A Graveyard Smash -- Top 100 Style

Since it’s the day before Halloween, I feel compelled to set aside my hip-hop, break dancing (or neck breaking) gyrations for the well-informed writer. Yes compelled. I must (must I tell you, I must) blog about one of my all time favorites—the Monster Mash.

I enjoyed the song as a kid, again as a teen, and then I found even more fun singing about the graveyard smash with my daughter. The Monster Mash has not only stood the test of time, it’s made the top 100 three different times. The song reached number one in 1962. Eight years later, it peaked at number 91—probably because it was August (duh)—and then the song reached number 10 again in May of 1973.

This novelty favorite by Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Cryptkickers has sold about 4 million copies and with the exception of Thriller, is probably the best know Halloween dance song of all times. The Monster Mash has been heard on every top 40 and oldies station on the planet and has been featured on television shows—the Simpsons, Cheers, Roseanne, Doogie Howser and CNN to name a few.

Supposedly, Elvis said the song was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard and Frank Sinatra was quoted saying, “This mother is the Granddaddy of rap records.” Pretty funky, huh? Not to mention, the song is just plain fun.

So if you’re working on your story late at night
And your eyes behold an eerie sight
From your pages a monster begins to rise
And your tale takes on a plot turn surprise

Just do the mash
Just do the monster mash
The monster mash
It’ll be a NYT smash

Obviously, I modified the lyrics. But if you’re in a graveyard sort-of groove and want to sing the song in its original form—here’s a link for the real verses: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/onehitwonders/monstermashlyrics.html Until next time, happy dancing on the graves…

Don't Let Remarks Get You Down

I’m in the middle of edits on a short story contracted with The Wild Rose Press—a humbling experience, let me tell you. Just when I think I’m getting stronger as a writer, someone shows me all my nasty habits. My ego took a bit of a bruising this week.

Yet criticism often helps us grow as authors. Little habits we didn’t know we had are pointed out. Lazy tendencies are revealed like my cottage cheese thighs in a swimsuit. Neither one is a pretty picture.

For those of you who will soon go through edits, may I remind you of a few things? You’ve written a book. Many think they can. Few finish the task. Yay, you! If you’re going through edits, then you’ve gotten a contract. This, in and of itself, proves your worth as a writer.

When presented with a situation, we always have the choice of how we’ll handle it. In my case, I could puff-out my matronly Prima-Dona chest and fight every suggestion—a negative response. Or, I could look on this as a growing experience; a response I feel is more positive.

Experts say the learning curve of a writer is continual. Isn’t that why we take online courses, attend writers’ workshops at conventions and read books on our craft? We seek to improve. Why not use editors’ remarks to improve our craft, too?

Their goals are the same as ours: to get our books published. Because of this, editors seek to make our products shine, make them memorable and perhaps edge them toward that often elusive goal of being a best seller. Even if that process is painful for the writer.

I’m going to take this pep talk one degree further. Don’t allow anyone’s criticisms to dim the joy you’ve earned. By anyone, I mean other writers, reviewers, folks in your writers’ groups who only write “literary fiction” and contest judges. Ask yourself if they are qualified to make such a judgment on anyone’s work. Are they pushing a more personal agenda? Or are they truly trying to help you grow as a writer? You’re intelligent, all of you. You can make that assessment for yourselves.

When you feel the comments hold some validity, use them as a learning tool. If they don’t, smile and keep writing.

For those of you participating in NaNoWriMo, GOOD LUCK!! I'm giving it a try myself this year for the first. Write on!

Goodreads Communities

So. Goodreads is pretty amazing. It's kind of like Facebook for books. Of course, you can also link your Facebook to it. You can link your Facebook to pretty much anything, so that's kind of a given. My point is that Goodreads is a great place to meet people who love books as much as you do. And you know you'll all have something in common and something to talk about.

Goodreads has a reviewing function as well, but since I talked about reviews last time, I'm not so interested in that today. What I'm interested in is the community aspect of Goodreads. You can join different communities based on your reading interests--YA, Romance, etc. One of my favorite authors started a Goodreads group last year. I'm so glad he did--it's an excellent way to keep in touch with him and know what's going on with him. And when I can expect that next book! And it's more interactive than a blog. I love blogs, too (after all, what am I doing right now?), but the groups are definitely a good thing. They're kind of like mini-forums.

There are book clubs on Goodreads. There's a more formal, "official" one, but the Goodreads groups sometimes have their own. Goodreads also seems like a good place to meet book bloggers and their ilk. I use my Goodreads more than I use my Facebook these days. Mostly because I think Facebook has gone a little too commercial. Goodreads probably will be too commercial as well one day, but that's another topic for another day. Speaking of ads, they don't really bother me on Goodreads because they tend to be for books. And that's what I'm there for--to find out about books.

I have a Shelfari account, too. I'm trying to think of when I developed my clear preference for Goodreads. I think it was around the time I found out about their book giveaway system. And Goodreads has a really great set-up for authors. I know Shelfari has partnered with Amazon, but I still don't like their interface all that much.

How about you? What do you think of Goodreads if you use it? Or do you use Shelfari? Another site?

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

You are your yesterday.  How scary is that?  Is it even true?  And what does any of it have to do with meditation?

Yes, you are your yesterday, and yes that is scary, and yes it is true. And yes meditation can have a great deal to do with it.

