Melissa Maygrove

It's that time of year again. The kids are going back to school and I'm busy getting them settled in. I'm guest posting GPM over at Jeanne's blog, Still Writing, and posting a video here of one of the funniest commercials of all time. Enjoy. :)

Have you ever interacted with someone for months on the blogosphere, only to discover you hadn't ever bothered to follow them on social media? I have. And it makes me feel like a total fool. That was the inspiration for this blogfest. :) Blog button designed  by Carrie Butler To celebrate the launch of Carrie Butler's new business that opens early next month, I planned a blogfest to run the week of September 23rd. You can pick the day that best suits your schedule. :) What's the theme? The name says it all. Follow Fest is about writers making connections with other writers. This bloghop will run for 5 days.  Participants will create and launch a blog post that tells a little about themselves and what they write and lists all their social media follow options in one place. Writers of all kinds are welcome (fiction, nonfiction...). Once Follow Fest begins, you can hop around to as many blogs as you like — meet other writers, find out more about them, ...

Holy Mobi files! She's gone indie! Strength , the first book in Carrie Butler's Mark of Nexus series re-releases today.

Author intrusion is something we fiction writers should strive to avoid. Just like other writing taboos, intruding on our stories can ruin a perfectly good book, by yanking our readers right out of the engaging world we worked so hard to create. What is author intrusion exactly? The answer depends on who you ask.

This is my Insecure Writers Support Group post for August.   IWSG is the brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh. It's a monthly bloghop that offers a safe haven for writers to express their feelings and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. It's also a venue for offering support, both in the form of comments and positive posts. Writers of all kinds are welcome.  We 'meet' the first Wednesday of every month. If you're interested in learning more, click on the link above. And don't be intimidated by the size of the group. We're not expected to visit everyone on the list.  I am incredibly honored that Alex asked me to co-host this month.

Here's a quick and relevant usage lesson... Empathy vs Sympathy Empathy (n.) is an intellectual identification with another person's feelings, thoughts, or attitudes because one can relate to their situation. Sympathy (n.) means having a general compassion for; feeling sorry for.  And then there's s ympathies (n.), which means support or loyalty. I wish I knew where his sympathies lie . 

How's that for alliteration? xD As many of you have figured out by now, my blog's 'follow by email' feature is working again. Yay!!!! :D I fixed it using this . (Thanks for the tip, Carrie Butler. :) I also found a Feedly follow button. Mine's over there on the right. >>> Here's the link to that . Just go there, scroll down, click on the kind of button you want, and follow the instructions. To tweet about this post, click here .