Don't be Depressed about: Career or Writing or Reviews or Book or Blog

Sometimes it seems like there's a lot to be depressed about but my advice is: don't worry about any of it. P.S. I am not a licensed professional

What if nobody likes your book? (just write another one)

What if you can't find a publisher? (improve your work and keep trying)

What if you got some bad reviews? (they are just as important as the good ones)

What if the writing isn't going well? (it often didn't go so well for Hemingway either, or Steinbeck or Dickens or-- fill in the blank)

What if your career isn't happening like you expected? (nobody's is, except for maybe Mark Zuckerman and Jeffrey Bezos)

What if your blog doesn't have enough followers or comments? Now that I can do something about!!

Stop by tomorrow for my big bash, KarenG's Labor Day BBQ. Bring food (I like food) and be prepared to add some spice to the lazy summer blog routine. Find new blogs, get new followers, and jazz up the blogosphere with shared enthusiasm! See you tomorrow then.

Was that FUN or WHAT?

Thanks to all who came to my big weekend BBQ bearing delicious food and drink! A special welcome to the new followers here. I tried to get around to visit everyone. If I somehow missed you, let me know, I'll pop over to say hi and follow.

It's all about the networking, finding new friends, those we can relate to and communicate with more than about the numbers. Still, the numbers validate what we're doing. No one wants to think they're speaking to emptiness.

On one of the blogs I visited, sorry I can't remember which one in my food-induced hopping haze, I saw this quote: "I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell..." (Richard Wright)

The internet is like the darkness, the comments & followers like the echo. More and louder echoes encourage us to keep at it. I hope the BBQ helped you meet or exceed your follower goals. I'd love to hear reports.

Thank you for the support, the links, the comments and all your amazing and awesome attractiveness! And the food YUM!

Are You Ready to Find a Bunch of Awesome New Followers?

It's time for the Blog Party BBQ to begin!

I've jazzed up my blog with some new color, how about you? Are you ready for a bunch of new visitors and followers? The original party invitation is here, but to recap here's how it works:

* Follow my blog and I'll follow yours cuz that's how it works yo

* Comment on this post telling what food you'll bring to the BBQ, and telling us something about yourself and your blog

* Find at least three new party-goers to visit, comment on their blogs and follow if you like

* Click on the twitter and/or facebook icons at the bottom of this post to invite more people to the party. That means more followers for everyone!

Quite a few left comments with their food *yum yum slurp* on the last post, so you can all go back and click to their blogs plus hopping to whoever comments on this post. And if you commented before, please feel free to do so again here. You might use another blog url if you have more than one, tell us more about yourself, or just check back in to make sure you don't miss any of the fun, food and drinks galore! Oh, and make sure that your profile page gives the link to your blog so people can find you.

This post will be up the entire 4-day Labor Day weekend, giving everyone plenty of time to find new friends and followers. And I plan on making a virtual pig of myself with tons of virtual food!  Mmm, a dream come true-- calorie-free deliciousness. And I'm bringing 6 dozen of my famous chocolate chip cookies!

PARTY ON!

How to Get a LOT of New Blog Followers

Want more followers for your blog? Well listen up, because I'm having a PARTY! An American tradition is to have a barbecue on Labor Day weekend, to celebrate the workers of the world and the end of summer. So my end of summer celebration, the ALMOST to the END of the Lettuce be Writers Contest Countdown is going to be a BIG BBQ BLOG PARTY.

Some of you remember Nicola Morgan's birthday blog party at the beginning of the year. It will be patterned after that-- a chance for all of us to hang out and get to know each other better and visit each other's blogs. Nicola's was awesome, and I met some great blogger friends who are still my faves. And writers love to blog so  LETTUCE BLOG!!


 LETTUCE     WRITE  Top Three: Clarissa Draper, Jennie Bailey & Jennifer Soehnlin

 LETTUCE     READ    Congratulations to Jessica Bell for winning Like Bees to Honey.

 LETTUCE     BLOG    Join the Labor Day Weekend BBQ Blog Party

 LETTUCE     QUERY   Congratulations to winner Candace Ganger for the best query out of 30 entries.

 LETTUCE     SHARE   Jemi won Farm Girl & Leah won Uncut Diamonds

 LETTUCE     TWITTER

 LETTUCE     BUY BOOKS  Congratulations to winner Susan Kaye Quinn: Life, Liberty and Pursuit

 LETTUCE     REVIEW BOOKS  Book Review of Freak Observer by Blythe Woolston

 LETTUCE     HOLD & ENTER CONTESTS  Name the Contest Winner: A.L. Sonrichsen from The Green Bathtub

Here's how it works. If you're a follower on my blog, (if not, join now!) you make a comment, say what food you're bringing to the BBQ, what you blog about, and invite people to come visit you. Then you go visit at least 3 new blogs, leave a comment and follow if you like it. Hopefully everyone will find a whole lot more than 3 they want to visit and follow. It's a fun way to find new blogs and get new followers. The more you comment & follow, the more commenters and followers you'll get. When I participated in Nicola's blog party, my follower count practically doubled in 24 hours. It's a great opportunity to expand for new bloggers. For those of us who have been around awhile and might even be getting a little bored with it, it can provide a new lease on our blogging life.

To prepare for the party, you might want to spiff things up, like focus on your platform, make sure your font is easy to read, that you have an interesting bio and post to attract comments and followers. I plan on doing a bit of remodeling on mine, actually looking forward to an excuse to change a few things. In fact, I already started by changing profile photos.

The BBQ Blog Party will begin this Friday and continue through Monday. Not that any Labor Day BBQ I've ever attended went longer than a day, but hey it's the internet, we make up our own rules here, right?

Again, here's how it works:

* Be a follower here

* Mention in your comment  what food you'll bring, what you blog about and any other pertinent info you'd like to share

* Go to at least 3 new blogs of commenters and say hi. Follow if you like it

* I'll check the comments all weekend, visit as many as I can, and follow if I'm not already.

Sound like fun? I think so! Okay, then, see you on Friday!

Oh, and please click the twitter or facebook icon at the end of this post to invite others to the party. The more we have, the more new followers everyone can find.