Showing posts with label TikTok. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TikTok. Show all posts

Saturday, June 4, 2022

Travel, Garden, Books: June is a fun month! #CAC22

 We're Headed to Bellingham, WA!

Yep, to Chanticleer Authors Conference CAC22

by Jacquie Rogers

One of my favorite conferences is hosted by Chanticleer Book Reviews and is an excellent multi-genre conference for new and experienced authors.  I've been going since the very first one, partly because Kiffer Brown (owner of Chanticleer) is such a hoot, and partly because of the wonderful author friends I've made there.
We ladies must hide our jowls.
This is what happens when book people are unsupervised at a bar.

COVID kind of knocked the socks off #CAC20 and #CAC21, but they prevailed and managed to hold virtual conferences on Zoom.  But what a pain...plus, it's really hard to hug your friends on Zoom.  Anyway, this year they're having an IRL (In Real Life) conference, and they're back at Hotel Bellwether at Squalicum Harbor, Bellingham, Washington.  I'm presenting three workshops with my buddy Diane Garland, owner of Your WorldKeeper.  So Mr R and I will hop into the car and pull our little Casita to Puget Sound, where we'll be celebrating family birthdays, visiting friends, and doing a few errands before and after going on up to Bham.


But first, we're selling books at the Owyhee Outpost Days in Murphy, Idaho.  I noticed that Murphy has grown from 47 people to nearly triple digits--so you might not have heard of it, but hey, it's the county seat of Owyhee County.  And there's even a parking meter in front of the courthouse.

**NOTE: This is the only parking meter in the county and there are no stoplights, thank heavens.

Owyhee Outpost Days is a ton of fun.  You can see Lost Arts from days gone by, take in the museum (which is truly excellent), grab some corndogs or gourmet chocolate--or even homemade pie!  The kids have pony rides and wagon rides, and the adults can ride on a John Deere B.  We don't usually have a lot of authors there but I hope a few show up.


The forecast is for rain both days.  Bah Humbug!

Next week, we're visiting the Owyhee Dam in Malheur County, Oregon.  Why is it so interesting?  Because if you go to Hoover Dam, you'll be told over and over and over that Hoover Dam was the first dam where they used refrigeration to cure concrete.  Not so.  Owyhee Dam was the prototype.


We'll be camping in Tillie the Tank, our Casita, from Tuesday to Thursday and our friends will be coming up for a cookout on Wednesday, so should be a lot of fun.

In the middle of all that, we'll be gardening.  So far we have all the herbs and veggies planted, although one of my cantaloupe looks pretty pathetic, so might have to replace it.  Mr R has the irrigation all set up.  We have 16 4'x4' raised beds, 5 1'x4' raised beds, and 3 stock tanks, all full of herbs and vegetables.  Then there are probably two dozen flower pots/planters, all with watering systems, so you can see the poor guy has been working his hiney off.  My daughter, best known on TikTok as Hurricane Mercedes, will be house/garden/Walter sitting.   Sorry, no current photos.

Speaking of Hurricane Mercedes, she has close to 50,000 followers on TikTok, and they're avid fans.  I mean avid.  Her goal is to spread awareness of neurofibromatosis and she's doing a mighty fine job.  As a matter of fact, the Children's Tumor Foundation asked her, as an influencer, to help publicize the Make NF Visible Telethon on May 17th, which she did.  The local NF group had a watch party, and Mercedes got a standing O when her videos were featured four different times!  What a star.  Well, she wanted to be a movie star when she was little, so I guess this is close to it.

From left to right:
Me, Mercedes, and my sis-in-law Mary


 That's about enough yammering from me for one month.  I have to get busy on the presentations, and continue working on my book.  Lots to do!  I hope you're happy, healthy, and have a room jammed full of unread books to keep you traveling, at least in your mind. 

Much Love!

Until next month, Happy Reading!



If you're on TikTok, friend me!  My handle is @jacquierogersbooks.  
You can get videos of Honey Beaulieu and Sassy's latest updates there.  And goofy videos of her scribe.  Heck, we even do a few cooking videos.

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Wednesday, May 4, 2022

Planting Seeds: Books, Veggies, & NF Awareness #EndNF by Jacquie Rogers

 


 Planting Season and NF Awareness


This is a busy time of year for those of us in the northern hemisphere with gardens.  Add in the fact that life goes on, planting season or not, there's just not much free time these days.  First, the pretty things.

I do love spring flowers.  The daffodils are already gone and the tulips got pretty beat up by the rainstorm a few days ago, but here are a few flowers:


I just love lilacs.  We have a huge bush (even after giving it a butch haircut last year) right by the patio door.  It has multiple blooms and the scent is absolutely wonderful.

