Angie's Diary

‘Dying’ for a Fresh Perspective?

K.C. DeVille — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 18:04:52 +0000

[caption id="attachment_108600" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Photo by Carlos Barajas[/caption]

‘Dying’ for a Fresh Perspective?

Nothing says “relaxing weekend” like climbing into a coffin. Yet that’s exactly what a growing number of people in Japan are doing on purpose. It’s called coffin-lying, and it’s turning funeral furniture into a wellness tool. No candles. No spa robe. Exclusively you, a wooden box, and thirty minutes to sit with the one topic most people spend their whole lives avoiding. Coffin-lying sounds like a dare. Actually, many compare it to therapy. Stay with us. It gets weirder, and then it’s surprisingly sensible.

Making Death Trendy

The idea started small. A 120-year-old funeral home in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, began offering coffin sessions as an unusual way to unwind. Word spread fast, and the practice has since grown into a full wellness trend with its own dedicated spaces. Participants climb into a coffin, open or closed, for about 30 minutes. Some sessions add music or ceiling visuals. Others go for total silence. A session runs around $13, which by all accounts is cheap therapy.

Cute Coffins Are a Thing Now

Tokyo’s Meiso Kukan Kanoke-in relaxation salon takes the concept further. Coffin designer Mikako Fuse builds bright, decorated caskets through her company Grave Tokyo, aiming to soften the whole experience. The salon describes it as an experience where you can “gaze at life through being conscious of death.” “Before choosing a death that cannot be reversed, I want them to experience a death that can be reversed.” - Mikako Fuse via VICE. Yes, that’s a real business pitch. And yes, people are lining up for it.

Why a Box Built for Funerals Is Being Marketed as Self-Care

Japan has record-high youth suicide rates, and coffin-lying has become part of a broader push for mental health advocacy. According to a 2025 Japanese government report, the student suicide rate hit an all-time high. About 532 students died by suicide. The number was the highest since record-keeping began in 1980. Fuse has linked the experience directly to suicide prevention, framing it as a controlled, reversible brush with mortality. It’s a deliberately blunt idea: face a symbolic death so the real thing loses some of its grip.

Rooted in an Old Idea

None of this comes out of nowhere. Japan has long practiced kuyō, a memorial tradition built around honoring the fragility of life. Coffin-lying dresses an old cultural instinct in new, Instagrammable packaging. Style News notes that Fuse has run coffin workshops at a university where students said the exercise eased anxiety and left them with a stronger appreciation for life.

When a Coffin Session Isn’t Enough

Coffin-lying hasn’t caught on in the U.S. yet. As with all viral trends, one should treat it with a disclaimer. Yes, it can ease a bad week, but it’s not built to treat a bad year. If your relationship with death, anxiety, or your own mood runs deeper than “stressed and needs a reset,” that’s a sign to talk to a professional. Access to mental health services has become more convenient in recent years, thanks to psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPs). These advanced practice nurses are trained specifically in mental healthcare, and the qualifications behind that title are substantial. Earning the credential requires a bachelor’s degree in nursing, an active RN license, and a master’s-level program. This is why many study a psych NP program online. The 100% online coursework is built around psychiatric mental health assessment, neuropsychopharmacology, and clinical care across a patient’s entire lifespan. Students can complete the online psychiatric nurse practitioner program in two years while working. Cleveland State University adds that an online PMHNP program is backed by hundreds of supervised clinical hours before graduation.

More than a Wellness Check

That training means a PMHNP can do more than a general wellness practitioner ever could. They assess, diagnose, and treat conditions like anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. They can prescribe and manage psychiatric medication. They also provide psychotherapy, working with individuals, families, and groups in settings ranging from hospitals to community mental health centers. So if a wellness trend is what got you thinking seriously about death, fear, or how heavy things have felt lately, treat that thought as useful information rather than a red flag.

Why Lying Still and Silent Could Help

Strip away the coffin and what’s left is a sensory deprivation exercise. No notifications. No noise. No one asking anything of you. According to Outside, removing external stimulation can quiet the parts of the brain tied to rumination and stress. Cortisol drops. Blood pressure eases. Breathing slows. The body stops scanning for danger, essentially clocking out for half an hour. That stillness is also why the fear of death shows up so quickly once you’re inside. With nothing else to focus on, your brain goes straight for the big questions.

The Data Behind the Box

The most recent data we could locate was a 2023 study published in BMC Medical Education. The review tracked 134 medical and nursing students in Taiwan, 53 of whom took part in a roughly three-hour coffin-lying exercise. Researchers measured attitudes toward death one week before, one week after, and up to eleven weeks later. The result: scores for “fear of death” and “death avoidance” dropped substantially in the group that did the activity, and the effect held up weeks later. Feelings of “love and care” and “existence” spiked right after the session but faded over time. In short, the exercise didn’t primarily feel good at the moment. It left a mark.

FAQs

Is coffin-lying meant to be spiritual or clinical?

Both, depending on where you go. Some sessions lean into relaxation and mindfulness; others frame it explicitly around death education and mental health support.

How long does a typical session last?

Around 30 minutes for wellness-focused sessions.

Is there real evidence it works?

Early research is promising. The BMC Medical Education study found measurable, lasting drops in death-related fear and avoidance among participants.

Where did the trend start?

A funeral home in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, first offered it, and it has since spread to dedicated relaxation salons like Tokyo's Meiso Kukan Kanoke-in.

Dying in Numbers

Stat	Detail
Session length	30 minutes for a standard coffin-lying session
Experimental vs. control	53 in the coffin-lying group, 81 in the control group (BMC study)
PMHNP job growth	Projected 18% increase in positions, 2016–2030 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Follow-up window	Effects on “fear of death” and “death avoidance” held up 6–11 weeks later (BMC study)

Could This Work for You?

Morbid curiosity with coffins aside, the trend could be onto something. Thirty minutes of total sensory shutdown. Phone off. Lights out. No agenda. All of this taps into the same relaxation response researchers are measuring. The coffin makes the stakes impossible to ignore. Plenty of people will read all this and still think, hard pass. Fair enough. But the appeal isn’t about the box. It’s about being handed permission to stop, sit with the discomfort, and come out the other side less afraid of it.

Who Decided That Life Should Be Figured Out by 30?

