Victoria Zigler's Blog: Zigler News, page 118

#Furkid Friday: New #Photos Of Joshua The #Degu (FD)

Hi humans, rodent types, and anyone else reading this. This is Joshua the degu.

The human caretakers were playing with that flashy thing of theirs again, so I have two new photos to share with you.

Here I am on my wheel:


And here I am taking a Shreddie - which is one of my absolute favourite kinds of cereal - from the Mummy human:


The human caretakers were trying to get a shot where both me and the Mummy human were holding the Shreddie at the same time. I was too quick for them though. I like to grab my nibble and run off to eat it in peace. So this was the best they could get.

Anyway, both of the above photos were taken at the start of this month, in case you want to know when they were from.

I hope you enjoyed them.

Squeak soon,
Joshua

#Writing Wednesday - May 10th 2017

Are you an author who is on Goodreads? Then check out these six ways for self-published authors to use Goodreads to network. I haven't tried all of them yet, but I can tell you for a fact that I have found a couple of readers via Goodreads. Also, if you find the right group, interacting with fellow readers on there can be fun. Although, if you're anything like me, it can also cause the list of books you want to read to grow rather long, due to all the excellent books you hear about. But that's sort of the point, isn't it?

Anyway...

Here's an interesting post that discusses what the inciting moment of your story is, and why you should care. Plus, here's another interesting post that discusses The “Sweet 16” First Lines of Your Manuscript. In other words, the elements needed to make your first page one that will get the reader interested enough to want to read on.

When it comes to your plot, coincidences are sometimes fine. On the other hand, an obviously contrived plot is not. So, with that in mind, here are six ways to identify a contrived plot.

When it comes to your characters, you want to make them believable. So, to help you out in that area, here's a great post that discusses the top five character pitfalls, and how to avoid them. Also, here are three ways to write a character you hate, in case that's something you find yourself struggling with.

If you already have all that covered though, and have reached the editing phase with your book, here's a post with advice on How To Proofread Like A Professional.

Now it's time to move on to writing your book's blurb, with some useful tips on how you can generate more book sales with a keyword-powered book blurb.

Lastly, I'll leave you with this advice on creating the time and space you need to write your best work.

Counting #Sheep, Or #Dragons, Or Whatever

Counting sheep is a mental exercise used in some cultures as a means of putting oneself to sleep.

In most depictions of the activity, the practitioner envisions an endless series of identical white sheep jumping over a fence, while counting them as they do so. The idea, presumably, is to induce boredom while occupying the mind with something simple, repetitive, and rhythmic, all of which are known to help humans sleep.

Although the practice is largely a stereotype, and rarely used as a solution for insomnia, it has been so commonly referenced by cartoons, comic strips, and other mass media, that it has become deeply engrained into popular culture's notion of sleep. The term "counting sheep" has entered the English language as an idiomatic term for insomnia. Sheep themselves have become associated with sleep, or lack thereof.

The effectiveness of the method may depend upon the mental power required. An experiment conducted by researchers at Oxford University, though not involving livestock as the object of visualization, found that subjects who imagined "a beach or a waterfall" were forced to expend more mental energy, and fell asleep faster, than those asked to "simply distract from thoughts, worries and concerns."

~From Wikipedia

I'm sure you're all familiar with the term, and how counting sheep works. But I grabbed the above information for the benifit of anyone who isn't, since I've learned not to assume that all popular cultural references are as well-known in other countries as they are in the one I know them from, if you know what I mean.

Anyway...

I've not mentioned it much in recent months, but, as anyone who's been reading my blog for a long time will know, I often have trouble sleeping. I've tried all the tricks that are meant to help you sleep, and have found that the repetitive mental exercises like counting sheep actually do work sometimes. At least, if the cause of my insomnia that night is just too much going on in my head. It's sort of like how focus on your breathing helps you get started when it comes to meditation.

Except, one night back in January, the sheep started bleating at me as they jumped, and it was getting on my nerves.

So I tried counting other things, and ended up counting dragons.

