Bad Girls, Good Guys, and Two-Fisted Action Blog Welcomes Tommy Hancock Onboard As a Regular Columnist

For Immediate Release

October 14, 2015

Bad Girls, Good Guys, and Two-Fisted Action Blog Welcomes Tommy Hancock Onboard As a Regular Columnist

Atlanta, Ga.—Anyone who has read almost any book in the new pulp movement should have more than just a passing knowledge of Tommy Hancock. In addition to being a writer and publisher, he was recently the pivotal point upon which one of the greatest collection of new pulp writers gathered to create an anthology to benefit him in his medical ills, scheduled for release in late 2015.

But now he’s back… along with all those ignited, controversial, and often just plain fun opinions that have made him so followed and popular with his fans.

That means his former blog, Ideas Like Bullets, now has a new home as a weekly column at the Bad Girls, Good Guys, and Two-Fisted Action Blog. Tommy’s columns will appear every Friday on the blog as a regular feature until either his fingers fall off from typing or the Martian tripods invade and take over.

“I can’t even come up with words to tell you how happy I am to have Tommy over at the blog,” says Sean Taylor, administrator and creator of the Bad Girls… blog. “Tommy’s not only a great friend and a supporter, but he’s also one of the guys who has helped build new pulp, helped it grow up and embrace the broader marketability of genre fiction. I can’t wait to see what he has to say.”

“It’s been an interesting few months health wise for me, which always leaves someone reflective. One thing I spent a lot of time doing, though, was keeping my mind focused on what would come next, which is something I do on a regular basis anyway. Pulp is a primary part of my life, my career as the full timed Editor in Chief at Pro Se Productions, but also just something that is very important to me. And I realized I had things to say, things that didn’t really fit on the Pro Se page, but also weren’t comments or such I wanted to make anywhere else, because most of my social media stuff is mostly hewed to Pro Se or my own writing promotion. So I considered going back into blogging, something I’d done intermittently before, but at least an arena where I could sort of take the hat off if I wanted and talk about whatever seemed to perk, pique, or peeve my interest. And although there will be times that it doesn’t seem to have much to do with writing it all, for me, everything ends up back at writing and Pulp, no matter how eclectic the path I take to get there is. And when the opportunity to become a part of the fantastic, over-the-top blog Sean is doing presented itself, I’d have had to be a dead John Doe in a dark back alley not to say yes.”

Bad Girls, Good Guys, and Two-Fisted Action is the official writing blog of Sean Taylor. But it's not just a place to promote his stuff. It's a resource of information about writing and creating genre fiction, literary prose, comic books, and just about anything else you can create with pens, pencils, paper, or word-processing software and a printer. On the site, you'll be able to find publishers calling for submissions, tutorials about the craft of writing and editing, interviews with other writers, links to helpful and fascinating articles about the art, craft and business of writing and publishing, etc. -- and of course, yes, you'll also be able to keep up with whatever Sean has his writerly little paws involved in too. To visit the blog, go to http://seanhtaylor.blogspot.com. For more information, email staylor104@aol.com.

Basic Webpage Design for Writers

by Sean Taylor

In this day and age, when even simple, fill-in-the-blank tools like Wix, Blogger, Wordpress, and Webs can create an attractive, easy-to-navigate site, there's simply no excuse for any author to have a less-than-professional looking home on the Internet.

And just a cursory glance at a few author sites this morning for both folks I know and support and folks I don't know at all tells me that we need a basic web design for authors seminar.

The top five glaring "sins" I see as I look at writers' pages?

1. Unhelpful or confusing navigation, or no navigation at all.
2. Overly long blocks of text with little to no white space and/or graphics.
3. Annoying rainbow colors and/or blinking text to highlight key items.
4. No "brand" ID or site logo. 
5. All content thrown together on one single page rather than broken up into more useful chunks.

NOTE: I am a designer and have designed numerous web sites both professionally and personally, but, what I'm demonstrating here is not advanced technique. These are the basic design elements that will enable your author page to be attractive, follow the eyes' natural reading disposition, and meet the needs of web readers. What I'm demonstrating here are merely the basic building blocks that you can dress up and personalize in as many ways as there are website owners to adapt them.

Essentially readable, attractive web design gets down to three basic components for the non-web designer author:

• Title/Logo
• Navigation Menu
• Content

So let's look at each of the parts and get to know them and what makes them work on an effective website.

