I'm moving my blog!

After years of faithful and problem-free blogging here at Blogger, I have decided to switch to Wordpress for my blogging needs. I have several reasons for the switch, the main one being that the amount of spam I have been receiving as comments to this blog has gotten out of control. I thought it was time to wipe the slate clean and start over with a new, better blog in 2010. My current blog will stay up, of course, but I will eventually be disabling comments so that I will not have to moderate the excessive amount of spam that I get every day.

I hope that everyone will join me at my new blog http://crystaleecalderwood.wordpress.com/. Update your bookmarks!

About This Blog

Hello my readers,

About a month back I started receiving strange anonymous comments on one particular post about Elysabeth Eldering. They were full of links and didn't make much sense. Since then, I have received dozens of these comments, sometimes up to 10 a day. I was forced to set my blog to moderate Anon comments. After speaking with Elysabeth I learned that she is having some issues with her blog as well. Just to be safe, I have removed the offending post from my blog completely. I am also looking into if I can disable anonymous comments. I hope this prevents any future problems.

All about Harry Gilleland

Harry E. Gilleland, Jr. is a 64-year-old southerner. Born and raised in Macon, Georgia, he earned a B.S. (1966) and a M.S. (1968) in Microbiology from the University of Georgia in Athens. Following three years of service in the U.S. Army as a captain, including a tour of duty in Vietnam, he returned to earn a Ph.D. in Microbiology from UGA in 1973. He then headed north to complete a two-year fellowship at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. In July of 1975 he joined the faculty of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. After twenty-nine years of teaching microbiology to medical and graduate students and performing vaccine research, Harry retired in July of 2004. Today Harry lives in Shreveport with his wonderful wife Linda. Harry enjoys being able to engage in his passion for writing full-time.


Harry has previously published three books of his personal poetry: Poetry For The Common Man: Storoems and Poems (2003, ISBN 1411600649), Gilleland Poetry: Storoems and Poems (2005, ISBN 1411629272), and Poetic Musings of an Old, Fat Man (2008, ISBN 978-1-4357-1242-3). In addition, Harry has published two books of prose, a tale of fantasy entitled Bob the Dragon Slayer (2005, ISBN 1411633156) and a contemporary romance story entitled White Lightning Road (2006, ISBN 978-1-4116-8693-9).

Harry Gilleland’s poetry recently won two cash awards in the 2008 Tom Howard Poetry Contest associated with Winning Writers.com. Harry’s rhyming storoem The Old Salty Poems won 2nd Place with a $1,000 prize, while his free-verse poem The Assembled Waiters earned $200 for a High Distinction award. Harry was the only poet to win two cash awards in the contest.

Harry Gilleland’s poetry has been included in four multi-author print anthologies of poems and short stories, in several poetry e-zines, and on numerous Internet poetry forums, in addition to his own three published collections. His storoems (story-poems) and poems are readily accessible to all readers, including those who do not regularly read poetry. Harry views the world with a poet’s eye.


To see Harry's books: http://www.lulu.com/harry
To see Harry's book covers and samples of his poetry: http://www.gillelands.com/poetry/
Harry's books are available for purchase at: LuLu.com, Amazon.com, and Barnes and Noble.com

VBT-Writer's on the Move Celebrates Its First Anniversary!

Well, it's a YEAR! That's right, we have been cross-promoting and helping one another for a year now.
To celebrate this accomplishment, we will have a SUPER-DUPER Anniversary Tour!
The number before the host's name is the day in November that he/she will post in the tour.

But, before I explain more about it, here's the schedule:


1 Dianne Sagan is hosting Heidi Thomas

2 Harry Gilleland is hosting Karen Cioffi

3 Karen Cioffi is hosting Martha Swirzinki

4 Kathy Stemke is hosting Brigitte Thompson

5 Nancy Famolari is hosting Deborah Weed

6 Margaret Fieland is hosting Elysabeth Eldering

7 Crystalee Calderwood is hosting Harry Gilleland

8 Katie Hines is hosting Heather Paye

9 Helena Harper is hosting Steve Tremp

10 Liana Metal is hosting Crystalee Calderwood

11 Carolyn Howard-Johnson is hosting Marvin Wilson

12 Gayle Trent is hosting Dianne Sagan

13 Mayra Calvani is hosting Carolyn Howard-Johnson

14 Marvin Wilson is hosting Gayle Trent

15 Linda Asato is hosting Mayra Calvani

16 Heather Paye is hosting Katie Hines

17 Steve Tremp is hosting Helena Harper

18 Elysabeth Eldering is hosting Linda Asato

19 Darcia Helle is hosting Liana Metal

20 Deborah Weed is hosting Nancy Famolari

21 Brigitte Thompson is hosting Margaret Fieland

22 Martha Swirzinki is hosting Darcia Helle

23 Heidi Thomas is hosting Kathy Stemke

Each day there will be prizes offered. All you have to do is leave a comment on the host's site on the day he/she is posting for their guest and you may be a WINNER!

The Winner will have a choice of ONE of 2 or 3 books of our members or other related gifts, OR a one day guest spot on THIS site!

Prizes being given away EVERY Day from November 1st through November 23rd!

