Roland Yeomans's Blog, page 68
January 1, 2020
WRITERS! WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Ernest Hemingway, ghost and writer, here:
Have you ever watched some comedian stumble around a joke you knew,
telling it with heart but not quite hitting the mark?
In my mortal life, I was many things, good, bad, and profane.
But through it all, I was a writer.
I see many of Roland's friends work so hard to hit the mark but not quite making it.
In my travels, I had to apply for my passport.
There were stated, mandatory things I had to do.
Just wanting to travel was not enough.
You want to write?
Good for you. But know that there is a passport to travel as a writer.
And mandatory requirements to obtain it.
No excuses, no urgency of desire, no amount of wasted effort will replace them.
1.) COMPETE AGAINST YOURSELF
Talent is over-rated. It is practice that will make or break you.
Have talent with the piano? Stop practicing and watch those with far less talent over-take you.
Same with writing.
In your electronic community, it is tempting to turn on your devises and see what your acquaintances are doing with their dreams.
Stop it.
Someone, somewhere, is publishing something new and wonderful.
The writers achieving success are hard working.
Being the most talented writer doesn’t necessarily translate into publishing success,
which really comes from methodical and consistent work rather than raw talent.
2.) RESTRAINT
If you are a writer, there is an incessant drive to get your novel published and out there for the reader to read.
In this new age of Do-It-Yourself Publishing, you can whip up your inept first draft and hurl it out there.
RESTRAINT!
Polish your work until you cannot possibly conceive of doing it better.
HAVE A TOUGHER SKIN THAN ME.
I turned my back on Fitzgerald because of his attempts at helping me to write a better draft to A Farewell to Arms.
3.) PLUG OUT OF THAT DAMN PHONE!
As I wander among those who are still men,
I see nothing but furrowed brows bent over those silly phones of yours.
And when I peek in to see how Roland's writer friends are progressing with their work,
they are looking at nothing but one funny kitten video after another
or prattling about nothing on their electronic party line called Facebook!
STOP IT!
4.) BE YOUR OWN MOMMY
Stop waiting for someone to tell you when to write.
There comes a point in your life where no one is going to tell you
what you should read,
what you should write,
and moreover, no one is going to point this out for you.
Carve out your own time to write and cling to it like a hungry leech.
5.) TAKE RESPONSIBILITY
For your mistakes ...
If someone points out something they feel is wrong in your manuscript, look hard at it.
If there is merit to the criticism, do something about it.
DO NOT do as I did Fitzgerald with his helpful attempts and tell them to "Kiss my Ass!"
For your novel ...
It does not write itself.
You write it word by word crafted with effort from the stem of your brain to the numb ends of your fingertips.
Your novel is the product of the effort and imagination and originality you put into it.
Make it the best of which you are capable.
6.) RESEARCH
By living ...
Your writing will only be as true and your perceptions of life are valid.
They become more valid with each bruise, each wound, each loss you endure.
Go on out there and live ...
and
OBSERVE THE WORLD AROUND YOU.
By looking in the right places ...
You people are so blessed.
This electronic world you live in allows you to find facts, images, and sounds of the entire world.
Your setting is flat only because you have not done the proper searching.
You literally have a new Library of Alexandria at your fingertips.
USE IT!
WHAT ARE YOU DOING STILL SITTING THERE?
WRITE!
Published on January 01, 2020 22:00
December 31, 2019
FIRST FOOT?

The shades of years past watch us.We, of the modern age, stumble and bumble our way,
sure of our sophistication and education.
But what if there are principles of which we are unaware that take no notice of our ignorance of them ...
only chastise us when we break them.
After all, gravity takes no breaks ...
it only gives them
Take "First Foot,"
a custom concerning the first visitor of the New Year to a home.
His function is to bring prosperity and good fortune for the ensuing 12 months to those he visits.
He comes just as soon as possible after midnight, bringing gifts which symbolize plentiful food, health, and wealth. Sometimes he carries an evergreen branch as a symbol of continuing life.
Strict rules govern the choice of First Foot:
Male always for he symbolizes the New Year.
No redheads need apply.

