Cindy Vine

10 Things I wish I'd known BEFORE writing my first novel

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:51:00 +0000

It's always great to hear authors share their journey and writing tips they discovered along the way. It's with great pleasure that I welcome award-winning author Emlyn Chand. She's taken the time out of her busy schedule to share the 10 things she wished she knew before writing her first novel. You can watch Emlyn's book trailer of Farsighted on Youtube.

This is a guest post by Emlyn Chand, author of Farsighted

When did you have enough confidence in your abilities to officially call yourself a writer?

For me, it was when I first received money for my work as a freelance columnist. For you, it may have been when you finished the first chapter of your first novel or won a prize for a short story. Maybe you never had any qualms about saddling yourself with this label. Maybe you still don’t consider yourself a “real writer.”

Me? Now I know enough to see that I was a writer long before someone handed me that first paycheck. It’s kind of something you’re born with—like it or not.

But being an author, that’s different.

The term writer focuses more on the craft—engaging in the actual activity of writing. The term author encompasses not only the craft but also the business aspect of it.

So when are you worthy of the label author? Why, when you publish your first book of course!

I write this post just days before I make the transition from writer to author. My first novel Farsighted released recently, which means my 26-year-long (AKA life-long) dream is finally coming true. When I look back at the journey that brought me to the peak of this beautiful achievement, I can’t help but think of what I wish I’d have known before starting on my path.

I’ve identified 10 lessons I’ve learned along the way. Maybe you already know these things. Maybe you don’t. I’m gonna share ‘em anyway...

1. Something’s gotta give. Writing is not something you can do with just a little bit of effort. To get through the first draft, editing, what-have-you, you'll have to work hard! Yes, you could space it out over several years, but if you want to finish anytime this year, you’re going to have to make sacrifices. For me, this was less time with friends and family, less television, and less attention to my health (eating right and exercising). Oops.

2. Write what you want to write—not what you think you should be writing. Boy, this was a hard one to learn. I’ve always fallen back on being “that smart girl.” When things didn’t go right in my personal life or when I was picked last in gym class, I took pride in my intellect. Therefore, I’ve always done what I can to improve my wit and make my best trait the best it can be. That being said, I spent a long time forcing myself to read classic literature. I did enjoy it, and I still do, but it’s definitely not what I find most entertaining (YA is). Still I kept at the classic literature because it was important to me that others respect my intelligence (damaged by high school much? :-P). Naturally when I decided to write a novel, it came out as literary fiction. That’s the me I wanted to portray to the world. I wanted people to salivate over my talent and proclaim my literary merit... Except the novel wasn’t that good, because it wasn’t a piece of who I really am. Now that I’ve cozied into YA, I couldn’t be happier. And the larger facade of who I once pretended to be has lifted. I. AM. FREE. Now this lesson doesn’t just mean: don’t put on a false front. It also means: don’t chase trends. Write what your heart wants to write, and it’ll all be good in the end.

3. You’re going to make mistakes. LOTS of mistakes. Practice makes perfect. Well, it makes it better than before. You may be an excellent writer, but if you’ve never written a novel before, you’re a newbie. That’s okay too! When writing that all-important first novel, you’re pretty much going to make every mistake in the book. In my first novel, I really struggled with keeping a consistent point-of-view and writing authentic dialogue. The POV problem was very difficult to fix, but in trying, I learned an important lesson—one I couldn’t have learned if I hadn’t made such huge blunders. Now that I do know how to correct and avoid these problems, dialogue and POV are two of my strongest areas (at least that’s what readers tell me).

4. Writer’s detour is a bigger problem than writer’s block. Writer’s block gets all the PR, but it’s not as dangerous as writer’s detour. When you’re blocked you’re not moving forward. When you take a detour, you’re moving in the wrong direction. Will you get to California quicker by taking a small rest in Boise, or will you get there quicker by following a pretty red car to Ontario first? (My advice, drive straight-on through to Cali if you can). Don’t get so caught up with a minor character (or a theme you want to convey) that you stray all over the place. Which brings me to my next point...

5. Structure is important. We writers fall into two camps: pantsers and plotters. Some pantsers consider themselves superior, because their writing leads their plots—not the other way around. I used to think like that too. Even if you want to keep your plotline fluid, you need some form of structure. Shudder at the thought of outlining? Then mapping your characters is crucial. You need to know where you’re going and/or who's taking you there. Otherwise you’re just groping about in the dark. Yes, writing is absolutely a creative process, but don’t under-estimate the value of good planning.

6. Novel #1 may never leave the drawer. Or it may leave the drawer, journey around the query circuit, and then come right back to where it started. My first novel DID get me an agent, but 9 drafts later, it still wasn’t good enough to publish. When my agent suggested I change 2/3 of it for draft 10, I decided to move onto my next project. I just wasn’t enjoying the process anymore. I’m so glad I finally called it quits on novel #1, because novel #2 is so much better, and now I get to put it out there into the world. If I would’ve kept agonizing over the inferior manuscript, novel #2 may have never happened!

7. When you’re done, you’re not done. I’m just a big ball of sunshine today, aren’t I? But it’s important to understand just how much work follows being “done.” Anne Lamott said it best in Bird by Bird, you’re going to write “shitty first drafts.” I can guarantee it! Don’t let that stop you, just be prepared for it.

8. Writing is a business just as much as it’s an art. Getting a novel published and promoting it once it’s out there is infinitely more work than writing a novel in the first place. That’s not to under-value the writing process, but it’s true. Sure, you can finish your novel, self-publish it, and then do virtually nothing to promote it. Fine. But if you actually want to sell copies of your book, you’ve gotta handle the business side of things. Finding an agent is an extremely formal business interaction—you even have to write fancy business (AKA query) letters. Marketing your book is a TON of work. It’s pretty fun (at least, I think so, but I moonlight as a book publicist, so I realize I might not be normal). However, being fun is not equivalent to being easy. Not even close. Expect lots of work and lots of stress and not very much sleep. The good news: you get out what you put in, so give it all you can!

9. Querying will destroy your soul. My unhappy place is remembering query letter Hell. I honestly can’t remember anything harder in my life. Ever. Make sure you have a good support system in place. Because even if you’re brilliant, you can pretty much expect a slew of rejections. I ultimately got an agent but had to suffer through 60 “not for us”s first. Of course, it hurts. As writers, we pour our hearts and souls into our manuscript. Our words are a part of who we are. Having a faceless stranger tell you it’s not good enough is pure torture. End of argument.

10. You will sustain injuries. Gosh, my neck is killing me while I’m writing this post. You’re probably going to get neck and back pain too. Headaches from staring at the computer too long. Possible eye problems. Definite poor posture. Maybe even carpal tunnel syndrome. That’s just the way it goes, so be prepared.

Seems pretty cynical, doesn’t it? I <3 the craft and would never abandon it (like I even have a choice), but I find that those who are starting out with visions of Stephen King or JK Rowling-esque fame already see the pretty side of writing—the glamor. Having a balanced picture is so important. Even still, all the practical knowledge just can’t compare to experiential knowledge. Follow YOUR path to author-hood, make your own mistakes, learn lessons from them, and then share with the rest of us.

THE BOOK: Alex Kosmitoras may be blind, but he can still “see” things others can’t. When his unwanted visions of the future begin to suggest that the girl he likes could be in danger, he has no choice but to take on destiny and demand it reconsider. Get your copy today by visiting Amazon.com’s Kindle store or the eBook retailer of your choice. The paperback edition will be available on November 24 (for the author’s birthday).

THE AUTHOR: Emlyn Chand has always loved to hear and tell stories, having emerged from the womb with a fountain pen grasped firmly in her left hand (true story). When she’s not writing, she runs a large book club in Ann Arbor and is the president of author PR firm, Novel Publicity. Emlyn loves to connect with readers and is available throughout the social media interweb. Visit www.emlynchand.com for more info. Don’t forget to say “hi” to her sun conure Ducky!

Book of Prophecies

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:55:00 +0000

Us humans are born curious. We want to know about the world we live in, how things work, what others are doing. We also want to know about the future, what will our lives be like in years to come.
Over the years there have been many prophecies. Some have been bizarre, some complete rubbish and others have had elements of truth in them. Many prophecies can be manipulated to fit the truth.
In the same vein as Nostradamus, Cesar shares his prophecies with the world. Written as cryptic scripts which provide clues you have to solve to unlock the future.
For those who get a thrill out of decyphering cryptic clues, and those who have a penchant for fortelling the future, then this will be the book for you. 2012 is predicted by some to be the year the world ends. Others say it will be the end of an age. Who knows! Maybe you'll still be reading this in 2013!

More about the author

Cesar has a very experienced background in the spiritual world. He was brought up in a Christian family, but branched out from that base as he got older, seeking answers about the world around him, and the spiritual world around him. In his mid-twenties dramatic events occurred in his life which challenged his very existence, but he learned from these experienced and most of learned that how that life is not just in our own hands. Now Cesar is a firm believer that everyone has their own path to walk in life, and part of that walk is all about the choices that you make. Some people choose a good life and some a wicked life, but most of us live the life in the middle, influenced by the world around us and our own upbringing, Cesar understands that life is simply not black and white.

Website: www.cesarpropecies.com

Email: cesarnostradamus@live.ie

Purchase Links:

First Edition

Special Edition

Ebook

My life is a B-Grade movie

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:27:00 +0000

Have you ever watched a movie and thought, "What utter rubbish! That kind of thing doesn't happen in real life! No way Jose, that's not real!" Welcome to my life. Even I often believe that my life can't be real. That this is some kind of a weird dream I am living. One day I will wake up and sigh and say, "Thank God it was only a dream!" I pray that day comes soon.