We're having a short water season here just like in all the western states.  Our irrigation water is nearly a month late and according to the projections the district will have to shut it off two months early.  Luckily, we've had more rain than usual so the lawn is relatively green.



 Yep, needs water, but does look a lot better after the first mowing.

May is NF Awareness Month, so we have a lot going on there.  My daughter Mercedes is doing a bang-up job of educating and supporting others on TikTok.  As of this writing she has 36,000+ followers and her videos are very popular with her fans.  

This shows the progression of Neurofibromatosis Type 1 in Mercedes.
She wasn't diagnosed until she was 19 years old.


This month the national organization, Children's Tumor Foundation, is hosting some really cool events including popular entertainers and personalities.  Be sure to sign up!  It's all online and free.  Can't beat that.  Here's a link to Mercedes's blog, HurricaneReads, and where Liam Hamer of Early Midlife Crisis in England interviewed her on Spotify.

As for my latest manuscript in progress, well, I had a cute video to embed here but apparently you can only embed from YouTube and this one's in TikTok, but you can see it here.

Also, I'm planning my summer readers' event, Much Ado About the Hearts of Owyhee.  Whew!  Long title for sure, but most of the people think my Hearts of Owyhee series is called the Much Ado series.  So I threw in the towel and combined them. LOL.  A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.  This year, we aren't going to Silver City.  I'm hoping to have it right here in the valley (SW Idaho), hopefully in Marsing.  I should hear in the next few days from my contacts so I'll be able to tell you where and when.  But we're gearing up for a fabulous time!!!

Until next month, Happy Reading!



If you're on TikTok, friend me!  My handle is @jacquierogersbooks.  
You can get videos of Honey Beaulieu and Sassy's latest updates there.  And goofy videos of her scribe.  Heck, we even do a few cooking videos.

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Friday, February 4, 2022

Love, Writing, and #TikTok by @JacquieRogers

 

 Love, Writing, and TikTok


A year ago last Christmas, my son and his family visited for a week, and we really had a great time.  Especially my granddaughter and me.   We cooked--she's quite the fashion statement in her little green apron--and we played games.  One thing she loved to do is make and edit selfies of the two of us on SnapChat.  When she got tired of that, she said, "Grandma, you need to get on TikTok."

"I don't know the first thing about TikTok," I told her.  "Besides, the last thing I need is another social network that requires posting, comments, and moderation."

"But Grandma, what big teeth you have."  She covered her mouth and giggled.  "Just kidding.  But seriously, no one goes on Facebook anymore."

"My friends do."

"Your friends are old."

I didn't point out to this precocious eight year-old that nearly everyone is old to her, but I do have to confess that my bones creak, I know how to use a dial telephone, I watched Neil Armstrong take the first step on the moon, that I have seven grandkids, and even three greats.  I reckoned there was little choice but to throw in the threadbare towel.  "You're right, my friends and I are old.  But as for TikTok, I have no idea how to load it or use it."

"I can load it for you."  She took my phone from me and started poking at icons.  As the app was loading, she said, "I can show you how to make a video, too."

I consented.  After she logged me in, I asked her, "What's your handle so I can friend you?"

She shrugged.  "Oh, I'm not on TikTok.  My mom won't let me."

But she sure knew how to use it.  I'm still laughing.  You can follow me on TikTok at @jacquierogersbooks.  The thing of it is, I have no idea what to post on there.  I write western historicals and some fantasy.  I have enough story ideas to last me until I'm about 450 years old, but I'll be durned if I can come up with a cohesive TikTok strategy.  Maybe I am that old.  Holy moly.

Speaking of strategy, I've shifted gears on my work in progress, and now I'm writing a novella about Honey Beaulieu's ghost sidekick, Roscoe.  I have lots of ideas for the story but I'm still niggling about POV.  Should I stick with Honey's POV?  Or maybe go into Roscoe's.  I'm sorta thinking that Honey should narrate and Roscoe should tell his own story.  At any rate, I had a long talk with Diane Garland and we worked on getting the already published facts about Roscoe listed so I don't mess up.  

Working title is Crazy Curse in Crowfoot Cove.  How does that sound to you?  I'm between 50% and 60% happy with that title.  Roscoe might toss me another as I'm writing.  He keeps whispering in my ear that if I have alliteration, it should be with R since his first name starts with that letter.  Then again his last name is Peevey, so we could do something there.  I think P is a funnier letter than R--or C, for that matter.

Whatever... I guess I better get to work!





Until next month, Happy Reading!




If you're on Snapchat, friend me!  My handle is jacquierogers.  You can get videos of Sassy's latest updates there.  And goofy pictures of her scribe.

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