Apparently it's true that it's the repetitive exercise rather than the sheep, since I tried other things too, with similar results; some nights it works wonderfully, other times it doesn't. There appeared to be no pattern as to which things I counted would or wouldn't work; as long as I could imagine identical ones jumping, flying, walking, or floating by - depending what was appropriate for the creature, or object, in question - it seemed to be fine.

So, I just thought I'd let you know, in case you don't like sheep, or your sheep start annoying you with their bleating too, that you can count whatever you like when trying to sleep... Sheep, dragons, or whatever. There's no guarantee it will work, of course, but at least you now know for sure that you aren't limited to counting sheep, so can add some variety in to your counting exercises.

Also, meditating, or doing something else potentially relaxing, shortly before you try to sleep, can often help if you have trouble sleeping too. Again, it's not guaranteed, but it's worth trying.

Actually, as you probably already know, when it comes to things that are meant to help you sleep, they all work sometimes, but aren't guaranteed. After all, if they worked every time, nobody would suffer from insomnia, would they?

Of course, the big question now is... What do sheep count to get to sleep?

Just Catching You Up On Day To Day Life - May 2017 Edition (LBE)

(The above photos were taken on April 18th 2017, and show a view of the ocean from our two living room windows on one of the many nice days we've had recently; the windows are on the same wall, so the view isn't all that different from each of them).

We've had a lot of nice weather lately. It hasn't all been beautiful weather... There have been some storms... But it's been sunny a lot, though not hot. But we haven't been able to get out and enjoy it much, because things here have been... Well, I suppose the best word for them is eventful.

So, what's been going on around here?

Well...

The landlords finally got a repair guy who not only showed up to do the job, but also actually did some work while he was here. This was a great improvement on their old guys, who either didn't show up, or didn't do much when they did show up. So, the new repair guy replaced the flooring in our place that had been damaged when we had that issue with the bathroom flooding over a year ago (yep, the landlords have been battling with repair guys for that long). He also replastered the bathroom wall, which was damaged during the flooding too. We were really pleased with it, and thinking he was almost done in the bathroom, so would be able to move on to dealing with other issues. We weren't alone in that thinking... He was thinking the same thing. I mean, all he hasn't done in there that he was meant to do is paint over where he had to do the plastering. Well, there's the matter of the radiator I think should have at least some of its pipes replaced, but nobody seems in any hurry to deal with that, since they seem to think there's no need to do anything while it works just fine, so I don't suppose I can count that.

But, anyway... Then the cracks in the ceiling of the hallway below our bathroom appeared again, and bits of ceiling fell down.

Yes, you did read that right... Some of the ceiling in the hallway downstairs fell down.

Of course, as is often the case, it decided the middle of the night was a good time to do it. We weren't all that surprised, since we'd noticed the cracks a couple of days before, and made the repair guys and landlords aware of them, and the repair guys were actually supposed to come take a look a couple of days later. But still...

Um... You may have noticed my use of the word "again" just now? Well, the thing is, the hallway ceiling fell down before, during the flooding incident that meant we needed a new bathroom floor.

At the time it was assumed it was the flooding incident that had caused it, which had been caused by a combination of a flexi-hose bursting due to having been installed wrongly (it had a twist in it, which isn't meant to be the case) and the overflow pipe for our boiler not leading all the way outside as it's meant to. Both issues that have since been dealt with. The hallway ceiling has also since been replaced, and the hallway redecorated. Perhaps it was due to the flooding that the ceiling fell down originally. Yet it was suspected there was some other issue, since signs of damp had been appearing in the hallway again. It was hoped replacing our boiler - which needed replacing anyhow - would solve the issue. apparently not. I mean, replacing our boiler was a good thing from our point of view (this one works better for a start). But judging by the fact the ceiling fell down again a few months after our boiler had been replaced, and water was clearly still dripping from somewhere, that obviously didn't solve whatever was causing the problem.

To cut a long story short, it was then assumed there was a leaky pipe that had been missed during the boiler replacement or something. But when the plumber came to find and fix the pipe in question, there was no sign of any leaky pipe. Water was still running down - the bucket for our mop was, and still is, being employed to catch it, and "hopefully" stop it causing any more damage - but it wasn't coming from any pipe as far as the plumber could see.