There are those people who go through their schooling knowing what career path they are going to choose. They succeed at everything education, relationships, parenting, career. They have a gorgeous house in the suburbs, go on great family holidays every year. They are always happy and smiling, a bit like in those toothpaste commercials. I am not one of those people.
Whether my life was pre-destined to be as chaotic as an untweezed eyebrow or whether I subconciously create the little dramas and adventures that populate it I'll never know. I just know that some of the things that happen in my life are as unbelievable as a plot of a B-Grade movie.
It always amuses me when people say, "You need to put that in a book." The problem is that I don't write fantasy or science fiction. I write realistic fiction. If I write about some of the stuff that happens to me, my readers will say "far-fetched, can't be true, improbable."
For example, take the events of the past week.
When my mother said goodbye to us at the airport after our holiday in Cape Town, I told her to get her cough seen to. The next night she was rushed to hospital unable to breathe after a coughing fit. Diagnosis: Pneumonia. Now remember this is summer in South Africa. While much of the world is freezing, it's the hottest time of the year in Cape Town. How do you get pneumonia in summer? My mother was released from hospital the Monday, re-admitted the Thursday and put on antibiotics intravenously. Friday night her blood pressure starts dropping dangerously low. Friday night on the other side of the world on his way to work at the Ritz in Naples, Florida, my son gets knocked off his bicycle by a woman failing to stop at a stop street.
We now have two dramas, two plot-lines in this B-Grade movie. Remember, I am living in Tanzania. My mother and my son, both in hospital. Only one of them on the same continent as I.
My son luckily only has torn ligaments in his knee, a sore head and a bone cyst on his elbow. He will live although his bicycle is a total write off. The woman pays his medical expenses and buys him a new bicycle. Despite advice to the contrary, my son wants no more than this. He figures it's immoral to make someone pay for their mistake.
Already some of you are thinking, two dramas on one night, how improbable. But I swear to God it's true,
My mother makes slow progress and is eventually discharged the Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday she decides, despite being told to stay in bed and have complete bed rest, to amble over to my brother's house. He happens to live next door. My brother has a very big dog. It's paws are the size of side plates and it slobbers everywhere. I think it's a bull mastiff. The dog was so happy to see my mother, it jumped on her knocking her flying.
Back in hospital. Cracked vertebrae, effectively a broken back. Remember, she hasn't yet fully recovered from the pneumonia.
Doesn't sound real, does it?
But it gets more bizarre. My stepdad has had several back ops. For the last couple of months he's been getting a lot of pain from a pinched nerve. He's scheduled to have an operation on his back on Tuesday to fix the pinched nerve. The same day my mother will be having an operation to repair her broken vertebrae. How romantic. A hospital honeymoon both flat on their backs, sharing a ward together.
Seriously. I mean, seriously. Does anybody's life get more B-grade than this?

Introducing Karen Bell

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 07:21:00 +0000

There are so many good authors popping out of the woodwork. Authors who would never be read if it wasn't for self-publishing and the whole Indie movement. I love hosting Indie Authors on my blog and finding out how they got started on the rainbow-colored road to writing success. Walking with Elephants is Karen Bell’s first novel. Here is how she ended up on the rainbow road.

"I needed to be a writer. I had a conscious need but not the time when I was raising my kids, when they were babies. I tried to start a novel during naptime and sleeptime but I did not have the patience. I knew the patience to do it would come and eventually it did. After I graduated with a MS in mass communication and took a job as an editor, did I really believe I could be a writer. And that job actually gave me the inspiration for my debut novel, Walking with Elephants. There I was, living the fulfillment of the woman's movement. I was a working mother. Ah. The working part, although sometimes demanding was manageable for me, and living five minutes from home so was mothering. But then as my children got older, there was all the driving them everywhere. Picking up after a party when you have crashed and burned after a full day of work. Shopping for the holidays after work. Cleaning the house every weekend instead of doing something fun--or just not doing anything and relaxing.

Then I walked into the ladies room one day and saw a woman pumping her breast. This is wrong I thought. Somewhere a baby is crying. I was lucky. I stayed home with my babies, raised my babies. Went to work when they were older. I did some investigating and found out that there are countries where the mother gets one or two years maternity leave, not 4-6 weeks like this country. So I was inspired to write. But it took a very long time to finish the book--lots of starts and stops until I found my voice in the first person and interruptions called life.

I thought that writing the book was the hard part. But sadly, I was very, very wrong. Getting it published is almost insurmountable. This book beat out by years the books about the over worked mother in modern society. But no one would publish it until I found a small indie. After ten years of rejections someone said, yes. Then after one short year, the business closed. I took over as publisher because I couldn't find anyone who would pick it up and I didn't want to wait another ten years.

The publishing world has changed since I started writing. Self-publishling is now referred to as indie publishing to give it more status. And it has achieved more status. There are numerous ways an author can choose to do that. But it is still a little daunting. Where and how to market? Where to advertise?
I spoke at a book club recently, and all the ladies loved, loved, loved the book. They say word of mouth is the best and yet even tough this handful think my writing is amazing, I'm still waiting for the book to go viral…and waiting.

So authors must have a thick skin. I keep telling myself that my new novel is excellent even though the rejections are rolling in. I am not defined by my rejections. But it is tough and I hate this part. In the back of my mind I know I could just publish it myself and bypass all of this misery and I probably will end up doing that. But right now I'm still sending out the queries. Luckily there is Smashwords and Kindle waiting in the wings.

Good luck to all you authors out there. Some of you might get wide acceptance right out of the gate--and that's the hook."

Karen S. Bell

Instead of forking out hard-earned cash for an over-priced ebook by a best-selling author, rather buy 3-4 ebooks by Indie Authors. Here is the Synopsis for Walking with Elephants:
Suze Hall is at a crossroads. Her nemesis at work, Wanda, has been promoted and now will be her boss. Her husband, Bob, is leaving her and the three kids for a six-month sabbatical down under. To top it off, her best friend, Marcia, is missing in action--playing footsie with some new boyfriend!
Adding to this disaster stew, David, the gorgeous hunk who broke her young-girl's heart has coincidentally popped back into her life and has something she desperately needs to keep her job.

Walking with Elephants, a lighthearted slice-of-life story, brings to the table the serious work/family issues facing women today. It explores themoderndichotomyof aworkplace that is filled with homemakers who still must cook, clean, carpool on nights and weekends, shop for prom dresses, and "create" the holidays—such as Suze. But it also is filled with women who have the same drive as men, have no family responsibilities, and will do what ever it takes to get ahead.

So step into the shoes of Suze Hall and commiserate over workplace politics, titillate your sexual fantasies, ride the wave of a working mother, and fall-down laughing.
The cover is a symbol of the message of empowerment of women. The protagonist, Suze, writes and essay at the end of the novel suggesting a paradigm shift from the patriarchal societies that have been in place for centuries to a matriarchy, such as is found in nature. Like elephants, hence the title.
Reviewer said it's like Bridget Jones meets Erma Bombeck

You can find out more about Karen Bell on these websites.
www.karensbell.com
www.karensbell.com/blog1
http://www.amazon.com/Walking-with-Elephants-ebook/dp/B006BG7G90/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1321981337&sr=1-2

Introducing Kat Jorgensen

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:39:00 +0000

People often ask me how I became a writer. The fact is that you have to become a reader first. Most writers read a lot growing up, many still do as adults. Kat Jorgensen is no exception.

A notorious daydreamer, Kat knew it was only a matter of time before she became a writer. She learned to read by age four and had her first library card before her fifth birthday. To this day, she can lose herself for hours among the books at her local library or neighborhood bookstore. Ebooks and online ordering have made it really easy for her to keep her To Be Read pile from ever going down.
Kat has kindly agreed to share how she creates her original and entertaining characters.

Get In Touch with Your Inner Characters

I’m one of those people who believe that everyone has at least one book in them. Now I have more books and characters in my mind than I’ll probably ever use. So how do we tap into our inner characters?

For “Your Eight O’Clock Is Dead” the main character, Becca Reynolds, presented herself to me almost totally formed. Basically, she is a younger, thinner version of me with much better hair. I have baby fine hair that I’ve struggled with all of my life, so it was a no-brainer to make my heroine have much thicker hair. And be at her ideal weight.

But what about her characteristics? They’re also drawn from me. Things happen to me that don’t seem to happen to other people. For years I’ve been entertaining my friends and family with my misadventures. It was easy to translate those events into Becca’s life. I keep a running list in a notebook of weird things that involve me - like getting locked in an airplane bathroom. You can bet that that whole episode will show up in a future book! I can still tap into my claustrophobia just thinking about it. I set Becca up to be claustrophobic right from the get-go. By the time I get to book 4 where I use the airplane scene, readers will be very familiar with Becca’s fear of enclosed, tight spaces, and they’ll be feeling her panic right along with her.

Basically Becca is a lovable screw-up. Her intentions are stellar. The follow through is not always what she anticipated and how she reacts in any given situation makes for a lot of comedic opportunities.

Becca is inquisitive. She loves life, and she loves a good mystery. She’s also guilty of sticking her nose in where it doesn’t (or shouldn’t) belong.

Family and friends are important to her, just as they are to me. So I peopled her world with a grandfather who gives her lectures because he cares for her and wants the best for her and a couple of hunky men (I only have one hunk in my life, and I’ve been married to him almost 25 years) - but hey, this is fiction. Becca gets to flirt and fall for two good-looking guys.

In my non-writing life, I worked in mental health for many years. The two doctors in the book are drawn from characteristics of many of the medical professionals I’ve encountered in my working life. I’ve taken quirks and exaggerated them.

Character development is fun. I always start with the characters. Who are they? What are they like? What are their strengths and their weaknesses? How can I use them for plot problems?

Try it. You may surprise yourself.

Kat Jorgensen

Like Kat, I am also the kind of person who attracts dramas and hilarious misadventures. I thought those kinds of things only happen to me, so it was refreshing to find out that there are other crazy mayhem magnets in the world. Many of my strange experiences have ended up in my books. I often think that I have enough material now for plots and characters, please give me a break!

Kat has kindly offered her latest book, "Your Eight O’Clock Is Dead" as a lucky draw prize on my blog. To enter the draw, you need to post a comment on this blog. Kat will be delighted to contact the winner with details on how you can claim your prize.

