New Year's Day 2015

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy and successful New Year! Are you setting new goals? Making resolutions? I hope yours fare better than Luann's Father's.

What happens to your New Year's resolutions? Do they follow the same pattern as Luann's parents. In a strip that ran on November 16, 2014 Nancy and Frank DeGroot  are sitting on the couch eating popcorn. She's reading a book and he's reading the newspaper. And she asks, "What ever happened to your New Year's resolution to take up jogging?"

"Nothing I'm keen to start. It's just that in January and February were too cold. March was windy. April I had taxes to do, and in May we had house guests. June, July and August were way too hot. Then I got that kink in my neck and then I couldn't find my earbuds."

She says, "I see. And right now?"

"It's getting kind of dark..."

"But you're keen to start."

He grabs a handful of popcorn and turns back to the newspaper. "Think about it all the time."

If you want some inspiration for establishing new habits and sticking to them, this blog post from Dani Greer at The Blood Red Pencil might be of help. 

Blog Award

I'm doing something different this Friday. My friend Nancy Cohen honored me with this lovely blog award recently, and I want to thank her for considering my blog worthy of an award. Nancy is the author of a cozy mystery series that feature a sleuth who is a hairdresser. I have read Shear Murder and enjoyed it a lot.

 The rules for this award are:

1. Link back to and thank the blogger who nominated you.
2. Post the badge on your blog.
3. Answer the questions posed to you.
4. Nominate five bloggers who shine a little light in your day and notify them.
5. Ask five questions for your nominees.

Since I always hesitate to impose rules on my blogger friends, I encourage those that I nominate to think in terms of guidelines, not rules. And now to answer some of Nancy's questions.

1. What genre do you read for fun? I read primarily mystery for fun.

2. Do you revise as you go along or wait until your first draft is done? I do some revising as I go along. Often my writing session begins with reading through the last chapter or scene to jump-start the next action in the book, so I will tweak some as I am doing that. Still, I will also end up doing one or two revisions when the whole story is complete.

3. What advice would you give aspiring authors? I would encouring aspiring authors to learn perseverance and develop a thick skin. Those that succeed are those who keep writing, and those who improve their craft are those who are willing to take constructive criticism and editorial input. I would also tell them to read as much as possible in all genres, as we absorb good writing techniques as we read.

4. Do you have beta readers and who are they? For my latest release my beta readers were Dani Greer and Cathy Richmond. Dani is the acqusitions editor for Little Pickle Press, and Cathy is the author of best-selling Christian fiction. Both are writers for whom I have a great deal of respect.

Now I would like to pass the award on to:

Helen Ginger, who has a terrific blog where she shares information on writing and the publishing business, as well as some great book reviews.

LD Masterson, who always has something fun and interesting on her blog. Love her Hump Day

Susan Swiderski, who does fun posts with lots of pictures and clever captions. It's always fun to visit her blog.

Marilyn Meredith, who is an amazing woman and my idol. She is not afraid to admit her age, 87, nor how many books she has written and published, 35. 

Joan Reeves, who is always promoting fellow authors, as well as offering all kinds of helpful posts from editing to setting up an office.

And my questions for my friends - should you choose to answer:

1. How long do you spend putting together a blog?

2. What other writing do you do?

3. Do you blog because you like to, or because you were told you have to by a publisher?

4. What is a story your family likes to tell about you?

5. When you visit another blog, do you promote it on social media?

Book Review - The Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories

I'm not sure if there is any rule against reviewing a book that  you are a contributor to, but if I don't say anything about my story, will that work?

A few weeks ago, all of us who contributed to The Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories were asked to download the book to do some proofing and check for formatting issues, so we have had the opportunity to read all the stories first.

In reading some of the first stories in the collection, I noticed a theme that involved strong women taking charge of their lives. "You Can't be too Careful" by Bob Sanchez features George, who is a bit off his rocker, so to speak, and has made his wife, Lila, live with him in a storm shelter. Duct tape plays an important role in this humorous story that has a bit of an O'Henry twist.

Shon Bacon's story, "I Wanna Get Off Here" brings us the character of Bay, a bus driver and closet writer. She doesn't want to be forever trapped in the abusive relationship with Darryl. He thinks she is too stupid to be anything but a bus driver, but in her heart, Bay knows she is better than that. She needs to find the courage to get him out of her life, and she finds it at The Corner Cafe.

In "What's Next" by Karen Casey Fitzjerrell, the reader meets a woman named Wilson, named so because her mother desperately wanted "a baby with a penis." Wilson has grown up in a little town in Texas near the Gulf  and longs for more than the endless routine of days and nights living with her grandmother, and wondering what happened to her father who died at sea before she was born. How she decides to break that endless cycle is both harrowing and enlightening.

