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Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ – Oh My, Oh My, Oh My!!

May 2, 2014 by Jann Ryan in category Jann says . . . tagged as Azalea March Mysteries, Beth Yarnall, Elena Dillon, Facebook, Google+, Jann Audiss, Jann Ryan, romantic suspense, Social Media, The Misadventures of Maggie Mae, The Pleasure at Home Series, Twitter, YA

I’m technology challenged. When it comes to the social media world I’m plain scared. Just the thought of posting something incorrectly has stopped me dipping my toe into the water for years. My goal is to break through the fear. When OCC announced its Online Class schedule I was thrilled. There it was– April’s class–Social Media for the Confused and Terrified presented by Elena Dillon. No more excuses by golly. I signed up.

Week 1 – The class started with Facebook, and for four days straight I had my desktop and laptop computers running side by side. Reading lessons and asking questions on one, doing class assignments on the other. I was learning about personal pages and author pages, friending and liking. Even though I’ve had a personal FB page for several years, I’ve never really interacted on it. I had started an author page (Jann Ryan), but hadn’t made it public to the world because I’m not a published author. Well, I hit the published button and it’s now live. To support my fellow classmates (which are a terrific group), I’m friending and liking and trying to comment on posts.

By the fourth day, I was on Facebook overload. I needed a bit of a break, so I thought I would start going through a couple of my file boxes filled with years of writing paraphernalia (handouts, conference stuff, articles and pages of stories.) It was suggested by a good friend to scan what I wanted to keep and toss the rest. I DIDN’T COME OUT OF THE ROOM FOR 4 DAYS! I was scanning and tossing from morning till way into the night. My determination to master FB was transferred to cleaning out paper. I couldn’t stop myself. From the file boxes, I moved to the bookshelves, then back to the file boxes. I was obsessed.

Week 2 – Monday, I came up for air only to be confronted with the next week’s class–TWITTER. I hadn’t conquered Facebook, now I was facing the Twitter monster with its hashtags, retweets and Tweet chats. Thanks to the wonderful instruction and guidance from my teacher Elena, I marched into the Twitter world. I installed Tweetdeck and selected people to follow. I was fortunate to see meet up Beth Yarnall, author of the Azalea March Mysteries, The Misadventures of Maggie Mae and the Pleasure at Home Series, who gave me some hands-on instructions. Check out her website http://www.bethyarnall.com/ . I’m still feeling awkward with Twitter, but I know I’ll be Twittering up a storm soon.

Week 3 – My Waterloo is Google+. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been receiving great instructions, but I realize I need hands on instructions when walking into the unknown. I get the overall idea, but just can’t seem to figure it all out. I need to spend more time on my lessons and work with it more, but life is getting in the way this week. It’s similar to FB, but now I Hangout with a Circle of Friends (actually, I’m not hanging anywhere yet).

I have one more week to go and one more social media item to learn. Heaven help me.

All that being said, I’m happy I ventured into this new world. I have some wonderful classmates and a great teacher, Young Adult Romantic Suspense author Elena Dillon. Stop by her website http://elenadillon.com/.

Go forth and conquer!

Jann Ryan grew up with the smell of orange blossoms in Orange County in sunny Southern California, where she has lived her entire life and dreamed up stories since she was a young girl. Never an avid reader, she was in her thirties when she picked up her first romance quite by accident. She fell in love with happily ever after and has been reading romances ever since.

Wanting to put pen to paper, Jann joined Romance Writers of America. Currently, she is working on a romantic suspense series set in Stellar Bay, a fictitious town along the California central coast to fulfill her publishing dream.

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Convesations with Barb and Jann

April 2, 2014 by Jann Ryan in category Jann says . . . tagged as Barb Delong, Jann Ryan, Jann Says...

Au naturel

Most of you probably don’t have this issue, but I know many do. We will not go out in public without makeup, perfect hair and the right clothes. Now, I’ve been known to occasionally leave the house to pick up a quick item hiding under big sunglasses, my Sedona hat and wearing a pair of slightly worn sweats, but today I woke up with a different attitude.

After over forty years of avoiding au naturel in public, I decided to do the unthinkable. I got up, showered, dressed in yoga pants and T-shirt, tossed my hair around, grabbed my laptop and headed to Corner Bakery to write. I didn’t want to stop the freeing feeling I was experiencing of just get up and go. I didn’t want to take an hour to get ready, read emails or answer questions from family that would start a “to do list” and clutter my mind before I even got out the door.

So, I arrived, no sunglasses or hat, casually dressed. People in the parking lot and patio area outside CB didnâ€™t turn into stone, leaving a garden of statues in my wake, as I made my way to the entrance. I was shocked. Customers inside didn’t gather together to point and whisper. The girl at the counter didn’t look at me with sympathy wondering why I didn’t look in the mirror before I left home. Instead, I ordered my coffee, found my perfect place to settle in (with electrical plug close by) and got started. My mind free and clear – open for inspiration. It was a beautiful day outside and I felt the same way myself.