Judy Markova — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 17:40:30 +0000

Who Decided That Life Should Be Figured Out by 30?

Any of us who are 25 years and above must be familiar with an overwhelming sense of speed. Here we were enjoying our youth, and out of nowhere, life seemed to be getting compressed into five short years. Yes, only five years left to be in your 20s, and only five years left to figure life out. Everywhere you turn, the dreaded question awaits, “So, what’s next?” Society hands us a checklist of milestones: Land a stable job, get married, buy a house, have kids, and so on. A recent Pew Research Center survey confirmed how ingrained this sentiment is, at least across 18 countries. A median of 53% of adults believed that the ideal age to complete all of the abovementioned milestones is 30 or younger. That’s great on paper, but does life itself hand anybody a user manual to follow? Some get there sooner, and others much later. Against the diversity of human experiences, the question remains: Who decided we should have life figured out by 30? This article will put that ‘unofficial’ deadline on trial.

The Inheritance of an Unseen Script

Before we even dive in, let’s call the rhythm out for what it is: a facade. Why? It isn’t simply about missing a step and being ridiculed for it. Even those who reach certain milestones much sooner are treated as the odd one out. It’s almost as if the way is so narrow that you cannot turn to the left or to the right. Suddenly, if you don’t know who you are or where you’re headed by 30, the only hope for you is an existential breakdown. Now, none of the aspirations expected by 30 are unreasonable on their own. The problem isn’t even the timeline; it’s assuming that there is only one timeline that everyone must follow. On that note, it is interesting that our idea of what it means to be an adult is evolving. A 2025 Psychology Today article shared a meta-analysis of nearly 40 studies involving 17,000+ participants. It was found that fewer than one in four people considered marriage and parenthood to be determinants of adulthood. A striking 80% believed that psychological qualities like accountability, self-dependence, and the ability to take responsibility would count as determinants. So, essentially, the conversation seems to have arrived at a spot where developing character is central. Doesn’t this make sense in view of the fact that the aforementioned milestones do require a certain character to achieve and retain them? However, this unseen script of having it all figured out by 30 is more of a legacy passed down from one generation to another. One may inherit it, more often without even realizing it, from the following places:

Family conversations that often involve good-intentioned questions like, “When are you settling down?” or “Have you thought about buying a house?”
The logical sequence of education to career instilled in schools and universities
The trending reels of social media that seldom highlight someone’s uncertainty or struggles
Stories we’ve been told through movies, books, and advertisements that portray adulthood as a project

Amid all this, perhaps the most influential scriptwriter is our own self, who is ready to compare based on internalized expectations. The irony is that no one ever decided 30 to be the deadline. Maybe that is also the first realization worth holding onto. Before wondering if you’re falling behind, question whether you’re measuring yourself against a timeline you never chose.

What if Life Was Never Designed to Follow a Timeline?

Is it not telling that one of the most recognizable symbols of life, the heartbeat on a monitor, does not follow a straight path? Perhaps that’s not a coincidence, teaching us that linearity is a myth at best. For instance, some people discover the career they love straight out of college, whereas others spend years exploring different paths before it all just clicks. Similarly, some pause their ambitions to raise children or care for loved ones. Others return to old dreams after unforeseen setbacks or new opportunities. To expound, consider the example of education itself. The traditional expectation of earning a degree in your early 20s and never returning to the classroom is not an accurate picture of modern-day learning. Flexible programs have made it possible for professionals to develop new skills without putting their lives on hold. Healthcare offers a particularly good example, as many registered nurses discover later in their careers that they want to expand their role in patient care. Is this because of age? Seldom, but mainly because the nurse is ready for a new phase of life. One of the advanced paths is that of becoming a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP). These professionals can provide comprehensive care to people of all age groups. As Texas Woman’s University notes, the specialization is designed to expand investigative capabilities and grow as a leader in multifaceted nursing practice. Now, deciding to continue one’s education is one thing, but finding time for it is another. Nurses balancing full-time jobs and rotating shifts in particular pursue an online FNP degree for flexibility. The fact that such opportunities are available tells us that society also recognizes that not everyone moves at the same pace in life. Different seasons of life call for different priorities, and sometimes that may mean:

Returning to education after years in the workforce
Finding the right relationship later than expected
Changing careers after discovering that the first choice wasn’t the right fit
Buying a home or reaching financial goals at a comfortable pace, not haphazardly
Rediscovering old dreams or developing new ones even decades later

The Price of Trying to Keep Up

Many may not admit it, but they’re trying really hard to keep up with the Jonases. The ‘American dream’ that was sold to millions for decades comes with a price tag that may be out of reach for a majority. For instance, Investopedia shared that the median price for a single-family home stood at an estimated $415,000 in 2025. That number does not include maintenance costs and other fees; now do the math! Does that seem affordable for every 25+ something adult today? This was just one of the many milestones, but one that can be quantified. What about the others? Well, even starting a career is ambiguous these days, regardless of the field. Students out of universities spend months or years sometimes landing a stable job. Many simply receive a $ 20-per-hour offer from a local Home Depot. Meanwhile, layoffs are at their peak, and this has many frozen into their lifeless roles. Nich Tremper, the senior economist at Gusto, shared, “Folks are kind of just sitting still. They’re not looking for new roles; they’re not leaving their current roles. Without those new jobs available, it’s hard for an entry-level employee to get their foot in the door and start a career.” This doesn’t seem like a lack of desire or effort, does it? Well, some things truly are not in one’s control, but time waits for no man, as the saying goes. There is already little room to breathe when one is thrust into the brutal reality of modern dating. While it works out for some, that is no guarantee written in stone. People who spend time viewing the world outside-in feel an overwhelming sense of pressure to keep up. This can lead to:

Rushing through major decisions simply because there is no time
Treating someone else’s milestones as the standard despite having different circumstances and priorities
Overlooking other meaningful forms of growth, such as emotional maturity and resilience
Mistaking life’s detours for failure, when they may be seasons of learning and healing
Feeling successful on the outside but empty and unfulfilled in reality

