Writing Pet Peeves - Blog hop edition

When some people pass away, they want to be remembered for their work or what they’ve done. I honestly want to be remembered for how I am as much as for what I did because I try to be as kind as I can as a tribute to my parents and a great childhood.

That said, there are things that do annoy the piss out of me because after all, I am Only Human.

The highly talented Larysia Woropay made her list of things that spur the Amazon woman to behead a worthy victim or two, which you can explore by clicking here. In the process, she tagged me and several classy people to give our version to the list. Looking at pet peeves from a writer perspective, there’s tons of things that do annoy me, but here’s a list of the ones that REALLY get on my nerves:

In writing

• False advertising: Blurbs that are nothing like the book, misleading interviews, or people who say they kinda sorta include certain elements yet jam their stories full of it. I.e. a bit of romance is different than nut cringing lines about how much love is shared by two people that can’t be together but will, but can't, but maybe, but they should… sigh. I don’t mind romance, just be honest about it.

• Abuse of hinting… eventually you should stop being a complete tease and give us info but not hinting…. And hinting….. and hinting…. And hinting…. It can get old and you should always explore great care when hinting to pique interest but not annoy.

• CLEARLY using the synonym function of your word processor. It’s good to push vocabulary but it’s not good to abuse that and be hard to understand. The best stories shall never rely on big words and you should focus on story rather than vocabulary.

• Excess of typos. A typo can happen, but when you find over 30 typos in a book two things happen: 1. You look sloppy and take me out of the groove of the story and 2. you make me feel better for having books with less typos and basically doing all of this solo.

In Social media

• The Follow/Unfollow tango: This refers to the people that click follow and no sooner have you sent a thank you message that they unfollow you, so they can have a bigger follow to follower ratio. Sincerely, bite me.

• Automated messages: It is as big a turn off as I can ever get to interact with anyone. Seriously, I’m interested in people, not bots. No offense Skynet.

• People who lash out after a bad review. Firstly, what are you? 9? Bad reviews happen and you should take them as constructive criticism and push yourself harder. After all, there’s no crying in baseball and shouldn’t be any crying in writing, on our side of the writing at least.

In general

• Spamalamadingdong – you have a book and you want me to read it. Guess what? So do I, but I don’t send you dozens of messages force feeding my work because it is not the right way to establish a connection. I know I under promote myself, which is on me, but I prefer that than leaving that spam after taste with every message.

Are there more things that annoy me? But of course, but instead of rambling on, I’ll tag some highly talented people that can add to the list:

Cate Evans (https://lifeviewpoints.com/)

Miss Evans may be an incredible professional in her field, but don’t let that distract you from her writing talents. She is thoughtful, kind, and has a level of intuition that connects at a very deep level. I’ve had the pleasure of reading her work on Wattpad and as a Beta reader and I can say with every certainty that you can expect great things from her.

Sarah Brentyn (https://sarahbrentyn.wordpress.com)

The snark shark of the Lemon Shark reef is one of the most interesting bloggers I’ve ever read and I’ve been reading blogs for about a decade. Deep, questioning and with a heavy dose of smartassery, her blog is not only excellent in the content, but the comments are always, and I mean ALWAYS enlightening, showing that great communities can come together and share the snark.

Kimberly Vanderhorst (http://www.kimvanderhorst.com)

Yet another lovely Canadian I’ve been able to connect with through social media, Kimberly grew up sandwiched between the mountains and the sea of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A writer of books, great flash fictions, and a good kind person, how could I resist peeking into what brings out the fury? Lol.

Hope Denney – (https://twitter.com/HopeDenney2)

Hope is a great gal from the state of Tennessee. Fun, bubbly, kind, and talented, It’s always nice to see what she’s up to and what surprises she’ll tweet up.

Reve Ree – ReedWithaBee (http://dodoaugogo.blogspot.com)

Hailing from down under, ReeDaBee has a blog, a fascinating twitter account, and an intense amount of stories in her head, she’s prying away one word at a time. A wonderful traveler of the River of Imagination, many delights await if you give a click.

SR Martin (http://srmartinblog.blogspot.com)

A Shih Tzu lover into Harry Potter, movies, books, and video games, SR Martin has a lovely blog and does great interviews of which I was able to be a part of. Great blog from good people are always appreciated.

How about you though? What annoys you to no end? What peeves grate your nerves to the next level? Let go of that anger. After all it'll make it easier to enjoy the...

Peace, love, and maki rolls

Tea with JD Dissecting the Dialogue

JD 101 - Q&A after 100 youtube subscribers

It's more than just about you

In recent weeks I've done a lot of following of accounts in different social media but I've also done a lot of unfollowing. That's because to me, support is a two-way street. It has been that way for me for a long time because in the end, it's more than about just our own passions and if someone is kind enough to support, the least we can do is show interest and support back. 

Through my writer journey, I've met some truly amazing people. Every time I delve into a new social media platform, I meet more great people and plenty of people who offer support, whom I'm happy to support back. I think it's something basic, a like for a like, a follow for a follow. I like to keep things level and although I follow hundreds of accounts I do try and make time for as many people as possible, but I'm focusing more on the people who make time for me or make time for others. 

