Those who choose to play the numbers game and write for content sites that pay based on page views, ad impressions or ad share knows how important it is for the content we write to get indexed in search engines in a high enough slot on the search results that it’s likely internet users will find our articles and view them. If no one ever clicks on them to view them, we wouldn’t get paid.

While we can spend a lot of time to promote out content and build up back links and such, the best way to make money as a content writer for these pay by view websites is to write organic and naturally viral, evergreen content that people will click on to read when they find it. To do that, they must find it. Search engines and search directories are the most common way an internet surfer finds our content.

How Internet Search Works for Pay Per View Content

Usually, the internet surfer will search for something online in an internet search engine or internet search directory, and the engine or directory will return results for their search query that are supposed to match the information they are seeking–i.e.: our content should essentially be the answer to or information about the topic for which the person is searching.

The #1 source of our traffic and therefore our income when we write for pay by view content sites is from search engines, and so we all know how very important it is that the search engines do something called ‘indexing’ our content. They scan it with robots and spiders (internet speak for programs that go out on the web and look for content), and then they use the text area of the content to determine, semantically and contextually, what our content is most likely about. Then, based on algorithms that are a mathematician’s wet dream (just ask my Ryan), the search engines determine what is likely closest to the searcher’s query and what is most relevant.

How Are Internet Searches Returned for Pay Per View Content?

These things are determined by keywords in the content, keyword phrases in the content, and other related contextual clues in the content and on the website itself (latent semantic indexing and such), but it’s also determined in part by how popular the content is, how many click throughs it gets, how many bounces the content gets when people do click through, and many other things. In fact, the formula for figuring how things get indexed is so complicated that no one really knows for sure how it works, but rather just have a vague understanding of how best to work with it.

Which Search Engines Matter of Pay Per View Content Indexing?

Google is the giant search engine, and for most people, they can bet at a minimum of 75% of their traffic is probably going to come from an organic search on Google. For some, that % might be as much as 90-95% of all traffic. Yahoo!, MSN – Live, and AOL all have some market share worth mentioning, and some of the smaller and newer search directories and search engines are picking up in numbers.

For now, Google is the one to hit for content writers who want payoff from pay by view content websites, sites like Associated Content.

Google and Associated Content’s Pay Per View Content Model

But recently, Associated Content has been having trouble with it’s lovingly called ‘Google Juice’. We don’t know why. We don’t believe AC even knows why. In fact, AC is very hesitant to even indicate it is true, stating that our content is just as discoverable as it has ever been. We know this is not true, but it’s also not false, entirely. Eventually, all our content does get indexed, and eventually, it will build up some money and page views, but that’s not our point.

We are losing money on the front-end and the back-end side of things when Google either doesn’t index us quickly or indexes us and then UNindexes our content. This is what is happening on AC, making breaking news almost impossible to get traffic to without major marketing and promotion work (and often spamming techniques get used to do this – bad, bad promoters!)

My Google Indexing Journey for Pay Per View Content

I decided to follow two of my most recent articles through the system on Google and Associated Content to show what is currently happening. Here is what I learned:

Article #1872611, In-Depth Series on Internet Panhandling: The Beccah Beushausen Sick Child Scam

And

Article #1853305, In-Depth Series on Internet Panhandling: Crime or Nuisance?

6/23 – both articles were published and both were indexed within two hours of publication on Google. One indexed on page one of Google. The other indexed on page three in Google. Both for the phrase ‘internet panhandling’, not in quotes.

6/28 — within minutes of each other, both articles dropped off Google completely – no indexing by link or keywords, at all.

6/29 — article #1872611 re-indexed, dropping from sixth place on page one in a Google search to being in fifth place on page three for the exact same keyword phrase. Article #1853305 remained unindexed.

6/30 –article #1853305 re-indexed on Google by link, but is nowhere to be found on a keyword search for ‘internet panhandling’ (I only went back 15 pages), even though it was on page three for the same search on 6/23. Article #1872611 moved from fifth place on page three to seventh place on page one of a Google search (which is good news–means they can receover some ranking).

It should be noted I did nothing to promote these links except to post them via autopost on Twitter when they first published and on Facebook when they first published. I also posted the links to both in my forum. Both articles made the most commented list, and for a short time, both were on the list at the same time. While I’m certain traffic to the articles has little to do with the indexing issues, I thought I’d mention these things.

Lastly, article #1872611 Currently has 432 page views and articles #1853305 currently has 1004 page views as of 6/30. That means I have currently earned a whopping $3.00, give or take, for these two articles in the past week.

I have no way of proving how much different the page views would have been had the articles been posted and indexed in Google the entire time, but I can show on past articles of this nature that I easily was able to earn 1,000-4,000 page views in a relatively short period of time, with litlte promotion. I do feel this has lowered my page views at this point, and that cuts into my bottom line.

However, I can’t complain too much. Some pay per view content sites don’t get articles indexed in Google or other major search engines at all, or if they do, the writer has to do the work of getting them indexed. On those sites, also, the pay per view content site usually only uses ‘unique visits’ from ‘qualified sources’. AC at least gives page view per page views, as long as it’s from a qualified source, so if you can bring traffic back to your content again and again, you can earn from it in a truly unlimited fashion.