Writing Your Own Definition of Success

What’s one takeaway from questioning the script we all inherited? One may get the timeline as a legacy, but not the success it dictates. To a large extent, the latter is something everyone must define for themselves. While this doesn’t involve abandoning ambition, it’s important to realize that a meaningful life is not a close copy of someone else’s. A 2025 Forbes interview with executive coach Keren Eldad was based on this idea. She argued that many people spend years chasing status, money, and recognition because those things are shaped by society's expectations. Eldad shared her own experience, describing how pursuing the aforementioned things eventually left her disconnected from her authentic self. We should be asking the same question: Are we pursuing goals because they reflect our values, or because we’ve fallen for someone else’s definition of success? On that note, a Gallup survey found that family was the most frequently chosen personal value among Americans, selected by 49% of respondents. This was followed by freedom (30%), health (29%), integrity (28%), and faith (26%). So, although better income and promotions attract the limelight, many people place ultimate importance on things that provide lasting meaning. In the same way, it may be more helpful for you to measure your progress against your own values. So, consider the following questions:

What achievements would still matter to me if no one else knew about them?
Which goals align with my priorities instead of other people’s expectations?
What kind of person do I hope to become while pursuing success?
If I achieved every traditional milestone but lost my health, peace, and closest relationships, would I still consider that success?
When I look back years from now, what do I hope I’ll be most grateful for?

Don’t expect all the answers to come in the blink of an eye. Take your time, and allow the answers to evolve with new experiences and changing priorities.

FAQs

Is it normal to not have life figured out by 30?

Yes, there is no universal timeline for adulthood. People reach career, relationship, and financial milestones at different stages due to unique circumstances, opportunities, and priorities. Falling behind someone else’s schedule does not mean you’re falling behind in life.

Why do people feel pressured to achieve everything before 30?

The pressure often comes from family expectations, cultural norms, social media comparisons, and traditional ideas about success. Watching others’ highlight reels can create the false impression that everyone is following the same timeline, even though real life is far more unpredictable.

How can I define success on my own terms?

Start by identifying what genuinely matters to you instead of chasing society’s priorities. Measure progress by your values, growth, relationships, and purpose rather than your age. A meaningful life is not built by meeting arbitrary deadlines but by making intentional choices over time.

A Reality Check in Data and Numbers

Pew Research Center survey conducted across 18 countries

A median of 53% of adults believed that the ideal age by which one should get married, buy a house, and have kids is 30.

Investopedia on the median price for a single-family home in 2025

$415,000

Gallup survey on American choices

49% of the respondents kept family as the priority
It was followed by 30% choosing freedom, 29% favoring health, 28% valuing integrity, and 26% prioritizing faith

Finally, some moments seldom earn the same attention as a promotion or wedding announcement. However, they tend to leave the deepest and most enduring impact. Think about becoming more resilient after a disappointment or having the courage to change directions when the road ahead is not well-trodden. These milestones matter! Let’s consider an unexpected place where this message finds its voice. CNBC shared an interview with a 100-year-old bodybuilder, Andrew Bostinto, who shared his secret to a long and healthy life. His answer wasn’t a complicated fitness routine or a fad diet, as many would expect. He simply summed it up as, “Know what you want to accomplish, and commit yourself to it.” What’s refreshing about his advice is that it involves no deadlines, only a concrete direction. The pressure to have life figured out by 30 assumes success is a destination. Thankfully, it is not! So, who decided that life should be figured out by 30? Well, whoever it was clearly forgot to consult life itself.

Writers Seeking Support

Patricia Gitt — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 15:36:25 +0000

[caption id="attachment_108593" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Kathleen Leadley Photography[/caption]

Writers Seeking Support

When I began my career as a self-published author of women’s psychological mysteries, I sought help from a variety of sources. I read magazines and newsletters and subscribed to organizations that offered articles, telecasts, and Q&A opportunities. Usually seeking a solution to one of my plot or character problems. While working on my first novel, CEO, I attended local university classes. One of the instructors invited several of her students to join her biweekly workshop. It was a supportive environment where I not only made lifelong friends but was also introduced to the kindness and extraordinary creativity of other authors. I discovered that writers are inquisitive, interested in a broad range of topics. When gathered, you might discuss ways to murder a villain, design a fantasy universe, or focus your work on a particular historical period. To me, this makes them the most desirable of friends, certainly never boring. It also encouraged me to expand my reading choices, both fiction and nonfiction, introducing me to different genres and writing styles. This creative environment enabled me to publish that first novel, twenty-five years after putting the first word on the page, and immediately begin working on my second. All the while, I had a career that took me traveling, along with attending a local university to earn my MBA. Today, all of these experiences, both artistically and vocationally, have become material for my seven novels. Some writers have all their characters and plots already in mind. I write women’s psychological mysteries because I find women to be either their best friend or their own worst enemy. The idea for a book has always been sparked by my views of some remark or social myth. CEO, the harm of feminism. ASAP, damage done when a career woman, wife, and mother places herself last on her list of priorities. TBD, when a woman lacks a true appreciation of her professional skills. FYI: an innocent event can create an enemy. And the series, What She Didn’t Know, during which a woman goes from adoring wife to grieving widow thrust in the midst of a murder investigation. While I continue to investigate supportive outlets, two have kept me an enthusiastic member for more than a decade: The International Dublin Writers Festival and Angie’s Diary. Having attended conferences: aboard ship sailing through the Panama Canal; on Maui, Hawaii; Dublin, Ireland; Glasgow, Scotland; Shepherdstown, West Virginia; and in New York City, USA, I’ve come to the following conclusion... I want to learn, not compete for attention. Whether it is a workshop format or a lecture series, I want to trust the organization that selected the speakers and designed its sessions. I looked forward to acquiring new information along with ways to reach readers in today’s every changing book publishing world… A world increasingly accepting of self-published authors. The International Dublin Writers Conference was founded by Laurence O’Bryan, CEO of BooksGoSocial, a marketing and advertising organization for authors. He says, “I went to a writers’ event in New York City for a weekend back in 2009. It was almost the best weekend of my life! I spent time at events and talks, ate with writers, went to a writer’s event on Saturday morning, and ate again with writers at lunch. It was my idea of heaven. Camaraderie and learning. “In 2014, after years of talking about it, decided to start a conference. The International Dublin Writers' Festival event has grown from 50 attendees to 150 already registered for the 12^th Conference, being held at Trinity College Dublin on August 14-16, 2026.” The reason I have attended ten of these conferences is that, unlike some, every attendee has been welcoming, sharing personal stumbles and successes, and helpful in getting me past one of my roadblocks. One example: during a conference break, I sat with four writers and mentioned that I was seeking a logo to represent my novels that featured successful New York City businesswomen facing a crisis. In less than twenty minutes, we sketched a puzzle piece that is now my logo. (Check the website here). The second and even earlier association is with Angie’s Diary. The online literary magazine introduced me to new writers from around the world. From published books and poetry to independent articles, each supporting my belief that writers are truly the most interesting people. Over the years, Angie has featured each of my seven novels and articles. To be counted among other outstanding authors has been an adventure in literary exceptionalism. In the end, a writer must believe in themselves. Start anywhere that is comfortable, and begin to tell a story that entertains them. If you aren’t engaged, you will have difficulty entertaining readers. Just because you write, delete, add, and correct sentences, paragraphs, scenes, even characters, do not give up. It helps to refine your work. Do not look for criticism. Look for supportive ideas and information. It is your story. Remember, you do not have to show your work-in-progress to anyone until you are ready. An editor will comment on structure, grammar, and punctuation. Few will give you the inspiration, supportive excellence, and camaraderie I continue to find at The International Dublin Writers Conference and Angie’s Diary. Each provides advice, examples of other authors’ work, and, through participation, expands my writer's vision of what, how, and why I continue to write. From this writer to you: Enjoy your writer’s journey.

