Two simple words I have just typed on my latest book. Yes, I’m in the middle of releasing my fourth book, which is book three to my Sara series – stay tuned for a trailer coming soon. But this book was one I’d been working on in the background for a couple of years now. I’m not clear on the title yet…and the editing will likely take a good amount of time, but it’s the story of my son, Brook, who died as an infant. May of you know about Brook. Whether you know him or not, I hope you will read the book and get to know him. With his blessing and the blessing of all involved, it was time to tell his story. It is a novella, meaning smaller than a novel (at this point anyhow), the genre is Reality Fiction. It has Brook’s voice and also deals with real paranormal experiences I have lived through since his death.

When I start editing this book, it will play a part on how my soul feels each time, but my strength will be renewed by Brook’s spirit, friends, and family. I’m done writing for today, this adventure has taken a toll on me, and I’ll have the pleasured company of two of my grandkids, Sav and Jo, for the afternoon and evening. Sav will help me with my book trailer for Four of Spades, and Jo will assist. Then we will fill the rest of the night with games, pizza, and a movie.

To all the authors out there writing, and all of you reading…I think these two little words “The End” may have a different meaning. To me, right now…it means I can take a breath, shed a tear, be exhilarated, smile and feel the warmth of Brook wrapped around me…all at the same time.

Injustice – it can display itself in many ways. Some we read about, some we witness, and that’s what I want to talk about today. The injustice that is weighing heavy on my heart is how some people treat their dogs…as was witnessed recently at the campground I took two of my granddaughters to for a vacation. Imagine you’ve woken from a nice afternoon nap, my granddaughters are in the cabin reading (new generation who prefer to rest inside)…anyhow, a new neighbor has arrived and backed the vehicle up to unload their belongings for their stay. I currently have my camp chair turned in their direction so I can stretch my previously injured (two years ago) knee out on the porch. Two ladies, oblivious to my watchful eye get out of the car. One gal takes the little hip hugging child and one about two, maybe three, to the cabin. The other gal opens the back hatch of the vehicle and within ten seconds slaps one of the dogs across his face…twice. This particular dog is a black lab, while the other is an older white longhaired breed of which I don’t know. She has both of them on a leash and pulls them out of the car, only to immediately yank on the leashes and smack the black one telling him to sit. Both of these dogs are not trying to leave, they are not rambunctious or in any way trying to escape, yet she yanks on the leashes regardless. When the black dog doesn’t sit, she first smacks him in the head and then kicks him in the stomach hard enough to cause him to yelp in pain. She gets him to sit at this point and within a few seconds yanks on both of the leashes as she attempts to unload items from the back of the vehicle and when this causes the black dog to get up, she immediately uses her foot to try and push his butt back down. At this point, I am on my feet making it clear, without having to say a word, that I am watching. She takes both dogs to the porch railing and hooks them up…no wiggle room there, barely enough leash to sit comfortably let alone lay down.

I was upset and went into the cabin and broke down. My granddaughters needed an explanation for my tears…and I cried more. You are probably thinking, why didn’t she just go over there and stop the abuser. Well, here is my reasoning – I’m here with two precious babies and if this woman turns out to be a nut case I could find a gun to my head or find us helplessly trapped in a burning cabin. Any scenario I can imagine does not give me warm and cozy feeling when I have the safety of two other lives in the balance. I thought about reporting them to the ranger service, but didn’t know what they would do, and again retaliation is foremost in my thoughts. So, when my husband called, I took my phone in the cabin and again broke down into tears telling him what happened. He suggested I go ahead with talking to the ranger and get a number I can call to report the incident. I did just that, doing my best not to shed tears in front of the ranger. He wasn’t happy about what I was telling him and assured me he would get a number I could call.

So, here I sit by my campfire, listening to one of the dogs (owners put them in the cabin before leaving for somewhere) bark, whine, and cry…possibly for dinner. I hope the ranger helps me out. If not, when I get back home I will file a report with someone. I obtained their vehicle plate number and with the cabin/campsite information; hopefully, they will figure out who it is that is guilty of this crime. Once I know my granddaughters are safe, then I won’t be afraid to do the right thing.

It hurts me so bad to see people abuse a child or pet that trusts them to care for them. Whether a parent, owner or whoever is in control of caring for another should be held accountable for their actions. The famous saying of “do unto others as you would have others do unto them”…so be it. There is so much ugly stuff in the media…be it candidate bashing, shootings, murder, and rape, bombings and the like, we should all realize that love goes a long way to fixing this world…and it starts at home.

Hello, to all my Indie Author friends, and anyone looking to publish their work. I thought I would share my copyright experience with you. Maybe you already know this, and I’m the last to get on board after publishing three books, but this is my experience and I hope it helps.

When you apply for a copyright, and you choose “unpublished” and upload your manuscript – you will get a certificate. If you choose “published” – you are required to send in two published copies of your work, with me so far? Both are copyrighted, so, what is the different?

– If you choose to copyright as “unpublished” and someone plagiarizes your work, you take them to court and win, your attorney fees are your responsibility.

– If you choose to copyright as “published” and someone plagiarizes your work, you take them to court and win, the guilty party is responsible for your attorney fees.

– You can copyright both ways, but you will have to pay twice. Unless you copyright the unpublished work, but change your mind, and want to copyright the published work, and they (copyright office) have not completed your application they will allow you one change without payment…so don’t waste too much time deciding, or it could cost you.

So, there you have it. Either copyright will hold up in a court of law, but to protect your pocketbook a bit, you might want to be sure and copyright your published work. Plagiarizing is a real threat to anyone who strings words together to create a piece of art. As starving (at least some of us) artists, it’s important to protect what we have created and make these thieves pay for any wrongdoing.