I wouldn’t mind so much having to do work to get my content indexed with AC, but the problem is two-fold here. 1) AC doesn’t tell the writers for their pay per content view website model that it’s our responsibility to drive traffic and post links to get indexed. Yes, we have a responsibility to promote our content and constantly improve our library, but nowhere does it say we have to handle the indexing. 2) Even if we do the right things to get indexed, such as proper promoting (not spamming) and link backs and driving traffic, there is still the problem of it UNindexing adn returning to Google ‘penalized’ in some way.

I would much prefer to start with a blank slate where it was my job to get it indexed instead of working at an already existing deficit.

So that’s the deal with Associated Content and indexing at this point, and that’s a layman’s explanation of why this is important for all people who write for Associated Content (and other pay per view income paying model content sites).

If you truly want to make some real money writing for the internet that is based on page views and revenue, check out Suite101 in addition to your other sites. They are a bit more prestigious and they require a bit firmer regulation to writing but you’ll learn a lot and the potential for good money with Suite is there. I haven’t written for them in nearly two years now, and yet my 11 articles from back then still earn me 10 bucks per month, every single month without fail–or more! At 50 articles, you get a raise, and it snowballs.

If I had the time, I’d totally be writing for them again and I do look forward to getting back in touch with their staff member who was on maternity leave to complete the Suite101 challenge.

As the print world changes and the economy continues to be unstable, it is the people who got in on the ground floor of these content sites and have built up their passive, residual income who are staying strong and steady. Self employment is where it’s at right now, and with the internet, passive income can be a God-send to those who are struggling to keep jobs! Start writing some content that will continue to pay you, day in and day out, without having to do anything else. It might not seem like much, but a dollar per day is 30 bucks per month, and 5 bucks per day is $150 per month, for doing nothing more than you already did – and you might get some upfront money from it too! 10 websites all making you about 150 per month will get you $1500 cool bucks in residual income–passive income! It’s worth it!

Keep writing!

Love and stuff,
Michy
=================================================================

Popularity: 2%

For the Record: I don’t really believe in writer’s block. I think there are times when writing isn’t easy or when ideas aren’t flowing, but I don’t think a writer is every truly blocked. We can always write – about something, anything – maybe not what we want to write about, but we can always write.

That said, when asked how to overcome writer’s block, this is what I share:

Tips for Overcoming Writer’s Block:

Are you a writer? Maybe you’re not a writer, but part of your job requires you to write… something, anything, web copy, correspondence, emails, newsletters. Maybe you are not a writer but use article writing as a marketing and promotional tool. Any way it goes, if you write anything as part of your job, the time may come when you find yourself sitting in front of the computer screen, hands poised over the keys, the thoughts all in your mind, but the words just won’t flow from your brain through your fingers to actually come out the other side of the screen.

Now what?

I am a writer. I’m also an editor. For me, it’s a bit easier, because I do both for a living, and unless I’m up against a writing deadline, I can simply put the writing aside and move over to an editing project and take my mind off of the writing. Truth is, writer’s block isn’t much of an issue for me anymore. If the idea is in my head, I can usually write about it, but even I have my moments when the idea just won’t flow.

Since I administer a writer’s forum on the internet, I have had the chance to talk to many writers and have discovered that writer’s block is often the single most irritating problem among writers of any caliber. So I decided to do some research and put together this list for people who write.

Ten effective ways to combat or cure writer’s block:

1. Walk away from the keyboard.

I know you may think that this is counter productive, but it can often work wonders. You see, the brain never stops processing information. Even when you are not actively thinking about something, your brain continues to work on the problem. Walk away from the keyboard and take a short break, grab yourself a cup of coffee or a soda, take a bathroom break, or do some other activity that doesn’t require you to think about your writing for several minutes. Often, you’ll find that when you come back and sit down to write again, your brain has solved your writer’s block on its own.

2. When taking a break doesn’t work, put the writing aside and work on something else you need to finish that is not writing related.

This works about the same as the suggestion above, but takes it a bit further by actually redirecting your thoughts to another activity. Later, you can come back to your writing and see if the thoughts flow a bit better.

3. Read something.

If you need to write about something in particular, read something that pertains to what you want to write about. Reading what others have said might inspire some spark in you and get the creative juices flowing again.

4. Write something.

Okay, so you’re asking, “I have writer’s block and you’re telling to write something?” Sure. I mean, you don’t have to write the piece that you are stuck, but write something. Jot down some personal notes, write anything that comes to mind. If you do poetry, write a poem. If you blog, go write in your blog. If you subscribe to newsgroups, go post something. Answer some emails you’ve been putting off. What may be getting you stuck isn’t the writing itself, but perhaps you are stuck on that one piece. If you can get yourself into the writing mode by writing something else, anything else, you might find that the writing will flow again when you go back to the piece on which you were stuck.

5. Make an outline.

I’m not big on outlining stories or articles, myself, but sometimes when I get stuck and don’t know where to go or how to start, making a brief outline of what I want to say, and then moving things on the outline around into some sort of order can help the writing flow by giving it a direction.