Title/Logo

The title/logo doesn't have to be fancy or a work of Photoshop genius. In a lark, even a colored box with your name in it can work with a good sense of color and font choice.

For example, the title image of this blog is designed to reflect the pulpy, genre-writing tone of the content. My friend Bobby Nash uses a logo that reinforces the notion of a writer as a computer typists and eschews images altogether.

Navigation Menu

A navigation menu can be done in many ways, across the top or down the side or as part of the title logo as an image map (if you want to fancy it up a bit). Regardless, a good navigation menu will divide the content of the site into pages that break up the monotony of a "one long page of everything' text dump. Like goes with like.

For example, the categories across in my menu here on the blog divide my content into separate pages for the blog's content, from reading the key articles and checking for in-person author appearances, but it also includes my promotional pages for reading reviews of my books and purchasing my books. Thanks to the navigation menu, readers who only want the blog content can use that, but readers who actually want to support me as an author can do so as well, without being forced to do both in one long page of digging through the stuff they don't want to get to the stuff they actually want.

And that is the purpose of an effective navigation menu, in a nutshell, to get readers and viewers to the content they are looking for in the quickest, most efficient way possible.

Content

Content is the key to a good website. Period.

Content can include text or text and images. The best content is some mix of the too, using images that related to the text on the page. Fundamentally , it should be easy to read, with no fancy text effects just as blinks or highlighted backgrounds or funky, eye-killing fonts. Images should be neither tiny nor huge, and fit easily within a single screen scroll. And, speaking of scrolling, typically a well-designed page of content (i.e., a page that is categorized in your menu navigation plan) shouldn't go on for more than 3 screen scrolls typically unless the page is a feature article or online short story.

Don't forget white space in your content. A visual break is one of your best friends on the web. That means keep your paragraphs short and your margins wide. 

Getting Graphic

I know what you're thinking. Telling me is one thing, but I really want you to show me what you're talking about. Okay, since showing instead of telling is the hallmark of being a successful writer, I'll do it here too.

This image illustrates four of the most common ways these three elements are put together for basic, attractive website design. And yes, these are very generic looking, but this is the basic, 101 class, not the fancy one for web-gurus. You can always dress them up later as your skills grow.

In the top left model you get the basic blog-style stacked design with a logo on top, followed by a navigation menu, and finally the actual content.

In the top right, you get the side-navigation model, with the logo on top and the menu to the left of the content.

In the bottom left, is one of my favorite designs, which incorporates the menu into the logo image.

In the final, bottom right model, you basically have an inverse of the one above it, with the menu on the right instead of the left. Be careful with this one, because if you aren't careful you can have the menu slide off the side of the page in some browsers.

Putting Myself on the Chopping Block -- A Case Study

Let's look at a real-life example. Click this link now (a new window will open for you to flip back and forth to examine while you read): www.taylorverse.com.

That's my official writer's website (this is my official blog, in case you're confused -- okay, it's semantics).

Let's examine the title/logo. It's a little busy (and the dialog balloon even pokes fun at that), but it's clear from the logo where you are and what you're in for on the site.

Next let's look at the menu bar. At first glance it's a blog stack model, but if you look closer you'll see that the menu is actually part of the image, tabbed across the bottom, so it's a blend of the top left and bottom left design times from the image above. Getting all that on one page would be a nightmare, so these tabbed categories help readers get to what they want.

Finally, let's look at the content. All it says on the main page basically just a hello and welcome. It has a few book cover images, a drop cap (like in a book since I'm a writer), and an illustration of me to dress up the text a bit. To personalize it a little, there are a few quotes down the side.

Notice this. The page scrolls only once.

Why?

Because the page is just to let people know where they are. The menu gets them to where they want to go next. My main page is an invitation to go deeper. That's the sole point of it.

If my main page were an invitation to buy my books, then it would be a differently looking page altogether.

Here are a few examples of attractive, efficient, but not expensive and fancy, high-fallutin' author sites:

• http://christafaust.net/
• http://www.petrucha.com/
• http://www.stephenzimmer.com/
• http://www.vitodelsante.com/
• http://daadams.com/

And in Conclusion...

There it is in a nutshell, basic web design for writers.

• Use a logo that tells readers who you are and what your site is for.
• Set up an efficient navigation menu.
• Don't dump everything on one page and make readers scroll and scroll and dig and dig.
• Keep your content engaging and arranged by categories (like goes with like).
• Think graphically and make it look good.

