Cate Russell-Cole's Blog, page 40

George RR Martin, Author of Game of Thrones

George Raymond Richard Martin is an American screenwriter and author of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He is best known for A Song of Ice and Fire, his bestselling series of epic fantasy novels that HBO adapted for their dramatic pay-cable series Game of Thrones. Martin was selected by Time magazine as one of the “2011 Time 100″, a list of the “most influential people in the world.” Source.

Filed under: "Dose of Inspiration" Video Tagged: author, books, fiction, Game of Thrones, George RR Martin, Indie publishing, inspiration, novel, resource, success, writer, writing

Are Your Books Weighing You Down?

When I was at school, we used sports bags for our books. After looking at the health statistics and carrying out research, it was suggested that one possible cause for Adolescent *Scoliosis, was carrying those heavy bags in one hand. It was thought that a lopsided manner of carrying bags, placed extra stress on the growing spine, causing it to curve abnormally.

An answer was found. Backpacks were bought in for school use. The idea was that they would distribute the weight more evenly. However, over time the argument has continued as some studies claim that Scoliosis in adolescents is still too prominent, thus the back packs weren’t the answer. Others have argued that backpacks are the correct solution, however, they are being over-filled and worn too low on the back; thus the continued damage.

While a great choice, any backpack, whatever age you use them, may be too large for your body; packed unevenly so the weight is unevenly distributed; or carried by the handles. Doing so defeats their purpose. One study found that the weight of backpacks carried by children was more than it is recommended that a fully grown, adult body should carry. A child’s backpack weight should not exceed ten percent of their own body weight.

Over-filling anything you carry has the potential to do you damage. That doesn’t just include backpacks. It includes handbags, laptop bags, shopping bags and briefcases. These are risk items we don’t think about.

Handbags and briefcases come in various styles: some with long handles which can be slung across the shoulders to distribute weight more evenly; and some with very short hand-holds which, if heavy, will pull on your spine, shoulders and neck. Go to a busy bus stop. Often you will see workers juggling both a brief case and a laptop bag. Whether in school or out, the strain we are placing on our spines is increasing and if we aren’t careful, so will our injuries.

So have a think about your habits in what you carry. What can you remove to lessen the load? Are the handles long enough and wide enough to distribute weight? Have you gotten into a bad habit of carrying your load only on one side of your body, stressing that side more? Anything small you can do to reduce the pull on your spine will be helpful.

If you would like to know more about how to take care of your back and prevent injury, download your free copy of Avoiding Back Pain: A Simple Guide. This is the page link for downloading the book . The file is a 700kb .pdf file which will work on any computer or tablet device. It is protected so you will not be able to print or copy from it, but please, pass it on freely!

* Scoliosis is an abnormal curve in your spine, which can occur in the upper (thoracic) or lower (lumbar) spine; sometimes both which creates what is called a double major curve. Scoliosis can range in seriousness from a mild problem which creates back pain, to curves so severe that they can reduce the amount of room needed for the heart, lungs and your gastrointestinal system. Long term untreated mild Scoliosis can create chronic pain and abnormal wear and tear on the facet joints and other structures of the spine; leading to additional medical problems.

This blog post, the book cover and it’s content are Copyright Cate Russell-Cole 2012. All rights are reserved Internationally. You may not reproduce it in any form, in part of whole, without Cate’s prior written permission. That includes usage in forms such as print, audio and digital imaging including pdf, jpg, png etc. A fee may be requested for re-using her work if it is for a commercial venture. Link sharing and Pinterest pins are most welcome as long as Cate is the attributed Author.

No images on this blog may be copied, captured, or altered for your own purpose without the consent of the originating owner. Where images are marked as being iStockphoto.com images, they are paid for and licenced to Cate for use on this blog. If you take them, iStockphoto.com has the right to take legal action against you for Copyright Infringement.

Please see the Blog Content and Image Copyright page of this blog for further information in regards to Guest Posts, other images, Cate’s checks on infringements and Liability.