6. Write when you are well rested!

Now, number 6 and number 7 are going to seem to contradict each other, but if you read them, you’ll see why I have included them both. Get a good night’s sleep, wake up refreshed, and come to the writing again rested and prepared to write. Sometimes, we can be so tired, or have so many things going through our minds that writing is the last thing we want to do. Now, this doesn’t work for everyone, especially people who get stuck inside their heads, so if this doesn’t work for you, try number 7.

7. Write when you are tired.

Write at the end of the day, when you are so exhausted that your mind isn’t interfering with the flow. Don’t worry about what you have written, or if there are typos or editing errors. You can come back and fix the errors later, when you are more refreshed. The point of breaking writer’s block isn’t to get you to write perfectly – it’s to get you to write at all! Let it just flow from you naturally, and then come back in the morning or the next day when you are rested and then you can make it perfect.

8. Talk to someone about your writing.

Call a friend or family member, chat with someone from one of your writer’s groups. Tell them you are writing something but have become stuck and you need some inspiration, and then, let them inspire you!

9. Do some research.

This falls into the same line as reading about your topic, but takes it a step further. Call some friends, ask them questions about your topic. Post some questions in your blog, get some feedback. When you are confident you know a lot about your topic, writing becomes so much easier. Fill your mind with so much information about your selected topic that you are just bursting from too much information and you just HAVE to write about it.

10. Lastly, write about having writer’s block.

Seriously! Write about why you feel stuck. What is it that seems to be keeping you from writing? Free associate and write about it. When you get down to the reasons why you have writer’s block, you can address them and correct them.

Writing is like any other hobby or profession. You may love your job, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have mornings you wake up and say, “Ugh, I don’t want to go to work today!” There will be days, no matter how much you love to write, that you just don’t feel like writing.

That’s okay, write anyway!

Good luck, and keep writing!

More resources:

Michelle L Devon is a writer and a freelance editor, providing contracted services through her company, Accentuate Services. For more information, you can visit her website at www.AccentuateServices.com or visit the Accentuate Writers Forum and network with other writers. Her Freelancing & Fiction blog is a must-read for new freelancers too!

Popularity: 4%

So a commercial comes on television about a special ‘green’ paper towel product. The tagline says:

“Made from 100% recycled paper, not trees!”

I’m curious…

Where do they think the original paper came from, clouds?

Perhaps they meant ‘not MORE trees’, but you have to love ‘truth in advertising’. Now there’s an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one.

Love and stuff,
Michy

Popularity: 1%

My daughter is 21 years old. I love this kid. She’s smart, funny, sweet, caring–she’s the best kid a parent could have hoped for.

Yesterday, she calls me on the phone and says she got a job offer for a 40,000 per year paying job.

40k.

at 21.

Where we live, with the cost of living soooo cheap that a three bedroom, two-bath brick home sells for about 40k, a 40k per year job is like a goldmine to a 21 year old. I know families of four with two incomes that barely make that much.

The economy is bad. People with college degrees can’t get jobs they are qualified for, and my punk 21-year-old brat just got offered a 40k job.

And she was thinking about turning it down!

(shaking head)

Still, mama is unbelievably proud!

Something tells me this kidlet is going to be a-okay in the ‘real world’ from this point forward.

Hopefully she’ll buy good Christmas gifts.

Love and stuff,
Michy

Popularity: 1%

The other day, I was paying for a purchase with my debit card. It has my name on it. I know, you’re wondering what’s so big about that. Doesn’t everyone’s credit card have their name on it? The difference is, mine has my real name on it. You know, my legal name… the one the IRS thinks is my name, anyway.

But I signed the receipt: Michelle Devon.

Why?

Because that’s who I am. That’s who I’ve become. I suppose it’s hard to explain to someone who doesn’t experience it this way, but being a writer, having such a prominent online presence (though a drop in the water in the ocean that is the internet), I have ‘become’ someone I am and am not.

I AM Michelle L Devon. Yet, that’s not my name. In fact, Devon is my son’s middle name. Yet, if I were to meet you today and shake your hand, and you ask me my name, I’d say, without hesitation, “Michelle Devon.”

So when the clerk at the store looked at the signatures and they didn’t match, I’m not sure she understood why I smiled and said, “I promise, that’s me. It’s just really poor handwriting is all.”

She smiled and nodded and looked at me suspiciously.

That’s reason #2098754 why I’m on a list in a folder on some FBI agent’s desk somewhere.

Six or seven years ago or so, I set out to recreate myself. I wanted to ‘become’ who I truly was. Unlike some, who put on a persona and become someone they are not, I had done things backward from the rest of the world. I put on a persona from early on and had no clue who I was. There was no ‘true identity’ to protect.

I didn’t exist.

I was what everyone wanted me to be. No, that’s not even true. I was what I *thought* everyone wanted me to be, and too many times, was not all that successful or accurate at deciding what everyone wanted from me.

What’s the old saying, “You can’t please everyone all the time?”

I sure tried.

I failed.

Anyone would have.

I worked in the helping fields, helping others ‘become’ and ‘heal’ from trauma and pain unimaginable–and yet, there I was, protected from the pain, because I wouldn’t allow myself to be real.

