The many sides to writing

Writing poetry is what I do and sharing it is what I enjoy.  What I have learned is that to share poetry a poet must make a HUGE effort to introduce themselves to the world and stay relevant. Which means every day I spend time on the internet working on what I’ve learned is termed an “author’s platform”. This is a side of writing that is new for me and has proven to be challenging and rewarding.

An author’s platform is an author’s media outlet to the public. A way to stay on the minds of your fans. This can include a main website, interactive sub-websites, Facebook and MySpace pages, Twitter accounts, email newsletter, profiles on niche social networking sites, blogs, writing articles, writing book reviews, podcasts, videos, doing workshops, and even your own online talk radio show.

The goal is to connect with people most likely interested in your work. So you find out where on the net they are located and you interact with them.  The idea is to get a fan base so when your book is published you have a fan base already interested in your work.  This makes perfect sense yet it does take time. Time doing some or a lot of all the ideas I listed above. And it takes organization.

So this is what I’m working on in addition to writing my poems. I’m quickly learning this whole process requires a major commitment from me and I look forward to providing poetry that encourages and inspires others.  Poetry with a purpose is how I see it all.

Google yourself then do something about it.

If you have never done this I highly recommend it.  Open up Google (or any search engine) and type your name in quotes and hit enter. In less than five seconds you will see what the world knows about you. Well at least you and anybody else in the world with your first and last name combination.  If you have a common first last name duo then you will have to browse through the sites to determine which entries are really about you and not the John or Jane Public that lives in another city. If you have a unique name then rest assured what ever results come up in the search are probably about you.

Once you get the results then get to reading. You may be pleasantly surprised or horribly shocked to see what is floating on cyberspace concerning your life. But at least you will know WHAT is on cyberspace with your name attached.

I read that in this information age people should take control of their online persona.  In doing so you  have a level of input on what people find when they search your name on the net. It’s called online branding. From potential employers to potential clients to potential dates people may research your name to determine if they want to do business or interact with you.  There is not much you can do to stop someone from mentioning you unfavorably in their blog or preventing an ex-friend from posting pictures of you on Flicker. But you can post enough of your own content on the net where the search results that are returned are information you have generated. Because if somebody is going to mention you on the net it might as well be you.

Here are some ideas to get you started on rescuing your internet persona. If you’re lucky your name is still available as a domain name. If so then buy it. Like as in now. I bought www.alisalawton.com a few weeks ago and now when my name is typed into Google the first result that pops up is my website. As a matter of fact when you type my name in Google all the results on the first page contain information I generated from profiles I created. Which brings me to a second idea. Create websites and profiles of yourself. From Facebook to MySpace to Twitter you can create a profile that allows people to learn about you what you want them to learn. Want a website? Then start a blog and then link your domain name, which hopefully is http://www.yourname.com, to your blog. You can start a blog on www.wordpress.com, www.blogger.com, or www.livejournal.com.

Your blog can be anything you want it to be. Talk about your favorite hobby, your experiences of being a parent, post your poetry or your art, or your photography. Love the news or celebrity gossip then blog about that. Are you a spots fan then start a sports blog. Just blog about something you have a passion or interest in. Then keep that blog updated. In terms of profiles find an online community that focuses on your hobby and start a profile there and interact with people of similar interests. The key factor here is to start generating content on the net with your name attached.

You can make this project as in depth or as simple as you prefer. The important thing is to have input into what others find when they do an internet search on you.

Books are just as exciting…

I was watching a video on CNN about the big day today. Today is the release of The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and for those in the know you nod your head in understanding about the buzz. Or maybe you are standing in line at a bookstore jubilant about how in only a few minutes you will be able to spend your special day off doing exactly what you took the day off to do and that is to read this book. Yes, I’m sure somebody in bibliophile land took off today just to read The Lost Symbol. Then there are those who just went to the search engine to type in Dan Brown because they are wondering “Dan who?”. To keep it simple he is the author of the books that were turned into the moves Angels & Demons and Da Vinci Code. Did you at least know about those movies or seen them? I hope so.

Ok, back to the video. Jon Howells of Waterstone’s Books stated that big book releases like The Lost Symbol are good news for readers because it gets people excited about books and that sometimes we need to be reminded that books can be exciting like films, albums and rock bands. I agree with dear Jon that every so often we need to be reminded how exciting it is to sit down and read a good book. I think it’s awesome there were people standing in line at the bookstores before they opened waiting to buy a book.

I’m going to buy this book when the funds free up but I don’t have to wait to read it. America has this amazing invention called the library and my copy will be waiting for me to pick up and read within the next day or two. And then I’ll post back on my blog a review of this highly anticipated novel.

Bone Garden Cantina

I just arrived home from going out to dinner. Me and the boyfriend decided to check out this new restaurant he heard about called the Bone Garden Cantina. Actually we rode by the place a few days ago and found it quite interesting and promised ourselves we just had to go back and eat there. So tonight we returned.