Whose Point Of View Is It?

Arlene Johnson — Fri, 01 May 2026 18:38:57 +0000

Whose Point Of View?

Throughout my journey on the winding path of writing, I've stumbled more times than I can count.

Among my most memorable blunders was my mishandling of Point Of View—a misstep that a discerning editor highlighted in a rejection letter more insightful than many acceptances.

In my newbie attempts to educate my readers on what EVERYONE was thinking, I had no less than 3 POVs in one short story. The end result was a good story sent to the editor's recycle bin instead of being included in the intended anthology.

I like to think I've come a long way since those early missteps. Now, when I encounter this same issue in the work of fellow writers, it leaps off the page—unmistakable and jarring. Why? It muddies the narrative waters, leaving readers adrift in confusion.

Just as you settle comfortably into the mental world of the protagonist, the narrative abruptly veers into another character's psyche—and then yet another. Astonishingly, even published books sometimes fall prey to this disorienting practice.

Sometimes I try to ignore it and muddle through; other times, my brain goes on tilt, and the book/story gets tossed aside.

A fundamental rule of thumb is to maintain a single POV per short story or chapter. Simply put, the supporting cast isn't hired for their inner monologues—their role is to interact with, challenge, or propel your main character forward.

In novels, the natural pause at the end of a chapter graciously allows for a smooth transition to another POV, should the story demand it.

If you really must switch POV in a short story, alert your readers' minds that something is about to change by separating the paragraphs with ***. Limit the use of this little trick, though; you don't want to follow every other paragraph with asterisks.

If you ever find yourself uncertain about whose voice is steering the narrative, slip into the metaphorical shoes of your main character. Imagine you are 'Bob.' Would Bob truly have access to the inner machinations of Tom's mind? Unless Bob possesses supernatural insight, his knowledge is limited strictly to how Tom's words and actions ripple through his own world.

Once you achieve a kind of creative symbiosis with your protagonist, maintaining a consistent POV becomes second nature. Your narrative will flow with newfound clarity, readers will remain fully immersed, and editors will have one less reason to send your hard work to the slush pile.

Does Book Marketing Work?

Hank Quense — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 13:05:50 +0000

Does Book Marketing Work?

Marketing a self-published book has a dual purpose, and only one of them concerns actually selling the book. The other goal is to tell people about the book. The reality is this: the day your book became available, thousands of other books did too. Since you are an unknown author (so far!), no one knows about your book, and no one cares that the book is available.

Marketing Effort

This, then, is the marketing situation. You have to tell the world that:

Your book exists and
Make them care enough that they investigate the book and purchase a copy.

Without this marketing effort, your book will languish in the realm of the unknown.

Marketing Tactics

How do you do this? There are many marketing tactics that can be deployed to spread the word about the book. A major problem with initial marketing efforts is deciding which tactics to use and which ones to ignore. A strategic marketing plan is vital to this decision-making. The most important part of the marketing plan is identifying your book's target customer. This information allows your marketing tactics to focus on where to reach those customers. Spending time and money on a gun enthusiast website to reach romance readers is not a good idea. Spending time and money on the general population is also a waste. Only a tiny portion of the general population will have an interest in the topic of your book. Concentrate on finding and reaching that tiny segment.

The Best Time to Start Marketing

Another fundamental question that often comes up is when is the best time to start marketing the book? Of course, the ideal time to begin your marketing efforts is several months before your book becomes available. However, if your book is already out, don't worry. You can still market the book. Actually, it is never too early or too late to start your marketing campaign. So let's get to the crux of the matter. You probably have questions that need answering. Here are two that come up a lot:

Does book marketing work?
Is it worth the time and money?

The answer to both questions is a definite yes.

Your Best Bet

To elaborate, let's compare book marketing to playing the lottery. If you buy a lottery ticket, you have a small, very small chance to win a ton of money. If you don't buy a ticket, you have no chance of winning the money. With book marketing, if you do the marketing stuff, you have a small, very small chance of making a ton of money through your royalties. If you don't do the marketing, you have zero chance of making money on the book. With the lottery, you can also win smaller amounts of cash. So too with book marketing. If you market the book, you may recoup your marketing investment through royalties and perhaps a bit more. So what I'm saying about marketing is that a bit of luck is also required to go along with the hard work. But that's true in almost every endeavor in life.

Conferences and Fairs

You can also influence your luck. How? Consider this. Your chances of getting hit by lightning are minimal, but you can substantially increase those chances by standing in an open field during a thunderstorm while holding a metal rod like a golf club. So, too, you can influence your book marketing luck by attending book conferences and fairs. You can also hang out where agents and publishers gather — either in person or online — which will increase your chances of being noticed.

