Lance Greenfield's Blog, page 67
February 10, 2016
Staying on Track in 2016
Please take a look at this inspirational blog post….
http://www.acrossthekingsriver.com/staying-on-track-in-2016/
Writer’s Quote Wednesday – Happiness for a Lifetime
This week, to celebrate Chinese New Year (Year of the Monkey), my contribution to Silver Threading’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday and Ronovan Writes‘ BeWoW (Be Writing on Wednesday) is an old Chinese proverb.
This one came to my attention while I was researching for my second novel, Knitting Can Walk!
If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day, go fishing.
If you want happiness for a month, get married.
If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody else.
Anon.
When I have paused to think about what gives me the greatest pleasure in my life, it comes down to those moments when I know that something that I have done or said has given some pleasure to somebody else. I have occasionally discussed this with friends and discovered that many of them feel the same. My conclusion therefore, is that giving pleasure is very often a pleasurable experience in itself. The proverb is a perfect expression of that conclusion, but its wisdom takes it further.
The first two lines describe momentary pleasures. Obviously, neither a short nap nor a fishing trip will make you happy forever. Getting married and inheriting a fortune are events which completely change the circumstances of anyone’s life. But one becomes used to living that different life, either with a partner or with a greater amount of money. The new level of happiness or the new level of wealth become life’s norm. Then one wants more. That’s part of human nature.
How often have you thought that you’d be a lot happier when you start that new job, or when you find yourself a new girlfriend or boyfriend, or when your first baby arrives into the world? Those things make you very happy for a while, but then they become part of your day-to-day life and you start to take them for granted.
When you start looking for activities that make your happiness dial move into the red zone, the proverb proves to be correct. Practicing acts of kindness significantly increases your happiness level. Even small acts of kindness such as complimenting somebody on their appearance, helping an old or infirm person across the road, offering to be the designated [sober] driver on a group night out, or helping a lay person to sort out a computer problem, can pay you back in happiness tokens. It gives you a wonderful, pleasurable feeling.
Everyone has different ideas of what might qualify as an act of kindness, but you can soon find your own level. Sometimes you’ll surprise yourself with a spontaneous opportunity. I once did that and now I actively look for a repeat of the same circumstances because I love the huge boost that it gives to me. I don’t always have the time or the spare cash to do this, and that saddens me, but I do it when I can.
My favourite is to surprise a homeless person by bringing them a meal or a hot drink from a nearby cafe. I can tell you that that small gift is not always welcomed, but it is generally well received and I believe that it gives more benefit than a handful of small change.
As I said, we can all identify our own definitions of acts of kindness. These may be subjective and are dependent on our own personal attributes. Once we’ve found one or two, the next step is to practice them more and to feel the benefits.
Why do we feel happy when we make somebody else feel happy?
I have two answers to that question.
It makes me feel good about myself. I feel that I am quite a caring, generous person, and that definitely makes me feel better about myself than I would if I did not set out to help others.
By helping others, I often make new friends. Sometimes that friendship is temporary and short term, but I have many long term friends. People around me might appreciate what I have done and, occasionally, they will reciprocate by being kind to me when I find myself in times of trouble. As I’ve said many times before, “Everyone appreciates being appreciated.”
The Pitons, St Lucia *
Pingback: Writer’s Quote Wednesday – Anne Lamott
Pingback: Be Writing on Wednesday to Be Wonderful on Wednesday
* Photo of The Pitons was taken by the Lance Greenfield in November 2013
February 8, 2016
7 Tips for discoverability that you might be missing
“All authors need a website.”
“All authors need a mailing list.”
“Authors need a Facebook account (or Twitter or whatever!)”
Sure, all of the above is good advice, but are you utilizing those tools in the most effective way? I really think many authors miss the boat with websites, mailing lists, & social media accounts. The purpose of spending all that time online is to ultimately sell books. Yet I can’t count how many times I’ve went looking for more info on an author or wanted to sign up for a mailing list, and I simply could not find it. If I’ve had to click more than four or five times, you’ve already lost me….I’m moving on to another author who makes it easy for me to find what I’m looking for.
Discoverability means making it easy for readers to find out about you & your work.
1. Make sure…
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February 5, 2016
Review: The Christmas Bake-Off
The Christmas Bake-Off by Abby Clements
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
How much can you put into a story about an annual village Christmas cake baking competition which is to be judged by a top celebrity chef? Well, quite a lot actually. More than you would think.
