Ciao, SEers. I’m just getting back into the groove after a long overdue trip back to the homeland. No, not Italy, although that’s on my bucket list. We went back to Pennsylvania to celebrate my daughter’s high school graduation with the extended family. A great time was had by all. We extended our trip, which put me even further behind, but it is worth it to see loved ones, even if we ran ourselves ragged.

Anyway…

My series on creating a media kit seemed to be helpful to writers, so I thought I’d discuss something that coordinates with the media kit—author branding. Having worked for several years as a corporate identity specialist in my “real” job, those principles are transferrable and I want to give you a quick checklist that might help you out.

So, without further ado, here are eight steps to author branding cohesion.

1. You Are…

(https://pixabay.com/)

The movie that I will discuss in this installment is Frankenstein.  This 1931 film was directed by James Whale and produced by Carl Laemelle, Jr. Universal Studios was following up its huge success with Dracula earlier in the year, so this film seemed like a natural choice to make. I have posted on Frankenstein before in my series on horror films, but like its namesake novel, it can also been seen as early science-fiction.

While the title and characters come from the 1818 Mary Shelley novel, it is a loose adaptation of the text.  Interestingly, the sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein, is a much more faithful treatment of the novel than this first film. This movie, one of the most important in horror film history, introduces Boris Karloff as the Creature. Karloff gives an impressive performance as the lost and lonely being who is unsure of who he…

Like most authors, I am learning new things about the publishing industry every day and try to share what I learn here, in the hope it helps other writers, book lovers and bloggers. I have been looking at keywords and good ways to use them, but had no idea that reviews count as keywords too!

For example:

Review 1:

A lovely read. I enjoyed the characters immensely and the way the author used description really drew me in. This is a book I would recommend to friends as I couldn’t wait to get back to my kindle to read the next chapter!

(Reviews literally take 5 minutes to write and 2 sentences is plenty, although a detailed description is wonderful too. They are the first place readers look to discover a new read and are really helpful to both author and reader.)

Review 2: A review from one of my readers…

Hello SErs! It’s Harmony again with part 2 on Commas and how to use them. If you missed Part 1, you can find it HERE. Last time, we looked at Listing (Standard or Oxford), Introductory, and Joining commas. Today, we cover the Gapping, Bracketing, and other comma uses.

The Gapping Comma

We use a gapping comma to show that we have left out one or more words when the missing words would simply repeat the words used earlier in the same sentence. See the following:

Some Norwegians wanted to base their national language on the speech of the capital city; others, on the speech of the rural countryside.

The gapping comma here shows that the words ‘wanted to base their national language’, which you might have repeated, have instead been omitted.

The following example contains both listing and gapping commas:

Italy is famous for her composers and musicians…

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering why exactly it’s so natural to quote another person, Why Do We Quote by Ruth Finnegan is a great place to start. This book is laid out much like a textbook and goes over the history behind quoting in a comprehensive timeline. The text is easy to read and peppered with anecdotes which is a far cry from many traditional textbooks. It proves itself to be a wonderful companion piece to any student who may be researching this area as well as informational for an average person to learn more. It’s a look at the subconscious process of quoting and how we are influenced by those around us and what we are exposed to. Quoting itself is something many take for granted and is a process that is so ingrained in our society that we barely realize what we’re doing most of the time…

TRAVEL TIPS : WHAT TO CARRY ON YOUR TRIPS !

Since our needs are different , but I think these are always important for all of us . Soo people LET’S GET STARTED.

OK.

1. This is the MOST SIGNIFICANT thing that you should carry with you is: YOUR IDENTITY PROOF!
I know many people carry them in their wallets but yes some like me, I don’t usually keep them with me in my wallet and always end up regretting it later. So yes this is the basic thing because these days in hotels as well they ask for your ID PROOF, so if you don’t have it with you might end up getting no room. LOL. JUST KIDDING. Not only in hotels it can be needed anytime anywhere. Sooo , according to me it is very very veryIMPORTANT. Keep at least 2 ID…

We figured the Internet might be eerily quiet this week as everyone celebrates the 4^th of July, so we’re gonna keep this short. 

. . . But in case you’re avoiding that intense family member (you know the one), and want to read a couple articles you might have missed . . . well, we’re here to assist.

First, if you want to pretend you’re talking to someone, you can listen to one of our podcasts. Here, we discuss writing advice:

How to Know if Writing Advice is Any Good 

Or if you want to laugh, take a look at:

Those Ten Moments When You Knew You Were a Writer

And if you’d simply enjoy reading for a bit, here you go:

Creating Your Character—A Checklist

3 Habits of Prolific Writers

Happy 4th of July to my American friends and Happy Summer to everyone! Have fun and be safe! 😘