Category: Writing Ramblings

NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Caridad Pineiro shares articles and hints on the craft and discipline of writing!

Posted on

Thoughtful Thursday – Cuba Finally Free?

This Thoughtful Thursday may be a little rambling because I suspect it will be an emotional Thoughtful Thursday.

On Tuesday, I had quite a few e-mail and text messages forwarding the news that Castro had resigned. A number of people, especially the political pundits, see it as a sign of welcome change. For a lot of others, like me, it’s just another end run in the game that Castro has been successfully playing for the last 50 years.

Let’s face it. Castro turned over power to his younger brother, Raul, in July ’06. Some say Raul is ready to make changes to better the Cuban economy and has made overtures to the United States since accepting power. With his older brother still alive, I find it hard to believe that the necessary changes will occur.

What kinds of changes? The right to free speech. The right to travel freely. The right to be able to earn a sound living and keep what you earn. The right to freely choose who will govern your country.

In other words, an end to dictatorship, whether it be Fidel, Raul or some other puppet. If that happened, I could finally say that Cuba was free, but not before that.

Many have asked me if I would go back if that happened and the answer needs little thought. I’d go back once Fidel was dead to see where I was born. To see the home my parents lost to the Revolution. The home were Fidel would send soldiers to harass my grandparents and two small children so that my parents, once supporters turned dissidents, would return and face their punishment.

I’d take my daughter with me to see it because she understands the wound in my heart that is Cuba. I remember the early years here in the U.S. and all the sadness in my family and with their friends. I remember being 5 or 6 and asking my mother when we’d go back. She said “Soon.”

I remember my daughter at 5 or 6 asking almost the same thing. “When can I go see Cuba?” I said, “Soon.”

Soon isn’t here yet. It may not be here for awhile. Not until there is true freedom in Cuba. That’s a vow I made to my grandparents and parents who never got to return.

But there’s one thing left to say when people ask me if I will go back. I will go back, but I will also return to what is now my home and my country — the United States. It’s the country that’s made me who I am and given me all that I hold dear, chief amongst that — LIBERTY!

I am proud of this country. Proud of how it treated me and so many others like me. One of the proudest days in my life was the one when I stood up and became a U.S. citizen.

Unlike some in politics today who can’t muster that pride in the United States, I have not doubts about my feelings for the United States and no doubts that freedom for Cuba may still be a long way off.

Copyright 2008 Caridad Pineiro Scordato, www.caridad.com

Posted on

I’m on the Web, Therefore I Am

pc.jpgAn Internet presence is one of the most important steps that an author can take, and it doesn’t require a big financial investment. The problem many authors face is deciding what kind of web presence they wish to have since there are so many types of websites and each has different benefits and burdens.

I hope this Tuesday Tip provides you with some basic information about establishing a presence on the worldwide web and the different ways you can accomplish that.

The most common way of getting a presence on the web is through a traditional website, such as the one that I have at www.caridad.com or THE CALLING site at www.thecallingvampirenovels.com. Websites such as these generally require the following:

1. Registration of the domain name (for example, www.caridad.com).
2. A server to host the site (in laymen’s terms, a computer which will hold
the computer files for the website).
3. An FTP (or file transfer protocol) program to copy/upload the files to the
server.
4. Coding of the website.
5. Maintenance of the website.

If you’re not tech literate, you may require someone who can do the above steps for you. Companies such as Stone Creek, Moonglade Designs, Crocos Designs, Noveltalk, Writerspace, Coffee Time Romance, Romance Designs, and others will provide packages that can do all or part of the above.

One advantage of going with such a package is that you can choose for your website to be listed with other websites in the company’s “community.” Belonging to such communities may result in increased traffic to your site and added benefits, such as the ability to chat with readers who visit the community, or inclusion in a monthly newsletter. Most of these packages include maintenance as part of the services offered.

Another option is to register the domain name on your own and then have a programmer do the remaining steps or a combination of same. For example, I registered my own domain, engaged a hosting service (siteocity.com or bananahosting.com are ones I would recommend) and had the programmer do steps 3 and 4. I do maintenance and upgrades on my own.

This has the benefit of allowing me to control the website and do unlimited updates whenever I want. The down side to this is that I had to learn some HTML coding in order to update my site. A great site for information on HTML codes is HTML Code Tutorial at http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/. The other down side is that doing the web coding will take time away from other things. However, if cost and control are factors, this is a nice mix.

If you’re not tech literate, you can reduce the need to learn a lot of code by going with a platform such as WordPress for your website. WordPress is a free program that has quite a number of additions (plugins) that make it relatively easy to maintain the site or even add features such as video trailers, flash, etc.

WordPress also has a number of free themes (themes are the look of the site). You can choose from a wide variety of themes or hire a programmer to create a unique theme for your site.

If you are not familiar with hosting, FTP, or coding, you will likely need a programmer if you are going to install the WordPress site on your own, but if cost is an issue, there is the alternative to create the website right at the main WordPress site at www.wordpress.org. This will avoid installation, hosting, and FTP issues.

One nice feature of WordPress is that it is basically a blogging program, so you can create a site that has traditional website features (pull-down menus, etc.) as well as a blog. There are a number of other free blogging programs, but I am going to save that discussion for a future article.