Take a moment to think back to your childhood and focus on one incident, good or bad that had a huge impact on you,

Now take another look at that incident through the eyes of an adult and ask yourself, is that incident still having an impact today?  You may discover that on some subliminal level there is a residue of influence carrying through to the present, regardless of how long ago the incident happened.  So yes, the past can, and does, influence the present and therefore the future.

And the thought of letting that incident out of its box (if it is negative) and working with it to change your future can be scary beyond belief.

So how can meditation help?

Over the past months several different kinds of meditation has been explored.  More recently suggestions for personal assessment of how meditating has helped have been mooted. Now it is time to take that assessment experience one step further.

Meditation is not a shortcut to the holy grail of total serenity in seconds, but it is one tool in your arsenal that will help you towards that goal.

Remember you can meditate with your eyes open; after all day-dreaming is a kind of meditation.

If an incident in the past is causing problems today, consider meditating on it, keeping paper and pen handy.  Take notes, analyze them when you complete your meditation, and in less time than you expect you will find those oft mentioned changes meditation brings about is working here too.  Thus influencing your tomorrow.  

If this is true, you can influence your future.

So yes, the past influences the present and what you do today, the thoughts you create, the actions and reactions you make and take will impact on your tomorrow.

Alex The Parrot

I know, I know. He's not a cat. But occasionally when an amazing animal or animal story catches my attention I have to post it. Alex was part of a thirty year study with animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg. He died in 2007. At the time of his passing, his intelligence level was reported to be on par with a human five year old and his emotional level on par with a human two year old.
If you have a moment, take a look at the video. Its worth your while.

Fertilizing? Making sense out of numbers.

The fall is a great time to prepare the soil for a new garden bed. It makes spring gardening easier. For a garden area wanted, you should apply a herbicide to kill the grass or weeds. When the weeds are dead, till the soil, and add organic materials such as leaves, peat moss, manure or compost. Add a light layer of mulch to keep down early spring weeds, and when you are ready to plant, so is the ground. It sounds so easy for a process that is just plain hard work.

Organic matter is usually applied in inches. You add a couple inches of material and till it in. This is an easy and safe process when first making a garden bed. There are no plants in the garden for fresh manure to burn and over winter the organic material usually decays enough not to rob spring plants of Nitrogen. It is not so easy when it comes to applying bagged products such as sulfur, lime and fertilizer. Chemistry is involved. You need a soil test and fall is a great time to do this because the testing offices are busy in the spring with farmers.

The first step is to gather a soil sample. It is a simple process. Before you add anything to your soil, take several scoops of soil from several places in the area you want tested. The larger the area the more samples you need. Start with six or so from a 1000 square foot garden. Don't take the top layer of soil, but soil from the bottom of a three or four inch deep hole. Remove sticks, weeds, grassblades, and roots. Place a small amount of soil from each hole in a bag. Let the soil dry and take about two cups of this to your local University Extension Office. Tell them what you want to use the samples for, vegetables, lawn, or flowers. For a small fee you get a soil report in the mail.

The test tells you what your soil needs for good plant growth, whether it is too acid or alkaline, how much organic matter the soil contains, and gives recommend amounts of minerals to add to the soil. It will not tell you how many bags of 10-6-4 fertilizer to spread on your newly dug flowered or established lawn.

It will tell you if your soil needs lime or sulfur. Lime and sulfur affect the soil's alkalinity or acidity, which affects the plant roots' ability to absorb other necessary minerals out of the soil. Lime and sulfur need time to work in the soil and can only be applied in the fall or early spring.

If your vegetable or flower garden needs Nitrogen, wait until spring to apply bagged fertilizer. Nitrogen is water-soluble, so anytime the soil is wet, some dissolves away from where the plants need it. Some fertilizer bags have a slow-release type of Nitrogen, which slows this leaching process.

Now you have to figure out what to add and how much. Fertilizer bags have amounts of NPK written on them like 10-10-10, 10-6-4 or 20-0-0. The first number always represents Nitrogen, the second, Phosphorus and the third Potassium. These numbers represent the percentage of each mineral in the bag. A 40-pound bag of 10-5-5 is 10 percent Nitrogen, or 4 pounds of Nitrogen, and 5 percent or 2 pounds each of Phosphorus and Potassium. The remaining 80 percent contains filler materials to help the fertilizer spread easily and if it is a complete fertilizer, other minerals plants need.

If your soil report tells you to apply 4 pounds of Nitrogen to 1000 square feet, you will know one 40-pound bag will cover an area 50' x 20' or 10' x 100'. Of course it won't be that easy. It will say 5 pounds or some other number forcing you to do some basic math to figure out how much to apply. When you know what to add to your soil and how much, then you can find the product that best fills those needs.

Speed Cleaning?

Hey, did you try my 10 minute cleaning method yet? I posted the challenge two weeks ago. Click here to review it.

Just set a timer for ten minutes, dig in and clean one room until the timer beeps or you finish. I'll bet you can unload the dishwasher and reload it in ten minutes. I know you can clean your toilet and sink in ten minutes. And you can definitely dust around your knick knacks in ten minutes. See how much better your house looks just by vaccumming the middles of your rooms in ten minutes.

When is the last time you cleaned your home? What did you clean and how long did it take?

The Bible--Handwritten

Yesterday on the Today show, the first completely handwritten Bible in five hundred years was revealed. You can see the video HERE. And to actually look at individual pages, go HERE. Every page is available for viewing on the site.