Landing Page

Another way to increase your "luck" is by creating a great landing page. Think of your Amazon book page here. All your social media activity should be designed to do one thing: deliver visitors to this landing page. It's the landing page's job to sell the book (or not!). Your landing page has three critical elements to sell the book:

The cover
The book blurb
The description

To begin, a bland or generic cover will not impress visitors. When a visitor lands on the Amazon page, she will see at most six lines of text. Those lines have to convince her to click on the "read more" button. That's the job of the book blurb: persuade the visitor to read more. Then the book description sells her on buying the book.

Don't Bore Your Potential Customer

Consequently, this landing page is one of the most valuable market tools you have. However, don't waste this opportunity by using the synopsis as the blurb or description. A synopsis has its uses, but marketing isn't one of them. I've never read a synopsis that didn't bore me to tears. And boring a potential customer isn't wise. You have to use all your creative powers to write a description that convinces a visitor to spend money. So the real question is this: Will you market your book? This then is the reality of book marketing. Not marketing the book really isn't an option unless writing it was a bucket-list project. If your objective in writing the book was to have people buy it and read it, you must market it. Hank Quense has written a book called Book Publishing and Marketing Insights. If you're thinking of self-publishing, you should read this book first. You can download a free copy of the book.

Paratrooper in Algiers

James Strauss — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 03:32:53 +0000

Paratrooper in Algiers

He said he’d been in Algeria. Algiers, Algeria. I’d asked him how a country could have a city named the same thing as the country, but he’d ignored me. He was smoking an ugly-smelling foreign cigarette and wearing a pair of pants that were bloused into shiny black combat boots. Paratrooper boots. “Why are you smoking those here? And why are you wearing those boots?” I’d asked him, as we were standing in the foyer of an expensive restaurant. “Can’t stop. Was there,” he blew out a big puff of obnoxious white smoke, “It was bad. I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t stop. The cigarettes, the boots, they make me feel right.” He’d stared at me, the smoke between us fading slowly away, before finishing our discussion with a question. “I am alright,” he stared for seconds, before going on, “Aren’t I?” I’d been a child when that had happened. I’d never forgotten that man, nor the haunted look of his deep black eyes. But it was the tone of his voice that had indelibly burned everything else into my young mind. It had a dark, pathos-driven despair. The tone had riveted my attention, like the deep single play of a very low piano note. Although I’d not forgotten that time, I'd never associated it with it. I looked down at my boots. Desert boots. The new cool ones. The ones with inserts. Not like the old French Paratroopers. His had been polished to a high shine. My desert boots would never know the touch of anything except a brush. They were the most comfortable things I’d ever worn on my feet, which was why I always used them. Sitting alone on the park bench, my long legs sprawled out before me, I breathed out slowly, watching the smoke play down over them. I ground out the cigarette, not even half done, on the stone handle of the bench. It’d been years since the war. The wars. First Vietnam, then Desert Storm, and finally Afghanistan, with a few inconsequential actions in between. I’d been tested several times for post-traumatic stress. I didn’t have it. I shifted uncomfortably on the bench, looking down at my watch. I had twenty minutes before I went on. I was going to give a speech in front of a thousand people, about life. About truth, lies, justice, and mythology. I’d become a published author of thriller novels. And here I was sitting on a park bench in a public park, wearing an expensive suit, desert combat boots, and smoking a cigarette. Smoking was totally stupid, and I knew it. The boots were so out of place with the suit and the occasion that they did not bear consideration. I field-stripped the cigarette and tossed its remnants into the warm Santa Fe winds of autumn. I was wearing the boots and smoking because those things made me feel right. I closed my eyes, trying to keep my world from spinning about me. I felt the wind sweep across my body, then die out to sudden stillness. I saw myself standing in a foyer, looking down at a little boy. “I’m alright, aren’t I?” I whispered, but the boy just looked back at me, his eyes large, his body motionless.

Reality Cheque

Maya Kavita — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 22:18:55 +0000

Reality Cheque

When I first thought of writing novels, I imagined myself like John Grisham, Stephen King, Patricia Cornwell, and other authors who'd been obscenely successful. I'd read somewhere that Grisham had moved out of state to get away from his fans. And that King lives in a gated complex on the coast of Maine. And Cornwell has an estate in the southern US. that is so massive it looks like the setting for a Danielle Steel novel. Oh yeah, she's obscenely successful, too. So tell me, how many of you writers out there have practiced your Oprah interview in the hope that a miracle might happen? I think it was much easier for those who started their careers decades ago, when the market wasn't super-saturated and when the web hadn't democratized writing to the point where anyone and their cousin could be an author But there endeth the whining. These days, in the new reality, there are so many books available in so many formats, marketed independently through the mainstream. And through various combinations of both indie and mainstream authors wanting to make their fortunes, or even make a decent living, should take note of the recent royalty figures posted on one of my favorite websites, by UK blogger, BubbleCow. Note that the conversion rate these days is about 1.5 Canadian dollars to the British pound. I doubt that the numbers are much different anywhere else in the world. Writers are looking at royalties of less than $2 per paperback book, and if what I've been told is true, and a bestseller in Canada is only 5,000 copies, I'm looking at a max of $10,000 for a year's work. I'd be much better off financially as a Walmart greeter. When I saw this link about royalties, as tweeted by @BubbleCow, I retweeted: "You gotta just love to write..." Do you?

Slavko Ray – Author Interview

Paul Collins — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 14:52:33 +0000

Slavko Ray

Slavko Ray, author of “When Cheers Are Not Enough.” Slavko Ray taught and coached secondary school students for twenty-eight years. A father of two, he is now retired and lives with his wife Christine in Erin, Ontario. When Cheers Are Not Enough is his debut novel.

Tell us about your background. Who are you, and where are you from?

My parents immigrated to Canada from a region in Yugoslavia that is now Slovenia in the 1950s. They settled in Hamilton, Ontario, which is where I was born, a kid brother to two older sisters. When I was seven, the family moved out of the city to Stoney Creek, into a neighbourhood that would be my home for the next twenty-odd years, bordered by farms of the Niagara fruit belt to the east, the Niagara Escarpment to the south, and the Lake Ontario shoreline to the north. My educational pursuits resulted in a Classical Animation diploma and a bachelor’s degree in Physics—Ed, and in Education. Soon after embarking on a career as a high school teacher, I met a lovely and talented chemistry teacher named Christine (who taught down the hall), and she eventually agreed to be my partner for life. Thirty years of marriage later, we have raised two bright and beautiful kids (Lucy and Ben) and are now settled into retirement, keeping busy with Gibson, our cattle dog, on eight acres of property in Erin, Ontario.