If you wish to know more about "Your Eight O’Clock Is Dead" then here is the Synopsis:

Becca Reynolds is having a bad day. Her grandfather’s lecture (#405: Eat a Healthy Diet or Die Not Trying) makes her late for her job at Daley and Palmer, the psychiatrists' office where she works as the office manager—her title, not theirs. Then her sausage and egg breakfast biscuit creates an oil slick that takes out half her desk, along with that day’s patient files. But she knows the day has taken a really bad turn when she discovers the firm’s eight o’clock patient dead with Dr. Dick Daley’s letter opener opening the patient instead of the mail.
With the fledgling firm in danger of an early demise, Becca appoints herself the unofficial investigator since the police seem to be looking in all the wrong places and doing a half-assed job of solving the crime. She begins a journey to find the killer, keep the practice afloat and with it, her job. In the course of her interfere—er, investigation—she finds a virtual cast of characters who could have done it, including the fancy side piece of the murder victim, his wife, his business partner, and even his psychiatrist.
The case takes Becca from the sordid depths of the Russian mob, to the upscale West End of Richmond, Virginia (known locally as River City), and even to her own backyard. In the course of the story she finds herself in hot water, hot danger, and with dreams of hot men.

You can find out more about Kat Jorgensen and her work by checking out her websites.
Kat's website: http://katjorgensen.com
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/7lgmf4b
BN: http://tinyurl.com/7lq642u
Smashwords: http://tinyurl.com/7j8voy6

Never judge a book by its cover

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:35:00 +0000

The old adage goes 'Never judge a book by its cover.' It actually refers to making assumptions about a person based on their looks, but in this case you can take it literally. The back blurb of The Bull Years intrigued me but the cover didn't grab me at all. It looked like it was going to be the life story of a Russian porn star. Luckily for me I ignored my assumptions and decided to give the book a read. You know what they say - assume makes an ass of u and me. I would have been an ass if I didn't read this book based on its cover. The Bull Years was surprisingly good.

Not being one for reading fantasy, vampire novels, horror and science fiction, The Bull Years was exactly what I like - realistic fiction. Realistic Contemporary Fiction. The story is written from the points of view of four well-developed, utterly believable characters. They are brought together by Steve Levine to participate in his 'Life Project.' They have to go back into their past and confront one life-defining night at college which split their friendship and drove them apart. The story covers two decades of their lives, interweaving each character's story together so that you end up with an excellent commentary of a generation.

The sad fact of life is that the grandiose dreams you had at college remain just that. Grandiose dreams. Life is full of disappointments, relationships and jobs that never work out as planned. Phil Stern manages to portray that brilliantly in The Bull Years. While some parts might be a little dark, it is spiced with a wicked sense of humour that will have you chuckling out loud.
The last paragraph of the novel was quite poignant. "So never think it’s too late, or that your own life ultimately doesn’t matter. Because who knows? You, all of you reading this Note now, could become the next Bull Personalities for some future generation, just as Steve, Dave, Sophia, and Dave have for us today."
The message is clear. Don't let life's disappointments deter you. There was a reason you were put on this planet.
The Bull Years is available on Amazon as a Kindle book.

Introducing Guy Magar

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:32:00 +0000

It always interests me how people get into the writing business. Because writers can be anybody. Teachers, firefighters, film makers, housewives and house husbands. They can come from all sorts of backgrounds, little or no education to being highly educated. But they all have one thing in common besides a creative writing streak. They all have a strong desire to share their message or story with the world. Guy Magar was a film maker. Here is his story.

Kiss Me Quick Before I Shoot is an unconventional memoir because it deals with diverse topics such as the magic of making movies and the magic of finding true love. I’ve been blessed to have had such a kaleidoscope of experiences starting as a child in Egypt and immigrating to America, growing up in New York and learning to speak English, going to college at an incendiary political time in the country (late ‘60s), and then setting myself on such an unlikely journey to become a film director in Hollywood. That career adventure was a story I always wished to share because it’s been rich with wild and crazy experiences such as my first producer turning out to be a Mafia assassin, almost decapitating Drew Barrymore right after ET, and coming close to derailing James Cameron’s career though he is so talented I doubt anyone could have altered his storied destiny. Everyone loves to look behind the curtain of the movie world and this memoir takes them there.

Finding true love for me is all about falling in love with Jacqui, and having a Camelot wedding where I got to duel for her hand (a la Errol Flynn) in a romantic union that has blossomed to this day, and this journey was also worthy of telling especially with the extreme dramatic turn of Jacqui suddenly being diagnosed with leukemia three years ago.

That unique medical journey to heal her through a cutting-edge clinical trial was definitely a triumphant story of the human spirit - of her great courage - that deserved to be shared with the world. Everyone knows someone with cancer, and so I wanted to write a book about our experience that would inspire folks to get through their illness. For me, the grateful feedback from caregivers and cancer patients has been the most emotionally satisfying response to this memoir and the 18-month writing journey it required. It took me longer to write this book than any movie I ever made.

I wanted this book to be a good friend with which you curl up with while sipping a hot chocolate because writing this memoir was a celebration of life. For me, it’s about following your dreams and making them come true. And that’s magical, as it is for all of us, and I was hoping to share that universal commonality. I encourage my readers who share my story to be inspired to celebrate their own unique life experiences. It was my desire and hope that by sharing my magic it would inspire folks to reflect, to take the time to appreciate their own great life journeys. We are all so busy living life and dealing with our big and small daily challenges that most of the time we don’t take a time out to celebrate our own magic of being alive.

This is why the last parting line in my book is “Dare to dream…I did. From one magician to another: Peace.”

I invite you to http://www.kissmequickbeforeishoot.com/media/book-excerpts/ to enter our weekly contest and win a signed paperback and all you have to do is pick your favorite excerpt.
Thank you Cindy for having me as your guest.

From fighting fires to writing books Part Two

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:10:00 +0000

As promised, in Jimmy's own words, how he went from fighting fires to writing books. Check it out! Cindy

When folks ask how I got into writing I like to tell them I just fell into it, literally. It was winter, Christmas time really and we had just had a very heavy snow. My wife was not my wife yet, in fact, I'm not even sure if we were engaged. My wife is a Michigan girl living in Chicago yet her family still resides on the lower peninsula of that state in a suburb of Detroit. I was on shift with the fire department and unable to leave with her for the visit. I planned to take the train out.

I mentioned the heavy snow and the whole Christmas deal, a dangerous match that day. It was slippery and I was laden with an unusual amount of items, not just clothing but gifts as well. Being the young macho firefighter I thought I was I skipped on a cart or anything else to ease the burden. I basically shoved it all into a duffle and tossed the thing over my shoulder.
Big mistake!
I needed to make a transfer from the local rail to regional at Ogilvie Station in downtown Chicago. My first step off the car was the near killer. My right leg slipped, I fell and just prior to that missed step was the last time I was able to stand unsupported for the next eight months. The workers at the train station had to call an ambulance to get me to the hospital. I was set up for surgery the next day. I would be off of work convalescing for quite some time.
A week or so after the procedure to patch the knee up my then wife to be took my butt to the firehouse just to say hello. I hobbled in on my crutches. During the visit my shift mates asked me how I planned to occupy myself during my time away. As if physical therapy wasn't enough? Though I had always been a very active reader or avid reader the thought of writing something beyond a fire department run report had never entered my mind. In fact, in high school I was the kid in the back of the class avoiding the teacher’s gaze. I did my homework on the bus rides to and from school. My book reports and term papers were all completed in study hall. I cringed when I came across test answers in essay rather than in multiple choice. It took me ten years to get through junior college.
Regardless, for some unknown reason, "I might write a book" popped out. Then the laughing began along with the taunts, and for good reason. During that time my only need for writing was professional and even then it was penning run reports and much wasn't expected. I wrote in all capital letters. As for punctuation I would occasionally throw a period in just for good measure. I didn't even own a computer at the time.
But my future wife did and we were living together. I saw the comments from my fellows as a challenge. I accepted the challenge. We returned home and we fired up the computer. My soon to be wife taught me how to use the word program and the rest is history. I typed out my first book, used lower case and upper case letters and even made a point to add proper punctuation.
But the story continues.
I returned to the firehouse with that first novel under my belt. I knew little about the publishing world, really nothing. I used my new found computer skills to search the Internet. My search was basic, how to publish your first book. Naturally one of the paid services popped up first. I clicked and ended up working with an outfit which called themselves 1stBooks Library. They are now called Authorhouse. My experience there is another story for another time.
I continued writing but honestly, the whole deal was really just a hobby. My gig in the fire service was top dog. I was enthralled with the new relationship in my life. I wrote a bit here and there when I had a little extra time but that was about it, almost forgotten after that first book. Then came the next mishap where my health is concerned, a fresh injury.
This one was a back injury which I sustained while extracting the victim of heart attack from a very tricky location. Did I mention I was a paramedic as well as a firefighter? If not, well, now I have. Anyway, to this day I’m not exactly sure what happened or what I did wrong but suddenly my right leg collapsed. I was able to walk but barely. I was sent off to the fire department's medical doctor. After a detailed examination including an MRI the Doctor found a herniated disk in my lower back. I spent the next year in therapy, surgery and then more therapy.

During that time away I wrote two books. I started to educate myself about the in's and out's of the world of literature. I built new relationships, some friendly and some professional. I started submitting to agents and publishers hoping not pay for publishing after that first experience. If you recall I said earlier that was another story and not really a good one.

The day finally came when the therapy was over and I had healed up from the back surgery. I'm no medical doctor so I'm not exactly sure how these ratings which appraise one's condition to return to work are set but I was informed that I was living along a border. I could give returning a shot or I could pension off and retire. And with the writing moving along I had considered that pension. But, the fire service was still number one in my mind. I was feeling good, strong and able. I chose to return to duty.
Three months later a semi truck rolled over into a gas station. I was working with a tool used for extrication and felt a series of pops in my back. Then that old sensation or lack of sensation in right leg returned. That was it, I was done. I no longer had a choice and had to leave the service behind. I had five disk herniations on three disks and had inflamed scar tissue left behind by the previous injury.
So, I continued to write and during the time I've been away I've managed to secure a couple contracts with independent publishers. I'm now writing paranormal stories for middle school aged children and adventure stories for adults, all of which brings me here to today. That's my story.
Have a great 2012!
Jimmy Gordon

From Firefighter to Writer Part One

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 10:11:00 +0000

Sometimes life throws you a curve ball and you can either sink into depression and rue your rotten luck, or you can make the most of new opportunities. Jimmy Gordon did just that. An injury put his firefighting career on hold and he decided to use his recovery time and write a book.
It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you.....Jimmy Gordon, author of Dartboard. Drum roll please.

