tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38577758269784461872024-02-07T11:26:05.396-08:00Mikki Sadil: The Word PainterPainting a story world for kids and teens, one word at a time.Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.comBlogger237125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-34274777064634356802015-09-28T13:35:00.002-07:002015-09-28T13:35:10.844-07:00Critique Groups<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Today I'm talking about critique groups. A funny thing happened on the way to the forum...er, no, actually it was in an email. ( Apologies to whoever the Greek God was who made that statement.) A friend asked me, "Why are you looking for a critique group? You are published. Four times published. What could a critique group tell you about writing that you don't already know?"</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Ahem. Obviously, said friend is not a writer. I do not know everything there is to know about writing. Although...I do know a couple of people who are published and do <em>think</em> they know everything. Their books belie their knowledge.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"> </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">On the other hand, my manuscripts are far from perfect. No matter how many times I edit and revise, they are far from perfect. If they were perfect, I wouldn't need to have them edited by an editor with my publisher, now would I?</span></strong><br />
<br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"> In 2008, I started a group myself. It was an online group, with seven other women writers who were spread all over the US, and one was in South Africa. We all worked really well together, although over time several dropped out and we replaced them with other writers. Then, last year I was really busy with my own editing, as well as some problems with the publisher I was with at that time, so I withdrew from my own group. It was time, for several reasons.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">So now, I'm looking for a new group. So far, I've been invited to two new groups. One was about 5 weeks ago, and was pretty much a disaster. We met at Starbuck's for an hour, which was their habit, and it was fun to get to know a little about these 4 people. Then we went over to the library for the real meeting. Critiques? Well...I suppose you could call them that, with a little bit of imagination. Or maybe a LOT of imagination.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">One lady to another lady: "Oh, I just love this story. You have so many wonderful metaphors mixed in it, like this one about the octopus and the congealed dancers. That is just so good!!!"</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Say what? 'Octopus and congealed dancers?' Hmm...if you know anything about me, you have a pretty good idea of what I said in response. </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Then there was the young girl who used the F-word in every sentence, no matter how benign the rest of the sentence was. When I told her editors probably would not like that at all, since there was no real reason for using that word so much, she politely shook her head, and said, "Well, that's the way this character talks, so it will be fine." Ohhhkay. That was only one of the ways she expressed her displeasure with my critique as we went along. That one pretty much didn't go so well.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Actually, none of them went well. These people did not want to be critiqued on plot, characterization, development of internal/external conflict, ( the lone man asked what I meant by internal conflict), dialogue...well, you get the picture. No one wanted to be told he or she needed work on anything. So, no more of that group.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">The next group I was invited to met at one of the ladies' homes. Before I went, I sent them each a long email in which I told them a little about myself, and my writing and publishing history. Then I listed the 10 elements of writing that I critiqued on: plot, characterizations, etc. etc. etc. I wanted them to know ahead of time what I would be looking for, and commenting on. I figured I was giving them enough time to read it, think about their own writing, and then see if they still wanted me to come to the meeting. Apparently, they did, so I went.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Hmm...well, the same young girl with the F-word vocabulary was also there, but she had cleaned up the pages she wanted looked over. There was one youngish man, with kids he had to pick up from school in 2 hours...a single father?...don't know that for sure. The other lady ( yes, with me there are only 4, and that's not a good number for a critique group) had a story of 19 pages so far, and 9 1/2 of those were nothing but narration. No dialogue, no action, no nothing except "telling." When I mentioned that, as tactfully as possible, she told me that she had sent this story in to a contest with 4 agents as the judges, and none of the agents had anything to say about "telling." Obviously, none of the agents was an editor...or maybe not even agents? Anyway, neither this lady nor the gentleman nor the young lady had even the slightest notion what the concept of "show, don't tell" meant.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">So now I am faced with a dilemma. I can continue to go back to this group, and spend my 2 1/2 hours with them twice a month trying to TEACH them how to write, and get little or nothing in return, as far as their "critiques" go, or I can once again go on the prowl for a new group.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">My problem is: where do I look? I belong to the only writers/authors organization in my entire county...which is very small...and these are two of the groups that are touted on their website. So my choices are very limited. </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">What do you think at this point in your writing/publishing life about critique groups? Do you think you are beyond them? The major problem I have is that while I believe I can do better with having a group, I can't do better if the people there don't have the same level of expertise I have, or better yet, are above my level. So far, these groups are far below me, and while that sounds very egotistical, it isn't. People who don't know how to use metaphors, and who don't know what the basic concept of "show don't tell" means, are not going to be of any help to me.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">And I don't have the time to babysit them. I don't mean that to be harsh, it's just the way it is. Or as the kids say today...It is what it is.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Well, I'm still looking, and not holding out much hope. Most of the other groups in this organization are held 35 or more miles from me, and that's just too far. Maybe I'll try to form an online group again, but frankly, the idea of a face-to-face, one-on-one group really intrigues me, so I guess I'll just keep looking.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Are you in a critique group? If not, why not?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Think about it.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">That's a wrap.</span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-54233954287300676372015-09-17T12:36:00.002-07:002015-09-17T12:36:42.080-07:00Thoughts on Life<strong><span style="color: #351c75;"></span></strong><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><strong>I am sitting on the patio, caught up in </strong><strong> memories, at the moment all bad. It seems like so many things, big and small, have come our way since January 28th, of this year. The day my son died. It was almost like an omen, a bad one in some way. Jeff would have laughed at that, then gotten serious and said something like, "Mom, if I was going to be an omen for you, it sure wouldn't be a bad one." How true.</strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><strong>Still...about six weeks later, we have our last appointment with the orthopedic surgeon who had made such a serious error in judgment with my husband's surgery 2 years ago. He tells us at this appointment in March that, yes, the hip prosthesis has slipped again, his left leg is now 1 and 1/2 inches shorter than his right leg, </strong><strong>but there's nothing he can do about it. With that remark, he leaves the room. Period. Doesn't say goodbye, kiss my foot, go to...you know where...nothing. Just leaves. Both our lives have been changed drastically, Richard will be in a walker for the rest of his life, but this man doesn't even say "I'm sorry," he just leaves.</strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Three weeks later, we have to have our beloved African Grey parrot put to sleep. She had a stroke a year ago, and is now having small seizures. She can no longer talk...she had a fantastic vocabulary, would even answer questions you asked her...but now the time has come to send her over the Rainbow Bridge, where once again she could fly high and be without pain. We had her for over 20 years, from just 4 months old. I still cry when I look at her pictures.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Other little things keep coming up. Not drastic, but not good. I am looking at Jeff's picture and trying to keep the tears away. I keep hearing this little "tweet, tweet, tweet" in my head. I ignore it.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Suddenly this little bird hops on the table. He looks at me, then hops up on my laptop.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">"Hey, hold on there. What are you doing on my computer? Get off, now!"</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">"No, I don't think so. I like it here. What are all these little squares for that you have your fingers on?"</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">"Never mind. Get off. Where did you come from, anyway? And why am I talking to you? As to that, why are you talking at all?"</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">"Well, I kept trying to get your attention with my tweets. You were ignoring me, so I thought I'd better come out and talk to you."</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"> </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">"Look, I don't know who you are or why you are here. I am having a pity party, I am enjoying it, and I want you to go away. I can't have a pity party with something like you around."</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">"A pity party? My goodness, that's sounds awful. Why are you sad? You may as well answer me, because I'm not going away."</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">"Because my son died. Because I had to put my parrot to sleep. Because our lives have changed so much. Is that reason enough?"</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">"Well, yes it is. But why don't you think about the positives instead of the negatives? You know...the four books you have published. The fact that your husband is still on his feet and not in a wheelchair. The fact that he can still walk, now that he has his shoe lift. The fact that some people have asked you to help them edit their writings before they submit to a publisher. The fact that you have a contract for four more books. The fact that you are in relatively good health for such an old lady. The..."</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">"Just wait one minute, bird! What do you mean, 'such an old lady'? I am not old, I just have lived a long time."</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">"See? That's what I mean. That's a positive, isn't it? You don't consider yourself old, just that you have lived a long time. A very long time."</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">"All right, that's enough. Just shut up. I get the message. Now fly away, fly away home...or somewhere. Just quit bothering me. And don't...ugh! Couldn't you have waited to poop until you got to a tree? Now I've got to clean it up. Thanks a lot."</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">"Ha Ha. At least, I didn't do it on your computer. So long for now. The next time I tweet inside your head, you better listen to me, or I'll come visit again."</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">The bird is gone. I think about what he said, and he's right. Time to stop whining, to start thinking about all that is good and right and positive in my life.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><strong>I don't think I am alone in this. "This" being getting caught up in the negatives, and not finding, not trying to find, the positives in our lives. </strong><strong>Too many times our lives take a downward turn, and it takes a long time to start seeing the upside of what we have left. Maybe all of us need a 'little bird' to come along and give us a poke or two...or poop to clean up...to jar us out of that pity party mood, and get back to life.</strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">The above scenario happened back during the early summer. At the time, Jeff had been gone for only 4 months, Shadow for less than two, and it still seemed overwhelming. But I have learned to grieve in my own way, but still focus on the positives in my life. And there are many. Now the time has come to get busy with that new book...or books. I still can't make up my mind about writing the sequel to <em>The Freedom Thief</em> first, or the second book in the <em>Beneath the Possum Belly </em>trilogy.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">About that little bird: I don't know where he came from. Sometimes my Muse runs off at the mouth, and takes different forms. But for whatever reason, he became a beacon that day, and shone a light down a path I had almost forgotten about, so I am grateful to him...or her...or... whatever. I sincerely hope that all of you have just that kind of "little bird" when the going gets tough, and you need to focus on the positive, instead of the negative. No matter how hard that might be.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Think about it.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">That's a wrap.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #351c75;"></span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-23162233538225294572015-09-02T08:19:00.001-07:002015-09-02T08:43:12.095-07:00The Conflict Between Ebooks and Print Books<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Most of us have ebook readers, the Amazon kindle, the Barnes and Noble Nook, an iPad, or whatever. I have a Kindle, and four or five years ago, when my husband gave me my first one, I was excited to be able to have a cluster of my favorite, unread, books that I could even carry around with me. But over time, my excitement has greatly diminished. For one thing, Amazon keeps changing the Kindle, and mine started dying. No amount of battery charging, pleading or even saying a few unkind words would wake it up. To make a long story shorter, I've had three Kindles, and now never use it. I've always preferred print books, and always will. Maybe carrying around a couple hundred novels in my purse isn't such an important thing, after all. </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">But what has the ebook industry, which, admittedly, bloomed quickly and increased rapidly, done to children's reading and comprehension? Let's take a look at some of the recent statistics put out by Scholastic, the most important analyst of reading behaviors in children from preschool through high school.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">In 2010, 32% of school age boys read for fun an average of 5 to 7 days a week. This was after-school reading, and weekend reading. In 2014, only 24% of school age boys read anything for fun, meaning not required as part of school studies, and seldom read on the weekends. This was reading ebooks and print books.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">In 2010, only 24% of teens, boys and girls alike, from 15 to 17, read for fun/entertainment, regardless of whether it was ebooks or print, and by 2014, that percentage was down to 14%.</span></strong><br />
<br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">It was found that the most powerful predictor of reading behavior was not based on the usage of computers, TV, video games, etc., but was based on: 1) whether they believed it was important to read; 2) whether they enjoyed reading; and 3) whether their parents were readers, and/or encouraged them to read. All three predictors were extremely low.</span></strong><br />