So when I left that world behind, I retreated into the fiction world inside my mind–who is this strange woman I have spent so much time dwelling around inside of? Who is this Michelle the rest of the world see when she is alone and the rest of the world falls away?

I had no clue. I had never truly BEEN alone. Always, there was someone else, carried inside of me, connected to me, part of me–whether in person or in spirit–and I had never allowed myself both the danger and the comfort of dwelling around inside the deep crevices of my own heart and mind.

I knew, though, it was time to ‘become’ me. Too much time wasted being that which I was not. Too much pain wasted trying to fix what wasn’t broken, trying to polish sand into diamonds, knowing it would never work. It was time to find out who I was.

So I set about the task of recreating myself, reinventing myself, becoming ‘me’. It’s not hard to do, this act of ‘becoming’, but it’s definitely not easy. It’s simple, but complicated. It’s confusing and freeing and wonderful.

And terrifying.

Today, six 1/2 or so years later, I’m not any closer to having the answers to the questions I asked myself so many years ago. What I do know, now though, is that the urgency to ask the questions, to demand the answers, has left me. Oh, the question still lingers around from time to time inside of my head, bouncing around, tingling my spine. When it comes, I simply lean back and close my eyes and smile. The question usually fades away and is replaced with love, warmth, peace, happiness.

I am love.

I am love.

I wrote on Twitter the other day, “I’m having a slow day. I only helped make three people’s dreams come true today. I’ll try to do better tomorrow.”

I am the dream weaver. I am the task masker. I am the writer. I am the lover. I am the friend. I am the mother. I am the poet. I am the mentor.

I am.

I am the host of anything and anyone inside of me I choose to be.

So are you.

You simply have to make the choice. Once you’ve made the choice, simply keep making it. Every day, take one step forward in positive action. Then take another. The result isn’t the matter – it’s the action.

I am me. And I like me.

What about you?

Love and stuff,
Michy

Popularity: 1%

Bubbles are in important part of life. Yes, you read that right – bubbles.

The other day, my son picked up a bottle of bubbles and started blowing bubbles. My dog went crazy, jumping up in the air, barking and biting every single last bubble. It’s a fun game we play now, and I’m sitting here on the couch, typing to you guys, watching my son on sun porch blowing bubbles and my beautiful dog leaping up in the air and biting every last one of them.

It makes me smile.

Last week, I sank myself into a deep garden tub with jacuzzi jets, and a dollup of body wash later, I had the most luxurious and fluffy bubbles, and with the jacuzzi jets, the bubbles just kept coming and coming.

Come to think of it, my dog bit and barked at those bubbles too.

I have pictures of me as a kid in the bathtub with bubbles all over my face, making a bubble beard out of them.

What about when you first learned to blow a bubble with bubble gum, you know, without getting it all stuck all over your hair and face, and leaving that tell-tale sticky black line on your skin where the dirt from playing outside accumulated… that sticky line that was very hard to remove, even when mama scrubbed it really hard and turned your skin red.

Do you guys remember the magic bubble? It was the kit with the plastic stuff in the little tiny tubes that looked like airplane glue tubes, and you put a dab of the stuff on the end of a long, skinny straw and you blew and blew and blew until you thought your head was going to explode and your ears would pop and you still couldn’t make the pretty swirly magic bubble, but then, daddy blew on it and the bubble came and you twinkled and smiled and marveled at how daddy could make the magic but you couldn’t? Yeah, that magic bubble.

I remember when a 25 cent bottle of bubbles was the very reason for the excitement over the trip to a grocery store.

I also remember a time when I was three years old and my daddy was the manager of a Kmart store and I stole a package of bubble blowers with the special wands. You guys know the type, don’t you? The kind with the pipe that bubbles and all the bubbles go down your arm and drip from your elbow? The one that has the double ring wand on one end and the single ring on the other end? Yeah, that’s the one.

I stole it, because my mother wouldn’t let me have it. It was $1.99, I remember, and mama said that cost too much. I had some coins in my pocket, so I told her I would pay for it myself, but she told me I didn’t have enough money. Money didn’t mean much to me as a three year old. All I knew was I had lots of coins, so surely that was enough for some bubble blowers with special wands, right?

So when she wouldn’t let me have it, I took it.

After I’d already gone to bed that night, mama came in to clean up the play room and she found the bubble package hidden in the play stove in my play kitchen. I must have known that stealing them was wrong, or else I wouldn’t have hidden the bubbles from my mother.

The strange thing is – I remember mama waking me in the middle of the night (which must have been about 8:30, but to a three year old, that’s the middle of the night) and she got mad at me, but I can barely remember the why of it. I don’t remember stealing the bubbles. I don’t remember the part that came after, but I remember her waking me up out of a sound sleep and yelling at me.

She says she took me back to Kmart and made the security guard in the uniform talk to me, made me pay for the bubbles and said I would have to earn the money to pay her back for them, but that I couldn’t have them. That hardly seems fair – if I had to pay for them, shouldn’t I get to keep them? Ah, well.

I don’t remember any of that. But my mama says it made such an impression on me about stealing that I never stole again. In fact, she says about a year later, at a park, I found a golf ball in the grass and I went around asking everyone if it was theirs because I wanted it, but I didn’t want to steal it.