Firefighter and paramedic-turned-author Jimmy (J.D.) Gordon was born and raised in Chicago where he developed a taste for the finer things that the Windy City has to offer - pan pizza, live blues and the Cubs.

Jimmy dropped into the world of literature, literally. After falling off a train and breaking his knee Jimmy had to spend quite a bit of time recuperating. While visiting the firehouse his peers asked what he planned to with all that time away. This when Jimmy said the words that he now claims to have changed his life. "I should write a book."

Despite some skepticism from his peers ("You don't even use punctuation on your run reports!"), he completed a novel, Island Bound, and made it a point to use punctuation throughout.

Another injury, sustained on the job, ended his career in the fire service. Aside from writing Gordon spends his Spring and Summer as an umpire for high school and youth baseball. He now lives with his wife and children in Glen Ellyn IL, a suburb of Chicago.

Introducing Andy Holloman

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 04:51:00 +0000

What I love about hosting Indie Authors on my blog, is that I am exposed to new authors I might never hear about. Andy Holloman, author of Shades of Grey is one such author. While y'all are reading his insprational message for authors and writers alike, I'm going to be downloading Shades of Grey onto my Kindle.
This Kindle was definitely my best investment of 2011. Without any further ado, let me introduce you to Andy Holloman.

Reflections of a writer as 2011 draws to a close
So it's that time of year. The time when all of us are suppose to get nostalgic and reflect upon the "soon to be ending" year and wax poetic regarding our goals for the upcoming year. My response to this overdone pastime is "Bah Humbug!"

I had a pretty decent, no EXCELLENT, 2011. So perhaps I should be more inclined to enjoy my accomplishment of having my first novel be published. Hey, not bad! Damn, now I'm stuck because it does feel mucho chic to be writing the phrase "my first novel ...published". I can feel my earlier "bah humbug" melting away.
So, here are my THREE IMPORTANT PUBLISHING LESSONS I LEARNED IN 2011 -

Lesson One - Hold onto EVERYTHING you write.
For those of you who have that novel, memoir, or non-fiction book tucked away in a drawer, I did too. In fact, my copy of my novel was SOOOOO old that it was saved on a 3.5 in. floppy disk! Remember those! I had shelved plans to be a published writer because, well, it just didn't seem like it was gonna happen. I read the recommended books, polished my MS, and queried until my fingers bled. I only received a few nibbles. But I was realistic. I didn't expect an agent to scoop up my MS and shout from the highest mountain that they had just discovered the next bestseller. (Well, maybe I had a wee bit hope that it might happen!)
Because I had floated my MS out to members of a writing group I had joined in 2005, at the end of 2010, a friend from that group
advised me that she had passed my MS along to a local publisher and that they would want to publish it because they typically
went by her recommendation. And she was right! Finally, someone wanted to publish me and I hadn't done a thing for almost
5 years!!

Lesson Two - Don't isolate.
Get into a writers group. Network with authors, readers, anyone that you can find. Work at it (and it truly is work). Use Twitter to meet other authors. Reach out to as many folks as you can. There are millions of people like you who want to be writers and who have a MS and who need the EXACT same things that you do. When you connect with folks who have the same needs as you, then it becomes very easy to swap MS's, critique, suggest connections, point folks to good websites, etc.

Lesson Three - Control your Publishing Experience.
Even though I received a publishing contract from TWO different publishers (both were small, indie publishers) I wasn't exactly blown away with what they could deliver in regards to helping me sell books. By this time, I had also discovered that even the big boy publishing houses depend on authors to do MOST, if not all, of their marketing and promotions themselves. There simply isn't any money floating around to assist new (read: unproven) authors. Plus, even if you DO get a publishing offer from a BIG BOY company AND they throw some money into promoting your work, it is STILL VERY UNLIKELY that your book will sell enough copies to earn back the printing costs for your first print run. (Remember that a novel is labeled a "success" if it sells 5,000 copies.)
So take the step that I did and publish yourself. I knew that I could promote my book effectively and I knew that I had a decent novel. So I hired a cover designer, editor, and book production company to handle areas that I wasn't familiar with. Then I got my book onto Amazon, BN, and a few other places. Hey, I'm a published author! It all happened on a much faster timeline than would normally be the case and I was involved with every step. I made the final decisions on everything. I also have control over the PRICING of my book, which is a HUGE advantage and a lengthier topic than can be addressed here.
Unless you truly do have the next bestseller (but don't be fooled into thinking that ANYONE can predict this) or you have some
insider connection to the publishing world, sending your book out to agents and hoping for a publishing offer is akin to winning
the lottery (only book publishing pays MUCH MUCH less). So don't pin your hopes on the lottery. Take control of your publishing
experience as I did.

So, against my better judgement, I have just written down my "year in review" for 2011. It was a very special year for me, so I've earned the right to shout out a little. Make 2012 YOUR year to publish. It can happen.
Have a great 2012,
Andy Holloman

And if you'd like to know a little more about Andy, here's his bio.

Just like the protagonist in my novel, Shades of Gray, I was the owner of travel agency for 12 years (mostly in the 90′s). But this is the only similarity between myself and John Manning!   (I never ventured into the cocaine business, I swear.)
I grew up in Greenville, NC and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in Economics. All through high school and college, I was notorious for scribbling out stories and ideas for novels (hey, this was before wordprocessors!) and always kept them in a top secret shoe box. (and the box is so top secret that I’ve been trying to find it for 15 years!).
       After college, I fell into the travel industry by accident and was able to grow a travel business into an Inc. 500 company. The agency grew through the use of the Internet and by acquiring three other companies. Late in the 1990’s, I became familiar with the story of one of the my company’s clients who was murdered in Durham, NC and was a suspected drug smuggler.    This story and the subsequent downfall of the travel agency industry (and my company) after 9/11, planted a seed in my head that grew into my first published novel, Shades of Gray. I began writing this novel in 2003, shelved after completion in 2006, and revived in 2011 thanks to a great friend from a writers group in Cary, NC.
      Today, I live in the Raleigh, NC area. I am the father of three, and have been happily married for 20 years. I enjoy (mostly) attending my kids sporting and school events, supporting the local real estate industry, and watching fine films with my wonderful wife. Whenever possible, I enjoy the beauty of North Carolina’s mountains, running, camping, and short walks on the beaches of the Outer Banks (several references to OBX in my book) .    I am also an avid reader (time permitting), and a social media goofball.   Most evenings I can be found tapping out my next novel, due for release in late 2013.   Stay tuned!

An interview with Miss Snark

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 07:24:00 +0000

Christmas time, the season to be jolly. What people don't tell you is that the days before Christmas are spent rushing around like a blue-arsed fly trying to get shopping done and presents wrapped. By the time Christmas day arrives you are exhausted, spent, and all you can do is smile inanely and thank your nephews for all those bars of chocolate they bought you as presents. Even if your top New Year's resolution was to lose weight and get in shape for June's big European adventure. The day after Christmas you wonder what happened. Has Christmas already been and gone? OMIGOD that means the year is nearly over! 2011 is nearly done and dusted. Another year older and deeper in debt. Wasn't that a song? And then you remember. Crap. I had to read a book and write a review and post it on my blog on December 26th. Surveying the dirty dishes from last night and rolls of unused Christmas wrap on the floor, I figure I'd better get started. House cleaning can always wait.

Rachel Thompson is the Queen of Snark. The Mancode: Exposed is her latest book and it is overflowing with snark. I love it! Straight-talking, shooting from the hip, calling a spade a spade. This lady doesn't mince her words or disguise them in brightly colored Christmas wrapping. She says it like it is, and if you can't understand what she is getting at, it is probably because you don't have a vagina. God's truth. That's what she said.
Rachel Thompson has an easy-to-read writing style. You might think you were only going to read a quick chapter before doing those dirty dishes, but believe you me, you'll sit smiling and nodding your head in agreement as you read The Mancode: Exposed in one sitting. Those dirty dishes can wait. They weren't going anywhere and there are no such things as fairy godmothers who'd fly in, wave a magic wand and they'd be done. They'll still be there waiting for you. I promise. From men's penchant for farting and hiding the remotes, disgust for directions and having cabinets installed in the garage, The Mancode: Exposed exposes it all in a very witty, snarky way. Highly recommended for anybody who doesn't suffer from sense of humor failure.

It is my great pleasure to introduce to you Miss Snark herself, Rachel Thompson. Can we have a drum roll here please?

Rachel, can you tell us why you started writing, what motivates you to write, etc.

How much time have you got? J
I started writing as a child after my fourth grade teacher read us The Secret Garden. I’d always been a reader from an early age. My mom always had her nose in a book – still does (well, a Kindle now). But when my teacher read that book to the class, one chapter a day, I thought I was going to die – I had to know what was going to happen to Mary and Colin! #deargod

On my first date with my husband, he took me to see The Secret Garden on Broadway, front row center. He’s a very, very smart man.

Though I have a degree in Communication Studies and Journalism, professionally, I made my living as a pharma rep (hated it) and trainer (loved that) for a good fifteen years so writing took a backseat, though I always kept journals and wrote stories and poetry.

As for writing as an adult professionally, I began my blog RachelintheOC.com in 2008, in addition to writing for The Examiner and Blogcritics, reviewing books, music, events and beauty products (I’m quite the makeup junkie). I didn’t find it fulfilling but marketing-wise, it gave me great exposure.

Once I expanded my social media platform and began my Mancode essays and really found my niche writing about men and women, the whole idea for my first book A Walk In The Snark formed. About that time, an old boyfriend (whom I almost married) reconnected with me on Facebook and within three month, committed suicide. This was in 2009. Though happily married, his death really threw me and my way of dealing with my grief was to write about it. A few of those essays made their way into the book.

Around 2010, I cofounded the Indie Book Collective also with Carolyn McCray and Amber Scott with the goal of helping authors learn social media and self-publishing.

While the book is primarily male/female humor, loss is a natural extension of love, and many people have contacted me with their own stories. It’s been an amazing experience.

The book reached #1 on the Kindle Motherhood list in September this year for the first time (during the first Indie Book Collective Indie Book Blowout event) and has hit at least 15-20 more times. It’s currently #1 right now! It’s also tops in Parenting and Family, and Family Relationships with an average 4.8 star-rating. I’m so honored.