The new theory after that (yes, another theory) was that the water was somehow running down the inside of the wall from the roof, though nobody's sure how it's doing so even when there hasn't been rain for several days. So the landlords had guys out to put up scaffolding over the past few days, and will be sending a couple of guys up to check out the roof soon... Probably this coming week. Hopefully they manage to find and fix the problem. If so, it will be just a matter of waiting for things in the hallway to dry out well enough for it to be redecorated (again). Also, we'll be able to have our bucket back. Although, I think I'll give it a wash when I get it back, since the water dripping in to it isn't the cleanest, and I don't fancy mopping our floor using water from a bucket as filthy as ours is becoming. In the meantime, I'm trying not to think about the fact our almost new bucket - which we only got a few months ago - is getting rather filthy, and looking far from new.

Anyhow, once we're certain they've sorted out whatever problem is causing the dripping water, we'll arrange to get our shower sorted. We don't want to do it before the issue is fixed, because getting the shower sorted involves putting more tiles in the bathroom around the bath, and then putting up the shower rail and curtains. We don't want to do that and then find that fixing the problem with the water means they have to be pulled back off for the workmen to access anything behind the wall, or whatever. OK, so if they do have to do that then the landords would pay for it to be redone. But it's a lot less hastle all round if we just wait. The landlords are pretty sure they won't need to do anything in our bathroom, since it looks like the water isn't coming from our bathroom after all. But we're not taking any chances.

The other repair issue the landlords are trying to sort out is the windows. One of them has dropped in its frame, so - though we can open and close it with little to no difficulty - it's lower down than it should be in its frame, and looks as though it might fall out at any moment. We've been assured that it won't do so, but we do worry that it will, especially with how much of a problem that would be given that it would drop a few floors on to a busy street. Another window has shifted in its frame too, but in this case it's a different style of window, so has created a different problem, and won't close properly, though it opens just fine. They did send someone to look at the second window recently, and he cut a piece out of the frame to get it closed. But that didn't actually fix the problem, and we were just back to the same issue the next time we tried to close the window. Not to mention, all the windows either weren't properly sealed when they were put in, or whatever was used to seal them hasn't lasted well while being battered by the storms you so often get in coastal towns, because wind comes in through gaps that shouldn't be there, and brings rain with it sometimes too. Not much of either gets in, but it's still something that needs to be dealt with before it becomes a worse problem. Plus, it's kind of pointless improving our heating system if the heat's just going to be escaping through gaps like that. Anyway, hopefully their new guys will sort the problems out. The new repair guys have started looking in to what they need to do for the windows, so that's a good start. I'm guessing - and hoping - they plan on sorting the windows while they have the scaffolding up. It would make sense, rather than having to put it up again later, since there's no way they're reaching the outside of the windows without it in this building.

For our part, in between trying to fit day to day tasks in around the workmen/repair guys, Kelly and I have been sorting out the shelves and such. We now finally have the last of the shelves sorted, and the boxes of stuff unpacked. OK, so some of the stuff isn't properly organized on the shelves, so we'll need to properly organize those things. But it's all unpacked and on the shelves, and most of it is properly organized. It only took us a little over two years, that's all. Haha! Anyway, part of the reason for the delay in actually organizing the stuff is that I was out of the special tape for my braille label machine, and most of what still needs to be organized is DVDs and audiobooks, which we want to label as we organize them, so I can find the one I want without help. I do now have more tape, since I ordered some recently, so we have started getting them labelled. The thing is though, we're quite behind on doing this task, so there are a LOT to label. Anyway, I'm hoping to have it done by the end of this month, as long as I don't run out of tape before I finish. Mind you, unless they suddenly get a stock shortage of the stuff, it only takes a couple of days to get some new tape, so we may be able to finish by the end of the month even if I need to put the project on hold while waiting for more tape to arrive.

In other news...

While sorting the shelving, we moved things around a bit to take best advantage of available space, so had to buy a new coffee table, because ours didn't fit well where we needed it to go. The new one still has a bit of a gap either side of it, but it's the closest fit we could get, and is at least a better fit for the space than the old one was.

