Blogiversary Link Round-Up

May 3, 2013KWhipkey 6 Comments

Well, the day has finally arrived– the one year anniversary of my first blog post. (And the announcement of the giveaway winner, which is why you’re all here, I’m sure.) I’ve made some incredibly awesome new friends over the past year and written a total of 51 posts. (Not counting this one, obviously, or my year would have magically lost a whole week. You know, now that I think about it, maybe that’s where all the non-existent time I wish I had disappeared to.) That’s a grand total of 60,172 words! (Yes, I counted them. So what? I was bored, and just a tad curious.) That’s officially a record for me. Sad, but true. Just think, if I had spent all that energy on Unmoving, the darn thing would be almost done by now! But then I wouldn’t have met all of you and discovered that I actually thoroughly enjoy blogging. Most of the time. 😉

Before we find out who the lucky winner is, (Don’t you dare scroll down and spoil it….Don’t do it…Darn you! I told you not to do that!) I want to share a few highlights from the past year by way of some statistics. Think of it as a little mini-archive, a chance to catch up on some of the cool things you might have missed.

My most popular post, with 49 page views was: Marketing via Wattpad & Authonomy–Smart? (I’m not counting the miscellaneous catch-all known as Home Page/Archives or any of my Bio pages, which surprisingly outranked everything else. Who knew I was so fascinating?)

Randomness Galore: An Interview With Me received the most likes, (again, who knew I was that interesting?) while Nightwolf’s Corner Birthday Giveaway clocked the most comments. (Not shocking considering that was one of the ways you could enter.)

The Devil’s in the Details was shared the most, while my series on the merits of traditional publishing vs. self-publishing– The T raditional vs. Self-Publishing Debate (Part One), The Traditional vs. Self-Publish Debate (Part Two), The Traditional vs. Self-Publish Debate (Part Three) — received the most references on other sites.

My record-breaking day, with 58 total page views is thanks to Storytelling for Demo Teams, the last installment in my demo team basics series. The other posts in that series are Demo Teams: A Brief Introduction, So You Think You Want a Demo Team, All About Staging: The Invisible Spotlight Effect, and A Lesson in Musicality, just in case you missed them.

The Definition of Black Belt is a fan favorite outside of the blogosphere, and Featured Image: Myusa Won Hwa Logo has been the most Googled, thanks to a shout out to Larry Wick’s Split Second Survival program. (Which appears to have vacated the web temporarily and is currently unlinkable.)

Writing…With a Twist is my least popular post (poor thing, maybe go show it some love?) and Introducing REUTS Publications is the shortest. The honor of being the longest is currently held by All About Staging: The Invisible Spotlight Effect, but that could change by this time next year.

I had originally intended to do a round-up of all my favorite posts. But conceited has never been on my list of personality traits, so I decided this was a better approach. I’m curious though, do you have a favorite post from the past year? If so, please share in the comments below. I may not be conceited, but I’m also not anti a little ego boost now and then. 😉

Which brings us, finally, to the moment you’ve all been waiting for– the giveaway winner. Drum roll, please!

The lucky winner…

is…

Jon, of Jumping from Cliffs fame.

Congratulations! You’ve won your chosen prize– the substantive editorial critique. Be sure to check your inbox for more information.

But wait, there’s more!

I decided I was feeling extra generous, and to thank all of you for showing me more support than I expected, I decided to extend the total number of prizes to three. (Apparently I think three is the golden number. That’s how many winners I did last time too.)

So….the second winner…is…

Rose B.

and, last but not least, the third winner of the Nightwolf’s Corner Birthday Giveaway is… (Kudos to anyone who figures out the reference I’m snarkily mimicking, by the way)

Raven P.

Both of whom also selected the editorial critique as their prize. Looks like I’m going to be doing a lot of reading soon. Thanks again to everyone that entered. It truly means a lot to me that you did. And thanks to Rafflecopter for providing the venue and random winner selection tool. Look for more chances to win something around the holidays! Until then, I return you to your regularly scheduled program of sarcastic commentary on the nuances of storytelling.

The Dragon’s Loyalty Award

April 26, 2013KWhipkey 11 Comments

dragons-loyalty-award

Next week, Nightwolf’s Corner officially turns 1 year old. (I can’t believe it’s already been that long!) And as the countdown to announcing the giveaway winner continues, I find myself looking for other ways to extend the celebration. Thankfully, Andrew Toynbee once again supplied me with the perfect solution. He’s honored me with a nomination for the Dragon’s Loyalty Award. Not a bad pre-blogiversary present, huh? It’s actually my first blogging award of any kind, so thanks, Andrew! You’re awesome!

