Tag: postcards

I Feel Like the World has Passed Me By

I recently read a blog post that made my head spin. It left me wondering if I can make it as a writer. The world is changing at warp speed, and I cannot keep up.

My post today is a bit of a rant. Please bear with me. I’m curious. Do you feel the same way, or am I just an old fuddy-duddy? (Granted, if I casually use the term “fuddy-duddy,” I probably am one.)

What set off this particular rant (a.k.a., blog post)?

The blog post I’m referring to is https://writersinthestormblog.com/2024/02/social-media-best-practices-for-authors-in-2024/. This is a blog I have followed for years and I usually benefit from reading the posts. This particular one gave me pause.

I didn’t realize how much I was lagging behind in the world of social media until I learned that “you might want to consider IG Thread, Mastodon, or Bluesky (still in Beta and by invite only). The stated goal of Threads is to become part of the Fediverse (of which Mastodon is a part) so many people have just jumped straight over to Mastodon.”

WHAT?

That one paragraph was confusing on so many levels.

I continued reading and learned that there is also a social media platform called BeReal, in case I want people to know where I am at all times.

No thanks.

I learned that Reddit “has released an API in preparation for its upcoming IPO.” I have used Reddit, but I don’t know an API from an IPO. In fact, I have very little interest in learning the difference. (I’ve looked them up before, but I don’t have enough brain cells to clutter up my head with information I don’t need to recall.) It’s frustrating to read an article about what authors need to know about social media when you don’t understand the abbreviations. It’s overwhelming.

Granted, API and IPO were clickable, but the assumption is that I should already know what they are. It just reinforces my feelings that I’m so far behind there’s no hope for me to catch up. And, oh… in my spare time, when I’m not studying the latest technological advances and numerous social media platforms, I can do historical research and turn that into a novel.

I also learned from the Writers in the Storm blog post that “Google has been talking about E-A-T for a few years now, but with the extensive use of generative AI, they have added another E. This is good news for us, as their requirements and Quality Rater Guidelines for good content will almost certainly exclude most AI-created content. E-E-A-T stands for Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.”

The explanation of E-E-A-T was much appreciated because I had never heard of E-A-T in the first sentence of that paragraph, much less E-E-A-T.

My readers know I’m not the most computer-savvy person in the world, but I have managed to write a blog on a regular basis since January 24, 2010, format and publish two local history books, two short stories, and a cookbook for publication. All but the cookbook are available in electronic as well as print form. I’m on Facebook and have many boards of interest on Pinterest. I’ve learned how to create book covers and memes. I put a new meme on Pinterest six days a week to publicize my various books and short stories. I’ve created bookmarks, flyers, and business cards. I publish an e-newsletter. I have my own website.

Apparently, it is not enough.

I should not have to be a technology whiz to be an author, but I have read and heard a multitude of times that I need tens of thousands of followers on social media if I stand a chance of catching the eye of a literary agent or book publisher.

Perhaps I was born in the wrong century.

And did I mention the scammers I have to deal with several times a week?

I’m proud of my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, published by Arcadia Publishing in 2014; however, I can’t visualize it as a movie. I get numerous phone calls from people speaking broken English telling me that I can make boatloads of money if I agree to let them turn the book into a movie. I received a call a couple of weeks ago from someone claiming to be with HBO promising me $300,000 if I would allow them to turn my postcard book into a made-for-TV movie.

The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, by Janet Morrison

Yeah, right! I’m sure it would be a blockbuster.

Since my last blog post

I’m putting the finishing touches on my March newsletter. If you have not subscribed to my newsletter, please go to https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com, click on the “Subscribe” button, and fill in your email address. In return, you will receive a free downloadable copy of one of my short stories, “Slip Sliding Away: A Southern Historical Short Story” and you will receive my newsletter every other month.

In my newsletters I give details of the “field trips” I take to do research for my historical short stories and the historical novels I’m working on as well as photographs from those trips. I give more information about the things I’m doing to move my writing career forward than I do in my weekly blog posts.

I promise I won’t bombard your inbox with emails!

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read. As usual, I’m reading several books. So many books… so little time!

Please get your news from more than one reliable source.

Remember the people of Ukraine and let your representatives in Washington, DC know how you feel about aid to that country. It just might get through to them and make a difference.

Janet

Great Smoky Mountains, Revisited! (Part 2 of 2)

Today’s blog post is a continuation of my blog post last Monday, https://janetswritingblog.com/2019/10/21/great-smoky-mountains-revisited-part-1-of-2/. It is about my recent trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park and is illustrated with pictures of several of the postcards included in my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, and photographs I took on my trip in September.

Black Bears!

Here’s a picture of one of the many black bear postcards in my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

PHOTO OF LINEN-FINISH POSTCARD OF A BLACK BEAR IN GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK

And here are pictures of the bears I saw on this trip to the Great Smoky Mountains. The first picture is of a black bear, probably about two years old, after it crossed the road in front of our car. It completely ignored us, which was fine with us! (All these bear photos were taken from inside our car and using the zoom feature on my cell phone camera. As I stated in last Monday’s blog post, it’s against the law to willingly get within 150 feet of an elk or black bear in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.)

