Things to Celebrate!

Join the Celebration HERE!

I'm not going small this week. I'm going big.  
1. Oorah! 
2. Hooah!
3. Hooyah!

The respective battle cries for American Marines, Army, and Navy Seals...and I'll add an affirmative to the Air Force and an Aye, Aye for regular sailors, who don't seem to have a battle cry (or none that I could find, so if you know one...let me know!)

Best explanation (in my mind) for the oorah, hooah, hooyah..1800's British military acronym HUA...heard, understood, agreed. 

In commemoration of our fallen soldiers, I sent a donation to America's Mightiest Warriors. It's not a big organization. It was created to honor Navy Seal, Marc Lee. Marc was the first Seal to die in Iraq. In Marc's last letter home to his mother, he wrote about how...we could change our world by doing more random acts of kindness. He ended that letter with “to my family and friends, do me a favor, pass on the kindness, the love, the precious gift of human life.”

Marc's mother accepted his challenge and uses the platform to pass on small kindnesses to servicemen and women and their families. 

John 15:13 “Greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends.”
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I'm packing and getting ready to go camping for the holiday weekend. I'm not a camping fan, but we're cabin camping with AC, so it's more like staying in a hotel with your own yard. That's pretty sweet. 

But, anytime you any-kinda-camp there is a lot to pack and get ready, so I am so happy to have Mac here today helping me out. Mac is my very most favorite hermit writer. Not only is he an awesome friend to know. He's sweet, generous, and about as honest as a dude can get. And I really enjoy his books. I can always count on Mac to deliver a great story with a bit of humor and a lot of heart. 

Welcome Mac!!

As a reader I remained locked in complementary genres and rarely tried anything new. As a writer I experimented. It's great to learn your writer's voice by experimenting in different worlds. Placing products in multiple niches can be a great idea…I mean, diffract your marketing message. Fracturing your genre niche will make your audience go, "Huh? Is she a SF or a paranormal writer?" Then click, Next. Reading something you'd never think would interest you can change your world.

Writing in multiple genres explodes your marketing options. You can touch various audiences with a single campaign. Uh…spread your marketing budget thinner and thinner to reach various audiences. How exactly do I market myself? SF/F is a lot different from suspense. But I wrote a barn-burner of a bounty hunter tale. I am so glad I tried reading paranormal. I have found so many intriguing stories.

But marketing is cheap. Ads are ubiquitous in the search engines and social networks. So common the human eye completely ignores them. Hum…I need to write a zombie novel. That is really hot now. A business person must follow the trends. Uh…I mean…follow her heart.

I started out assuming I would write only SF and other-world fantasy because that was what I read. The number one rule according to the experts, "Read, read, read, across the genres to learn your craft." I learned I loved the written word. It depended upon the author's style a whole lot more than the world the characters traipsed around in. So expanding my breadth of genres I wrote in grew with my reading interests. Uh…the common reader sticks with what they like. They don't cross over. Never. Ever.

Oh…my head hurts.

R. Mac Wheeler is an author of suspense, paranormal, SF and fantasy. A former IT professional who broke Rule #1…keep the day job, he loves to write, hates to market. Doesn't sell much, but that will one day change*.

*I added that for Mac. He's a talented guy...it will happen. Buy Mac's Books HERE!