Jo Robinson's Blog, page 47

Delicious Superstitions & Adopted Traditions – Chinese New Year with M.C.V. Egan

Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:

Thursday 19th February marks a very important date in the calendar for millions of people around the world.�� Although it is the Chinese New Year many of us have adopted the traditions and celebrations. To kick off the party Catalina Egan a superstition to ensure wealth, health and happiness for the coming year and an extremely tasty recipe to delight your family and guests..

Delicious Superstitions & Adopted Traditions

For the past twenty-eight years, influenced by a good friend, and my tendency to be very superstitious, I have made it a point to celebrate Chinese New Year. Twenty-eight years ago I was newly divorced (about 6 months) and not in the best of places, as per my Chinese friend���s suggestion I placed a red envelope with coins under my pillow on Chinese New Year���s and slept on it.

The year that followed was absolutely MAGICAL; I found love, opportunities and���

View original 638 more words

The Owl Interview with the Owl Lady herself @VivDrewa

Originally posted on :

RW: We���ll get all of my personal questions out of the way first today and then settle into your books. Where are you from?

VIV: I grew up in Detroit and moved to Fort Gratiot, Michigan.

(On the shore of Lake Huron. A little northeast of Detroit.~Look it up Ronovan.)

RW: Who are your favorite authors?

VIV: Stephen King, Dean Koonts, Michael Weems, John Sandford to name a few.

RW: What is your favorite beverage to drink, any kind?

VIV: I love tea, hot or cold.

RW: What is your escape from writing when you are at that about to explode point?

VIV: Sewing. I love to sew and have for many years. Seeing something I can put together helps me relax and then I can get back to writing.

RW: What is your favorite word?

VIV: It���s outdated but I still use it: Cool!

RW: What is your background���

View original 768 more words

Slash the Tires

Originally posted on Think Positive, Be Positive:

I can be stubborn and hard headed like that!

View original

African Me and Satellite TV by Jo Robinson

jorobinson176:

Thank you so much to Lorraine Montgomery over at Ms M’s Bookshelf for her awesome review of African Me & Satellite TV, and also for taking the time to contact me and ask me some really thought provoking questions. These took me back some years, and brought back lots of memories – good ones, because all was worth it in the end. Thank you Lorraine!!

Originally posted on Ms M's Bookshelf:

I received a free copy of this ebook in an online giveaway. ��These are my honest views of this novel.

Jo Robinson���s novel, African Me and Satellite TV, is a most compelling and powerful novel, with a wide range of characters drawn with deep emotions, and a message some may find uncomfortable. ��Which is not necessarily a bad thing. ��Jo���s main character, Suzette Hertzog, is caring, artistic, somewhat emotional, and extremely��inhibited. ��She has lived with pushing down her abhorrence of the way whites treat blacks in Zimbabwe ever since she��saw ���her father punch��their driver in the face. ��Her��10-year-old heart had frozen in her chest, and over the next few days of listening to her parent���s vicious racist rants over his suspected, but unproven, theft of five litres of fuel, and watching him sobbing, denying it, begging them not to make him go, she finally decided to stop looking.���

This���

View original 1,313 more words

The Sunday Show – Defining Moments with Carol Balawyder

jorobinson176:

Sally’s guest on the Sunday Show today is another fabulous author, Carol Balawyder. I read her Mourning Has Broken – it’s a poignant memoir, but I took so much away from it when it comes to the passing away of those we love.

Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:

When researching for my interview with Carol Balawyder I thought that since she has written books on the dating scene that I should check out the numbers in her home territory. I found this article online that suggests very strongly that Canada is a world leader in online dating and it is worth a read in its entirety.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/canada-a-hotbed-of-online-dating/article4312016/�� ��� By Michael Oliveira ��� The Globe and Mail

To summarise���
Canadians spend more days a month and minutes a day on online dating sites than users in the U.S., U.K., France and Germany. Canada is also home to one of the world���s busiest dating sites.

Plenty of Fish is one of the world���s most popular online dating site and it���s the world���s 331st busiest website, ranks 33rd in Canada ��� just behind MySpace, CNN and CBC ��� 79th in the U.K., and 104th in the U.S.

The site recently���

View original 2,131 more words

Lit World Interview Week In Review Feb. 9-14.

Originally posted on :

Here are the articles for the week, if you missed one, go and check it out today.

Author Interview with Ronovan Writes

The Godling Chronicles Q&A with Brian D. Anderson.

This guy knows what he is doing. One series out. Another just waiting for the word print, and a sequel to the first series being outlined. This man has you set for years to come.

Silver Lightning Q&A with @AuthorWDarling

Do you believe in magic, or whatever it is? Author and Audio Book Voice specialist Wendy Anne Darling talks about her work.

FEATURES

ProtectionJo Robinson

Write for a year, 5, 10, and then the computer virus hits, the lightning strikes. What do you do then? Cry. Yeah. Cry. Well do something before it happens.

The Author���s Role in Representation�� by Guest Author Natacha Guyot@NatachaGuyot

A highly intelligent look at the world of writing and what our part���

View original 538 more words

#WORDPRESS #BLOG OWNERS PLEASE NOTE…

Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog:

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING

IMPORTANT CHANGES

To my (still relevant)

DON���T DELAY ��� BACKUP TODAY!

post in October 2014!