I’ve stolen since then. Back when I was 15, 16 years old and was pregnant and my daughter’s father wasn’t bringing food home for me to eat, I would steal food from the local convenience store late at night, from the night clerk. I justified it by telling myself that he knew I was taking it, but just didn’t say anything to me.

It was still wrong, wasn’t it?

Which is worse – stealing or panhandling? Theft or handouts? Their or beggar?

Interesting questions…

I think a more interesting question, though, would be – isn’t it amazing the things that a simple bottle of bubble blowers that my son found on the counter can make me think about?

Love and stuff,
Michy

Popularity: 1%

(chuckle) I love commercials. I really, really love commercials. Maybe that’s why I call this blog ilovecommercials.blogspot.com, huh?

What I love even more than commercials though are the people who get in an uproar over them. I still laugh regularly over the commercial for TruNorth that folks thought said the product was “…an extraordinary ‘nut sack’”, when what the ad really said was, “…an extraordinary nut sNack.”

We hear what we want to hear, don’t we? My son never heard nutsack, my daughter and I both giggled. Still, there was an uproar about it, and TruNorth changed the ad.

Now, we have an uproar over the Quizno’s Torpedo ads. What is funny to me is that people are accusing Quizno’s of being gay. Uhm, not sure how a restaurant chain can be gay, but okay.

Here, let me let you watch the commercial yourself, before I go on:

There. That’s the long one, I think. Anyway, I don’t personally find anything bad about this. A normal 3-6 year old child isn’t going to think a thing about this sexual, unlike what some blogs were saying and older kids probably won’t either, unless one of their wisened friends tells them.

Yes, they are full of innuendo, but isn’t everything nowadays?

I dunno. I don’t like Quizno’s food, so I’m not swayed to eat there or not to eat there based on a commercial. The Torpedo sandwich doesn’t look bad and I like ciabatta bread, but maybe I wouldn’t be able to eat the sandwich without laughing at this point. At least giggling, right?

I was thinking along the lines of HAL when I heard the commercial. Maybe I’m just old and the younger generation won’t get that reference.

What do you think? Did they go too far?

Love and stuff,
Michy

Popularity: 1%

It doesn’t seem to matter what I do, I can’t seem to keep my son away from internet pornography. I’ve put up filters, I’ve put up parental controls, I’ve blocked websites by ratings… none of it matters. The legitimate ‘decent’ porn sites, if there is one, that adhere to the rules in the US follow the rules and are blocked, but the really raunchy, nasty sites don’t follow the rules, so while my son can’t view Playboy, he can view smut, alt, and, well, bad stuff.

Even when he’s not on a porn site, there are ads on some of the sites I thought I could approve him to be on that take him indirectly to a porn site. No, he’s not lying to me about this. I followed the links myself and saw. One innocuous ad led to a site that had tons of ads for porn sites, and that let to one pop up window after another, and I have major popup blockers installed.

I guess what bothers me the most about him seeing this online is the things he’s seeing. Rarely in a porn pic or video do you see anything that remotely resembles how sex in a committed relationship really is, and it surely doesn’t depict a couple ‘making love’ together. If what he sees on these sites is how he feels making love should be, his future girlfriends are in for some major problems, and he’s probably in for some major disappointments.

Don’t get me wrong – I’ve tried some of the stuff you probably see in the porn, back in my younger and wilder days, and quite frankly, it’s never as good in practice as it is in theory. Oh, sure, we had a few laughs, broke a few tables, got a few bruises, but the sex part just didn’t live up to the hype of the porn.

Give me a good, slow, long, lazy session of making love, laughing, cuddling, giggling, touching, kissing, exploring… where the focus is on being together, and coming and going together (pun? nah!), and that beats any porn scene sex any day.

How do you explain that to a child? He’s going to be 15 in a month… I was 15 when I had sex the first time. That scares me to think about! How was I mature enough to think i was ready for that?

One answer – I wasn’t!

Obviously I wasn’t, since I started having sex in December, was pregnant by February, and my daughter (who is now 21-years-old) was born in October. I had to grow up fast, and that’s not something I want my child to have to experience, especially given that he’s not nearly as mature as I was.

We’ve talked about love and sex and making love and safety and condoms and waiting until you’re in love and all the other stuff. We’ve talked openly about being a teen parent and how that changes things. We’ve talked about the good, bad, and the ugly of sex.

Is it enough? I don’t know.

But after all that talking, we are at my friend’s house and he borrows her computer, and sure enough, when she gets it back, she finds links to porn sites.

Fortunately, she knew the struggles I was having with my son, and so she let me know and I discussed it with my son. I ask him why he searches for that stuff, and he says he doesn’t know – sadly, I think I believe him. He probably doesn’t know.

Porn is… addicting, even to those who aren’t prone to addiction. You start looking at it, and you either stare and keep looking out of sheer fascination or morbid curiosity – like watching a train wreck with bodies strewn about, it makes you sick, but still, you slow down, and stare… in wide-eyed wonder or horror. With porn, you click, click, click, ewww, click, click, omg, click, click.