Here's the thing, I've seen a couple of accounts where users are all about their work. Them, them, them. They have followers, but they also have no time for anyone or so it seems. They always plug their work and it's all about them and after a while, it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. That's why I've focused on supporting writers, youtubers, and people in general who look beyond their own work. Not necessarily because they're better people, but because we're more aligned. 

People would think that someone who is pushing their work exclusively is either an egomaniac, or an asshole, but that's not necessarily true. They are just focused on their thing, and that's fine, that's their right and by numbers alone, you can see that it works. For the longest time I've tried to contact and thank every person who follows me, reply to every comment, and also look into other people's work or what they're into. Do I want to be successful? Of course, but not at the cost of being an egomaniac. That's not to say I don't have pride in my work and what I do but it is to say that in my life view, I want to care about people and not just their attention and money. When people come to my booth at the Puerto Rico Comic Con, we can get to talking a lot and I really like that. Sometimes I do ask for a moment to see if someone else is interested in my work or has questions, but that has to do more with manners than it does with wanting their money. 

To clarify: Yes I do want to sell a lot of books. Yes I want to be successful. But I also want to offer support to the great people I come in contact with, be it an aspiring author, a fellow indie author, a young teenager who is just blossoming into who they will become, or a person with an abundance of beautiful words that just needed one nudge to share their work. I've supported each of those types of people and they make me proud with their work and their kindness. And that's what it all comes down to supporting each other and going for gold. 

I still have plenty of emails to write from my Puerto Rico Comic Con yearbook, and I will get to that in the month of October. During the PRCC, I had a notebook where people could write notes of encouragement and they could leave their contact on social media or email to keep in touch. I've replied to about half the people but life has been a little intense and I haven't finished, but I'm insistent on finishing because these are people that came to my booth, that talked with me, that bought something, and that cared, and the least I can do is care back. 

With indie authors, I've found some really wonderful people with such varied talents and personalities that you can't help but smile that such an eclectic group of people can be that kind and that giving. Yet I keep finding people with that focus of wanting to achieve their dreams but being happy to support other people. I'm talking about people who are as busy as busy gets yet STILL they make time for others. People with pride but without ego. People with talent and desire that inspire me to push harder, to write better, to share more, to dig deeper, and to look a dream in the eye and say, "let's do this." 

So thank you to each person who reads, supports, helps, inspires, motivates, and gives. 

Because it's not about you.

It's not about me.

It's about us.

Peace, love, and maki rolls. 

Why I do what I do and how I do it

Some people say they have it all figured out. I don't. What I do have is a reason for most or all of what I do and how I do it. 

From how I am as a human, a man, a husband, a friend, a song, a Hispanic, a writer, and even as a would be musician, I try to have a purpose be it to have a positive impact, discussing difficult topics, crafting something for me and others to escape, or to write something that may help me heal my soul while also helping someone else. 

I've been asked why I do so many things and whether it distracts me from what matters. Here's the thing, what matters to me the most is to have a positive impact. So that youtube video, that tweet, that google + share, that blog post, that picture on Instagram, that share on Facebook, that comment, it all has a purpose, to bring a smile, to show someone that they matter, to show that if someone is hurting, someone else cares, to inspire, to invite to create, and to promote understanding. 

I have a pretty creative nature and I like to embrace it all because I don't want to wonder. I want to push myself creatively because it honestly brings me a lot of happiness to do so. From a doodle, to a novel, I like giving it all a try because I want to show that there are no limits if you just put yourself in a situation to give it a shot. 

By no means am I a professional musician, yet this year when the opportunity to record my music arose, I went for it, because why not? When I was asked by the Puerto Rico Comic Con staff if I would be willing to interview Claudia Gray, I said yes, because why not? 

In regards to doing different things on social media platforms I do what I do because I truly believe every platform has its language and beauty. I share doodles, silly pictures, and countless visual captures on Instagram because sometimes a silly post can help you get to a better place. I write these blog posts and countless other things because you can connect to other people via written thoughts. I post songs and ramblings on youtube because I believe there is a desire and need to connect and sometimes you need a friendly face to say everything is going to be all right or to drink tea and tell you what they thought about something they wrote or read. I share on my Facebook page several things because sometimes you need something random to inspire. I tweet because I like the challenge of condensing thoughts to 140 characters plus it's amazing how much support we can offer in a tweet.

In my work, I write poetry because I believe it helps me to become a much better writer. I write novels because some of the best lessons in my life have come from stories. I do the Blanc Comics because I want young people to be inspired and to be tolerant of points of view. I also want young artists to have a way to showcase their skills. I take poetry to comic conventions because I will never underestimate an audience and shall always share the deepest of me. I talk to people to the point of losing my voice at conventions because some people just need a friendly voice to talk to. I also do it because I want to show I'm just a guy with dreams and goals who is not afraid to go for it. I do that to show them I not only care but am very much looking forward to seeing their work.

So if you ever wonder why I do so many things, why I put so much effort, the only real answer is this:

Because why not?

Peace, love, and maki rolls

BookTube Geek Tag (By Jay Dee Archer)