Alexa Whitewolf's Blog, page 5

How I lived for a year with no personal internet

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Here’s a tiny confession: so I’ve been living without internet for a year. On purpose.

Yep, you can close those mouths hanging open ☺️

I know in a world of technology, where absolutely everything runs on internet, it’s hard to disconnect.

So about an year and a half ago, to the date, I realized technology was taking up too much of my time. I was either watching shows all the time, on my phone nonstop… Then one night me and my fiancé were in a restaurant and I took note of all the couples there on their phones instead of talking to each other.

It was an eye opener. We never did that at a restaurant, but in our own private time there were a few instances where we’d be on our phones rather than conversing. I’ve had friends with whom I’d hang out, wanting to catch up after ages, and they’d be on their phones the entire time.

It became aggravating and made me increasingly feel like I’m living in a very socially disconnected world. I craved interaction and… real face time. Plus, at the time we were planning our wedding, and the stress of it was exhausting.

So, smack in the middle of it, we cut it off: smartphones, internet. We bought 2 prepaid phones that only had voice and texts. And we resorted to doing everything the old school way. For banking, we’d call in. For road trips, we’d print the map or buy a map, etc.

And movies and shows? We got reacquainted to our local library.

In reality, the only time we used the internet was at work during work hours, for work-related activities (including marketing and networking for our respective passions).

The results?

1. More connection time, face to face
2. More free time to do what we liked: spend with the dogs, go jogging, etc
3. Less caring of what people thought, since we didn’t focus on social media
4. More in tune with the reality of the world – we were reading newspapers, not just what the Facebook feeds gave us to read based on some algorithm
5. More stimulating conversation
6. More time try out new things in the city and around our home, because we became aware of all these new opportunities advertised at our local library and recreation centre, eg. Museum passes, cave snorkelling, different classes, etc.
7. Saving money

But the greater thing I learned, is that having smartphones, tablets, and the internet at your fingertips is not the centre of the universe. Being aware of the world around you, and making connections are way more important.

It also definitely continued to be an eye opener on our entourage and how many of those people (including young family members) were obsessed with the newest games, social media, Netflix… And would not let it go.

The gasps and horrified stares when people found out we didn’t have internet were a good riot

Rewriting a story - my experience

If you're an author, chances are you didn't start writing with the first novel you published. You probably have stories soaking up dust somewhere on your laptops or in notebooks long forgotten, am I right? :) That was the case for me. Long before the Avalon Chronicles' book 1, Avalon Dreams and 2, Avalon Wishes, I had written the series The Sage's Legacy. The manuscripts for books 1 and 2 of that series were written when I was 14, thus the style was much different. But I wanted to publish those works as well, not willing to see them forgotten. There was something I liked about my heroine and did not want it missed. So earlier this year, i started the long task of rewriting both books. And boy, was it a LONG task, indeed. First, chain my characters names was a must. What I thought was cool back when I was 14, turned out to be bland and frankly cheesy. So I enlisted my usual google resources, situated the location of my storyline and tried to find appropriate names. Second, the story itself. Though it had good points, a lot of writing had to be cut out and pieced back together. The dialogue was at times cringe-worthy, and some areas of the books were completely useless to the plot. So I cut. And edited. And rewrote. It was hard to get back into the story, into what originally made me write it. At the time, i had certain family situations that were reflected in my character's struggle. Now removed from those, I found it harder to tap into the well of emotions. Someone once told me it's easier to write from an angry, negative emotion than from a positive one. This resonated through my struggle with Sage. But then, something happened. Inspiration struck, and additions were made to the story that in turn created a much fuller, entertaining quest than before. The characters took life like never before, and the dialogue became easy banter. The villains multiplied and all of a sudden I was looking at my series again, and could even see the outline of the third book. By that point, all that was needed was my trusty editor and beta, and I was able to finalize the books. Lastly, the covers. I invested in true artsy covers from Ammonia Book Covers, who was a pleasure to work with! In the end, the long struggle and time i took offline was worth it. My experience with this particular side of writing made me more aware of my style. Would I do it again in the future? Probably. I can't let a good story go to waste. But I definitely love the end result of the books! Have you had any experience with rewriting an old story? Share below!  

Rewriting a story – my experience

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If you’re an author, chances are you didn’t start writing with the first novel you published. You probably have stories soaking up dust somewhere on your laptops or in notebooks long forgotten, am I right?

Goodbye Facebook?

We’ve all had the occasional issue with Facebook. Forgotten passwords, locked accounts, etc. But eventually it gets fixed – not always thanks to Facebook.

As most social media platforms, Facebook is crucial to our author work. It’s a way to get in touch with readers, to post our thoughts, to make a mark out there in the WWW.