(sigh)

You know… I just don’t know what else to do. Part of me, and Ryan says this too, believes this is normal for a 15-year-old boy. Ryan has told me all about his brother and how Gregg used to steal Playboys. The difference is, a Playboy magazine isn’t the same as a woman getting fisted anally in a video. Technology has changed the playing field, and pornography is no longer naked bodies where the worst is a woman spread-eagled.

I have to laugh – something tells me Google isn’t going to display any ads on this post…LOL

The only solution to this problem for me is going to have to be sitting beside him the entire time he’s on the internet. I thought I was safe the other day, since he had my friend’s laptop in his lap in the living room while I was in the bedroom, just one room away. I could even see him from the door, just not his screen.

I told him how disrespectful it was to use someone’s computer for that, and how disrespectful it was to do it in front of his mother – thinking I’d take a different tack. I don’t know.

What do you guys think? IS it normal 15-year-old behavior? Am I making too much of it? How should I handle it? Right now, he’s grounded from his laptop, which is fine, since it’s summer and we’re on a break from homeschooling.

Any creative parenting ideas? I’ve tried a lot of different things, but I’m now at a complete loss, so throw your most creative idea at me, short of taking the computer away completely, and let’s see if we can find one that works on this brat boy!

Love and stuff,
Michy

Popularity: 1%

Mini-Bio for Kathy-Diane Leveille:

Kathy-Diane Leveille is a former broadcast journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation who discovered the only thing more thrilling than reading a wonderful story is harnessing the power of the imagination to write one. Her short story collection Roads Unravelling was published to critical acclaim after a selection from its pages Learning to Spin was adapted to radio drama for CBC’s Summer Drama Festival. The tale Showdown at the Four Corner’s Corral was revised for the stage and performed by New City Theater in Saint John.

Kathy-Diane’s prose has been published in a number of literary journals including Grain, Room of One’s Own, The Oklahoma Review, Pottersfield Portfolio, The Cormorant; as well as various anthologies such as Water Studies: New Voices in Maritime Fiction (Pottersfield Press) and New Brunswick Short Stories (Neptune).

