This Is Me--2024 A to Z Theme

My A to Z Themes in the past have covered a range of topics and for 2024 the theme is a personal retrospective that I call "I Coulda Been" which is in reference to my job and career arc over my lifetime. I'll be looking at all sorts of occupations that I have done or could have done. Maybe you've done some of these too!

Monday, September 24, 2012

A Guest Hijack by Stephen Tremp

        Stephen Tremp probably needs no introduction to most of my readers, but he is among my earliest blogging friends and one of the co-hosts for the A to Z Blog Challenge for the past couple of years.  Today he's stopping by to catch up on a bit of this and that and to remind you to visit him at his blog.


Thanks Lee for letting me hijack your blog today. I'm always up for guest blogging and hosting guest bloggers. 

Thanks to Mary Pax, Brinda Berry, Ciara Knight and Alex Cavanaugh for the recent What's Your Chocolate and Genre Favorites Blogfests. Nothing like a couple awesome Blogfests to bring in the traffic after a month long Blogcation. 

And thanks to everyone for stopping by my blog. I know I haven't been around as much as I used to be, but life has been crazy busy. I set out to comment on those who stopped by my blog. I'll click over to the blogger of my first comment. But scrolling through their comments I see bloggers I haven't visited in a while and click over to their blog and comment. Then I see another long lost blogging friend and click over to comment. Repeat process. I soon have twenty different blog pages open and have commented, but have not reached out to those who commented on my post. Does this happen to you? 

Upcoming Events Be sure to stop by the A to Z Challenge Blog where lots of committed folks work to keep the site open year round. My latest post there is on NASA. CLICK HERE to check it out. You'll be glad you did! 

M. Pax
I'm happy to say I'll be a guest at Mary Pax's Spacedock 19 on October 10th. I'm definitely looking forward to that.

And I'm having my blog critiqued by Laura Barnes October 22nd. Wonder if I should go for a new look for my blog before the review. 

Free Vs. Paid: Do you download Kindle books because they're free? I have been this year. I look for books that have dozens of ratings that are four star and above. Let's face it. There are a lot of lemons out there. But there are some fun reads too. 

Example: I recently read H10N1 by self published author M. R. Cornelius (83 four and five star reviews) and loved the book. 

Synopsis: A deadly influenza virus rages out of control. There is no easy-fix vaccine. No eleventh-hour containment. Only death. 

With no workforce, power plants are unmanned so there’s no means of communication; police and fire departments have collapsed so no one is safe; looters are scavenging everything from big-screen TVs to canned peas. 

When Dr. Taeya Sanchez finds herself unceremoniously dismissed from an emergency medical facility in New York, she decides to steal the hospital’s armored van for a midnight escape. Unfortunately, Rick DeAngelo, a driver for the hospital, has already stocked the van for his own getaway. 

Thrown into an unfriendly alliance, these two must pick their way across the dangerous wasteland of America in search of a safe haven. And as the miles roll by, they discover that the living should be feared much more than the festering corpses out there. 

Question: Do you get lost while reciprocating to bloggers comments? Read any good free Kindle downloads lately you can recommend?

Stephen Tremp Author: Breakthrough Series www.stephentremp.com



Stephen Tremp
Author: Breakthrough Series










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24 comments:

  1. Great guest post Stephen, best of luck with the books buddy, this is my first time reading a post from you and I already love your style of writing.

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  2. Hey Stephen! Think you're one of my long-time blogger buddies as well.
    I never look for free books, although I've downloaded a few when highlighted by a blogger friend.
    And you know how many comments I get, so yes, sometimes it's a challenge to keep up! But I try, because I know those people could be visiting someone else's blog besides mine.

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  3. Stephen, thanks for being my guest today. I too have to plead guilty to getting terribly sidetracked and lost when I start commenting on blogs. It can be a setback to my time management, but I have caught up with blogging buddies I haven't visited in ages. When one gets so many contacts it can be difficult to keep up.

    Lee

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  4. On my posting days, I go through my Google Reader and comment on blogs, but the rest of the week I just follow up on comments without getting too sidetracked.

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  5. LOL, I'm always getting lost when setting out to comment on blogs. That's why I wind up getting behind on my blog reading each week. There are so many great bloggers/blogs and not always enough time to get to them all. All we can do is the best we can do.

    I've downloaded some free Kindle books (have a Kindle for PC), but don't get to read them as much as I'd like, because I can't sit in front of the PC all day. Hoping (fingers crossed) that I can get a Kindle for Christmas or after the first of the year.

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  6. Always nice to find on blog friend on the blog of another.