The rules for this one are pretty simple:

Display the award certificate on your website. (Mission accomplished. It’s above.)
Announce your win and link to whoever nominated you. (Why do I get the feeling these rules should have been left to common sense? Who wouldn’t want to thank the person that gave them a shiny gold star?)
Present 15 awards to deserving bloggers. (Hmmm, they assume I’m much more popular than I am. This could be challenging. I sense some creative rule-breaking in the near future.)
Drop them a comment to alert them of the awesomeness. (Again, duh! That’s kind of an obvious part of these games, right?)
Post 7 interesting things about yourself. (Uh-oh, I’m starting to run out of interesting things! I’ll have to see if I have any left after the last time I posted some.)

Alright, I need a little time to figure out how I’m going to magically find 15 worthy souls to direct you toward, so I’m going to do things slightly out of order. (I told you I was a rule-breaker.) I already used some of my best random, interesting factoids in the last go-around, so here are some b-grade, semi-interesting ones. 😉

7 Supposedly Interesting Facts About Me:

I grew up in The Middle of Nowhere, California. Like seriously, the town’s not even on most maps. It literally took an hour (in any direction) to get to civilization and our nearest neighbors were a mile away. (What can I say, my parents decided they wanted to be ~~hermits~~, I mean, back-to-landers. 😉 )
I don’t know how to talk to kids until they’re about 10 years old. (That may be a sign I’m missing the mom gene. I’m not sure.)
I like popcorn with my ramen. (Yeah, you read that right.)
I collect journals, but because I can’t stand my handwriting, I never fill them. (Don’t look at me at like that, you already knew I was weird.)
I was a complete chatterbox as a kid (according to my mom) but absolutely loathe public speaking/social situations now and avoid them at all costs. (Is being a hermit hereditary?)
I think car karaoke is awesome. It lets me pretend that I can actually sing. (Pretend being the operative word there.)
My brain comes to a screaming halt when I’m hungry, and I seriously have the IQ of a jellybean until I eat something. (Yep, I just attributed jellybeans with intelligence.)

Whew! I made it. That was getting rather difficult, partly because factoid #7 is in full effect right now, (intelligent jellybeans? WTF?), and partly because I don’t know what else to say that might qualify as “interesting.” Fortunately, I don’t have to fabricate any more fascinatingly random tidbits because that task is over. For now. On to the next part– nominating some peeps!

I chose these first few people because they consistently support me with comments, links, and friendship.

Andrew– Andrew Toynbee’s Very Own Blog (That’s right, I’m nominating you back! Thanks for always sending people my way. 🙂 )

Jon– Jumping From Cliffs (For all the supportive comments and always providing a laugh with your sarcastic wit.)

Robert– An Orthogonal Universe Blog (For supporting all my endeavors. Can’t wait to see your book finally released!)

Kym– Redheaded Blackbelt (For introducing me to blogging and giving me the encouragement to start.)

(Thanks goes to all my other regular commenters too. Since some of you don’t have blogs, I couldn’t include you in the link round-up, but you have my gratitude and appreciation all the same. As does everyone who follows me or even just randomly stops by for 2 seconds to helpfully inform me– in broken English, no less– of how difficult my site was to find and how I’m lacking in my SEO optimization. [Really? Then how did you find me, Mr. Luis Vuitton Knock-off purse vendor from the other side of the world? Clearly, Google didn’t think I was that hard to find.] ;))

These next blogs are not ones that follow me, (that I’m aware of), but rather, are ones I follow regularly and feel are deserving of a shout-out.

Katie Jennings– She Writes With Love (For some initial encouragement and awesome information about self-publishing.)

The girls over at The Pub(lishing) Crawl (For consistently informative posts on all things publishing/writing.)

Lindsay Buroker (For amazingly thorough and insightful posts on self-publishing and the legalities of writing.)

The ladies of Self-Published Authors (For all the information on publishing, marketing and writing.)

Catherine Ryan Howard– Catherine, Caffeinated (For a mess-load of information on self-publishing wrapped in sarcasm.)

And, lastly, Rachelle Gardner (For insight into the publishing business from the other side of the fence.)

Ok, so not quite 15, but hey, 10’s not a bad number, right? There are a lot more really awesome blogs I follow on a routine basis, but I didn’t want to bore you guys, so I capped it at these few. If you’re looking for some new reading material, be sure to check them out!