<br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Another important point in this study was the Common Core Standards, which schools throughout the US are now required the follow. The CCS steers kids in all grades towards reading NON-FICTION, and emphasizes that reading FICTION for fun is not important.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">In 2012, the number of children in grades 5 through 12 preferring ebooks for reading outside of school assignments was 57%, but in 2014, that had dropped to 35 %.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">What is driving this decline? Were there more ebooks out in 2010 - 2012, thus it was more of a novelty effect? The Kindle was new, the Nook was even newer. Ebooks are also much cheaper than print books, whether paperback or hard cover. It has always been easier and less expensive for parents to buy 2 or 3 ebooks, for the same price as one paperback. But is money the real issue, or is it something else?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">The publishing industry is facing similar questions, as analysts discuss whether the rate of ebooks has already hit its peak, and if it is, will the slowing down of ebook sales force the industry to face some painful decisions.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">But there is more to this question than sales, especially when it comes to kids. The comprehension level of children reading ebooks drops considerably when compared to reading print books. They are much more easily distracted, and therefore, understand much less of what they have read. Researchers used eye-tracking software to show that paper books are read slowly and comprehensively line by line, but when kids read ebooks, they are so easily distracted by the outside world, they have to go back and read the same lines or paragraphs over 2 and 3 times to obtain the same comprehension level.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Distraction is a big thing in ebooks, both for kids and for adults. After all, there is the signal for new incoming email, another signal for private messages from friends, still another for status updates, and so on. Even adults scored much lower in reading comprehension when reading an ebook against reading the same book in print. </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Another problem was the matter of marking a page to remember something important from that page. With a print book, you grab a highlighter and mark the passage, or a pen to make comments in the margin, or as a last resort, you can ever dog-ear the page. None of those simple and easy methods apply with an ebook. First, you have to find the right tool to either highlight or make a comment, then you have to know, or learn, how to use that tool before you can properly apply it. By then, kids especially have often lost the page, and with no page numbers on an ebook, it takes a while to go back and find what you want to mark. Time has passed, kids and usually adults, too, have lost interest in whatever it was, and the page goes unmarked, and usually, unremembered.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">So, what is the answer? If you have one, you'll probably earn millions! It is something for the publishing industry to ponder on, and eventually work out, but for this industry, the conflict remains monetary. For kids in school, it will always be a matter of learning, of concentration, of comprehension...all the most important elements in education. Reading for fun? That's important, too, and still remains an issue for parents and educators alike.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Think about it.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">That's a wrap.</span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-17290398159890293632015-08-26T07:57:00.001-07:002015-08-26T07:57:26.255-07:00The Importance of Research<strong><span style="color: #e69138;">How many times as a writer have you heard the phrase, "write what you know"? One of the main reasons for this line of thinking is that if you are familiar with something to its very core, you'll convey it more smoothly to the reader. Well, that's true, well and good, but what about writing historical stories?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;">As a writer, you have an implicit contract with your readers. They give you their time, attention, and their money. You promise to give them, in return, entertainment, information, and perhaps even a new idea or two. But as an historical writer, you have an additional promise, and that is to sweep your readers back in time and take them to a world they may not have known even existed.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;">To do this, you must know the world you are writing about inside and out. Every little detail in your story must be historically correct, and in order to do this, you must RESEARCH. Now, many beginning writers will say, "Well, this is fiction, after all. I don't need to know every little detail. I can make it up as I go along, and no one is going to know." Uh uh. Mark my words, <em>someone is going to know. </em></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;">No matter how far back in time and history you go, some of your readers are going to be well-versed in it. Galileo didn't carry around a kerosene lantern because kerosene didn't exist then. Benjamin Franklin didn't zip up his breeches because zippers hadn't been invented yet. Little things no one will notice? Wrong! It's the little details like this that will hurt you, turn your readers off, and lead you into the biggest bear trap facing writers of historical fiction--anachronism.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;">Your research should fall into three categories: historical events, subplots, and lifestyles. What events shaped the years you are interested in? Was it a catastrophic event like the Civil War? Was it the way women were thought of and treated in the 16th and 17th centuries? By all means, use the dramatic events of the era in the story, but don't forget to look for the more obscure events or a new perspective just coming to light in those days. They could add the drama and even mystery to your story that you are looking for.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;">Now look for the subplots that can add to your plot, or help you develop a major or even a new character. If you do your research properly, and really dig into the history of the era, you can find things like a law against tinkers in Ireland that could provide you with a whole new plot device. Finding an old photograph of a man with a pet bear in a gold camp could suggest a new character to develop, or perhaps give you an idea of a new depth to add to your main character . The point is, the more research you do, the deeper you dive into the morass of history, the more little details you will find that will add to your story, illuminate some aspect of the story, and add historical authenticity to it as well.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;">The most difficult and time-consuming area of research concerns the lifestyles of the people in the era you are writing about. This is also a most important area. How did people live in those days? How did they dress, men, women, and children? ( Don't forget about the zipper incident ! ) What modes of transportation did they use, what businesses were they in, how did they cook their food? What foods did they eat? Don't forget that refrigeration is a modern invention, and that cook stoves didn't exist the way they do today.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;">When it comes to this type of research, sit down and write out what <em>your</em> lifestyle is, in terms of eating, cooking, cleaning house, wearing clothes, working, getting from one place to another, and so on. These are the things you need to look for in your research, because they are the important details of an historical story, so do your research extensively. Don't fall into that bear trap!</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;">One more thing: speech. Dialogue is such an important part of any story, and you need to get the speech patterns of that era correct. Use the expressions people of that era used, but don't overdo it. People aren't going to talk like they do today, but at the same time, you don't want to have your characters speaking in so much regional dialect that readers can barely understand what they are saying. Be correct in the expressions and colloquialisms that people of past eras used, but don't over-burden your characters' dialogue with them.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;">Remember that every era has attitudes, philosophies, and activities that were specific to that day and time, so look upon your research as something that is necessary but can also be a treasure hunt that will give you color, excitement, and authenticity to your story.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;">Think about it.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;">That's a wrap.</span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-43047477144793343532015-08-15T11:43:00.000-07:002015-08-15T11:43:34.012-07:00The Positive Side of Rejection<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><strong>The "positive" side of rejection? Oh, I can hear you now! <em>What </em>is positive about rejection? Well, let me tell you a little story. At dinner one night, one of our companions was talking about her granddaughter, and how fantastic a basketball player she had been in high school. Now that she was in college, her basketball days were behind her. "Oh?" I asked. "She didn't want to be in sports in college?" Hmm, it wasn't that she didn't want to, it was that after winning game after game in high school, she couldn't seem to achieve that same star quality in college, so she considered herself a failure, and she quit. OH. She quit.</strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">As writers. we fail a lot. Think about it. How many times do you think you have gotten that story just right, and you send it to your critique group. And it comes back with all kinds of suggestions: your characters are too one-dimensional; your narration concerning you settings is too long and too boring; you have too much telling and not enough showing. We've failed to produce the well-written manuscript that we thought we had. So, we try again. And again. Until finally, the critique group says YAY, submit that puppy!</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">So we submit. Again and again. We get enough rejection letters to paper our office. Well, those we actually get, that is. There are always those agents and editors that we wait on for a response of some kind for 8, 9 months, maybe 10, and still hear nothing. We have failed. Again and again and again.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Really? I don't think so. Failures quit. Writers don't. We just start writing, rewriting, editing, revising, again. And again. And again. Therefore, it stands to reason we are not failures. Because. Writers. Don't. Quit.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">I've heard it said that the pathway to publication can be compared to today's freeways. What do you find on a busy freeway? Traffic. Road blocks because of traffic. Bumps in the road because of traffic. Signs telling you that this lane is closed, merge left...where all the traffic is to begin with. All of which leads to slowdowns and frustration. A lot of frustration. A lot of frustration is the major road sign leading to publication, because waiting and waiting and waiting some more, only to get a rejection or even, hear nothing, is the most frustrating and disappointing thing a writer can go through.</span></strong><br />
<br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">But we are writers, and we WILL become authors Because in order for us to succeed, we have to fail. It's the nature of the beast, and since we can't kill the beast, we learn to live with him, and </span><span style="color: red;"><em>learn from him.</em></span><span style="color: #6aa84f;"> We may have to feed him a lot more than we would like, but eventually, he's going to get full. And that's when we get that oh so treasured acceptance!</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Writers have that personality trait known as <em>sticttoitiveness...</em>and yes, that's a real word. You can call it perserverance or whatever you want, but the point is, writers keep on writing in the face of failure, because we never call failure defeat. We learn as we go, that you cannot have success without failure, so in order to have one, we must accept the other.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">General George Patton once said, "I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs, but by how high he bounces back when he hits obstacles." As writers, we're always hitting obstacles, but to finally be successful, we have to bounce back. And the higher we can bounce, the better we can write, and the sooner our success will come.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Here are a few success stories...AFTER their failures:</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: red;">Mark Cuban, <em>billionaire </em>owner of NBA's Dallas Mavericks: his parents wanted him to have a "normal" job, so he tried carpentry, but he hated it; he became a short order cook, but he couldn't cook; he waited tables but couldn't open a bottle of wine without spilling it. He says, "I've learned it doesn't matter how many times you fail. You only have to be right <em>once."</em></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: blue;">Stephanie Meyer, author of the Twilight series, made into movies: wrote the first Twilight book from a dream, and never intended to publish it until a friend encouraged her. Nine literary agents rejected her, One gave her a chance, and that led to EIGHT publishers fighting for the right to publish the book. Today she is reportedly worth $40 million.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #674ea7;">Stephen King: his first book, <em>Carrie,</em> was rejected 30 times, and after the last rejection, he threw the book in the trash. His wife rescued it and insisted he keep on trying. He has sold more than 350 million copies of his books.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;">Vincent Van Gogh: only sold one painting in his lifetime, yet he painted more than 800. Today his most valued painting is worth $142.7 million.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #741b47;">John Grisham: took 3 years to write his first book, A Time to Kill, and it was rejected 28 times before he got a "yes." Today he has sold close to 300 million of his books.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #741b47;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">If you don't try and fail, you aren't going to be able to try and succeed. And that's the "positive" side of rejection.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Think about it.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">That's a wrap.</span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-74068312436823483542015-08-05T10:51:00.000-07:002015-08-05T10:51:17.633-07:00Those Little Reversals in Life<span style="color: #0b5394;"><strong>Isn't it remarkable that most of us go through life totally unaware of the reversals that happen to some along life's journey? <em>What </em>reversals, you ask? Well, let's talk about that.</strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Role reversal is the most important one that can happen to anyone in life. On a very personal note: my son grew up into a handsome man who married a wonderful girl, had an amazing son of his own, and who expected to always take care of them. But life interfered, as it does so often, and one day, his role in the family was reversed. His wife became the caretaker of him, and of the family, until his death in January, 2015. A role reversal of the saddest kind.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">One day I was in the library, browsing among the stacks, when I heard a soft voice say,"No, Dad, that word is "running." You know the word 'run,' so just put 'ing' to it."</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Another soft voice, much deeper, said, "He wa...was run...running too far..."