Now I’ve been to some interesting restaurants in Atlanta (as the most interesting places to eat tend to also be vegan friendly…odd by true). But this place is at the top of my list of eccentric eateries which is cool as I like eccentric. (Makes life more interesting when things are eccentric.) This place is a Mexican restaurant and the decor honors the Mexican holiday the Day of the Dead.

Now for those not in the know it’s a day where you celebrate your relatives who have passed on in life. It’s November 1st and it’s a great festive holiday in Mexico. So the atmosphere in Bone Garden Cantina was very festival and had more jolly skulls hanging on the walls than you could “shake a bone at”.

For some pictures of the decor click here for some Flickr photos I found of the place.

As far as the food well lets just say I was more impressed with the decor. The food wasn’t bad but I’ve had better Mexican food. I do hope over time they will tweak their menu and improve their flavor. I did enjoy the guacamole and some puff pastry stuffed with grilled veggies. Which was quite good actually.

The place was quite full of diners and a lot of drinking going on which boyfriend concluded was what Bone Garden Cantina does very well. There were some overly happy “getting to drunk status” people at the patio dinning. So we figure the drinks are pretty good.  Their salsa that came with the chips at the beginning of the meal was a tad on the hot side but bearable if you like any type of heat. Or difficult to deal with if you like no spice heat in your food.

The other major thing is this place is tucked away. Very away. You have to use a map to find this place. It’s off an industrial side street and in the BACK of an industrial office park. You have to hunt to find the place. Which can make it a fun endeavor or makes you too nervous to eat there.

Overall I do recommend going at least once just for the decor. It’s the most amazing place to sit and look at the interior.

Change in weather

I know that summer does not officially end until September 22 but Fall is here people and it’s my favorite time of the year.  Autumn is MY season and I reign! Not sure why I’m so connected to Fall considering my birthday is smack in the summer but my consciousness comes alive when the wind picks up and the leaves start to turn different shades and rustle in that wind. The clouds start to take over and the sky is shades of bluish gray. And for me poetry flows well this time of year.

For me September is the precursor to October which for me is my favorite month in the entire year. Fall festivals, the change in colors of the leaves, and of course Halloween. I like this holiday . I love the fun atmosphere, the way people dress up in ways they would never dress up all year, the parties, the food and candy.  All exciting and I like the youthful aspect of Halloween. I can do without the gore and guts aspect. Never understood people’s fascination with that part of the holiday.  How did guts and gore ever become a part of Halloween anyway?

Time though to pull out the jackets as the wind is starting to kick up and to look at my fall wardrobe to see what’s needed this year.

Thinking about “culture”

What did I do today…

Work, read, get my car worked on and think a lot.

I’ve been thinking a lot about “culture”. When I was in Paris I saw “culture” dripping from and out of buildings and onto streets and wetting the feet and minds of Parisians and foreigners. Although, I think the Parisians are saturated with culture to the point they drip it back onto the street for us culturally starved tourist to soak up.

And I’ve been thinking about why there was an exodus of writers, painters and musicians leaving America during the 1920’s and heading to Paris like it was a big overseas cultural party. I’ve read the creative types thought America was not as culturally “free” as Europe. They felt their creativity was restricted and in Europe they were free to express without limits. Maybe. Probably. Thinking about James Joyce’s Ulysses and how he could not attain an American publisher. Not to mention the literature banning bandwagon that traveled the country.

Is Europe just more culturally mature than America? If so how do we ever catch up? Europe has famed writers and composers whose bones are older than our country. That’s incredible. And important. Where is America’s Mozart? Exactly.

To me culture is vital because it reveals a country has managed the necessities such as food, shelter, protection, and civil order for its citizens. When the basics of a society are developed and maintained then society can focus on what makes it civil.

When truth spoke in 1930

It always amazes me to read or learn something in history that expresses a truth so relevant for today. In 1930 Sinclair Lewis became the first American to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. I was reading his acceptance speech and he made a statement that after much thinking I realized to be true when it comes to literature written about America.

….in America most of us — not readers alone but even writers — are still afraid of any literature which is not a glorification of everything American, a glorification of our faults as well as our virtues. To be not only a best-seller in America but to be really beloved, a novelist must assert that all American men are tall, handsome, rich, honest, and powerful at golf; that all country towns are filled with neighbors who do nothing from day to day save go about being kind to one another; that although American girls may be wild, they change always into perfect wives and mothers; and that, geographically, America is composed solely of New York, which is inhabited entirely by millionaires; of the West, which keeps unchanged all the boisterous heroism of 1870; and of the South, where everyone lives on a plantation perpetually glossy with moonlight and scented with magnolias.

People want to be seen as who they aspire to be not who they are in reality. “Fake it until you make it” is the mantra. You want to be the all American cowboy but you live in a major city in New Jersey. You buy a cowboy hat and boots, listen to country music on your iPod and decorate your home to look like the mid-west. And you dream of the day you will own a ranch in Texas. You’re an urban cowboy. Americans want to be seen as idyllic in movies and novels. If we want the truth we watch the news.

Alisa