As for my latest release, The Mancode: Exposed, I’ve become known as the Mancode chick. Those are clearly my funniest essays (as long as one HAS a sense of humor). There are plenty of cranky men who gave me a hard time with the last book who thought I was stereotyping men (though I’m not sure how citing actual examples of behavior is stereotyping but whatev) and became in some cases livid and even wrote me expletive-filled letters, unfollowed or gave 1-star reviews – surprisingly, I love those Mancode-type reactions because it just proves my theories #hehe.

I even gave one section of this book the title DNA & STEREOTYPES to deal with the detractors head on. I hope they realize that women are part of the reaction as well and I discuss chicks (Chickspeak) plenty in the book (“give us chocolate or we will cut you”).

I released the book right after Thanksgiving this year and it’s already reached Top 10 on both the Marriage and Parenting and Family Humor lists with an average 5-star rating. I hope you enjoy it.

In fact, I’m writing Chickspeak: Uncovered right now…ya know, why we say stuff we don’t mean, or how to interpret what we say when we’re in a chocolate coma. Why you should have taken AP Chick in high school. Like that.

I’d love to hear any questions from your readers or interact with them on Twitter, Goodreads, or Facebook. My email is RachelintheOC@gmail.com, Twitter or Goodreads @RachelintheOC, or my Mancode: Exposed Facebook page.

Thanks Cindy for the time and opportunity to chat!

Seriously, if you want to read something that is full of light-hearted truisms that will make you smile and think "That is on the mark," then buy your copy of The Mancode: Exposed today.
Hope you're recovering from the festive feasts!
Cindy Vine
How to Say No to Sex and other Survival Tips for the Suddenly Single

Introducing David Knight

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:48:00 +0000

It is my great pleasure to introduce to you a wonderful author on this fine day.

DAVID KNIGHT was born into his current physical embodiment in 1964. He is married to Caroline and they live with their adopted cats Toby, Treacle, Spiky and Missy in the UK. In growing up he describes himself as a Mr. Average or like a 'Joe Bloggs'. Whilst earning a living in various types of work, (this ranged from HM Forces, Financial Services, a Care Assistant and also self-employment) his search for fulfilment changed from the exterior and without to the interior and within.

Spiritual education gained a greater momentum and at the age of 21 a more urgent sense of dedication as well as a new realization had set in. New evidence of and from God, were soon revealed through his life experiences. With the aid of Spirit guides and beings from the ethereal planes, the foundations were laid for all who wished to develop and experience their Hearts flame of love and light and to embark upon a unique opportunity for all soul's in this lifetime.

Part of David's book launch is an exciting contest. David's book is being launched on 2/2/12 on Amazon. There is an exciting contest that is in effect from now until the Launch. There are great prizes that are involved:

$100 gift certificate for Amazon toward a Kindle

Two $50.00 Amazon Gift Certificates

Authors can substitute their choice of a video book review or Facebook Welcome page for the Kindle Gift Certificate if they win.

To enter, visit David's blog: http://www.ascensionforyou.co.uk/blog

FOOD FOR THE SOUL

Welcome once again to my blog! As Christmas is only around the corner, I thought you might like something festive to wet your appetite. It’s difficult sometimes to tear ourselves away from the shops, pretty lights and the mince pies ….but how about a little nourishment for the inner you! This is an extract entitled ‘A Christmas Carol’ and is from I am I: The In-Dweller of your Heart

s you sit you can feel the pressure in and around your head, could this be communication from the so called ‘dead’? As you become ‘still’, many other souls draw close to you, from all walks of life and existence. This is because they can grow, learn and digest truth and meaning too. Not only do they hear and see, but they feel the information and the love that is given and sent ‘within’ and ‘out’.

Often people think they are alone, this cannot be so as I keep reiterating to you. I shall always remind you of this until it is etched firmly within all aspects of your being. When one experiences natural or so called unnatural phenomena, the receiver or practitioner will sense numerous different feelings and also come to many different conclusions.

When something feels correct for the individual (or for those that hear, sense, view, and are nearby) then a resonance, a spark, a true feeling of joy and fulfilment occurs within the heart. It is through these experiences that I help you on your journey, quest and only true desire to become permanently with me in all aspects of your being.

With these coming festivities, I hope the masses celebrate with open hearts; sharing the love within, sowing seeds of truth that can grow fruitfully and can be harvested at a later date when required to do so.

Those with Christian beliefs will probably have a Christmas tree. These trees, whether real or artificial, will be adorned with decorations and the like. In reality this is but a reflection of the truth. A real pine tree with its pine needles, (which can be soft and gentle or hard and sharp) bears so much more.

A tree such as this has a wonderful shape and its aura of luminosity as it lives is something to behold. You can sense its light like a star which manifest from all points and radiates in all directions. It is both beautiful and serene, created by and from love.

I explain this to you (and it is so reticent) because although many bring such stresses and strains upon oneself due to commercial, materialistic, and family pressures, it is only when you start to relax and actually be at peace that the same light and ambience as the pine tree then manifests itself to touch those around you.

Understand that happiness, joy, peace, goodwill, friendship, forgiveness, and compassion for another soul or being are all magnified and personified when truth flourishes from the heart, especially now.

So, when in this special atmosphere of love and light, be like the pine tree’s branches and extend your arms and heart to another. Let it touch a broken heart; let your light be a beacon when those who have cast aside their doubt go looking for guidance. Nurture and nature go hand in hand. So many aspects of a human being’s life are like this and in time all will understand who and what they are.

As Christmas approaches many will gather in the name of the Lord and sing praises of ‘God’s love’. People will come together for many different reasons, but all will be touched in some way by the uplifting hymns and carols. Often it is the words that bring meaning to one person but for another, it could be the ‘sensing of’ or a heightened awareness of much more than this.

Indeed, over the millennia and eras of time, souls have gathered in worship and prayer to many a so called ‘God’. Civilisations since time immemorial have believed in one form or another. They have felt that there was always something greater than themselves. As I am all things and all Creation is me (as you all are), then all along they have just been recognising what was inside of them. If one should bear witness to scenes, images or actual events (such as a solar eclipse), though they are but physical and impermanent, this does not matter. It is in the sensing and in feeling that the soul receives the key. It is a key to the remembrance and experience in whatever way makes sense to the individual, or masses, of me. Remember, I am love and love is all things.

Tonight will be shorter for you in terms of the ‘understanding’ shared and known. I pause in liaising with you at this time, for you to reflect on a Christmas feeling, a prayer or carol. Let the reader decide what part it plays in their hearts.

A Christmas Carol

Two hearts that beat as one,

Louder and louder they do become.

Linked in truth and by hand in hand,

Travel through time to the Promised Land.

Souls drift by in search of the Son,

They pass through the love of the enlightened ‘one’.

Knowledge and understanding given freely to all,

Open hearts and arms wide when you hear the call.

Time waits for no man, or beast, or being,

And I am the truth, all perceiving and all seeing.

All you have to do is to become the one,

Your immortality, the bliss in truth you’ll have won.

Your goal has been set and is the path you now take,

Lives and your history are not what are at stake.

It’s the present you’re given, like under the tree,

Find victory not defeat and forever be in me.

One love and light that encompasses all things,

Not manufactured by hands or made by machines.

The ingredients of your body and of the ‘physical’ world,

Always to be erased, just like I said and have told.

So then go forth, with a spring in your step,

Renew your ‘own’ faith no matter what you ‘get’.

As long as you hold, true love in your heart,

It doesn’t matter which, for we will never ever part.

Peace, love and blessings to you all,

Amen.

I am I: The In-Dweller of your Heart is a stepping stone for all who embark upon their own quest for 'Spiritual' education and guidance. So, even if you are comfortable with your own faith and religion, you may have decided to explore new interpretations and such issues on a personal or global scale.

The author David Knight has received and transcribed these passages of text in a process known as 'Inner Dictation'. He describes this as writing from within the connection of his heart where peace, bliss, love and light reign supreme.

God's wisdom and teachings are laid out before you so you can simply choose and read whenever or whatever your heart needs or desires. They are guidelines, principles and simple directions for you to now dip your toes or dive headfirst into the waters of you're own Divine essence.

These books will form the very threads of life's new tapestry, each being spun into 52 lessons from, to and through our own hearts and soul's. They are like a father, mother, brother, sister, husband, wife, partner or personal friend who knows you better than you can ever know 'yourself'.

Part 1 is a companion for life which does not judge, condemn or scold, but hopes to encourage, guide, console, teach and remind you of who and what you are, why you live and for what purpose too!

Title: I am I: The In-Dweller of Your Heart
52 Inner Dictations
Author: David Knight
Copyright: 11/23/11 by David Knight
Genre: Inspirational/Religion

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/-Dweller-Heart-Inner-Dictations-Knight/dp/1466499354/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322343692&sr=8-1

Website/Blog: http://www.ascensionforyou.co.uk/blog

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/AscensionForYou-Spiritual-Guidance-and Education/147338671945241

Seeing red

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 13:57:00 +0000

There are times when living the expat life can be a bit of a challenge. Things happen that make you ache with homesickness, an ache that moves through your bones and goes right to your core. An ache that makes you want to hop onto the internet and book a ticket home right away. Today was one such day.

Like other places I’ve lived in, it’s an isolated incident that makes you want to hop onto a plane. Most of the time life is quite humdrum and pleasant. In Thailand it was the touts pretending to represent a travel agency who scammed money off me; in New Zealand a burglary that left me with just the dust where my furniture and belongings used to be; in Korea it was being nearly killed every time you tried to cross the road; in China it was the pushing and shoving, hoiking and spitting, and the globule of mucous left for me on my motorbike seat; in Angola it was my daughter’s camera being confiscated by the police because she took photos of some butterflies. In Tanzania I have to say it’s the racism. Not by the majority, but by a handful who target you because you have a white skin.

You see, a white skin seems to indicate that under that pale covering you are an ATM desperate to hand out cash. You get charged more at the market than locals, parking attendants only demand money from you when you park in town, cops will pull you over and demand money for not having the right fire extinguisher, etc.