</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">"No, Dad, not 'too far', but it is 'too fast.' Come on, let's try it again." The deep voice: "I don't know, honey, I don't think I'll ever learn again." The sentence was spoken in bits and pieces, with pain evident in each word. </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">I'm not usually a snoop, but that day I just had to be. I had to know what was going on. I stepped quietly around a couple of bookcases, and stopped. In front of me was a round table and four small chairs, those found in the section for young children. On one of the chairs, stooped over and barely sitting on it, was a tall, thin man with his face in his hands. Sitting next to him, but on the table, was a lovely young girl of about fourteen. Dark curly hair clustered on her shoulders, and her dark eyes were filled with tears. She sat with one small hand on the man's shoulder. "Dad, you will learn again. Look how far you've come this year. I won't let you stop learning until you can read all your own books again." He raised his head and smiled at her. His dark eyes mirrored hers, complete with the tears. He wiped his face with a handkerchief, and got up, slowly and painfully. He held his hand out to his daughter, and they carefully picked their way around the other tables to the checkout counter. He held a Beginning Reader's book in his hand.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">I checked out behind them, and as I walked out, I saw the father pointing at various trees, cars, and even a rabbit who came scuttling by. He named them all for his daughter, and she was laughing and hugging him around the waist.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">I drove off, with tears in my own eyes. Teacher in reverse: daughter teaching father, and in the same loving, patient way the father had once taught the daughter.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">How wonderful. How remarkable. A reversal in life that could have been tragic, but instead, courage, patience, and love was all wrapped up in one beautiful, fourteen year old package.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Reversals in life. What remarkable thing have you seen lately?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Think about it.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">That's a wrap.</span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-10922985897202232202015-07-30T14:59:00.001-07:002015-07-30T14:59:32.040-07:00Truth in Imagination<span style="color: #38761d;"><strong>I write for kids, aged 10 to about 16 or 17. Some of my short stories and books are for Middle Grade kids, and some are for teens. I was recently asked if, while I was teaching, I got a lot of ideas for these stories from the kids themselves. Hmm. Well, no, not really. Other than a couple of years working with sexually and physically abused children, I taught at the university level, so my students were juniors, seniors, and grad students. Yeah, there were a lot of stories there, but not exactly the kind you'd want kids in middle school to read about! </strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">I've always wanted to create a world of imagination for kids, but one in which they could find some measure of <em>truth, </em>something that would ring true just for them. I want to write stories that spark the child's imagination, but also those in which the child can find a <em>Truth. </em>A truth about friendships, relationships, family life, the environment, nature, or maybe nothing more than a truth about this specific child and his or her life.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Let's look at this a different way: when you were reading a story as a kid, and it really interested and excited you, didn't you get lost in that story? Didn't you, even for a short while, imagine yourself as the hero or heroine? Did any of those stories ever make you realize something about real life? If so, isn't that a kind of "truth in imagination?"</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Several years ago, I published a short story about a young boy who, after his parents' divorce, had to go live with his father on a horse ranch. The boy hated it. He hated the horses because he was afraid of them. One night during a bad storm, the father had to go into town to get a vet for a newborn foal. He told his son that he was counting on him to get out to the pasture and keep the foal alive until he could get back with the vet. What would the boy do? Would he stay in the house, frightened of both the storm and the mare and her foal, or would he make himself go out to the pasture and take care of the foal? To a young boy reading this story, wouldn't he put himself in the character's place, and wonder what HE would do in the same situation? Would he go outside into the storm and brave an upset mare and her foal? If he did, how would he try to keep the foal alive until Dad got back? And if he simply was too scared to go outside at all, how would he feel about betraying the trust his father had put in him? How would he feel if the foal actually died before the vet could get there? The boy reads on. He finds out what the boy character did, and then he asks himself, "Is this what I would have done?"</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">The story sparks the imagination. It does more than that. It leaves a measure of truth in the reader's mind for him to figure out for himself. Is that young boy learning something from this story? Is he learning, or at least, thinking about what can happen in real life, and how that might affect him? I never intend to "teach" in the pedantic sense of that word, but I always hope I put a grain of truth into an imaginative story, and that the reader will pick up on it.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Truth in Imagination is just a concept, but in every story I've ever written, and in the three books I've had published, I have always tried to instill that concept and keep it alive and well. What about you? Have you thought about what you write, and how it will affect the child or adult you write for? Even if you have never thought of "truth in imagination" in so many words, don't you put into the imagination that makes up your stories just a little bit of truth somewhere? </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Think about it.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">That's a wrap.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-75951319282070457862015-07-25T08:34:00.000-07:002015-07-25T08:34:58.067-07:00Memories of Things Past<span style="color: #38761d;"><strong>I must be getting very nostalgic in my old age. I was putting some old pictures away in a scrap book and came across a picture of the girl I used to call my "Chinese daughter." She was Chinese, and as a kid from the age of 8 until high school graduation, she and my daughter were inseperable, which meant she practically lived at my house. She had three sisters, one older, two younger, and they all lived with their Chinese father. Her American mother came and went in their lives, and most of that time she was gone.</strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Anyway, this all brought back some really funny memories. One was of a vacation that I took the girls on to Canada. My son was in college and working in the summer, and didn't want to go on a two week trip with "all girls." My husband was busy, also, so the three of us took off.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Everything was fun and games until we got to Seattle. I had booked all our rooms ahead of time, and in what I thought were some great hotels. Hmm. The room I had booked was for three people. Well, it <em>did </em>have three beds, all lined up like in an Army barracks. ( Growing up as an "Army brat", I was quite familiar with barracks.)</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">The problem was, in order to get to the third bed, you had to literally climb over the first two. Guess who got that one. There was a closet in the far corner, opposite that infamous third bed, but in order to open the closet door, you had to push the bed out of the way. In order to do that, you had to open the room door, push the first bed sideways out the door, push the second bed over to where the first bed had been, push the third bed out of the way, and then open the closet door. So okay, we didn't need the closet after all.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">There was one window. Opposite the third bed, of course. I opened it, and tried to stick my head out to see whatever "sights" there were. Only I could have easily bumped my nose against the brick wall of the building next to us. So much for the "sights." Below was an alley. As to fresh air, that was a matter of opinion. If you didn't object to the smell of over-cooked Chinese food and burnt cooking oil, I guess you could call it "fresh" air. We kept the window closed.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Then there was the bathroom. Which, for a change, you could actually open the door to without moving all the beds. I walked in to take a shower and began laughing hysterically. It seems that the bathroom floor sank in the middle of the small room by about six inches. I thought for sure I was going to slip right through and land naked in the lobby below. When the girls got me calmed down enough for me to actually step into the shower...which was in the bathtub, and that's another story...I started in again. It seems the shower "curtain" was one of these folding screen things that did NOT stretch out to shelter the entire tub when one is taking a shower. Instead, it slid from one end of the tub to the other, but never opened up at all. So there was a space of about four inches that was contained by this so-called curtain.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">I finally stopped laughing, said "oh well," and turned the faucet on for the shower, and waited for the water to come out. And waited. And waited. When it finally turned on, it was full force, turning from hot to cold with no help from me, and getting both me and the bathroom floor completely wet. That was the shortest shower on the face of the planet. When I stepped out, it was into about six inches of water right into the hole in the floor.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">We did have a good dinner that night...it wasn't Chinese and it wasn't at the hotel. On the way up to our room, the bellboy accompanied us in the elevator. Bell<em>boy </em>? Maybe in the 19th century he had been a boy. The girls named him Iago. He was really creepy, and he was always right there, in front of our door. Before we went to bed, we pushed the one and only small dresser up against the door. We left that hotel very early the next morning, and didn't breath a sigh of relief until we were miles away!</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Canada is wonderful, beautiful, and full of fresh air! All three of us fell in love with Vancouver. Oh, and our hotel was beautiful, the room was huge, we had three beds we could actually walk between, a big closet we could open, AND no holes in the bathroom floor! </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">That first night, the girls wanted Mexican food. Really? Mexican food in Canada? Well, okay. We found a Mexican restaurant and it was really pretty. Bright colors, good smells, Mexican music playing softly ( that was a change), and lots of people. We breathed in the smells, smiled at each other, and blithely ordered chicken tacos, rice, beans, and tortillas. Now...we live in California, where Mexican food is practically a staple of our diets. I've also lived in Mexico, so I know something about GOOD Mexican food.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Our dinner was served. Hmm. The rice was coucous, not real rice, and none of us like coucous. The beans were some kind of red bean, but they looked like they were ready to hop off the table. They weren't all smooshed up like real Mexican beans are supposed to be. And there was no cheese melted on top. We just looked at each other, and I said, "Well, I'm sure the tacos will be good." Oh wow. I'm sure the chicken was at least twenty years old when they killed it. If it was even chicken. I didn't want to mention my doubts to two teen age girls, however. You know what hysteria does to a crowded room. At least, there was some lettuce in the tacos, but the rest of the filling was either corn or something that closely resembled corn. To this day, I wouldn't swear to it.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">My daughter took one bite of her taco and I thought she was going to spit corn...or whatever...all over the room. At the same time, my Chinese daughter took a bite, and promptly choked. She finally got some sips of soda down, and was all right. Good thing, as I was about to do the Heimlick manouever on her. The girls looked at me in a questioning kind of horror, so I quickly said, "Okay, don't make a big deal of this. I'll pay the check, and we'll go find some hamburgers." They were out the door before I'd picked up my purse.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Before leaving, I took a quick peek under the red-checkered napkin that covered the...tortillas. I was glad neither of them had looked.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">That's a wrap.</span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-63182935969263195422015-07-18T13:18:00.000-07:002015-07-18T13:18:16.215-07:00Words That Kill A Story<span style="color: #38761d;"><strong>Writing is all about words. As writers, we're always looking for the best way to express ourselves. We want to use the most descriptive words we can to make our story interesting, exciting, moving, inspiring, funny, or suspenseful. But sometimes, we just go overboard.</strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">We all know about those extraneous words <em>that </em>we should not be using, the ones we should cut the very first thing when we edit. Words like 'that,' 'then,' 'but', 'well,' 'and', and so on. Like the italicized word above...<em>that. </em>Wouldn't you have understood what I was saying if I had written: We all know about those extraneous words we should not be using...Of course you would. So 'that' is completely unnecessary in the sentence.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">But it's not just "extraneous" words we shouldn't be using in our writing. There are phrases writers use all the time which simply don't make sense. How many of you have read something like this: </span><span style="color: orange;">Her eyes followed him as he stormed out of the house.</span><span style="color: #38761d;"> What kind of image does that produce? A pair of long-lashed eyes bumping along the walk? Umm...really? In this sentence, there are two such images. "...he </span><span style="color: orange;">stormed </span><span style="color: #38761d;">out of the house." In my writer's mind, I can see him creating hailstorms and thunder clouds as he leaves. Is this the image you really want your readers to have?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">How about: </span><span style="color: orange;">Her eyes were consumed with passion. </span><span style="color: #38761d;">The dictionary says "consume" means to use something up in such a way it cannot be recovered. I wonder what this lady did without her eyes when her passion was over? Then there is: </span><span style="color: orange;">He claimed he was telling the truth, but his eyes said otherwise. </span><span style="color: #38761d;">Do you suppose his eyes learned to talk when he did? That should have been interesting for his parents. Or: </span><span style="color: orange;">She dropped her eyes in embarrassment. </span><span style="color: #38761d;">Poor thing! I hope she dropped them on something soft, like a bed or a thick carpet.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Here is a favorite of mine, because I've seen it in so many books: </span><span style="color: orange;">Unseeing, he looked out at the setting sun. </span><span style="color: #38761d;"> Uh, how can he "look" at anything if he can't see?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Some more favorites: </span><span style="color: orange;">Her emerald eyes mesmerized him. </span><span style="color: #38761d;">What was the rest of her body doing?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: orange;">His smoky eyes blazed with fire. </span><span style="color: #38761d;">I guess they would be smoky if they were on fire. Only...how do eyes catch on fire??</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: orange;">Her sultry voice grated on me. </span><span style="color: #38761d;">Why? Are you a piece of cheese?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: orange;">His voice came from a long distance. </span><span style="color: #38761d;">That must have been very hard on his throat. And where was the rest of his body?