Christina Gleason . com

Official website of writer, editor, and blogger Christina Gleason.

My Dad Has Mantle Cell Lymphoma

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SCREW Non-Hodgkins LymphomaI’ve been a bit out of sorts lately because we found out a month ago that my dad has cancer. He’d gone to Urgent Care because he had trouble swallowing. His voice sounded funny, too. Urgent Care sent him to an ENT straight away. That doctor told him later that he presented like someone with throat cancer, but when he’d looked down his throat, it looked like he had a smooth cyst, so he didn’t mention cancer. He just got him scheduled for surgery to remove the cyst.

When he went in for surgery the next week, what was supposed to be a 20-minute procedure took about an hour and a half because they were having difficulty getting the tube down his throat because the mass was so big. It wasn’t smooth like the doctor had originally thought; it was spongy. So when the doctor came out to talk to my mom, he told her quite certainly that it was cancer.

The doctor removed the 3x2x1 cm tumor and sent it out for biopsy. At his follow-up appointment, we learned that he had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but anything more specific required more testing. An appointment was made with an oncologist at New York Oncology Hematology (NYOH).

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Peter Shankman at SMCTV Event on Tuesday, November 9, 2010

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Attention Albany area social media professionals:

If you haven’t registered yet to hear Peter Shankman speak at Union College on Tuesday night, it’s not too late! Let me share with you an excerpt from the press release about the event:

The Tech Valley Chapter of the Social Media Club (SMCTV) is hosting their inaugural event at Union College, presenting world renowned Public Relations and Social Media Guru Peter Shankman. Shankman, who founded Help a Reporter Out (HARO) and The Geek Factory Inc., will touch on all facets of social media, marketing, and “non-traditional ways of thinking”, focusing on social networking, viral marketing, and all the fun ways to use them-or not to use them. An entrepreneur, author, speaker, and worldwide connector, Shankman is recognized worldwide for radical new ways of thinking about Social Media, PR, marketing, advertising, creativity, and customer service.

“Social Media Club Tech Valley is about sharing social media knowledge and bringing together professionals, publishers, journalists, teachers, students, and anyone who creates or consumes media”, said Social Media Club Tech Valley President Dave Ward. “We can’t think of a more fitting and exciting inaugural event then hosting Peter Shankman, one of today’s hottest names in PR and social media, at one of Tech Valley’s premier colleges.”

“Social media is everywhere – and more importantly, it’s not social media – it’s simply another facet of marketing – but one we need to understand to grow our businesses to the next level. I’m looking forward to sharing some tips on how to do this with Tech Valley,” said Peter Shankman.

Date: Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Time: 5:30 pm
Location: Union College Park Hall, 250 Nott Street, Schenectady, NY 12308

Come at 5:30 pm for registration and networking. Peter Shankman will be taking the stage at 6:30 pm for his presentation.

I will be liveblogging the event. Come join us for our inaugural event! Hope to see you there.

Using Social Media for Community Action

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Many of us use a variety of social media outlets for self-promotion or to promote assorted businesses, clients, and products to the online world at large. Some of us also use social media for advocacy.

First and foremost in my mind is 12for12k, which did an amazing job raising money for charity throughout 2009. On a more personal note, I am very impressed with the work Kristine Brite-McCormick has done with Cora’s Story to raise awareness about Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) after her five-day-old daughter died from the birth defect that she learned about from the coroner.

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Ubervu Steals Your Blog Posts AND Your Comments

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I started getting pingbacks from sites like Topsy a few months ago whenever I tweeted to promote a blog post I’d written on my mommy blog. I checked out Topsy and saw that it only showed a brief excerpt of my posts with a link back to my site along with all of their little bells and whistles that justify the site’s existence.

I thought that the pingbacks from Ubervu meant that they were the same sort of deal. I was wrong.

I don’t know what compelled me to click the link yesterday, but I went to see what Ubervu had to say about one of my posts yesterday…

And I found my post there in its entirety. With the entire comment feed as well.

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5 Things Mistborn Taught Me About Writing

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The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
I’m an avid reader, and my favorite genre is fantasy. Most recently, I devoured the Mistborn trilogy (Mistborn, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages) by Brandon Sanderson. I never would have picked them up if Sanderson hadn’t been chosen to finish Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series after the author’s untimely death to amyloidosis, but I couldn’t put the books down once I started.

There was a major problem, though. The books made me angry.

And after finishing the third novel Friday night and finding myself unable to fall asleep for two hours because of how much I hated the ending, it got me thinking about why it bothered me so much. These are things that writers really need to keep in mind. (With an actual book review at the end that many of you will choose to skip. And psst… that image is an Amazon affiliate link in case you’d like to buy the set and see what I’m talking about.)

You need to relate to your audience.

This is something that Brandon Sanderson got right. In fiction, relating to your audience is done by creating characters that your readers can become invested in. I was sucked in to the strange world of the Final Empire because I was so drawn to Vin, even though the setting was so completely foreign to me. (And as a fantasy reader, it takes a lot for a setting to just seem so odd.)

If you’re not writing fiction, this rule still applies. You have to give your readers a reason to care about what you’ve written, or else they’re just not going to bother with it. Writing to promote a product? A news story? Make sure people see why they should care about it in the first few lines. If they’re not feeling it, they’re not going to continue reading.

Once you know the rules, you can break them. But only in moderation.

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