Bob McCarty's Weekly Recap: Dec. 21-27
I like to think I emphasized quality instead of quantity during the week of Christmas 2014. That in mind, I share highlights of the past seven days at BobMcCarty.com below:
This January 2014 photo shows Butters, my office assistant, looking into his porcelain bowl in an effort to predict how the year might turn out. I shared it in a post Dec. 23. To read it, click on the image above.
Sunday, Dec. 21 — Distracted by family obligations, I posted nothing at BobMcCarty.com this day. It gets better below, I promise!
Monday, Dec. 22 — While spending most of my day working on my next book, I did share some good news about my just-released crime fiction novel. Read about it under the self-explanatory headline, The National Bet Receives Two 5-Star Reviews.
Tuesday, Dec. 23 — Under the headline, 2014 'Most Unusual Year I've Experienced' Online, I explained what it was that made my eighth year online dramatically different than the previous seven.
Wednesday, Dec. 24 — Because I'm married to a flight attendant, I'm accustomed to being flexible around the holidays. This year, as we had during each of the previous nine, we celebrated Christmas a day early to accommodate her schedule. As a result, I focused on family and food instead of fodder for this website.
Thursday, Dec. 25 — After a Washington Post article about the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta caught my eye Christmas Eve, I shared details about how the CDC fits into the mystery inside my just-released crime-fiction novel, The National Bet. Some of those details appear under the headline, Error-Prone CDC Figures Prominently in New Fiction Novel.
Friday, Dec. 26 — Recent news about the al-Shabaab terror group reminded me of the action in the opening chapter of The National Bet, so I shared an excerpt in a post under the headline, Africa-Based Terror Group Plays Part in New Fiction Tale. Later the same day under the headline, Top Intel Official Gets Away With Lies for 53 Weeks (so far), I reminded readers that Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. had gotten away with lying to Congress for more than a year thanks to inaction by soon-to-depart Attorney General Eric Holder. I ended the day with humor. Finally, after coming across a 2016 presidential straw poll at Townhall.com, I thought it might be fun to ask my online friends to enter my name as a write-in candidate — so I did ask! Details at Author Asks for Your Presidential Straw Poll Write-In Vote.
Saturday, Dec. 27 — I ended the week with a look back at a shoddy act of journalism that took place two years ago. You can read it where it appears under the headline, Flashback: Stars and Stripes Reporter Fails To Do Her Job.
The remainder of the year will probably be as slow as the past week, so I recommend you get your fix of Bob McCarty by ordering copies of my books. Details about how to do that appear below.
For links to other articles of interest as well as photos and commentary, join me on Facebook and Twitter. Please show your support by buying my books and encouraging your friends and loved ones to do the same. Thanks in advance!
This entry was posted in Weekly Recap and tagged 2014, 2014 'Most Unusual Year I've Experienced' Online, Africa-Based Terror Group Plays Part in New Fiction Tale, al-Shabaab, Atlanta, attorney general, Attorney General Eric Holder, Author Asks for Your Presidential Straw Poll Write-In Vote, Bob McCarty, Bob McCarty's Weekly Recap, book review, CDC, Centers for Disease Control, Christmas, Clapper, crime, Director of National Intelligence, Eric Holder, Error-Prone CDC Figures Prominently in New Fiction Novel, fiction, flight attendant, Holder, intel, intelligence, James Clapper, James R Clapper Jr, lying to Congress, McCarty, presidential straw poll, Stars and Stripes, terror, terror group, The Clapper Memo, The National Bet, The National Bet Receives Two 5-Star Reviews, Three Days In August, Top Intel Official Gets Away With Lies for 53 Weeks so far, townhall, Washington Post, weekly recap on December 27, 2014 by admin.
2014 'Most Unusual Year I've Experienced' Online
The past 12 months rank among the most unusual I've experienced during the eight years my site, BobMcCarty.com, has been online.
This January 2014 photo shows Butters, my office assistant, looking into his porcelain bowl in an effort to predict how the year might turn out. He would have used a crystal ball, but he didn't own one when this photo was taken and he doesn't own one now.
The year began innocently enough with yours truly, accompanied by my wife and our two youngest sons, jetting across "the pond" for the wedding of my oldest son to a beautiful young lady from England whom he met at college in South Carolina and would later whisk to the other side of the world for their first post-nuptials jobs.
Because of the wedding commitment, I was unable to travel to Orlando to accept the 2013 Professor James L. Chapman Award for Excellence in person from the National Association of Computer Voice Stress Analysts, so I sent this video acceptance speech in my place.
A serious personnel issue surfaced soon after my return from England. Butters, my four-legged office assistant, threatened me with "clawsuits" if I didn't improve his working conditions. He seemed to calm down after I installed a new "cubicle" for him and after I agreed to replace it with newer mail-order models several times during the remainder of the year. And I did.
