Crusader Challenge I

I sat down to write the other day and...Veronica Mars called me. She sounded a little nasal when she asked me if I had time to go over some puzzling notes for her new mystery case. You know, the one about the love fountain in Rome. I told her I had to study for next week's exam. Yes. Two exams, two days in a row. She understood, and then she sneezed "quidditch!" 

"Bless you," I said, holding my phone between my cheek and shoulder.

She thanked me, and then blew her nose as loudly as an elephant warning its heard of incoming landslide. 

"Are you coming down with a cold?" I asked while flipping through my notes on phonetics. Allophones? Fortis and Lenis?

"Yeah- Quidditch!" She blew her nose again. "Sorry, how about I come by on Wednesday?"

"See yah then. It'll give us chance to go over some gossip." I hung up the phone. 

Poor girl. Ever since Sylar set her on fire in Heroes, her clever mind just hasn't been the same.

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Yeah, I know it's LAME. But I don't have time to write a proper story. I still wanted to take part. I seriously AM studying for two exams. One is on Monday, and the other on Tuesday. And then I have to turn in a short story for creative writing tomorrow. Talk about teacher collaboration! 

This is the first challenge of the Crusaders (a group of people working towards building an online platform - new members are welcome and should visit Rach's site to sign up: Writers' Platform-Building Crusade).

The bonus words were: Mars, quidditch, and elephant.

The prize this round is an interview with Rach, which will be the first with a Crusader of Rach's Insider Scoop Interviews. Which is, of course, a great way to get online coverage. (She has already interviewed Jody Hedlund and Caitie Flum).

Oh, and of course I know what quidditch is - I just decided to use it this way.

The Rach Writes Inaugural Writers’ Platform-Building Crusade

Crusade

That's a mouthful! But brilliant!

I'm cheating today since I won't write a post about writing. Well, I suppose this has to do with getting published in one way or another. I'm introducing my friend's Rachael Harrie's Crusade to help bloggers build their online platform. I joined the Crusade only two days ago and I've already gotten five new followers - some very nice people whom I'm excited to get to know better. Rachael still hasn't compiled the list so that we can go crazy and follow our fellow Crusaders, which means that people are already excited and are following commenters.

Why is it important to gather followers? Even though online presence isn't a requirement to get a fiction published (it is important for non-fiction), numbers are numbers, and if you have thousands of followers, it could tip the scale in your favour when you query an agent with a good story idea and a good story.

Will all those people read your blog? Probably not all of them, but many will, if you're interactive in turn and read their blogs. This is an opportunity to make more friends. There are so many cool people out there, and they all seem to be gathering in the Crusade ;)

I've copied and pasted Rach's requirements to join:

Let’s work it like this:

1. Follow along with my site if you don’t already (I want to build my online platform too of course) :)
2. Become a Crusader by leaving a comment to this post (include your blogging name and a link to your blog)
3. Write about the Crusade on your blog and link back to this post
4. Encourage your followers to come to Rach Writes… and join up (it will help them too!)
5. Tweet about the Crusade, including a link to this post (http://bit.ly/9kMySK) and #WPBC1. Encourage re-tweets. I'm @RachaelHarrie if you want to follow me in the Twitterverse too
6. Pop it on Facebook
7. Generally, spread the word…

I’ll publish a list of all the Crusaders on Rach Writes..., and I’ll update the list as people join in on future Crusades.

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That's it! I encourage all my readers to join this project. It's an amazing concept and Rachael is just the person to pull it off.

Goal for the day: Finish writing my MG!!!