Until next time…happy reading, happy writing, happy life…

Yes, that’s right…this is the blog I’m sure will captivate you the most, because, let’s face it, eBooks are the “in” thing. For me having a paper book in my hands is like a warm blanket on a cold winter’s night, and I couldn’t imagine my life without that anticipation of turning the page. I purchased my Kindle when a research book I needed only came in eBook form. I had no intention of putting my paper back down for this electronic thing, but I was wrong. Having 50+ books at my disposal, no matter where I travel has been wonderful. I always keep a paperback with me in case my battery goes dead, but I do love my Kindle. But this isn’t about how I’ve crossed over to the paperless world we were all told would be our future, it’s about how those little books become a reality.
After I had written my first novel, Do I Know You, I knew I wanted to do an eBook…have to keep up with the times you know. Anyhow, every minute I had between dealing with editing changes and the like, I was checking out how to put my first novel in an eBook as well. Okay…so I didn’t get far due to impending deadlines and instead hire someone to do it for me. Now, as a “starving artist” extra cash is only in our imagination…there is no money tree in the backyard…no matter how much we close our eyes and open them hoping it will appear. So, the next best thing was to figure the process out. So, here’s the skinny on how all this went down.
During my research I found a program, Jutoh, that was running a special. The offer gave me the opportunity to try it out first…I couldn’t ask for more than that, right? Here I am with my second manuscript, Taking What Is Mine, and I started playing with the program. Yes, it was a hair puller, a bad word creator, and even a tearjerker…but I figured it out. By the time I published my third book, As If Yesterday, I had gained ground regarding the process and though it still required some hair pulling I was successful. Yay…I created two of my books into eBooks.
Some of the tricks I wanted to pass on were to 1) keep your original manuscript void of page numbers (this is the copy you will use for the process). 2) If you use symbols in between scenes, you have to be careful which ones you use, or the program could give you errors. 3) Do not include a TOC, because the program creates it for you, at least Jutoh does. 4) I use the Createspace Kindle version of my book cover, but sizing will be necessary.
I have gone through the trials and tribulations of working out the bugs, and now that I have a handle on it I started a service, Dragonfly E-book Services. If you need help, please contact me. My fee is negotiable, depending on your manuscript size…but I’m here to help.
If you desire to attempt this challenging process, I wish you the best of luck, and I’m always around if you need a shoulder to vent on, a question answered, or just need some support as you venture into the world of conversions.
As an Indie Author, I can say I’ve grown through my experiences, and I love it more each time a challenge hits…okay, sometimes. I hope you enjoy whatever you are doing and thanks for reading my ramblings.
Until later…happy writing, happy reading, happy life.

Through my sixty plus years, I’ve attended many commencements…my own being one of them. All commencements hold a place in my heart, even those I didn’t attend. Why? Because of the success that person holds. To accomplish any goal deserves an “attaboy” – but this particular commencement holds so much more. Today is about my stepdaughter, Jessica James Vermote. I met Jessica over five years ago when her dad and I were married. We were dating when she graduated high school, and though I wasn’t there, I enjoyed the bright light of pride in her dad’s eyes when he returned from Ohio.

Now six years later, on May 14, 2016, we watched Jessica walk on stage and receive her Degree of Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering Technology. Any graduation is a ceremony of pride, but a college graduation holds a different meaning because that person has chosen a field they plan to move forward with as a means of etching out a life for themselves. At that age, I thought I knew what I wanted, only to change my mind five years later. Many young people change their majors in mid-stream, trying hard to understand where they will fit best in the adult world. But not Jessica, she knew what she wanted and never waivered. She is very much like her dad in the sense that they understand the mechanics of things…not my strength at all. I listen to them talk about the subject, all of which goes right over my head, and I see a common interest as they decipher, examine, and re-engineer something into a better product. I simply enjoy watching their bond grow as Jessica continues to blossom into adulthood.

We spent a couple of days before commencement getting her mother’s house ready for the big party to follow the next day. My smart husband created a new fire pit, so s’mores could be cooked outside for a late night snack. The food was on order, chairs picked up, decorations adorned the rooms, and a cake in the shape of books sat deliciously on the dessert table. Jessica’s friends and most of her family members were there to share in the celebration. As I took pictures of the event, there were conversations of laughter, pride, and excitement for Jessica’s new adventure in life…but it was bittersweet…because just shy of eight months ago Jessica lost her brother to suicide. He had turned nineteen less than a month earlier. Freshly graduated from high school, with potential for the future.  Here was Jessica, her last year of college, and now her heart and soul are shattered. Her buddy, her pal, her confidant, her brother has left her. Many siblings in this situation would crumble, and who would blame them…grief takes over, and nothing else matters. But that is what makes this graduation so special because Jessica is a fighter…she turned tragedy into triumph. After taking time off school, she made up the work, persevered and kept a promise to herself, and likely to her brother, to complete her goal. What drove this young woman through the toughest eight months of her life will surely drive her forever. Her courage is so powerful that nothing will stop this girl, making me wonder if I could have been so brave. Would I have pushed that hard to the finish line, or faded into the night like a lightning bug at the end of their time?

Whatever it is that drives a person to push him or herself, Jessica has tenfold, and though I am very proud of her, my pride pales in comparison to what her parents must feel. An “attaboy” will never be enough for this young woman. Even congratulations seem to dim in the light of what she has accomplished. As tears fill my eyes with happiness, I can only say thank you, Jessica James Vermote, for letting me have the privilege to witness this fantastic time with you.