#BlackBears in #GSMNP
BLACK BEAR, PERHAPS TWO YEARS OLD, PHOTOGRAPHED IN GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS, 2019
#blackbears in #GSMNP
WELL-CAMOUFLAGED FEMALE BLACK BEAR IN GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK. HER TWO CUBS WERE IN THE BUSHES UP THE MOUNTAINSIDE.

If the car in front of us hadn’t stopped, we might have driven right by this mother bear and her two cubs. The mother was down in a ditch. After a couple of minutes, her two cubs came running down the hill. It was difficult to get good pictures due to the trees and undergrowth.

November 2016 Fire Damage

One of the iconic places in the park is Chimney Tops. I was sad to see that the late November 2016 wildfires had engulfed this double-peaked mountain in Swain County, North Carolina. The “up side” is that today the granite folds and rough edges of Chimney Tops are visible because the trees on the mountain were destroyed in the fires.

Here, I compare the photographs I took in September 2019 with a 1936 real photograph postcard I used in my vintage postcard book:

Chimney Tops in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Picture of a 1936 real photograph postcard of “Newfound Gap Highway” and “Chimney Tops.”
#ChimneyTops #Wildfire damage from 2016 as photographed in 2019
Chimney Tops in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in September 2019, still recovering from 2016 wildfires.
Mountainside vegetation burned off this mountain in 2016 #wildfires.
This mountainside, scarred by the 2016 wildfires, now shows off the rough, rocky folds that trees hid before the fires.
Evidence of more 2016 fire damage in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Clouds in a Valley

Valley #cloud in #GSMNP
Cloud in a valley in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on September 15, 2019.

We were in the right place at the right time for this photo of white clouds down in a valley in the park.

Why are they called the Great Smoky Mountains?

As I stated in my book, “The Great Smoky Mountains are called “smoky” due to the fog that rises from the valleys and mountainsides.”

These mountains were suffering under drought conditions when I visited the park in September 2019. August, September, and early October were very dry. My sister and I couldn’t help but notice there was very little of the typical wisps of fog when we were there a month ago. In fact, we only saw a little of it on our last day in the park. Here’s a photograph I took, but it isn’t a good representation of the multitude of wisps of fog that gave this sub-range of the Appalachian Mountains their name.

How the Great Smoky Mountains got their name.
A fair, but not great, example of how the Great Smoky Mountains got their name. Photo taken in September 2019.

Summary

I hope you can hear the babbling brooks and smell the wildflowers of Great Smoky Mountains National Park sometime. It is truly a national treasure. In fact, it is a global treasure. I’m fortunate to live just a few hours from this national park.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park was designated a World Heritage Site in 1983.
We owe a debt of gratitude to the men who served in the Civilian Conservation Corps and helped build Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Unlike many national parks in the United States, no admission fees are charged for entrance into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Many families were displaced when the park land was purchased. Before agreeing to sell their land to the U.S. Government, those families (most of whom were poor farmers) made the government agree that no admission to the park would ever be charged.

Since my last blog post

Since my last blog post, my sister and I spent several days on the coast of South Carolina. We enjoyed fresh seafood in Calabash, North Carolina.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read. I’m reading The Beekeeper of Aleppo, by Christy Lefteri.

If you’re a writer, I hope you have quality writing time.

Thank you for reading my blog. You could have spent the last few minutes doing something else, but you chose to read my blog.

Let’s continue the conversation

Have you visited the Great Smoky Mountains? If so, what were your impressions of it? What was the highlight of your trip?

The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina on the shelf at Lake Junaluska Bookstore.

As I stated in my blog post last Monday, https://janetswritingblog.com/2019/10/21/great-smoky-mountains-revisited-part-1-of-2/, I hate to “blow my own horn,” but I’d be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to tell you how you can have your own copy of my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, published by Arcadia Publishing in 2014.

Don’t let the name fool you, it covers all the mountainous counties in western North Carolina and the three counties in eastern Tennessee that are partially in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  Electronic and paperback copies are available from Amazon.com. Paperback copies are available from the publisher at https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/, at quality bookstores, or from me personally.

Janet

Postcard captions in dribs and drabs

The title for today’s blog posting came to me and triggered a question in my mind. Where or how did that saying originate? It seems that dribs dates back to the 17th century in some English, Irish, and Scottish dialects and meant “an inconsiderable quantity” or sort of like “drip.” The origin of drab in conjunction with drib isn’t as clear. It meant a “small debt or sum of money in England in the early part of the 19th century. I must admit, though, that I thought it was “drips and drabs” until I looked it up a few minutes ago. The joke is on me! It just goes to show that sometimes I think I know what I’m talking about but I actually don’t. At least I was using it correctly even though I wasn’t spelling or saying it correctly.

I had hoped to edit my historical novel manuscript, The Spanish Coin, for four hours today. (Anyone remember that Writing Plan of Action I posted about a few days ago?) Instead, a plumber was in the house working in various rooms for a couple of hours. It doesn’t take much to distract me. There was just no way I could settle down and get any uninterrupted time to edit that book between that disruption and then the aftermath of putting things back into cabinets and mopping the kitchen and bathrooms. I did not want to abandon my writing completely, so I did the research for and wrote nine vintage postcard captions in preparation for a possible piedmont North Carolina book for Arcadia Publishing. (My goal was to write two captions today.) I’ll keep you posted.