What happens when that access is completely blocked? Worse, when there is no help given? You’re stuck.

Cue my story…

I have logged on to my fb account from various servers – at work, home, off my cellphone. At some point, Facebook must have bugged me to enter my phone number to recover the account if ever needed and I stupidly broke my own rule and gave them the number.

Recently, that number was changed. And for whatever reason my account was flagged as requiring a security code…. you guessed it: which was sent to my old phone number.

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Of course, I tried everything. Even clicking on the bottom link that says “I’m having trouble with this step”

All it does is bring me to a useless FAQ page (see below). I have read most of those questions and answers, and no help.

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I went on google. Did a search for “facebook locked me out of my own account”. You’d be surprised at the number of forums inundated with issues like mine. To name a few:

https://m.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id=945968702166501

Facebook’s advice: https://m.facebook.com/help/117450615006715?helpref=related

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Notice how the advice is useless, given the situation?

I tried searching for their contact… no luck. Because of course, why would a corporation like FB have a call centre, and actually make their number available to the masses? Waste of time.

I went on twitter and tweeted @Facebook AND @FB _HelpTeam

No answer.

More research online brought more results of people having the same issue. https://m.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id=1375971305971089

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This particular one gives a solution that I tried. Resetting password… to no avail. Once I reset the password and went to log in with the new one, despite cleaning out my web history, it still gave me the security code error.

Another common issue that seems to happen: https://www.google.ca/amp/digitalmediaglobe.com/my-facebook-account-temporarily-locked-how-to-unlock/amp/

It’s amazing in today’s world, this kind of stuff happens. After hours of researching I did find the following links promising a solution by filling in a magical form.

https://m.face book.com/help/community/question/?id=...

https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-verify-my-Facebook-account-and-send-the-code-to-my-new-phone-number

Problem is the steps all lead to a broken link. When I googled that same form, it asks you send in your IDs (drivers license, passport, etc).

Considering I created this FB profile with my author pseudonym…That’s not going to happen for me – and the number of other people doing the same thing.

So for the time being, I’m stuck unless I go and recreate a profile or a page for my author works.

Thanks for nothing, Facebook.

Goodbye Facebook?

We've all had the occasional issue with Facebook. Forgotten passwords, locked accounts, etc. But eventually it gets fixed - not always thanks to Facebook. As most social media platforms, Facebook is crucial to our author work. It's a way to get in touch with readers, to post our thoughts, to make a mark out there in the WWW. What happens when that access is completely blocked? Worse, when there is no help given? You're stuck. Cue my story...I have logged on to my fb account from various servers - at work, home, off my cellphone. At some point, Facebook must have bugged me to enter my phone number to recover the account if ever needed and I stupidly broke my own rule and gave them the number. Recently, that number was changed. And for whatever reason my account was flagged as requiring a security code.... you guessed it: which was sent to my old phone number. Of course, I tried everything. Even clicking on the bottom link that says "I'm having trouble with this step"All it does is bring me to a useless FAQ page (see below). I have read most of those questions and answers, and no help.I went on google. Did a search for "facebook locked me out of my own account". You'd be surprised at the number of forums inundated with issues like mine. To name a few: https://m.facebook.com/help/community... advice: https://m.facebook.com/help/117450615...Notice how the advice is useless, given the situation?I tried searching for their contact... no luck. Because of course, why would a corporation like FB have a call centre, and actually make their number available to the masses? Waste of time. I went on twitter and tweeted @Facebook AND @FB _HelpTeamNo answer. More research online brought more results of people having the same issue. https://m.facebook.com/help/community...This particular one gives a solution that I tried. Resetting password... to no avail. Once I reset the password and went to log in with the new one, despite cleaning out my web history, it still gave me the security code error. Another common issue that seems to happen: https://www.google.ca/amp/digitalmedi... amazing in today's world, this kind of stuff happens. After hours of researching I did find the following links promising a solution by filling in a magical form. https://m.face book.com/help/community/question/?id=... is the steps all lead to a broken link. When I googled that same form, it asks you send in your IDs (drivers license, passport, etc). Considering I created this FB profile with my author pseudonym...That's not going to happen for me - and the number of other people doing the same thing. https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.wired... for the time being, I'm stuck unless I go and recreate a profile or a page for my author works. Thanks for nothing, Facebook.  

Reading books while writing

How many of you spent their holiday season getting sucked into some good reads? I know I did… A few too many!

It left me feeling guilty that I wasn’t putting as many hours into writing as I did into reading, at least initially. Then I managed to let go of that guilt, and enjoy the novels.