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: orange;">His eyes caught and held hers. </span><span style="color: #38761d;">Hmm...one pair of eyes must have been running away to have been caught by another pair. Come on! Really?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: orange;">Her heart sang with happiness. </span><span style="color: #38761d;">A very old favorite because it has been used so much. What song was her heart singing, do you suppose?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: orange;">I thought to myself. </span><span style="color: #38761d;">Excuse me? Who else would you be thinking to?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">All right, enough already. The point is, when we are editing our work, these are the kinds of words and phrases that need to be eliminated. Think about yourself before you write something: would <em>your </em>eyes drop down on the carpet just because you might be embarrassed about something? Would they be on fire, or chasing another pair of eyes down the street? I don't think so.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">You don't want to use a body part of any kind, inside or outside of your body, to be the <em>subject </em>of your sentence. It just doesn't work.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">I know, I know. This is fiction we're talking about. And these are phrases we read <em>and</em> write all the time. Usually we don't give them a second thought, but we should. These are cliches. Using a body part to express an emotion...for example, her heart sang with happiness...is so outdated. It's the kind of thing you read when you read an old time romance novel, which are full of cliches. So be careful in your edits, and if you have written something using a body part...eyes, heart, voice, a hand...as the subject of your sentence, rewrite it. Think about all the ways in which you can say the same thing, most probably much better, without using that specific part of your ( her, his) body. Don't give an editor or an agent the opportunity to consider you an amateur.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Think about it.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">That's a wrap.</span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-63831156724180329482015-07-07T22:49:00.000-07:002015-07-07T22:49:08.453-07:00The First Amendment, Social Media, and Blogs<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">To Americans, the First Amendment to the US Constitution is probably the most important one of all. That amendment grants us the freedom of speech, the freedom to say whatever we want to way, whenever we want to say it. It carries over into the freedom to <em>write </em>whatever we want to write. With a certain exception, and that is, if what we write is libelous against someone, then that is illegal. But most people don't go that far.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">In recent years, social media has become one of the most important parts of our lives, in terms of keeping in touch with friends and family, and allowing Internet strangers to get to know us, and we to know them. But social media has also become a battle ground of discrimination, politics, religion, and perhaps worst of all, bullying.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">What does the First Amendment have to do with social media? Aren't we all granted the right to say what we want , when we want, and wherever we want? What so many people don't seem to understand, and most of all, the kids who use this media so viciously, is that with "Rights" comes that <em>other "R" word, </em>"Responsibility." No matter what opinions we have about politics, religion, and people of other ethnic and racial groups, we have the Responsibility to keep our written thoughts civil. Yet, every day there is something posted on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media spots that is full of hate and self-righteous indignation about something or someone who doesn't agree with that person.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">The worst of these is the KIDS and their vicious bullying of another child or teen. How many times do we read in the papers or watch on the TV news about a kid who has killed him/herself because of the extreme bullying on the Internet by both her friends, class mates, and even other kids who don't even know her but are stirred up by others' remarks? They have NO sense of responsibility. But you know what? These kids are not to blame. Their parents are. Their parents who have not taught them the meaning of being responsible for what they say and do; parents who don't monitor what their children/teens are saying and doing on the Internet; parents who have in many instances disengaged from raising their kids, and have turned <em>that </em>responsibility over to others.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Then there are blogs. We all have blogs. You're reading one right now. How much does the First Amendment have to do with what we write on our blogs? Because we are on the Internet, a blog has no expectation of privacy, so anyone can read what we write, either by design, or because someone is just messing around on the Internet and finds a blog by mistake. Aren't we guaranteed the right to speak freely on our blogs? Can't we write about our thoughts, our opinions, anything we think or feel, on our own blogs? </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Well, yes. And no. A blog is public. Everything is out in the open for the entire world to see, regardless of whether we want it to be that way or not. We can't expect our most private thoughts, if we post them, to remain private. <em>How </em>we write, the way we say something, is also protected by the First Amendment. Or...is it? What about the politically extremist blogs, do they have the right to spew out their racially charged expletives, their lies, their vicious and venomous remarks? </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Unfortunately, that answer is yes. The First Amendment even covers that kind of offensiveness. The point is...this amendment gives us the right to say whatever we want to say, wherever we want to say it. But once again, with Rights comes Responsibility. There are so many blogs today, right along with Social Media, that abuse this right to the nth degree. Most of them do so intentionally. Just like the kids that use the Internet, both social media sites and their own blogs/websites, to carry out the intense and vicious bullying that all too often ends in the death of the one who is being bullied.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">How far can a blog go...how far will Social Media be allowed to go...before the First Amendment will no longer protect it? Or, in this country, where Freedom of Speech is the FIRST freedom we espouse, will that amendment never recant that freedom, no matter how radical or extreme...or lethal...the speech, written or spoken, becomes? Where do Rights end, and Responsibility begin?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Think about it.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">That's a wrap.</span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-79743625888005964962015-07-04T22:09:00.000-07:002015-07-04T22:09:12.988-07:00The 4th of July, 2015<span style="color: red;"><strong>Today is the Fourth of July. A happy day of celebration for most Americans; a holiday where most workers are paid to take a day of rest and relaxation. It is a day of fun, festivity, barbeques, and parades. The laughter of children will ring out over this entire country, and millions of flags displaying our colors of red, white, and blue will fly high in the breezes. Bands with spritely marching music will serenade our streets, followed by brilliantly decorated floats carrying beautiful young girls who will wave majestically to the crowds lining the streets. Handsome horses, their tack and saddles covered in bright ribbons and streamers, will prance down those same streets, occasionally leaving behind little gifts to remind people they were there.</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><strong></strong></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><strong>When the parades are over, people will leave quickly to go to the barbeques they are having with friends, family, and neighbors. Millions of hot dogs will be gobbled down this day; thousands of pounds of potato salad will be eaten, and millions of bottles of beer and soda pop will be drunk. When the barbeques are over, the band instruments put away, the floats dismantled, and the horses bedded down, everyone will go to bed happy, full, and satisfied to greet the next morning as "just another day."</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><strong></strong></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><strong>Is that ALL the Fourth of July means? How many Americans remember just WHAT this day really represents? How many teach their children that this day is more than fun and food?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><strong></strong></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><strong>The year is 1776. The British Domination of the Thirteen Original Colonies of the United States was becoming unbearable. British armies were being amassed throughout the countryside. British navies hovered off-shore.</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><strong>On March 23rd, 1776, Patrick Henry stood before the House of Commons and delivered his famous and impassioned speech about fighting for freedom before every man, woman, and child should lay supine upon the floor with a British soldier standing by. His last words of that speech should NEVER be forgotten by any American anywhere:</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><strong>I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.</strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: blue;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="background-color: white; color: red;"></span></strong><br />
<span style="color: red;"><strong>On April 18th, 1776, Paul Revere, not a fighter but a man of humble upbringing, a silversmith and an artist, was riding his horse about 11 o'clock at night towards Cambridge, when he was briefly accosted by two British soldiers. He saw what he believed, correctly, to be troops in the distance. He turned his horse and galloped back towards Lexington and Colonel John Hancock. Shortly before midnight, he burst into their camp with the news that the British were camped near Cambridge, and he believed them to be on the march towards Lexington</strong>.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"></span><br />
<strong><span style="background-color: blue; color: red;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="background-color: blue; color: red;"></span></strong><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><em><strong>The story that he came galloping down the road shouting, "The British are coming, the British are coming" is an historical myth.</strong></em></span><br />
<strong><em><span style="color: blue;"></span></em></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: blue;">It is true that shortly after that night, there was a confrontation between British and American troops near Lexington, where at one point they simply seemed to stand and stare at each other, rather than fighting. Then a single shot rang out. History has it that no one seems to know if it was a British or an American who fired that shot, but it has become known as "the shot heard around the world," as full blown hostilities began between British and American troops at that point.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: blue;"></span></strong><br />
<span style="color: red;"><strong>On July 4th, 1776, a draft of what was later adopted as the Official Declaration of Independence from Great Britain was read by Thomas Jefferson, who wrote it. The most famous words of that Declaration are as follows, and should be taught in our schools and remembered by every American now and in the future:</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<strong><em><span style="color: blue;">We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.</span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="color: blue;"></span></em></strong><br />
<span style="color: red;"><strong>The declaration was not signed by anyone on that specific day, except for John Hancock, who signed his name with such a flourish that it was 5 inches long, and has become an informal synonym for "signature."</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><strong>The original thirteen colonies of the United States, created and ruled by Britain to establish their priorities in the United States, signed that Declaration of Independence and officially declared themselves free and above the domination of Great Britain and her King. These colonies were the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia.</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: blue;">As Americans, let us truly remember just what the Fourth of July stands for, the sacrifices made in order for us to celebrate this day, and let us bring forth our happiness NOT just for the local barbeque and parade, but because, thanks to our Forefathers, we have the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: blue;"></span></strong><br />
<span style="color: red;"><strong>Until next time,</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><strong>That's a wrap.</strong></span><br />
<strong><em><span style="color: blue;"></span></em></strong><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
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Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-73270420498492793642015-04-09T08:47:00.001-07:002015-04-09T08:47:13.471-07:00<strong><span style="color: purple;">Today is the 9th of April, 2015, and I have been away from this blog since last July. I make no excuses for that, except that I do apologize for not explaining earlier.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;">My son's decline into the terrible brain disease, FrontalTemporal Lobe Dementia, became much worse over the summer. Hospice was already working with him and my daughter-in-law, and I helped out every week. Between trying to continue writing, trying to straighten out problems with my former publisher, helping to take care of Jeff, and trying NOT to neglect my husband and my home, posting to the blog seemed then to be the most unnecessary part of my life. So I let it go.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;">Jeff passed away on the 28th of January, this year. Trying to get on with our lives, trying to cope with a death we had known was coming for almost 3 years, has been a daily, and many times, an hourly struggle. That struggle has not ceased, but it is beginning to lessen just a bit.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;">I now have a new publisher, and am very happy about that. I have two books out by this publisher, one already in print, another one due out about the end of this month. And I have a 4th book in the hands of an editor, with whom I'm working now.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;">So...I think I'm back! Posting is still a time-consuming effort, but I'm going to try to post at least once a week, and twice if I possibly can. </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;">I've changed my blog a little, and as usual ( for me) I've run into problems. I'm the most technically challenged person I know when it comes to dealing with blogs or websites...which is why I don't have a website...and I've suddenly lost all my followers. Of course, after being gone for so long, I've probably lost most of them anyway, but now I've lost the "gadget" that allows people to follow me...or for me to see who they are. Plus I now have two "gadgets" on the blog that don't have anything in them...just the word gadget. It just defeats me, so guess I'll be taking my laptop into the Geeks in the next day or so.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;">Thanks for stopping by...hopefully, you stopped by LOL...and I'll be back next week with a <em>real </em>post.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;">That's a wrap.</span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-67522553549302790802014-07-30T17:12:00.000-07:002014-07-31T07:22:37.723-07:00Thursday's Thoughts: Social Media Fakes: Do You Know About Them?