Kathy-Diane is a member of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, Kiss of Death RWA and Crimewriters of Canada.

~~~~
I have loved books forever. My best friends are books. When I was growing up, a Saturday wasn’t complete without a trip on the bus to the local library. I would sit in the back of the bus on the way home, where there was lots of room to spread my booty, and savour the potential humming between the covers. Having my debut novel Let the Shadows Fall Behind You published is a dream come true. I live on the east coast with my husband and two sons next to a lovely garden. I love bird watching, hiking and motorcycle riding. I’m so pleased to be a guest today.

It’s rare today to find an author who does nothing but write for a living. Do you have a ‘real’ job other than writing, and if so, what is it? What are some other jobs you’ve had in your life?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: I’m a former broadcast journalist with CBC radio. Seventeen years ago, when I was home on maternity leave with my youngest son, I dug out an old file of story ideas and started scribbling. By the time the date arrived when I was supposed to return to work, I had already decided that I didn’t want to keep putting my dream of writing fiction on the back burner. Since then I’ve done different jobs, including being a janitor and typing medical transcription, to give me the time and energy to pursue my passion. My first book Roads Unravelling, a collection of short stories set on the Kennebecasis River where I live, was published a few years ago. Let the Shadows Fall Behind You released this spring is my first novel.

What compelled you to write your first novel?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: Let the Shadows Fall Behind You (Kunati Books) was inspired by my fascination with disappearances. An estimated 10 million people go missing each year in the U.S. alone, but no one’s ever documented how many of these incidents defy explanation. Take the mystifying case documented by psychic, Sylvia Browne, of the man who stepped out his front door and vanished in broad daylight. His family could hear him calling, but no one could see him anywhere. Let the Shadows Fall Behind You features Brannagh Maloney whose boyfriend, Nikki, disappears into thin air while conducting a bird count up north. Brannagh reluctantly returns home for a reunion of the childhood club Tuatha-de-Dananns. She hides out at her Grandmother’s cottage near the woods where her mother was murdered fifteen years ago. As Brannagh tries to solve the mystery behind Nikki’s vanishing, she is haunted by the secrets hiding the most startling disappearance of all.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: I don’t remember making any formal decision. I have just always had a need to put pen to page. I wrote my first poem when I was in Grade 1:

Oh Father Dear, I’m glad you’re here
So we can celebrate this day, with a Doran’s beer.

Of course I didn’t understand why my teacher’s eyes rounded with horror when she read it. That was my first lesson in discovering that not everyone will welcome the truth in what you write! I wrote radio dramas in Grade 6 and the school Christmas play; lots of poetry and short stories in high school. I started trying to write a novel in my early twenties while I worked night shift as a technician at CBC. I still have the notes!

Tell us a little bit about your book/s.

Kathy-Diane Leveille: Let the Shadows Fall Behind You is Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood meets Harlan Coben. I loved writing it because I was able to combine the ingredients I crave in fiction: a dark hero, a broken and brave heroine, loyal sidekicks; and the shifting, persistent threat of evil that must be conquered. It’s a multi-layered plot, sharpened by elements of romance, suspense, poetry and comedy. I love anything Irish and grew extremely fond of these women–Brannagh, Annie, Tish and Diane— and was sad to write the last page. I especially relate to Brannagh, the protagonist. She is determined to leave dark secrets in her past behind, but the disappearance of Nikki leads her straight back home. So often in life, that is exactly what happens. The very thing we don’t want to deal with keeps knocking at our door until we face it head on. Brannagh learns that nothing can change the past, but the power of friendship can transform the future.

How did you feel the day you held the copy of your first book in your hands?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: There is no feeling like it. Picture the arrival of Christmas morning, the thrill of hearing a newborn baby’s cry and the rush of your first kiss all rolled into one. My husband and I went out for dinner. He’s my number one cheerleader and gets more excited than I do! The first time I did a reading in a library was probably one of the most thrilling moments in my life. I felt as if everything had come full circle.

What inspires you and motivates you to write the very most?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: I love riding in the car or on a train and gazing out the window. There’s always something in the landscape to twig my imagination. Once it was a chair in the middle of a field. I started wondering who put it there and why. The short story The Chair in my first book Roads Unravelling was born. I usually begin by simultaneously visualizing a situation that causes an upheaval in life, and hearing a character’s voice emote their reaction to it. It’s a very strange process and definitely has my husband worried some days; especially when he dusts the books on my research shelf: Handbook of Poisons and Crime Scene Investigation.

The main characters of your stories – do you find that you put a little of yourself into each of them or do you create them to be completely different from you?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: Creating characters during the inspiration stage isn’t a conscious decision. I really can’t explain how it happens. But during the perspiration stage, when I shape my initial idea into a story using the tools of the craft, I usually try to refine the character into the kind I relate to and love when I read fiction: Human and flawed, but capable of heroism nonetheless.

Is there an established writer you admire and emulate in your own writing? Do you have a writing mentor?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: There are tons of writers I admire, and many who have been extremely generous on my road to publication. In fact, I have chats with them every Thursday on my blog http://lettheshadowsfallbehindyou.blogspot.com which is lots of fun. It’s nice to know you aren’t alone. Everyone had to start somewhere.

When growing up, did you have a favorite author, book series, or book?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: I enjoyed Joy Fielding, the Bronte sisters, Nancy Drew and C. S. Lewis.

What about now: who is your favorite author and what is your favorite genre to read?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: I love reading psychological suspense, and am currently on a kick reading Nicci French, a British husband and wife team.

Bring us into your home and set the scene for us when you are writing. What does it look like?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: I have a large chair that could fit 3 people in its lap. It allows me to keep lots of books, pads of paper and pens by my side. Directly across from the chair is a large picture window three-quarters sky and one-quarter river that is constantly shifting in light and color. My writing basket which holds pens, pencils, highlighters, note pads, books on the craft and novels by authors I’m studying. I usually start with a pen and pad for the inspiration stage, then move to the computer for the perspiration stage. When I get to a place where I’m uncertain as to how to proceed, I always go back to pen and paper. I think there’s some mechanism in that tactile exercise that frees the right brain to soar.

Do you watch television? If so, what are your favorite shows? Does television influence of inspire your writing?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: I’m addicted to Kitchen Nightmares with Chef Gordon Ramsey. This may sound like a strange choice, but I always relate to the entrepreneurs who start out with a romantic notion of owning a restaurant. Sooner or later, they’re hit with the hard cold facts of running a business. There’s always a point in the show where they have to admit they need help, surrender their ego, and really hunker down and do whatever the experts tell them to do for the business to survive. It’s exactly like novel writing in my opinion. Luckily, I’ve had lots of generous experts along the way who have been willing to lend a hand and teach me. Of course, being human, there are times I secretly mourn the fact that I’m not a genius and can’t whip up instant perfection; but, the truth is, it’s the friendships I’ve made on the journey to publication that make my life so rich.