Tell us about your book and what inspired you.

The thought of writing a book like “When Cheers Are Not Enough” was just a bit of fancy after I retired in 2017, and it wasn’t until I attended the Toronto Raptors championship parade two years later and witnessed first-hand the passion of the city for its team that I was inspired to tackle such a project. The story depicts a year in the lives of four high school teachers, Baker, Conrad, Angus, and Masaccio, who occasionally meet to jam as a crude alt-rock garage band. They are also diehard fans of the Toronto Mighty Pines, a once-dynastic hockey franchise now mired in a fifty-seven-year Cup drought. Unwilling to stand idly by and watch another year of failure, the weekend rockers resolve to take their fandom to the next level by engaging in some amateur witchcraft. They enlist the vocal talents of a new teacher, Perreault, and restyle themselves as a musical coven. By transforming song lyrics into hockey spells, they create a magical playlist of tunes that call on supernatural forces to help with their hockey woes. But the question of whether performing song spells has a greater impact than chanting “Go Pines, go” can only be answered by how the Mighty Pines fare during what will prove to be an erratic and unpredictable 2019-2020 season.

What themes does your book explore, and what do you hope the readers will take away from this interview?

“When Cheers Are Not Enough” takes a light-hearted approach to what is, at its core, an exploration of the Canadian hockey-fan phenomenon. The main characters are just such fans, faithful and loyal to their team. They cherish every game along the journey to what they hope ends in a Cup, because they recognize that it’s the ordinary moments that can combine to make the overall experience more meaningful (unlike the contingent of fair-weather fans who dismiss the regular season and look beyond it to the playoffs). My hope is for the reader to understand and relate to the characters as they stick it out through a long season, juggling hope and heartache along the way. In fact, there is a moment in the story where a reference is made to the Book of Ecclesiastes and how we are reminded to treasure the wonders of each passing day - or, in the case of the hockey fan, each passing game, regardless of whether the games are played in January or June. That lesson is summed up in three words: “Enjoy it now.”

What prompted you to be an author, and were you influenced by a particular person, artist, or genre?

I always had a healthy respect for the printed word. Reading was never a chore for me as a kid, so long as I maintained my subscription to “Sports Illustrated”, my weekly font of information and inspiration. When, in college, I was struck with an urge to sample the classics, I turned to Melville, Shelley, Dostoevsky, and Flaubert, to name a few. At present, I find Umberto Eco to be an esoteric hoot, and anything by Annie Proulx is simply awesome. But my true inspiration - at the risk of sounding prosaic - would be “sports” in general. In my formative years, not a season went by without me playing and competing in some sport. And I never discriminated; hockey, basketball, football, swimming, wrestling... they all were equally worthy of my time. Unfortunately, while I can admit to having been a pretty good athlete, true stardom eluded me. I was the proverbial Jack of all trades and master of none, which probably explains why I devoted so many hours in my adult years to coaching. It brings to mind that brilliant line: “Those who can’t do, teach; and those who can’t teach, teach gym.” Funny enough, the line describes me perfectly. To wit, I spent 28 years as a high school teacher, and for many of those years, you guessed it, I taught Physics. Ed.

If you could compare your book to any other existing works, which ones would they be, and why?

Because of the role otherworldly spirits play in my story, an obvious comparison is to W. P. Kinsella’s “Shoeless Joe”. However, in making that comparison, one would need to reimagine Kinsella’s classic not as an ode to America and baseball, but as an ode to Canada and our cherished pastime of hockey. Otherwise, I would like to think of my book as something that stands alone in its depiction of sports fandom by combining ice hockey with alt-rock music, coven magic, spectral entities, and even a bit of romance.

How can your readers contact you? Or buy your books?

I can be contacted via e-mail at slavkoray@gmail.com, or people can check out my Instagram site @slavkoraywrites. “When Cheers Are Not Enough” is available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book formats through the FriesenPress Bookstore, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Indigo. Alternatively, if you prefer a signed copy, e-mail me directly, and I will arrange delivery. Thanks so much for this, Paul. It was a blast.

The End Of Grammar As We Know It

Maya Kavita — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 13:48:23 +0000

The End of Grammar

"Is is" is making a comeback of sorts, and Warren Clements of the Globe and Mail is careful to document its use in a recent article (link below). Grammar! What it is is the bane of the writer's (and the talker's) existence. To use it correctly or to use it the way you feel like using it is less a question of proper English anymore, but rather a question of who cares anyway. The thing is, we don't care. But the corollary to the thing is is that if we don't care about the grammar, then we also don't care about the meaning we lose when we lose the grammar. Might as well lose the spelling while we're at it. And dump context, relevance, all initial capitals, and punctuation, and use parts of speech interchangeably (as in verb the nouns and noun the verbs). Keeping this post short today. I can't be any cleverer with this stuff. Can't bring me to mess with our language, except in error. I'll leave it to Michelle Obama and others to carry the torch for its is-ing, and I'll go back to Strunk and White. Have a good day. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

Main Themes

Playful use of “is is.” The repetition of “is” highlights how grammar quirks can become normalized, even celebrated, despite seeming awkward.
Grammar is both a bane and a necessity. The author admits grammar frustrates writers and speakers, yet also acknowledges that abandoning it risks losing meaning.
Indifference toward rules. The piece suggests that many people don’t care about grammar anymore, which raises the question: if grammar is ignored, does communication itself suffer?
Slippery slope of neglect. By joking about discarding spelling, punctuation, and even parts of speech, the author warns that language could collapse into chaos if rules are abandoned entirely.
Respect for tradition. Despite the playful tone, the closing nod to Strunk and White (classic grammar authorities) shows a lingering respect for structure and clarity.

Does it Matter?

Language evolves: New forms of expression (like “is is”) reflect cultural shifts, but they also challenge traditionalists.
Balance is key: Total rigidity stifles creativity, while total disregard erodes meaning.
Humor as critique: The piece uses irony and exaggeration to spark reflection on how much grammar really matters.

Takeaway

The essay isn’t just about grammar—it’s about communication and meaning. If we dismiss grammar entirely, we risk losing the precision that allows us to “say what we mean and mean what we say.” Yet, the playful tone reminds us that language is also alive, flexible, and fun.