Filed under: Freebie or Competition Tagged: back care, backpacks, Bad Back, Disc, exercise, health, Herniate, Herniation, kyphosis, lift, lumbago, prevention, pulled muscles, safe lifting, sciatica, scoliosis, slipped disc, spine, Spondylolisthesis, Spondylosis, stenosis, weight

Writing Rocket Fuel: An Approach to Writing Haiku

“Those wishing to learn writing good haiku should start first by writing spooky haikus.”

midnight

bus leaves me in the shadow

of a haunted house

midnight park

the swing suddenly

creaks

dark corridor

passing by the unit

a man hung himself

ghost festival

hell money trails

the night wind

night clothesline

below the white table clothes

feet

By John Tiong Chunghoo
Source: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/poem-about-poetry-spooky-haiku-way-to-writing-excellent-haikus/

NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April.

http://www.napowrimo.net/

Filed under: Rocket Fuel Tagged: NaPoWriMo, Writing Rocket Fuel

Dirty Money and Medicine: Grave Robbing for Writers

“… they tell us it was necessary for the purposes of science. Science? Why, who is science for? Not for poor people. Then if it be necessary for the purposes of science, let them have the bodies of the rich, for whose benefit science is cultivated.” William Cobbett

Medical science is a wonderful discipline. It saves lives. To save a life, you need to learn how and you need to research. The irony of the whole process is, that is done on lives which have been lost. In the 1800s when computer simulations and other methods of learning and testing weren’t accessible, the demand for bodies was great. In 1828 there were 800 medical students in London and they needed three bodies each to practice on.

Graves have been unearthed in London teaching hospitals where, whilst trying to comply with Church standards that bodies must be buried in tact for judgement day, coffins contained multiple portions of body parts with most skulls missing. The remains of humans were also buried with the remains of animals such as rabbits, dogs, birds and exotic animals, which were used for comparative anatomy. It was the stuff books such as Frankenstein were made of. In Scotland, they simply dug pits and threw the miscellaneous body parts in. Medical Schools such as the London Hospital were forced to be active in compromising their standards to get cadavers. They were critical teaching tools that in the long run, could save lives. Bodies have been uncovered showing multiple attempts at surgical procedures by students. Some surgeries were so badly carried out, we should probably be thankful for the trade in bodies! It was preferable to practicing on humans, in an era with no antibiotics or anaesthesia.

Where there is demand, there is commerce and murder was even committed to gain bodies for sale. A pair of Scottish ‘businessmen’ named Burke and Hare, were sentenced after ‘acquiring’ seventeen bodies for sale by such illicit means. Grave robbing became so commonplace and created such fear, that families went to excessive expense to secure burials from robbers. Buildings with no entrances were mounted on top of graves and iron railings with points were erected to stop the thieves. This is probably a good part of the reason why many graves are covered with concrete, even today. Grave robbers became known as “Resurrectionists.” They could procure bodies, as long as they stripped away their clothes and any possessions. The law didn’t allow anyone to own a body. Technically, it wasn’t stealing. There are newspaper accounts where staff and patients at hospitals had noted that grave robbing was taking place in the hospital cemetery and despite crutches and ailments, the patients were chasing robbers in an attempt to apprehend them. It is hard to imagine any other form of robbery so offensive.

So if wealthy graves were protected, where did you get them from? Paupers graves, of course. Unprotected mass graves were everywhere, as were itinerant workers and the poor, who existed in plentiful numbers; conveniently dying from cholera, malnutrition and drunken excess. It was easy.

It gets dirtier. It is the rich vs the poor and the Government vs the poor.

The Government could very well be considered as dirty as the grave robbers. They had a problem. People were dying in hospitals and asylums; and if they died in your institution and didn’t have money, you had to dispose of the body in a ‘societally acceptable’ manner. They didn’t quite achieve the last part. It still cost them to bury paupers, mass graves and no headstones or not. They did have the option of putting on a funeral for the broke bereaved, but, there was great shame in a destitute burial so often no one turned up. Easy fix: sell them straight to the Medical Schools and save the burial costs. You’ve just paid for their care, get some profit back to cover it. What made it all worse is, as illustrated by the quote above, the main researchers were wealthy medical students and the poor couldn’t even pay for health care. The class divide came into play.

To ensure all was above board, the Government changed the law to protect themselves. No longer could they just sell the bodies of convicted criminals who were sentenced to death, now, under the Anatomy Act of 1832 they could do what they ‘saw fit’ to anyone who had been in their care. People lost their right to buried in their own Parish with their family. This law actually stayed in effect in Britain until 1984.