If gambling were involved, the bookies would stop taking bets on Kate, the owner of the village cake shop. She is, after all, a professional. But then they wouldn’t be expecting sabotage, local relationships, the experienced granny’s sympathy for an entrant who appears to have no hope at all, and a few emotions and hissy fits.
It’s a nice short story with a bit of tension and fun.
February 3, 2016
Writer’s Quote Wednesday – One World
To continue with the theme of many of the previous quotes that I have contributed to to Silver Threading’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday and Ronovan Writes‘ BeWoW (Be Writing on Wednesday), I offer these words from the Saudi Arabian astronaut, Sultan bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud.
“The first day or so we all pointed to our countries.
The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continents.
By the fifth day, we were aware of only one Earth.”
Sultan bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud
Pingback: Writer’s Quote Wednesday – C.S. Lewis
Pingback: Be Writing on Wednesday to Be Wonderful on Wednesday
January 31, 2016
FREE on Kindle – Eleven Miles
As part of E.B. Brown’s Mega Mailing List Rewards Promo, my debut novel, Eleven Miles, is FREE for the first three days of February. Just click on the cover image to go straight to the Amazon page to download your FREE copy.
I hope that you enjoy reading Boi’s story and that she inspires you to achieve your greatest dreams. Please be kind and post a review on Amazon and on Goodreads once you have read it.
There are tonnes of other great offers and prizes to be won on a variety of books on E.B. Brown’s Promo. Take a look now and download a few. Many are free. You’ll find Eleven Miles in the section entitled “FICTION: MYSTERY, INSPIRATIONAL, LITERATURE” near the bottom of the page.
While you’re in the mood for exploring, why not take a look at my second novel. I published Knitting Can Walk! on Kindle last Thursday. I am still pumped up about the launch. It’ll be out in paperback format very soon. Keep checking back on Amazon and Lulu. Click on the cover image to go straight to the ordering page for your Kindle.
Happy reading!
PS Here are January winners on E.B. Brown’s Promo.
#WeekendCoffeeShare: It’s been a stormy month!
This being the last weekend of the month, I thought that I’d use our coffee time to reflect on my January. It has certainly been an event-packed month and it has not just been the weather that has been stormy in North America and Europe!
For starters, have you noticed how many legendary stars have passed away since the turn of the year? The deaths of Alan Rickman, David Bowie and the Eagles’ Glenn Frey, three fan-favorites of Western pop-culture, prompted an outpouring of sorrow and disbelief online. Today, I woke up to the news that Sir Terry Wogan, top irish TV and radio presenter has also departed. The list of January 2016 celebrity deaths is long but these are a few of the people whom I will remember with fondness: Tony Lane, Tony Allin, Sian Blake, Otis Clay, Jack Bannister and Frank Finlay. There were many more.
My job has taken me travelling around England and to Paris, Barcelona and Utrecht. There will be no let up. I fly to Naples (Florida) tomorrow for the week, Paris again the week after and then either Milano or Madrid. Whilst I am very lucky to be able to visit so many places because I am passionate about immersing myself in different cultures, cuisines and languages, it isn’t all pleasure. It is hard work and the pressure is always on. But I like that too. I’ll be doing the final preparations for my presentations in company HQ today.
Clam Pass Park boardwalk
One of the big bonuses of visiting Naples is that I can enjoy on of my favourite early morning runs. It is wonderful to be able to run down the solid wood boardwalk of Clam Pass Park at a time when the beach is usually deserted apart from a few pelicans and other sea birds. In the low light of dawn, I sometimes fear coming face-to-face with a black bear or a cottonmouth snake, although I am told that this is very unlikely.
I have a tonne of family stuff to sort out before I take off from London Heathrow too, but I won’t bore you with the detail of that.
By far the most exciting event of this this month and this week has been the launch of my second novel on Kindle. The paperback version will follow in lulu.com, Anazon, Barnes & Noble and others within a few days. The final stretch was frantic. My fantastic editor and friend, Eloise De Sousa, was up until 1:30 am on Thursday morning completing the final little edits. I was up at 3:30 applying those edits to my manuscript and compiling for Kindle. By 6 am I was sitting in the cafe at Southampton Airport, uploading the file to Amazon’s KDP site. It usually takes at least 12 hours for the updated content to appear, but it was there one hour later as I sat on the plane waiting for the doors to close. I was so pumped up and telling anyone who would listen to me.
