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Cathy C. Hallhttps://cathychall.wordpress.com/I write, write, write. Then I rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. THEN I submit all those polished-up words out into the world and sell 'em. It's a plan that's worked pretty well.

Finding Something Friday Pushes YouTube (Like They Need A Push)

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What I’m really pushing is you, I suppose, to get out there and explore YouTube. ‘Cause I’m convinced that YouTube is the face of the future in marketing and promotion. Yes, even for writers.

This morning, I read in my PWDaily about a 91-year-old grandma, Clara Cannucciari, who’s just garnered a book deal, thanks in large part to her YouTube and Facebook presence. Her grandson, Chris Cannucciari filmed her, cooking Depression-era dishes and talking about the lives and times of those difficult days. I couldn’t believe what a great job this Italian grandmother did in this segment (see her Youtube video and be amazed!). And now the grandson’s writing the book, Cooking With Clara.

I’m not very handy in the whole videocam world, but I think it’s time to quit watching and start doing. My bud, Bill Elder, who has a terrific vlog (It’s over there in my Favorite Detours), has snagged a ton of subscribers, and he’s doing some slam-up promotion for his voiceover business. I need to apply what’s left of my little gray cells and jump on that YouTube bandwagon. The sooner, the better. I ain’t getting any younger, you know.

And for those of you who thought you might be too old for Facebook (Okay, I’m including myself), I have two (or four) words: 91-year-old Clara. Stand back, grandma, I’m jumping in!

Finding a Whim on Wednesday

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Technically, my whim began on Tuesday. Here’s the story…

I wanted to say a few words about blogging and etiquette and commenting and such over at my other blog (Cathy C.’s Hall of Fame) since I’d just hosted a blog tour there. And a line from The Walrus and the Carpenter kept going ’round and ’round my head, so I slapped that into the post (It was the line about cabbages and kings, if you must know). Then, before I knew what I’d done, purely on a whim, I up and posted the “Cabbages and Kings Blogging Comment Contest.”

Well. I thought wouldn’t a picture of that famous scene from Alice Through the Looking Glass be just swell? And I found a really swell pic, from this splendiferous site, Karen’s Whimsy. And what I loved about Karen’s site was that she had tons of public domain pictures from old, old, picture books; many of them were children’s picture books. And the picture I used had been converted so that it could be colored. Isn’t that even more swell? Here’s another one, so you can see what I mean.

Alice in Wonderland - 5

Now, don’t you think that’s splendiferous? I kinda wish my kids were still little so they could color an old-fashioned picture like this of Alice at the Tea Party.

The second serendipitous whim came along when Danette Haworth stopped by my blog to comment (Oh! You should go over there to Cathy’s C.’s and comment yourself if you want to try and win a copy of  Query Letters That Rock!). Danette has a delightful blog (A Summer Friend) where she mentioned Alan Rinzler, the Executive Editor at Jossey Bass Publishing and his blog, The Book Deal, An Inside View of Publishing. Which happens to be just what I need these days.

So, all on a whim, I came across a handful of keepers. I love it when whims have a happy ending.