Monday Tips and LOLs

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I should’ve had a first page critique for you today, but it’s my birthday, you see, and I gave myself the gift of time. By that I mean, rather than juggle nine million tasks, I spent an uninterrupted Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning inside my fictional world (except for a quick trip to TKZ to read Rev’s top-notch advice about agents and JSB’s superb first page critique). Sunday afternoons I reserve for football. 😉

Most of last week I spent redesigning my website and Murder Blog. Then tweaked it to death in between working on the WIP, engaging on social media, marketing, newsletters, virtual events, updating email subscribers and SEO, etc. etc. etc. So, allowing myself to pull away from it all, crawl into my writer’s cave, and block out the world freed my soul.

Today’s dedicated to birthday shenanigans. If the sun parts the storm clouds, Bob and I will head to one of my favorite places—Squam Lakes Natural Science Center—for a relaxing stroll through the wildlife trails. It’s the simple things in life that bring the most joy. Don’t you agree?

I’ve got two writer tips to share, then let’s party with a few Monday morning laughs. Sound good? Cool, let’s do this…

NEWSLETTER TIP

If someone Unsubscribes from your email list, be sure to Archive their name. Mailchimp and other email providers still charge you whether or not that person ever receives another newsletter. You’re billed for Contacts, not Subscribers. Technically, the person who Unsubscribed is still considered a Contact. They can’t charge for Archived Contacts.

WEBSITE/BLOG TIP

Poor SEO (Search Engine Optimization), an outdated design, lost backlinks, broken links, and/or a slow or unresponsive website theme murders organic traffic. If bot crawlers aren’t happy, they might skip your site, and all the years you’ve spent writing content will be wasted. Did you know most people read blogs on handheld devices? I am not one of them, but the experts swear it’s true.

ZOOM TIP

HOUSEHOLD TIP

Umm, about five minutes ago. Did you know this?

UNEXPECTED OBSERVATION

SAD, BUT TRUE

WRITER PROBLEMS

I plead the fifth, Your Honor. 😉

AND MY PERSONAL FAVORITES

Who can relate?

Feel free to steal any of these for your social media. Hope you have an amazing week!

via GIPHY

This entry was posted in #amwriting, #writers, #writerslife, #WritingCommunity and tagged , , , , by Sue Coletta. Bookmark the permalink.

About Sue Coletta

Sue Coletta is an award-winning crime writer and an active member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Feedspot and Expertido.org named her Murder Blog as “Best 100 Crime Blogs on the Net.” She also blogs at the Kill Zone, Story Empire, and Writers Helping Writers. Sue lives with her husband in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. Her backlist includes psychological thrillers, the Mayhem Series (books 1-3) and Grafton County Series, and true crime/narrative nonfiction. Now, she exclusively writes eco-thrillers, Mayhem Series (books 4-9 and continuing). Sue's appeared on the Emmy award-winning true crime series, Storm of Suspicion, and three episodes of A Time to Kill on Investigation Discovery. Learn more about Sue and her books at https://suecoletta.com

61 thoughts on “Monday Tips and LOLs”

  3. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SUE! Thanks for the tips and the laughs. I thought the lines on the cups were decorative, too. Oh my. My favorite meme was the gym tour. You mean the workout isn’t the walk from the car to the facility? Wow. Two things learned.

    Hope you have a great day, as bright as you’ve made mine!

    • Thanks, Jim! Last night’s game was a nail-biter for sure. I’m so proud of Mac Jones. He surpassed all Pats fans’ expectations, I bet. 😀

  11. Love the post!! Happy, happy, happy birthday to you wonderful lady! I hope you have the best day! <3

  12. Happy Birthday, Sue! Hope it’s a great day and a wonderful start to your next year. Love the tips! And I had no idea either about the measuring lines on the Solo cups, either. You truly learn something new everyday if you’re reading this blog 🙂

  15. Have a wonderful birthday, Sue!
    Sounds like you have my favorite kind of day planned – simple pleasures with someone you love. May the weather cooperate.

    • Exactly, Becky. Now that the vacationers have left our area (except for leaf-peepers), we have the wildlife to ourselves. Yay!

      Thank you!

  16. Happy, happy birthday, dear Sue!!!

    It’s your birthday but you gave all of us readers the great gift of laughter! Can’t decide which meme I like best b/c they’re all so funny.

    Have a wonderful day with your hubby.

  18. KING BOB!!!
    Apologies, I couldn’t help myself. I have an unreasonable love for the Despicable Me movies.

    And HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Glad you were able to have an enjoyable weekend (even if it was partially spent tuning gears in the writerly mechanics room.) I hope Mother Nature cooperates for your stroll.

    And yes, in answer to your bit about blogs being read on handheld devices. I read EVERYTHING on a phone nowdays. The desktop dinosaur is reserved for print jobs now, but it’s so woefully behind the times that I’ll soon be forced to get a software upgrade just to make it connect to wifi.
    And my laptop is solely a manuscript word processor which is not allowed to sully its circuits on the interwebs. (I lost WIP once to a malware attack on a previous laptop. Leaves me a bit overly cautious now.) So…phone it is!

    Of all of your funny menes, the one about the car manual gets to me the most. It’s both funny and tragic!

    • Hahaha. I’m a minions fan, too, Cyn! My 85-year-old father-in-law (also named Bob) is obsessed with Bob, the minion. He has Bobs all over the house. LOL

      I use my phone more and more these days, but I still read blogs on the MacBook. Easier on the eyes. 😉

      OMG, I lost a completed first draft due to a Windows update once. Total nightmare. Thankfully, one of my cop buddies used his magic to revive an older version. Only lost two chapters. Could’ve been way worse. That’s when I made the switch to Mac and became obsessive about backing up my work.

      Thanks for the birthday wishes, Cyn!

  19. Mondays are, well, Mondays…but not at TKZ! Thanks, Sue, for the MC tip and the giggles as well.

    My fave? That 2020 thing. Next time I’m in a crowd, say about in 2027, I’m gonna haul that out.

    🙂

  21. Happy birthday, Sue!

    I learned something new, yesterday. If you remove a name from your contact list, their phone number will reappear on their old texts. Lots of value if someone is being annoying, and you need to prove it.

    Also, some people are dumb enough to believe that, if they delete incriminating texts, the other person’s text copies will disappear, too. Yes, people are getting stupider.

  22. Happy, Happy Birthday, Sue. May your year be filled with time for rest and reflection, flowing creativity, and an abundance of family fun.

    The banner for your new website is deliciously atmospheric.

  24. Happy BD, fellow Libra. May your days always be balanced. 🙂 Site looks great, BTW, and I didn’t even know there were lines on the cups let alone knowing what they were for. Wonders never cease.

  25. Happy birthday Sue!
    And thanks for the tips. Your meme game is always at the expert level and I love sharing them on my FB page. Ok, the Pats won but what about Tuesday night? Go Red Sox.

    • Thanks so much, Kelly! We send memes back and forth in the family, so I come across a ton of them. Well, the Pats “almost” won. ? We don’t watch baseball but go, Red Sox!

  26. Happy Birthday, Sue! Celebrate well.

    Thanks so much for the shout-out, and for making me laugh today. It’s busy and intense for a variety of reasons, so your fun post was just what I needed.

  27. Happy Birthday, Sue!

    Sorry I’m late to the party. Thanks for all the wonderful posts over the past year. Hope you had a good time today. Have a great coming year!

    My favorite – “Don’t drink the battery acid.” I actually had a patient once who saw me burning some warts off his hands with an office strength hydrochloric acid, so he tried it himself with battery acid. At least he didn’t drink it.

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