Because you never know what the day may bring

So Stay Safe ��� Not Sorry

AUTHORS

PROTECT YOUR WIP���s

BLOGGERS

PROTECT YOUR BLOGS

(For WordPress Users)

ADMIN

TOOLS

EXPORT

EXPORT (again)

FIRST TRY to

set it to ALL CONTENT then press

DOWNLOAD EXPORT FILE

CHECK to ENSURE the downloaded��file has a size value LESS THAN 15 MB

IF the file reads ZERO ��� then delete it and do the following

GO BACK to Admin ��� Tools ��� Export ��� Export

Select POSTS

Select START and FINISH dates (say from January to December of the first year)

DOWNLOAD EXPORT FILE AGAIN

THEN

CHECK to ENSURE the downloaded file has a size value LESS THAN 15 MB

If it DOES.

Make a folder for the POSTS

labelled with the period the file covered���

View original 256 more words

Paper Pirates Possibility

Something���s got me seriously confused. I saw a post about getting your books taken down from some pirate sites, so as a matter of interest I googled mine again, and found that not only has African Me been loaded on to heaps more torrent sites for free or paid download, but that now Shadow People has joined the pirate party as well. The thing that���s got me wondering is that they���re both being offered on ebay too as paper books. I stopped looking after four different sellers there. (Click on pics to see them bigger)

At first I thought it could be a reader selling them second hand, but when I had a proper squiz I saw that they���re being offered as brand new/unopened. The sellers have multiple copies too ��� ten each mostly in stock, and they���re selling them for less than what Amazon���s charging for them.

I looked around online and only found one small thread about paper book piracy on KB where nobody seemed to know what was going on. One person kept saying that these sellers must buy the books from Createspace and then resell them cheaply by marking up the shipping costs. This just doesn���t make sense to me. And anyway I saw where some have how many they���ve sold listed, and I know for a fact that they weren���t bought from Createspace after checking my royalties there.

I also saw a thread on some sort of black hat site suggesting that you should resell other peoples books cheaply by having them printed yourself at small cafe presses. This is absolutely doable. Small POD is all over the place these days. This guy’s suggestion wasn’t too popular on this site, but clearly the idea is out there.

And a couple of other odd posts popped up in my google search too.

Elvis worked for the government? Who’s a drug agent? :D

I popped back to a couple of the ebay sites and ordered a thousand copies of each of my books listed there, and the orders where accepted ��� I didn���t finish the sale obviously or I���d be eating turnips for a long while. I still don���t get it though. I wrote to ebay and received a very friendly response ��� here���s a bit:

���I cannot disclose any information on how the seller got more copies than you. Now, it is best that we take necessary to action to this and to request the removal of listings that violate intellectual property rights, you’ll need to participate in our Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Program. To join the VeRO Program, please fill out a Notice of Claimed Infringement (NOCI) form for the listings you reported in your previous email.���

I haven���t done it yet, but I���m going to. These (top rated) sellers have millions of books listed ��� including some of YOURS fellow bloggers ��� I looked for a couple. They���re also listed as having ten brand new copies in stock and ready to ship. I don���t believe the inflating shipping costs theory, because a couple of them actually offer free shipping in their own countries, and people who regularly buy on line are probably going to know when they���re getting ripped off that way. Also I know how many paper books I���ve sold and it���s not that many.

Do any of you guys know anything about these ebay booksellers? I���m not keen on causing trouble for anyone legitimately selling my work, but I just can���t see how this is legitimate. Those torrent sites seem to exist more for the purpose of infecting the downloaders of stolen books computers with some pretty vicious malware, so I try to ignore them ��� but pirating paper books ��� if that���s what this is – is a different kettle of fish I think. Have a go at googling Your Book by You on ebay, and see what happens.

PS. Pardon the slow catching up on comments ��� I���ll get to them all chop chop.

How To Help Your Stay At Home Spouse?

Originally posted on Legends of Windemere:

You know, there���s a lot of memes and pictures out there for stay-at-home mothers and not much for stay-at-home dads.�� This movie came up a lot, but I guess that���s how it works.�� It would explain all the times I heard someone say ���women are simply better at child-rearing than us��� while they watch my wife tend to our son.�� I���m going to avoid getting into that fight though.�� I���d be here all day and I have writing to do.�� Besides this is a gender neutral list of things you can do to prevent your stay-at-home spouse from going on strike or striking you with the nearest blunt object.

On a day off or an early return day, take care of dinner.�� Learn even a handful of recipes for you to do or just memorize your spouse���s favorite dishes of each takeout place.�� It doesn���t even have to be fancy.�����

View original 511 more words

Guest Post | Chris Graham aka The Story Reading Ape on Mythology

Originally posted on aliisaacstoryteller:

Introducing Chris Graham, otherwise known as The Story Reading Ape, champion of Indie authors and all round good ape. What you may not know is just how cultured an ape he actually is, but I had realised this from his many intelligent comments on my mythology posts. Impressed, I asked him to write a guest post for my blog. This is what I got���

When Ali asked me to consider writing a guest post for her blog; on my interest in mythology, my first reaction was ���WHAT?���

Then I thought ���How on earth can I avoid sounding like a furry Erich Von Daniken?���

Finally, I realised that everyone already thinks I���m just a crazy / Mad as a Hatter / eccentric (minus the riches) old ape, so I might as well GO FOR IT���

Have you ever wondered where all the strange and exotic creatures may have come from���

View original 689 more words