Have a beautiful day,

Jann Ryan

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Conversations with Jann and Barb

February 2, 2014 by Jann Ryan in category Jann says . . . tagged as Barb Delong, Conversations with Barb and Jann, Jann Audiss, movies, texting

A couple of weeks ago, Barb and I decided to take in a movie, so off we went to our local theater. We grabbed some popcorn and found our seats. We like to sit in the middle about halfway up. There were only about eight people scattered around. I love it when itâ€™s not crowded. The lights dimmed. When the camel came on the screen reminding us to turn off our phones (Barb loves that camel), we checked our phones and settled back to be taken on a wild ride of action and adventure with the new Jack Ryan movie.

Now, I know all of us have had the experience of people who talk and text during the previews, occasionally you might hear a tune playing. But usually you get through a movie with little disturbance. Well, that wasnâ€™t to be the case for us this time.

The movie started and the guy sitting down a few rows and to the right obviously didnâ€™t listen to the camel. He was texting. Since the theater wasnâ€™t full, the light from his phone really reflected. I moved my head just a little so as not to be distracted, but the older guy sitting behind and to the right of him had full view. I felt really sorry for him, but figured Jerk would finish and turn it off. That didnâ€™t happen. Over the next thirty or more minutes he texted constantly. How do you follow a movie if you are texting all the time? He was a texting ABUSER! The guy behind him got up and left, but came back to his seat. I figured he went to tell theater management to come in and tell Jerk to stop. But no one came. About ten minutes later, the older guy did what most people would do â€“ he asked him to turn it off.

Well holy moly, all hell broke loose.

Jerk jumped up, called the old guy names and threatened him. Then he came at the guy still calling him names. A man sitting with the woman in front of us got up and tried to get Jerk to settle down. It didnâ€™t work. One woman ran out to get help, another man sitting with his family also got up to help. Jerk came at the old guy again and this time threw punches. Barb and I called out for Jerk to stop. I tried to find my phone to call 911, but couldnâ€™t get it turned on. My heart raced. I wondered what to do next. The two men who intervened got Jerk off the old guy. Jerk and one man left the theater; the old guy got up and went out the exit. Barb and I sat there wondering what was going to happen next. Meanwhile the movie had been rolling along and Jack Ryan was in a high speed car racing scene on the big screen.

The movie stopped playing, the manager arrived and we gave her the details of the altercation. We each received a free movie ticket and a full refund. They started the movie again, taking it back to the point when the disturbance began.

Later that day I thought about what happened and how texting has gotten out of control. How lucky we had been. We hear about the situations in movie theaters, texting and driving, and the lives destroyed by it. But then I thought about other times people text (myself included) and wondered how it affects others. You know what itâ€™s like to be with family and friends having a conversation and they pick up their phone to either send or answer a text while youâ€™re talking. Or at a meeting, have you ever wondered what the speaker is thinking when they look out over the audience and see people with their heads down tapping away on their phones? They could hope weâ€™re tweeting about what a great speaker they are. Or do we consider if weâ€™re annoying the people around us and being rude to the speaker?

All I know is that after my experience, I think twice now before I take my phone out to text in public and when Iâ€™m with my friends and family.

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Conversations with Barb and Jann

October 2, 2012 by Jann Ryan in category Jann says . . . tagged as Barb Delong, Conversations with Barb and Jann, Jann Audiss, Journaling, Memories

The Power and Joy of Journaling

The other day I was going through an old childhood trunk I call my Trunk oâ€™ Memories when I came across some of my trip diaries from the â€˜60â€™s. My husband and I sat down, read through them and had a great laugh. Back in the day, my frugal mom would put $25 in an envelope for each day of travel, all road trips, of course. That $25 covered all expenses for me and my mom and dad, including gas and the motel. I duly recorded said expenses in the diary and some days we even had a buck or so left over to add to the next dayâ€™s envelope. The diaries brought back so many memories of the places we visited (mostly the northeastern U.S. â€“ we were from Toronto, Canada), the â€˜60â€™s era, my thoughts at the time, and the weather. Yes, I also recorded the daily temperature and precipitation.

I had forgotten about those diaries this summer when we embarked on an epic family road trip where I once again kept a daily diary. This time I tapped away on my iPad in my Pages app. I call it epic. Think eight people in a GMC Yukon SUV, three of them six years old and under, on a road trip up the California coast to Portland, Oregon, and back. We stopped along the way (many times), had some fun and some not-so-fun adventures, went through a lot of diapers, laughed and cried (sometimes it was me), and I duly recorded it all. Yes, including the weather.

What Iâ€™d done back in the day and now, was journaling. As I wrote in my journal before bed last night, I realized that I have always journaled. But why? Why did I feel the need to record the daily routines, the life-altering events, my thoughts and feelings, the weather? Iâ€™m sure it was not just to place these things in the historic record, to be read twenty or thirty years from now.