    I try to be fairly methodical in my commenting. On my post days, I work my way through the blogs in my list, commenting on as many as I can. Other days, I just visit anyone who comments on my blog. There are so many good blogs out there, tt would be too easy to spend every day doing nothing but reading/commenting.

    I don't download free books unless it's a book I wanted to read anyway.

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  7. Yay I finally got here!! Hello Arlee, hello Stephen!

    I don't have a kindle so I can't really recommend anything so sorry! Oh dear, I am not doing very well! This book sounds good though!!!

    I always reciprocate any comments left on my blog but I cannot always follow those who choose to follow my blog as if I did I'd be following a LOT and I'd most definitely be lost! But if they are kind enough to leave a comment then I hope over!

    Take care
    x

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  8. Oh yeah, I get side tracked with comments and commenting all the time.

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  9. I think I've downloaded at least a dozen free Kindle books this year, but I've so little time to read for pleasure any more since I do it for a living now. But they're not going on anywhere and someday soon, I'll get to them.

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  10. I do get a little pinballed with comments. As for kindle, I am finishing a library book and then next in line is by an author you may have heard of? His name is Stephen Tremp? :)

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  11. Great hijack, Lee! It's good to see Stephen here.

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  12. Unfortunately Stephen since starting a new blog I don't get that many comments so don't get lost in answering them, I think the main factor is IE FOR SOME REASON won;t take my new blog and many of my followers are on IE.
    Loved the post.
    Yvonne.

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  13. I find google reader can help me keep up, but i do take days off from blogging. Hope the new book is coming along great.

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  14. I'm not a Kindler, and don't have anything against ebooks, but I just *love* holding a book in my hand, so I go to second-hand book stores and buy $27.95 hardcovers for $1, so I suppose that's near-free ;)

    Thanks for the fun guest post, and yeah, I'm here 'cos I meant to visit another and saw him who led me to her and here I am :)

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  15. I'm always sidetracked by bloggers. They have so much to share and it's interesting, so I stick around longer than I mean to. There goes the day. Reading. Writing. Thinking. Hmmm. Not a bad way to spend a day!

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  16. H1ON1 sounds intriguing! Thanks for the recommendation, Stephen.

    Jai

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  17. I totally get sidetracked when responding to blog comments too! It's so easy to spend FAR too much time visiting friends!

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  18. That does happen to me when I'm trying to return visits on blogs.
    I also have started downloading more free books.

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  19. I occasionally get free e-books; I'm more likely to do so when it's by someone I "know." That book sounds great! Thanks for passing it along. I tend to be pretty straight forward when responding to comments (I'm just delayed in doing THAT sometimes). If I see something that sidetracks me I'll open it in a new window and make myself continue on until I'm done. Then I can look at what sidetracked me and go from there.

    Shannon at The Warrior Muse

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  20. H1ON1 seems like the kind of book that I would like to read! This is a really great post.

    www.modernworld4.blogspot.com

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  21. Hey Lee and Hey Stephen,
    Good to see how involved you are with that amazing challenge that brings further awareness of the alphabet, Stephen.
    To just touch one one point. There are numerous times where I come upon a comment by a blogger I haven't visited for awhile when I notice a comment by them on another site. For instance, that's why I am here visiting Lee's site and leaving this comment. And maybe Lee might notice that I have left this comment, click on the icon and notice that yes indeed, I still blog.
    And Stephen, I shall come and visit your site. It's been ages since I visited your site. I even promote both of your blogs via various social networks. Did you know that? Stephen, we are even Farcebook friends :)
    I do my best to reciprocate to each person who comments on my site. I even do my best to comment back to each person individually on my site. I appreciate that isn't quite as possible when you get a lot of comments. There you go, I'm rambling. And with that, Stephen and Lee, this disjointed, bordering on incoherent comment will abruptly end!
    Happy writing to you both, Gary :)

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  22. Stephen, thanks for guest posting. For those who might be wondering why Stephen has not responded to comments, he let me know that he has been unable to access the comments for a few days. Maybe he'll stop by when he is able to do so.

    Thanks to all who left comments. And especially to Gary: I will stop by your site soon. I think of you often (especially when I see your comments on other sites). I have been very negligent in commenting of late and I apologize. The bad thing is that it might stay like this for a while. Sigh! I'm trying, but life keeps interfering.


    Lee

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  23. Hi Stephen I have missed you! Hope life is a good kind of busy~ :D

    Great post by the way!
    I'll visit you soon~
    I get lost a lot, writers, poet, artist-I'm all over the place, lol

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  24. Hi Stephen .. yes - I can get lost in the myriad of commenting and am still not sure the best way to do it ..

    I'll be back a little more consistently in mid October ...

    Hope the work-life balance is happy - sounds very busy .. good luck with the writing .. cheers Hilary

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Lee