Well protected. Walter Hill Interrment, Toowong Cemetery, Australia

So how did I discover all this? Crazily enough, I was sitting reading a Journal on Social Work which was talking workers organising destitute burials. They referred to the horrors of the past grave robbing era and the shame factor. The dirty side of Government and a “respectable profession” such as Medicine is never to be condoned or repeated, but it does give you great plot ideas!

Further Resources:

Frankenstein and the Anatomy Act: http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/marshall.html

Anatomy Act 1832: http://d-mis-web.ana.bris.ac.uk/personal/mark/Select%20com%201828.htm

William Hare and William Burke, West Point Murders: https://mysendoff.com/2011/09/the-anatomy-act-of-1832/

“London’s Body Snatchers” Archaeology Magazine Edition 274, January 2013.

This article / blog post is Copyright Cate Russell-Cole 2013. All rights are reserved Internationally. You may not reproduce it in any form, in part of whole, without Cate’s prior written permission. That includes usage in forms such as print, audio and digital imaging including pdf, jpg, png etc. A fee may be requested for re-using her work if it is for a commercial venture. Link sharing and Pinterest pins are most welcome as long as Cate is the attributed Author.

No images on this blog may be copied, captured, or altered for your own purpose without the consent of the originating owner.

Filed under: Writing Tagged: Anatomy Act, British Government, burial, Burke and Hare, dark writers, death, destitute burial, dissection, Frankenstein, grave robbing, horror, ideas, inspiration, medical research, mortality rate, murder, paranormal, plot, plot device, Poor Act, poverty, writer, writing

Dirty Money and Medicine: Fuel for Dark Writers

Warning: this post is for paranormal and historical writers. Anyone who cannot stomach those topics may be offended or disturbed by the content. Unfortunately, the content is actual history without exaggeration.

“… they tell us it was necessary for the purposes of science. Science? Why, who is science for? Not for poor people. Then if it be necessary for the purposes of science, let them have the bodies of the rich, for whose benefit science is cultivated.”  William Cobbett

Medical science is a wonderful discipline. It saves lives. To save a life, you need to learn how and you need to research. The irony of the whole process is, that is done on lives which have been lost. In the 1800s when computer simulations and other methods of learning and testing weren’t accessible, the demand for bodies was great. In 1828 there were 800 medical students in London and they needed three bodies each to practice on.

Graves have been unearthed in London teaching hospitals where, whilst trying to comply with Church standards that bodies must be buried in tact for judgement day, coffins contained multiple portions of body parts with most skulls missing. The remains of humans were also buried with the remains of animals such as rabbits, dogs, birds and exotic animals, which were used for comparative anatomy. It was the stuff books such as Frankenstein were made of. In Scotland, they simply dug pits and threw the miscellaneous body parts in. Medical Schools such as the London Hospital were forced to be active in compromising their standards to get cadavers. They were critical teaching tools that in the long run, could save lives. Bodies have been uncovered showing multiple attempts at surgical procedures by students. Some surgeries were so badly carried out, we should probably be thankful for the trade in bodies! It was preferable to practicing on humans, in an era with no antibiotics or anaesthesia.

Where there is demand, there is commerce and murder was even committed to gain bodies for sale. A pair of Scottish ‘businessmen’ named Burke and Hare, were sentenced after ‘acquiring’ seventeen bodies for sale by such illicit means. Grave robbing became so commonplace and created such fear, that families went to excessive expense to secure burials from robbers. Buildings with no entrances were mounted on top of graves and iron railings with points were erected to stop the thieves. This is probably a good part of the reason why many graves are covered with concrete, even today. Grave robbers became known as “Resurrectionists.” They could procure bodies, as long as they stripped away their clothes and any possessions. The law didn’t allow anyone to own a body. Technically, it wasn’t stealing. There are newspaper accounts where staff and patients at hospitals had noted that grave robbing was taking place in the hospital cemetery and despite crutches and ailments, the patients were chasing robbers in an attempt to apprehend them. It is hard to imagine any other form of robbery so offensive.

So if wealthy graves were protected, where did you get them from? Paupers graves, of course. Unprotected mass graves were everywhere, as were itinerant workers and the poor, who existed in plentiful numbers; conveniently dying from cholera, malnutrition and drunken excess. It was easy.