Two hours later, I was in line for passport control at Amsterdam Schipol Airport when I took the opportunity to check my sales. THIRTY-TWO!
So please check out my new novel, Knitting Can Walk!, and download it to your Kindle if you like what you see. And then tell all your friends. Re-blog this post with an enthusiastic message about the launch of this book. I am relying upon you.
Please help yourself to another coffee and a slice of my Dundee cake while you do that.
Right! Off to pack my bag for Naples now. So much more to do. See you next week.
The pocket-sized flyers for “Knitting Can Walk!”
Front of Flyer
Author Interview: Lucie Novak
An Interview with Lucie Novak, author of A Woman with (no) Strings Attached
At first you were only a doctor, but now you are also a published author of the book titled A Woman with (no) Strings Attached. You have certainly come a long way. How do you feel about that?
Writing and publishing the book was exciting. But of course, I only wrote a book because my life has changed, and became very exciting even before I started writing it. Publishing the book, hearing from readers, realizing that they find the story interesting and positive, giving interviews and getting my author profile on Goodreads has opened a new world for me. I started interacting with other writers, and having a whole new alter ego, the writer Lucie Novak. I am trying to keep those two identities-the old me, the doctor, and the writer Lucie Novak – separate. That…
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January 27, 2016
Perfecting a Manuscript for Kindle Direct Publishing
Whilst I am very excited that Knitting Can Walk! will go live on Kindle tomorrow morning, I am disappointed that I have been unable to make last minute minor edits to perfect the text that my readers will download. This is not due to the technical limitations of KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). It is because their rule is that the uploaded version is locked three days before publication.
Authors who have self-published through KDP will know that they can make changes at any time, once their book is live, and the updated version will be available for download about 12 hours later. In fact, such changes can be made from the first upload, ten days or more before “go live” date right up until that three day lock-down period.
It’s infuriating!
The version that will automatically downloaded to the Kindle devices of those wonderful people who have pre-ordered my book will contain lots of minor errors. Within a few hours, the corrected version will become available for download.
I apologize profusely to those of you who have already bought my book.
The SolutionThe good news is that I have discovered a simple workaround. And this one works for ANY Kindle reader to get the latest version of ANY book that they have purchased in the past.
Log in to your Amazon account.
From the drop-down menu under “Your Account” select “Manage Your Content and Devices”.
Next to each book that you have ordered on Kindle, you’ll see a button with three dots like this “…”
Click on that and a popup will appear. One of the options is “Deliver”.
Click on that option.
Then you can choose which devices to deliver to.
The latest version of your book will be delivered to your choice(s) of device(s).
Hey presto!
I hope that this helps my readers to get their eyes on the best possible version of my book and that it helps other Kindle readers to get the latest versions of their favourites.
January 26, 2016
Review: Letter from the Birmingham Jail
Letter from the Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I have a reputation for writing powerful, effective letters, and I am proud to say that I have successfully fought for the rights of many individuals against the bigger society who have attempted to repress them. However, this letter is many leagues above any letter that I have ever written!
It is inspiring. I wonder if there is any public record of the response from the eight clergymen to whom this open letter was addressed?
My reading of this letter, on the day after Martin Luther King Jr Day (2013), was prompted by reading Rowena’s review.
MLK makes a fantastic, reasoned case for the validity of nonviolent direct action to achieve the objective of bringing those who refuse to negotiate to the table.
You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action.
He also addresses the assertion, made by the aforementioned clergymen, that his acitivities in Birmingham, Alabama, were “unwise and untimely.”
Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action
campaign that was “well timed” in view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation.
His explanation, including examples, of the difference between just and unjust law are nothing short of superb.
MLK also uses many quotes from, and cites actions of, philosophers, biblical characters and American presidents. I particularly liked the references to Socrates. And, whether you believe in the truth of the Bible or not, you have to admire the way that he uses excerpts from that book to persuade his fellow religious leaders. There is no way that they can challenge him without endangering their integrity in their own churches and synagogues.
Finally, MLK apologises for the length of his letter, but justifies it by telling the recipients that he has long hours to while away whilst incarcerated in Birmingham Jail.
Do I recommend it? Much more than that, I urge you to go and read it now at this link! It will only take you a few minutes, and you will agree with me, when you reach the end, that your time was well spent.