It's the St. John's Bible, created in painstaking detail, one stroke at a time using quills and one hundred thirty year old Chinese ink. Numerous gorgeous illustrations illuminate this incredible achievement.

Why in this day and age of electronic books should we care?

On several levels this book speaks to us. First, it's a work of art. Unparalleled by any other modern work, it demonstrates teamwork and the essence of commitment. In the distant past, such works were only undertaken on commission and that is true of this book, also. After all, who has the wherewithal to spend twelve years at their own expense?

Secondly, the sheer magnitude of the project is astounding. The idea of working on two foot by three foot pages is astonishing. Can you imagine covering a page that size in script? Most of us can barely manage to write a short thank you note in indecipherable scrawl. When asked about using modern technology in the layout, the head calligrapher was quick to acknowledge this work of art is a melding of old techniques and new technology. Naturally.

Third, the contemporary vision in the illustrations for age-old ideas brings a new immediacy to the text. To often, when we consider religious texts, we think of them as relevant only to the past. The art work illuminating the pages of the St. John's Bible is fresh and modern.

Finally, it has inherent value as a sacred text--just as any religious text has value, whether it is the Koran, the Veda, or the Torah. The very completion of this monumental task confirms its value. After all, there are few texts anyone would commission for such an undertaking. In the interview, the head calligrapher spoke about the way the very action of forming the letters imbued this text with a part of the calligrapher's being.

Think about that. When we place pen to paper, we are creating from a part of ourselves that isn't available via the computer and such technologies. Try it for yourself. Write something by hand. Then type it into the computer. Which document is more memorable? Which stayed in your consciousness longer?

anny cook

Geek Girl Con

An amazing event happened in Seattle on October 8-9. The first-ever GeekGirlCon brought over 2,000 like-minded folk together for a weekend of unmitigated geek fun. As the event’s promoters described it, the con was “created by geeky women for geeky women [and] GeekGirlCon strives to serve a diverse spectrum of geeks and nerds. You may be a Trek fanatic; an amazing fx artist; a Linux coder; a scientist, mad or otherwise; a hardcore gamer; a fanfic writer; a LARPer; a genre reader; or a casual fan of something geeky. All self-identified geeks are welcome here to honor and celebrate the contributions and interests of women geeks—regardless of gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, alien species, number of twitter followers, or other identifier heaped upon us by society.”

What a great concept! This is the kind of thing I love to see happening. What better than to see people coming together to celebrate their nerdiness? And although it was GeekGirlCon, geeks and nerds of every gender were welcomed in the quest to celebrate women’s contributions to the sciences, gaming, fiction, comics, movies, and television.

One of the reasons I get excited about events like this is I hope that they give young girls and women the encouragement and support they need to be fearless in pursuing their dreams. To be the smart girl who’s good at math. To be the girl who’d rather build rocket ships than play with nail polish. To be whatever she wants to be, and to live up to all the potential she has without being hamstrung by antiquated social mores and outdated stereotypes.

And I remember, very well, being the quiet girl who wrote stories and plays, who read everything from Star Trek fiction to Vietnam War memoirs, who felt like the only square peg in a universe of round ones. If there was anything like GeekGirl happening when I was in my teens, it was far, far away from the little town where I grew up.  

In the spirit of GeekGirlCon, I’d like to offer up these fun and interesting places to visit:

Geek Girls Network 

GirlGeeks

Geek Girls Rule

Nerd Girl Army

And finally, please give a shout out to Kendall, a high school student and founder of Nerd Girl Homes

Plant Bulbs Now

Have you received fall flower catalogs? I have from my favorite nurseries and I plan to purchase a few things like I do each planting season. Bulb planting season is now.  Tulips, daffodils, crocus, hyacinth, snowdrops, lily, glory of the snow, grape hyacinth are available everywhere. Alliums (fancy blooming onions), Camassia, a native plant, and Fritillaria are becoming more common. In the Fritillaria family the beautiful yellow or orange blooming crown imperial is less hardy than the purple checkered flower variety, so I can only grow the checkered one. A reminder that you should check hardiness and growing zones, even for bulbs.

There are a few tricks to get the best results from your bulb planting. First is to plant masses of each type of bulb you want to grow. How many makes a mass?  At least three of each variety if viewed from close by, preferably ten or more when viewed from afar. This is especially true of small bulbs like snowdrops (Galanthus) and glory of the snow (Chinodoxa). For impact plant at least ten of these bulbs, and twenty-five or more if possible.

A single tulip or daffodil, while pretty, looks forlorn in the garden. Odd numbers like three, five or seven look more attractive.  For some reason we appreciate odd numbers in small quantities. Once over ten, our eye doesn't distinguish the number, but sees the entire planting as one.  Some gardeners love hundreds of tulips or daffodils planted with all colors and types mingled together in joyous abandon; others prefer the dramatic look of a planting containing only one or two colors or types.

My bulb flowering season seems to lag about two weeks behind lower Michigan in the spring, and planting time comes about two weeks earlier in the autumn than the dates listed in most garden books.  So if it says not to plant tulip bulbs until October, talk to some local experienced gardeners.