Carl Jung’s Journey to Find His Soul

Barbara Garro — Sat, 22 Nov 2025 12:49:02 +0000

Carl Jung's Journey

Title: Carl Jung's Amazing Diary Over Decades Chronicling His Journey to Find His Soul Liber Novus (New Book) (The Red Book) C.G. Jung, introduced by Sonu Shamdasani Half of this oversize red leather-bound Liber Novus (New Book) is devoted almost entirely to C.G. Jung's Oil and Watercolor fantasy painting from his awake, conscious explorations. Although the first half of the book, which includes the majority of the paintings, is in German, the second half is in English. I can tell you I was in heaven looking at these original Psyche Paintings of Jung for the first time. I hope you will let me know what you think once you have a chance to read this book. If you are an artist, it is a must-buy! Liber Novus, written before 1930 and not published until 2009, spans several years and offers insight into the foundational beginnings of personality analysis and other scholarly work, especially the individuation process. If that were all, that would be plenty. But Jung also speaks out loud about his own personal psychoanalysis process, his own hard-scrabble individuation process, and shares wonderful paintings of his fantasies. Take a walk inside the inquiring mind of Carl Jung. For me, the same INTJ Myers-Briggs type as Jung and Jungian scholar, this proved so enlightening, it took me inside my own mind in an eerily correct mirror. So many people, known concepts and familiar understanding for me, like a walk on a pre-prepared path. Delicious, like St. Paul’s Philemon, somehow connected to Elijah from Jesus’ transfiguration. Throughout Liber Novus, you will see the emergence of Jung’s beginnings of his psychological types and archetypes. Jung came from a Christian family, his father a pastor. So, do you have to understand the Bible to read the book? It helps. For example, in one Jung fantasy, he has Salome blind and with Elijah, when in reality, Salome, who danced for Herod and requested the head of John the Baptist be brought to her on a plate when Herod told her she could ask for anything because he enjoyed her dancing so, was actually the daughter of Herodotus. In Jung’s fantasy, a cross had Elijah at the top, representing rational thinking, and Salome at the bottom, representing feeling. The left cross beam represented the irrational interior, and the right cross beam represented the Serpent thinking sensation (inferior). Still, the dictionary, and I used it many times, especially words no longer in common usage, can enable you to read the book without worry, if you are willing to go the extra step of looking things up. Imagine traveling with Jung as he actively tries to reconnect with his soul and gain wisdom stored in the unconscious. Jung speaks of Logos, the spiritual principle and an old man who represents understanding, insight, foresight, legislation, and wisdom, and Eros as a maiden, the unspiritual principle of feeling. Within this purposely unscholarly volume, you will find dialogs about Jung’s inner state/s. St. Ignatius of Loyola’s fifth spiritual exercise instructs one to see with the eyes of the imagination the length, depth, and breadth of hell. Instructions: empty the consciousness, go under it. Beneath the threshold of consciousness, everything is animated in what Jung eventually named the collective unconscious.

Want to do your own paintings?

Get into this huge Red Book bound in red leather, hence the nickname that stuck, and a first look at the interior disclosure paintings. These alone, especially for this artist, occupied hours. Jung, although he never seemed to consider himself such, was an incredible artist, creating abstract images, for the most part, with phenomenal detail, pure originality, drawing and color skills—delightful to experience! Let me call your attention to Jung’s artwork on pages 79, 88-89, 105, the mandala on page 107, pages 115, 119, the gemstone on page 121, the mandala of Christ on page 127, the defiant snake on page 129, the mosaic head on page 133, the most amazing page 135…. Jung says next to the painting on page 154, The Bhagavad-Gita says: “whenever there is a decline of the laws and an increase of iniquity/then I put forth myself: for the resource of the powers and for the destruction of the evildoers/for the establishment of the law I am born in every age.” I see Jesus preaching on page 155. What will you see? Jung’s painting shows highly developed technical skills and proficiency, painting in both oil and watercolor. These paintings represent Jung’s fantasies—the myth-creating function of the mind. Here is Jung’s way to move into active imagination, a far superior introspective tool than passive dreaming, a conscious way of entering the unconscious realms more purposefully, targeted, and elucidating than dreams.

Empty the mind to produce a vacuum in the consciousness
Concentrate on a particular mood
Attempt to become as conscious as possible of all fantasies and associations that come up in connection with it
Allow whatever fantasy free play without departing from the initial effect in a free association process
Should lead to a concrete or symbolic expression of the targeted mood nearer to consciousness, making it more understandable
Draw, paint or sculpt the fantasy a) Visuals will see the inner image b) Auditories will hear inner words c) Kinesthetics can access through automatic writing or with a planchette (used with or without a Ouija board) to facilitate automatic writing
Experience an inner dialog to widen consciousness.

Clearly, these images occur outside the rational, conscious mind. Soul gives rise to images that were assumed to be worthless from the rational perspective, and there are five ways of using them—

Make use of them artistically if that is your gift
Please make use of them in philosophical speculation
Please make use of them in a quasi-religious way (this could lead to heresy and the founding of sects)
Empty the dynamics of these images and squander it in every form of licentiousness.
Please make use of them psychologically, which distinguishes them from art, philosophy, and religion.

