Conversations with Calliope- Cyber Boxing Day

(Aquinnah Light)

Cyber Boxing Day- The online version of Boxing Day is sometimes known as Cyber Boxing Day. In the UK in 2008, Boxing Day was the busiest online shopping day of the year.”[18] In 2009, many retailers with both online and High Street stores launched their online sales on Christmas Eve, but their High Street sales on Boxing Day.

JOE: Good morning Calliope. Happy Boxing Day.
CALLIOPE: You mean Cyber Boxing Day?
JOE:I was just thinking about how the original Boxing Day in England started as a day to share gifts with the poor.
CALLIOPE: A far cry from what it is now.
JOE: Right. Now it's a mad scramble to see how much one can buy on the Internet for how little money.
CALLIOPE: Seems out of whack for the Christmas season.
JOE: It depends on whether you mean the original spiritual meaning or the commercial explosion.
CALLIOPE: Can't argue with you there.
JOE: I wonder if it could be different.
CALLIOPE:What would you suggest?
JOE: A reverse Cyber Boxing Day in which people would take time to share spiritual resources with those less fortunate without expectation of remuneration.
CALLIOPE: An interesting thought. I wonder what its chances would be.
JOE: Hard to know but worth a try. Talk with you on Monday, the Feast of the Holy Innocents.

Conversations with Calliope- Social Networking

(Columbus Circle Sculpture)

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today?
JOE: Quite good.
CALLIOPE: What have you been up to?
JOE: My major accomplishment yesterday was completing a critique of a friend's new book. I also posted my Sliding Otter News newsletter to my mailing list although I still need to post it to my website.
CALLIOPE: Sounds like you have been busy.
JOE: I have. I also found some good information in internet marketing and development of keywords. Steve Weber also sent me a very useful link for small business resources at http://www.monstersmallbusiness.com.
CALLIOPE: So you social networking is paying off.
JOE: It is. Also Writers Digest recently opened a site for writers at http://writersdigest.ning.com. It is already quite active and appears to be a very promising online community. I'm excited about it.
CALLIOPE: It's about time you got excited.
JOE: I agree. Sometimes I seem to just plod along. It's nice to have some enthusiasm.
CALLIOPE: Use it to good advantage.
JOE: I will. Talk with you on Monday.

Conversations with Calliope- Online Book Marketing

(Vigo Herb Market)

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today?
JOE: Fine. Yesterday I talked with you about getting serious about the business aspect of writing.
CALLIOPE: Was that just talk or did you do something about it?
JOE: I did something. First I signed up for two workshops through Score in Rochester on Writing a Business Plan and Marketing on the Internet.
CALLIOPE: Good start. anything else?
JOE: I started looking for what I could find on Internet marketing in the obvious place, the Internet.
CALLIOPE: What did you find?
JOE: Lots of things, mostly advertising for expensive programs. I started wading through some of the offerings.
CALLIOPE: Did you reach any conclusions?
JOE: No. I felt overwhelmed and had to take a break.
CALLIOPE: And then?
JOE: Then I looked through my bookshelf to see if I had anything useful.
CALLIOPE: What did you discover?
JOE: Steve Weber's book Plug Your Book: Online Book Marketing for Authors, which I read a while ago. I realized that most of what I have done so far to market my book was based on his excellent suggestions. I started reading it again and found a treasure trove of ideas I did not explore before. I'm excited about the find. Talk with you tomorrow.

Conversations with Calliope- E-book Distribution

(Now What)

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. Did you finish your column?
JOE: I did and found it went smoothly. Thanks for listening yesterday.
CALLIOPE: Now what?
JOE: I worked on distribution of our e-book yesterday.
CALLIOPE: How's it coming?
JOE: It's little hard to say. I checked with one person who was able to download it successfully but another could not access it and got a message that it didn't exist.
CALLIOPE: Strange.
JOE: I thought so too. I am able to access it easily in Firefox and Internet Explorer but then I'm not distributing it to myself.
CALLIOPE: What do you plan to do?
JOE: I will ask a few more people to download it and see what their experience is.
CALLIOPE: What do you think the problem might be?
JOE: It could be that his browser does not allow download of PDF files with passwords. But that's just a guess. I will try sending him the file by email.
CALLIOPE: Another mystery.
JOE: What would life be without them. Talk with you tomorrow.