After satisfying the cat, I received good news about a dog — more accurately, an underdog. I learned the first of three arrests had been made in connection with the 2006 murder of 18-year-old Jarret Clark of Broken Arrow, Okla. The news was satisfying, because it appears it will bring closure to those close to the case about which I had kept details (i.e., guest writer Carrie Fatigante's six-part series about his murder, Whatever Happened to Jarret Clark?) posted online for more than four years.
During the next several months, strange things — think Sony and North Korea — began happening at BobMcCarty.com. As a result, I lost the vast majority of my site's content — more than 5,000 posts written and published during almost eight years online. As a result, I found myself facing the prospect of starting over from scratch.
Without getting into the oh-so-painful details which I'm not willing to share, I posted this message:
As I approach the eighth anniversary of my online presence, I've decided to change directions in a substantial way — that is, I'm moving away from writing on a daily basis on these pages.
In addition to losing content, my site — which once ranked #82 on the list of top conservative websites and generated more than 55,000 visits per month by more than 31,000 unique visitors per month — tumbled into relative obscurity in terms of site traffic as measured by Alexa. FYI: On this playing field, much like in golf, a lower score is a better.
Among the small handful of people with whom I shared specifics about the site's mad-made issues, some suggested I call out those many suspected were responsible. Though I was tempted to point the blame at Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., the nation's top intelligence official whose face and name appear on the cover of my second nonfiction book, The Clapper Memo (May 2013), I had two reasons to opt otherwise: first, I could not pinpoint him with certainty; and, second, I lacked a forum for doing it effectively. Therefore, I abandoned the approach described in the blue-highlighted paragraph above and focused on returning the site to its former glory. The fact that the site had suffered no serious issues after moving to the new hosting company gave me reason for hope.
To reach my former-glory objective while also finishing work on my third book and first crime-fiction novel, The National Bet (November 2014), I divided my time between writing books and writing posts, with much more time going to the former than the latter. As a result, I tried to be more selective in choosing non-book subjects about which to write, and I tried to provide unique and exclusive stories, including several related to the Oklahoma City Bombing Trial still going on in Salt Lake City.
In many of my posts, I tried to "kill two birds with one stone" by connecting the dots between current news and the subject matter of my first two nonfiction novels, Three Days In August (October 2011) and The Clapper Memo (May 2013). Hopefully, the stories didn't come across as sales pitches. Occasionally, I shared excerpts from my books.
Apart from writing, I made a handful of talking-head appearances, appearing on several popular radio and television broadcasts, including: Coast to Coast AM with George Noory in March; The Scott Horton Show in July; NewsmaxTV's America's Forum in August; Freedom 560 with Ken Clark in September; The Andrea Shea-King Show in November; and The Scott Horton Show again earlier this month.
By the time this year ends, I will have whittled away at my former-glory objective while also selling a few — but not nearly enough — books.
If you're wondering what 2015 holds in store for me, I can give you a few hints.
Next month, I travel to Orlando for three days to speak before a gathering of investigative professionals from across the country, most of whom work in law enforcement. Upon my return, I'll host a Los Angeles-based film crew that's coming to the St. Louis area to interview me about my second book, The Clapper Memo, for a documentary. Though I'm not at liberty to reveal the name of the outlet involved, my three sons agree that my "cool factor" will skyrocket after the documentary is made public — sometime in February.
Beyond writing, speaking and interviews, I expect to finish writing at least one new book — and possibly two — this year. Hope you'll buy 'em when they hit the market!
FYI: For those of you who wonder about such things, my site's traffic has climbed considerably during the past 12 months, but still has a long way to go. As a result, I depend heavily upon word of mouth as well as Facebook, Twitter and other social media to help me get the word out about this site and about my books so that I can pay the bills. Thanks in advance for buying my books and encouraging your friends and loved ones to do the same! To learn how to order signed copies, click here.
This entry was posted in Year In Review and tagged 2014, 2014 'Most Unusual Year I've Experienced' Online, 2014 Year in Review, America's Forum, Andrea Shea-King, Bob McCarty, Clapper, Coast to Coast AM, Director of National Intelligence, Director of National Intelligence James R Clapper Jr, documentary, England, Freedom 560 with Ken Clark, George Noory, intelligence, James Clapper, James L Chapman, Jarret Clark, kill two birds with one stone, law enforcement, lawsuit, McCarty, Most Unusual Year I've Experienced Online, National Association of Computer Voice Stress Analysts, Newsmax, NewsmaxTV, North Korea, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City Bombing, Oklahoma City Bombing Trial, Orlando, Salt Lake City, Scott Horton, Sony, South Carolina, The Andrea Shea-King Show, The Clapper Memo, The National Bet, The Scott Horton Show, Three Days In August, Top 100 Conservative Websites, top conservative website, voice stress, wedding, Whatever Happened to Jarret Clark, Year in Review on December 23, 2014 by admin.