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This blog keeps me in touch with WDC. Jamesdillingham.com keeps me in touch elsewhere. |
| I like to stay in touch with WDC, even when I'm not contributing on a daily basis. My main blog is at jamesdillingham.blogspot.com |
| It seems that I am finding more and more ways every day to write. When I first joined WDC (my 2nd anniversary is April 10th), I just wanted to write stories. I have done quite a bit of that. My portfolio now has 398 entries (most are Flash Fiction). Now I am writing the blog for my company. I have a personal blog. I am working on a book. I have this blog. And I have my WDC contests. I am looking forward to the 15-in-15 contest this summer as well as the 14-7-1 contest. I may enter the Short Shots contest this month. I have entered it 2 or 3 times in the past and never placed. However, I do need to write another 2,000 word story. Somehow, a novel and flash fiction leave a gap between them in story line-length that only a 2,000 word story can fill. My Links: work - www.shift-work.com rant - www.jimdillingham.blogspot.com personal - www.jamesdillingham.com for everyone - www.worldgratitudelist.com |
| I think this blogging and internet stuff in general is finally getting ahold of me. I have my rant and rave blog at jimdillingham.blogspot.com I have my personal web site at jamesdillingham.com I have just set up my business website so I can do online conferences with Webex. I have just opened up a new site called The World Gratitude List. The idea if for people to go there and post their lists. They can also read the lists of other people. There are four categories: (1) Things I like... (2) Things I am grateful for... (3) I have a dream... and (4) Things I want to let go of... To visit this site, go to www.worldgratitudelist.com. I would like to hear from you if you have any suggestions about it. J |
| I have three blogs counting this one. One is for business. This one is for writing. The last one is for Ranting and Raving in general (jimdillingham.blogspot.com) I try to write in at least one of them every day. I have been having a creative dry spell on my Flash Fiction. I have a story but I run out of words or and good ending. It's like I am suddenly realizing after more than 230 entries, that writing Flash Fiction is hard. What may have caused this is when two of my stories were chosen to be reviews by a WDC group about 3 months apart. I don't know if anyone else noticed but I saw, only then, that the two stories were very similar - a hillbilly shoots down a UFO. This makes me think that I am a one-trick-pony. I need to be more creative and in trying to do so, I am getting stuck. I won't give up. I am certain that "this too shall pass." Cheers, Jim |
| I have found that the more I write, the higher the expectations I have for myself. This is a problem. I sit and try to write Flash Fiction and I will only accept something that may stand a chance of winning. The result is that I write nothing. I sit there, uninspired and finally give up. I have created a solution. I made a new folder titled Poorly Written Stories. This is where a poorly written story will go to die. The idea is that I take away the fear of failure. I can commit to a story and if I end up not liking it, I have a place to put it. Committing to a story is important. It's better to write poorly than to struggle for perfection and not write at all. This is my solution and I have high hopes. J |
| I am a little embarassed to admit that I have added Google ads to my personal websites: jamesdillingham.com and jimdillngham.blogspot.com. The ads, I think, detract from the websites themselves somewhat. This is especially true on the jamesdillingham.com site. That site has a black background and the ads tend to be very bright. So, am I selling out to the man? Am I sacrificing aesthetics for the big payday (my ads made $2.52 the first day). I hope not. This is just another part of my learning how to use the web as a tool to market my writing and anything else I want to put out there. For example, I really like my blogspot page. I write differently there than I do here. This is the calm me you are reading now. The blogspot is the "ranting and raving" me or the "I have a big idea" me. I want to see if having Google ads will cause Google to drive more traffic to that site. Now I have an Adsense account with Google. I know how to put ads on my blogspot (easy because it is sponsored by Google) and my personal site which I built myself using a third part software. I want to enter today's Flash Fiction but I will not allow myself to do that until I crank out another 900 words on my novel. Sometimes that takes fifteen minutes; other times its a week. If you go to my websites, don't forget to click through on some ads. I hope to someday may more than $3 per day from those. Jim |