Of course, writing this book over nearly two decades, Jung also worked. For example, in 1913-14, Jung saw about 5-7 clients a day, five days a week. Indeed, the connection and disconnection with Freud were mentioned. Freud’s analytic-reductive method was based on causality, and Jung felt it showed only half the picture. Jung used the constructive process of the Zurich school, which showed the whole of it. Life is lived anew, so it cannot be understood merely retrospectively. KEY: How, out of this present psyche, can a bridge be built into its own future? Imagine, after the assassination on June 28^th of Archduke Franz Ferdinand until the outbreak of war on August 1, 1914, Jung described having the feeling that he was an over-compensated psychosis—33 days! There are personal dreams and what Jung called “big” dreams that relate to the world at large. Also, private fantasies and public event fantasies, which Jung called “active imagination.” Psychotics experience these but are unable to integrate them and get swallowed up by them. Imagine also a being part God, part human, part animal land consider which one rules at any given time. (Appendix C of the Red Book) Below you, serpent; within you, man; and above you, God. Jung says of the afterlife—to him for whom solitude is Heaven, he goes to Heaven; to him for whom it is Hell, he goes to Hell. (Appendix C) Here, you get to look at the personal unconscious together with other conscious elements, the impersonal unconscious or collective psyche. So Jung presents people with three parts of knowing, the self, the conscious, and the personal unconscious acquired during a lifetime (the I), and the impersonal unconscious or the collective psyche inherited (the non-I). This can explain twins separated at birth meeting decades later wearing similar clothes and liking similar foods, things, and preferences. We stand between two worlds: external perceptions (rational) and the perception of the unconscious (irrational). Symbolic art can contain the rational and irrational. One more part of our personal self is the persona or the person we create and choose to present to others, our mask or chosen role on the stage, or our life that somehow arises out of the collective psyche. Individuation is achieved through a synthesis of the individual with the collective psyche, revealing the individual's lifeline. Jung called the anima (how the collective unconscious sees the subject) a counterpart to the persona. Anima-male’s female soul. Animus-female’s masculine soul. Jung’s fantasies, he claimed, came out of his inherited collective psyche—I-center of the field of consciousness a complex among other complexes, different from the self. The self-subject of a person’s totality includes the unconscious psyche, so the I is included in the self. Jung equated Hindu Brahman/Atman with the Self.

Women IQ vs. Marriage Prospects

Angelica Pastorelli — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 23:46:02 +0000

Women IQ

While it is an asset for men, a high IQ is a hindrance for women wanting to get married, according to a study by four British universities. The study found the likelihood of marriage increased by 35 percent for boys for each 16-point increase in IQ. But for girls, there is a 40 percent drop for each 16-point rise, according to the survey by the universities of Aberdeen, Bristol, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. The study is based on the IQs of 900 men and women between their 10th and 40th birthdays. "Women in their late 30s, who have gone for careers after the first flush of university, and who are among the brightest of their generation, are finding that men are just not interesting enough," psychologist and professor at Nottingham University, Paul Brown, said. Claire Rayner, writer and broadcaster, says that intelligent men often prefer a less brainy partner. "A chap with a high IQ is going to get a demanding job that is going to take up a lot of his energy and time," she said. "In many ways, he wants a woman who is an old-fashioned wife and looks after the home, a copy of his mum in a sense." The study has been published in the British Sunday Times newspaper. This study is fascinating but also controversial, because it touches on the intersection of intelligence, gender roles, and social expectations. Let me break it down clearly:

Key Findings from the Study

Conducted by four British universities (Aberdeen, Bristol, Edinburgh, and Glasgow).
Sample size: 900 men and women, tracked between ages 10 and 40.
Results:
- For men: every 16-point IQ increase → 35% higher likelihood of marriage.
- For women: every 16-point IQ increase → 40% lower likelihood of marriage.
Suggests that intelligence is perceived differently in the marriage market depending on gender.

Expert Commentary

Paul Brown (psychologist, Nottingham University):
- Highly educated women in their late 30s often find men “not interesting enough.”
- Implies that career-driven, intelligent women may struggle to find partners who match their intellectual and emotional expectations.
Claire Rayner (writer/broadcaster):
- Intelligent men often prefer less brainy partners.
- Reason: demanding jobs drain energy, so they seek traditional partners who manage the home — “a copy of his mum.”

Social & Cultural Context

These findings reflect traditional gender norms:
- Men’s intelligence is seen as an asset (linked to career success, status).
- Women’s intelligence is sometimes framed as a “threat” to traditional roles.
The study was published in the Sunday Times, which often reports on social trends with a provocative angle.
Critics argue such interpretations risk reinforcing outdated stereotypes rather than recognizing evolving dynamics in modern relationships.

Modern Perspectives

More recent research suggests:
- Marriage rates are influenced by education, career choices, and social expectations, not just IQ.
- Intelligent women may delay marriage for career or personal growth, but this doesn’t necessarily mean they are less likely to marry overall.
- In societies with more gender equality, the link between women’s intelligence and marriage likelihood is weaker or disappears.

Thought-Provoking Angle

This study raises a deeper question: Is the issue really women’s intelligence, or is it society’s perception of gender roles?

If men feel threatened by intelligent women, that says more about cultural conditioning than about women themselves.
As norms shift, intelligence in women is increasingly valued in relationships — not seen as a hindrance.

Reference

Why brainy women stay single Wise Men Are Open-Minded, Smart Women Aren't Does being smart and successful lower your chances of getting married?

In the Streets We Marched

Allen Forrest — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 17:42:39 +0000

In the Streets We Marched

In the streets with our signs—we marched. It felt good to let off some steam, a symbolic rant, our feet moving us onward, our signs swaying back and forth. We were few at the beginning and we never grew enough, but—we marched. Wherever we looked, we saw them, like deer in the headlights. They didn't know. They went along to get along with the majority, their peers, their bosses, family members, and officials. They did what they were told—we marched. Through a large intersection, they watched us from all corners, all sides, We chanted in unison- “Wake up, wake up, wake up!” They just stared like zombies. Some got angry, shook their fists, gave us the finger. Some called us crazy—we marched. They wore them, all of them. I wouldn't, couldn't, wear one. I thought it was evil, sick, a sociopathic lie. They pushed them on everyone, arrested or ticketed those who wouldn't wear one. They lived in fear and acted accordingly—we marched. We were so few in number, so outnumbered, we thought more would join. Slowly, a few more woke up and did join us—but still not enough. Our spirit had to make up for it, no matter how hopeless it looked—we marched. Every week we met and resolved to try again, and again, and again. The government called us names, the media made fun of us. We were out on a limb, the very edge. We had slogans and truisms that poked a hole in the official story—we marched. It went on for years, it went on until the majority's beliefs started to tear at the seams, fall apart. Instead of a victory for us, it was seen as a threat, we were demonized, demoralized, defunded, defrauded, and denied. It made the government mad, the media increased its attack—we marched. The atmosphere slowly changed. Restrictions lessened. The majority were told they could take them off. That they were allowed to breathe again. That they were allowed to resume normal programming. That they were allowed to be allowed. We slowly stopped rallying, less came, and less, until it was just a small core of us. As I look back on that time, I am glad of one thing—we marched.