I parked on the main road, just around the corner from the market where I bought a small kerosene stove. When I got back to my car, I was immediately surrounded by a group of young men all shouting at me, telling me I’d parked illegally. Earlier on I’d had cars parked in front of me and hand barrows filled with pineapples parked behind me. They had since moved on leaving my car the only one there. Glancing behind me I saw that I was quite a few metres away from the corner so that was acceptable; I was the right distance away from the kerb, so that wasn’t a problem. Their accusations that I had parked illegally made no sense whatsoever. They crowded around me as I inspected where I’d parked, pushing me and poking their fingers at me, shouting, yelling. One told me they’d put a thing under my tyre so I couldn’t move. I guessed they meant a clamp, but when I peered between their legs I could see nothing on my tyre, no clamp. At first despite their aggressive approach, I was calm and pointed out that I had not parked illegally at all. Another pushed away some dirt with his foot, exposing a yellow square roughly a third of the size of a dollar note. My front tyre was about 10cm in front of the yellow square which had been hidden under dust. Obviously, I had to pay each one of the eight young men before they would let me get into my car and leave. They had never met someone like me before.

I can be pleasant, I can be kind. Try and rip me off and I undergo a complete personality change.

With my blood boiling I started yelling back at them, telling them I hadn’t parked illegally. I threatened to call the police. They told me to go ahead, calling my bluff as I didn’t know the number of the police station. I opened my car door telling them I was going to drive to the police station. Five of them crammed themselves into the back seat and one hopped into the front before I had time to lock the doors. “We’ll go with you to the police,” they said. “The police will confiscate your car and lock you up in jail. You need to pay us the fine now for parking illegally.”

My blood pressure rose and I literally saw red. After jumping out my car I ran around to the kerb side and physically pulled them out of my car with adrenalin-induced strength, still shouting and yelling at them. They started crowding me even more, telling me that I was in Africa and I’d parked illegally and paying them the fine was the African way. The way they did things in Tanzania. This made my blood pressure rise several notches more. “I too am a born and bred African,” I shouted back, “And stealing money from people or trying to bribe them is not the way we do things. You are just criminals, tsotsis!”

I locked my car and stormed off to get help from the curio shop down the road. The gang had my car surrounded, if I tried to drive away I’d end up knocking someone over. A young man with a backpack approached me as I hurried back to my car with my dreadlocked saviour from the curio shop. “They are corrupt; just jump in your car and drive!” So while the curio man and the backpack man distracted them, I drove off fuming. Nobody besides the backpack man and the man I’d called from the curio shop came to my assistance. They all stood around staring, like they were watching a play.

Luckily, I calmed down further along the road when I saw that Nakumatt, the Kenyan supermarket, finally opened. There had been rumours of its opening for months. Whether it was the lovely clean air-conditioned shop or the stocked shelves I’ll never know, but I decided not to jump on the next flight out.

If life was always smooth sailing it would be boring. We need the annoyances as well as the happy times to keep us sane. Unfortunately what happened to me is quite common in developing countries where you have people so desperate for money that they resort to crime and corruption to get it. That doesn't make it right, but it does put it in perspective.

Times you want to live in a cave

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:08:00 +0000

I have been attacked! Whether it is from a plague of microscopic minibeasts or an allergic reaction of some sort, I don't really care at this point. All I know, is that I am unbearably itchy and itchiness makes me irritable. When I get irritable, I have a very low tolerance level for annoying people. In all fairness, the people are probably not deliberately setting out to annoy me, but when my whole body is one itching, burning, fiery mess, then you can expect that whatever you say might annoy me. So be prepared and think carefully before you speak.
At the moment I'm like the busy bee that was stung with its own sting. Frenetic activity, the usual December madness that afflicts everyone involved in education.

This year I have decided I fancy escaping to a cave in some exotic setting. I think I can live there quite easily all by myself as long as I have electricity for cable TV and wireless internet. Oh, and a flush loo with a privacy screen around it. I don't want monkeys perving at me whilst I perform my ablutions. A nice firm mattress would be good as well, getting sand stuck in all my crevices would probably be most unpleasant. And a fridge with some cold coke and chilled white wine. A cave might have bats, and after my adventures with rats, I might give a cave a miss. Bring on a luxury beach cottage in an exotic setting, that's probably what I need. Delicious seafood, okay, my mind is going off on a tangent.
People. Who needs them? Pestering, pedantic people.
I guess I do. It makes life far more interesting. And the strange thing is you can have a run-in with a long line of pesky people, and one person gives you a compliment or says something nice and all is well with your world. Now, if only I can get rid of these itches!
Cindy

Coping with an Empty Nest, headaches, no power and NaNoWriMo

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 13:43:00 +0000

So the nest isn’t 100% empty, I have one chick left for the next eighteen months. But the absence of the older two dwarfs everything else. I was doing okay with just the one chick left at home. We’d got into a routine, kind of, learned to put up with each other’s foibles and moods. Rolling along rather like a car on a slope without a foot on the accelerator. Not much effort, just existing, heading ever forward to the time the last chick leaves. Our idealic life was blasted into a high energy one with the arrival of my middle chick for a two month stay. Then the eldest came for two weeks and I realised just how much I miss not having all my chicks in my nest. So much activity, sparkling conversations and debates, putting my body on the line to stop them from killing each other, eating together as a family, going away to Kenya - our first big whole family holiday in a year. All that brought back so many old memories and created so many new ones, that I realised how much I miss out on with us all spread around the world. Our solitary life, just the youngest chick and I is more of an existence than an actual life.

Saying goodbye to the eldest as she set off to start a new life on a ship was hard. As she’s got older she has become a best friend. She knows me better than I know myself. I feel a large part of my heart went with her. But I survived that goodbye knowing I still had two chicks in the nest for another month. Yesterday the middle chick left. I felt worse than I did after my divorce, the other huge chunk of heart that’s gone with him has left a void and a feeling of such emptiness and sorrow, there are no words to express it. The house is silent; the youngest chick and I both experiencing our loss in our own way. No happy banter, quarrels and fighting over which channel to watch on TV. Just an eerie silence and the noise from the cicadas in the garden. I expect I can only have myself to blame, passing onto my chicks the love of travel and living in strange places, exploring new worlds, living life as an adventure.

All of which does not help when you are trying to get into the right frame of mind, The Zone, for writing a novel. NaNoWriMo couldn’t have come at a worse time for me. 50 000 words in 30 days was always going to be a big ask. With a full nest it’s a near impossibility. Distractions too numerous to mention. Add in a full time job and you start getting the picture. NaNoWriMo has been tough this year, but I am still determined to get to the finish line even if it means writing like hell the last four days.

This past week has also had migraines added into the mix. Chronic ones where you just get fuzzy concentric circles affecting your vision so you can’t read a page, see a computer screen or keyboard. The medication I take knocks me out for two hours at a time. These migraines plagued me on and off for four days. Dehabilitating. In the extreme. Not good for NaNoWriMo either.

For two months, since the middle chick’s arrival, we’ve had virtually uninterrupted power which is definitely not the norm here. This past week, the power has gone off a few times but nothing as bad as its been in previous months where we sometimes had up to 72 hours with no power. And just so you no, no power here means no water either as you have to pump it into your tank attached to your house. Yesterday, the power went off on three separate occasions. First in the morning, putting an end to an early bout of writing, then when we came back from taking the middle chick to the airport we arrived home to no power, and at 6pm sharp the power went out and stayed out. We watched the new season of Nikita until the laptop battery died and then put on the generator. By that time I was unable to construct a simple sentence, let alone work on a novel.

So although this might seem as if I am just making excuses for not completing NaNoWriMo this year; watch this space. Wednesday I’ll be at that finish line, just you wait!

Have a good week ahead!

Cindy

Gathering steam with NaNoWriMo

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:36:00 +0000

The rainy season appears to have arrived, bringing with it more ants. The damn things are everywhere, so invasive. I HATE THEM! But enough about my pet hate.
A week ago we suddenly started to catch rats. It could be the new trap we bought at the market. The commercial traps have so far met with no success at all. A total waste of time and money. The homemade trap from the market has been awesome and a credit to human ingenuity. It’s a wooden box with sides made from strips of soda cans. A hook hangs down like a fish hook that you hang the meat onto. The rat has to enter the box to get the meat on the hook. One attempt to touch the meat and the trap is sprung, resulting in the rat’s instant decapitation. The actual mechanism of the trap is similar to that of a clothes peg. Very clever indeed. So far, FIVE rats have succumbed to the temptation to taste our tasty treats. I LOVE IT! Bring it on, Ratty!
NaNoWriMo has passed the half-way mark and I am still a way behind. Work constraints, ant and rat-catching are distractions I can’t ignore. The good news is I have crossed the 20 000 word mark, so that must mean something.
It’s amazing how difficult the first 10 000 words are. Even though you have your outline and character sketches, that’s not enough. Developing the characters and plot requires a lot of thought and grey matter that is often tired after working overtime throughout the day at work. Writing and working full-time is not easy. But by the 10 000 mark, something magical happens. Writing is no longer a chore. The plot is moving along, the characters have formed, and they start taking over so that the writing just flows. My fingers develop a life of their own as they race across the keyboard. This is the best time and when writing is at its easiest. So even though I am behind where I should be my gut feeling is that I will eventually catch up. My characters will see me right and carry me to the end.
Have an incredibly great restful weekend!
Love
Cindy

