Fate Be Damned

Karen Y Bynum has a blog with a variety of content. She interviews authors, participates in blog tours and hops, and offers her personal writing advice as well.

How do you keep a balance between all that variety?

My minimum goal is to do 2 blog posts per month, but ideally I would like to do one post per week. I try to keep variety on my site by rotating between, writing tips, interviews, info about me/my books and giveaways. Want to keep the reader intrigued!

I think you do that very well, a skill I'm sure many of us envy. You participate in a number of blog hops. How do you find them? Have you found some are better than others?

Tory Michaels' World

Today I get to interview another interviewer. How's that for meta? Tory Michaels's World hosts interviews with a plethora of authors.

Browsing your blog it quickly becomes apparent you have a standard list of questions. How long did it take you to form that list? How often do you review it for possible changes?

I will generally tweak the questions for an individual author, and if it’s one I know personally (rather than from a blog-tour I volunteered for), I might try to introduce little factoids by changing a few questions. I pretty much keep to the 7-10 questions because I don’t want to take too much time, either for the author or any of my readers.

How do you select the books/authors you interview on your blog?

I’m a tour host for both Bewitching Blog Tours and Sizzling PR. Additionally, I was fortunate enough to have author friends who helped me get started until I got up and running with the blog tours. Every so often I get really lucky and get a NY Times best seller (upcoming visit from Alyssa Day in May).

How far in advance do you plan your interviews? Do you ever shuffle posts when someone has a release date?

#SatSunTails - Rebecca Clare Smith

Excuse me while I take a moment to scream. AAAAaaaahhhhhhhrrrggg! Thank you. I had a lovely post all written and ready to go on Saturday while I was out of town. For some reason, it hadn't gone up. So I logged in on my phone to hit the publish now button. And it did. Unfortunately, it also deleted my interview with the wonderful Rebecca Clare Smith. So I'm trying to reconstruct it. It will not be as awesome as my first one. It will still be awesome, though, because my guest is awesome. She is the host of #SatSunTails which is on right now. It one of several flash fiction contests you can find. I hope to interview the hosts of others in the future. #SatSunTails involves a prompt, a phrase and picture, and is limited to 150 words. Contestants have the entire weekend to craft a submission following which the hostess, Rebecca, chooses a winner and three mentions. Each mention gets a mini-critique! Perfect for improving your efforts in subsequent weeks. As I mentioned, I follow a few different flash fiction contests and I've seen limits of 100 words and 250 words, but the 150 is uncommon. How did you come to choose it, Rebecca?

I chose 150 words because a lot of short fiction competitions have 100 or 200 words. I feel that 100 doesn't always give you enough time to create a great story, but I didn't want to give too many words. The idea behind the shortness is that it helps writers to fit more into a small space. Of course, this means that in longer works these experiences help to make sure we know how to get things across in a short space without long, winding explanations that leave the reader dozing off.

Well, that makes sense. You do almost all of the judging. You recommend checking out previous weeks to get an idea of what you're looking for, but can you spell it out for us? Give us a checklist?

In a winner I like to see a story that isn't the same as all the others. It has to have a good plot and usually they're better if they leave surprises dotted around the text. Vivid imagery is also a brilliant plus.

Is it ever difficult to choose the winner?

Friday Picture Show - Jen DeSantis

Welcome Jen DeSantis of #FridayPictureShow flash fiction challenge. Each Friday, Jen posts a picture and writers are encourage to write a 100 word piece based on that picture. So, let's start with the obvious, where do you usually find the pictures you use for Friday Picture Show? Have you had any copyright issues?

Well, I started the Picture Show because I had over a hundred pictures just saved on my hard drive for inspiration. I figured it would be cool to host a flash show and put those pictures to use. I usually find my pictures on Tumblr or Pinterest. When possible, I direct link back to the source of the picture, but that isn't always possible with images found on the internet. Thus far, I haven't had any copyright issues, but of course I would take anything down if an artist asked me to. I think because I'm not attempting to profit from the works, I should be fine. It's simply inspiring others words, and that's pretty cool if you ask me. :)

No arguments here! Do you have a roster of judges/guests drawn up in advance? How many weeks do you plan ahead?

Free Books!

Well, if that didn't get your attention, I'm hopeless. Desiree Finkbeiner, author of Ethos, let me know about this little special. Not little at all. Kindle versions are available in this give-away, but there's more than just Ethos available, as if you needed more. In fact, Hydra Publications has everything from Fantasy to Mystery, Historical Fiction to Science Fiction. Just follow the link and load your cart! Hurry though, the give away is only for May 2 and 3!

Spankalicious

That's the subtitle of Erica Pike's blog. The subtitle! The actual title is Gay Romance. Caught your eye? Yeah, it caught mine too. So I'm sure it'll come as shock to learn that she reads and reviews Gay erotica. It doesn't?! Well, how about how she chooses what to read or review? Do you know that? That's what I thought. That's why I'M the interviewer here, bub.


I go by cover, blurb and title (in that order). A cover will catch my eye first, I’ll buy the book if the blurb sounds interesting, and I choose which story to read on my Kindle by which title interests me (because, let‘s face it, with all the books I have on my Kindle I‘m not going to remember the blurb to all of them). The titles may not have been paramount in the past, but with e-readers, they are very important.

Do you plan your posts in advance? Are you ever at a loss for a new post/idea?

Oh God, yes, I’m at a loss for new posts and ideas a lot! It’s getting better though. I always got this huge writer’s block whenever I sat down to blog. I don’t usually plan my posts in advance. I do it sometimes, when I think up new topics but have already posted that day, or if the topic really stretches on and I split it into two or three parts. A week and a half from now I’m doing a “Twink Week” in honor of my upcoming release, Absolutely Eric, (that features a very proud twink), so I’m having a bunch of guest bloggers from the m/m genre. But generally, I just blog when I feel like it. It’s not the best strategy, but it’s the only way I can stay active on my blog without clogging up with writer’s block.

I know writer's block. It seems sometimes you turn to activism. Do you find you're preaching to the choir about gay rights or falling on deaf ears? Do you see a lot of prejudice and discrimination in your daily life?

Update from Carla and Blog of the Day

Threesomes Volume 4 is now available on Amazon. Carla is looking for your input on her next project! Head over to her blog to have your say. Kharisma Rhayne's blog has been heating up my Google Reader lately. She has a delightful mix of photo content, questions for readers and teasers to tempt. If you haven't before, take a look at her blog.