One interesting thing I found is that, the more critical I am of my own writing, the more I tend to bring that to the table when reading a new book. Authors I enjoyed immensely started to disappoint me, and books I thought I would love, didn’t deliver as much as I hoped.

An example is James Patterson. Last summer, I went through a binge of his novels – the Alex Cross series, the Murder Mystery Club series, independent novels, Private, etc. – and loved the action, the plots that kept you in suspense, the surprising twists. The last two novels I picked up by him over the holiday season had plot holes, questions left unanswered, and an overall feeling of “meh”. I couldn’t tell you their names if you asked me, as I’ve forgotten both

Reading books while writing

How many of you spent their holiday season getting sucked into some good reads? I know I did… A few too many!It left me feeling guilty that I wasn’t putting as many hours into writing as I did into reading, at least initially. Then I managed to let go of that guilt, and enjoy the novels.One interesting thing I found is that, the more critical I am of my own writing, the more I tend to bring that to the table when reading a new book. Authors I enjoyed immensely started to disappoint me, and books I thought I would love, didn’t deliver as much as I hoped.An example is James Patterson. Last summer, I went through a binge of his novels – the Alex Cross series, the Murder Mystery Club series, independent novels, Private, etc. – and loved the action, the plots that kept you in suspense, the surprising twists. The last two novels I picked up by him over the holiday season had plot holes, questions left unanswered, and an overall feeling of “meh”. I couldn’t tell you their names if you asked me, as I’ve forgotten both :(That being said, a few people in my inner circle have asked me how come I keep reading, now that I’m writing novels. And I was confused, as I didn’t originally think one excludes the other! (For some people, it does – and that’s fine, don’t get me wrong). So I answered as honestly as I could that for me, reading does not harm my writing. On the contrary, it improves it.My brain completely distances what I read from what I write, so I’m never in any danger of accidentally using someone else’s ideas, or whatnot. However, if I notice a certain way they describe things, I’ll ponder on my writing, wondering if the way I describe things is as vivid, if the reader can create the image from it just as well. These points make me more critical of my own writing – and in turn, more critical of what I read. It tends to go full circle :)What are your takes on it? Do you read while writing? Do you have certain periods in the year when you read, others when you write?Oddly enough, I find that over the last few years, between April-October, I tend to read more, write less. Then November, the “writing muse” gets awakened, and everything comes out at once over the next few months. Maybe it’s the winter season, and the inability to be outside as much? Where I live, the snow is abundant, the cold even more so :)Looking forward to hearing your comments!

New Year’s Resolutions

Alrighty, all! So we’ve made it to 2017. I think it’s a fair enough time to pat ourselves on the back for everything that we attempted in 2016, whether successful or not. At least we tried!

Now that it’s a new year, the goal is to progress. Keep in mind, progress can be big or small. It does not matter if your idea of progress is finishing that last chapter of your book, or of writing a brand new, or of trying some new advertising techniques… The point is, we have to try!

The thing is, I dislike New Year’s Resolutions with a passion. Why? Because people always seem to make this long list of things they want to do in the new year, but end up barely hitting a few. Or worse, they start, and never finish.

Example: My last workplace, one common New Year’s resolution was getting in shape. Everyone on my team would start the year by getting a fitness pass. And everyone would go… For the first month. After January, most of them dropped out, citing this excuse or that.

I never bought the fitness pass – I also dislike gyms as a rule.

What I did do, was keep on with my previous year plan that I had developed: a jog a few times a week, and loads of meditation. I find I respond better to abstract solutions, rather than fully regimented athletic trainings. If I was to try some 30min workout on a DVD, I’d do it for, maybe, 2-3 weeks tops. Then I would stop out of sheer boredom.

It’s happened before, don’t laugh

Who Loves Starbucks? I do!

This post is a bit related to writing. Namely, what gets me in the mood to write – and please share below what works for you!

My long affair with Starbucks started when I was in high school. My mom, as a treat after a lesson of Aikido, took me to one of their locations nearby, and said the magic words: “take your pick.” I had my first Caramel Macchiato that day, and though I’ve tried many of their drinks since, it has become my favorite and usual.

Any city I’ve lived in, I had three or so typical Starbucks locations I would go to and become a regular. I loved the quietness of it, the Wi-Fi, and the crowd – mainly adults/business people, or introverts who kept to themselves, and not noisy bunches like you’ll find in Tim’s or McDo’s.

I’m not trying to offend anyone with my assumptions, just saying based on what I’ve experienced. I’ve lived in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, and all three cities, Tim’s and McDo’s locations are full of rowdy teenagers, babies, etc. I have nothing against these crowds – however, if I want to write, I’ll stick with Starbucks.

