Penultimate (probably!) Almost Final Ramblings Through Social Media – Fridays

Penultimate (probably!) Almost Final Ramblings Through Social Media – Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays

I use #FF for my specific Friday tweets on a single author.

1. Each week I select one of the authors I follow.
2. If I haven’t read any of her/his work, I check on Amazon for reviews of one of her/his books.

My #FF tweets always look something like:

#FF for a great #scifi read: The Cosega Sequence "Cosega is still a
dangerous word" @BrandtLegg http://ow.ly/P3WOR@SherryFrazier

Due to the 140-character length restriction of Twitter, I’m forced to present much less enticement to read the book as I’d like. However, I always include either an abbreviated quote from one of the author’s books or a review. The link is always to Amazon’s page for that book.

If I have room—usually far from the case—I’ll attach a photo of the book cover. However, the Amazon link frequently does that. I’m not sure why that’s not 100% of the time, but…

I have received very complementary feedback from authors I have included in #FF’d. Below is an example.

Besides #FF on Fridays I include a #SciFact and an announcement of and a link to that week’s Expressions of Faith blog post.

On both Friday and Saturday I SEVERELY restrict my Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook professional presence to a single tweet, update, or status. The copy is the same in all three venues. It’s recaps my past weeks blog post and previews the blog posts in the upcoming week.

#BLOG 7/28 #writing – 7/31 - #EoF: Power 

8/3 #Almanacre: 8/3/1958 – 8/7 #EoF: Qualified Check it out!http://ow.ly/PaGp7

Next blog: Absolutely the Last Ramblings Through Social Media – For now!

In this concluding post on social media for this go around, I’ll discuss my #SciFact posts and give a update on my expanded list of lists and my use of those lists. Whew!

Follow me on Twitter: @CRDowningAuthor and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRDowningAuthor

My website is: www.crdowning.com

Still More Ramblings through Social Media – Thursdays

Still More Ramblings through Social Media – Thursdays

Let’s review.

Blog wise, my week looks like this:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Blog: A Day in the Life of a Science Fiction Writer
1st and 3rd Mondays are Almanac posts with comments on life—mine, with examples, and life in general	2nd and 4th Tuesdays will continue the Day in the Life posts with thoughts on writing and associated topics	No regular blog posts	No regular  blog posts	Every Friday there will be and Expression of Faith post. These are short devotional thoughts on specific Scripture verses
Twitter: @crdowningAuthor
#SciFiBday #SciFact	#SciFact	#(book title) #apbioanswers #SciFact	#TBT #apbioanswers #SciFact	#FF #SciFact

New Stuff—mostly.

Since today is a Second Tuesday, this is a blog on writing and the business of writing. Specifically, this is another post what I’m doing with social media.

Twitter, Facebook, and this blog are my primary foci for social media. I also post daily to LinkedIn. LinkedIn posts are the same as my Twitter tweets. Hootsuite allows me to direct any message to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn at the same time. Therefore, the amount of time I spend on planned tweets also fuels the fires on Facebook and LinkedIn—a BIG saving of time!

When I put up the message through Hootsuite, all three of the media channels are set to release the message at the same time. That’s fine with me for Twitter and LinkedIn. But, since my CRDowningAuthor Facebook page is set to automatically forward whatever I post there to Twitter, I don’t the Facebook post to be at the same time as the Tweet. So, I edit the LinkedIn post-time to later in the day.

Changing the time of the Facebook post gives me two of the same posts on Twitter. I have a goal for all scheduled tweets to be tweeted twice during the day—once in the AM and again in the PM—so I copy and paste my tweets into a new Hootsuite message for just Twitter if they are only tweets. All I have to change is the release time.

I described #apbioanswers in the last blog. They are only on Twitter and are targeted at AP Biology students.

Thursdays

#TBT is the typical “throwback Thursday” most of you are familiar with. My goal here is to highlight some of my collection of Golden Age (1940-1970ish) sci fi anthologies or novels—or a book by my Birthday author that week.

Here’s a sample Tweet.

#TBT Remember this classic by John E. Stith? http://ow.ly/NC0AN The link shows the cover of one of his books, Redshift Rendezvous.

And this is the Monday b’day tweet for that week.

#SciFiBdays John E. Stith 68 Prolific hard sci-fi @SherryFrazier http://ow.ly/NBZVM http://ow.ly/NBZVN

I try to include a photo of the cover of the book listed on #TBT. The cover is a link to where the book can be published, if it’s still in print.

You probably noticed that #SciFact is ubiquitous. More on the rationale for the ubiquity in two weeks in the next Tuesday blog.

Next blog: Ramblings through Social Media (continued) – #SciFact

Follow me on Twitter: @CRDowningAuthor and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRDowningAuthor

My website is: www.crdowning.com

A Science Guy’s Almanac: Introduction

A Science Guy’s Almanac:  Introduction

The blog that follows this in 30 minutes is the first of a new, continuing series. I’ve titled the series A Science Guy’s Almanac—mostly because each post will focus on a specific day and year. What you are reading in this Introduction is a bit of background of me and the concept. All remaining Almanac posts will go up at 0700 Pacific Time

Almanac posts are significantly different in content and style from the other posts in A Day In The Life Of A Science Fiction Writer.

Day In The Life postings deal with issues of authorship, writing as a profession, and related topics. Those posts appear on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month. Those posts will continue on those days. I suspect they will be shorter in length starting than in the past, but the content will not change.

Almanac postings are an eclectic collection of short articles on life—mine and life in general. These posts will be the first and third Mondays of each month.

You’ll have to check on Monday and Tuesday of any 5^th week in a month to see what I’ve decided to post for that week.

I started teaching high school in September of 1973. My last day in a high school classroom was in June 2012. During the 39 intervening years, my life happened.

Top: October of 1973 at Monte Vista. Bottom: June of 1012 at my retirement party. 

Between 1996 and 2004, I was full time faculty in Teacher Education and Biology at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California. From 1973-1996 I taught all levels of biology and Coordinated Science at Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley, California. Beginning in 2004 and ending at my retirement in 2012, I taught biology and Global Science at Great Oak High School in Temecula, California.

All three of my teaching experiences were wonderful. I wouldn’t trade any of those days away.

Since I am a teacher, the firs blog post in the Almanac relates directly to teaching. I hope you enjoy this initial post…

And those that follow.

P.S. Check my blog every Friday for another NEW series of blog posts: Expressions of Faith. This series of posts—averaging 100 words each—are very short devotionals consisting of combinations of thoughts, observations, admonitions, and prayers. They present a view into a very important part of me! They should make you think. I hope you enjoy them.

See you in 30 minutes.

Follow me on Twitter: @CRDowningAuthor and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRDowningAuthor

My website is: www.crdowning.com

I’d appreciate your thoughts about these A Science Guy’s Almanac posts

Feel free to email me at: dr.d@engage-in-science.com