Chrissy Munder's Blog, page 51

Are you ready for some Summer Lovin'?

Available now for the special release price of $2.99! At Amazon, ARe, and coming soon to your favorite eBook retailer.

Hold on to Summer - with Pink Squirrel Press and Summer Lovin'

School supplies may be on sale, but you can still hold on to that Summer feeling with the authors of Pink Squirrel Press and our upcoming new release - Summer Lovin'.

Summer is here, and the loving is easy!

Slake your thirst for romance with Summer Lovin’—an anthology for lazy days and summer sunshine.

Go skinny-dipping in a disused quarry. Hang out with the boys in the band. Meet a bad boy made good, and one with a shy smile that hides a dark secret. Or maybe get your heart pillaged by a Viking re-enactor.

With gentle humour, hot sauce and a hefty scoop of romance, enjoy a quintet of sultry stories of men loving men from Clare London, Chrissy Munder, JL Merrow, Josephine Myles, and Lou Harper.

The mercury’s not the only thing that’s rising!

To be released August 2013.

I'll be posting more info regarding the anthology release and my contribution, Summer Hire faster than an ice cube can melt, but just wanted to ooh and aah over this great cover by Lou Harper. I just love her work.

Mind Mapping without having to download a program!

I haven't had a chance to post or poke about on the web these last couple of weeks, but I can't resist sharing this link to bubble.us courtesy of PaperbackWriter. It's Mind Mapping - but without the need to download a program. Does anyone else find that concept as appealing as I do?

The online program looks quite fun and you can edit, share, save, export, print your output, and probably quite a few other things than I've not had time to discover.

Hmm, now that I've shared the link, I'm curious. How many use an actual program to mind map/brainstorm/figure stuff out? What's your favorite? Would you find something like this helpful, or just another time waster?

  

I may have just found free planner heaven!

Do you love lists? Planners? Little checkmarks all in a row when you've accomplished your goals? If so, you might share my organization addiction. Sadly, I'm still somewhat of a totally organized wannabe, and I blame that in part on my inability to find a planner/spreadsheeet system I really like. I always want to take bits from this one, and bits from that one, and then I usually end up typing them up myself. But they just aren't as pretty as I might like.

Yes, believe it or not, I'm all about the pretty. :)

So I've stumbled across an interesting site by Charlie Gilkey. The site is called Productive Flourishing, and it's *full* of interesting stuff I've not had time to fully sift through. What I have spent time on are his FREE PLANNERS. (brief pause while I coo with delight). I'll let you click and check them out for yourself, but free, fillable, pdf forms for me? Charlie, you may be my new darling. These aren't your one size fits all type of planner either, so you can pick and choose what's going to work best for you. Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Project driven? These planners are your oyster. Too impatient to wait for his update every month? You can go ahead and puchase a full year in a variety of options and extras at a very reasonable price.

Check it out, and let me know what you think.

After over a week with a total inability to focus as we waited to see if our sick kitty was going to pull through, these are especially needed right now at chez Munder!

Social Media in 60 Minutes a day

Manage all your social media in only 60 minutes a day? Sure. At least, according to Dendrite.com. Click on the image behind the cut to learn more.
Courtesy of: Dendrite Park

Best Description of Facebook's Edgerank I've read yet.

Granted, all the latest news articles state that Facebook is so over, and all the cool kids are bailing for the next big thing, but Facebook is still considered the giant in social media. So how do we get our posts out there on the newsfeed and in front of our friends and fans? I can't tell you how many times I've realized I've not seen any posts from so-and-so for a while, and then had to go out and look on their page. But most friends/readers won't take that time. Here's the best description of Edgerank (the algorithm Facebook uses to decide who sees what), I've read yet. Okay, maybe I won't spend any more time on Facebook than I already do, but at least I now understand why I've not seen any posts from so-and-so.

Plus it includes a cool graphic explaination of the system using Batman. How could I resist sharing?

You can read it over at Dendrite Park.

Never that easy in real life...

...But I sure wish it could be. Rather an odd, my life through video post today. Both of them illustrate a couple of things I *wish* life could be like. For the home front, there's this commerical from Lowe's:


Everyone who has ever faced the dreaded home improvement project can sigh, and say, "Oh, if only it were so easy to refresh and redo the house".  Man, I want one of those magic pens!!
(heheh, many thanks to the lovely clarelondon for the email inspiration for this post)

And when it comes to writing, well, this scene from the movie "Limitless" definitely makes me green w/envy. Best visual interpretation of being in the "writing zone" I've ever seen. If only I could knock out some of these nagging, works-in-progress like that.



Okay, you got me. My house would love me to whip it into shape like that as well. How about you?

Want to reduce stress & improve focus? Zentangling - Have you tried it?

Here's an interesting video showing the basics of a relaxing and creative process that can be done anywhere and anytime. I was recently introduced to Zentangling and have quickly become hooked.



Interested in learning more? Just type "Zentangle" in your search engine box, and prepare to be amazed. But don't think you have to spend money to try this out. Just pick up a pen and a scrap piece of paper and get going. Currently I'm spending time on the TanglePatterns website, as it offers a wide range of introductory info and free patterns.

Special DSP 25 for 25 Discount Codes! 25 hours only - Grab yours before they're gone!

Dreamspinner Press has hit 25,000 Likes on their Facebook Page, and lovely people that they are, we get to save with a special selection of discount codes as part of their 25 for 25 Celebration .

I also get to post another one of their great banners! :)

Okay, here's the deal - once an hour, for the next 25 hours, Dreamspinner will post a special discount code on their Facebook Page good for the first 25 people who use it. Check their Facebook Page every hour for a new code and a new special sale!

It's 2013 - Does your favorite beauty/household product still test on animals?

I originally posted these links here on the blog back in 2011, but after a discussion with a friend who is SURE animal testing isn't still going on I figured it's time to repost them. Because, seriously, it's 2013, people. Do we really still need to use animal testing for a product that's already been repeatedly tested on animals? We're not talking life-saving medical procedures here, we're talking lipstick and window cleaner. While not a card-carrying member of anything, periodically I remind myself of what products I choose to buy based on the latest cruelty-free lists.  And yeah, it sucks because I hate finding my favorite product on the lists of companies that do, and then having to find a new favorite that doesn't.

For a list of Companies that DO test their Chemical and Products on Animals, click here

For a list of Companies that DO NOT test their Chemicals or Products on animals, click here
Keep in mind that many products claiming to be "cruelty free" or "not tested on animals" actually contain ingredients that have been, at some point, or are still being tested on animals, even before the company purchased the ingredient.

The alleged "cruelty free" claim often refers to the final product; however, the majority of animal testing occurs during manufacturing of the ingredient or through the supply chain. Therefore, these products actually contain ingredients where animals are subjected to chemical testing. Unfortunately there are large companies stating "we" do not test on animals, when in fact they are contracting to an outside source to conduct testing on animals. Labels and claims are still confusing and misleading to consumers. While the above lists help to identify the large corporations still known to be subjecting animals to chemical and product testing, unfortunately they don't help me understand why.

For more info please visit : http://www.caringconsumer.com