Moshi Wildlife Park

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 09:34:00 +0000

I've decided to open up my house to the public as a wildlife park. I reckon I can make more money than I do from my writing by selling all day passes at my gate to tourists keen to see the real Africa. Forget lions, elephants and buffalo. Seriously, they are completely over-rated and look the same as they do in the National Geographic. Rather experience the everyday wildlife found in Moshi houses.
Besides many different species of lizard which grace my garden, the bright turquoise ones with the neon orange heads are my personal fave, scratching in the lush tropical plants might unearth a snake or two. But the best is the five different species of ant that have taken over my house. The big sugar ants attack anything sweet. The big black ants with a ferocious bite use my toilet bowl as their personal watering hole. If you use the toilet in the middle of the night without turning on the lights, prefering to go in the dark, you are at risk of being bitten on the bum by an angry ant who was there to drink water. Then there are the tiny ants which appear out of nowhere and descend on any kind of drink or foodstuff within seconds; and the medium sized regular ants who march in single-file along the doorframes of the house. Just outside the back door are the giant siafu, dinosaur-type ants who attack you en masse if you stand still near them for anything longer than 5 seconds.
In the rainy season we had the flying termites leave piles of discarded wings underneath the outside lights but thankfully their time has passed. Big fat juicy geckos hide in all the curtains waiting to drop on you when you open or shut the curtains.
At least once a week a giant cockroach makes its appearance before getting taken out by a spurt of DOOM.
But the most exciting thing I can offer at my Moshi Wildlife Park, is the chance to go on the trail of the cleverest rats on the planet. You can follow their poo, see samples of their diet (half-eaten fridge magnets, soap with bite marks, chewed candles, half-eaten painted egg shells) and try and find their nests. These rats have super-powers, able to drag the rat trap across the floor, remove the special treat, without setting off the trap. In broad daylight a chicken carcass mysteriously disappeared and was found later, well-chewed, behind the fridge. The rats even managed to lick off peanut butter which had been spread lovingly across the trap without setting it off.
The crows in my big tree next to the barbecue create a fuss everytime I light a fire and dive-bomb me while I'm cooking outside. Seriously, how stupid can they be to build a nest in the branches of a tree above a barbecue! They should get some brain matter from the rats.
The dogs next door save their howling, barking, yapping, whining, crying for between 11pm and 1am, so unless you want to do a night drive, you might miss out on them.
And this is November, the month I look forward to all year, the month I compete in NaNoWriMo and attempt to write 50 000 words of a novel. Here's hoping that my wildlife grant me some respite so that I can get to do some writing this weekend!
Have a great weekend, and if you know any rat-catching tricks, please pass them on!
Cindy
PS. An added attraction might be the askari I am thinking of locking up in a cage after he entered my house while we were there, and stole my Blackberry off the kitchen benchtop. He was hired as a security guard to protect the house occupants from local criminals, but instead turned into a criminal himself. Luckily, the askari chief arrived and used psychology to persuade him to give the phone back.

NaNoWriMo

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 18:13:00 +0000

So I finally did it. I bought myself a Kindle and now I am addicted to reading. I have to wonder about the timing though, with NaNoWriMo about to start. If you plan on writing a whole heap then there's no time for reading.
For those not in the know, NaNoWriMo happens every November, where thousands of writers all over the world attempt to write 50 000 words of a novel in 30 days. It's a huge ask and requires motivation, dedication and a huge abundance of time. For me the issue is time. I don't really have the time available and am not too sure how successful I'll be this year. I did manage the previous two years, but this year it is going to be a struggle and a challenge. I just hope I'm up for it.
I've done the ground work, research, plot, character sketches. But despite my preparation I don't feel as if I am in 'the zone.' I'm not sure how to get there and am hoping that once I start doing my 1600 words a day I'll just somehow magically fall into 'the zone.' At this late stage it's all I can hope for. Which is why I'm trying to frantically finish the new Jonathan Kelleman book I downloaded onto my Kindle.
Just over 24 hours until I start the 50 000 words. Wish me luck!

Family holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:54:00 +0000

I have to admit, I'm a slow learner. The last time I had my hair cut in Kenya I came out looking like a lop-sided Beatle. That should have made me have second thoughts about getting my hair cut in Kenya again. It didn't. So desperate was I to have my overgrown shaggy locks removed and fringe trimmed, that I decided to chance my luck. This time I look like a stunned mullet. Yes, you heard me, I now sport a beautiful mullet. Actually, it's not as bad as it could have been considering the hairdresser never once used a comb or brush on my unwashed hair. She did use lots of clips though, that she kept between her lips and pulled them out as needed.
Haircuts and bad hair days aside, it's not often these days that we get to have a family holiday with all three of my children together. As they have grown older and left the nest, it's become quite a rare occurence. In the past, I have felt my role has been peacemaker, putting my body on the line to stop them from tearing each other's hair out. This holiday has been different and everybody has gotten along most of the time.
We started off the holiday with a couple of nights in Saltlick in Tsavo, where the infamous man-eating lions once roamed. I let Tony drive on the safari and he did a great job and even managed to successfully reverse narrowly missing the sheer drop off a steep cliff.

We did see lions and many other animals, but the most spectacular animal we saw was the aardwolf, I don't think you often get to see them.
On the way to Mombasa we drove through the worst downpour ever, torrential rain that blinded you completely. It was quite frightening, but when it passed the skies became blue and have been a bright blue ever since.
The beach resort we are staying at in Nyali Beach just a little north of Mombasa is great! We've been enjoying the swimming pools and stunning views of the Indian Ocean. It's so peaceful here but it has made me too relaxed. I know I should be writing, warming myself up for NaNoWriMo in November, but it's far easier just to chillax and enjoy my children.

Tony and Kerri are both off to Miami for different reasons. Tony to complete a 4 month internship at the Ritz Hotel in Naples, and Kerri to auction art on cruise ships plying their trade off the coast. There is a part of me that wishes I was young again and doing something similar, but then I do enjoy my job and the life I lead now.
I can't believe November is nearly here and the start of NaNoWriMo. I have been good, I've done some research and plotted out the story, so I'm ready to hit the keyboard on November 1st! Novel Writing Month is just what you need to get your writing back on track again. I haven't written anything since June, it's just been far too hectic at work, but NaNoWriMo forces you to make the time to write.
But in the meantime, I'll enjoy the rest of my family holiday as I garner the strength needed to write 50 000 words in the month of November!
Have a great weekend!
Cindy

Oh Rats!

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 08:05:00 +0000

Coping with disappointment is never easy. You psyche yourself up for something you believe is going to happen, then circumstances beyond your control throw you a curve ball. Feeling let down can be depressing. The recent quarter final loss to Australia is a good example. In my heart-of-hearts I had expected the Springboks to win. I could already picture them holding the Rugby World Cup Trophy up in the air again. The number one team in the world. It was not meant to be.
Once the initial shock of the disappointment has passed, it's time to look at the positives. I was just as proud of the Springboks in defeat as I would have been as if they had won. Their sportsmanship and graciousness in defeat was something our youth can learn from. They played like world champions right up until the final whistle. All I am saying, is watch out in 2015! The boys will be back!
There are always things that happen which puts disappointments in perspective. You can't let them rule your life, you have to move on and focus on something else. In my case, it is rats in the kitchen. You all know that UB40 song, right? Well, please don't sing it. The rat problem is actually not very funny. It is traumatising. Maybe, dare I say it, even more than the Springboks unfair loss.

Rats are cute. However, when they get into your food cupboard and leave their droppings everywhere, some of their cuteness dissipates. A few weeks ago I opened the food cupboard to see a rat quickly jump down and hide in a box amongst the neatly folded supermarket packets I recycle. My housekeeper called the gardener and he managed to batter the rat to death.
I should have realised that rats are social creatures. They have friends. If you have one rat, you surely have another.
A couple of days after the death of the rat, I noticed some items knocked over in my cupboard, a half-eaten biscuit where it shouldn't have been, and what looked suspiciously like some rat droppings. When I told my housekeeper about it she assured me the rat was dead and those brown crumbs were coffee granules, or cocoa.
On Sunday afternoon while I was reading a book on my bed, I heard a blood-curdling scream from the lounge. A hysterical Siobhan said she'd seen a rat run down the passage. We called on Tony, my strapping 1.95m rugby-playing twenty year old son to attack the rat. He ran into his room screaming like a girl and jumped onto his bed. If this is the future of rugby in South Africa, I have to wonder about winning the world cup back in 2015. Eventually he calmed down and grabbed his Maasai spear and went to attack the rat hiding in the bottom of the food cupboard. The rat, like lightning, jumped over Tony's foot and sped across the kitchen floor to behind the stove. Although Tony moved the stove and the fridge, the rat had disappeared.
The screaming didn't stop with the rat. Tony closed his bedroom curtains and a large gecko dropped down onto him. He flung it across the room with a high-pitched yell. Siobhan went to the bathroom and started screaming as a large cockroach had positioned itself blocking her way to the toilet. It seems as if all the Moshi-wildlife had come out after the rains and were determined to make their presence known.
Most shops and markets in Moshi are closed on a Sunday afternoon so we weren't able to purchase some rat traps. I managed to get two lethal-looking rat traps on Monday. Tony tested one with my ballpoint pen and it snapped the pen clean in half. I imagined walking into the kitchen to find a decapitated rat's head stuck in the trap and the body at the other end of the kitchen. Despite using some of our choice imported chorizo to bait the trap, the rat and his friends weren't interested. This morning the traps were still set, the chorizo untouched. Tonight we might try smearing the chorizo with peanut butter. I am determined to kill these rats, however cute they may look.
So the moral of this story is, when you are faced with having to cope with upsetting disappointments, redirect yourself and find something else to focus on. Like rats!

Trying to live the dream

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 04:05:00 +0000

Work. Something you have to do to survive which will hopefully give you the means to bring you closer to your dream. Unfortunately, the constraints of work often hold you back from your dream. Commitments, time constraints, all sent to try your patience.
Last night I dreamt that I owned six houses, each one in a different country. I spent the year traveling around the world spending two months in each house. That dream is probably a bit unrealistic considering that at this precise moment I don't own any property anywhere in the world. And 3-4 houses would be better so that you can spend longer in each country. But hey, it was just a dream.
Thinking about it though as dawn approached while I watched the Fiji Samoan World Cup Rugby game at some god-forsaken hour on a Sunday morning when all intelligent life were still firmly ensconced in their beds fast asleep, I realised that I quite liked that dream and might need to tweak it a bit and adapt it to make it my own.

The first step will be trying to save some money. You can't buy a property without any money. That is a sad fact of life. Unfortunately, I don't have any of that hugtight sticky glue to keep those dollar notes firmly stuck to my coffers. Exotic holidays are too much of a temptation and I can't resist flying off to explore somewhere new. And then, life is so short so you really should make the most of it and not short-change yourself on those holidays.
What I'd really like to do is give up my day job and then spend my time writing and traveling. Following my team for the 2015 Cricket and Rugby World Cups.
These dreams are not impossible; they just take a bit of conscious effort to work towards making them a reality. A dream is broken down into small goals. Each goal is then broken down into steps. Don't be afraid to dream big. It's the goals to get there that need to be small and achievable. Maybe today is the day to work out the blueprint, the road map to achieving your dreams. Good luck!