It gets dirtier. It is the rich vs the poor and the Government vs the poor.

The Government could very well be considered as dirty as the grave robbers. They had a problem. People were dying in hospitals and asylums; and if they died in your institution and didn’t have money, you had to dispose of the body in a ‘societally acceptable’ manner. They didn’t quite achieve the last part. It still cost them to bury paupers, mass graves and no headstones or not. They did have the option of putting on a funeral for the broke bereaved, but, there was great shame in a destitute burial so often no one turned up. Easy fix: sell them straight to the Medical Schools and save the burial costs. You’ve just paid for their care, get some profit back to cover it. What made it all worse is, as illustrated by the quote above, the main researchers were wealthy medical students and the poor couldn’t even pay for health care. The class divide came into play.

To ensure all was above board, the Government changed the law to protect themselves. No longer could they just sell the bodies of convicted criminals who were sentenced to death, now, under the Anatomy Act of 1832 they could do what they ‘saw fit’ to anyone who had been in their care. People lost their right to buried in their own Parish with their family. This law actually stayed in effect in Britain until 1984.

Well protected. Walter Hill Interrment, Toowong Cemetery, Australia

So how did I discover all this? Crazily enough, I was sitting reading a Journal on Social Work which was talking workers organising destitute burials. They referred to the horrors of the past grave robbing era and the shame factor. The dirty side of Government and a “respectable profession” such as Medicine is never to be condoned or repeated, but it does give you great plot ideas!

Further Resources:

Frankenstein and the Anatomy Act: http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/marshall.html

Anatomy Act 1832: http://d-mis-web.ana.bris.ac.uk/personal/mark/Select%20com%201828.htm

William Hare and William Burke, West Point Murders: https://mysendoff.com/2011/09/the-anatomy-act-of-1832/

“London’s Body Snatchers” Archaeology Magazine Edition 274, January 2013.

This article / blog post is Copyright Cate Russell-Cole 2013. All rights are reserved Internationally. You may not reproduce it in any form, in part of whole, without Cate’s prior written permission. That includes usage in forms such as print, audio and digital imaging including pdf, jpg, png etc. A fee may be requested for re-using her work if it is for a commercial venture. Link sharing and Pinterest pins are most welcome as long as Cate is the attributed Author.

No images on this blog may be copied, captured, or altered for your own purpose without the consent of the originating owner. 

Filed under: Writing Tagged: Anatomy Act, British Government, burial, Burke and Hare, dark writers, death, destitute burial, dissection, Frankenstein, grave robbing, horror, ideas, inspiration, medical research, mortality rate, murder, paranormal, plot, plot device, Poor Act, poverty, writer, writing

To the Frustrated Blogger

Reblogged from The Accidental Cootchie Mama:

Frustration. It's been in the air for a while now all over the Great Blogosphere. In private, I've felt it myself. But when some of my favorite writers started expressing their own agonies, I decided to write this post. I hope it will give you a massive confidence bump. Or something.

The recent changes in your blog statistics are not about you.

Read more… 426 more words

Thank you to Andra for this clarification which may help many of you.

May Writing Challenge: Story A Day

“Sick of starting and never finishing writing projects?…”Write a story every day in May.

StoryADay.org is home to an annual Extreme Writing Challenge. It was started in 2010. “Some people decided to write on weekdays only, some declared they would sketch a story idea every day, some weren’t sure what they could manage anything, but just the idea of committing to this hare-brained scheme with a bunch of other writers had got them so excited, they couldn’t resist.”

The Story A Day blog has great content all year around, so if you’re into writing short stories, check it out. Don’t forget to use their Twitter hash tag: #storyaday

Filed under: Writing Tagged: author, challenge, creativity, fiction, goals, inspiration, Story A Day, success, writer, writing, Writing Challenge

You Don’t Have to be a Novelist: Exploring Other Forms of Writing, by Damian Trasler

When I was fourteen, I wanted to sit at a battered Olivetti, with my fedora perched on the back of my head, and rattle off gritty sci-fi novels of intergalactic adventure. Instead I would rattle off essays on the meaning of life, and novels based on the imagined future lives of my friends.

