How to Add Flair to Your Fall Social Media Posts by DiAnn Mills

DiAnn Mills

It may be nearing 100° where you live, but school is in session for most and the theme is fall for our northern hemisphere. Social media is transitioning from juicy strawberries and plump blueberries to apples and pumpkins. Even if we don’t feel like turning our thoughts toward autumn, the calendar indicates it’s time.

Transition into the season with color. That seems like a no-brainer, but color is emotional, and the warm shades of orange paired with gold, brown, and scarlet coax the reader into a psychological change of season. When the opportunity arises, look at background and font colors.

Switch to fall images for memes. The adage, a picture is worth a thousand words is true for our meme choices. The choice of images point to mood, emotion, and blog theme. When we reflect the season into our posts, the reader can resonate with what we’re saying.

Choose words that symbolize autumn. Think about the words that mean a tangible item but also represents something else. Consider the following words and how they can express deep feelings and expressions to your social media post or blog.

1. Change: as the leaves change colors and days grow shorter, perhaps our views and attitudes about our social media posts need a new perspective.
2. Comfort: we soothe and calm ourselves by adding extra layers of clothes, inviting friends for cozy and intimate fellowship, and the art of coffee, spice teas, cider, and hot chocolate play a role in satisfying our hearts.
3. Harvest: gathering the fields represents a harvest of the mind, a time to renew learning.
4. Maturity: seasons of life show autumn is a time of reflection and wisdom.
5. Preservation: mother nature has been busy getting ready for the months ahead. Look at animals and the busy farmer. We too are reconnecting with ourselves and making plans that differ from summer fun. Our posts are indications of preserving the past, present, and future.

Let’s welcome in the new season with posts that embrace our readers with meaning and inspiration. How do you plan to usher in fall with your social media posts?


Click to Tweet: 3 great tips to add flair to your #socialmedia posts by @diannmills on #SeriouslyWrite. #fall #socialmediatips

About the Author

DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She combines unforgettable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels.

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. Library Journal presented her with a Best Books 2014: Genre Fiction award in the Christian Fiction category for Firewall. You can download a list of her published titles by clicking here.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers; a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association; International Thriller Writers, and the Faith, Hope, and Love chapter of Romance Writers of America. She is co-director of Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference with social media specialist Edie Melson where she continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.

DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on any of the social media platforms listed at www.diannmills.com.

BURDEN OF PROOF

Burden of Proof
by DiAnn Mills

Reeling from a negotiation gone wrong, FBI Special Agent April Ramos is caught off guard when a frazzled young woman shoves a crying baby into her arms, then disappears. Worry for the child’s safety quickly turns to fear when a man claiming to be the girl’s father abducts them at gunpoint. April puts her hostage negotiation skills to use to learn more about who she’s dealing with: Jason Snyder, a fugitive accused of murder.

As Jason spins a tall tale about being framed for the killing of his business partner, April must sort through his claims to find the truth. A truth that becomes all the more evident after April overhears a conversation between Jason and the local sheriff and realizes something more sinister may be happening in their small town of Sweet Briar, Texas. But aligning herself with a known fugitive to uncover the burden of proof could cost April her job . . . or worse, her life and the lives of other innocent people.

Burden of Proof is recommended for fans of the following:

Romantic Suspense
Christian Fiction
FBI Crime Solving Novel
Clean Romance

Undercover Author by Paula Mowery

An undercover agent lurks in many authors. How do I know? I’ve discovered this about myself. When asked where my story ideas originate, I may reply with a couple of sources. But in reality I’m thinking to myself: “Where can you not find a story?”

Here, let me prove this to you like a true investigator/informant would.

About a month ago I received the dreaded card in the mail: Report for Jury Duty. Yep, just like you did, I rolled my eyes and heaved a huge sigh. I get it. This is an honor and a privilege as a citizen, but with only a few weeks remaining of my summer, I wasn’t looking forward to being stuck in a court room.

However, I dressed nicely and fell into the line of others from my community who had been summoned. We crowded into the small county courtroom. A judge introduced himself and began to explain about this task we would be undertaking. He kept venturing off, giving examples from his many years serving in the court system.

I sat up a little straighter. Now this was getting interesting. He used examples from cases of murder, theft, and drug charges. This undercover author was intrigued. The judge even shared about having to put a jury member into jail for leaking details that weren’t supposed to be leaked.

Friends, by now, my mind was churning! The what-ifs buzzed around in my head, making it hard to pay attention.

Then the different panels were called forward and sat in the twelve seats to reveal any schedule conflicts. This gave me time to study some of my fellow jurors more closely. My grandmother taught me the art of people-watching. The courtroom was filled with quite a cross-section of our town, including various ages, races, and both genders represented.

Finally, I realized that this was research at its best. I tend to lean toward actual experiences or speaking with knowledgeable people instead of perusing the internet for my book research. And an added bonus for me is that most of my books find their setting right here in my town.