We also grabbed two more fans, since the way we have things arranged now meant we needed them. We don't have air conditioning - most places in this country don't - so we need fans when hot weather hits. Every room has two now, with a third in the living room, because it needs it due to having two South-facing windows at one end (the ones the photos above were taken from) and the kitchen at the other. Plus, the living room is where we have Joshua, Mollie, and Maizie, so two of the fans are positioned so they benifit from them the most (though they do also help to keep that end of the room cooler) with the third set up where we can benifit from it the best while sat either on the sofa or armchair, or if we're sat at the dinner table.

Speaking of preparing for warmer weather - and in the interests of making sure you're totally up to date on what's been going on around here - I needed new Summer pyjamas, because I had to retire most of my old ones last year. I do still have a couple of pairs of good ones, but they're long-sleeved ones, which I get too warm in when the weather starts to warm up. So I brought two new sets with short-sleeved tops. One has a plain black top and black bottoms with butterflies all over them. The other one is a grey set with a rabbit on the top and stars and moons on the bottoms.

Oh, and we thought we'd need to replace our tumble dryer recently. Luckily it turned out the fuse had just blown in the plug. Even more luckily, I know how to change fuses in plugs, so it was only a matter of a few minutes to solve that problem. Annoying, but cheap and easy to fix.

So there you go. Now you're all caught up on what's been going on around here. Not exactly exciting, but certainly eventful, and it's been keeping us busy, that's for sure.

#Furkid Friday: A #Chinchilla's View On So-Called Bad Nights (FD)

Hi everyone! This is Maizie the chinchilla.

The Mummy human tried to sneak off to bed early one night recently, leaving the Daddy human to feed us. She said something about the night before being a bad one, which we don't understand... It seemed like a pretty good night to us. I mean, we'd been up playing for most of it, while she was lying in bed, so we should know best. But she won't listen, insists it was a bad one, and says this bad night made her really tired. Whatever!

Now, personally, though I do like when the Mummy human feeds me, I don't really mind too much who feeds me, as long as I get my nibbles. My degu brother, Joshua, is willing to accept the Daddy human too, though he does seem to trust the Mummy human more, and takes from her best. But my chinchilla sister, Mollie, on the other hand, has a problem with anyone but the Mummy human feeding her, and kicked up a fuss about this change to her routine.

First Mollie refused to take the nibble from the Daddy human, and wouldn't even go near the bowl until he'd walked away from our cage. Then she started up an alarm call, and wouldn't stop until the Mummy human came out to give her attention.

The Mummy human said she might as well have stayed up and fed us in the first place. I say it serves her right for trying to get away with doing something like that. I bet she won't be in such a hurry to do it again any time soon.

Bad night indeed! Lazy human is what I call it!

Squeak soon,
Maizie

#Writing Wednesday - May 3rd 2017

In case you missed Saturday's post... My new poetry book is FINALLY out!

By the way... Thank you to Alex and Kevin for posting about my book's release. Also, thank you to Chris The Story Reading Ape, and anyone else who shared their posts and mine, for helping to spread the word too. Finally, thank you to those who brought the book, or who plan to do so in the near future.

OK... So... "Catching Snowflakes And Other Poems" is out a few weeks later than planned, but I just about got it published before the end of April, so at least I managed to release it in the month I planned to... Even if it was the end of the month rather than the start of it. Plus, I actually now have a book released this year... YAY!

I have a few poems I didn't include in the collection, because they're spacifically pet themed poems. I'm keeping those aside to put together another pet themed poetry collection at some point in the future. Exactly when that happens will depend when I have enough poems to make it worth publishing. Right now, I don't.

I'm still working on my pirate adventure story. Progress on it is slow though. Part of this is due to having several other things going on, and part of it is because I got side-tracked with a story about a degu, which was inspired by our remaining degu, Joshua, is coming along very well, and will end up being published first, despite having been started after the other story. It wasn't intentional, it just popped in to my head, and ended up being written first. Now it's worked out that the degu story is almost finished, while the pirate story is a long way from being done, so I figure I might as well start sorting things so that the degu story can be published as soon as it's ready. Then I'll return to working on the pirate story.

