Ceallaigh's Blog
In the Samhain 2012 newsletter just mailed, I made an error in the name of the lovely woman who interviewed me for Geek Inked Magazine. Her name is Ally Leja. In my haste to get the newsletter out, the part of my brain that was looking at her handle on the Geek Inked blog (princessleja) didn't communicate with the part of my brain that spoke with her Sunday, and I rolled a '1' on my INT modifier.
My apologies, Ally!
I was doing some database maintenance this morning and noticed that a few folks had signed up for my quarterly newsletter but hadn't confirmed their subscriptions. At least two of these folks are people I'm acquainted with, so I added them to the list manually, but I thought it might be a good time to remind everybody that newsletter signup is a two-step process. You need to put your name and e-mail address in the box on the right sidebar of my web site, and then you need to click on the link the system sends you in a follow-up e-mail.
When I was troubleshooting this, I realized the follow-up e-mail is a little unclear (That's what I get for trusting the default settings, eh?). So I cleaned it up to make it easier for people to understand.
My LiveJournal is now closed. The archive of entries and their comments will remain available for viewing, but nothing further will be posted to the service, and I have added my LiveJournal friends to my RSS feed so that I can continue to follow their blogs.
My blog is now located at: http://csmaccath.com/blog
You can subscribe to it via Feedburner at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/csmaccath
Tapadh leibh, agus chi mi sibh ansin, tha mi 'n dòchas!
(Thank you, and I'll see you there, I hope!)
After experimenting with several social networks over the last few years, I've come to the conclusion that I'm spread too thin and that my social networks aren't serving me anymore. Rather, I'm serving them. So in an effort to streamline my networks, I'll be implementing the following changes in the next few months.
LiveJournal
My LiveJournal is the weakest link right now, since my web site blog is robust, comment-ready and available for RSS through Feedburner. I also don't check my LiveJournal very much anymore for friends' posts, since these are usually cross-posted to other social media sites, where I'm notified of them. So in the next month or so, I'll stop posting teasers of my blog posts to LiveJournal and leave a static forwarding message there that directs readers to my web site. I'll likely still check my LJ f-list from time to time, but I expect this activity to be infrequent.
Addendum: I've just added all my LJ friends to my RSS reader, so I won't miss your posts!
I'm getting a pile of spam on the web site blog right now, and while I'm notified immediately of all new comments and have an IP Ban module in place, I can't be arsed to chase these comments down two and three times a day.
The best deterrent for spamming behavior is moderated commenting, so that's what I'm going to do for a bit until things calm down. I'll have any comments you send me posted within an hour or two (unless you post them at 3:00 am), and I apologize for any lack of instant gratification my decision might cause. =)
I received a notice from my web host yesterday that there have been some technical problems with our e-mail service in recent days. So if you've sent me an e-mail since Sunday, and you don't hear back from me by tonight (I'll be answering emails later today), please send it to my Gmail address. You should find it in the signature line of any correspondence I've sent you.
I'm past-due for two blog entries; the Activism Updates series post, which will be up tomorrow with a guest article by activist, engineer, scone chef and husband Sean MacCath-Moran. The other is the ConLangs 101 series post, which has been delayed by the slow death of my laptop and the setup of my new computer. I plan to have that one up by Monday next.
It's becoming increasingly difficult for me to format posts that look good on my web site and on LiveJournal at the same time, since LiveJournal imposes certain restrictions on formatting that I find somewhat limiting and difficult to work around. With this last conlangs post, these restrictions crossed the boundary from limiting to flat-out time sink, so with rare exception, I'm only posting teasers to LJ from now on. You'll be able to follow a link on each teaser to the full entry on my web site, where you'll also be able to comment, if you like. I know it's an extra step, but my web site is comment-friendly now, so I hope you'll feel comfortable there.
In the last couple of months (since completion of the novel), a number of unavoidable issues have cropped up and limited my writing time, and this has frustrated my efforts at revision considerably. However, in the last week, I've managed to clear my plate of several outstanding projects and substantial chunk of life-detritus so that I can proceed with something more closely resembling a regular schedule. To that end, I fear I must make an Internet Pronouncement of the sort one reads from time to time in the blogs of other writers.
I'm presently putting together a marketing packet for my novel and working my way through revisions. On the heels of that, I have major plotting work to do for the rest of the series and a second novel to start. In the past, I've had the luxury of putting down my work for a day or a week if necessary in order to take care of other things. However, if I expect to be taken seriously as a professional, I can't afford to do that anymore.