SEO

I spent some time last night performing surgery on my keywords, making sure all the post previously labeled "novel #1" now also have a tag with the actual title included - but also seeing what I could do to optimize searchability.  Leila may know better than to try to get me to Tweet (hee), but that's not because I am against the idea of marketing the blog.  "Research", for instance, has been refined to two categories - one being "historical fiction research" and the other "query research".  Much more useful, much more likely to be search strings, and probably a better organizational tool for the blog itself.

After the usual period of coyness about my subject, once the manuscript was completed I stopped talking so archly about "my barbarian king" and brought him out of the closet, so King Clovis I is now a ubiquitous tag.  One of these days, being the first novelist to get him on the stage of English-language publishing, I will be the major search-results hitter for him - and it is necessary to lay some groundwork for that too.  There'll also be some content upcoming, highlighting Queen/St. Clotilde, the Salian Franks, and some of the research I enjoyed most along the way.

I'm trying to think about what to discuss regarding the work in progress, and - though that is more immediate - it is also something on which I have less perspective, being smack in the middle of that forest.  So content beyond The Ax and the Vase will probably remain less prolific - but I do mean to try to concentrate on my subjects and the work.

And, though nobody here ever seems to want to raise their hand, I will waste they keystrokes to say it:  feedback is welcome and encouraged!