And the Retrograde Will Be Over When?

For those who haven't heard, Mercury is in retrograde. That means my life has been filled with a lot of those days. You know the ones I mean.

The other day our garbage disposal disposed of itself. Another day one of our dogs tried to become the neighborhood bully. There have been more incidents, but you get the gist. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

I hope your days have been much less eventful than mine.

But since retrograde is about fixing things, I'm doing a

Blog Clean Up

Some of you might have noticed that my Blog Roll in the sidebar is out of control. Over the weekend, I'm culling blogs whose blogger hasn't visited me in a year or so. This does not apply to group blogs. The only way I know you've visited is if you comment or email me. So if you haven't commented here this year, I will be removing your blog from the sidebar over the weekend unless you comment here sometime this week. I'm pretty sure the bloggers this applies to no longer visit here, but I feel the need to say this anyway.

Regulars and new followers have no need to worry :)

Moving along, thanks to all of you for voicing your opinions last week about guest blogging. We'll do it again!

Wednesday, October 12, will kick off the Second Under the Tiki Hut Guest Blogging Event. Guest Blogging will end Wednesday, December 28.

Many of you indicated three months of the same theme gets a little predictable. So we're going to change it up a little. Since this is Under the Tiki Hut, I want to keep the beachy feel. But autumn and winter come to the beach, too. Depending on where your particular beach is, October to December is prime time for hurricanes and nor'easters. And I love snow on the beach.

So here are the rules. This time it isn't you, the writer, under the tiki hut - it's your character. Any character - one from your novel, your story, your memoir, or one you create especially to visit here. And since October to December is loaded with holidays, the holiday appropriate for the date of your post must be featured. That's it.

Your Character. The Holiday. Under the Tiki Hut. Very simple. Very easy. And readers get a feel for how you write. Any questions?

And I'm still stealing AND plagiarizing some of Alex J. Cavanaugh's Tips for Guest Bloggers:

* Contact me as soon as possible so I can fit you into one of 12 Wednesdays.

* I'm open to all bloggers. Humor is a must. Or suspense. Or a combination. No downbeat posts! This will also work in your favor. And my blogger buddies get preference.

* I schedule my posts on the weekend before they appear, so I need your post by Sunday evening before it's scheduled to go live on Wednesday. This will also help avoid any further Blogger snafus. And I prefer short guest posts - no more than 750 words TOTAL for intro/promo and post. I might fudge a little on that, but not much. Divide it however you want - ex. 300 promo and 450 story. If you're long on one, cut some of the other. If you're long, ask first - don't just send it to me. Readers are accustomed to zipping in here and zipping out. So the shorter the better.

* I’ll encourage commenters, but I need you to do the same. I'll promote on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

* I don’t require a free book or anything. Really! I would rather support you by purchasing my own copy.

These are Alex's exact words! Mine, too.


* Please have the courtesy to thank me when it’s over. And you really need to thank the commenters, too.
I'm not a Hot Tamales fan like Alex, but you can send him some :)

Thank you, Alex, for allowing me to steal your rules.

If you are interested in guest blogging at Under the Tiki Hut, please email me:

tikihuttime AT gmail DOT com

And please spread the word!

Thanks :)