I was reading one of Nose Graze's excellent tips Right HERE and she gives advice on html, wordpress and answers questions on blogging in general and this post was about how to get more traffic and why posting reviews isn't always enough (depending on your goals and objectives though.  Some may just want to post reviews and not care about traffic which is just fine).

Obviously the main point is to post reviews and stuff about books so you should definitely do more posts about them but if you want a lot of traffic or to build a really large community then posting reviews might not be enough and she suggested posting original features.  In her case she has a lot of wordpress, coding and design knowledge so she does posts on those and answers question and they pull in a lot more traffic than her reviews which really got me to thinking. 

I know I'm still new at this and that building a community takes time but I think she's right. At least for me and my blog.  We all have different goals and aims and I want to do more with mine.  I don't want to just spam giveawway's and would rather save them for very special occasions and I haven't quite reached the point of posting book deals yet mainly because I'm still working on finding ways to keep track of them all plus I don't want to just post books that I wouldn't want to read.  From the first day I started this I wanted to be me and to offer more than just my reviews so I'm trying to think about what I have to offer the world and so far what I've come up with are:

1. I'm about to start learning html and I thought I might make some posts on my trials and tribulations while learning it.  It would be fun to share and people who know it could have a good laugh at me while also helping me. People who don't know it could learn a few tips and tricks from me as I progress from novice to knowing what the heck I'm doing - at least once I get there (and I will get there, I refuse to let myself get discouraged or give up on this). I could also post on the little things I've already learned which admittedly isn't a lot but it's a heck of a lot more then I knew when I started. 

2. Obviously I have my cats which are always fun. I don't have a video camera but could get one and eventually run a whole cat circus.  People might enjoy watching my cats crack a whip as I jump through flaming hoops.  Come on, all you people who've owned cats know they're the one's who are really in charge.  Just yesterday I told my cats I was the boss and my bigger fat cat was on his back laughing while pounding his paw on the ground and Kitty Poo was bent over laughing waving his claws at me saying "stop, just stop, oh it hurts."  So yeah, cats are a lot of fun.  Not sure if I want videos of my house on the internet though.

3. I could totally go the personal route and share all kinds of stuff.  Lord knows I've had my troubles but I'm still around after all these years so I have a lot in that area to share.  My only fear is taking on more than I can handle. I would hate to be responsible for having to talk someone down off of a ledge or something.  I have no problems sharing anything though so it's always a thought.  Anything from depression to insomnia, being picked on, shyness, drug abuse and more.  I've had a lot of years to build coping resources and while I'm not perfect or all the way there yet I can look back on my youth and say "I would have done this" instead of what I did back then.  

Anyway, these are just some of my thoughts and the things swimming around in my head. I've spent the last two days trying to figure out how to make my sites nicer or how to improve my Facebook page then it hit me that without rich content all of the pretty color's in the world aren't going to make a difference so I'm switching my focus to that.  Also trying to figure out how in the heck everyone stays on top of cover reveals and new releases.  I've been manually going to authors FB pages but that eats up so much time.  Bloglovin is really helping in that department and oh yeah I found this site here: http://www.ereaderiq.com/ where you can keep track of kindle books and authors and have it alert you to price changes and stuff which will be an immense help in the future.  Still adding all of the one's I like.  

What do you'll think?  I like to run things across you'll first because A. You'll have alot of book blogging experience and B. I trust you'll 

I was thinking I might do one of these once or twice a week - something like that.

I think I'm going to try running a survey once I've figured out 4 or 5 things that I would love to blog about.  That would also be a good way to get viewers to interact with me. I've been having a heck of a time getting people to comment.  Obviously they don't find me near as amusing as I do :P  

I've been in a bit of a funk lately on my reading so it took me forever to get through this one.  Not that I didn't like it or anything.  I thought this was one of the best in the series but I've been so busy plus I'm still trying to get over this bug I've had for forever and I just haven't been reading much lately.  Just got Elle Casey's new book and her books always get me back on track so I should be good again very soon.

  I want to try something a little different on my review for this one.  I've been doing a lot of reading on how I can improve my writing and on how to write better book reviews.  I know that all the reading in the world is no substitute for practice so I'm  hoping in time that my reviews will get better.  Not that I dislike them now or think they're bad but I don't want to ever get complacent about them either.  My site is nearing completion and I've been going back through a lot of my old reviews and trying to decide if I want to re-write them or not.  On one hand I like to look at them in their original form to see how much I've grown as a book reviewer and how much my enthusiasm has grown for reviewing books.  On the other hand some of them are really bad and only a few sentences long. So I don't know, I haven't made up my mind on it yet.

What I do know is that I'd like to improve.  I'd like to give my reviews more substance and some structure and I'm going to give what I've learned a shot.  I don't know if I'll be successful but I'd like to try.  I want to keep getting better, even if it's only in baby steps.  I want to always find something in my reviews that I could have done better and to grow as a writer. 

I know I have a long way to go but I'd rather improve a little bit at a time than to never improve at all.  So that's pretty much my plan.  I think every artist (not that I'm an artist or a writer by any stretch of the imagination) thinks that their work could always be better and are never completely satisfied with it and I think that's a good thing.  I don't want to ever be satisfied with my reviews but I do want to be satisfied that I did the absolute best that I could at that particular time. 

