Java Davis's Blog, page 2
January 9, 2017
Book Review: The Bride Wore Dead (four coffee beans)
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Book Review: The Bride Wore Dead (4 coffee beans)
The full title of this grouchy, scrappy little book is: The Bride Wore Dead: An Un-Cozy Un-Culinary Josie Tucker Mystery (Josie Tucker Mysteries Book 1). In this opening salvo to a new (to me) mystery series, The Bride Wore Dead is a great start.
Josie Tucker is a unique protagonist. She’s in a very tough position in life. Her father died a long time ago, and her mother, a native of Thailand, is in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. Josie hails from Arizona, but has somehow landed in Boston, surrounded by a messy apartment, a faithless dog, and three good friends who, for some reason, love her. But Josie is very tough former juvenile delinquent, currently passing herself off as a food critic despite the fact that her stomach is so sour she can’t keep food down. Through a series of wacky circumstances, she is asked to do some detective legwork at a luxury spa in her Arizona home town. Let’s face it; she needs the money and some new career prospects.
Given that this book is a comic mystery, it would have been so easy to make Josie a one-note character with only wisecracks to keep the dialog moving. The story, though, is well-crafted, and hearing the thoughts in Josie’s head hardly got tiresome. It would have been nice if the three friends Josie left back in Boston, Susan, her upper-crust best friend; Drew, her doctor and secret crush; and Benjy, a sweet loser who was scarcely represented at all in the book, had had a chapter or two discussing their worries over their absent friend. I wanted to hear more from them.
So, there’s a murder, and there’s a mystery within a mystery, which is always an engaging vehicle. And speaking of vehicles, I’m not sure why the cover has a classic Thunderbird instead of a bottle of antacid, but nobody asked me for my opinion. I’m very happy to have been given the opportunity to read and review this book, and I look forward to continuing with the Josie Tucker Mysteries series.
The Bride Wore Dead: An Un-Cozy Un-Culinary Josie Tucker Mystery
January 5, 2017
The Love of Fountain Pens
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The Love of Fountain Pens
2013 Cross fountain pen celebrating The Year of the Snake (Chinese astrology)
The pen of pens, the Mont Blanc
Have any of you ever used a real fountain pen? I’m guessing it’s probably a 50/50 coin toss. I fell in love with fountain pens literally at my father’s knee, playing with his Mont Blanc, the brand with the little white edelweiss flowers at the top. When I was in high school, we were required to write our school papers with fountain pens. I was so excited to get my very own.
I recently bought this fountain pen to add to my collection, a Cross pen celebrating The Year of the Snake, the year I was born into. The crazy thing is that I have almost no reason to write things with a pen anymore. When I do write with a pen, my hand refuses to hold one for very long. Some days, I can’t hold one at all, thanks to my longtime friend, Arthritis.
But love is often blind, as is my love for fountain pens.
December 20, 2016
In-Law Harangue
I’m not sure why my sister-in-law hates me and ignores her brother, my husband, but that’s our truth. At Thanksgiving, she made my husband sleep on the floor while her children and grandchildren (4 and 6) got all the beds in the house. So disrespectful to my husband, who grew up in that house.The house we gather at is my mother-in-law’s now empty house. It’s creepy to be in there now, like being in a funeral home waiting for the mortician to greet you. I have to bring my own bedding, prompting a quick trip to Target, which was filled with frantic, stressed shoppers. I felt so bad for them, and I prayed that the recipients of their presents would be happy and grateful.
My father-in-law died several years ago, and my mother-in-law moved into senior housing earlier in 2016. So, as I said, the house is left empty, and my sister-in-law is the undisputed matriarch of the clan. And, as I also said, she hates me and ignores her brother. She could be redeemed if she were a decent cook or a sparkling conversationalist. Alas, neither is the case. She insists on dominating all conversation, and the rest of us dare not speak out of turn. Except for me, of course, although out of respect for my husband, I say about 1/10 of what’s really on my mind.
I’ll be bringing the joy and the cheer with me, so that the cloud that is my sister-in-law won’t ruin everyone’s good time.
December 14, 2016
Successful Surgery
Just letting everyone know that my eye surgery was successful and the recovery is moving along swiftly. Thank you for your support.
December 8, 2016
Surgery Tomorrow
Yes, this is my eye.
It’s a hoot to make fun of people who get plastic surgery, calling them vain and self-absorbed. I do it myself, even though I’ve had my face reconstructed, correcting some of the results of child abuse. Tomorrow, I’m getting my eyelids lifted. It will give me another 1/3 range of vision. I’m looking forward to not constantly moving my eyelids out of my way, but between you and me, it’s scary to have surgery so close to my eyes.
One of my extended family (a nurse) will be with me for the day as my official chauffeur and emotional support. SHE’s not worried, which is also providing a small amount of comfort. But as scared as I might be, it’s my husband who’s really frightened. He’s not a good care-giver and he’s afraid of what it could mean to take care of me for a few days.
Is there still time to train one or both of the dogs to be service animals?
December 4, 2016
Blog Post: Twitter Ads Suck
http://theroadtripwriter.com/twitter-...
Twitter Ads Suck
In the spirit of trying any and every ad campaign at least once, I tried the Twitter promoted ad system. I signed up for a 3-day campaign to advertise several of my books, but I ended it after just one day. According to their own analytics, every single one of the interacters were fake profiles. I contacted Twitter Ad Support to see if I would have to pay for these fake responders, and this what they said, followed by my reply. I promised Twitter that I would let people know how dissatisfied I was with their campaigns, and here we are!
[Tiwtter answer]
Hello,
Thanks for writing in about the quality of followers and engagements. One of the advantages of the Twitter Ads platform is that any RTs of your promoted ads are sent to the retweeting account’s followers as an organic tweet. Any engagements that result are not charged, however followers gained may not align with the original campaign’s targeting criteria. These earned followers or engagements do show in the campaign dashboard and are used to calculate cost per engagement, however you are not charged for them directly.
Twitter also passes all promoted engagements through a filtering mechanism to avoid charging advertisers for any low-quality or invalid engagements [HAH!]. These filters run on a set schedule so the engagements may show in the campaign dashboard, but will be deducted from the amount outstanding and will not be charged to your credit card.
If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to reply.
Thanks,
Twitter Ads Support
[My response]
Your filtering system must be highly flawed because I couldn’t find anyone who was an actual person versus a bot. I ended my campaign two days early because I could see immediately that I was paying you for no good reason. I am not a happy customer and not only would I not trust you again, I will tell people my honest opinion of this method of advertising.
— Java Davis
@javadavis
http://theroadtripwriter.com
December 3, 2016
Book Review: The Magnolia Story (4 coffee beans)
This book begins with an obvious premise that the reader know who Chip and Joanna Gaines are. They are the host of the television show Fixer Upper (HGTV), which deals with flipping and designing houses in and around Waco, Texas. I do think it’s necessary to know who these two are before reading The Magnolia Story.
Lots of love going on in this book: parents, school, each other, the kids, the animals, each house, each client, antiques, the farm, and Waco, Texas. Hard work and faith in the lord are two main themes here. I was impressed by the storytelling, the can-do attitude, the balance between quiet Jo and boisterous Chip, and “listening to your inner voice.” The Magnolia Story is a great story, well-written. The show Fixer Upper is one reality show that is truly natural and unscripted. The book has bonus material, also, in the form of a Q&A.
Chip and Joanna lose one star because the last chapter was extremely repetitive.
The Magnolia Story