Once you’ve decided whether you are going to go with a hosted website in a community or a website you will manage in whole or in part on your own, what do you need to do next?

Research, research, research. You want your website to reflect your unique style, and the programmer (or you if you decide to do it on your own) will need to make basic decisions about the following:

1. Colors and fonts
2. Kinds of pages you want (For example biography, booklist, contest)
3. Menu Styles (Will you want them to drop down, or will they be links on the page? Will they be on the side or along the top?)
4. Flash or no-flash (Those animated intros that so many sites have)
5. Blog
6. Getting listed on the Search Engines
7. Joining a community

For the first four, take your time searching the web for sites that you like. Make a list of the sites and what you liked about each particular site. Check the site to see who designed it if you’ve decided to go with hiring an individual programmer rather than going with one of the packages. For fonts, one good site to visit is cooltext.com which lists a number of different fonts grouped by style—for example, horror or gothic fonts.

Whether you are going with the package, individual programmer, or on your own, make a list of all the things you wish to see immediately on the website. The price of the site is oftentimes linked to the number of pages you wish to have.

Then, make a wish list of those things you would eventually like to do, but can’t do right now. For example, those flash intro pages can be quite eye-catching, but sometimes slow to load when using dial-up lines. They can also be rather expensive, ranging anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars for a small header flash to thousands for larger and more complex flash elements. Let the programmers know what you would like to add eventually so that they can create the flexibility in what they are programming to allow for change.

Good programmers should show you a mock-up or two of a possible site based on the information you have provided them. This way you can fine tune the general look of the site before developing all the pages.

Some other things to remember:

1. Make sure your name or the name of the site is clear and prominent. The purpose of the site is to build your brand.
2. The site should reflect your writing style or theme. Again, this will help to build your brand visually.
3. If you are going to add a blog, Myspace, or other page, try to keep the above two items in mind and create a unified brand across all of your web presences.
4. Have key information on the main page and keep it current. There is nothing worse than visiting a site that has outdated information.
5. Give your visitors information about yourself, and give them some fun things to do while they are visiting. Fun things can include: video trailers, recipes, photo galleries, excerpts, contests.
6. Ask the programmer to include some kind of site meter so you can see how many hits you are getting and from where. Google has some wonderful site tracking software that is free for sites below a certain volume of hits.

If you do not have a web presence, I hope the above will help you in establishing one. If you do have a presence, maybe this information has provided you with some new ideas.

Copyright 2007 Caridad Pineiro Scordato www.caridad.com

Posted on

Thoughtful Thursday – National Wear Red Day

Tommorrow, Feb 1, is National Wear Red Day to remind women to take care of their hearts! Join the thousands who will wear red (my favorite color by the way) to help build awareness that women are at risk for heart disease.

As women, we listen to the emotion in her hearts, but sometimes forget about listening to the health of our hearts. It’s an important thing to do to keep us living longer.

We’re often torn in so many different directions, being moms, working, writing, you name it. Women sometimes ignore those little aches and pains, the breathlessness and other things that may be warning signs that something is wrong. We tell ourselves that we don’t have the time to take care of ourselves because so many others depend on us.

Well, imagine what would happen if you weren’t there?

My mom was always a giver. She placed her own needs above those of her own. It’s why she ignored those little things she thought were nothing. Sadly, it was more than nothing. Maybe if she had listened to her heart, I’d still have her with me.

So please, remind yourself to check out your heart and keep it healthy by wearing red tomorrow or everyday! (I used to wear red so much in high school, that my best friends teasingly called me THE CHERUB!)

For more information on National Wear Red Day and to get lots of valuable information about keeping your heart healthy, you can click here and visit THE HEART TRUTH website!

Posted on

Worldbuilding

The World of THE CALLINGAs an author, you do hold the world in the palm of your hands when creating your novel. This is particularly true if you are writing science fiction, fantasy or paranormals (the SFP from now on to save some time).

What’s the first thing to do on your way to building a world for your novel? The first thing to do is to decide what kind of world it is, namely:

Posted on

Tech for free!

pc.jpgWhenever I buy a new computer for the office or home, I’m always astounded at how the biggest part of the price is for the software! Now, I understand that there’s development costs and the like, but it’s still a big chunk of money to put down for something that you will have to buy again in a few years.

So because of that, I am always on the lookout for freeware or shareware that’s inexpensive and keeping my eye open for new ways of doing things that will make my life easier.

Here’s a few of the things I’ve discovered! Continue reading “Tech for free!”

Posted on

Thoughtful Thursday – Hope and Sadness

My wonderful friend and fellow author Irene Peterson always seems to find something interesting to send my way. Whether it’s something about a weird paranormal adventure or in this case, the land of my birth — Cuba.

Yesterday Irene sent me a link about the renovations going on in Old Havana. The New York Times article talks about Eusebio Leal Spengler and how Mr. Leal was given extraordinary powers by my friend (NOT!) Fidel, who allows Mr. Leal to collect taxes and use the profits from tourism in the old center to rebuild this area. (Collect taxes and use the profits? Sounds suspiciously like capitalism to me, but what do I know?) Continue reading “Thoughtful Thursday – Hope and Sadness”

Proudly powered by WordPress