<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">I've been seeing a lot of people on Facebook and Twitter lately who have numerous "likes" and "followers." "Numerous" meaning in the 100s or even 1000s. Really? A newly published author has 5,000 followers in just a few months' time? More than 3,000 "likes" on her author page? Who is she kidding? Well, a lot of people, apparently. </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">A few days ago, I read a very interesting and enlightning article by David Horowitz, a prominent consumer advocate, about all the FAKES on Social Media sites. Yep, Facebook and Twitter especially.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">It seems that you can buy your Facebook and Twitter "likes" and "followers" from any number of organizations who care nothing about their fraudulent business practice. The FCC (Federal Trade Commission) is actively seeking out this growing global marketplace, but without much success. As soon as they close one down, another pops up, primarily because there are no real guidelines in place, at the moment, regarding this kind of unethical marketing.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Unfortunately, in today's world, honesty and ethics are words in few peoples' vocabularies any more, and it's all about "clout," "value", and "visibility." The growing marketing concern today is all about visibility...the more visibility you have, the more valuable your product...supposedly...and </span></strong><strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">the more money you're going to make, because more people are going to be impressed and therefore run to buy your product, watch your movie, or buy your albums and your books. Thus, "value" and "visibility" take the place of honesty and integrity, and it all comes down to How Many Likes and Followers Do You Have.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">The business of selling likes and followers is apparently quite lucrative, primarily because the business people, celebrities, singers, and authors buying these things are not at all interested in the fact that they are duping the public.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">What do you think when you go to, let's say, an author's page on Facebook, and see she/he has several thousand followers and almost as many likes. Does that make you think, WOW! this author must be fabulous! I'm going right out and buy his/her book! WHY would you think that? You know nothing about this person, and nothing about the book. So why would you think she/he is so very great, and her/his book must even top Harry Potter or Twilight? Well, of course, he or she must be absolutely awesome, otherwise, there wouldn't be so many followers and likes on this page.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Oh, really? Did you know that you can BUY 500 followers on Twitter for just $5? So 5,000 followers is only going to cost this author $50. Five thousand "likes" on Facebook only costs, according to one company, $54.99. It's a steal.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Yes, it IS a steal. It is duplicitous and deceitful. It is a business practice, both for seller and buyer, that is completely lacking in integrity and ethics. If that type of behavior doesn't bother you, then be my guest...close in on those pages and revel in someone who "really" has that kind of "following" and page "likes." Buy the product or the book or whatever. Just be aware of the fact that you are also contributing to the practice of deceit and duplicity.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">If, on the other hand, that kind of behavior is reprehensible to you, as it is to me, then stay away from those Facebook and Twitter pages, and go buy a book or a product from someone whose pages represent honesty and integrity.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;">That's a wrap.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span></strong><br />Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-22772023215119602732014-07-18T08:09:00.001-07:002014-07-18T08:09:54.571-07:00Friday's Focus: Writing A Crime Scene in a Story<span style="color: #a64d79;"><strong>Just recently,</strong> <strong>I read a mystery story by a new author, new to me and one only recently published. I was both horrified and amused by some of the descriptions of two different crime scenes in the book. Horrified because they indicated the author had not done research into police procedure and investigation, and amused because they were <em>so </em>wrong.</strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">I don't write mysteries as a rule, but my husband and I spent four years in our county's Sheriff's Department as Deputies, and we learned from Academy education and real life experience what constitutes real police procedure and investigation. So I'm going to share some of that experience, in terms of what mystery/crime writers should and should not do.</span></strong><br />
<br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="color: black;">**</span>To begin with, very few police officers and sheriffs today carry revolvers. True, they are lightweight and fire easily. But revolvers only hold six bullets, as compared to fifteen or more in semi-automatic weapons, like Glocks or Barettas. Semi-automatic weapons have clips rather than single bullets, like revolvers. Revolvers do NOT eject spent cartridges automatically, they have to be ejected by hand by rolling the cylinder, and then reloaded. If an officer is in a situation where the "bad guy" is shooting back, he certainly doesn't want to be able to only fire six shots, and then take the time to reload his weapon by manually inserting six bullets, one at a time.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;">**</span><span style="color: #a64d79;"> Handguns aren't carried with their 'safeties' on, and they always have a round in the chamber. </span></strong><strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">An officer's gun is always carried at the ready-to-fire position. So please don't have your hero, if he is a law-enforcement officer, approaching a bad guy or a situation at the same time he is getting his safety off or racking a round into the chamber of his weapon. Simply not realistic.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;">** </span><span style="color: #a64d79;">One of the things I found amusing about this story was one scene where the detective could "smell the cordite" in the room. Sorry, but unless your story takes place in the 1930s and early 1940s, this isn't possible. Cordite hasn't been used in handguns since WW II.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;">** </span><span style="color: #a64d79;">As I learned in the Sheriff's Academy, officers are not told to "shoot to kill", as most people think even when not reading a mystery story. They <em>are</em> trained to aim at the center mass of the target, especially if it is to save a human life, their own or someone else's.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;">** </span><span style="color: #a64d79;">Officers do not shoot at knees, arms, or legs to wound. If an officer must use his weapon to stop a suspect, as I said above, he aims for the center mass. </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;">** </span><span style="color: #a64d79;">Please do not have your investigating officer announce to one and all at the scene that the bullet wounds came from such-and-such a gun! They cannot do that just by looking at the wound. It takes the medical examiner or forensic team to determine what kind of weapon was used, and then usually only if they can find the spent cartridge.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">And finally...please do not have the FBI "coming in and taking over the case." They don't do that! The FBI can be called in to assist the local agencies involved in a case, but <em>only if they are requested by those authorities.</em></span></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></em></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Obviously, this is only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, when it comes to procedure and investigation of a crime. But if you, as the author, are writing a mystery story, and you have one or more crime scenes where police detectives or Sheriffs are involved, DO YOUR RESEARCH! Find out what you are writing about, and how to write it, <em>before you begin writing! </em>It will be a much more fun experience in writing, and certainly a more enjoyable reading experience.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Now...having said that...of course we as fiction writers are allowed to twist and turn reality. But that reality must still be logical, it must have enough truth in it to allow the reader to accept it and get past the facts of the matter. So before you go with your twists and turns, learn the factual basics of law enforcement procedures and incorporate them into your story. Don't stretch unbelievability to the point where the reader simply doesn't accept it.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">One final thought: the majority of police officers spend their entire career of 25 or 30 years in active duty, and <em>never once </em>have the need to put their weapons and fire.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">That's a wrap.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-84501449146673881472014-07-04T08:14:00.000-07:002014-07-04T08:14:12.694-07:00Friday's Focus: On The Fourth of July<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;">Today is the Fourth of July. A happy day of celebration for most Americans; a holiday where most workers are paid to take a day of rest and recreation. And a day of fun, festivity, barbeques, and parades. The laughter of children will ring out over this entire country, and millions of flags displaying our colors of red, white, and blue will fly high in the breezes. Bands with loud and spritely marching music will serenade our streets, followed by brilliantly decorated floats carrying beautiful young girls waving majestically to the crowds before them. Strong and handsome horses, their tack and saddles covered in bright ribbons and streamers, will prance down those same streets, occasionally leaving behind little gifts to remind people they were there.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;">When the parades are over, people will leave quickly to go to the barbeques they are having, with friends, family, and neighbors. Millions of hot dogs will be gobbled down this day, thousands of pounds of potato salad will be eaten, and millions of bottles of beer and soda pop will be drunk. When the barbeques are over, the bands' instruments put away, the floats dismantled, and the horses bedded down, everyone will go to bed happy, full, and satisfied to wake up the next morning to "just another day."</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;">Is that ALL the Fourth of July is? How many Americans remember just WHAT this day represents?</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;">The year is 1775. The British domination of the thirteen original colonies of the United States was becoming unbearable. British armies were being amassed throughout the countryside, British navies hovered off-shore.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;">On March 23rd, 1775, Patrick Henry stood before the House of Commons and delivered his famous and impassioned speech about fighting for freedom before every man, woman, and child should lay supine upon the floor with a British soldier standing nearby. His last words of that speech should never be forgotten by any American anywhere:</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: blue;">I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;">On April 18th, 1775, Paul Revere, not a fighter but a man of humble upbringing, a silversmith and an artist, was riding his horse about 11 o'clock at night towards Cambridge, when he was briefly accosted by two British soldiers. He saw what he believed...correctly...to be troops in the distance. He turned his horse and galloped away back toward Lexington and Colonel John Hancock. Shortly before midnight, he burst into their camp with the news that the British were camped near Cambridge and he believed them to be on the march towards Lexington.</span></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="color: blue;">The story that he came galloping down the road shouting "The British are coming, the British are coming" is an historical myth.</span></em></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: blue;">It is true that shortly after that night, there was a confrontation between British and American troops near Lexington, where at one point they simply seemed to stand and stare at each other, rather than fighting. Then a single shot rang out. History has it that no one seems to know if it was a British or an American who fired that shot, but it has become known as </span></strong><strong><span style="color: blue;">"the shot heard 'round the world," as full blown hostilities began between British and American troops at that point.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;">On July 4, 1776, a draft of what was later adopted as the Official Declaration of Independence from Great Britian was read by Thomas Jefferson, who wrote it. The most famous words of that Declaration are as follows, and should be taught in our schools and remembered by every American now and in the future:</span></strong><br />
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<strong><em><span style="color: blue;">We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.</span></em></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;">This declaration was not signed by anyone on that specific day except for John Hancock, who signed his name with such a flourish that it was 5 inches long, and has become an informal synonym for "signature."</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;">The original thirteen colonies of the US, created and ruled by Britain to establish their priorities in the US, signed that Declaration of Independence and officially declared themselves free and above the domination of Great Britain and her King. These colonies were the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvannia, Rhode Island, and Virginia.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: blue;">As Americans, let us truly remember just what the Fourth of July is, the sacrifices made in order for us to celebrate that day, and let us bring forth our happiness NOT just for the local barbeque, but because, thanks to our Forefathers, we have the right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;">Happy Fourth of July!</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;">That's a wrap.</span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-23473534163584790272014-06-27T15:03:00.001-07:002014-06-27T15:03:45.410-07:00Friday's Focus: Sleeping With The Enemy<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Are you as an author sleeping with the enemy? This "enemy" is the villain in your story. Are you sleeping with him? If not, you probably don't know him too well, and if you don't know him at least as well as you know yourself, your story will be weak and unconpelling.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Why? Think about it for a minute. Would you accept a dinner invitation from Hannibal Lector? How about going on a cruise with Captain Ahab? Or maybe you'd like to spend the week-end with Voldemort?</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">What is so right (or wrong) about these villains? Well, you aren't going to forget any one of them any time soon, are you? No, I didn't think so.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Why not? Because two of these villains is a three-dimensional character. Each of these two has a strong history behind them, a history that enhances the character and makes them three-dimensional. Evil for evil's sake is dull and boring, and doesn't provide your reader with any believability. The villain whose only motivation is to do evil over and over again doesn't become real, because no one in real life is totally "good" or totally "evil." With one exception.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">That exception is </span></strong><strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Lord Voldemort, because he is the exact opposite of what every good writer knows a villain should be. <span style="color: #351c75;">Voldemort IS the perfect example of someone who is totally evil.