Anyway...

If you're writing a story of your own, don't forget to add tension to your story. It may make your characters hate you, but it will make your readers love you, which is what you want. On that note, here are seven ways to hurt a hero, which may help to inspire you. Also, if it's young adult fiction you write, here are some tips for writing a YA novel.

Oh, and today is my blog's 11th anniversary. So, happy bloggerversary to me!

Tori's April 2017 #Book #Reviews

It's time to take a look at what I read in April.

As with the previous posts like this one, if you want to know more about the book, or the author, click on whichever it is you want to learn more about, and it will take you to the appropriate page on Goodreads. Clicking on my rating should take you to my actual Goodreads review for the book in question.

Don't forget: the format I've reviewed may not be the format I read. Also, please remember that I read across multiple genres and age ranges, so you should always check if a book is suitable for the intended reader, especially when children are involved. Sometimes reading the book's description on its Goodreads page will be enough for this, but other times you may need to check elsewhere to figure out the genre and/or recommended reading level.

OK... On to the reviews!

Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Not my favourite of the series, but still an enjoyable and fascinating read.

These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another fantastic and fascinating addition to the series, which was enjoyable and entertaining, as well as being beautifully written.

The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I wasn't as impressed with this book as I was with the rest of the series. The story felt rushed, and was missing the poetic imagery present in the words of the earlier books. The introduction mentioned that this book wasn't published by Laura herself, even though the rough manuscript for it was written by her, and it shows.

Fatemarked Origins: Volume I by David Estes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
An awesome addition to the series, and an interesting look in to the pasts of some of the characters.

Truthmarked by David Estes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
An amazing continuation of this epic adventure, with excellent worldbuilding, a fantastic cast of characters, and a plot that will keep you on your toes.

The Rose and the Mask: A Beauty and the Beast Retelling by Victoria Leybourne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a beautifully written and enjoyable take on the Beauty And The Beast story, which I found to be an excellent read. This book will appeal to fans of fairy tale retellings in general, and fans of the Beauty And The Beast story in particular.

Hope Everlasting: A Dystopian Sci-fi Novel by J.N. Chaney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I'm absolutely loving this series! The worldbuilding is amazing, and it has a great cast of characters. Also, the writing itself is great too.

Notes from a Small Dog: Four Legs on Two by Sue Vincent
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I fell in love with Ani via her blog posts, and fell in love with her all over again while reading this book. This is a well-written - not to mention, often entertaining - read, which anyone who loves dogs will enjoy.

Burning Belief by D.J. Farrington
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book had an interesting plot, but the story was spoiled for me by an irritating cast of characters who spent most of the book insulting and swearing at one another.

Voyages by Richard Sutton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A steady paced and interesting read, with some great characters and an intriguing plot.

April 2017 #TV Talk And #Movie Mutterings

It's time to take a look at April's new to me movies and TV shows.

As with the previous posts like this one, just click on the titles to go to a page where you can find out more details about the movie or TV show in question; the title links will usually take you to a page on IMDB.

Don't forget: I watch things across multiple genres, as well as for different age ranges, so you should always check before viewing to make certain something is suitable for the intended audience, especially when children are involved. IMDB will usually provide this information for you, but you'll have to look elsewhere if you can't find it on the page I link to.

OK... On to the reviews!

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children (2016 movie):
I've read the book for this one, so was really excited about seeing the movie. For the most part, I was not disappointed. I mean, it was an excellent movie, with plenty of entertaining scenes, a great cast of characters, lots of action, etc. In short, as a movie in its own right, it was amazing! However, as a movie representation of the book, it left a little to be desired, especially during the last third of the movie, where they changed so much. During the first two thirds of the movie, it was mostly pretty accurate as a representation of the book, with only the issue of the peculiar abilities of two of the main characters being the wrong way around, and the changes to the story as a result of that. But from a certain point... As I said, about two thirds of the way in... That all changed. Still, as I said, as a movie in its own right it was amazing, and had I not read the book, I would have had no complaints about the movie. So, since I did enjoy it so much, despite the changes from the book's storyline, I'm going to give this movie five out of five stars.