Of course, you can get more advanced than this with your design, but even these basics will give you an easy on the eyes, simple to navigate, efficiently laid-out site that won't scream "I don't know what I'm doing."

Bibbity, Bloggity, Boo -- Writers Who Blog

Let's talk turkey about being a writer with a blog, shall we?

What is the purpose of your blog -- to promote your name and work, to post personal anecdotes, to build a community of your supporters, etc.?

Marian Allen: All of the above. I use my blog (http://marianallen.com/) to showcase my work, but I also share information and recommendations with fellow writers, fellow readers, and fellow foodies.

Mark Bousquet: I guess I'm a bit different in that my blog and my writing are separate - that is, the main point of the blog (https://atomicanxiety.wordpress.com/) is to review movies and TV shows while the main point of my fiction writing is, well, fiction writing. I certainly promote my fiction on the blog and will, every so often, talk about it, but people come for the reviews. I might get one or two clicks leaving the blog to go look at a book at Amazon or something for every 500 people who visit the site.

Jack Mackenzie: All three. I blog as Jack Mackenzie (jackmackenziewriter.wordpress.com/) and the main purpose of the blog is promotion, but people won't keep visiting a blog that is only used for advertising. You have to offer something to keep people's interest, on a regular basis, to keep them coming ba ck. Odd as it may seem, nothing keeps people interested more than personal stories. People love to hear about other people's every day existence. You don't have to be the most interesting person in the world. It seems that in a blog format what people are looking for is something that connects you to them and vice versa. If you give that to readers you also have to give them the opportunity to connect and have their say and thus your blog become part of a social network.

Don Thomas: Originally I would have to say the main focus of my blog (http://donthomas6.wordpress.com/) was to share personal anecdotes written primarily in a stream of consciousness, somewhat informal manner.  Mainly about whatever subject I felt inspired enough to whip up and complete an individual blog article for.  Essentially the writing equivalent of a professional poker player occasionally playing a couple of games of solitaire when they're bored.  Then later on I started using it more and more for promotion of not only my work, but the people I was currently working creatively with or at the very least would one day would like an opportunity to work with.  I guess you could say by that time I was working towards building up a community of supporters, although it had far less to do with the people who took the time to read my blog and much more about the individuals that I took the time and effort to feature in one of my blog posts. 

To me blogging was something for a long time that was outside the sphere of directly helping my career as a writer.  Yes I could see the potential was there for it to play a more major role, and I even did some research into the series of how-to steps involved in transitioning my informal blog into a force to be reckoned with on its own.  But I refrained from putting forth the full effort with my blogging, as honestly I had never set out for it to be anything writing wise that I wasn't doing occasionally on the side whenever the mood significantly struck me.

Yet still cared enough to map out a strategy in case I ever wanted to put any real effort into it.  I guess in the end the proof is in the pudding, because the one person I ever took the time to share the information and strategy on blogging I had come up with was originally just looking to build up interest on a comic book project they had come up with.  Now seven months later with 40,000 + blog views under their belt they've come to the decision their primary focus should be their blog.

That's the way it goes sometimes, and they certainly weren't the first person I've taken the time to freely give out some informative advice.  Done the same with Sean in regards to a completely different matter, and both times I genuinely wanted both to take what they could from the information I freely provided and run with it as far as they could, snatching up just as much success as they could.

But with that said, whatever I've already mapped out a strategy for, I'm just as capable of putting to good use for myself.  So let's just leave it at in December my blog is going to go through a bit of a transition.  Going to be something that's probably going to take a lot of people by complete surprise.  Then they just might sit back and ponder the possibilities of what I could accomplish with a blog, if I ever decided to put any real effort into it.

The irony for me is that, as Jack Mackenzie is a pseudonym, I have to make the blog personal while maintaining what is essentially a facade. That is a challenge.

Derrick Ferguson: All three, I suppose. To be brutally honest about it, I started the three blogs I have as a way of keeping stuff separate: there's my movie reviews (https://derricklferguson.wordpress.com/), my Dillon stories (http://dillon-dlferguson.blogspot.com/) and everything else (http://dlferguson-bloodandink.blogspot.com/). Previously I was using my Live Journal for that but I soon found out that nobody really was interested. Unless it was the movie reviews. Those always got responses and started lively discussions.

And then I was constantly being told by other writers that I should have a blog/website/whatever as readers like to feel that they're connected to writers.