Most packages give planting depth instructions.  If you received fresh dug bulbs, plant them at a rough guesstimate of two to three times the diameter of the bulb, deeper in sandy soils, shallower in clay soils.  Don't line the bulbs up in a row.  Scatter them with a gentle toss and plant them where they fall, or plant them in triangular patterns, one bulb at each corner of the triangle, repeating the pattern throughout the garden.

Warning! Mice, moles, or chipmunks love to eat tulip and lily bulbs during the winter. Most animals avoid daffodils.  Their bulb contains an alkaloid that is poisonous, so prevent your child or pet from chewing on them. Hyacinth can also cause illness if eaten, and the leaves of the autumn crocus, Colchicum, are very poisonous.

Many people don't believe it, but hybrid tulip and hyacinth bulbs are only good for one or two flowerings. Each year after their initial spectacular show, the flowers run-on, or diminish in size.  To develop the big flowering bulbs sold in stores, growers don't permit their plants to bloom.  This puts all the season's growth into bulb size and strength, enabling it to produce the huge flower everyone loves.  So every few years these bulbs need replacing. Most are inexpensive.  If you don't want the work, try some of the small species tulips. Whatever you do, plant lots of bulbs for a colorful spring.

Weaving memories of the past

As I read Anny Cook's blog about Calligraphy (one of my many hobbies) I was tempted to dig out my pens and ink and create something beautiful. However, at the moment I am surrounded by the trappings of another ancient art, usually referred to as a craft, that of weaving natural fibers. At the moment I am doing some chair caning.

Years ago as a young, poor bride setting up housekeeping I purchased four chairs from a second hand store for the astronomical sum of $15.00. They were standard ladder back kitchen chairs that were missing their rush seats. With youthful confidence I just knew I could figure out how to weave the seats myself. After all, I could crochet, how much harder could it be?

It took time to locate the needed materials. We didn't have the internet back then and only big cities had craft stores. Luckily I finally found them at our local Coop Extension Office, complete with instructions! It didn't take long to find out just how much harder it was than crochet! My first efforts didn't even begin to resemble the illustrations in the instructions. But I percivered and finally completed the chairs. I was so proud of myself! That began a life long love affair with weaving.

From chair seats it was just a short leap to basket weaving, which I have done for years and garnered great satisfaction. I learned early why mental hospitals offer basket weaving to patients. Its a fairly easy project to complete a basic basket, and gives the weaver such a sense of accomplishment in a reasonably short time. I have made money selling at craft shows and given many baskets as gifts.

One day a friend asked me to "fix" a caned chair for her. She had no idea that there was a vast difference between rushing, basket weaving and caning. But always up for a challange, I took it on. I was hooked from the moment I found the words "Sarah 1923" scratched into the bottom of the seat. I was holding history in my hands. Who was Sarah? Where did this chair start out? How many people had rested weary bodies on this chair, or enjoyed a meal, or sat at a desk writing letters, or even books? And what kind of chair was this anyway? I began to research the history of chairs. I never did find any useful information about that particular chair, but I learned a lot about chairs in general and found a new respect for this ordinary part of every home. Imagine your home with out chairs! Like many things in life, we tend to take them for granted.

At present I am caning a Queen Anne chair, circa 1904. As I work the cane throught he holes I try to imagine the person who first caned this chair. Did it ever occur to them that over a hundred years later someone would be wondering about them? That someone would be reconstructing their work? Was it a man or a woman? Was this a factory made chair or lovingly crafted by a carpenter who would someday be a famous furniture maker? How much did it cost? And most interesting of all, how many places and where had this chair lived?

I still have my four original rush chairs. The have been reworked a couple of time, mainly to teach my granddaughters the craft. Its a dying art, replaced like so many other crafts, by technology. But for me, one who loves history, its an honor to save pieces of the past and to be able to put my hands on something as ordinary as a chair that lived in another time.

Visiting the Home of Earnest Hemingway in Key West

There are few places I enjoy visiting more than Key West, Florida. Tropical beauty abounds there and so do unusual people. No one living there now or in the past is probably more unusual than author Ernest Hemingway. Whether you loved him or hated him, Key West is rampant with relics and memories of the renowned and unforgettable Nobel-prize-winning author. During a summer trip, we took a tour of his famous Key West home.

Amy and Pablo Picasso

Note the extra toe

While touring the grounds and the house, we saw many of the six-toed cats (polydactyl) that are descendants of the first Hemingway cat, Snowball. Our daughter, Amy, is a real cat person who was thrilled to see all the cats on the property. There were little cat houses everywhere. All the cats have names, and Amy was especially taken with Pablo Picasso who was very people friendly. Gertrude Stein, Audrey Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Spencer Tracy, and Charlie Chapman were among the other cats lounging about in the lush foliage and on patio bricks. The cats are well-taken care of with a wire fence placed above the brick wall to keep them in and intruders out.

Picasso Painting

The studio where Hemingway wrote many of his famous novels is located behind the house. At one time a cat walk connected the two buildings so that the author could walk from his bedroom to his studio without going up or down any of the stairs. A painting on display in the bedroom by Pablo Picasso was given to Hemingway in exchange for a case of hand grenades.

If they want to learn more about the life and ways of Ernest Hemingway, visitors to Key West can go to the Customs House Museum. Upstairs, a video plays that tells the story of Hemingway, his four wives, his fishing interests, his days in Cuba and much more.