</span> He has not one good or even slightly sympathic bone in his body. His one mission in life is to kill Harry Potter, which he began trying to do when Harry was a mere infant. I think the reason no one will ever forget Voldemort is simply because he is the epitomy of evil, some one who exists for the sole purpose of killing one specific person. He was born evil, he killed his mother, supposedly in childbirth, but as one author said, "Who is to say he wasn't planning on killing her during the nine months of his gestation?" However, he will be remembered forever in literature simply because he puts the lie to everything I will say, most writers will say, about the villain having to be a three-dimentional character to be memorable.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">What is your villain's motivation to do the bad things he does? Why does he put just about every obstacle imaginable in the way of your MC? The very best, the most memorable villain has a reason, a logic behind the things they do. To us, to the hero, this logic may be so faulty as to be unreal, but to the bad guy, it makes perfect sense.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">No one is born evil. Er, well, with that one exception. But putting Voldemort aside, villains are born with the same qualities of life that heroes are: intelligent, honest, hard-working, sensitive, empathetic, capable of love and affection. So what happens to your villain to disconnect him from these qualities, and turn him into some kind of despicable person?</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Do you remember Wuthering Heights? Remember Heathcliff? What makes him so memorable? His history. His background. He was abused as a child, was never allowed an education, was both despised and feared as much because he was racially different as because of his actions. Yet, even when he becomes a cruel man bent on revenge, the reader still feels drawn to him, still wants, in some small part of their heart, for him to find love. Why is that? Because he had a <em>history. </em>Because we can look into his heart and his mind, and see the reasons he became the villain he was. It was pure logic to him, to get back at those who had made his life a living hell, and we could understand that, no matter that we also hated him for what he did.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">You don't want a sympathetic villain. You don't want him to be out-going and likeable. But you do want him to be credible and believable, and to be that kind of villain, he has to have a history. That history should portray him as an intelligent and complex person, who does what he does from a logic that, no matter how twisted it is, is perfectly sound to him, and understandable to us. How he bcomes devious, evil, and bent on destroying everything the hero loves, and quite possibly even the hero, comes from his history, his background, the things he endured growing up, the beliefs he had that were so different from those of the people around him.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Make your villain as compelling a character as your main character. Maybe even more so, but in a less-than-pleasant way. You need to know <em>what </em>he thinks, <em>how </em>he thinks, and <em>why</em> he thinks the way he does, and <em>why</em> this leads him to commit the treacherous acts that he does.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">And to do that, you must sleep with the enemy.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">That's a wrap.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-50868189452096129022014-06-06T12:32:00.001-07:002014-06-06T12:33:58.108-07:00Friday's Focus: Who Are The Heroes?<strong><span style="color: #351c75;">Today, June 6th, is the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the landing of our American troops on the shores of Normandy, France, which was the beginning of the end to World War II and Hitler's empire.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #351c75;">This day has always meant something to me: my father fought in this war, my older brother died in this war, my ex-husband fought in this war, and my husband of 35 years fought in the Korean War. To me, all four of these men are heroes, as are ALL the men and women who have fought, died, or returned home from the wars we have been involved in.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #351c75;">At the same time, it makes me wonder just who <em>are </em>the heroes of today? So many times, sports stars from football, baseball, basketball, and the like are touted by the media as being "heroes." Really? What makes a football star a hero? I guess it depends upon your definition of who or what a "hero" really is...what makes that person a hero.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #351c75;">This is my definition: A hero is a person who willingly, and without a thought of him/herself, makes a personal sacrifice for the sake of someone else, known or unknown.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #351c75;">That is why every single member of our Armed Forces is a hero to me. Because each of these men and women have volunteered to sacrifice their own life, if necessary, in order to create safety for those of us left on the shores of the United States.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #351c75;">That is why each and every member of the First Responders on September 11, 2001, is a hero to me. They willingly and courageously risked their own lives, and many lost them, to save the lives of hundreds of people they didn't know.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #351c75;">So what makes a sports star a hero? Because they single-handedly won a game? Because they scored more points, more home runs, more field goals, than any other member of the team? So what? Where is the personal sacrifice in that? It's just a game where any member of the team could have done the same thing if he had the strenght/ability/opportunity to do so.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #351c75;">The media has called Captain Sullivan, the pilot of the plane that landed in the Hudson River, a hero. Yes, he displayed heroic qualities, but what personal sacrifice did he make to set Flight 1549 down safely in that river? He was concerned for the safety of his passengers and crew, and he performed a courageous act to save their lives, but at no time was he in any more danger than anyone else on that plane. He had the knowledge, the expertise, the ability, and the opportunity to save that plane and all aboard it, and he did so. He is a courageous man, a highly skilled pilot, but not a hero. At least, not in my book.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #351c75;">I have a hero in my family. My daughter-in-law, who has continued to work 40 hours a week at a grueling job as a Medical Assistant at our State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, and then come home to spend the rest of every hour of every day taking care of my son, diagnosed almost 2 years ago with FrontalTemporal Lobe Dementia. Under no circumstances has she ever, for one minute, considered having him placed in a facility, in order to give herself more free time and a better kind of life. He is now in Hospice, in the last stages of this disease, soon to be totally bedridden, but because of her love for him, she sacrifices her own health...she has severe Rheumatoid Arthritis...and at times, even her own safety, in order to care for him. Is her life at risk? No, not at all. But she has willingly made many personal sacrifices to keep my son at home with her in order to take care of him. Is she a hero? You better believe it.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #351c75;">Who are the unsung heroes in our midst? How about the four teachers, school psychologist, and Principal at Sandy Hook Elementary School, who all died defending their students? How about six year old Jesse Lewis, who yelled "Run! to the kids in his class when the gunman rushed in but had to reload his weapon before he could begin shooting again. His first shot went into the head of Jesse, who had waited until everyone else was out the door before he turned to run. Too late.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #351c75;">What about all the grandparents today who are raising their grandchildren because their own kids have left the life of responsibility to drown in drugs, or alcohol, or are in prison for crimes they have committed? These people have made personal sacrifices, some have even had to return to work after enjoying years of retirement, just to raise, for the second time, kids. Of their kids. I could not do it. To me, those who do are heroes.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #351c75;">Where are the values of today's society, who heap praise upon praise for sports stars, celebrities, and other people of note, when they call these people who have done nothing "heroes?" As a society, have we fallen so low that a hero to us is nothing more than someone who has 715 homeruns, or is a celebrity leading an immature and often drug-filled life but who is held up by the media as being a "star?" These are the people our children are supposed to emulate, to be impressed by, to hold up as "heroes?" Not in my book.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #351c75;">Who are <em>your </em>heroes?</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #351c75;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #351c75;">That's a wrap.</span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-12299122736666184782014-05-30T08:15:00.000-07:002014-05-30T08:15:59.574-07:00Friday's Focus: America's Homeless Children: Who Are They?<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">I live in a small town, and I just recently found out that even though it is small, we have SEVEN homeless shelters here. I thought, Do we really have that many homeless people <em>here, </em>in our own little town? That can't be.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Well, it isn't for the homeless just here. These shelters care for the homeless from "wherever", and unfortunately, many are children from infants all the way to teens. The sad thing about the teens, however, is that many are not with their own families. They are runaways, from all kinds of abuse and trauma in their own homes. They are runaways from nothing more than strict parents whose rules they don't want to abide by. And they are runaways from homeless families, where they have left to try and find a better life for themselves, and have failed. Miserably.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Who are these children? They come from all walks of life, all races, religions, and economic lifestyles. There are far too many families who have lost everything since the recession of 2008: jobs lost or downsided; mortgages gone unpaid so the home is lost; no work in sight; no help or benefits from former employers or from the government. In other countries, homeless children are displayed in the media in very graphic and brutal ways, because this is how they are handled. Here in the US, homelessness is underated, it is inconspicuous because no one...NO ONE...wants to talk about it, much less see these homeless children graphically displayed on national TV.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">What is this called? Passive resistence? Subtle acceptance of this phenomenon but let's not talk about it and maybe it will go away?</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">It is the unrelenting <em>silence </em>about homeless children that screams out to us that, yes, we MUST talk about it, it is vital that we talk about it. Even more vital is that we do something about it. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">So let's talk about it, by thinking about the statistics that surround homeless children as opposed to those who are not homeless:</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">1. They are 4 times more likely to have severe respiratory problems.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">2. They have 2 times as many ear infections</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">3. They have 5 times more gastrointestinal problems, due to hunger and near starvation.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">4. They are 3 times more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems. I wonder why that is.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">5. Of Homeless elementary school age children, only 21.5% of them are proficient in their age/class math; by high school, homeless kids have only 11.4% proficiency in math, and 14.6% in reading.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">6. By age 12, 83% of homeless kids have witnessed, close up and personal, at least one serious violent crime, like murder, rape, physical assault, and suicide. Appoximately </span><span style="color: red;">80% </span><span style="color: #a64d79;">of homeless/runaway kids, male and female, have been raped or sexually assaulted.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Are you shocked by now? I was, although not very surprised. And one other fact: did you know that US homeless children and teens are 17% more likely to die from gun violence than their peers in 25 other countries?</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Homelessness results from a variety of factors, but poverty is the most prominent. The poverty level in the US for 2014 is $23,850 or less yearly for a family of four. In 2013, the US was ranked as having the </span><span style="color: red;">2nd highest</span></strong> <span style="color: red;"><strong>child poverty rates in the world. <span style="color: #a64d79;">That same year, 16.7 million children were living in <em>food insecure households </em>( meaning they went hungry much of the time) or they were homeless.</span></strong></span><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">We are "supposed" to be the <em>wealthiest, most powerful, most well-developed</em> country on this planet. Please explain to me why these statistics are here, and why, today, we still have 1.6 million homeless children?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #45818e;">Mahatma Gandhi said, "Poverty is the worst form of violence."</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">That's a wrap.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">The list goes on, and we all know about it. But let's talk about these children who are homeless for no reasons of their own.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-65437870259804045352014-05-25T08:06:00.001-07:002014-05-25T08:06:41.530-07:00Monday's Musings on Sunday: Memorial Day, A Day for Memories<span style="color: purple;"><strong>Tomorrow is M</strong></span><span style="color: purple;"><strong>emorial Day. A day for memories, for prayers, for tributes to those who gave their lives so we could live.</strong></span><br />