How do you balance your time between writing for your blog and writing your stories and articles?

Marian Allen: Writing daily for my blog has made me more productive in writing fiction. Even if I don't get any fiction writing done, I've kept the juices flowing by writing a little blog post. When I DO sit down to work on a story or novel, the words flow more easily than before I took up blogging.

Mark Bousquet: I try to use the blog and the fiction to balance each other out. While I was working on the Marvel Comics on Film reviews (https://atomicanxiety.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/atomic-reactions-marvel-comics-on-film-now-available-on-kindle/), I did little creative writing, but now that that's finished, I'm doing very little reviewing. I find that it helps keep me always writing.

Jack Mackenzie: As with everything - if it's important enough (and I believe that it is) then you will find the time. Of course, that doesn't mean the occasional missed deadline, even if it is self-imposed.

Don Thomas: Blog article writing is primarily something I have always done on the side.  I guess if I hadn't given up watching television altogether a little over half a decade ago, finding the time might every once in a while might be something of an issue.

Derrick Ferguson: I only post stuff on my blogs when I have something to say. I really don't see the reason to post stuff just to be posting stuff or to constantly promise readers that "There's some really BIG STUFF in the works!" I know that for me, as a reader, the fourth or fifth time you tell me that there's BIG STUFF in the works I yawn and go away. Wait until you can tell me what the BIG STUFF is and then post it.

Most writers I know how a set day that they post every week but I'm just not that organized. Maybe if I were I'd have more books written.

How important is your blog to your success as a writer?

Marian Allen: My blog is very important to my success, if only for the answer I gave in #2. Besides that, though, posting on my blog and being involved in social networking in order to promote my blog has put me into contact with some super people, both writerly and readerly. I've begun to be invited to submit to anthologies due to contacts I've made through blogging and social media.

Mark Bousquet: Financially? Very little. But I believe more writers should do criticism and more critics should do writing, so I try to practice what I preach. I think investigating other stories makes my own work much better.

Jack Mackenzie: I'm not sure how important it is to my success, but it does keep my name out there. It's not going to make a splash right away but if it is out there consistently then when someone sees my book for sale elsewhere, I'm hoping they remember my blog and maybe something funny or silly th at I wrote their and they may say; "Hey, I've heard of that guy! Let's give his book a try!"

Don Thomas: I certainly never considered blogging to be a make or break thing as far as how successful of a writer I could become.  I knew it could enhance the possibilities, but truth is I put about as much stock in focusing on becoming a true professional blogger as I've put into becoming a professional karaoke singer.

Derrick Ferguson: See, that's a hard question to answer because I have zero knowledge of how my blog is influencing readers. Most of the feedback I get is from other writers, which I appreciate...don't get me wrong. But it's extremely rare for a reader to email me or leave a comment.

What advice would you give a writer who is contemplating begin of regular blog of his or her own?

Marian Allen: The best advice I can give is: Don't burn yourself out. Not everybody needs to post every day, or would enjoy it. You have to enjoy it. I have certain days for certain types of posts: Monday is writing advice, reviews, blog guests. Wednesday is food. Friday is recommendations (websites, authors, books, movies). Saturday is Caturday. Sunday is Sample Sunday. That leaves Tuesday and Thursday for general nonsense. I also blog at Fatal Foodies every Tuesday, Echelon Explorations once a month, and The Write Type once a month. But my main advice is: look over blogs you like, see how what you like fits with what you would enjoy doing, and jump in.

Mark Bousquet: Don't let the blog overwhelm you, but don't treat it like a placeholder, either. Give people a reason to come visit.

Jack Mackenzie: Do it. Don't be a slave to it but do update regularly. Don't be afraid to promote but don't overdo it. Offer readers something of yourself. You don't have to strive to be exciting or controversial, just be yourself. Above all, be honest.

Don Thomas: In this case I'll keep my blogging advice to two primary points.  One, I'd say the best thing to do is to work up a couple of blog articles at first and before you publish them on some newly created blogging account, go out and request feedback from those you know who have a decent amount of blogging experience under their belt.  Two, if you're planning on using Google's Blogger.com, then right off the back you are settling ... unless that is you are already some sort of blogging savant and just didn't know it.

Of course there's more to having a successful blog than just those two bits of information, and I certainly don't know it all.  But I figure that should be sufficient helpful advice for someone who is looking to get started.