Focusing on your most recent (or first) book, tell our readers what genre your book is and what popular author you think your writing style in this book is most like.

Kathy-Diane Leveille: Let the Shadows Fall Behind You is a suspense novel that, in the end, extols the power of female friendship; it’s Sue Monk Kidd meets Harlan Coben.

How long did it take you to write your most recent (or first) book? When you started writing, did you think it would take that long (or short)?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: It took about five years to write Let the Shadows Fall Behind You from the initial idea stage to publication. I had so much to learn about novel writing with each draft: plot, characterization, theme, setting. I loved the larger canvas of a novel compared to a short story, but, at the same time, I had to juggle a lot more balls in the air. It was thrilling when they finally stopped dropping! I used Writer’s Digest On-Line Market to send out queries. I was thrilled to choose Kunati Books. They’re an award-winning publisher, not afraid of taking risks. My relationship with them has been supportive and energizing.

Is there anyone you’d like to specifically acknowledge who has inspired, motivated, encouraged or supported your writing?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: My husband is my #1 cheerleader. He’s always been the first to remind me how important it is to pursue one’s passion REGARDLESS of the outcome. The thrill remains is in the journey, not necessarily the destination. I find with writing there never really is a point of ‘having arrived.’ Every time I conquer a challenge, there’s a new one on the horizon. That’s why I love it.

Thinking about your writing career, is there anything you’d go back and do differently now that you have been published?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: I think if I had had access to seasoned professionals in the industry sooner, I might have learned a lot faster about what it takes to survive and thrive in today’s publishing world. Living on the Canadian east coast, it’s pretty isolated from the hub of the industry. You absolutely have to know the business, how it works and its current needs to give yourself a leg up. I think I was too naïve in believing that all I needed to do was write well and the work would find a home on its own. In some instances this can happen, but the greater reality is that selling books is a business, and one that is constantly changing. I romanticized the industry when I needed to view myself as a business woman.

How has having a book published changed your life?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: It’s definitely given my writing life a jolt of adrenalin. The learning curve has risen tremendously, and I’m busier than ever trying to balance it all. But it’s one heck of a ride. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Is there any lesson or moral you hope your story might reveal to those who read it?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: Ultimately, Let the Shadows Fall Behind You is a story about coming to terms with the past and letting it go.

Do you have any book signings, tours or special events planned to promote your book that readers might be interested in attending? If so, when and where?

Kathy-Diane Leveille: Do I? You betcha. It’s all listed here:

http://kathydiane.wordpress.com You’ll find a running list on the EVENTS page, but I also post interviews, reviews, signings, contests as they occur on the main page. I’m really excited about attending the Canadian Crimewriters Bloody Words Conference in June with host, Louise Penny; and The International Thrill Writers ThrillerFest with Sandra Brown and David Morrell in New York in July.

If you’re interested in Shadows Fall N Friends, my interviews with authors I’ve met on the road to publication check here every Thursday: http://lettheshadowsfallbehindyou.blogspot.com

I send out an E-muse letter every month with a schedule of which authors I’m interviewing when, along with updates and announcement of the winner of the monthly draw for a 50.00 gift certificate from Amazon. To subscribe just drop me an e-mail at shadowsfall@kathy-dianeleveille.com

Please leave a comment if you drop bys. I’d love to hear from you!

Anything you want your readers to know?

Thank you so much for inviting me to be your guest and meeting all your readers. Please let me know what you think of Let the Shadows Fall Behind You at shadowsfall@kathy-dianeleveille.com. I’d love to hear from you.

Happy Reading!
Kathy-Diane

Book: Let the Shadows Fall Behind You

Synopsis of Let the Shadows Fall Behind You:

On a grey morning in Northern Ontario in 1978, when the first fat snowflakes drifted down erasing all the familiar landmarks, Nikolai Mirsky headed out the door of the haunted cabin he shared with his lover, Brannagh Maloney. And disappeared…

Brannagh, a Natural Science Illustrator, struggled to collate the data from their bird count through the long winter. By the time the icicles began to melt, she was filled with a growing dread that the infamous wilderness preservationist wasn’t returning.

When Brannagh left New Brunswick, ten years ago, she swore it was for good. But now her best friend, Annie, won’t stop worrying about her, and won’t stop hounding her to come back for a reunion of their childhood all-girls club The Tuatha-de-Dannans. Brannagh finally relents, but she refuses to go to her childhood home and face her irascible Grandfather. Instead, she hides out at her Grandmother’s summer cottage, even though it is far too close to the woods where her mother was murdered. As Brannagh struggles to put to rest the questions surrounding Nikki’s disappearance, she finds it impossible to ignore the family secrets circling the most tragic disappearance of all. Brannagh learns that nothing magical will ever change her past, but the fierce love of friends holds the power to transform the future.

Popularity: 1%

When Today.com started, I actually had high hopes for them. I thought they were doing things the right way, but I was hesitant, as I always am with a new site. I waited and watched while other writers took to blogging with them, and waited until someone else told me they were paid by them. Some of the very first bloggers with Today.com were actually doing quite well with them for awhile.

Then things changed…

Suddenly, Today.com changed the flat rate for a blog post and lowered it to $1.00 per post and only payable once per day. Then they even took that away from the bloggers, and only the very top performers were still allowed the pay per post, and everyone else would get paid per page impression.

Well, they came along later and took that away too, and said that they would still pay per impression, but only from approved sources – like DIGG traffic wouldn’t get paid. The problem is, they wouldn’t tell the writers/bloggers which sites would and would not pay for impressions, so bloggers are out there promoting like mad, not sure if they were even going to get paid for it or not.

Then they started closing accounts. Anyone who badmouthed the new policies in the forum or on other forums and/or blogs and got caught doing it got their account canceled. Did Today.com remove the blog posts though that the banned person had put up? Nope.

In fact, some people who were banned never did receive payment either, according to their reports on my forum and on their own blogs.

So we all figured Today.com was going down the drain… but now, they have sunk to new depths in my opinion. Today, I, a blogger whose account was canceled by Today.com for no activity, have started receiving SPAM affiliate mail from support@today.com.

Isn’t that nice of them?

Perhaps that’s how they are hoping to stay afloat and keep paying writers, by making money from affiliate links in emails they spam to people who neither requested to be on their email list nor have the ability to unsubscribe from it.

Just sharing my personal experience with Today.com for those who read and are curious about whether they should sign up with them or not. Your mileage may vary, but probably not by much.

Love and stuff,
Michy
=================================================================

Popularity: 2%