Remember that secret diary with the tiny key you kept as a teen, the one your bratty little brother read excerpts from to all his friends? You snatched it from his grubby hands and wrote that night,

Dear Diary,

Iâ€™m going to strangle my brother and stuff his body into his stinky gym bag!

That was journaling. Admit it. You felt a darn sight better after venting. And so, thatâ€™s why I journal. I feel better afterward. I throw down on the page my innermost thoughts, my deepest feelings, loves and hates, hopes and dreams. For my eyes only.

I think everyone knows this about journaling. But when I was researching the subject, I came across a website that listed no fewer than 100 benefits! Check it out at www.appleseeds.org/100_journaling.htm.

Here are some of my favorites: empowers, strengthens your sense of self, soothes troubled memories, creates awareness, eases decision making, measures and tracks whatâ€™s important (so, the weather must be important to me â€“LOL!). The list includes writing-related benefits: enhances breakthroughs, unfolds the writer in you, allows freedom of expression, enhances self-expression, teaches you how to write stories. In fact, Iâ€™ve taken some writing classes where you were required to keep a daily journal. It can actually kick-start your muse. Now weâ€™re at 101 benefits! So, if youâ€™re not journaling, get yourself one of those pretty journals and a favorite pen and place them on your bedside table. Make it a habit to write in it every night whatever comes to mind, even if itâ€™s just the weather. Trust me, youâ€™ll be glad you did.

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Conversations with Barb and Jann

May 2, 2012 by Jann Ryan in category Jann says . . . tagged as Barb Delong, Conversations with Barb and Jann, Jann Audiss, reading, the writing process

What do you read during your WIP?

Jann: Barb, when youâ€™re starting a new WIP, do you only read books in the genre youâ€™re writing?

Barb: I like to read the genre Iâ€™m writing in because it gets me in that frame of mind, that contemporary world. I especially like reading humor, which I try to write. Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Jennifer Crusie both know how to construct a laugh-out-loud scene. For category romance, our own Sandra Paul (aka Sandy Chvostal) has always tickled my funny bone. I still find myself pulling out her Reluctant Hero and Domesticating Luc to see how she incorporates animals in her stories, and Linda Johnston also, with her pet sitter and pet rescue stories.

Jann: Totally agree. You know Iâ€™m writing a series category romance, but I read anything and everything romance–historical, paranormal, urban fantasy, contemporary. But I find itâ€™s easier to plot when I read only series romance for at least a couple of weeks before I work on a story idea.

Barb: Since we were discussing this subject, I asked the Orange County Chapter Pros what they read while theyâ€™re writing. Ottilia Scherschel, who writes suspense, is of like mind. She says, â€œI always read some suspense to get my juices flowing.â€ She also reads craft books, and interestingly enough, her husbandâ€™s magazine American Hunter. She likes the website artofmanliness.com for â€œanything a man does or ever wanted to do.â€ Gotta check that one out!

Joyce Ward also stayed within her genre when she started writing paranormals, but like you, enjoys a change of pace with other genres. Erin Pryor says, â€œI tend to read things that are related to whatever I’m struggling with while writing…so, if I’m working on a mystery element I’ll read full-on mysteries, if I’m working on an action scene I often turn to sci-fi/fantasy. Contemporaries for friendship and banter, 19th century novels when I’m worried about tone and manners.â€

Jann: Erin has a good idea mixing the genres to draw on their various strengths.

Barb: Now, Mary Kozlowski writes contemporaries, but loves reading Regencies. She says she can keep a pretty consistent voice, so is not affected by reading in another genre. And this reading your husbandâ€™s magazines must be catching on. She reads her husbandâ€™s VFW, American Legion and NRA mags because â€œthey have lots of interesting articles about real heroes.â€

Roy (Griff) Griffis also reads outside his genre. As he says, â€œI don’t want to read anything in a
similar genre to avoid contaminating my vision and voice.â€ Research is the focus of Dolores Elseâ€™s reading, both for accurate historical information and to get a feel for the time period.

Jann: I have a couple of story ideas that require substantial research, and have put them aside for awhile. What I need to be doing is â€œwriting what I knowâ€ for now. Research can be a lot of fun, but it can be very time consuming if youâ€™re not careful.

Barb: I know what you mean. Been there. Researching is not writing.

Shauna Roberts, who I know would use her time wisely, finds herself so interested in some of her background research topics that she will keep reading about them after her book is finished. She also will read articles and how-to books on the craft of writing to reinforce her writing skills. She reads in different genres regardless of her writing, so I assume they donâ€™t influence her voice.

Jann: The Pros have some great comments, and itâ€™s interesting to see what others do. I better get back to my WIP. Remember those goals we talked about a couple of months ago? Well, I just set one with our critique group at our last gathering that Iâ€™ve got to make.

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