What's in a Wiki?

Happy Anniversary to us! As you know, this blog was created to promote international Christian fiction. I've recently gone back through every single blog post we've written, and wow, we've talked about a lot of books in this genre! And...I know we've only touched the tip of the iceberg.

Let me introduce you to our new wiki. What's a wiki, you might ask? I'm sure you're familiar with Wikipedia, which is the world's best known wiki, or searchable database. But did you know that 'just anyone' can build their own wiki for whatever purpose they want?

So...we built one to help readers find international fiction. At first our new wiki may seem difficult to maneuver. It's not set up for browsing, per se. More for searching. So let me give you a brief tutorial on how you might use this site.

Searching for Reading Material

1. Click on this link. It's set to open the wiki in a new tab or window. Why don't you bookmark the page for future visits?

2. See the Search this workspace bar in the top right corner of the wiki page? You can type in anything you like, and if the word is a named page, it will show up. Or...even if it just a word ON a page. Try it. Type in the name of a country. If I've already entered a novel set in that country, it should show up! Ditto for publishing house, genre, etc.

3. Down the right sidebar is a section called Navigator. You'll see a 'file folder' for each author whose international novels I've already entered into the wiki. Click on one, and you'll see the book titles that are in that author's folders. (Please note that I've only included international novels!) Click on one of these to open a new page with more detail about the novel, including an image of its cover.

Entering More Authors/Books

If you're either an author who lives outside of the USA or an author who has published Christian novels set outside the USA, please:

1. Check to see if I've created a page for you. If yes, is it accurate? Check your book pages. Are they accurate? If not, please email me at valerie at valeriecomer dot com with corrections. Put 'ICFW wiki' in the subject line.

2. If there is no page, but you or your novels qualify, please email me at the above address with the following information and attachments:
1. Your image file
2. Your brief bio

For each qualifying novel, please send one email with the following:
1. The book cover image file
2. Title
3. Publisher
4. Copyright year
5. Genre
6. Series (and number) if applicable
7. Author's Country
8. Setting
9. Brief blurb for the novel
(One email per novel will help me keep all the information straight and enter it more efficiently.)

I'm happy to add more authors and their international books to this wiki, and, in fact, know my job isn't anywhere near done yet. It will make things so much easier for me if you're not shy and just send me the information I need! It will save me from searching the web and using an inaccurate bio or outdated photo, for example.

How can you use this wiki to promote Christian international fiction on your own blog? Steal our sidebar widget. It looks like the image below. Here's the code--just copy and paste it into an html widget spot in your own dashboard:


<a href="http://internationalchristianfiction.pbworks.com/w/page/Home"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwr7GAkJOOmcw-geXC7ULxjHs91FRq-EEeHWvZRLRD4kNYq4JPuZ6XzooP7iTUvN9RjYW01IXcSioplgCldM18qb0eNiiTUiAS94qcm519YVTENrSh5blm8DOTNUwLpYIBNpEcgnLhkSk/s800/icfwglobe2.jpg" width="160/" /></a>

Let's get the word out about this new resource!

Valerie Comer writes contemporary romance set in British Columbia, Canada, as well as fantasy set in uncharted dimensions. Her day job is split between flooring sales and writing. She lives on a small farm with her husband, an energetic dog, two psycho kittens, several hives of bees, and a herd of Herefords. Sometimes she even pretends to be a wee bit techy, but it's a facade. Visit her website and blog to find out more about the various writing projects she has in progress.