Another interesting tidbit is that my most recently contracted book actually contains a scene that takes place in this courtroom. Now that I’ve sat in it in my undercover author mode, I can’t wait to edit this section, making it more realistic.

Please allow me to encourage you to embrace your inner undercover author. Even dreaded tasks can render your next intriguing story. Go into your best observation mode and take it all in. Though you can find answers for many questions from your research by simply googling, nothing takes the place of experiencing and asking questions of experts. This type of research normally translates into my story becoming more alive for my reader.

Where have you found some of those great tidbits of research for your latest story?

To find out about For Our Good and Paula's other books, check out her Amazon page by clicking on the link below.

Paula Mowery's Amazon Page

Paula Mowery is a published author, acquisitions editor, and speaker. Her first two published works were The Blessing Seer and Be The Blessing from Pelican Book Group. Both are women’s fiction, and their themes have been the topics of speaking engagements. Be The Blessing won the Selah Award in 2014 in the novella category. In November of 2013 her first romance released in the anthology, Brave New Century, from Prism Book Group. This book went to number five on Amazon’s bestseller category, historical Christian romance. Legacy and Love was her first solo romance and was a finalist in the Carolyn Readers Choice Awards in 2015. Her other titles include a Christian romantic suspense called For Our Good, a Christmas romance called Love Again, and a romance inspired from the Love Chapter called The Crux of Honor.  

 

Reviewers of her writing characterize it as “thundering with emotion.” Her articles have appeared in Woman’s World, The Christian Online Magazine, and the multi-author devotional blogs, Full Flavored Living and Putting on the New. She wrote a section for Join the Insanity by Rhonda Rhea. She has devotionals included in several collaborative books. 

 

She is a member of ACFW and also on the faculty for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. 

 

Paula is a pastor’s wife, a mom, and an interpreter for the deaf. She homeschooled her daughter through all twelve years, and they both lived to tell about it. Before educating her daughter at home, she was an English teacher in public school. 

 

Learn more about Paula at her blog as well as find other links to connect with her at www.paulamowery.blogspot.com.

 

This Writer's Thanksgivings by Clare Revell

Isn’t there a song which goes count your blessings name them one by one…

When I was offered a chance to blog about being thankful I immediately said yes. Then thought hang on, life sucks. What do I have to be thankful for? (Not to mention we don’t have Thanksgiving here on the wrong side of the pond.)  Yeah, not a bad few weeks in the grand scheme of things. I mean, no one had died or gone missing or stuff like that, but I’d been ill and incredibly stressed over run of the mill stuff. (Don’t ask.)

But despite that, yes there are things I’m thankful for. (So here are a few things instead which influence my writing in one way or another which I am counting my blessings for. Kind of a photo blog. 

First I’m blessed by having a great church to go to. Carey Baptist Church, in Reading. Actually the first hit you get on google. 

Yes, this is the real Headley Cross Baptist Church. I’ve been going here since 1982. Was baptised here, married here, register weddings here… Based in the heart of the town, it’s a Bible based church. (But no, Pastor James is NOT Pastor Jack from the books. Honestly. I made Pastor Jack up. It’s pure coincidence they both have the same first initial.) But yes, my faith and my church.

And speaking of faith. This was taken in France in 1983. The hill with the three crosses on.

And there’s a hilarious story that goes with it. We passed this hill on the way to and from where we were staying in Le Corbier. Dad wanted to walk there. He said it didn’t look far. It was miles down the mountain and up another. We get to the top and he says “Look there’s a short cut.” Umm we ended up in a dried up river bed, then a field where a farmer was harvesting with a combine…

Finally we get to the road and Mum says “That’s it. You go and get the car.” Hour and a half later, Dad gets back with the car. Even now, 30 years later, when he mentions a short cut we just go “Hill with the three crosses on.”

And that brings me onto family. They are in squinty vision above, but now we’re all married with kids, well one of us has cats and a porche rather than kids (and a career as an ER consultant), but from the 6 of us then, there are now 17, spread across the world. From Reading, to Wales to the far reaches of Australia. On and I have rellies in Canada too. And a best friend in the US, who’s more like a sister than a friend.

Then there’s my editor, Lisa, and wonderful publishers. Pelican Book Group. Who took a chance on an unknown back in 2010 and have put me where I am now. And especially taking a chance on a series I proposed in April last year. A seven novel one based on a new version of an old nursery rhyme.

And the rest as they say is history.

Purchase Link for Tuesday's Child

Clare lives in a small town in England with her husband of 17 years and her three children. Writing from a early childhood and encouraged by her teachers, she graduated from rewriting fairy stories through fanfiction to using her own original characters and enjoys writing an eclectic mix of romance, crime fiction and children's stories. When she's not writing, reading, sewing or keeping house or doing the many piles of laundry her children manage to make, she's working part time in the breakfast club at one of the local schools. She has been a Christian for more than half her life. She goes to Carey Baptist where she is one of three registrars. Visit Clare at www.revell124.plus.com/clarerevell