Adding a Featured Image in Blogger That Will Show Up on Facebook

This isn't so much a writing post as a how to post. Sorry, I don't have a more appropriate blog to put this on. If you are not interested in this technical stuff, you have my permission to skip this one.

Are you angry that your featured image doesn't get picked up by Facebook and other social sites? I used to be too, until I discovered something that worked.  Of course there are other things I'm not too happy about. But that would involve another post. This  would be a companion post to a similar one concerning Word Press blogs.

Top Blog Post of All Time

I've seen some others do this occasionally. Don't know how often I will do this, but I thought it a good idea to let others know what are the top 5 blog post based on traffic on my site. After all, if that many people are looking at them, perhaps others who have missed it might want to get a second chance to check them out?

Here are the top 5 blog posts:

1. Using Open Office for Novel Writing with 160 unique page views


2. Dealing with Reviews with 90 unique page views


3. Book Review: Dark Side of the Moon by Terri Lynn Main with 57 unique page views


4. Preparing to Smash Words with 23 unique page views


5. It’s Coming! It’s Coming! Reality’s Coming! with 21 unique page views

Congrats to Terri for getting her book review up in the top 5 of viewed blog pages, and the top ranked book review on the site by far.

What is also interesting is aside from the book review and the last one, the other three slots are all taken up by "how tos" on the site. Which I guess points to the kind of post people like to read here, and I need to come up with more. The 6th ranked blog post was also a how-to about building covers for CreateSpace. Point taken!

Guest Post: Why Publishers Run With the Crowd

Another blogger, Michael Lynch, has offered to post a piece I wrote, actually in a discussion on a list. But then I tweaked it a bit more for prime-time. So I'm guest posting once again.

Check it out: Why Publishers Run With the Crowd

Thanks, Mike, for the invite, and everyone go take a read.

Book Review: Legendary Space Pilgrims by Grace Bridges

ISBN 978-0986451720



Legendary Space Pilgrims reminded me of C. S. Lewis' Space Trilogy along with a dose of his Chronicles of Narnia while firmly remaining its own unique science fiction story. If you like exploring, experiencing new places, along with a bit of an adventure, you'll enjoy watching the two main characters, Mario and Caitlin, not only escape from their forced labor on the planet Monday, but do so guided by a voice Mario hears in his head. The voice leads them to several planets before they discover their ultimate mission.

I especially enjoyed the worlds explored by the characters, which are well developed as evidenced by a detailed history unfolding as the novel progresses. The images Ms. Bridges paints with her words activated my imagination and brought the story into the realm of the possible.

I also enjoyed watching the relationship between the two main characters develop. Though they had a history together, the mind-swipes used to control them caused it to be new each time. Once they escape, they learn to explore their relationship beyond the limits imposed by their former world, and they struggle learning to incorporate their new experiences with each other.

The constant presence of the voice provides another developing relationship that they work to understand and follow. As we often experience, they don't always get it right but growth happens all the same as the voice guides them to fulfill their destiny.

Most questions that came to my mind found answers before the book ended. The few that didn't are left for a sequel to finish out the story. Yet, I learned enough to satisfy and wet my appetite for the next book.

While there were some instances where I didn't grasp the logic of the character's actions, and a couple of times solutions appeared too conveniently, they didn't distract me from the story or make the story itself implausible. Overall, I found it a fun ride and look forward to finding out how they accomplish their mission in the next sequel.

The story not only entertained me, it provided me with a sense of wonder, the diversity of God's creation, our common struggle to do the right things, or know what the right thing is to do. And above all, that it's often not about us, but about something bigger than ourselves. The character's pilgrimage reflects our own in many ways, and through them we find hope for our own journeys.

Younger children will enjoy Legendary Space Pilgrims as well as the young adult audience it is targeted for. Adults will also find the story an interesting and fun read. If you like the books I mentioned at the top of this review, you'll like this one. I recommend you obtain a copy and enjoy the journey. You won't be the same by the end of it.

Storefront Fixed

I discovered that my author's storefront, http://store.rlcopple.com, had experienced some problems from people who tried to order on it or obtain the free ebook. During login as well as some functions of checking out, a blank page would appear, making it difficult to buy anything.

That has now been fixed, site updated, and my test show it operating as one would expect. I apologize for the difficulties in processing orders. You are now free to move about the storefront!

Thank you.

The Lost Genre Guild Blog Tour!

I recently joined a group of like-mind individuals known as The Lost Genre Guild. Their mission is the promotion of speculative fiction written by Christians. They note how little, if any, speculative fiction resides on the typical Christian bookstore shelf. There is a bias against it among the CBA which most Christian bookstores are members of. Both because they have the opinion that it doesn't sell well (despite some facts to the contrary), and the potential for it to offend a segment of their market (some Christians believe fantasy is of the devil and that science fiction is only for the secular/atheist out there).

So for those of us who  not only feel it is okay, but believe that God has called us to write good speculative fiction from a Christian world view, groups like the LGG provide support, marketing power, and collaboration on such projects. In the short time I've been on board with them, I feel that I've not only gained support for my writing and marketing, but a whole new set of friends that understand where I'm at, because most of them are there too!

