Social Media Hangouts & Graphics: Week 15 #MFRWAuthors 52-Week Blog Challenge

mfrw blog challenge badge
It’s week 15 of the MFRWAuthors 52-Week Blog Challenge, and this week’s prompt is My Social Media Hangouts.

My hangouts are pretty basic: Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest. Please feel free to friend or follow me on any of the above links. I’d love to connect with you online.

The fact that I have any social media hangouts at all is due to my friend Elena Dillon, who taught an online social media class a while back for my local OCCRWA chapter. I now consider her my social media guru.

This year, I took a class on Visual Content Marketing for the Confused and Terrified Writer, also taught by Elena. In it, I learned how to make kick-ass graphics for my books and social media sites. The big breakthrough came from learning about Canva, a terrific website that helps you create graphics using templates designed for each social media site, postcards, blog and web graphics, etc. They even have a template for an e-book cover! Haven’t tried that one yet.

Here are a few examples of what I did in class:

seek help graphic

My first attempt at using Canva.com to create a graphic.

LM facebook cover

Facebook cover image for my Linda McLaughlin author page

LL facebook cover

Facebook cover image for my Lyndi Lamont Author page

Save

RB twitter graphic

Twitter graphic for How to Woo… A Reluctant Bride

I have to admit, though, that I wasn’t entirely successful at the class. The branding still challenges me, and I tried and failed to create an account at Instagram, and gave up after a while. I’ll just have to live without Instagram, I suppose.

If you’re like me and still a bit leery about social media, Elena has a another website where she discusses social media for the Confused and Terrified Writer.

Where do you hang out on social media?

Linda / Lyndi

Use the linky list below to find more great blog posts in the #MFRWauthor 52-Week #Blog Challenge.

Binge Watching in 2017 #MFRWauthor #Blog Challenge

MFRW blog challenge badge
I joined the MFRW 2017 Blog Challenge. The idea is to do a themed blog every Friday, and this week’s prompt is “TV Shows I Binge”. Normally I’d have trouble with this prompt because I don’t generally binge watch, except for Outlander.

However, I missed the opening of the fall TV season last year due to being out of the country, so I’ve had no choice but to binge watch in order to catch up on the shows I like. My first choice was Grey’s Anatomy, a show I’ve watched from the beginning, despite its ups and downs. I remember years ago watching a medical show, probably ER, when my husband wandered into the room, saw them operating on someone and said, “Your mother died of a brain tumor and you’re watching this?” I just shrugged. I didn’t point out that I wasn’t the one with a major medical phobia. He wouldn’t have watched under any circumstances.

Next I turned to some of the new shows to see what I liked. My two favorites are Timeless–because time travel!–and Designated Survivor. I love both of these shows. It’s fun to see the characters in Timeless (NBC) hopping from one historical period to another each week while trying to catch the handsome but dastardly Garcia Flynn, played by Goran Visjnic. (Had to look up how to spell his name.) I’ve been in love with Goran since he played Luca in ER. Matt Lanter’s Wyatt isn’t hard to look at either!

US CapitolIf you like complex suspenseful TV shows, Designated Survivor (ABC) is fascinating. Kiefer Sutherland plays Tom Kirkman, the HUD secretary, who is the designated survivor from the president’s cabinet during the State of the Union speech. The idea is to have someone in the line of succession survive in case of catastrophe. In the pilot, the Capitol building suddenly explodes during the inauguration, and Tom is rushed from his “undisclosed location” to the White House where he is sworn in as president. Maggie Q plays an FBI agent who is trying to figure out who blew up the capital, a quest that gets more dangerous the closer she gets to the truth. I can’t wait for the show to start up again.

For laughs, I binge watched The Good Place (NBC) starring Kristen Bell and Ted Danson. Kristin Bell’s character Eleanor died and accidentally ended up in the Good Place instead of the Bad Place. Her attempts to become a better person are hilarious and heartwarming. I’m really enjoying the show.

And lately I binge watched the new show This Is Us, also on NBC. This show is an innovative and heartwarming family drama about the Big Three, a set of twins and their adopted brother, all born on their dad’s birthday. There’s been a lot of critical acclaim for this show, and Chrissy Metz, who plays Kate, was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. I think she should have won.

And yes, I know this isn’t true binge watching because I didn’t wait for a whole season, but I had to get caught up! I still have a bunch of shows I haven’t watched this season.

What have you been watching, or binge watching lately?

Linda

Click on the linky list below for more binge TV posts.