Monday, January 6, 2020

Best Nine 2019 for the Reds

Jenn McKinlay: A couple of years ago, I started following the hashtag #bestnine on Instagram. It's basically a collage of the nine most liked photos in an Instagrammer's feed. I loved it, so this year
I convinced the Reds to collect their top nine, so we could share them with you. In no particular order, here they are:


@jungleredwriters I think T-bone is an official RED!

@hankpryan Our woman of action!
@deborah.crombie Flowers and books - perfection

@authorrhysbowen The top middle one makes me LOL!!!


 @hallie.ephron Our scholar. Also, the snow pictures kill me! Brrr.


 @lucyburdette CAKE!!! Also, hairnet!!!

@mckinlayjenn A donut as big as my head!


We're working on getting our Julia onto Instagram, so you'll have to wait until next year to see her #bestnine! How about you, Readers? Do you do Instagram? If so, what's your handle? We'll look for you! Also, even if you don't have Instagram, what's your best moment of 2019? Mine was most def the donut as big as my head! 



83 comments:

  1. Love all the pictures! Thanks for sharing them . . . .

    No Instagram here . . . .
    Best moment of 2019? Walking a labyrinth with my sister, Jean . . . .

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    1. The labyrinth was set up in the fellowship hall of the church. It’s a single path, designed to be easy to walk; its purpose is to facilitate prayer or meditation. We walked the prayer labyrinth just before Easter . . . .

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  2. I'm on Instagram as carstairs38. And I've actually started using it this year.

    So, how do you get the collage to create itself? Or do you have to do the work yourself?

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    1. Google “best nine” and https://www.bestnine.co/ should come up that will do your top nine for free :) or you can download an app called top nine for a small fee :(

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    2. Got mine. Looks like my posts of Hallmark Mystery movie posters are very, very popular.

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  3. That donut! I'm on as @MaddieDayAuthor and @EdithMaxwellAuthor.

    Also - what Mark asked.

    Best moment of the year had to be this last Christmas, with both my sons and my d-i-l home at the same time. Otherwise - my sixth Agatha nomination? My 19th book published? My first short story acceptance in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine? Those are high on the list, LOL.

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    1. An excellent year, Edith! For the nine - Google “best nine” and https://www.bestnine.co/ should come up that will do your top nine for free :) or you can download an app called top nine for a small fee :(

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  4. I'm on Instagram as annettedashofy. I need to get better at it. Right now most of my posts are my #KensiKitty, who is a social media darling...with a few sunsets and rainbows from my front porch thrown in.

    Seriously, is there a class for how to do Instagram? I need one.

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    1. I gave the Reds a very down and dirty Insta lesson at Bouchercon. Maybe I should do a talk at Malice. Anyone interested?

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    2. Hank here: yes yes yes, I will be your (silent) assistant!

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  5. Oh, what fun to see the Top Nines! I’m not active on Instagram, but my 2019 highlight was delivering a successful 4-part workshop with a friend on Writing as Tool for Transformation — we sold out! (Only 16 spots, but still a definite high.).

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  6. on my cellphone I'm margarethamiltonauthor.
    on my laptop I'm margaretshamilton
    on the desktop where I store my photos I'm margaretshamiltonauthor
    I don't understand how or why this happened. I have ONE Facebook account (well, two, personal and professional) across all devices.
    Travel photos receive good reviews, as do food photos. Garden and flower photos in season.
    I don't use hashtags. What is an easy way to start?

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    1. that must be so confusing! are these 3 separate accounts?

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    2. Yes, but some of them are linked. I asked my social media daughter over Xmas and she just shook her head and laughed. Jenn, what's the deal with hashtags? Do I make them up? Is there a directory, like standard poodles of instagram?

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    3. You can follow hashtags on Insta that’s why people like them. For example, I follow #orchids so I can have plant envy but also learn. So, yes, you can make them up, start a trend, use them as a search tool, find your people, etc.

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  7. I am not on Instagram nor will I ever be.

    Best moment? I guess it depends on which direction I want to go. Getting to meet all the different authors. Hank giving me a shoutout (that I have the video of) at her signing appearance in Plainville, MA.

    Music related best moment is easy though...getting to meet and take a picture with German metal singer Doro Pesch! If you look at my Facebook page, it's my profile pic.