The luckiest representative is a dark-haired stranger, symbolizing a new year full of undiscovered mysteries.
An old form of First Foot has the visitor entering silently, greeted by none.
He goes straight to the hearth, laying the evergreen branch on the fire and a sprig of mistletoe on the mantle above.
Then, he turns and greets those living in the home, and festivities ensue.
I wonder what thought first visited the homes of our minds last year?
Did it symbolize the atmosphere, the temper of our thoughts for the remaining 12 months?
What thought do you think should first visit your mind this New Year? What First Foot will be your physical first visitor?
Can you remember who first entered your home last January? Did he or she reflect the luck and temper of the following 12 months?
Just thought it would be fun to think on these questions, Roland
Published on December 31, 2019 22:00
December 30, 2019
STRANGE TIDINGS ON NEW YEAR'S EVE

Although many of us do not admit to it, we do believe or follow some superstition at one time or another.
Knock on wood?
I do, usually have to resort to knocking on my head, the universality of plastics you know.
Have you known people to stop a dog from howling to prevent death or
to get married on a rainy day to insure a long and happy marriage?
New Year’s Eve also has its fair share of strange myths and weird superstitions
that are followed by many around the world.
Here are a few:
1. No sweeping on New Year’s day.
They say that it is an ominous act and can sweep away the good luck of the entire family.
Well, why not? Anything that keeps you from the nasty chore of cleaning is welcome, right?
2. Wearing new clothes on New Year's Eve.
They believe that it ensures a constant supply of new clothes for the whole year to jazz up the wardrobe.
3. No empty pockets
There are people who insist that one should take care to avoid wearing a dress with empty pockets on New Year’s Eve
since it may be a sign of very low or no income in the year to come.
4. Say no to chicken
If you cook any chicken dish on New Year’s day, you will have monetary troubles for the rest of the year.
So now you know who is responsible for all your financial troubles this year…
Colonel Sanders!
5. Don’t do laundry
They say that if you do your laundry, you will certainly wash off your luck or will face a year of hard work.
Even more ominous, doing laundry on this day is also associated with facing a family member’s death.
What can I say? These myths sound like work-relieving fun to me!
6. Don’t cry, honey!
The wise men (and women) say that one should not be miserable on this day and neither should one cry because that depression will follow you in the year to come.
So, wipe away those tears and be happy! After all, it is a new beginning.
7. Be Scrooge on New Year's Eve!
You should not give your cash, ornaments, precious items or other valuable things to anyone
on the first day of the year because it may be a sign that wealth will be flowing out in the entire year.
So, hang on to your cash until January 2nd!
8. Make noise and hang a lemon at New Year's Eve.
Have you ever wondered why there are fireworks on New Year’s Eve?
It is to scare away the evil spirits and evil thoughts.
Even hanging a lemon in the doorway helps in warding off bad spirits.
* The First Foot of New Year has a whole post coming soon here.
Do you know of any New Year's Eve superstitions?
Published on December 30, 2019 22:00
WHY DO WE DREAM?

In the 3rd millennium BC,
(No BCE for me --
I'm not feeling particularly PC but please keep that on the QT, will you?)
Mesopotamian kings recorded and interpreted their dreams on wax tablets.
In the years since, we haven't paused in our quest to understand why we dream.
No answers yet ... only theories. Here are some of them:
And here are some strange facts about dreams:
Ever dreamed this Man?
And don't forget to buy the paperback of A SAMPLER OF SHADOWS (Only $13.99) --
EACH of us is a Frankenstein’s Monster.
A piece of us is in every person we will ever meet.
Usually we refuse to see
those disturbing sides of us in others.
The best stories lure us into facing them.

May your New Year be allyou wish it to be!
With only good dreams!!
Published on December 30, 2019 12:21
December 28, 2019
SUPERSTITIONS OF NEW YEAR'S EVE