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016 movie):
They changed some of the characters' origin stories, and muddled the timelines a little (something that was more noticeable to Kelly than to me, since he's more familiar with their origin stories than I am). Despite this, however, we both really enjoyed the movie. I asked Kelly how he'd rate this one, and he said, "three and a half, maybe four." I have to say, I agree with him, so I'm giving this movie four out of five stars.

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them (2016 movie):
I read the screenplay for this one, so was eager to see if it was as good in movie form. It was! In fact, I'd even go as far as to say it was better! Totally awesome movie! Fans of Harry Potter, and those who love unusual magical creatures especially, will love this movie. I'm giving it a well deserved five out of five stars.

Thunderbirds Are Go (2015 TV series):
I don't think I've mentioned this one before, since it was only recently I actually sat down and watched a whole episode, and I don't remember having posted about it in previous posts. Anyway, this isn't as good as the original Thunderbirds TV series, but it's an entertaining and fun one to watch, which fans of the original may enjoy. I give it four out of five stars.

#Poetry #Book Release: Catching Snowflakes And Other Poems

A collection of poems of different lengths and styles – some with a hint of humour, others of a more serious nature – exploring a variety of themes, such as animals, nature, emotions, and the world around us.

Today is the official release day for "Catching Snowflakes And Other Poems" - my new poetry collection. You probably already figured this out, but the blurb and cover for it are those at the start of this post.

You can already buy it from Smashwords in all formats they offer. You should also be able to buy it from other retailers who carry my books as eBooks by now, such as Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and the Apple iBooks Store. In other words, regardless of your eReader of choice, between those retailers Smashwords distributes to, and the variety of formats Smashwords themselves offer, you will be able to find a format that works for you. In fact, if you can read this post, you can read the book.

If, however, you prefer to read a physical book, you'll be pleased to know that one will become available as soon as it can be arranged. Watch my Wednesday posts for news on when that becomes available.

Also, if you're on Goodreads, you can go to the book's Goodreads page, where you can add it to your shelves, and - should you wish to do so - review it after you've read it. Reviews are not required, of course, but they are very much appreciated... Either on Goodreads, or on the retailer you buy the book from.

My thanks go out to anyone who buys a copy of this book, whether you do so now, or wait until the paperback becomes available. Also, an even bigger, "thank you," to anyone who goes on to review the book after reading it.

#Furkid Friday: Mollie The #Chinchilla's Thoughts On #Writer's #Pet Job Descriptions

Um.. Hi everyone. This is Mollie the chinchilla.

OK, so while I was taking my turn on this thing you humans call a computer, trying to decide what to write about this week, I spotted this post the Mummy human had seen earlier this week that lists the job description for a writer's pet.

Let me start by telling you one very important thing: I never signed up for any of that.

I asked my chinchilla sister, Maizie, and my degu brother, Joshua, and they don't remember signing any contract to do any of that stuff either. Although, Joshua did say that he's in a couple of the Mummy human's stories and poems, and apparently it doesn't take up much of his time; Joshua says you mostly don't need to worry about it, but if they come and talk to you about how you're in a story or poem, you just have to give some sign that you know the human caretakers are talking to you about something, and then you can just get on with whatever you were doing before they interrupted you. So that's not so bad.

I don't like the sound of some of the things it mentions though.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we won't do any of the stuff on that list. Besides, the pay is excellent, and there are some other benifits to the job too, like potential fame, and the extra attention that goes along with that, for example... Like the post says. But there are certain things mentioned there that we want it known we will not do, no matter what.

Look, I'm all for providing an ear or some cuddles when the human caretakers need it. But having to pay attention while listening to a whole manuscript being read to me is something I just don't think I can manage. Not to mention, I'm sure I'd end up missing at least one episode of NCIS if I did that, and I'd much rather watch NCIS than discuss plot points, character flaws, etc, with the Mummy human. Also, I refuse to pose for photos on demand. Like it or not, that's the way it is. I'm not a dog, you know!

Squeak soon,
Mollie