (January) for people to do, and one of the challenges is to write out of your comfort zone.   Well, enough of that, and there will be more details later.

Where do I write my blog posts?

I write my blog posts at a desk in the corner of my office/dining room.  My home has technically 10 rooms:  kitchen, dining room, living room, and half bath downstairs; master bed, master bath, and second bed for upstairs.  The 9th room is the garage (yes, they have now declared the garage as a room for your car, spooky).   There is a 10^th room, and it is my patio (the decorating experts declared that as a room too).  I have turn my split my dining room in 3:  dining room/office/downstairs craft room, and I have split my second bedroom into a bedroom/upstairs craft room.  The half bathroom houses my washer and dryer.   My computer is in the corner of the dining/office/craft room combo, and I pen my posts there.

Later, I will tell you how I pen my posts.  For today, I decided to behave, and just write about the writing space.  So comment below:  If you blog (or write at all), where you write?

Be blessed, my friend.