Xamuel.com Blog Carnival

This edition is extremely delayed! But I finally got around to it. Surprisingly, there weren’t a lot of submissions, once the spam was tossed out. Maybe next edition will have more.

Henry writes a very random tale: Resolving Things like Gentlemen.

Corbett Barr writes: How to Blog if You’re Not as Witty as Your Favorite Blogger Because, hey, not everyone can be as witty as yours truly *flex*

Matt Eventoff presents: Public Speaking for Professional Athletes. Not sure how many pro athletes are browsing this blog carnival, but if any of you are, Matt’s got some pointers how to behave next time the cameras are on you

Therealmind writes about a planned move to Spain. Nothing quite like moving countries to shake things up in your life.

John writes: There Is A New Blogging Star Born Everyday, Are You Next? I dunno, it seems like there are plenty of articles already which fall under the category “blogging about blogging”. But it’s a sincere submission (which is more than one can say about 90% of the spam submitted to blog carnivals), so I’ll give it a listing.

Forgive me for making this edition a few days late!!

• Darcy submitted: Pepper Pots: “The Best Story Ever”. A little long, but a very adventurous read so check it out
• Now this is interesting: Ava submitted Ten Famously Reclusive Authors and Artists. No surprise about Kubrick, but I never knew Watterson was a recluse.
• A post which tugs at my heart strings as an urban explorer: Secret Underground Tunnels in Moscow. Wish there were more than just the one photograph!
• Luke asks: What did you want to be when you grew up? Me, I went through a lot of phases. At one time I wanted to be a locksmith!
• Here to motivate us, Adam provides: Motivating Yourself. A little long but it reminds me of some of the articles I used to write. It includes some case studies. Thanks Adam
• Flanagan presents: Your love life and your fitness.
• Sumit presents: Four Things That Won’t Make you Truly Happy. This is a sort of subversive article, dispelling four myths of the form “X will make you happy” which are typically taken as “common knowledge”.
• And now for a break from all this serious stuff, this movie is for all my fellow video game nerds who love cynical video game commentary: Today’s Really Kickass Moment: Excalibur Sonic, from Giant Robot Invasion
• This isn’t your daddy’s haiku. Or wait… maybe it is. Robert presents: Questions Unending. The shortest submission this edition…
• …but not by far. Here’s another poem, this one from Boonsong, it’s about cactus and it comes with a photo. Pondering Upon Prickly Plants
• And the last submission I’ll be featuring this edition: from Mad Kane, De-Stress or Distress? Basically it’s a quick-and-dirty list of five quick exercises to lower your stress.

That’s it for Edition 2. Look forward to getting some great submissions for Edition 3!!

-Sam

If you have a particularly great blog article and you’d like to get it some extra publicity, get some extra eyeballs on it, then you should submit it to the next edition of this carnival. You can do that at the following link:

http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_9461.html

Looking forward to getting some great submissions!

-Sam

• First some inspiration… James Feudo talks about pushing yourself and illustrates his article with some real life experiences, something I’ve always felt adds a lot to a story.

  James Feudo presents Do You Push Yourself Enough? posted at Overnight Sensation – Public Speaking, Communication and Personal Development.

• An insightful blog article about book prologues. Pay attention, ye novel-writers

  Livia Blackburne presents Pillars of the Earth: an example of a prologue done well posted at Livia Blackburne.

• Here’s an article about the tough initial period of starting a business, when you aren’t actually making any money. Patrick says “Work for Free”… I say “Work for Fun”.

  Patrick presents Want to Work for Free? Start a Business posted at Cash Money Life.

• The next post from Swagat is not original, but it’s always fun to re-read the oldies. One thing I’ve learned from writing is, there’s nothing new under the sun.

  swagat presents tasting your own medicine posted at Its all in here.

• Palmer Arkanian points out some funny names in this short piece:

  Palmer Arkanian presents Olympian Bode Miller’s Sister posted at The Blog of Unusual Things.

• Here’s an interview with Sarah Hamaker about writing. Nothing very revolutionary, but it might be worth a glance for people very new to writing.

  Tiffany Colter presents Interview with Sarah Hamaker posted at Writing Career Coach.

• I’m a little surprised to get the next submission, just because it’s so short. An interesting haiku…

  Robert Terrell presents galactic dreamers ? haiku posted at the existential poet.

• Here’s an interesting story about two very different people who got married… do men like this actually still exist? Soaked in the pickup artist world, I have a very different view on romance than the guy in this story, but whatever works for you!

  Madeleine Begun Kane presents Romancing The Stoic posted at Raising Kane.

Only nine submissions, so I’ll fill in the tenth with one of my own articles. We should end things on a cheerful note, so here are One Hundred Things that Make Me Happy

Tomorrow I’ll be posting the first edition of this blog carnival… yay!! Looking forward to sharing some articles

Submissions for issue #1 are now being accepted! To submit an article, go here: http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_9461.html. This month, I will accept ten offers to feature!

Here are ten reasons to host or participate in a blog carnival.

• Get more readers.

  We’re all looking to expand our readership. Blog carnivals are a good way to do that.

• Make connections in the blogosphere.

  No blog is an island. Blog carnivals are a good way to make friends and connections in the blog world.

• Find great content to read.

  A good blog carnival is like having someone filter out the cruft from the blogging world, letting you read the better articles which stand out above the rest.

• Expand your reality by reading about new things.

  The quality of our lives is determined by how many things we allow into our reality. Blog carnivals are a great way to discover new fields you didn’t even know existed.

• Learn from fellow writers.

  Part of being a blogger is the constant journey to become a better writer. It helps a lot to have exposure to other writers– perhaps you can learn some lessons the easy way, which those writers had to learn the hard way.

• Get feedback on your own writing.

  Submitting articles to a blog carnival is a fantastic way to get a sense which of your articles “make the cut”. It’s tough love, but if your articles aren’t making it onto the carnivals, at least you know you need to work on it.

• Stay in touch with the latest technology.

  Part of being connected to other bloggers is you don’t get left behind by the ever evolving technology of internet writing.

• Get ideas for new topics to pursue on your own blog.

  Ever suffered from writer’s block? Remember, nothing under the sun is new. Browsing through what others have written might just lead you to a subject which really excites your own writing juice.

• Get indexed by the search engines faster.

  The old phrase, “build it and they will come,” no longer works now that the internet exists. You can write great content, but the search engines won’t even know it exists if you don’t publicize it somehow. Blog carnivals are a fantastic way to get the word out.

• Have fun!

  The ultimate reason to do anything is for fun. Blog Carnivals mix the fun of a reading club and a writing co-op. You’ll never run out of excellent new things to discover through a blog carnival!

The main site to get you started is Blog Carnival, where it all began. There are thousands of blog carnivals to peruse, and when you have lots of experience with blogging, you can start your own!

This is the official first post at the Xamuel.com Blog Carnival.  I decided to run a blog carnival to give a little back to the blogosphere which has given me so much in the past couple years   If you aren’t already aware, a blog carnival is a blog which hosts periodic linkfests to other blogs who submit articles to be featured.  I won’t be posting everything people submit– they tend to submit a lot of spam, of course– I’ll only feature and link to articles which I deem worthy.  I can’t even promise I’ll be able to read everything people submit– I’ll do my best

I’ll generally tend to favor articles which are in line with the contents at Xamuel.com, but those contents are very widely varied indeed, so that’s not very limiting, is it

Happy blogging…