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<strong><span style="color: purple;">Our flag flies at half-mast on Memorial Day. I grew up in a military family, and I married two military men...uh, not at the same time, however. Both fought in wars that this country involved itself in, one, WWII, not brought on by anything we did, the other, Korea, a war we probably should not have intruded upon. But both were out of the service by the time I married them.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: purple;">My brother was twelve years older than I, and in his first year of college when he decided to enlist in the Air Force during WWII. I was just a little girl, but he was my hero and I was devastated when he left for the service. He signed up for four years, and came home only once during that time. That short leave was one of the happiest times of my life.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: purple;">In April, 1945, he and his B-17 crew were awaiting rotation home when his best friend, also a pilot, received word from the Red Cross that he should come home immediately, as his wife had been severely injured in a car crash. My brother volunteered to take his friend's last flight, and when his crew heard about it, they all volunteered to fly with him. The mission was over Berlin. It was the last bombing raid before Germany's Hitler surrendered. That morning, fifty-two bombers went out. That afternoon, forty-seven came back. David's plane, "Lil' Sis", was not one of the forty-seven.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: purple;">Three days later, I was reading David's last letter to me when a car pulled up in front of our house. A major, a captain, and an Air Force Chaplain stepped out. I had grown up all over the world from one Army base to another, and I knew what that meant. My brother, my hero, was gone, and my life would never be the same.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: purple;">Today, Richard will put up the flag, and tomorrow it will go to half-mast. For David, for my father, for my former husband, for all the friends we have lost over the years, some not military at all. It will fly at half-mast for my closest and dearest friend who died so very suddenly and unexpected just before Thanksgiving last year, and whose death once again changed my life. And that flag will fly at</span></strong><strong><span style="color: purple;"> half-mast not just for us, but for all the men and women who have lost their lives fighting someone, something, that the United States has declared an "eminent danger" to the US...even when it possibly wasn't. It will fly in memory of, and as a tribute to, all those fallen heros.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: purple;">Will your flag fly tomorrow? Will it be lowered to half-mast? If so, for whom will it fly?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;">Until next time, God Bless.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: purple;">That's a wrap.</span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-75327113170819418742014-05-17T06:36:00.000-07:002014-05-17T06:36:08.113-07:00Friday's Focus on Saturday: Meeting an Antagonist<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Welcome to behind the scenes of Cheers, Chocolate, and Other Disasters. This morning I have invited Celine Carroll to come visit, but frankly, I don't know if she will show up or not. She is the young lady who brings disaster after disaster raining down on AJ Devlin's head in the Cheers book. Celine is not a very nice girl...or is she? Mainly, she is an enigma that no one, least of all AJ, can figure out. Uh oh...I hear a faint knock on the door. Perhaps she has come, after all. Let's open the door, and see.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Mikki: Good morning, Celine. I'm so glad you came. I really didn't know if you would or not.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;">Celine: <em>walking in with her usual smirk: </em>Why wouldn't I come? Did you think I would be afraid to answer your questions?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Mikki: Here, have a seat. No, I didn't think that. I did think you might consider an interview with your author somewhat beneath you, and not come for that reason.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Celine: <em>sitting down with a flounce and looking around the room, then shrugging: </em>Well, we'll see how it goes, and then I'll tell you if this is beneath me or not. So, fire away.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Mikki: <em>smiling to keep from tearing her hair out: </em>Celine, who are the people you are living with? You know, the ones you refer to as Mom and Dad, when you know your own parents are in prison?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;">Celine: I don't think that's any of your business. Besides, I've been sworn to secrecy.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Mikki: Oh, not my business, huh? Then suppose you tell me why they chose to bring you to West Haven, Colorado. That is a very long way from Chicago.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;">Celine: I wanted to meet AJ. Her father sent my parents to prison. I'm going to make her pay for that.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Mikki: But Celine, AJ knew nothing about your parents, or even that her father was involved in their trial. She still knows very little. Why are you seeking revenge on her?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;">Celine: Well, why not? Someone has to pay, and I can't get to her father. She's the next best thing. Besides, she is so much fun to make fun of. She thinks she has the perfect life, the perfect friends, but when I get through with her, she won't have anything left.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Mikki: You have already made trouble between AJ and her two best friends, Jaime and Julie. They are following you around like you were some kind of Pied Piper, and totally ignoring her. What more do you want?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;">Celine: Oh, Mikki, for an adult you are really out of it, aren't you. Taking her best friends away, and making all the kids at that stupid school like me and forget about her is nothing. It was just too easy. Just wait, I have more plans for your little miss AJ.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Mikki: Let's forget about AJ for a minute and talk about you. You are older than AJ and her friends. Why are you in middle school? Why aren't you in high school where you belong?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;">Celine: <em>giving me a disgusted look: </em>Oh, for crap's sake, Mikki. AJ is in middle school, so why would I want to be in high school where I couldn't get to her? It was so easy for my "parents" to get a fake birth certificate for me, so my age would be incorrect. It was perfect for me to be in the same grade as AJ.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Mikki: Ah, yes, your "parents." Let's talk about them for a minute. I understand that AJ accidentally finds a room in your house that is loaded with all kinds of electronic equipment, as well as a number of telephones. What is that all about?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;">Celine: Well, since it won't do you any good to know this, I'll tell you. A little bit, that is. The people I live with are not the good little citizens that West Haven seems to be made up of. That is such a boring town! Anyway, they are involved with people who make things happen, that make life exciting. To tell the truth, I really <em>don't </em>know much about their business, but I do know that it is an extension of what my mother and father were into.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Mikki: But your parents were convicted of mob activity crimes. And now you are living with people just like them? How does that fit with you now living in West Haven? Why there and not still in Chicago?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;">Celine: <em>with her usual smirk back on her face: </em>These people gave me riding lessons, bought me all the right clothes, taught me how to speak as if I'd been living the rich life in New York. They changed me so that I could come here, and pretend to be the person AJ and Jaime and Julie think I am. When I'm through with AJ Devlin, her father will wish he'd never even heard of my parents.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Mikki: So, you're not through with your devilment of AJ. Tell me, Celine, is it true that you are some kind of evil omen, that everything that is happening to AJ right now is all your doing?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;">Celine: <em>laughing without humor: </em>Oh my, you give me too much credit! I'm an evil omen? Why, no, I'm just this girl with curly blonde hair and deep dimples. How can anyone think I am evil? <em>Celine laughs again, but it seems sinister. </em>How could I possibly bring so many disasters down upon poor little AJ all at one time? An evil omen? I like that, Mikki, I really do. But I have to go now, and leave you and your readers wondering...am I really an evil omen?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #134f5c;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="color: #990000;">Celine gets up before I can stop her, and saunters out the door, laughing loudly...so loudly that sound is still ringing in my ears long after she is gone. The interview is obviously over, but I'm left wondering...just WHO is Celine Carroll?</span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="color: #990000;"></span></em></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">That's a wrap.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #990000;"></span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-64292266324425250742014-04-28T07:59:00.002-07:002014-04-28T07:59:16.831-07:00Monday's Musing: Sticks and Stones...<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">We have all heard the old saying,"Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me."</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">I don't know in what century that saying came about, or even from what planet it originated, but it certainly doesn't apply in any world I've ever known about. Words can be the most hurtful, the most deceitful, and the most powerful tool a human being of any age, sex, religion, creed, or color can have.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Everyone remembers "bullying" from the days of the school playground, when the bigger kid wanted the ball or the hula hoop or whatever somone else...someone smaller or younger...was playing with, so he or she just took it from that kid. Or how about the new kid in school, perhaps from an obviously lower "money" ( socio-economic) class, where the others tease and mock him or her because of the clothes he/she wears...or the accent, or the skin color, or maybe even the religion? Have you ever been in a high school situation, for example, where all the "cool" kids got into the top school organizations, became the cheerleaders or the sports heros, and totally ignored you because you weren't the same 'class' as they were?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">That kind of bullying still exists today, of course. But now we have something called "psychological" or "emotional" bullying, and it is just as intense. No, that's wrong. It is far worse, because unfortunately, in many cases, it has led to the death by suicide of the young person it is directed against. It is also the kind of bullying that is often called "cyber-bullying", because of the Internet. Messages are sent to the victim by email, or most often, made very public and visible on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other places where kids gather on the Internet. Sometimes there are even websites devoted to the harrassment and embarrassment of the kid.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Emotional bullying is seen as:</span></strong><br />
<ul>
<li><strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Name calling</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Teasing and mocking </span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Belittling</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Threats</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Being ignored or excluded from groups and former friends</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Use of sarcasm</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Telling lies about the person</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Passing along things this person supposedly said about another but didn't</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Humiliating the person</span></strong></li>
</ul>
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">What effect does emotional bullying have on a child of any age? They can become shy and withdrawn, when before they have been happy and outgoing; they can become depressed, never wanting to go out and play or be with friends, always wanting to stay at home or in their own rooms; and in younger children, they can become bullies to their own siblings, taking out their own feelings of hurt on others.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">In Teens, especially, there is a marked difference in their self-esteem; a noticable decline in their academic performance; and a definite change in their attitudes. Teens become sullen and hostile; refuse to have anything to do with parents, siblings, or friends; they choose to isolate themselves from everyone around them by staying at home, often even refusing to go to school, or pretending to go and then skipping out. In time, they even often have thoughts of suicide, and unfortunately, many carry those thoughts out.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">In my newest book, </span><span style="color: #bf9000;">Cheers, Chocolate, and Other Disasters, </span><span style="color: #38761d;">my main character, AJ Devlin, deals with a kind of emotional/psychological bullying. I don't delve into the darkest effects of this kind of bullying, as I don't like to write "dark," but AJ is on the receiving end of several of the above named bullying efforts. How she deals with it, and the outcome, make this an intriguing book for girls ( and maybe their parents) aged 9 to 14. It is available from my publisher, MuseItUp:</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"><a href="https://www.museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/our-authors/69-our-authors/authors-s/379-mikki-sadil">https://www.museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/our-authors/69-our-authors/authors-s/379-mikki-sadil</a></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">and on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">For more information about emotional bullying, here are some good links:</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="http://bully4u.ie/bullying-in-schools/understanding/types-of-bullying/psychological-bullying">http://bully4u.ie/bullying-in-schools/understanding/types-of-bullying/psychological-bullying</a></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/bullying">http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/bullying</a></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/27/health/cyberbullying-online-bully-victim">http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/27/health/cyberbullying-online-bully-victim</a></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Listen to your kids when they complain about being bullied, find out all you can about bullying in all of its phases, and most of all, LISTEN to your kids...and believe them!</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">That's a wrap.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"> </span></strong><br />
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Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-17578092193105307412014-04-25T08:41:00.002-07:002014-04-25T08:41:46.161-07:00Friday's Focus: Are You Building a Platform? If so, Why?<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Have you ever stopped to realize all the demands that are being made on you, as an author/writer? How many times have you heard or read or been told that you "must" have a platform, and that you "must" build it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linked-In, and heaven knows how many other "social networking" sites? How many times have "they" ( whoever they are) told you it's all about getting reviews on Amazon and Goodreads and Barnes and Noble, and having 100s if not (preferably) 1000s of followers?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">And speaking of "followers," did you know that there are people who are paid to be followers, and that if you have 100s and possibly even 1000s of followers, about 90% of them are paid to follow you? Sorry, but it's true. These are not people who think you are absolutely wonderful. They don't know you, don't want to know you, and could not care less about what you write or even if you write. All the care about is the money they get paid to follow people of every description on Facebook and Twitter.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">But I digress. Times change, the publishing business has changed, and even the online world we must live in has also changed. Numbers no longer count. They don't represent how many books you have sold, or how many truly interested people are following you. They have just become cold, hard, meaningless numbers. </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">What does count is you interacting with real people. Sure, in today's world, those real people are usually on the Internet and may live half a world away from you. But if they are "real" they are truly interested in you and in your work, and you can tell this from the kinds of comments they leave on your blog ( which really IS a must-have), comments made about your posts on Facebook and Twitter. These are the people who have something in common with you, and who are the most likely to go out and buy your books.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">But if you are like so many authors/writers today, you're not really concentrating on that. You are pushing like mad to "get the numbers" on your "Like" pages on Facebook or Twitter or Amazon. For what purpose? Do you really believe your 5000 followers ( one of my author friends claims to have this many) are going to buy your book, so at the end of the day, week, month, or year, you have sold 5000 books <em>because</em> of your Facebook followers? Dream on, my friend!