That concludes the assignment portion of the award and today’s post. Next week, I’ll reveal the winner of the giveaway and wax nostalgic about my year as a blogger. (That means I’ll be doing a link round-up of all my favorite posts over the past year.) If you haven’t entered the giveaway, there’s still time! (One more week, to be exact.) You could win your choice of a substantive editorial critique, a custom logo design or a ready-made demo concept. All you have to do is click here. And remember, the more entries I receive, the more chances to win there will be. Good luck!

Featured Image: Myusa Won Hwa Logo

April 19, 2013KWhipkey 1 Comment

Last week, I promised you art. This week, I’m making good on that promise (Finally! Right?) and starting a new series of blog posts– the Featured Image. This will be an on-going series where I showcase work I’m particularly proud of or that has some other reason for being of particular note. Since I’m offering the possibility of a logo design as one of the prizes in my blog-birthday giveaway, it’s only right to kick-off this new series with a logo.

So, without further ado, I present my best logo design to date:

The Myusa Won Hwa Logo

(which means “Warriors of the Original Flowers” in Korean, by the way)

This was a commission by Dragon Heart Tang Soo Do owner, Master Becky Rupp. Tired of the stories of violence against women that are growing ever more prevalent (along with violence against everyone), Master Rupp decided to take action, creating a curriculum designed specifically for women and girls. The martial arts have long been touted as a means of self-defense, but the sad truth is that the majority of techniques taught simply don’t work in the real world for women or children faced with a larger assailant. Master Rupp’s curriculum does.

She took aspects of her traditional Tang Soo Do training, along with influences from Larry Wick’s Split Second Survival and created a modified curriculum that plays to the strengths of “the weaker sex.” Charged with a desire to see all females armed with the ability to protect themselves and the wherewithal to avoid dangerous situations in the first place, she then offered it to her small Northern California community for free.

Since it’s a separate class from the Tang Soo Do curriculum taught under the Dragon Heart brand, Master Rupp wanted to create a separate, unique identity for it. That’s where I come in. I was hired to create a logo that reflects the spirit of female warriors, something both hard and soft, feminine and strong. The result is the image above.

I chose to use the lotus flower because it is a long held symbol for over-coming adversity, for strength even in darkness. I paired it with the flourishes to create a distinctly girly design. The addition of the sword is an obvious reference to warriors, and the high heels, purposely colored to mimic a certain famous shoe-maker (you know who I mean, ladies! 😉 ) are meant to represent a woman’s power. Stiletto’s have long been tied to female sexuality, but those of us who wear them will tell you that they’re also empowering (and hurt like hell!). Somehow, torturing our feet for the sake of fashion makes us feel stronger, prettier, and more confident. Which is why they’re perfect in the logo of a class that upholds those same ideals.

The color choices weren’t as complicated– red, because the bottom of the shoes had to be red and it’s Master Rupp’s favorite color; pink, because that’s the color of girly; and black to create the harsher lines meant to evoke an Asian influence. (Plus everything looks good with black!) I threw it all into a mixing pot, stirred it up for about 30 hours and voila! The Myusa Won Hwa Logo was born.

Master Rupp’s class continues to flourish, and she continues to offer it to the community for free, encouraging women of all ages to train. But nothing can operate without some sort of funding. I will be creating and launching a product line featuring the logo to help fund this worthy cause later this year. (Watch for the announcement!) In the meantime, if you would like to help keep this program afloat, (and hopefully someday allow it to expand to a region near you), you can make a donation to Dragon Heart Tang Soo Do’s non-profit sister organization, The Dragon Heart Foundation, whose mission is to help under-privileged and at-risk youth train in the martial arts.

And don’t forget, my giveaway is still running. You could win a custom logo design like the one above, or your choice of two other prizes. For every 100 entries I receive, I’ll add another winner slot. Meaning, if I get 200 entries, 2 people will win; 300 entries, 3 winners, etc. How’s that for added incentive? If you haven’t entered yet, click here. Don’t miss out!

Nightwolf’s Corner Birthday Giveaway

April 12, 2013April 12, 2013KWhipkey 20 Comments

Last week, I mentioned that the one year anniversary of my first post was rapidly approaching– in 3 weeks, 1 day, to be exact. I honestly never expected to last this long. (I don’t exactly have the best track record for finishing what I start unless there’s money involved.) And I certainly never expected to have so many wonderful people support me with follows, likes and shares every week. So, in honor of this milestone, I’ve decided to celebrate. It is a birthday after all. And no birthday is complete without presents! Or, in this case, a giveaway.

