This week's blog tour post is provided by Cody Martin! I thoroughly enjoyed reading his post, and I hope you will too. I think I have found some new music artists for my oldest child, who is quickly becoming a huge J-Pop fan.
And now, introducing...Cody Martin!
This
week's theme for the MSH blog tour is "What blogs do you regularly follow
and why?" To be honest, I hardly follow any blogs. Most of the blog posts
I read come from links posted on Facebook and Twitter, either from fellow
authors or from various blogs found around the Net. If a particular post title
catches my attention or a writer recommends reading it, I'll often click on it.
Unlike
tweets or Facebook posts, blogs are more in-depth. They require more time to
read, if I have fifty friends, I don't really have time to read fifty posts a
day. I usually just read the ones that catch my interest. But I feel I should
read more blogs and follow them more closely. There may be quite a bit of
instructional posts and advice I'm missing out on.
I
like blogs (and Facebook posts and tweets) that mix the personal and the
professional. I don't want every post to be about marketing, promotion, or
reviews. I like knowing about the person behind the author or celebrity. I
don't need to know every little detail they have done, but I like getting a
feel for them, their likes and dislikes, what they do on weekends. One of my
favorite tweeters is comic artist Rob Liefeld. Along with his work and
business-related tweets, he talks about movies he likes or dislikes, his
thoughts on whatever basketball game he is watching, and so on. Now, I don't like basketball. But I know
Liefeld does and it is fun to see him tweet about games and players that make
him happy or upset him.
I
try to balance my own blog and Facebook page with professional and personal
content. When I started my blog, it was called Cody L. Martin - Author. Pretty
boring name, huh? I struggled for a long time with what to write about, trying
to keep it all writing and reading related. I then branched out into movie
reviews, my life in Japan and more. After about a year, I decided my blog
needed its own identity. I renamed it Resonant Blue, after my all-time favorite
Morning Musume song. I did more posts by doing blog tours, having guest posts
from fellow authors, and more. I like my blog but feel it has lost some of its
focus. I've done a little too much that wasn't about me, and I may cut back a
little on the guests and blog stops.
I'm
hoping that readers of my blog and Facebook page are getting to know me. I hope
they feel there is a person behind the author, and I want them to feel
comfortable enough to comment and interact on any post I do. That's really the
point of blogs and Facebook pages and tweets: to bring writers and authors
together. That's what I love about publishing now, and the digital age we are
in. Writers and readers are not so separate anymore. Readers can learn more
about their favorite author as a person and interact with them in a way never
before possible. Gone are the days when an old-fashioned fan letter may have
gotten you an autographed picture, if you were lucky. And authors can get to
know the readers buying their books and commenting on their posts. It's a
wonderful level of interaction that was never possible before.
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Links:
Resonant
Blue - http://codylmartin.blogspot.jp
Facebook
Page - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cody-L-Martin/130001853834362
Bio:
An author and
freelance writer, Cody L. Martin grew up in the beautiful mountains of Wyoming
where he became an avid sci-fi fan. He wrote his first Star Trek fan fiction in
high school and has since been branched out into sci-fi and action stories.
Cody wrote his first novel Adventure Hunters in the same vein. He currently
writes the monthly Star Trek column To Boldly Go… for In Genre. He works in
Japan as a part-time English teacher in Yamaguchi Prefecture, and lives happily
with his beautiful wife, Yoko. When he isn't writing he enjoys watching movies,
reading and listening to Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou, C-ute, and other J-pop
singers.
Thanks for the post. And if your child likes J-Pop, I'd love to talk about it!
ReplyDeleteOh, she'd love that! So far, she's really enjoying Vocaloid-- she found that on youtube. I told her about Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou, and C-ute, but haven't heard her opinions on those yet. She also goes back to listening to theme songs of her favorite Anime shows-- Fruits Basket, the theme to Chobits (not my favorite show for her to watch, but I found out about it too late!)
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