After visiting the Hemingway House, we headed to a converted house next door that is now the Six-toed Cat Restaurant. Not only did they have a gift shop devoted to more cat items, but the tops of all the tables were cut out in the shape of six-toed cat paws. The food was good and we felt gratified by our day with Ernest Hemingway and his descendant cats.

Monti
<a href="http://marymontaguesikes.blogspot.com">NotesAlongTheWay</a>

EMBRACE YOURSELF -- Vonnie Davis

Today is my first post at Night Writers, and I’m pleased to have a blogging home where I can offer encouragement to others of like minds--a sister-hood of creative authors who are serious about their craft.

Writing is the collaborative effort of one: You and the characters in your mind. This profession is one non-writers can’t understand. They don’t comprehend the self-imposed solitude. Why would you want to give up lunch with the girls or a few hours of yard sales to write? How could you forget your favorite aunt’s birthday? Where’s dinner? Who did you say woke you up in the middle of the night? Your hero?

My writing life is easier than most. I say that because, one, I’m retired and two, I’m married to a writer. When he jostles me awake at three in the morning to tell me he has to get up and write, I understand. When I’m in the middle of a heavy scene, he unloads the dishwasher and vacuums so I can keep kissing the computer keys with my fingertips. Our lives revolve around our writing; we are each other’s strongest supporter.

Yet I know few of you have unlimited time to write as I do. You have outside jobs, children, housework and other family obligations. At times, you may feel no one understands what it is you do. You take your research, your characters, your storylines and go inward. Within your creative mind, you blend, twist, sieve through words, then slowly birth your story. With all you’ve learned about your craft, you make your manuscript shine and infuse it with your unique voice. No one can understand the process better than another writer.

This process, by turns, exhilarates and drains us. Our storylines niggle at our thought processes as we go about our daily routines. They pop into our minds during a movie. They waken us from a sound sleep.

This alone makes us different. We do not march to the beat of a drum. We dance to the beat of a flute. We are writers. We do not destroy; we create. We do not seek crowds; we seek to reduce the crowds in our heads. We do not ignore conversations of strangers; we listen to the cadence of their voices and how they string words together. We remember a snippet of their dialogue and spice our writing with it. We are at once, different, and ordinary. We bring new meaning to the word “paradox.”

There is a unique way our minds work. Our souls feel on a deeper level. Our eyes find beauty in ordinary aspects of nature. We are word artists. Embrace it. Delight in it. For we are writers. Flowers of a different color, but beautiful flowers, nonetheless. Would we have it any other way?

Online Reviews

It really hit me how much online reviews have pervaded our daily lives when I went shopping with my roommate for a new vaccuum cleaner. We were comparing vacuum cleaners, looking at the specs and prices, and then she pulled out her iPhone. She started looking up the Amazon reviews for the vaccuum that seemed to be the best deal. She checked out reviews across the spectrum: low, high, middle. That way, she was able to weigh complaints against glowing recommendations.

After she purchased the vacuum cleaner--decision based partially on the reviews--I started thinking about all the ways in which online reviews have changed us as consumers. Almost any site asks for online reviews. Even when I shop for clothing now, there's an option to read and leave customer reviews. They are absolutely everywhere--Overstock, library websites, recipe websites--everywhere you go. I'm browsing online for a slow cooker these days, and I find myself looking at the customer reviews before I look at the product descriptions.

And it doesn't stop at simply leaving a review. Amazon is a good example of taking the rating and reviewing experience above and beyond. You can join communities there to talk about books and other products, and you can create lists on which other consumers can vote among other things. You can vote on just about anything there come to think of it--helpfulness of reviews, product lists, etc.

I wonder how much all of this influences our purchasing decisions. I read a post in one of the Goodreads groups I belong to that stated the poster had taken a book off her to-be-read list because it had gotten such low reviews. In this era of massive amounts of user generated content, we are all gate keepers now I guess. Deciding the quality of a product is no longer left to the "professionals." Especially with the rise of self-publishing/the e-book phenomenon and other related things. For example, you have the e-book success stories like Amanda Hocking's which were based almost entirely on book blogs and various forms of online social media.

I'd like to think that I still form opinions for myself on which products to buy--books or otherwise--without paying much attention to reviews. However, I do find myself glancing at those reviews. And I can't say that they don't influence me at all.

How much would you say that reviews influence your purchasing decisions?

The unexpected consequences of meditation.

The consequences of meditation go way beyond stilling the mind and training it into a focussed state of discipline. As your mind responds to your meditations, your physiological state will also change. Remember, you may have initially taken up meditation to reduce your stress levels.  In that case you intentionally set about creating those physiological transformations.

As you change so does your environment.  Every adjustment within yourself sparks off changes in those around you. It may be your changes unsettle those who thought they knew you, causing them to re-assess the person they’d become used to. The people who currently share your life's journey may suddenly take the next fork right or left. Some may continue along the road with you while casting puzzled glances in your direction.  You've changed, but so subtly they cannot pinpoint where, or when, those changes began, let alone when they manifest themselves.

When you begin transforming, those who may have been subliminally using you for years, discover their power over you is waning, and they will not be impressed.  The result may be an increased demand on your time and attention. It may ratchet up tensions, or begin the ultimate and timely break, the severing of the relationship between you, whether they are family, friends or partners, to name just a few.