What will be the last thing you do this New Year's Eve?
Or if it has passed, what was it?
What will be, or was, the last meal for you in 2017?
STRANGE NEW YEAR'S EVE BELIEFS
1.) IF YOU DON'T KISS SOMEONE AT MIDNIGHT, YOU WILL BE UNLUCKY IN LOVE ALL YEAR
2.) EMPTY CUPBOARDS MEAN THEY WILL STAY EMPTY ALL YEAR
I wonder if that goes for empty heads as well -- which would explain the politics of this last year!
3.) OPEN ALL THE DOORS JUST BEFORE MIDNIGHT
That is to let out the Old Year and let in the New Year will all its promise.
All the Democrats across America are not only flinging open all their doors tonight, but their windows, too!
4.) EAT 12 GRAPES AT MIDNIGHT
One for each month -- that is just in case you do not like cabbage and black-eyed peas!
5.) NO LOANS TONIGHT
A full wallet seems to give promise for a full bank account during the New Year!
6.) NO TEARS AT MIDNIGHT
Lest you have a year full of sadness.
HERE IS MY WISH FOR ALL OF YOU TO HAVE MORE SMILES THAN TEARS THIS NEW YEAR!
Published on December 28, 2019 22:00
December 27, 2019
WONDER WHAT NEIL GAIMAN WISHES FOR YOUR NEW YEAR?
Be kind to yourself in the year ahead.
Remember to forgive yourself, and to forgive others. It's too easy to be outraged these days, so much harder to change things, to reach out, to understand.
Try to make your time matter: minutes and hours and days and weeks can blow away like dead leaves, with nothing to show but time you spent not quite ever doing things, or time you spent waiting to begin.
Meet new people and talk to them. Make new things and show them to people who might enjoy them.
Hug too much. Smile too much. And, when you can, love.- See more at: http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2014_12... kind to yourself in the year ahead.
Remember to forgive yourself, and to forgive others. It's too easy to be outraged these days, so much harder to change things, to reach out, to understand.
Try to make your time matter: minutes and hours and days and weeks can blow away like dead leaves, with nothing to show but time you spent not quite ever doing things, or time you spent waiting to begin.
Meet new people and talk to them. Make new things and show them to people who might enjoy them.
Hug too much. Smile too much. And, when you can, love.- See more at: http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2014/12... kind to yourself in the year ahead.
Remember to forgive yourself, and to forgive others. It's too easy to be outraged these days, so much harder to change things, to reach out, to understand.
Try to make your time matter: minutes and hours and days and weeks can blow away like dead leaves, with nothing to show but time you spent not quite ever doing things, or time you spent waiting to begin.
Meet new people and talk to them. Make new things and show them to people who might enjoy them.
Hug too much. Smile too much. And, when you can, love.- See more at: http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2014/12...
Published on December 27, 2019 22:00
December 24, 2019
MERRY CHRISTMAS with a good STAR WARS ending!

Merry Christmas to all my friends!
Christmas' present to all of us
is the subtle messages underneath the obvious ones:
1.) Love comes unexpectedly.
2.) You find love in surprising places.
3.) Love comes at its own season, in its own unique way, wearing a face you weren't looking for.
But then, we can be forgiven for not hearing those messages. After all, none of us is perfect. Well, there was that one.
But we killed Him.
Or did we?
I choose to think not. I know His message and the messages of this day are not dead.
Love never quite dies.
It stays in the sparkle in the eyes of each passing generation of children.
The best Christmas stories, in both movies and books, remind us that love always seems to find a way,
though it comes to us in unexpected ways, shining in the eyes of those we might have overlooked in the past.
The Jews were expecting a king.
They never got one because they were looking in the wrong places for the wrong faces.
A manger contained the prince of peace in its straw. Few were even aware of His arrival.
Only those who were not too proud to stop and consider love might come unexpectedly
and from a source we would never have suspected of containing it.
And only to those who had kept looking up.
Christmas teaches us to keep the child's sense of awe, of wonder, and of the willingness to believe ...
in the possibilities of miracles,
of the soft whisper of magic in the air if you but listen,
and in the healing power of love.
Like young Kevin in HOME ALONE,
it is up to us alone to protect the home of our hearts from being robbed of their innocence and love.
Sometimes we do not see unicorns in the snow because we have stopped looking for them.
Continue to look.
Continue to hold gently to the possibility of a miracle waiting for you just around the next corner or the one after that.
Excuse me. I think I hear a strange whinnying outside my door.
I'll open it to have a look.
My unicorn may be out there below my terrace right now waiting for me to go for a ride in the moonlight.
You never know.
Keep looking and believing, Roland
***
Published on December 24, 2019 22:00
December 23, 2019
HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE and its MAGIC of THE THRESHOLD

