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Currently writing Phil Jourdan and Pablo D’Stair

June 22, 2012

I don’t speak enough to my readers. I’ve learned this recently. Much of the content on this blog speaks to other writers (which are generally readers, for sure), but I need to change my game a bit, I think. With that in mind, I want to start writing a bit more about my in-progress projects. I know, I know, writing about work that isn’t finished comes across as a bit masturbatory. I’ve often been annoyed by such posts. My goal here isn’t to be annoying, though. Rather, I want to give those who are interested a peek into my projects. The primary goal is to get people excited about my work. The secondary goal is to keep my current projects top-of-mind for me so that I keep my fingers to the keyboard as much as possible. Simply put, I’ve been feeling a bit unproductive lately and am looking for a…

Are you a pervert for seeing abstract and implied vaginas on book covers?

June 20, 2012

Sex sells. We know this. Implied sex also sells, and perhaps even more-so considering the audience for discreet sex is much wider (puritans can't hate what they can't define, right?). But sometimes I'm not sure if I'm recognizing the marketing money-shot, or if I'm just perverted. Take a look at these possible vaginas and let me know in the comments. Do Me: Tales of Sex & Love from Tin House No need to question the intent with this one. Bibliophiliacs rejoice. Before they Were Giants: First Works from Science Fiction Greats It's generally accepted that science fiction fans, at least traditionally, are sex-starved. If Dungeons & Dragons/Star Wars stereotypes have any root in truth, most sci-fi fans aren't motivated by sex...unless that sex comes by way of a giant octopus vagina space monster. Granta: The Magazine of New Writing. issue #110: Sex Another obvious one (what is it with literary magazines…

F.C.J.R shirt. Wear one and I’ll send you something pretty.

June 12, 2012

The wonderful Misty Bennett posted an aside over at Facebook that she was designing a t-shirt with the letters F.C.J.R on it, which I can only is an protest statement against Jamaican spy activity: Farewell to Clandestine Jamaican Reconnaissance. What else could it possibly mean? Anyone who creates, wears, and snaps a photo of themselves wearing such a t-shirt will receive something cool from me. What exactly that cool thing will be, I don't know. You can probably expect a book from my book shelf, perhaps one with the naughty bits highlighted, perhaps some naughty bits added. Maybe you'll get a sack of paper cigar rings. Maybe you'll get my bathroom garbage. Who knows. Just snap a pic and email me at caleb [at] calebjross.com.

Guest Post – The Top 10 WordPress Plug-ins Every Blogger Should Have by Kate Croston

June 7, 2012

This is a guest post by Kate Croston who is a freelance writer, holds a bachelors degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She writes guest posts for different sites and loves contributing home internet service related topics. Questions or comments can be sent to: katecroston.croston09 @ gmail.com. Wordpress is one of the easiest to use and most functional blogging software suites you can find. One of the advantages of using it is the plethora of plug-ins available for it. Here are the top ten plug-ins that no webmaster should be without: Google Analytics This plug-in allows you to embed your Google Analytics code into every page and post you produce. This allows you to track visitors, links in and a variety of other data. Google XML Sitemaps Search engine indexing is a huge part of having a high search engine results rank. This add-on automatically helps you generate and update an XML…

I did it. I have an official author Facebook page now. Changes coming.

March 28, 2012

I did it. I broke down and created an official Caleb J. Ross author page on Facebook. I've been averse to doing this for a while, primarily because I want to avoid perceived ego as much as possible (well, as much as a guy with a self-titled website can do), but also because I don't want to bombard people with duplicate content posts. The logic being that until the official author page gains traction, I would have to post updates to both the author page and my personal page in order to curb anybody missing out on my genius (see, no ego there). Nobody needs double Caleb. So, here's what I propose: If you are currently a Facebook friend via my personal page, but you ONLY WANT TO RECEIVE AUTHOR TYPE UPDATES, then un-friend my personal page and Like my author page. You can actually do this by clicking this…

Put this one on your radar. Psychosis, an Anthology

March 24, 2012

This one has been in development for awhile and is getting closer and closer to seeing print. I hope, anyway. While I wasn't able to put something together to contribute to the collection (the editor approached me; I originally intended to, but life got crazy so I couldn't do it...not literally crazy, not crazy enough to be appropriate fodder for this anthology...just metaphorically crazy). Add this to your RSS reader and keep an eye out for it. Based on the website, it appears we've got writing from the following authors to look forward to: Bryan Howie, Rebecca Jones-Howe, Dakota Taylor, Jessica Taylor, Kenneth Goldman, Liana V., Nicholas Wilczynski, Josef Van L., Richard Thomas, Renee Asher, DWG, Bradley Sands, Rachel Cohen, Sam Jackson, Martin Garrity, Cristiana Zanelli, and Sarah Davenport with Traci Foust, author of Nowhere Near Normal: A Memoir of OCD, writing the introduction. I don't know most of these authors, but I soon will.

Ryan W. Bradley Fails the Internet: The Code for Failure blog tour.

March 24, 2012

When I told Ryan that for the blog tour stop here I would write a bit about my own strange affection for convenience stores/gas stations he, in more eloquent words, told me I was crazy. Well, perhaps I misrepresented him. His actual words: “I like the nostalgia factor. I like the smell of gas but I'll tell ya, the nostalgia goes away when you work there.” Perhaps so. But if the work experience is anything like that of Code for Failure’s narrator, then I’d say nostalgia is but one type of memory you’ll come away with. This guy gets laid like a disembarking Hawaii tourist. The novel is less a single, cohesive story and more a collection of vignettes all related to the narrator’s job as a gas station attendant cum oil changer, or gas station attendant cum to married women and teenage girls, as the case may be. Back…