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    1. Never say never, Jay! You could be “Comic book guy” with a massive following, just sayin’ ;-)

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    2. Lucy, yes there was a lot to choose from this year in regards to meeting authors and musicians.

      Jenn, NEVER. I'm not adding another social media thing. I've got enough with Facebook and Twitter. And I'm nowhere near being able to call myself Comic Book Guy considering some of my online comic friends.

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  8. I’m not on Instagram, so glad to see these collages here. My best photo moments would probably be when I visited Switzerland with my sister last summer, especially when we met up with an old friend now living in Zurich!

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  9. This is so much fun to see! And somehow those top nine’s really do grab our essences… How does that happen?
    And don’t forget to come follow @jungleredwriters !

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    1. I'm always fascinated by other people's photos. Always have been. I love going to antique stores and digging through old pictures, trying to figure out people's stories from their expressions. Insta was made for me. More pics less chatter :)

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    2. Hank here: oh, such good stories that we may never know...and so fascinating!

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  10. Great fun to see all of your favorite photos. I had to laugh with Rhys about the English teacher - author silliness. Yep, the curtains were blue!
    I'm with Jay, there won't be any Instagram here, I waste enough time on social media.
    Best moment of 2019...our wildlife viewing trip to Scotland last spring was outstanding with lots of great photos, but the last weekend of 2019 my 2 year old grandson snuggled up to me and said, "I love you, Grandma." I can't top that!

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  11. I'm on Instagram as @lizmilliron. My photos are mostly of Koda, another social media darling.

    If you go to https://topnine.co/ and enter your Instagram handle, you'll get your Top 9 most liked photos. I think there's an app to send to to Instagram, but I just took a screen shot and posted that.

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  12. No Instagram here but I did enjoy seeing all of your pictures! Maybe now that i have a smart phone I might try posting some of my own.

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  13. I'm on no social media.
    So many good moments in 2019 but if I posted a picture, it would one of an Owl Butterfly on my knee. It was while visiting Butterfies in liberty at the Botanical Garden of Montreal with my daughter and s-i-l last spring . We saw so many kinds of butterflies. So Magical !

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    1. They are magical, Danielle! I used to volunteer at the butterfly center of our natural science museum. The butterflies like sunny days and bright colors!

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    2. Love it! I've planted lots of butterfly and bee friendly bushes in my yard because I love when they visit. Although, I've never understood why they're called butterflies instead of flutterbys. You know?

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  14. No instagram here either. I thin JRW may be the closest to Instagram that I come. I need a primer too. Don't understand hashtags; are they useful? But my best moment? Need to add an S. Attaining 50 years of marriage together is wonderful, and in view of Victors age, even more special. Ok, full disclosure, my husband is 93, in good health despite the 7 or so pills he pops daily and has as many marbles going as most of us. We didn't travel other than relatively locally, but gave ourselves some spe+ails which was topped by Cirque du Soleil on ice. So gorgeous.

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    1. Wow, 50 years is FANTASTIC! Congratulations. So glad you treated yourselves to a social show.

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  15. I have an instagram account but never use it.

    In a year of lowlights, the highlight has to be the early Thanksgiving dinner with all my children and their spouses and all my grandchildren, outside on a 15 foot picnic table by a lake. There were sixteen of us altogether, the weather was perfect and we got a family picture. This is the first time everyone has been in the same place at the same time in years.

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    1. That sounds wonderful, Ann. I'm so glad you had such precious time together.

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  16. I have an Instagram account, but I think you have to be more of a visual storyteller to really get into it. I mostly stick with words. My top moments for 2019 were publishing my first fiction, followed swiftly by getting to guest here on Jungle Red Writers. Bouchercon was another highlight, where I got to meet nearly all of you and make Julia laugh out loud. And then there was that wonderful moment when a kitten decided I was her new best friend and adopted me. It was a pretty good year.

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    1. May 2020 be even more epic for you, Gigi!

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    2. The kitten would make great Insta fodder - just sayin'.

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  17. Wonderful #bestofnine! Yes, you have to be more of a visual storyteller to really get into Instagram. My Instagram is mainly about books. I do not have enough room on my iPhone for the bestofnine app, so I put the 12 most liked posts of the year in my stories. I put the most liked post of the month for each month. A few of the most liked were my favorites. Some of my favorites got maybe 30 likes instead of 84 likes. LOL.