There are moments that happen that change how you look on life and on what is and is not possible. You are never the same afterwards.
The Nativity was one of those times.
There is even a word for this situation: “Liminality.”
“Liminality” is the word for the threshold moment:
from the Latin root limin, meaning the centerline of the doorway.
Liminality is the moment of crossing over.
It describes the transitional phase of personal change,
where one is neither in an old state of being nor a new,
and not quite aware of the implications of the event.
All the stages of life include liminality.
Life is nothing but moments of crossing over.
Liminality is why we celebrate Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve but not other holidays’ eves.
We celebrate Christmas Eve
because Jesus is traditionally thought to have been born at midnight.
And we celebrate New Year’s Eve because midnight is when the year changes.
Christmas Eve is a threshold moment.
We can choose to stay on the other side of the moment,
refusing to enter and accept what gifts await us.
After all, for most of the world there is still no room in the Inn for He who breathed the world into existence.
Christmas Eve is the time to reflect on what awaits us beyond whatever threshold we choose to cross ...
to reflect on what thresholds we thought would always be there but now are gone,
along with the mortal hearts that waited for us beyond them.
Whatever you believe,
it can be a healing thing to take Christmas Eve to reflect on all the gifts given to you this past year
and on what needs exist in your surroundings that you can be an agent of healing by meeting.
Christmas Eve revives the wonder of childhood
where snowflakes sing on their way down to the ground,
where faeries ice skate on bird baths,
and magic waits for us to open the door of our hearts to let it in.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE, MY FRIENDS!
Published on December 23, 2019 23:19
December 20, 2019
How to SELL MORE BOOKS During the HOLIDAYS

Book Promotion during the Holidays is
a Marathon Not a Sprint
Everyone is in a buying mood,
so this is the perfect time
to sell more books.

According to Google Trends,
search terms related to “gifts” in the United States trend upward
starting in early-mid November through Christmas Day.

So how to reach them?
1.) LAUNCH A HOLIDAY-THEMED BOOK
Put the Holiday in the title of your book and make it stand out from the crowd by opposing the genre with the season.


It's just before Christmas, and we share the regrets, hopes and best intentionsof a beleaguered manager after corporate tells him to shut his restaurant down.
2.) DESIGN AN EYE-CATCHING COVER FOR YOUR HOLIDAY NOVEL


It's New Year's Eve in New York City. Your best friend died in September, you've been robbed twice,
your girlfriend is leaving you, you've lost your job...and the only one left to talk to
is the gay burglar you'vegot tied up in the kitchen...
oh, and P.S. your cat is dead.
3.) SPREAD THE CHEER
Sites like VISTAPRINT can make your Christmas Cards for just 31 cents each.

4.) Send emails reminding readers that ebooks are the perfect gift that requires no shipping.
5.) Offer your print book at a price that keeps your book under $10 even with shipping.
{You want to tempt gift givers to choose your books to widen the pool of readers receiving your novels.}

6.) AMAZON DOMINATES HOLIDAY SALES
Focus on Amazon.
Emphasize links to your books on Amazon.
Your prospective customers will already be shopping on Amazon,
so make it easy for them to purchase your books by being where they are (on Amazon!)
7.) EVERYBODY is advertising on FACEBOOK
The fishing hole that everyone uses produces few big fish. Think outside of the box. Use Pinterest or Instagram.

8.) DO YOUR OWN 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS related to your book
Whether it is a themed giveaway, 12 questions whose answers win a prize, or just 12 jokes ...
It will generate interest in your book and your prose.
The possibilities are limited only by your imagination
Published on December 20, 2019 07:00
December 17, 2019
SOMEONE WITH SKIN ON

Black Friday. Cyber Monday.
We celebrate Christmas but often not from a Christian perspective.
If people enjoyed giving and receiving gifts,
it might make Christmas healing in some way.
But most do not.
Many feel obligated to spend too much for too many.
Is it because we have forgotten to be thankful and filled with awe at the gift of Christ,
at the gift of our being able to love even if we do not feel loved?

A young boy kept coming out of his bedroom during a lightning storm
to stand at his parents' bedroom door.
"No need to be afraid, honey," said the sleepy mother. "God is with you."
"I need someone with skin on," he sobbed.

We all do at some point in our lives.
Perhaps that is why God came to us wearing a human body --
to give us someone with skin on.

But what if we do not believe in Christ or any God during Christmas?

For one month out of 12,
Christmas Season gives so many a chance to bless those around us
in ways that warm not only the receiver but the giver as well.
Giving someone a needed gift is like giving them a fragrant rose.
Some of the perfume stays with you.
If for one month out of the year,
we find ourselves remembering the magic and innocence of childhood dreams --
Christmas has still given us a special present.

WISHING ALL OF YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Published on December 17, 2019 22:00