Google Discoveries
September 1, 2020
I think I've mentioned before how googling yourself might seem like vanity or procrastination, but that it can throw up some interesting and useful results. In the past, I've discovered that I'd been shortlisted in one competition and actually won another. I've also found a mini-story on someone's website for a hobby related to its theme (origami–'Stone,Scissors, Paper'), and positive reviews of other work.
I'll confess to a little procrastination when I looked last week, but I'm so glad I gave in to temptation. The best thing I found was that my submission to Fifty-Word Stories (https://fiftywordstories.com) had been published on 4th August. It's titled 'Who's a Pretty Boy?' and you'll find it, if you can spare a minute, in the Amusing category of the Stories section. It's already received some positive response, which is always great to have.
Anyone who would like to have a go at submitting their own 50-word tale will find all the guidelines, which are really simple, and an online form on the website. It's just for fun, unless your offering is chosen as the story of the month. Submissions are limited to the first to the 15th of each month, so you have a couple of weeks to get writing.
My googling also brought to light the use of one of my tweets on a catalogue's website. You can look on this in two ways: either as a liberty using my work as free advertising/to provide them with added interest, or as free publicity for me and a compliment in that they thought it good enough to use. In this instance, it was a tweet, which anyone could retweet from my account @ksdearsley and they credited it, so I'll take it as a plus. I wouldn't be as happy if it was a longer work reprinted without my permission from another publication. Neither would I be amused if it was being used to promote something of which I did not approve. I'm not sure what I could have done about it if that was the case, beyond contacting the site and Twitter to ask for it to be removed, but at least searching for my name gives me a chance to discover what's going on.
Here's the tweet that was used: 'How tranquil it must be to sit in a field of lavender, simply breathing and listening to the bees.' I'll let you guess the website for yourselves–but don't spend too long on it–that would be procrastinating!
I'll confess to a little procrastination when I looked last week, but I'm so glad I gave in to temptation. The best thing I found was that my submission to Fifty-Word Stories (https://fiftywordstories.com) had been published on 4th August. It's titled 'Who's a Pretty Boy?' and you'll find it, if you can spare a minute, in the Amusing category of the Stories section. It's already received some positive response, which is always great to have.
Anyone who would like to have a go at submitting their own 50-word tale will find all the guidelines, which are really simple, and an online form on the website. It's just for fun, unless your offering is chosen as the story of the month. Submissions are limited to the first to the 15th of each month, so you have a couple of weeks to get writing.
My googling also brought to light the use of one of my tweets on a catalogue's website. You can look on this in two ways: either as a liberty using my work as free advertising/to provide them with added interest, or as free publicity for me and a compliment in that they thought it good enough to use. In this instance, it was a tweet, which anyone could retweet from my account @ksdearsley and they credited it, so I'll take it as a plus. I wouldn't be as happy if it was a longer work reprinted without my permission from another publication. Neither would I be amused if it was being used to promote something of which I did not approve. I'm not sure what I could have done about it if that was the case, beyond contacting the site and Twitter to ask for it to be removed, but at least searching for my name gives me a chance to discover what's going on.
Here's the tweet that was used: 'How tranquil it must be to sit in a field of lavender, simply breathing and listening to the bees.' I'll let you guess the website for yourselves–but don't spend too long on it–that would be procrastinating!
Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