    My top 2019 moments included travelling to Canada with my Mom for the Left Coast Crime conference.

    My instagram handle is wonderwomandbookish.

    Diana

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    1. You have a wonderful Insta account Diana - I always look for your book pics.

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    2. That is a wonderful compliment! You made my day! Thank you, Jenn!

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  18. Oh, this looks like so much fun! Great pix, everyone. Alas, I am not an instagramer. Perhaps Julia and I can learn together.

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    1. Yes, Julia needs a buddy and you can have a buddy system! LOL.

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    2. Hank here: Insta buddies! Brilliant! It could be a thing!

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  19. These are SO MUCH FUN!
    Kait, Instagram is a pain but fun... A lot to unlearn if you're a blogger or facebook-er.

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  20. Following all of you now who gave us your Instagram handle...

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  21. I don't do Instagram but I certainly enjoyed all of yours this morning. What fun. Thank you

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  22. I have the lamest Instagram account ever: maslowskikaren It has a few photos from a couple years ago, but I can never remember how to add more.

    My cell phone is too old and has too little memory to add another memory-hogging program, but we are getting new phones soon, and I hope to be able to finally figure out how to post photos on Instagram.

    The best thing that happened to us in 2019 was to move into our new home. And to celebrate my husband's 70th birthday with our whole family, under our new roof.

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    1. Karen, Instagram is fun. Although I'm still not up to par on the fancier stories. Working on it this year!

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    2. I enjoy following others, just have not been able to add anything to my own account. It's not an easy platform, in my opinion.

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    3. That sounds like a wonderful year, Karen!

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  23. There were so many bests in 2019. Finishing my book!!! Book pub! Bouchercon! London! But the thing that keeps popping up in my mind is visiting Paul McCartney's house in Liverpool. That really was a moment.

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    1. Is that the house they showed when he was on carpool karaoke? Would love to go there

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  24. I have an Instagram account (chrisryan14414) that I set up to follow my nieces, some book-related accounts and zooborns (I love zooborns!). I think I've posted once but I think I'll use it more this year. Best thing from 2019? Visiting France for the first time.

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  25. No Instagram here. I'm afraid Facebook is already too much of a time killer. Best moment last year? Not sure. Travel is always good. Meeting people at Bouchercon was also great. Maybe just getting away to my sister's place out in the country this last time. No responsibilities. No reporting in to anyone. Just relaxing and enjoying ourselves between trips to restaurants, shopping, reminiscing, taking the Gator around the pasture trying to find the latest item one of her horses shucked off.

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    1. Travel is always good! And I really like "no responsibilities". Sign me up!

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  26. Shalom Reds and fans. Sorry this is so late in the day. My handle on Instagram is ruach36. Ruach is the Hebrew word for breath, wind or spirit. 36 is number of righteous souls who are in the world at any given time who keep the channel of God’s blessing on the world open. Lamed and vov are the Hebrew letters which are used to signify 36. And as a word, it means “to him”.

    I started posting pictures in January 2016. But not so much in my first months on the site. They are all pictures taken or captured with my smartphone. I frequently borrow photos from all sorts of sites. My favorite image, that I took, is of a choir director of a local high school choir. He is surrounded by his students in the center of the Mercer Museum here in Doylestown, PA. It is almost Christmas and the museum has a free open house every December. This shot was taken in 2018. Many of the singers are wearing red and white Santa’s hats and the director is wearing a Christmas red scarf and his black overcoat. He is looking upward into the camera with his left hand raised and his right hand poised to follow, as if praising or praying to God. He is actually looking to the balcony where other singers and instrumentalists are singing and playing. His face radiates joy. I should have the photo blown up and framed. (And find out his name.)

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  27. Not on Instagram as I spend enough time on Facebook and various websites. I like to see the pictures, though. My college Literature teacher must know Rhys' English teacher. How was I to know that a man giving a woman half a chicken salad sandwich meant they were having sex? What happened when he gave her a whole sandwich?

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  28. I'm on Instagram @gayyellen. Just started in 2019. I find it easier and quicker to use than Facebook, though I'm far from pro level at it. Thanks for the "best nine" info. It was fun taking a look back.

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  29. I'm on Instagram @donamaekutska never heard of best nine. I'm not too good at Instagram but I'm trying.

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  30. I'm on as robin.y.retzler. I don't post much, but have resolved to TRY to this year! LOL!

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