Derrick Ferguson: Be sure you have something of importance to say. Don't waste the reader's time. Be sure you convey information of what you are going to do and when you're going to do it and not just of what you plan to do five miles down the road. Be concise. Be entertaining. Relax and have fun. If you look upon it as a chore, that's exactly what it's going to be.

[Link] Character Arcs?

By C.S. Lakin

Okay, I confess. I’ve never quite understood the use of the word arc when talking about plot and character. I keep picturing a big boat in a very heavy rainstorm. But seriously, even the image of an arc (shaped like a rainbow–which brings us back to the other ark . . . hmm) confuses me. For if you are creating a character arc showing some sort of progression of a character’s inner growth through your novel as a bow that goes up and then comes down, it feels to me as if the character didn’t go anywhere. So I have trouble using that term. 

A Journey, Not an Arc

However, I am concerned with character growth, and it’s a big, essential part of your story to take your protagonist on a journey (hopefully one of the heart) that starts in one places and ends up in another. Just as a literal journey can take us to new places where we see new things, so, too, a character taken on an inner journey should end up seeing new things about herself. (I have an easier time talking about this growth process in terms of journey instead of geometry terms; I wasn’t all that great in math).  So here’s another thing I find helpful when creating characters and working out the growth they’re going to experience by the end of the book.

Continue reading: http://www.livewritethrive.com/2012/08/29/character-arcs/

The Pulp Cosmic blog is live!

 

The Pulp Cosmic blog is live!

Your news source for all things pulp and cosmic. 

http://pulpcosmic.wordpress.com/

[Link] Five Important Questions for Writers (and other creative people)

by Thomas Wharton

The other day I was looking through one of my writing notebooks and I was struck by how many questions there were in it. There was at least one curly little ? on almost every single page, and on some pages there were many.  Questions about the plot, about what the characters should do next, about other ways the story might go, about why I’m writing this thing and what I’m trying to say.

It occurred to me then, looking at all those pesky interrogative marks scattered like tiny thumbscrews across the pages, how utterly vital questions are to any creative endeavour. How they’re always quietly (or annoyingly) driving the work forward, prompting one to ponder, delve, rethink, push a little harder, venture out of the comfort zone, change course …

So I decided it might be a worthwhile exercise to choose the five most useful, recurring, indispensable questions that come up for me again and again during the writing process. Limiting myself to only five was part of the creative challenge of the exercise.

Rather than tenets or rules to live by, these then are my top five questions to create by:

Why?
What if…?
What else?
What’s going on right now?
Really?

Continue reading: http://storylands.blogspot.com/2011/06/five-important-questions-for-writers.html

Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?

Uh, I think so, Brain, but burlap chafes me so.

Hey folks, to put it simply (and perhaps with great vanity), my goal here at the Bad Girls, Good Guys, and Two-Fisted Action blog is to have the best darn genre-writing blog on the planet. And I could really use your help to meet that goal.

How can you help?

I'm glad you asked.

1. By doing easy stuff like clicking the share buttons at the end of each post and passing the blog links along to your reading and writing friends, acquaintances, spammers, enemies and dogs pretending to be people on social networks.

2. By sending me suggestions for articles, questions of the day, writers and comic book creators you think I should interview for the blog, and links to other practical and informative articles people need to know about.

3. By just popping in every now and then to leave a comment on a post that particularly resonates with you.

4. By sending me press releases about what you or other creators and publishers are doing in the world of genre work, from pulp to sci-fi to comics to jungle fantasies (and back again around the world in 80 days).

5. And by letting me know what's keeping the blog from being the best darn genre-writing blog on the planet at this moment. I can't make it better until I know what the blanks spots and the gaps are.

Thanks again for all the support you've shown this far (in only the first four months of the blog's life -- yes, only four months and a few days; hard to believe, huh?), and I'm looking forward to continuing my plot to take over the world one post at a time with your help.

[Link] Best Blogs for Writers to Read in 2012

Best Blogs for Writers to Read in 2012
by Robert Lee Brewer

As I said in last year's best blogs list, there are so many blogs out there by and for writers. The list below identifies blogs that I personally think are the best blogs for writers to read. If you don't agree with any of the selections (or think I missed a spot), then share your faves in the comments below. That way, I can check them out for next year's list.

Continue reading: http://robertleebrewer.blogspot.com/2012/02/best-blogs-for-writers-to-read-in-2012.html