Why I can't write

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:39:00 +0000

This seems to be the year of distractions.
I don't know what it is that some years you can achieve so much and other years it's just one distraction after another that blocks your vision, hampers your creativity and manages to force one's writing onto the back burner.
I love writing. Stories, relationship advice, I love it. But this year it is a struggle and just isn't happening for me.
My youngest daughter will tell you, I'm addicted to research. Mention something I don't know and I have an obsessive compulsion to find out all I can about it. This means that my time on my laptop is ill-spent researching trivial bits and pieces that mean nothing to anybody just to satisfy some weird urge I have to acquire useless knowledge about random subjects. It's a huge time-waster that I can't get control of. An addiction I don't seem quite ready to give up.
During my recovery time after another bout with breast cancer, I should have been able to use that time to write. Instead, I became completely obsessed with researching my roots. I did find out some scandalous stuff but seriously, what can I actually do with that information? How useful is it? If I am honest with myself then it is just another waste of my time and time is very precious to me.

Being an armchair sports fanatic, a year of world cups is the worst possible thing for me. First the cricket world cup consumed my weekends and killed my writing. Now it's the rugby world cup and as a die-hard Springbok supporter I find it of the utmost importance to my sanity and psyche to compulsively read every bit of news about the Springboks and their world cup bid written in every blog and newspaper around the world. Weekends are taken up with rugby-watching and it's very hard to focus on anything else. Even planning an October getaway and December holiday has been pushed aside. I have a one-track mind and it's not about sex. Rugby, that's all I can think about at present. I try and avoid conversations with people as I instinctively try and turn the conversations around to rugby and the Springboks chances in this world cup. This is sad.

I have two books I should be working on. Redesigning yourself for the multi-tasking generation which I'm co-writing with Jeremy Sherr, and C U @ 8, a novel I'm quite excited about. I've promised myself that after the world cup, these books will get my full attention. But there's always something else, isn't there?

Marketing. The bain of my life. Indie authors have to spend a lot of time marketing, especially if you want to enjoy the successes which come with increased sales. Marketing is time-consuming, and at the moment is compartmentalised with watching E! I can do both at the same time. However, I do not spend nearly enough time on marketing.

Parenting takes time if you are a single-parent. Your children expect you to talk and interact with them, fetch and carry them, all of which makes inroads on your time. And if you just agree with them or pretend to listen, they have this nasty habit of taking your inattention personally, and throwing it back at you when you need their support.

And last of all is my job. A huge distraction as I have to go to work during the week. Because you receive a salary, the expectation is that you'll put in the hours and do the work. Unfortunately, I do love my job so feel this compulsion to do the extra yards and go the extra mile. If only I had a horrible job and didn't have to work. Now if I could just make the time for marketing, to get the sales to supplement my income, then maybe...? With one more child to go to university and finish school, retiring to write is not an option for a good few years.

My goal for this week is to manage my time and make the time to write. It's what I'm passionate about (besides the rugby) so it stands to reason that I should make the time to follow my passion.

Have a good week.

Cindy

Man's Inhumanity to Man

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 19:07:00 +0000

There have been times on my travels when I have come across signs of man's inhumanity towards his fellow man which has left me feeling deeply disturbed. The Nanjing Massacre Museum in China was one, the Killing Fields in Cambodia was another. Last weekend in Stone Town in Zanzibar I came upon another. The slave trade. It wasn't just a case of tearing apart families and wrenching them away from their homes. It was the unnecessary cruelty that went with it. Like the slave traders had a brainstorming session beforehand to come up with different and creative ways to make the slaves' lives more miserable. They stole people from the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and marched them in chains to Bagamoyo in Tanzania where they were crammed into ships and taken to Zanzibar to await the slave auctions at the market. Families were separated. The traders came up with a cunning plan to chain slaves from different tribes and countries next to each other, so that your neighbour didn't speak your language so no conversations could take place. That way nobody could communicate their escape plans to each other.

Many slaves were buried alive in the foundations of new buildings being erected to 'strengthen' them. The strongest were placed in tiny cells with low ceilings so that standing upright was impossible. The only light and ventilation coming from two narrow slits in the wall. A ditch filled with sea water ran down the middle of the cell where they were supposed to relieve themselves. The smaller cell held fifty men, the slightly bigger cell held 75 women and children. They had to wait in the cells chained together in neck chains for 2-3 days until auction day. The guide who took us around explained that only about 50% of the slaves would survive until sale day. Having gone into the cells I would imagine many would have suffocated to death. But the cruelty did not end there. On market day they would be tied to a whipping post and whipped to see how strong they were. Obviously the stronger they were, the more money they were sold for. The base of the whipping post is in front of the communion table at the Anglican Cathedral. They have put red tiles around the whipping post base to symbolise all the blood that was spilt. The Cathedral was built on top of the old slave market and the original holding cells are still there. The baptism font made of Italian marble is at the back of the Cathedral over the place where unwanted slave children were killed. And a further cruelty was that many of these slaves were sold to the traders by their own chiefs and village elders. Greed is a terrible thing, isn't it? I wonder if those chiefs and elders ever felt guilty by what they did to their own people, or did the wealth they got from their treachery sweeten their dreams?

In the garden of the Cathedral is a stark poignant sculpture by Clara Sornas, of five slaves in a rectangular pit wearing original neck chains. A haunting reminder of man's inhumanity to man.

Book marketing tips

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:58:00 +0000

As an author there are different ways to market your books for free. Living in the wop-wops as I do, book signings are difficult, word of mouth works to a certain extent but won't have truckloads of your book rolling out the door. A virtual book tour is another great marketing tool and is more about generating a web presence rather than selling books.
There are so many books out there, you have to do what it takes to get yours noticed. Giveaways on Goodreads are an option and usually gets you a few reviews as well. Reviews are also a great way to get your book known. Have a friend with a blog interview you on their blog. Tweeting on Twitter and posting on Facebook helps make people aware of your book, but doesn't necessary make them leap up to buy it. Posting on blogs, writing articles online, and answering questions on sites like Quora.com all help put you and your book out there.
However, it's still not enough.
Joining groups on Linkedin, Kindleboards all help to build your author platform but by themselves do not generate major sales.
Bookmarks, business cards, posters in bookstores and setting up a table in your local shopping mall are all well and good if you live in a place geared for that kind of marketing. Some of us don't.
You can also make book trailers and post them on Youtube.
Freado.com is an awesome book marketing site that incorporated Bookbuzzr where people can play games where they have to memorise your book cover. They also have lots of other useful tools and widgets. I'm particularly fond of the book excerpt widget where the pages turn like a real book. They give you the code to embed on your webpage or blog.
Amazon have a nifty tool called an astore. You can join Amazon.com as an affiliate and set up an astore which contains your books. The instructions on how to do it are very simple to follow on the Amazon Affiliate's site. You then get code that you can embed on your blog or webpage and sales of your books on the astore will net you an affiliate fee and your normal royalty.
From all these marketing tips you can gather that it's best not to put all your eggs in one basket and use only one strategy like tweeting on Twitter. You have to spread yourself thin and do as many as possible to reach heaps of people.
Writing your book was the easy part. Marketing is where the real work comes in, and boy is it time-consuming! You'll find that with all the marketing you have to do you won't have much time left to work on your next masterpiece. If you are running a household and holding down a full-time job it gets even trickier. Time management is the key here. At the start of your week set yourself a small marketing task for each day. Don't try and do all the marketing strategies every day, you'll reach burn-out before you get a chance to sing God save the Queen. Small manageable chunks that are realistic. Don't bite off more than you can chew otherwise you'll get stressed, frustrated and be inclined to give up. You don't want to dry up those creative juices of yours, so factor in some quality writing time each week.
If you have any good marketing tips to share, please add them in the comments.
Have a good one!
Cindy

Corruption is Corrosion

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Vine) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:24:00 +0000

This year, besides the earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, has been the year of riots and protest marches. The populations of many countries have stood up for their rights and banded together to oust those corrupt officials in their governments. Some are still trying to take over the government and lives are being lost in the various struggles on a daily basis. If you don’t like poverty, austerity measures or what have you, you down tools and strike and march down the streets waving placards. Of course, the thugs in the marches aren’t really that interested in the politics of the protest, for them it’s just an opportunity to loot and vandalise the town. Everybody gets caught up in watching the images on the news of the violent outbreaks and protests, but nobody actually asks why we are in this current situation. What is causing the people to riot and protest?

Driving into Moshi town today, being hounded by the vultures in their orange safety vests, all wanting to rip you off for 500 shillings, the cost of a day’s parking in streets that will fail safety requirements in most countries, I found myself fuming at the corruption that is so prevalent in Tanzania. The orange safety vest vultures get a percentage of the parking fees they collect. They target mostly the mzungu (foreigners) and will write you a 500 shilling pink ticket for a full day’s parking when in fact they should be charging you 200 shillings and issuing a white ticket for a half day’s parking. They start writing the pink ticket while they approach your car, so when you ask for the white ticket, they smile and point to the already completed pink ticket and try and force you to pay 500 shillings. As you can gather, I’ve lost my patience with these vultures. I know they are only trying to make a living and it’s not their fault. It’s the corrupt government officials who are taking the bulk of the money they collect for parking. What really annoys me is that none of that money is put back into the community, the roads and buildings are not maintained at all. Instead the money is just pocketed, going to make some government officials on the take even richer.

TANESCO the state-owned power company is another example of a corrupt entity. Daily power cuts make living here hard, but even if we only get half or less than half the power supply we should be getting, your TANESCO bill doesn’t reflect that. You are charged the same, if not more, than what you’d be charged for 24 hour regular power supply. And when I asked to get one of the prepay meters installed, I was told on Friday that my name was on the bottom of the list of those wanting to go prepay, and that I should spend the weekend thinking about what I could offer them that would make my name go to the top of the list.

Corruption is corroding society. Rusting it away until it starts to fall apart. How did these power-hungry people get elected into the governments in the first place? And how do we get rid of them when their corruption becomes evident (like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe) and despite losing elections they refuse to leave? How can we remove the rust without cutting it out with riots and protests? Dialogue doesn’t seem to work. It seems that old saying is true. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Maybe we need more accountability measures to be put in place and harsher consequences for those indulging in corruption.