Conversations with Calliope- Dialogue with My Muse

Old Handyside Factory- Wyoming, NY)

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. What news?
JOE: Progress on the marketing videos. I found the activation key for my editing software and got that working.
CALLIOPE: And then?
JOE: I recorded a video clip with my Kodak still camera and was able to edit it with Movavi Movie Suite and Windows Movie Maker.
CALLIOPE: Are you satisfied with the results?
JOE: Not yet. I plan to work on takes until I am satisfied with the results. Then I will move on to posting them on MySpace and YouTube.
CALLIOPE: Sounds like good progress.
JOE: So far so good.
CALLIOPE: Keep at it. I hope you're patient.
JOE: I usually am but sometimes I get frustrated.
CALLIOPE: Any other progress yesterday?
JOE: I started looking on the Internet for teen writings to use in Commonsense Wisdom for Teens.
CALLIOPE: How's that coming?
JOE: I'm just getting started but at least I'm on the move. One step at a time. Talk with you tomorrow.

Conversations with Calliope

JOE: Good afternoon Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good afternoon Joe. I thought you had deserted me.
JOE: No. This is just one of these days. I had an early morning meeting on criminal justice this morning. and just got back.
CALLIOPE: What was it about?
JOE: Cybernet crime, especially concerning sexual predators.
CALLIOPE: Is this a particular interest of yours?
JOE: Not exactly. Sexual predators are as you know from my novel The Pastor's Inferno. I was interested to see if anyone had any understanding of them which has escaped me.
CALLIOPE: And did they?
JOE: It never came up although I did add it to my suggestions f0r future programs.
CALLIOPE: Anything else of interest.
JOE: I talked with a judge who was interested in reading The Pastor's Inferno and might be willing to write a review.
CALLIOPE: That would be helpful. What about yesterday.
JOE: I was busy with Internet marketing and ended the day with in extended conversation with Phil Davis of Authorsonthenet.
CALLIOPE: No editing yesterday?
JOE: No I didn't get to it. I don't think I will today either. I have an Internet training call at 2:00 with Steve Harrison and hope to gain more information about Internet marketing. I also joined Nothing Binding, a site for writers, and Facebook for marketing purposes. I had better run. It's almost time for my call. See you tomorrow.
(West Chop Lighthouse, Martha's Vineyard)

Conversations with Calliope

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. What's new today?
JOE: Actually it was new yesterday. I finally finished my chapter of Marital Property about the family's trip to Nantucket. It took me quite a while to write since I included many details of the island. I have been there a couple times and was quite distracted by all I was learning. I wanted to take off a few days and visit.
CALLIOPE: When do you leave?
JOE: Not right now. I prefer going there in the Fall, although we have other plans this year. It is down to Gananaque, Ontario or Baden Baden, Germany.
CALLIOPE: Wow. Quite a choice. I will be interested to hear what you decide. What's going on closer to home?
JOE: Other than finishing the chapter, I have been working on marketing. I feel like my efforts have been rather scatter shot. But I did find a site, Book Marketing Network which looks quite promising. I have already made a few contacts.
CALLIOPE: How do you think your promotion efforts are going?
JOE: Like I said, scatter shot. I don't feel I have a consistent strategy and have a great many ideas floating around in my head. I think I need to get focused and plan to work on this in the next week or so.
CALLIOPE: Sounds like a good idea.
JOE: Glad you agree. I am also starting to think about my next project.
CALLIOPE: Which is?
JOE: Return to my nonfiction book, Commonsense Wisdom for Teens. I plan to seek input from teens on MySpace. But that's a whole other project. I guess I better get to today's work. Talk with you tomorrow.

(Great Point Lighthouse- Nantucket)