A blog for authors, about authors, written by an author
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For many things I’m grateful,
one of them is health
I don’t need to leave it fateful
health to me means wealth.
**
Part of being wealthy is family and friends
having a home is also great to me
It’s important that love never ends
and that I’m truly safe and free.
**
So many people don’t have anything to eat
They barely have water and the bit they have is unclean
Where I live in nature is giving and still neat
I have clothes to wear and the grass is green.
**
I’m grateful for my education for the chances given to me
I’m thankful I can travel in planes and in my car
How glad I am that I have music, I can hear and I can see
that I have my dreams, moon and sun and wind and star.
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Life has given me so much to thank for
civilization, technology, a home and pets
what else do I need, what to I want more?
I am lucky, with me and my three cats.
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It’s time for saying prayers
to be thankful and feeling blessed
And to send our thanks to the One
and see them properly addressed.
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(Copyright: Aurora Jean Alexander, November 2019)
Thank you so very much for your Monday Funnies, TSRA! I found these memes so hilarious. I had a great laugh!
Julie Valerie writes a guest post on Anne R. Allen’s blog about influencers that can help authors reach agents, publishers, and readers. Thank you very much, Julie!
First things first, because I’m sure this question is on a lot of writer’s minds: does a book blog still land a book deal?
My answer? Of course, they do. Great writing and great content will always find an audience, and where there’s an audience, especially a sizable one, there’s typically a book deal waiting to happen. Think Julie Powell, Candice Bushnell, Jen Lancaster, and Jenny Lawson.
Not to mention, entire empires (with books launched along the way), have been built on the humble foundations of blog sites that just wouldn’t quit. Think ProBlogger’s Darren Rowse and Content Marketing Institute’s Joe Pulizzi.
Lee Foster on ‘The Book Designer’ provides us with information about publishing our ebooks on Smashwords and how it’s changing. Thank you very much Lee!
This is a third and final perspective in my publishing strategy trilogy, a drama festival with three events, Amazon and Ingram being the earlier performances. There have been five-week breaks between these theatrics as I proceed in the Joel Friedlander modern publishing ecosystem.
If you want to distribute your ebook through Amazon directly and then also to “every ebook vendor beyond Amazon,” how should you do it? Smashwords is my recommended choice.
Thanks so much, Bluebird, for the wonderful cat-memes in your ‘Caturday Funnies’. I enjoyed them so much!
Derek Haines informs us about writing styles and teaches us to know about them to improve our own writing. Thank you very much for that very educational blog post, Derek!
There are six general types of writing styles. They are descriptive, expository, persuasive, narrative, poetic and technical.
When you understand the differences between each one, they will help your word choice and sentence structure.
In other words, you can keep to a specific style to suit any particular piece of writing.
A fiction author writes in a different style to a blogger, an article writer or a political commentator.
Kristen Lamb provides us with a great blog post about villains and how evil they can be. Thanks so much, Kristen. You know we all enjoy your posts!
Evil has been one of the most fascinating topics among humans since we created the ability to have heated conversations. Humans would gather to argue over roasted mammoth after the hunt was over.
Was Urg’s son, Perry, simply hard to handle or evil? If he was evil, then why? Had the gods cursed him somehow? Too many blows to the head?
Maybe the parents were to blame.
Granted, Perry’s mother, Yell, was better with a battle club than her husband. Urg preferred chewing mammoth skins and decorating hides.
Yell was awesome at killing stuff and the whole tribe was on a list for Urg to renovate their caves, but all this aside?
Young Perry was simply terrifying.
To be fair, Perry’s insatiable urge to kill small animals kept them all with plenty of snacks. He also loved to set these things called ‘fires’ and those had seriously come in handy, but still.
No one trusted him near the small children and babies, mostly because they tended to go missing.
To the readers of ‘Soul Taker,’ Nathan is a known character. He only shows up briefly at the beginning of the story. He takes Katie’s spot when she accepts her new tasks as a Guardian.
If you haven’t read ‘Soul Taker’ yet, it is time to read: I added the universal link where the book is available.
https://books2read.com/u/m2roOj
Below you will find an interview with Nathan. Read it and find out more about an Angel we only know by name – and by a perfectly tailored suit.
Excerpt from ‘Soul Taker’:
He looked over my shoulder, and I turned around, watching two beautiful looking men walking toward us. One of them was dressed in a suit and tie and looked elegant and chic like a businessman. The other one wore old jeans, cowboy boots, and a long-worn leather coat.
Joseph smiled. He introduced me to the business-like guy. “This is Nathaniel. He’s your replacement and will take your job over from here.”
The Guy shook my hand. “Please, call me Nate,” he said with a laugh.
Hello Nathan. It is great seeing you again. How are you doing?
Hello AJ. Nice to see you too. I’m doing okay. Unfortunately, I’m far too busy. Sometimes I wish I had more time off.
We know you took over from Katie when she wanted to become a Guardian and met Raphael.
Yes, I did. I was quite surprised to hear the two fell in love. I was invited to their wedding but unfortunately couldn’t go because of an emergency.
Why were you surprised? From what I hear, Katie is breathtakingly beautiful, and Raphael, from what I heard, has celebrated quite some success with the ladies.
Yes, but we were taught that it is almost impossible for an Archangel to find his consort. Raphael found his consort, and now we all are curious to see who of the Council Of Twelve is going to be next.
How about you? Is there someone special in your life?
I admit, there is someone I love. But I am not permitted to talk more about all that, remember? You told me to keep my mouth shut about that.
(Oh, yes. *AJ laughs* I forgot)
But now, tell us a little bit about you. Who is Nathan?
I am a Soul Taker, as you know. I have been one for about a millennium. I pick up souls and take them to their respective final destinations. Usually, it is Heaven, but occasionally I have to take them to the gates of Hell. Rarely we Soul Takers are attacked by the other side who try to steal the soul we are working with.
Now, we know Katie got tired of doing this job for three hundred years. Aren’t you tired out by that job?
Well, Katie and I are two completely different personalities. She is younger than I am, for one thing. Also, she is quite emotionally sensitive. I could easily imagine that a soul she takes to the portals of the Underworld is trashing, crying, regretting, screaming, is almost breaking her heart.
And we shouldn’t forget: We are taking all kinds of souls… not only bad ones, not only good ones, and in particular, we do have to pick up innocent souls too. That was very hard on Katie.
I had to harden my emotions and heart against this kind of compassion, or I could never have done that job to my satisfaction and the satisfaction of my bosses.
We met you briefly in Katie’s story. And now we learned a bit more about who you are. Are we going to meet you again?
Yes, you will meet me again. You will learn more about me. Just be a bit patient. I’ll be back.
Thank you so much for dropping in as my guest today, Nathan. We really appreciate it.
Thanks for having me. It was my pleasure.
Thanks so much, Story Reading Ape, for another set of hysterical Monday Funnies. I had a good laugh with those.
