M.L. Desir's Blog, page 75

Maximizing Facebook–What We Can Learn From Puppy Dog Eyes and LOL Cats

Monique Desir:

:)

Originally posted on Kristen Lamb's Blog:

You may be surprised to see me guest posting here again after the totally-blown-out-of-proportion kidnapping thing a while ago. *rolls eyes* What good is a friend who isn’t willing to do a social media intervention every so often? You’ll notice Kristen hasn’t been as hostile towards Facebook lately.

Point for me! *pumps fist*

It’s all good. Kristen and I exchanged chocolate and GF cookies…and I used the cat’s laser pointer to distr...

The Secret Ingredient for POV Magic—Capture Your Reader & Never Let Go

Monique Desir:

Delightful read. Well executed advice. :)

Originally posted on Kristen Lamb's Blog:

Original image via Flickr Creative Commons courtesy of Sodanie Chea

Kristen has foolishly graciously handed her blog over to me today while she is recovering from the flu and is locked up in her NaNoWriMo cave.

But Marcy! I don’t want to go on the cart!

*swats Kristen*

If she hits her word count, we can slide a gluten-free brownie to her through the bars later to get rid of the taste of that h...

A SAILOR, TO YOU DAD ON VETERAN’S DAY

Monique Desir:

Happy Veteran’s Day. :)

Originally posted on keithgarrettpoetry:

A SAILOR

A sailor talks of far away lands and the ports where he would like to be,

He relates to all in a salty drawl, his love for the roll of the sea.

Let’s hear him boast of powers so great, let’s hear of his deeds so bold,

Let’s hear him tell of seas of hell, and the treasures he’s bought and sold.

Let’s hear his yarn of the south sea Isles, his romance on balis shores,

Or the girl he had with eyes so sad in t...

Stockholm Syndrome – The Only Reason Any Teachers Still Support Common Core

Originally posted on gadflyonthewallblog:

Common Core is dying a well-deserved death.

The very idea that we need the same academic standards in public schools from coast-to-coast is unpopular, expensive, ineffective and politically suicidal.

The Wall Street Journal reports at least $7 billion taxpayer dollars have been wasted implementing this plan, and it would cost significantly more to finish the job.

“Five years into the biggest transformation of U.S. public education in recent history,...

Time as a Story Element ~ Setting, Tone, Atmosphere, & Urgency

Monique Desir:

:) NaNoWriMo coming soon. :)

Originally posted on Elizabeth Fais:

National Novel Writing Month(NANOWRIMO) is just around the corner—a yearly event in which writers commit to completing a 50,000 word (or more) novel during the month of November.One month. One book. Not a lot of time.So, time as a story element seems like an appropriate blog topic.

Stories unfold over a set interval of time. That’s a given. What I want to discuss is how different types of time can be used as st...

Is KDP Select Worth It? (An Example From a Real Person)

Monique Desir:

Most interesting read. :) Thank you, Blaise.

Originally posted on BlaiseLucey.com:

Amazon’s KDP Select program has kind of been marketed as a Miracle Grow for Books. It seems that, whenever you Google something about KDP Select, you run into another article boasting about authors who got rich and famousfrom just using KDP Select and barely marketing their bookat all.

Like a lot of authors who are having an identity crisis because of the eBook “revolution,” I decided to try the...

Micro-Fiction Mondays: Mr. Teddy Goes Splat

According to Fiction Factor, (http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles/wordcount.html) Micro-Fiction is a very abbreviated story and often difficult to write, and even harder to write well, but the markets for micro fiction are becoming increasingly popular in recent times. Publishers love them, as they take up almost no room and don’t cost them their budgets. Pay rates are often low, but for so few words, the rate per word averages quite high.

The word limit is 100 words. Yes, only one hundred...

Stop writing your name in Cursive. You have had Several Warnings.

Originally posted on :

Megan Zander at She Knows wrote a post with this headline: Teacher’s aggressive note on 7-year-old’s homework goes viral, and many of the comments are critical of teachers and schools for what the alleged teacher wrote in red ink – the title of this post.

First, I was a public school teacher for thirty years, and I required my students to write their first and last name on every written assignment in addition to the period they were i...

Getting Down To Business . . . Or Else.

Getting Down To Business. Yup. That’s the ticket, dearies!

Growing up during the 80s, I loved watching animated series like Jem and the Holograms, Robotech, Voltron, and The City of Gold. The above video clip is from Jem and it melodically introduces what I need to do.
After returning to work full-time, (middle school reading teacher – need I say more? Didn’t think so. Heh.) I’ve encountered many obstacles, hindering me from completing the draft for the second book in the Gabriel Lennox Seri...

How to Scare a Skeptic

Monique Desir:

Thank you for sharing your perspective. I think it’ll strenghten my writing. :)

Originally posted on Drew Chial:

I’ve seen the northern lights stream across the sky like a special effect, but I’ve never seen an unidentified flying object. I’ve awoken to a shadow standing beside my bed post, but I can’t claim to have seen a ghost. I’ve hiked through many a forest until my legs went caput, but I’ve never laid eyes on big foot.

I’ve met people who’ve claimed to have performed exor...