OH! Wait a minute! That's not all! We are still having our Mystery Site Giveaway and the SUPER-DUPER PRIZE is a $25 (US) GIFT CARD to either Amazon, Target, or an American Express Gift Card. I'll know for sure by the end of this month.

Winners will be notified the day after each posting. The Mystery Site Winner will be notified Sunday, November 29th.

Come celebrate with us and have the chance of being one of the WINNERS of a great gift in the process.

Everyone Loves Mo Willems!

Everyone loves Mo Willems, author/illustrator of great picture books like the ever-popular Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. Now you can read his fantastic blog that takes readers behind the scenes of the life of an author/illustrator. You can even follow the rants of the Pigeon on Twitter!

Just another example of how truly everyone is jumping on the blogging/Twitter bandwagon.

A New Tour of VBT: Writers on the Move Starts Sept. 1st!

VBT: Writers on the Move starts their next round of promotion on September 1st! Each month, a group of talented, award-winning writers set aside their blogs on the 1st and the 3rd to promote each other's latest books and projects. This month, we start the VBT: Writers on the Move Mystery Site Give-away. Each month, the winner will have the choice of receiving the Mystery Site Host's book or a guest spot on VBT Writers on the Move blog. So, go visit all our blogs and see what we've been up to, and you could also be a winner!

VBT Writers on the Move September Schedule

Dianne Sagan hosts Crystalee Calderwood- That's me!

Harry Gilleland hosts Steve Tremp (Author of Breakthrough)

'Karen Cioffi hosts Vivian Zabel (Author or Case of the Missing Coach, Midnight Hours, and many more, and publisher at 4rv Publishing)

Kathy Stemke hosts Heather Paye (15 year old author of A Gift from Above)

Lea Schizas hosts Nancy Famalari (author of Summer's Story)

Nancy Famalari hosts Carolyn Howard-Johnson (Author of The Frugal Editor and The Frugal Book Promoter)

Vivian Zabel hosts Kathy Stemke (Author of Moving Through all Seven Days)

Margaret Fieland hosts Dianne Sagan (Author of Rebekah Redeemed)

Crystalee Calderwood -that's me! hosts Deborah Weed (Author of The Luckiest Penny)

Katie Hines hosts Marvin Wilson (Author of I Romanced the Stone, Between the Storm and the Rainbow, and more.)

Helena Harper hosts Mayra Calvani (Author of Crash!)

Dorothy Massey hosts Harry Gilleland (Author of numerous books of poetry)

Liana Metal hosts Lea Schizas (Author of Bubba and Giganto- Odds Against Us and founder of the Muse Online Writer's Conference)

Carolyn Howard-Johnson hosts Gayle Trent (mystery author)

Gayle Trent hosts Karen Cioffi (Author of Day's End Lullaby)

Mayra Calvani hosts Katie Hines (Author of upcoming book Guardian)

Marvin Wilson hosts Liana Metal (Author of Storytime)

Anita Yasuda hosts Dorothy Massey (her work appears in the Mini Mysteries and Spooky Stories anthology for kids)

Linda Asato hosts Helena Harper (Author of It's a Teacher's Life!: A Collection of Poems Set in a Girl's Private School)


Heather Paye hosts Anita Yasuda (Author of numerous books for both adults and children)

Steve Tremp hosts Margaret Fieland (Author of Moving Through All Seven Days)

Deboran Weed hosts Linda Asato (Author of the 4RV book Spider in Our Mailbox)

Blog of the Week: Dangerous Pages

Dangerous Pages brings you the story behind some of the most commonly banned books in schools across the country. Learn the inside scoop behind bans on books like Alice in Wonderland, The Color Purple, and James and the Giant Peach. . . and The Very Hungry Caterpillar???

Auntie Flamingo

Auntie Flamingo, a children's poet, is looking for your kids' flamingo pictures to display on her blog! Crayon, marker, or computer drawn, it doesn't matter!

Visit Auntie Flamingo at http://auntieflamingo.blogspot.com/ to read more about her and see how you can submit your flamingo pictures.

<3

Upcoming Blog Tours

Check out these writers' blogs for more information, starting January 16th

Deborah Ramos hosting Margaret Fieland
Dianne Sagan hosting Ransom Noble
Harry Gilleland hosting Crystalee Calderwood
Joy Delgado hosting Elysabeth Eldering
Karen Cioffi hostingJoyce Anthony
Kathy Stemke hosting Deborah Ramos
Lea Schizas hosting Dianne Sagan
Nancy Famolari hosting Harry Gilleland
Suzanne Lieurance hosting Joy Delgado
Vivian Zabel hosting Karen Cioffi
Dehanna Bailee hosting Kathy Stemke
Margaret Fieland hosting Lea Schizas
Ransom Noble hosting Nancy Famolari
Crystalee Calderwood hosting Suzanne Lieurance
Elysabeth Eldering hosting Vivian Zabel
Joyce Anthony hosting Dehanna Bailee

If a tree falls in the forest..

and no one is there to see it, does it really fall?

If you're writing a blog but not promoting it, and therefore no one is reading it, does it really exist?

And if people are reading, but not commenting, how are you supposed to know that they've found your forest?