Incidents will alter too.  As your attitude to life changes, so will the energies you give off shift. Things that bothered you at one time, you may now brush-off as insignificant, others may become intolerable; to the extent you actively seek to remove them from your life.  In other words you subconsciously chose to change your life's direction when you began meditating.

Some of those changes will be fun. Others will be painful, but all will point you in the direction you are meant to be facing at this moment in time.

You have choices. 

You can choose to do nothing, you can choose to fight those changes, or you can accept them. 

Meditation, when you let it into your life, will lay those options at your feet, and you may find you want to meditate on them before you make another choice!

Made In America--American Wirehair

http://www.allcatbreeds.com/AmericanWirehair/

Like several other breed kitties, the American Wirehair started out as a mutation in the cat gene pool back in 1966. It originated in upstate New York. Wirehairs were registered with the CFA in 1967. Today, they are one of the most difficult breeds to come by. So if you decide to go to a breeder for a wirehair there could be a waiting list along with a salty price.
These kitties are people pleasers and are known for being in tune with their humans. If you've had a rough day at work, this kitty will sit beside you and try to purr you back into a better mood... after you've fed him/her of course;) They are also affectionate and like to keep tabs on their people. Whatever room you're in, expect your Wirehair to be there too.
They are a very playful cat and would do well on stage, as they love to be the center of attention. Wirehairs are medium to large with slightly rounded ears, large bright eyes and curly whiskers.
Its their coat, though, that sets them apart from other cats with its dense, crimped, springy coarseness that comes in a wide variety of colors and patterns.
This cat does well with other cats and children.
Wirehairs can be prone to skin allergies. It is recommended that you bath them frequently. They are also prone to heavy ear wax buildup.
A real plus to this kitty is low level shedding.
The average life span is about fifteen years but they can live twenty years or longer.
Overall, a good addition to the family.
In the market for an American Wirehair? Don't forget to try www.petfinder.com

Locking, Popping, and Breaking – Oh My!

If you read regency novels, you know it’s the rare historical that doesn’t have at least one reference to the risqué waltz. Yet pick up any young adult (YA) novel, and you rarely find any references to dance. Strange, since dance, especially hip-hop, is so much a part of today’s pop culture.

Perhaps this literary dance drought occurs because so many YA novels are written by adults. Maybe the lack of hip-hop references can be attributed to authors who want to keep their stories timeless and fear the evolving dance style will become outmoded. Or maybe describing the intricate movement is simply too complicated for the written word. Whatever the reason, the YA writer needs to be aware of the components of hip-hop—especially if you want to be authentic to your genre. Whether you use any hip-hop references in your story is, of course, entirely up to you.

So what is hip-hop? The first form of dancing referred to as hip-hop was breakdancing. This dance style evolved from James Brown's song Get on the Good Foot. (Yep—hip-hop is that old.) In the early days, breakdancing included mostly quick footwork and body freezes. As the style evolved, more emphasis was placed on groundwork (or floorwork). Breakdance first became widely popular during the 1980's. Even I learned the basics (yep--I'm that old. ) Dancers began spinning on their arms—often looking like gymnasts on the pommel horse. Head spins, flips and moves like handgliding, backspinning, and windmilling were added. Today, hip-hop moves are nothing short of spectacular—with dancers seeming to defy gravity and the constraints of the human body.

Hip-hop has been incorporated into movies and theater productions. Today, breakdancing and hip-hop classes are core components of even the most traditional dance studios.

If you’re going to write for today’s youth, you need to know how they dance. Want a visual? Check your local listings for the television show America’s Best Dance Crew. So You Think You Can Dance nearly always has at least one hip-hop number and movies like the Step-Up series show the details of the street vibe. In a hurry? You can always go to YouTube and search for breakdancing or hip-hop. Next time, I’ll talk more about the moves and the style derivations.

Until then, happy locking, popping, and breaking.

Love Found in Romance Stories

Love Found in Romance Stories

…his lips awakened her senses, filling her being with an erotic fire that could light up the night sky. Hmm, can you feel his arms tighten, in order to keep her against him? Or do your senses rush in to capture the full masculine essence of the man. Do your fingers flex to keep their hold on to his stiff shirt as your palm presses against the thunder of his heartbeats? All this and more are found within the pages of a romance story.

Can you remember the first romance novel you ever read? That love story that moved you out of the horse or mystery stories and into this magical world where love could be found and would prevail against all the odds. Did you groan every time you were forced to put the story down and return to the real world? An eternity would pass before you were able to come back to those memorable characters and their world. When those final words were read and the tears ran down your cheek, the characters and their story would stay with you far beyond the ending.

Romance stories are so much more than just a quick read and love scenes. A romance is like walking into another world and becoming part of the story. Being part of a story is a far cry from being an observer or sitting on the sidelines waiting for something to happen. No, when you are in a romance story you are a participant of that story. You move when they move, you feel what they experience, you are the character. Everything that happens is seen through your character’s eyes, you feel every breath, those warm touches and chaste kisses, yes, the characters bring the story alive.

Your favorite author is the one that makes the magic happen for you. When you pick up that story there is no hesitation, no worry or fear, you know you are on a thrill ride of sensations. The experience is a solitary adventure, one that allows you to leave all your worries and life’s chores in the laundry bin. You may jump into a stagecoach being shot at by robbers, the cavalry will come to the rescue and in a flash of awareness you have found your hero. Or he may come speeding in your life in a space ship, filled with adventures from other galaxies and beyond.