Lucky for me (and them,) all these things are either lost or filed into oblivion. Given the chance to stay home full time when my first daughter was born, I revived my writing ambition My daughter was unbelievably well-behaved, requiring very little hands-on care. We went for a walk every day, and she would sleep in her chair beside my desk, or sit on my lap when she got older. I sold my second short story to a magazine, and my very first non-fiction piece was picked up too. It was an unfair beginning, giving me a strange idea of how easy writing success could be.

From there I found it almost impossible to get into print again. I wrote and submitted dozens of short stories, shopping them around every feasible publication. I tried different genres, competitions, different forms… nothing worked. Luckily, I had picked up a job I could do from home, editing a magazine for R.A.F. families (since my wife was a serving officer at the time,) so I could still count myself a writer: I had to produce most of the content!

My break came when I was told to go out and meet people. I joined a Theatre Club and they were looking for a play to enter in a performance competition. They had heard I was a writer, and asked me to write a play for them. I had never written a play before, though I had spent some time in amateur dramatics in my youth. Since I was a writer having trouble getting a novel finished, I wrote a play about a writer having trouble getting a novel finished. We took the play on to the competition and won an award.

Shortly thereafter, an old friend asked if I could co-author a pantomime with him and a friend. He had found a new type of publisher who was willing to take on the script. This publisher existed only on the Internet, putting scripts up in a format that could be read onscreen, but not copied. Then customers could pay online and download the script immediately. I mentioned that I had an award winning play at home, plus a couple of other scripts I had written since then, and he agreed to host them too. Within fifteen minutes of my first script appearing on the site, it had sold to someone in America: the other side of the world!

From those beginnings, my writing partners and I have added many more scripts to our catalogue, and they sell well enough. More rewarding are the communications from groups all around the world, telling us of their successes, passing on press clippings and photographs of our plays and pantomimes. I have received emails from places I will never have the chance to visit, but they have performed my plays, recited my words and delighted audiences I can’t even imagine.

I am a writer now. Despite the half-dozen odd jobs I’ve taken on since those early days, writing is what I do. I don’t make the money of a JK Rowling, or an E.L. James. Although I believe that quality is vital, that you should strive to produce the very best work you can, there are other factors that influence success. One is chance, which you can’t manipulate. You can’t ensure that your manuscript is picked up by the right person on the day they’re ready for a story like yours. But you CAN do things to increase that likelihood : You can polish your manuscript until it’s as near perfect as possible. Check the submission guidelines to avoid falling at the first fence. Look for an agent to give your submission more appeal. Be open to other forms of writing: you don’t HAVE to be a novelist, you know!

Sometimes life takes you in a different direction. I say it’s worth hanging on and enjoying the ride.

Follow Damian

Blog: http://www.dtrasler.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dtraslerwriting
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/113893474516410622032

Read Damian’s Work

Coffee Time Tales  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0079OA19K
Writing A Play : http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Play-Amateur-Stage-ebook/dp/B0071OUAOO
Troubled Souls: Amazon US: http://amzn.to/TroubledSouls Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/TroubledSoulsUK

This blog post is Copyright Damian Trasler 2013. All rights are reserved Internationally. You may not reproduce it in any form, in part of whole, without the author’s prior written permission. That includes usage in forms such as print, audio and digital imaging including pdf, jpg, png etc. A fee may be requested for re-use if it is for a commercial venture.

Filed under: Guest Post, Writing Tagged: alternatives, author, blog, Damian Trasler, encouragement, fiction, genre, goals, Indie publishing, inspiration, novel, play, problem solving, success, writer, writing

Writing Rocket Fuel: NaPoWriMo, The Value of Poetry

“Dead Poet’s Society” is one of my favourite movies. This is one of its most inspiring clips, about the true meaning of poetry in life.

Enjoy!

NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April.

Filed under: Rocket Fuel Tagged: Dead Poets Society, NaPoWriMo, poetry, Robin Williams, Writing Rocket Fuel

Writer Beware: How the Inner Editor Attacks

Reblogged from Creative Writing with the Crimson League:

If you read a decent number of creative writing blogs, or know any authors, you've probably heard about the dreaded "Inner Editor." I've decided to call mine Eeyore, cause he's pretty much a downer. (Jennings Wright's is a balrog. This is a FABULOUS blog post on the same topic with a different twist.)

The Inner Editor is your "bad" writing angel.

Read more… 723 more words

Too good not to share! Be encouraged. Thank you for a great post Victoria.