I found these stories of strong women particularly endearing. Maybe because I like to write about strong women. But I also really enjoyed the other stories as well. On her blog, The Fabulousness, Red Tash shares a list of all the stories with a short blurb for each one.

This collection, a collaborative effort with 14  writers is free at Amazon UNTIL MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. You can download it to your Kindle by clicking here: http://www.amzn.to/Cornercafe and read at your leisure!

If you don't have a Kindle, you can download a free Kindle app to many other gadgets like your computer, smartphone, or iPad. Click here: http://bit.ly/CCKindleApps

Free Kindle Book

Surprise, surprise. I don't normally post on Saturdays, unless I'm doing the A to Z challenge, but I had to pop in today to let you know about a free book this weekend.

The Corner Cafe A Tasty Collection of Short Stories is described on Amazon:  Sweet, dreamy, steamy, and sometimes slightly seamy, this multi-genre collection of short stories includes something for every taste. Prepared by the BBT Café authors: Marian Allen, Shonell Bacon, Karen Casey Fitzjerrell, W.S. Gager, Helen Ginger, Dani Greer, S.B. Lerner, Audrey Lintner, Morgan Mandel, Maryann Miller, Bodie Parkhurst, Bob Sanchez, Mary Montague Sikes, Red Tash, Christine Verstraete.

During the month of June we are doing a blog tour and the authors will be visiting blogs to talk about their stories, their writing, and sometimes some little known facts about themselves. I hope you can find the time to visit a few of the blogs and meet these terrific authors that I am honored to share pages with. Here is a link to Dani Greer's blog with a list of all the tour stops. We hope you join us each day to read more about how The Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories evolved.

Today and tomorrow the book will be free for Kindle. The good news is you don't need to own a Kindle to download and read the book. You can download an app for another gadget at this link and it's free:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

So happy reading all, and if you download the book and like it, it would be wonderful if you would let us know by writing a short review.  My story is titled "Over the Threshold" and is a cross between noir mystery and "The Twilight Zone."

My Y/A novel, Friends Forever is also free today, Saturday.  This is book for tweens dealing with the issues of friendships lost and friendships found and the consequences of bullying.

Read a Book - It's Good for You

I always knew that reading was good for people. As a child, I escaped into fiction and found comfort and sometimes guidance in the stories I read. I learned about dedication and commitment from The Old Man and the Sea.  I learned about loyalty and devotion to those we love from Of Mice and Men I learned about the danger of too much power and prestige in The Great Gatsby. And I learned about good and evil through the characters in the westerns I read by Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour . The good guys were clearly defined by the adherence to a strict moral code, while the outlaws operated on a different moral plane entirely.

It was interesting to read a recent article by Jonathan Gottschall, who teaches English at Washington & Jefferson College and is the author of The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make us Human. He validated my belief that fiction helped shape me when he shared results from research "that shows that reading fiction does mold us. The more deeply we are cast under a story's spell, the more potent it's influence."

For the complete article, I suggest you go to this link. It is worth the time to get all the results of the research, especially the difference between the impact of reading fiction and non-fiction.

One of the most interesting facts that Gottschall pointed out is that fiction shapes us for the better, not for the worse.  When I was researching for my nonfiction book, Coping With Weapons and Violence in School and on Your Streets, I found studies that indicated that all the violence in fiction promotes violence in young people, and the jury is still out on the effects of the violent video games. However, this new research indicates that reading fiction "enhances our ability to understand other people; it promotes a deep morality that cuts across religious and political creeds. More peculiarly, fiction's happy ending seem to warp our sense of reality. They make is believe in a lie: that the world is more just than it actually is."

Giving people that belief may explain "why humans tell stories in the first place."

While I do not consciously have that thought in mind as I write my stories, most of my fiction does offer the hope that good will prevail over evil. It encourages people to embrace new ideas and attitudes toward people and cultures that are different from what they are comfortable with, and it looks at life situations and brings about that happy ending that doesn't always happen in real life.

To assist you in believing in a happier world, there is a new book out, The Corner Cafe; A Tasty Collection of Short Stories that has an eclectic assortment of stories from published authors. I am pleased to be one of those authors with my story that is described as; "Over the Threshold" by Maryann Miller mixes a bit of Raymond Chandler noir with "The Twilight Zone."

For the month of June, the authors will be doing a blog book tour, and the full schedule of stops can be found at Dani Greer's blog site Blog Book Tours.  The tour starts today and you can find a complete introduction to the book at Dani's blog.

Happy Reading.....

Wednesday's Guest - Little Pickle Press

Please welcome Rana DiOrio and Dani Greer, who are on a tour letting people know about a wonderful new book.

