The Weekend That Was

The "Raising Our Humans" site (http://www.raisingourhumans.com) will be getting much more interesting over the next couple of months, thanks to the arrival of four kittens yesterday evening. Mother and kittens are all doing great, and have already begun to make very interesting stories that I am sure the site's readers will enjoy. The site has surpassed last month's hit count by 26%, making it five months in a row with a 20% or greater growth increase. I will be adding some new features to the site this week, including feedback and possibly a discussions area. If you have not already, give the site a try for some light entertainment, pictures, tips, and videos.

This past weekend finally brought some nice weather to my area, and I was able to get out on the trail for a nice 3.5 mile hike. I am working on the trail review now, and it will be posted this week on the Hike For Play site (http://www.hikeforplay.com). The weather for next weekend looks great as well, which means that I should have a few more trail reviews coming up next week as well. I am looking forward to my new hiking boots arriving, as the old ones were not very kind to my feet yesterday.

Lastly, I am finalizing my involvement in the writing of a newsletter for Guitars for Vets, and am very excited about this opportunity.

Upcoming Projects

This is meant as both informative for those of you out there that are interested, but also as a good way to get my ducks in a row. There are a number of projects that I am involved with, but the below list are my confirmed in progress projects for the summer. As things start, I will update this list accordingly. Ok, here we go:

1. "Raising Our Humans" site (http://www.raisingourhumans.com). My site has been growing view wise about 20% a month now, and I will be looking to promote other pet enthusiast sites on my site, as well as to have my site promoted on other sites. I will be expanding the multimedia section, and am looking for a vet to donate their time and writing skills for the "Tips and Tricks" section, in exchange for promotion of their practice. Lastly, I want to create a section for pet adoptions, having local animal shelters promote a particular cat each week.

2. "Hike For Play" site (http://www.hikeforplay.com). I'm just now getting back into hiking, and want to grow this site, as well as to generate content. Looking to get past the typical hiking site style by interjecting various articles for a variety of hiking skills, doing detailed trail reviews, and noting nature items to keep an eye out for during ones travels on the trails.

3. "Natural Resource Alternatives" blog (http://altresources.blogspot.com/). Whether or not one agrees or disagrees with climate change, our dependence on fossil fuels is a large risk to our country. This site looks to inform a wide audience of alternative resource usage techniques that will save consumers money, while making them energy independent.

4. "Fantasy Sports Spot" (http://www.fantasysportsspot.com). Research and analysis from different angles on the subjects of various fantasy sports leagues that are out there. Although published infrequently, the goal is to generate alternative strategies and analysis that other sites do not provide. Also, I will increase the hosting of sports related podcasts.

5. Guitars For Vets Newsletter. A very new opportunity with a great organization a friend of mine started. I am looking forward to this greatly.

6. "Amish in Wisconsin" project. Still dotting the "i's" and crossing the "t's", but this will be a book about Amish culture that is completely different from anything else out there.

7. Book editing. There is one book I have been asked to edit. I cannot reveal the project details at this time, but will do so when possible.

8. Historical "fiction". I will be researching and writing short stories the contain historical facts, but are written from an "eyewitness" perspective. These will be geared towards 12-16 year old readers.

Phew, it's going to be hard getting the above going, but it is exciting to work towards completing all of these.

Welcome!

Welcome to the first ever post on this blog. In the upcoming weeks and months, I will be using this blog to keep you, my readers, fans, and curiosity seekers, up to date in the goings on in my literary world.

I have been working on promoting my “Raising Our Humans” site (http://www.raisingourhumans.com) for the past 5 months with great results.

Also, I have a possible regular column on the horizon about the world of Open Source software, and will be updating and promoting my hiking website, Hike For Play (http://www.hikeforplay.com) more often as the weather warms up this season.

You can follow me on Twitter (@carykostka) to get quick updates on what is going on,

Have a good evening everyone, and stay tuned.