</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">I personally have also been told I "must" do a blog tour, and "must" have a paid company put one together for me. Are you kidding me? First, I am not going to spend money for something like that, with no guarantee of ANY increased sales because of it. Second, those things are horribly time-consuming and exhausting. Some go on for 2 or 3 weeks, every single day, some for even a month. So when do I have time...to say nothing about energy...to write? And who, may I ask, gets the money from this tour? well, the company does, of course. I think if you have a tour "host," this person also gets paid. But the people whose blogs you visit don't get paid, and aren't they the ones doing all the work? They have to review your books, write up interview questions, and often even set up give-aways, or figure out contests so you can give a few books as prizes, and so on. Where is the pay-off for them? For that matter, where is it for you? Do you really expect to make the 1000s of dollars from book sales that you probably were told to look forward to by the tour company? I think not.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Then there are the newsletters that you are supposed to do, to help in that platform you are building. Personally, I hate newletters. For one thing, they are often nothing but a marketing device to get me to buy the author's books, and if I already know the author, I either read or don't read his/her genre. If I read it, chances are i've already bought the book or have it on my list to buy, so i don't need a newsletter to push me. If I don't read that genre ( like Romance novels, for example), the newsletter is going to do nothing to encourage me.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">For another thing, newsletters are very often nothing more than grocery list of what the author has been doing/writing/selling, and if I follow that person's blog, i already know all of that because it has been on the blog. If I don't follow the blog, it is usually because I don't care about the author on a personal level, so I don't care to read the blog, therefore I don't care to read the same stuff in a newsletter.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">A personal opinion, but to me, newsletters are both annoying and a total waste of time.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">So is there any good news about platforms? Yes, if you go about it in the right way. Interact with the people who leave comments on your blog, who respond to a post on Facebook or a 'tweet' on Twitter. Respond to every comment left on another blogger's blog when you have been interviewed. You can post about "freebies" or that your books are on sale for $.99, and then respond to anyone who asks about those posts.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">You don't have to blog every day. Once or twice a week is sufficient, but make sure your posts have something to say, and if they generate comments, be sure to reply. If you DO want a blog tour, set it up with just a few friends who blog, or a few authors/writers who write in your genre, and have it go on for 5 to 7 days. Period. At the end, make sure you have replied to everyone on each day who has commented, and also, send a small gift of thanks to your blog hosts. </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">In short: overkill is a thing of the past. Having 1000s of followers is unnecessary and even a little stupid, since you are never ever going to be "known" by 2or 3 thousand people. Have a blog, post on Facebook and Twitter, or any of the other social media, but do it with reason. And do it FOR a reason, not just because some one said this is what you "HAVE" to do. Let people get to know a little about YOU as a person, as well as a writer, but never EVER put personal information out there, thinking it will add to "letting people know you." It WILL come back to bite you in the...well, you know.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Build your "platform" by being honest, compassionate, and true to yourself. Forget now and forever what "they" say to do. Remember, in social media, as well as in life, a little goes a long way.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">That's a wrap.</span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-27874053374701098702014-04-18T14:26:00.001-07:002014-04-18T14:26:15.878-07:00Friday's Focus: What Color Are You?<strong><span style="color: #999999;">Several years ago, at a time in my life when hope for all things positive was low, I was asked a simple question: if you were a part of the rainbow, what color would you be? This was my answer:</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;">I would be silver.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;">Silver is the color of the sky just before the dawn of a new day...the day where we give birth to new creativity.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;">Silver is the color of ribbons and satin bows and crinkly paper and sparkly thingys on birthday and wedding cakes, where happiness surrounds us and pain and sorrow are univited guests not allowed in.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;">Silver shimmers in the moonlight when two lovers take long walks into their future together.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;">Silver sparkles in the raindrops on the ground just as the clouds begin to lift and go their separate ways.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;">Sliver catches fire from the reflection of the sun as it beams down on the scorched earth below.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;">Silver dims and tarnishes from the tears that flow in a simple graveyard.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;">Silver is the color of my mare as she stands poised in flight, on the brink of life, on the edge of death. I miss her so much.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;">I would be silver.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;">**********************************************************************</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #999999;">What color would you be?</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #999999;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #999999;">That's a wrap.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #999999;"></span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-6978446176901354892014-04-04T08:11:00.000-07:002014-04-04T08:23:55.182-07:00Friday's Focus: Phrases That Kill<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Are you a murderer? Do you kill your story with phrases that should never have been written?</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Let's get down to some serious business about the writing process. As writers, we all want to catch our readers' attention with words and phrases that will build up the tension, sound great, even <em>look </em>pretty as we write them. But very often, our narration gets so out of hand that the reader is going to throw down the book in disgust, and possibly, never pick up one of ours ever again.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Here are some examples of what I mean by phrases that kill:</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="color: #990000;">Her eyes followed him as he stormed out of the house.</span> </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">I'm sure you've all read this, or something very similar. But what kind of image that does produce? A pair of long-lashed eyes bumping along behind him? Really?</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">What about this one: </span><span style="color: #990000;">His eyes were consumed with passion. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Wait a minute...the dictionary says "consumed" means to use something up in such a way that it cannot be recovered. I wonder how he handled being without his eyes once his passion was over? Then there's this one: </span><span style="color: #990000;">He claimed he was telling the truth, but his eyes said otherwise. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Did his eyes learn to talk as a baby at the same time he did? That should have been interesting for his parents.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #990000;">She dropped her eyes in embarrassment.</span><span style="color: #45818e;"> </span><span style="color: #134f5c;">Excuse me? I surely hope she dropped them on something soft, like a bed or a thick carpet.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Here is one I read recently from a book by one of my favorite authors: </span><span style="color: #990000;">Unseeing, he looked out at the sun setting over the ocean. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">If he can't see, how can he "look out" at anything?</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Here are some more phrases that kill:</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Her emerald eyes mesmerized him. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">What was the rest of her body doing?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Her smokey eyes blazed with fire.</span><span style="color: #0b5394;"> I guess her eyes would be smokey if they were on fire.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Her sultry voice grated on me. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Why? are you a piece of cheese?</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">His voice came from a long distance. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Long distance? That must have really been hard on his throat.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">His eyes caught and held hers. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Hmm...one pair of eyes must have been running away to have been caught by another pair.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Her heart sang with happiness. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">What song was her heart singing? OR:</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">Her heart wept with despair. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">One can only hope her heart had a big hankie. ( Both of these are writers' favorites, and one makes about as much sense as the other.)</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #990000;">I thought to myself. </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Excuse me, but to whom else would you be <u>thinking? </u></span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Enough all ready! The point is...these are the kinds of phrases we writers need to be on the look-out for. A lot of Romance Writers use phrases like the above, and some even more, uh, descriptive in sexual tones, but I won't go into those here. After all, I DO have kids looking at this blog sometimes!</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Think about YOURSELF when you start to write something like the above: would <em>your</em> eyes be falling out on the bed, or running down the street after someone, or would they be on fire? There are other ways to be expressive, to spark the reader's interest without using a <em>body part </em>as the <u>subject</u></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">of a sentence. It just doesn't work. </span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">You are a writer. You are creative. Find another way to say the same thing.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0b5394;">That's a wrap.</span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3857775826978446187.post-70686136912181161502014-03-28T08:54:00.001-07:002014-03-28T08:54:54.302-07:00Friday's Focus: Fun, Fanciful, and Farcical Facts<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;">Today I feel like doing something for fun. In my research over the years, I've run into all kinds of funny, weird, crazy, and even nonsensical "facts." So, just for the heck of it, here are some of them, in no particular order, and relating to nothing in general.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;">>> Americans purchase more than 20 million pounds of Candy Corn every Halloween season.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">>><em>Uncopyrightable </em>is the only English word with fifteen letters that does not repeat a letter.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;">>>The only English words that cannot be rhymed are <em>orange, month, silver, and purple.</em></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;"><em>>></em>A Texan's ten-gallon hat only holds about six pints.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;">>>Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antartica, but the continent is the driest place on earth. </span><span style="color: #38761d;">(with the exception of California this year.) </span><span style="color: #b45f06;">The average percipitation is about two inches a year, and it has an absolute humidity lower than that of the Gobi Desert.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="color: #38761d;">>>The only state in the US that has never had an earthquake is North Dakota.</span> </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;">>>The number of bones in the human body is 350 at birth, and 206 in adulthood. ??</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">>>The average office desk has over 400 times more bacteria than a toilet. !!!</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;">>>The body pumps 2,000 gallons of blood 60,000 miles every day.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">>>The US motto, In God We Trust, was not adopted until 1956.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;">>>San Francisco's cable cars are the only mobile National Monument.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">>>The shortest war in history was between England and Zanzibar in 1896. It only lasted 38 minutes before Zanzibar surrendered.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;">>>"When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" was written by a German musician, George Graff, who had never even visited Ireland.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: red;">>>Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to power a television for three hours; the same can, thrown away, will still be a can 500 years from now.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: red;">>>Rycycling one ton of paper saves: 17 trees; 6,953 gallons of water; 463 gallons of oil; 587 pounds of air pollution; 3.06 cubic yards of landfill; and 4,077 kilowatt hours of energy.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">>>A hippopotamus can open its mouth wide enough to fit in a 4-foot person. They are the third largest land animal but can still outrun a human.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;">>>A cockroach can live up to nine days without its head. Yuck.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">>>A Poison Arrow frog, indigenous to South American rainforests, contains enough poison to kill 2,200 people, although they are only one half inch in length.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;">>>Koala bear fingerprints are very similar to human fingerprints, as their fingers and toes have patterned ridges.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">>>Contrary to popular opinion, a porcupine cannot "shoot" its quills. They rise up from the back and come out easily enough to embed themselves in predators...or nosy dogs who get too close.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;">>>Thomas Jefferson introduced brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, and eggplant to America. </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #38761d;">>>Coconut water can be used intravenously in emergency situtations to rehydrate a person, because it is sterile, has an ideal pH level, and is chemically similar to blood plasma.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;">>>Americans consume 75 to 100 <em>acres </em>of pizza each day, which is about 350 slices a second, and 40 slices per man, woman, and child, a year.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;">Until next time,</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;">That's a wrap.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #b45f06;"></span></strong>Mikkihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08371767512022913349noreply@blogger.com7