| I am in Kentucky this week, starting a new project. A project for me lasts a couple of months. During that time, I am home on the weekends and about half of the weekdays. Some projects are very work-intensive and others are more strategic in nature. This is the later. That means I have time to write, as I am doing right now. I have put together a list of Dailies for me to do. So have to do with physical activity such as sit-ups and such. Most of them have to do with writing, either a blog or a short story or a novel chapter. Lately, I have been writing a lot of Flash Fiction. Ken, (aka Huntersmoon) is a great person to write with. When he is in the competition, I really have to step up my game. I have also been writing a lot on my blog, jimdillingham.blogspot.com. I use that as a forum for what I would say from a soapbox in the middle of central park. I don't think I am getting a lot of hits on that site, but that's okay. I write it for me. Now that I have made an entry here, I can put a check next to it on my Dailies. Jim |
| I just wrote a bit of Flash Fiction with a political bent and within 10 minutes, it had been read 9 times. Two people rated it. One, rated it a 5 and gave me a review. One rated it a 2 and did so anonymously. Not hard to tell which party each of these represents. Interesting. Maybe I will write a religious thing next. This makes me feel like a character I made up in the story called the Puppeteer. I kind of like it. J |
| I love to write, but I don't write. At least for the last several days and continuing into tomorrow. My wife lives in Hungary and I only see her for 2 weeks out of 8. When I am with her, I rarely write. Sometimes, when I am over there and she is at work, I can write. but for now, she is out here and on vacation - so I don't follow my second passion. I don't write. Here is something you may hear a lot about from me. We were married 5 years ago. It took 18 months before she could reenter the country because it took 18 months for her to get a permanent resident card. If we were not married, she could have come right over but only for 5 months at a time. Anyway, the first green card (aka permanent resident card) expired. We applied for a renewal 60 days before it expired as directed and a year later, we are still waiting. This means she can only come over on a green card with an extra sheet of paper saying here card is extended for a year pending approval of the next card (a 10 year card) Anyway, we go in for the interview and the parting comment was "It doesn't look good." Me: What do you mean? Him: It is clear that she doesn't live in the United States. Me: So? Him: She is required to live in the United States to get a green card. Me: That is not true. Him: Maybe you should have gotten a lawyer so you would know the laws of the land. Me: I have read all of the requirements and there is nothing that says she must live here. Him: It's in there Me: Where Him: It's in there Me: Where exactly Him: Well it is not in there but the intent is there Me: Listen, do you have any doubt that my marriage is legitimate? Him: No Me: The intent of me showing her on my mortgage and the joint checking accounts etc is all to prove that we are really married. Once that has been established, it doesn't matter where she lives. The only requirement is that she cannot be out of the country for more than one year in a row. So, you are telling me that you are recommending that my wife not be allowed to live with me because she currently doesn't' live with me. Him: I am just following the rules. Me: But you just said the rule that you were quoting is really more of an idea, your term was "intent". I want to talk to a supervisor. Him: That is not allowed Me: I want a phone number to call or an email address Him: That is not allowed. Me: So, it is up to you, a poorly educated lawyer wanna-be to interpret the law and pass a judgment that will not allow my wife to live with me in the United States Him: She can always visit you on a tourist visa The above is as verbatim as I can recall. I find out the final ruling in two weeks. |
| I am still visiting with my wife. I met her in Hungary for a week. Now she is here for a week. She gets all of my attention so writing is set aside for another few days. I am going to start posting links at the bottom of my blog. I don't do this so you will click on them. I just want there to be a lot of links out there to my sites. The more links to a site, the higher it shows up on search engines. Jim http://hyperiongate.Writing.Com http://www.jamesdillingham.com http://shift-work.com http://www.jimdillingham.blogspot.com |
| I am on my way back from Budapest on Monday. Wife it coming with me for a week. Jim |
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