I’ve got some rather interesting (and hopefully exciting) prizes for you. As you know, Nightwolf’s Corner is split between the three aspects of my storytelling life– writing, art and martial arts demo teams. Therefore, it seemed only fitting to offer a prize from each area. But my schedule is a little flooded right now, so as much as I’d love to pick a winner for each prize, there can only be one. That winner will get their choice of the following:

Prize 1: A Substantive Editorial Critique

Writing has had an unfair advantage on this blog over the last year– something I hope to change in the coming months– so I suspect a majority of you will be interested in this chance to score editorial services for free.

I’m offering the writers in the audience the ability to gain some outsider input on your WIP. I’ll give you a full substantive (structural) critique, illustrating what’s working and what might need a little improvement. I’ll cover everything from flow, to character/world development & consistency, to believability, to scene transitions, etc. I won’t provide feedback on a line-by-line basis, (you’ll still need a copy editor at some point), but this will give you a definite leg up on the way to publication. And the best part? I don’t care if your manuscript is finished or not.

That’s right, you can submit your WIP in all it’s unfinished glory and still receive the same level of critique I would give a finished manuscript. That’s pretty cool, if I do say so myself. There aren’t many chances out there to get an editorial critique on an unfinished work, so I would jump on this opportunity, if I were you. 😉

Prize 2: A Custom Logo Design

I realize this may be the least popular option, since most of you haven’t seen what I can do artistically. Art has been sadly neglected over the past year, all my grand topics languishing in the draft queue unfinished. But that’s about to change. I’ll be posting examples (specifically of logo’s I’ve done) to the Art Gallery over the next few weeks, so don’t rule this prize out just yet.

I’ll create a custom, vector-based logo design for whatever you want– business, t-shirts, decals, whatever! (Remember, a logo is a simplified image meant for wide distribution on various printed materials, so please don’t request something that would be better served as a traditional painting/sketch.) The value here, besides having someone design your vision into reality, is the inclusion of commercial rights to the image– meaning you have the exclusive right to merchandise and profit from it. (I still own the copyright though, and retain the right to display it in my portfolio.) These rights can cost hundreds of dollars above the design fee itself, so this isn’t an offer to scoff at. If you’ve ever wanted to create a logo for something, or need a revamp on your current one, here’s your chance!

Prize 3: A Ready-Made Demo Concept

I’m not gonna lie, this is the prize I’m most excited to reveal. Many of you are familiar with my particular brand of demos– a hybrid of theater, dance and martial arts. Many of you have also expressed desire for learning how I create them. Over the past year, I’ve delved into the nuts and bolts of my demo team storytelling technique, but there’s nothing quite like actually applying it. And since I can’t travel to every school that might be interested and literally coach you through the process, this is as close as I can get to loaning you my brain.

For the first time ever, I’m offering to supply a ready-made demo concept. What does that mean? I’ll supply the music (usually something I’ve mixed for optimal storytelling capability. Yes, I can do that and I’m quite good at it, so stop giving me the skeptical eyes 😉 ), the overall concept (aka theme), a script detailing the storyline and how to sync it to the music, the costume/prop design and casting recommendations in terms of abilities needed per role. All you have to do is create the choreography. (You didn’t think I was going to give you everything, did you? There still has to be a shred of your creativity in there somewhere!) Pretty cool, huh?

Have I caught your attention yet? Good. Here’s how it works:

The giveaway will run from now, April 12th, until midnight on May 4th, at which time I’ll randomly select the lucky winner and notify them via email. All you have to do to enter is click here and follow the prompts.

That’s it! Let the birthday celebrations commence! Here’s to another year full of sarcastic storytelling awesomeness and wonderful people to share it with. Thank you for reading! 🙂

Two Steps Closer Giveaway

February 15, 2013KWhipkey Leave a comment

If you’ve ever considered self-publishing, then you know the two most expensive things you should invest in, (according to all the self-publishing gurus out there), are editing and cover design. But what if you don’t have the funds?

Or maybe you’re thinking of pursuing traditional publication, and would like to have an editor’s opinion on whether or not your manuscript’s ready. Do you really want to pay a freelance editor’s wage for that?

Maybe you’ve already had your book torn apart and pieced back together by a professional and you’re just missing the cover to complete the package.

Whatever your circumstance, listen up.

The folks over at REUTS Publications are generously donating their time to two lucky winners. One will win a full-scale editorial critique from Editor Kisa Whipkey. (Hey look! It’s me! :P) The other will win a custom, print-ready cover design by Creative Director Ashley Ruggirello. And the best part is, there are no strings attached. You get professional-grade services without the contract.

All you need to enter is a Facebook account and a finished manuscript. Sounds like a fantastic opportunity, no? For more information on how to enter, click here.

The giveaway runs until midnight on March 25th, 2013. Don’t miss out! Let the REUTS team help you get “Two Steps Closer” to publication.