While I didn't get my hat in the pot this time around to be included on the list for the blog tour that is now on, I'd invite you to start off at the LGG Blog, then visit any of the following blogs to see the comments being posted.

http://www.lostgenreguild.com/

Also, if you would like to hear what others thought about the Lost Genre Guild, just click their name.

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Grace Bridges
Valerie Comer
Courtney
Frank Creed
Amy Cruson
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Joleen Howell
Jason Isbell
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
KaitCarol Keen
MagmaMargaret
Rachel Marks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
John W. Otte
Steve Rice
Crista Richey

Christmas Sales on Infinite Realities!

I've decided to discount my book, Infinite Realities, that I sell from my web site as we approach Christmas. Amazon has never discounted it nor other major retailers. So, leading up to Christmas at least, I'm selling author-signed copies of my book from my web site at $6.99 plus $2.75 shipping. (Normal retail price is $9.99) I also have a few copies of Strange World's of Lunacy left as well if you want to add that to your cart.

This book makes a good gift for people of all ages. M. Keaton had this to say about the book:

The prose is direct, often conversational, allowing even younger readers to enjoy the book while the themes are sufficiently mature in scope to engage readers of any age.

Spread the word!

Thanks.

My old comics

I had these on my previous blog, and am just now getting back to putting them up again.

My brother and I, back as pre-teens, started writing comics, making stories, and having fun. You can say that this was my first story creation medium. First, we started with using our stuffed toys to create comics, but later we developed a whole list of human superheros and villians. I even had a comic that was a take-off of Speed Racer that was my favorite.

One time, my brother and I decided to send off our characters to Marvel, in the vain hope that they would think, "Oh, these are great. Let's use them and send these kids a lot of money for 'em!" Yea, right. What can I say, we were young, naive teens. But I do wonder, because one of my characters was "Magnet Man." He looked a lot like Iron Man but use Earth's gravity fields to fly and take out the bad guys. I'll have to research this, but I wondered when I saw "Magnito" on the X-Men, whether or not my character spawned that idea or not. Hum...

Anyway, most of those old comics I no longer have. Which is a shame because it would be real interesting to re-read some of them now in retrospect. But, I do have three, fortunately. They are all from our stuffed toy collection, and they all feature my favorite stuffed toy, a teddy bear named "Charlie." These comics are in PDF format, and you can download them freely. They've never been published anywhere except at this blog and website. Hope you enjoy them.

This first comic is from my earliest series, that I called "Detective Charlie." Usually the story went that he received his orders from the boss, the device always blows up, he goes after the bad guys but mostly he seems to "win" by sheer luck, and no matter what situation he is in, he just happens to be carrying with him what he needs! It was intentionally a spoofy series on James Bond type things. I never got around to coloring this one, so all black and white. This one is under 500KB in size.

Detective Charlie: Death Trap

The second one is one of my favorite series, which I called "Neptune 2." "Hum," you say. "That sounds familiar, this wouldn't be a take off of Lost in Space, now would it?" Well, yea, you could call it that. There is a similar shape to the ships and they usually crash land. Only thing missing is the robot. But you can say these are my first attempts at space opera, though I had no idea what that was then, I just liked space stories. This is mostly colored, and so the file is on the bigger side, just over 6.5 Megs.

Neptune 2: It's a Long Ways Down

The last one is one of my superhero comics. Sort of a League of superheros type story. Detective Charlie heads up this organization, with Sound Rabbit, Silver Mouse and Bear. This one was partially colored so the file is a little big, but not as big as the last one, at 2.6 megs.

The Superhero Outfit: The Final Test

Hope you enjoy them. I just might get back into writing more someday. Once I get the rust out of my drawing skills.

Copple's Creations

Blog has moved

Yes, I've moved the blog. I put a redirect on my old site, so if you came here by typing http://www.copple.us/blog/ then you will want to update any bookmarks to http://blog.rlcopple.com

Yep, new site and new hosting company. Moved the blog over successfully and now have an official author web site at http://www.rlcopple.com. Be sure to update and keep checking in. Best to subscribe to the RSS feed if at all possible.

Thanks.

About the banner photo…

Just thought people might be interested to know that the photo in the banner is actually one of my own. I took that photo one Saturday evening returning home from church. There is a rest area at the top of the hill overlooking Marble Falls, TX (where I live) along with a lake which you can't see in this picture, hills in the background, and very lovely golden with dark clouds sunset going on. One of my favorite, though I have lots.

But thought folks might want to know this isn't some stock photo I pulled off the Internet or came with the theme. All mine! And has appeared in a different crop at http://www.haruah.com as a story illustration.

I have a photo page at http://www.copple.us, but I hope to have a more organized one in the future as part of this blog. But that will take a little work.

The Blog is Back!

Yes, we have been down for a while. Our hosting company's data server ended up going out of business, from all appearences, and without warning shut down the servers. So he had to set up a new account with a new data center, and reset their client's accounts on the new server. Unfortunately, that took over a week. But, we finally came back up and I've finally got around to installing the blog again.

Just one problem. So far I'm not able to create sub-domains, so instead of blog.copple.us, the blog is now located at www.copple.us/blog/

That means updating some links and RSS feeds. Sorry for that inconvenience. But, I've moved to a different blog software, and will be adding features as I go. And, I've still a few bugs to work out on a web site or two's coding, that doesn't work here but did on the older servers.

Check back here for updates again, and reset your RSS feeds if you used that. We're back.