My Kindle is fully charged and all is well in the world once again! :D

We’re gonna have company.” Angie crawled from my lap and sat in the corner of the couch, watching the doll with determined, hopeful eyes. And then I heard the bike. It had the high-pitched whine of a Kawasaki. And it was heading our way. Despite my lingering worry and pain, heat bloomed from my middle, flamed up my torso, and folded itself over my shoulders while settling low in my abdomen. It was like being embraced by a big-cat, as Beast’s interest fluctuated and changed. The bike was familiar. It slowed in the street. And puttered close to the house.

He stood as tall as me in his black Frye boots. Black jeans, a short-sleeved black tee, his black leather riding jacket hanging on the Kow-bike. His hair was longer than I had ever seen it, finger-combed and looking even darker than its usual black, damp from the helmet. I could smell gun oil, spicy aftershave, cigar. And his cat. “Let’s go for a late lunch,” Rick said, leaning in, supporting his weight on his arms, high, to either side of the door, stretching up to show his biceps and the damaged tattoos there. And pulling his T-shirt against pecs and abs. Oh my . . . “You can call Tom for an intro. Fair warning, though. He’ll tell you I’m trouble."

 

Yeah, Jane and Ricky Bo so belong together.  They're perfect for each other.  So glad he put in an appearance this book.  Black Arts has been great so far.  I love this series and love Jane's evolution.  Each book is better than the last and the world building is phenomenal. 

On a side note I just learned how to access my Kindle Highlights online so I can now have fun using them :D 

  Well today I saw my Doctor and had him look at a mole that's been bothering me.  It looks a little weird and is close to two other moles but while the other two are kind of soft and squishy like most moles this one is hard and a bit scabby feeling.  It's also a bit darker than my other flesh colored moles.  It's been bothering me for a bit, maybe the last month or so, maybe a little longer and although it doesn't exactly hurt it just feels off.  Kind of like a sunburn or something.  Just kind of a hot painful spot but not horribly painful or anything.  Just more of a nuisance.  So he ended up examining it and thinks it could be troublesome.  I'm going to need to make an appointment at the clinic where he works and get it biopsied which brings me to the whole point of this post.  Why didn't I do it the second I noticed it was a bit different?

Yesterday I read this article: http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/hugh-jackman-treated-skin-cancer-2836569

Hugh Jackman's article is what prompted me to have my doctor look at it today when I went to see him for something unrelated to the mole.  It's been bugging me for at least a month, possibly longer so why did I put it off for this long even though a month is not very long.  Well there's a lot of reasons and just like Hugh Jackman and Samuel L. Jackson said most men just don't talk about their health problems.  If they hurt their leg or something while playing football that's different but normal health problems. Nope, at least not a lot of us do.  I don't want to lump every man in that category though but I'm sure there are more than enough of us who just ignore our problems and hope for the best.

Sure the mole could turn out to be absolutely nothing.  Maybe I picked at it in my sleep and that's why it's bothering me.  But then again it could turn out to be something.  Here's quite a few reasons why I didn't get it checked out earlier and why they're not very good reasons at all:

• Lack of Money and or Insurance:  I just don't have the money and don't have health insurance.  That's not a very good excuse to be honest. I mean let's just say it is something bad then finding it earlier is going to be not only be key in helping to get rid of it but also to keeping health costs down.  So my answer to that is find a way if you can.  Do whatever you have to but if you don't take care of your health then you can't take care of your bills, family, expenses, etc.

• It's Probably Nothing:  Yes it probably (hopefully) is nothing but what if it's not?  What if it is something?  What then?  I don't know a lot about cancer but one thing I do know is that the earlier it's detected the better odds you have so once again, go get yourself checked out.

• I Don't Want To Bother Anyone With My Problems:  That's all well and good if it's something little like I have a headache or I'm feeling a little under the weather but this is your health and your life plus who are you bothering?  It's your doctors job.  That's what they get paid the big bucks for.  It's what they went to school for.  It's not bothering them, it's paying their bills.

• I'll Get It Checked Soon:  How soon?  Next week, next month? Next year?  It could be too late by then.  Just go do it and get it over with which brings me to my last point.

• I'm Afraid Of What I May Find Out:  What's worse?  Living with the fear of what could be every single moment of every single day or dealing with a little bit (well it's more than a little bit but you know what I mean) of fear once when you do the biopsy (which I doubt even hurts) and then when you get a diagnosis.  Just get it over with.  Even if the news is bad at least you are now armed with that knowledge and will have a plan with which to proceed instead of staying in the dark fearing the unknown. 

I don't like going to the doctor, I don't like the thought of hospitals. I sure as hell don't like the thought of getting a biopsy and I definitely don't like the thought of bad news but I'd much rather find out and go from there than to keep putting it off.  I only wish I had done it sooner but chances are still very much in our favor.  The odd's of having cancer are actually quite low at least compared to most things in life. P.S. Don't look up those odds, they'll scare the crap out of you.  Actually let me post them because this could help too.

One in 5 Americans and 1 in 3 Caucasians will get skin cancer at some point in their lifetime.  That's just according to one website and I don't want you to take that as gospel because I am too lazy to verify it at the moment lol. 

I guess I'm just saying: guys and gals, if you notice something wrong then go and get yourself checked out.  Don't put it off, don't wait for tomorrow.  I'm about to call my Dr. back and make the earliest possible appointment I can to have this done.  I want to get it over with so I can worry about other things.  I hope you will do the same if you ever notice anything weird.  There is plenty enough info out there about cancer, skin cancer and moles.  Just do a google search and you'll find all kinds of warning signs to look for But all the warning signs and information in the world won't do you any good unless you take action.  Like I said it's probably nothing but why take chances with something so important?