Heroes can hide in the most unlikely of places. A dark hero may already be lurking in the shadows, waiting for you to see him, find him when all others failed. He could be the one leading a force of barbarians, soldiers armed to the teeth, ready to cut you down or worse. He could be the force that captures you, takes you far away from your family and friends, leave life as you know it. Ahh, but your hero would never allow anything so heinous to happen to you. Only a hero can rush in and sweep you up in his arms, sheltering you from any harm. Love comes instantly to your heart, it may not be returned, but you feel it in your heart, you know it is real.

You may have to fight to survive. That’s right, you will fight, battle to keep this newfound love alive and safe. You may even defy your lover to insure the love you carry is not harmed or damaged in any way. So the world you now exist in is new and different, nothing like your former life, but you adjust and learn how to live in this world. Why do we go to such lengths? What force drives us on when we fear all around us? Love…Love for another that is so strong it has reached across the time barriers, jumped the stars, created new worlds, entered into the darkness. Love is the strongest of all forces.

Love will prevail, but not without battles between you and your hero. No matter the outcome or the evil that persists to keep the two of you apart, love will always find a way to your heart. You will never give up, never quit believing, never stop hoping that your hero will find you. Together the two of your will hold on to each other in love for all eternity.

Don’t be afraid to find love. If you have never looked before, now is the time. Romance comes in a gambit of genres, every taste and desire is available. You can fly through space, travel back in time, drive a wagon in the old west or fight knights in kingdoms of old, and there is nothing lacking in the romances found right here and now. And when it comes to loving our heroes, you can do so behind closed doors, take a thrilling afternoon off from work or climb up into that four-poster bed and enjoy what ever comes. Just remember, you may have to fight to hold on to that hero.

Your love can be found right here on the internet, at your favorite ebook store or library. Now is the time to step out, take a chance and look for your hero. Don’t be shy, take it nice and slow or just grab one and race to your special place. With the lights turned down, cuddle up in your favorite chair and open your next romance, your next true love.

As those embers of love and the battles to keep it safe are slowly fading from the world, you won’t let go. The love you found in his arms will be kept safe in your heart, tucked away from all prying eyes, to be taken out and experienced by you and you alone. Once this kind of love is found, it can never die, never be corrupted or lost, for romance always wins and love is forever…endless.

________________________

As you can see I write character driven stories :) My WORDS OF LOVE - How To Write A Romance Novel will take you through the steps to writing your next love affair.

Get your copy at Kindle

House Cleaning Baby Step One

Cleaning Tips from Sherry Morris

Tired of being tired? Over-scheduled and Under-appreciated? No time to yourself? Stop making excuses. You can have a clean (enough) home. You just have to want it. Want it enough to clean it. Challenge yourself to clean for ten minutes every day.

Now the dishes have to get washed every day and the laundry has to be done at least weekly, or you'll run out of pots and plates and tops and bottoms. So I am going to assume you are finding the time (or delegating) to these two tasks.

Give yourself ten minutes of cleaning time every day for the next two weeks. Set a timer (on your phone, the microwave, range, alarm clock, etc.) or buy a timer.

Day One:  After you've washed the dishes, set the timer for ten minutes. Now clean the kitchen for ten minutes. Get rid of all the clutter that doesn't belong in the kitchen. Wipe down the appliances, cabinets, counter tops. Clean a shelf in the refrigerator or pantry. Do any one or more of these tasks, and don't stop until the timer buzzes. When it does, stop. Pat yoursself on the back. And go back to your over-schedulded under-appreciated life.

Day Two:  After you've washed the dishes, set the timer for ten minutes. Now clean the path from the front door to the main living area. Put the shoes, coats, backpacks, pocket junk, mail, magazines and miscellaenous nonsense away. At least put it in the room it belongs. Stop when the timer buzzes.

Day Three:  After you've washed the dishes, set the timer for ten minutes. Now clean the family room/living room/lounge. The main area your family spends it's life in. Put the junk away. Take it to the rooms it belongs. If you have collections of chatskis, par them down to sets of three. Put the rest away to rotate in and out. Less is more relaxing. Stop when the timer buzzes.

Day Four:  After you've washed the dishes, set the timer for ten minutes.  Now clean the area where you keep your computer and bills. Purge junk mail. Shred anything you don't want that has your name or financial information on it. Sharpen your pencils. Refill the paper in the printer. Wipe off the desktop. At the very least, gather up all the paper clutter, place it in a bag and put the bag neatly away, with a vow to go through it when you're watching TV each night. It might take several nights, but you'll get it emptied. Stop when the timer buzzes.

Day Five:  After you've washed the dishes, set the timer for ten minutes.  Now clean the main bathroom, the one that gets flushed the most. Purge the magazines, put the hair products and make up away. Close the shower curtain. Put out a fresh towel. Shine the mirror and stainless fixtures. Clean the sink. Stop when the timer buzzes.

Day Six:  After you've washed the dishes, set the timer for ten minutes. Now clean the dining room. Zoom through and take everything that's been stashed there and deposit it in the room it belongs. Come back and clean off the table. Again, if there is paper clutter, put it in a bag and go through that while watching TV. Stop when the timer buzzes.

