Long time no see!

Bet you guys thought I'd forgotten about you. I'm an absentee blogger and should be ashamed of myself. Blogger, thy name is procrastination. Sadly, I can find more excuses to put something off than just sit down and do it. If only the technology existed to take the great blog ideas directly from my brain and put them on the screen, I'd be the best blogger ever. And I set up all these great series I was planning to do...

So why am I suddenly popping back into your lives after all this time you ask? Two reasons. #1 is I have vowed that I will be better about my blog this year. True I've made that promise before, but this time I really mean it. #2 is that I will have new stuff for you to read. I'm not sure of the date just yet, but in a little over two months, I should have the first book of my New Adult Dark Refelctions series out. Now I can't release details yet, but those of you who follow me on Facebook might have heard that it deals with bullying and body image. It was supposed to be contemporary, not because i was trying but because that was the story I wanted to tell. But as I got writing, all of a sudden the paranormal reared it's head and there was no going back. I blame The Conjuring (When I release further details, I will explain that and link to it from here. But for now you'll just have to wonder.) which while fantastic, really got an idea stirring in my head.

This blog is one of my goals for the year, but it's not the only one. Here's some others:

Create and maintain a Pintrest profile
I'm already well on my way with this one, though I still need to get some special boards together. My aim is to have boards you can look at to learn more about each character including the clothes they wear, what their environments look like and some of their favorite things.

Publish at least five titles this year
I'm well on my way to this one, with five titles already complete and another one in progress. Actually, technically I have four in progress. What are the titles? The three Dark Reflections books, the first Otherworldly novel, a spin off of the Forces of Nature series (I have a feeling I'll be doing a lot of work in their universe), and a secret project I am really looking forward to. So it's going to be a busy year for me, hopefully.

Be more present on social media
I think this has been a goal before, too... We'll see how it goes.

Start vlogging.
I can't even tell you how many times I've recorded the first one of these but still haven't uploaded anything. Starting next week that ends. I will try to get something for you guys before Wednesday. Throughout the year I will try to bring you interesting content, including behind the scenes at conventions, author interviews and YouTube exclusive contests. So cross your fingers and don't forget to subscribe!

There's more, but these are the ones you guys will be most interested in. Also look for the character interviews to be back, as well as some guest posts and other fun stuff. :)

On platforms and stuff...

So today I was looking at my blog stats and I'm detecting a distinct trend. I have a good month with lots of posts and lots of views, then a not so good month. Then a good, so on and so forth. I don't know why this is a trend, just that it is. I also have learned that I over complicated the book hop, I think, which may have led to it's demise. And my book release was the second highest page views for a single post, topped only by one of the early Follow Fridays. What does this mean? I don't know this one either. Maybe I'm just rambling, I don't know.

So Today I'm thinking about my platform and how I want to go about building it. My number one way is to continue putting out quality books that people love to read. My number two way is going to be by letting the world see the human side of me. Day by day the wall that separates Elizabeth and Donna is coming down-- a crap, now I sound like I have multiple personalities! Anyway, I'm trying to get the hang of the whole social networking thing, trying to figure out what ones work and what ones don't. I have Facebook, Twitter and this blog down. Haven't formed an opinion on Google+ yet. And still struggling to find my niche on Goodreads.

How about you? What forms of social media do YOU use to build your following? Do you see something I'm NOT doing that I SHOULD be? Let me know. I'd love to hear your thoughts!