Tag: blogs

Blog Traffic is Often a Puzzlement

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn writers, writing8 Comments

I appreciate those of you who regularly stop by, read, leave comments, and subscribe. Without Google Analytics, I often wonder where some of the other blog traffic comes from.

Suddenly, a two-year-old review of “Labyrinth” by Kate Mosse gets 35 viewers. Last week, an old article called “Branding at Sea” about the USS Ranger was ranked as a top post. Sometimes I can figure out these puzzles. A news story prompts a sudden search. An author comes out with a new book, leading people here to reviews of earlier books. But most of the time, I can’t track down the why of sudden bursts of traffic to old posts.

I often post news and articles about Glacier National Park, the hero’s journey, and the heroine’s journey, so I’m not too surprised to see search terms listed on my dashboard from readers looking for more information. My new novel “The Seeker” will be coming out soon. That means more fantasy and magical realism posts. Later this year, I plan to visit Glacier National Park, so you’re pretty much guaranteed to see more posts about Swiftcurrent Valley and Many Glacier Hotel.

Coming soon, is a very interesting guest post from author Dianne K. Salerni (“We Hear the Dead”). If I told you the subject, you’d probably think I was making it up. I’m already wondering what kind of search terms will lead people to that post.

I’ll have another book review to post in several weeks. I liked this author’s collection of short stories. It’s fun seeing him focus his talents on a novel. When I post reviews, I often see more traffic for the older reviews.

If you don’t find what you’re looking for here, check out my Magic Moments blog for more posts about fantasy, the natural world and sometimes a bit of Zen. Several times a week, I post links to book and author news, writing tips, and book reviews in “Book Bits” which appears on Sun Singer’s Travels.

The traffic on the older posts on those blogs is also a puzzlement, but I figure the Universe, Google and the Internet in general pretty much know who needs to stop by for a visit. When I start following links, I often end up at sites and blogs I’ve never heard of and find that it’s almost as though I was destined to go to them and read a specific article or post that somehow applies to whatever I’m doing.

Even if Google Analytics were available for WordPress blogs, I’m not sure it could figure out the logic of traffic that the fates send to one place or another.

—Malcolm

Inspiring Blog Award Nomination

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn writing4 Comments

Thank you, Christine, for nominating Malcolm’s Round Table as an inspiring blog in yesterday’s post on your C. LaVielle’s Book Jacket Blog. I’ve been enjoying your posts, especially those that focus on individual Tarot cards and the hero’s journey. The hero’s journey has been a long-time special interest of mine, so when others write about it, I usually find my way to their words.

Now, in the spirit of the Inspiring Blog Award, I’m supposed to tell you seven things about me.

  1. My website’s bio page says that I was raised by alligators in the Everglades. I’ve given this matter further thought, and suspect that it may not be true. I did enjoy reading  Karen Russell’s novel Swamplandia! (which was a deja vu experience) about a Florida theme park featuring alligator wrestlers, and I did grow up in Florida: I’m reasonably sure about these things.
  2. Among other things, I like anchovies and feta cheese on pizza. I had a boss who insisted on ordering pizza with pineapple on it on Friday afternoons to celebrate the end of the workweek. Ursula, I gotta tell you, I never understood the pineapple. Of course, most people don’t understand anchovies because (possibly) evil spirits brainwashed them when they were kids.
  3. The URL for this blog lists it under knightofswords. This is the Tarot card that signifies me for those of us who view the court cards as knights, queens, princes and princesses. The Knight of Swords is a card of wind and storms.
  4. My sun sign is Leo. I guess most of you have figured that out already.
  5. My introduction to myths and heroes’ journeys began in secondary school when I read every book I could get my hands on about the Arthurian legends. My favorite King Arthur book is T. H. White’s The Once and Future King.  So, no surprise that I would call this blog Malcolm’s Round Table.
  6. My writer’s muse is named Siobhan and she appeared as a character in my contemporary fantasy Sarabande and in my hero’s journey novel Garden of Heaven: an Odyssey.
  7. My first jobs were delivering telegrams and newspapers (though not at the same time).

Seven Blogs that Inspire Me

  1. Montana Outdoors
  2. Smoky Talks
  3. The Drawing Board
  4. Lingwë – Musings of a Fish
  5. In the Labyrinth
  6. Patricia Damery
  7. The Spiritual Edge

The Round Table

I’ve never been able to settle down and confine this blog to a tightly focused subject area. As an author, I’m going to talk about my books along with the themes and settings in them. This has led to a fair number of posts about Glacier National Park, the hero’s journey and the heroine’s journey, the environment, and fantasy and magical realism. I also review books here and at Literary Aficionado. I’m glad Christine enjoys stopping by the Round Table, and I hope you do, too.

Malcolm

Contemporary fantasy for your Nook at $4.99.

Around the Links

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books

On this slow, lazy southern Saturday, I’m taking the easy way out by posting a few links to recent posts in my other blogs.

“The Apartment” to the rescue on Sun Singer’s Travels discusses my use of a reference to this old Billy Wilder movie to show how my protagonist Jock Stewart feels about himself on a down evening. I think the reference works even for readers who’ve never seen the film. Check out my “FriendFeed” while you’re here.

In Movie and Book References Help Define your Characters on Writer’s Notebook I suggest that while current popular culture references can date a book, mentioning older movies and books can add atmosphere and show what your characters are all about.

Eye Blink Fiction features a short excerpt from my novel “Garden of Heaven” about liberty in a 1960s sailor town.

Readers Looking for ‘The Lust Symbol’ Ravish Bookstore on Morning Satirical News is another off-the-wall satire about what happens when a bookstore owner gets the name of Dan Brown’s new novel wrong in his advertising.

When our water heater went out earlier this week, I wrote about it in The Water Heater on my MythRider weblog.

If you read book reviews on your quest for new books, I invite you to read take a look at Janice Harayda’s One-Minute Book Reviews and The Rose City Reader (out of Portland, Oregon). See also, Ms. Bookish – My life among books.

As always, I hope you’ll stop by my publisher, Vanilla Heart Publishing and take a look at their wonderful selection of books including “Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire.” If you’re a writer of poetry, essays/articles and short stories with a focus on the out doors, you might be interested in submitting a piece for the upcoming “Earth’s Gifts” anthology which will celebrate Earth Day 2010. The deadline is December 31, 2009.

Have an enjoyable weekend.

Malcolm