So all that being said, my usual routine, since I work a regular 9-5 job, is going into a Starbucks either before or after my work, and sit down for a couple of hours, blasting music, and writing whatever comes to mind.

I believe the privacy Starbucks offers is hard to find in other coffee shops – unless you stick with a library, and even then it’s a hit and miss.

Being able to sink into a comfy chair, sip my coffee for hours (no kidding, sometimes I’ll stay for up to 6 hours!) on end with no one coming to tell me to leave, is a luxury I love paying for. Some people snort and scoff and sneer at my $5 coffee. But I pay the price for the quality and mental escape it gives me.

My next thing to try out will be one of the Starbucks locations in Toronto that serves alcohol – wines, mostly – and try that while writing J

Does anyone else have a favorite place they love to write in? Or do you usually do it at home?

Kennel Woes

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Alrighty, here goes a topic completely unrelated to writing or marketing: doggies.

As some/most of you may know, I’m happily blessed to have two dogs: Achilles (my wonderful Siberian husky) and Zeus (my adorable black lab). They’re 3 & 8, respectively, and I love these two to death!

Me and my fiancé, when looking for a house, settled for one outside of the city due to the large backyard. So they’ve always had space, and they love it. We avoid putting them in kennels due to two reasons:

1. They always come home harmed in some way or another and

2. The kennel/dog hotel people always try to convince us to neuter them.

Yes, I have 2 very male, very NOT neutered dogs – a fact that most people find “complex” to understand. My reasons for not neutering them are as much based in logic, as compassion. Yes, I’ve read most of the material on the benefits of it – and the secondary effects. It’s simply something we decided was not for us, and quite honestly, everyone trying to convince us otherwise is annoying. To each their own, right?

Our dogs are fully trained, they live well with each other, they’re socialized with other dogs – in short, they’re healthy, lovable pups.

Anyway, so yes, we avoid boarding them. One particular trip to Toronto, we had no choice but to leave them at Petsmart hotel – came back to Zeus and an allergic reaction.

It has been a year since we had to board them, and rather unfortunately, with the wedding, we had to do a long 4 day trip to Toronto for our wedding preparations. Seeing as it’s 6 hours away from our lovely capital, we boarded the dogs with a kennel nearby. We loved the promise of it, as the dogs would have their own enclosure and private back yard, in the middle of nowhere, with lots of places to run around.

And it was wonderful! The pics on the website show them having a great time, and we were relieved.

Then we went to pick them, to find out Achilles, our youngest, had a hard time the entire time he was there. He kept trying to escape – of course, he’s a Husky, mind you! – and was very vocal about being there. Despite the fact he was together with Zeus, he took it hard. Of course, we were told it might be a good idea to neuter them, etc., etc., etc.

Brought the dogs back home, and then of course had to go to work… It wasn’t until later that same day, in the evening, that I realized Achilles was acting strange. He was squeamish, jumpy, every noise startled him. He barely ate or drank water, and he refused to go outside in his beloved backyard. We called the vet, of course, and they said sometimes dogs undergo stressing times at kennel, and to just give him a couple of days.

From my experience with both my current dogs, and previous dogs I raised as a child, I firmly believe something – coyote, aggressive rogue dog – came within the vicinity of the kennel’s back yard, and spooked the crap outta my baby. Zeus, my lab, was perfectly fine – but then again, he’s always been fine, and he’s very forward with other dogs, puts them in their place easily.

That being said, the couple of days of waiting turned into a week, until Achilles finally got back to himself. During this time, it took a lot of coaxing: feeding him food by hand, water through a little baby bottle, taking him on walks, slowly re-introducing him to the backyard, and being very very patient and allowing him to shadow my every movement.

Thankfully, the hard work paid off, and this morning he was back to his usual self. But I don’t believe I’ve ever gone through such stress myself – constantly alternating between wanting to call the kennel and flip at them, and blaming myself for leaving them in the kennel.

Now that my puppy’s ok, I’m less angry, but still wary of ever leaving them alone again. For sure, I’m done test-driving different kennels, expecting them to have a wonderful, no worries stay there. – apparently, it’s too much to ask for. Yes, I may be expecting too much, but for the amount of money most kennels charge nowadays… I don’t think it is.

To conclude, I’m not saying this particular kennel is bad. Nor that they ruined my dogs. I’m venting about the fact that nowadays, all kennels/boarding hotels seem to be so focused on the perfect package, that the actual dog care gets forgotten. I wish I knew how many of the people owning these places actually have training in dog psychology and dealing with animals in general…  

Any comments? Have you guys had similar experiences with your pets?