What Does It Mean To Be Safe?  By Rana DiOrio - Illustrated by Sandra Salsbury 

What a lovely book with a terrific message delivered in a straight-forward manner with delightful illustrations. Kids will love the book just for the engaging characters portrayed in the pictures, and the messages of safety will connect with them through these illustrations. Even though I no longer have very young grandchildren, I may still get a copy or two of the book just to share with daughters and granddaughters who appreciate the art, and I would certainly recommend the book to others. It is our responsibility to keep children safe, and they are more apt to pay attention to the lessons that come via a book than another lecture from mommy or grandma.

I first became acquainted with Little Pickle Press when a colleague, Dani Greer, sent me a copy of Your Fantastic Elastic Brain for review. I immediately fell in love with the engaging illustrations by Sarah Ackerley  but was also intrigued by the whole concept of Little Pickle Press, which is producing quality, innovative books while keeping one eye on the environment. It is a very green company.

As part of the blog tour, Rana and Dani answered a few questions about the press and the books for me.

Q. I love the name of the company, Little Pickle Press. Who chose it and why?

Rana: I have always referred to my children as pickles. When it came time to name the company, incorporating the word "pickle" was a logical place to start. With a little brainstorming on the part of our early team, we came up with Little Pickle Press.

Q.Dani, how did you connect with Little Pickle Press and why? What were the main things that attracted you to the company?

Dani: I'd been teaching and promoting the use of blog book tours for several years, and Rana noticed a link about my class on Facebook. She asked me about organizing a blog book tour for her latest release. I always had a special interest in children's literature, and this company was a green publisher (recycled papers using soy inks and printed in N. America) so the idea of a virtual tour was exactly right for them.

Q. The Little Pickle Press mission: "Little Pickle Press is dedicated to helping parents and educators cultivate conscious, responsible little people by stimulating explorations of the meaningful topics of their generation through a variety of media, technologies, and techniques." Could you translate that for those of us who get lost in too many words? LOL

Rana: We help parents and teachers nurture conscientious children by catalyzing conversations about stuff that matters through our books and digital media. Better?

Dani: Little Pickle Press products help teach children the important lessons they need to learn to be better people, now and as adults. The books are printed and shipped in an environmentally-conscious way to set a good example, and all the books are available to read on modern gadgets like computers and cell phones and more. It's a must to make reading available in many ways, and LPP has always been on the leading edge of these changes and opportunities.

Q. Anything else you would like to say about the Press and the book?

Dani: Like all the Little Pickle Press titles, this book will soon have an iBook version, an interactive app, and free lesson plans that teachers and parents can download to further explore those conversations we mentioned. Each of the books also has original music created by a wonderful composer and singer, Jasmine Saldate.  And there's a poster we're giving away free with the sale of this book during the tour when you use this LINK and enter coupon code BBTSAFE to get free shipping on your order. You always get lots of extras with Little Pickle Press. I have to say, I wish all the companies I've worked with were so totally cool.

This book would make a nice holiday gift and don't forget to enter the code for free shipping and the SAFE poster made of TerraSkin, the tree-free paper. Just enter BBTSAFE at check-out.
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Author Bio:
Rana DiOrio is an investor, investment banker, lawyer, and the mother of three children. She is also the founder and CEO of Little Pickle Press. What Does It Mean To Be Safe? is the fourth in her What Does It Mean To Be… ? picture book series and all are printed in an environmentally-friendly manner using recycled paper, soy inks, and green packaging.


Places you can connect with Little Pickle Press:

Book Trailer: -- Blog: ---  Facebook: --- Twitter:

One Lovely Blog Award

My friend and fellow author, Ginger Simpson, surprised me with the One Lovely Blog Award yesterday. She made the announcement on her blog, Dishin' It Out.

I was really touched by the reason she chose me and this is what she wrote about me: A great friend and confidante, and a very smart lady. She has some amazing articles on her site. Maryann is one of those people who comes into your life for a purpose, and she's certainly served hers well in mine.

So it is with the same gratitude that I pass this award to three authors who have enriched my life with their friendship and support.

Helen Ginger -- who has a terrific blog and newsletter packed with helpful information for writers. She is so generous with her time and expertise, and I really admire her for that. She is also a terrific editor.

Dani Greer -- another lady who shares her expertise graciously and frequently. She was the founder of The Blood Red Pencil blog, and can also be found at Blog Book Tours blog. I also chose Dani because she so appreciates my humor.

Morgan Mandel -- I chose Morgan primarily because I admire her courage in publishing her own book, Killer Career. Not only did she take the publishing bull by the horn, so to speak, she did so with an attention to detail and professionalism that I respect greatly. She shares advice, resources, and book reviews on her blog.

All three of these ladies also manage to do more in 24 hours than most people I know. I stand in awe of all of them. So ladies, I pass the honor along to you.

Here are the rules:

1) Accept the award, and don’t forget to post a link back to the awarding person.
2) Pass the award on.
3) Notify the award winners.