Day Seven:  Early in the morning, sort the laundry and keep the washer and dryer spinning until it's done. Deliver all the clothes to the rooms they belong. If the owners are big enough, they can put their own clothes away. Make sure the last load you wash is white. After you start the washer, take the bottle of bleach and pour about 1/4 cup in every toilet you have. Close the bathroom doors and let everyone know not to use them while the bleach is soaking. Half an hour later, zoom through the bathrooms swishing the toilets and wiping them down with disinfectant. Flush and let the family know they are back in business. Do the dishes.

Day Eight:  After you've washed the dishes, set the timer for ten minutes. Dust your home. Stop when the timer buzzes.

Day Nine:  After you've washed the dishes, set the timer for ten minutes. Sweep or vaccuum your home. Stop when the timer buzzes.

Day Ten:  After you've washed the dishes, set the timer for ten minutes. Clean your bedroom. Stop when the timer buzzes.


Day Eleven:  After you've washed the dishes, set the timer for ten minutes. Clean another bedroom. Stop when the timer buzzes.


Day Twelve:  After you've washed the dishes, set the timer for ten minutes. Clean out your purse. Stop when the timer buzzes.

Day Thirteen:  After you've washed the dishes, set the timer for ten minutes. Clean out your car. Stop when the timer buzzes.

Day Fourteen:  Early in the morning, sort the laundry and keep the washer and dryer spinning until it's done. Deliver all the clothes to the rooms they belong. If the owners are big enough, they can put their own clothes away. Make sure the last load you wash is white. After you start the washer, take the bottle of bleach and pour about 1/4 cup in every toilet you have. Close the bathroom doors and let everyone know not to use them while the bleach is soaking. Half an hour later, zoom through the bathrooms swishing the toilets and wiping them down with disinfectant. Flush and let the family know they are back in business. Do the dishes.

Don't expect to finish cleaning any room in ten minutes. The point is cleaning for ten minutes will make a difference. Your home will be cleaner and happier than if you didn't try at all. 

I'll be back on the 22nd to check on your progress, praise you and nudge you to the next baby step. 

In the beginning...

Calligraphy... the very word conjures up images of fancy lettering and exotic decorative borders. In general, we think of the calligrapher hunched over their desk, laboriously sketching out the alphabet in a dimly lit room.

Consider where we would be without the original calligraphers--without the written word. Without the scores of men (and later, women) tales of adventure, religious parables, recipes, geography, astronomy...even maps would not have survived. Until Gutenberg's wonderful world-changing invention, all knowledge was preserved and passed down via the handwritten word.

Prior to the printing press, only the wealthiest individuals could afford books. Often a large library consisted of maybe five or six books. Even one book was a priceless treasure. And every single book was the product of calligraphers.

Today, the modern calligrapher is considered an oddity. Strange and marvelous at the same time. In our hurry-scurry world, a craft that requires meticulous practice and hours of preparation for each piece is generally unappreciated.

The small framed piece at the top of the page is 8 1/2 X 11 inches. It represents eighty plus hours of work from the design and layout to the lettering and painted border. A visitor once offered me twenty dollars for it (matted and framed) and was somewhat put out when I declined his generous offer.

In my future posts I'll share the intricate link between calligraphy and the stories we share today, regardless of genre. I'm thrilled to be part of the Night Writers. I look forward to taking my place on the 5th and the 20th of each month!

anny cook

The National Map

For just about any subject, you can find geekery. You just have to know where to look for it. Take maps, for instance. Very useful, especially when you’re trying to figure out where you made that wrong turn. And I have no idea where I might be right now if my husband hadn’t given me a GPS navigator. I’ve used the thing to navigate back roads in West Virginia, Texas, and Montana, and never once ended up at a dead end. Traveling is so much more fun that way!

So where does the geekery come in? Let’s begin with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS),which is the country’s largest water, earth, and biological science and civilian mapping agency. This government agency has been responsible for mapping the entire country for well over a century. And they really do map everything. Forests, minerals, water supplies, populations, roads, navigation routes, the list goes on and on. They collect, monitor, and analyze data to provide scientific understanding about natural resource conditions, issues, and problems.

But wait, there’s more! For several years, the USGS has been digitizing historic maps and placing them in an online database that the public can use. The project is part of The National Map project. Right now, there are 90,000 GeoPDF maps available to download and view, and the number is going to keep growing. You can search the map collection using a map name search or a map-based search.

Suppose you want to know what historic maps are available for your hometown. You choose the map-based search option and type in the name and state of your town. It’ll pop up on a modern map and have a little red marker attached to it. When you click on the marker, you get a list of the maps you can view. Click on one of those maps, and the website walks you through the process of getting the map opened so you can look at it.

I did a search like this for the very small town where my mother grew up in rural Kentucky. I found a map that dated from a few years before she was born. When I compare that map to today’s map, I’m astonished at how many things have changed – and how many haven’t. Plus, it’s a way for me to connect to a part of my family’s past that I hadn’t thought of before. All you genealogists out there, isn’t that cool?!?

I don’t think geekery necessarily has to have a functional use – first and foremost, it’s just fun! But what other uses does this website have? Let’s say you like to write historical fiction. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a map that shows exactly what a particular place looked like at a given point in time? 

If you’re more interested in current data than historic data, the National Map has something for you too. Go to the National Map Viewer page to open the viewer. You can search by place name and then you have a list of data types to choose from so you can learn more about an area’s current conditions. 

What do you think? Is there a place you want to know more about? Let us know what you’ve learned!