Jo Robinson's Blog, page 78
September 5, 2014
Life Imitates Book
Pardon my scarcity this past week. Normally I’m scarce because I’ve been struck down by some random universal “Whack that woman!” quark type thing, but this time I’ve been doing some good old constructive manual labour, so I’m allowed to be too tired to do much. I want to grow some heirloom tomatoes now, because I want to use photos of the plants in the cover art for one of my upcoming books – and I want my own original pics for this, so they need to get growing in a hurry. I’m an indie scribbler – these things are normal – we do these things. I’ve managed to get seeds for four gorgeous different varieties, and got three new chilli varieties while I was at it to get my collection going again. One’s called a Mozambican Bastardo, so I’m guessing – yummy! The problem is that Bella finds any sort of plant/tree/container/neighbour’s shoe/pants hugely offensive, and sets about methodically destroying every single thing in her reach. She’s also Incredible Leopard Crawling Houdini Dog. Nothing is safe from the innocent looking mug she sports to conceal her ninja destructive jaws of steel. I wonder about her superpowers sometimes to be honest – do dogs do deals with the devil? Anyway.
Now I’m fencing off a bit of the yard so she won’t be able to mess up my book cover tomatoes – and holding thumbs that she doesn’t eat the actual fence. She had to go to be spayed this week, so I was looking forward to a couple of days peace to set things up while she recovered. Not so much though. After being hand fed bits of choice meat for a very long while by me (who thought she was going to clock out, the way she looked after the operation), and a single night’s snooze, she’s right back to climbing trees, fences, and abusing my cactuses. Still – spring has sprung here, and with the heirlooms being a big part of my story, I do want to get them up and growing soon. They’ll be my book marketing tomatoes even if they don’t take up lots of the actual cover space at the end of the day – plus I’ll get to eat them, so I’ll probably be a bit scarce for another day or two as well till I get everything properly Bella-proofed, and all the seeds in.
It’s a bit odd that this particular book inserted such a terrible need to plant tomatoes in me. None of my other scribbles have given me any sort of desperate urges to bring parts of them to actual life. Maybe it really is another thinly disguised universal quark whack job to steer me from my course, or possibly I could set up an “Oy Buy My Book!” stand at a local farmer’s market, where you’d get a bag of tomatoes instead of a bookmark if you do buy one. Hah – now that’s marketing for you!
September 4, 2014
‘Hunger’ – Research into obesity that involves blocking a major nerve!
Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:
I spend quite a bit of time browsing the latest health headlines in the media since I often receive emails from former clients or readers who ask me my opinion on the latest diet or surgical intervention.
This morning an article popped up about a study that involved blocking the Vagus Nerve to control hunger in a number of participants and the results indicated that a percentage of those who did have this temporary procedure lost more weight than the control group. All the participants were also involved in weight management education and exercise.
The Vagus Nerve.
We have 12 cranial nerves and the Vagus nerve extends from the brain stem through some of our major operating systems and organs such as the oesophagus, heart and lungs into our abdomen to the stomach and onto the intestines. It has a number of vital roles within the body as it…
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September 2, 2014
Presenting A Very Special Post, With The Incredible… Mihran Kalaydjian!
Originally posted on Kev's Music Blog:
Presenting:
Piano Compositionist…
Mihran “Mino” Kalaydjian!
San Diego, Coronado Island CA
Israel
Kev: In a generalized way, Mihran, tell us a little about yourself. Where you grew up, siblings, family life, education, and how you got to where you are now.
I am originally from Jerusalem, Israel. I have half Armenian & Jewish descent.. My both parents reside in Jerusalem with my 3 youngest brothers and one adopted married in London.
I graduated from College Des Frères in Jerusalem with an excellence grade, than I joined the Hebrew University for my higher education and obtained a B.A in Political Science and Islamic History.
My parents encouraged me from a young age to study hard and earn good grades so I enrol for Master Degree. For myself, getting into college wasn’t the problem; it was finding a way to win a scholarship. The scholarship support I received helped…
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August 31, 2014
Sunday revisited – and a few snippets of this and that.
Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:
Good morning. It is a beautiful day here with sunny skies and will be very hot again later around 32 degrees and the humidity is unlikely to get over 20% which actually suits my right knee very well. I can tell there is a storm coming 24 hours in advance – I should sell my predictions!
One piece of trivia that might impact my emotions for the week is that I am trying a different hair colour this morning. It is exciting to see how close to the chart on the back of the box you can actually get, but it can of course go horribly wrong. I first ventured into the world of bottled blonde at age 17 strictly against my father’s wishes – popped off to the hairdresser and came back with a Marilyn Munroe platinum coloured hair cut. My mother would not be seen with me for…
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Break the Silence – Save our Women and Children
Originally posted on gillswriting:
Good Morning Friends,
Today I recommend listening to Kiss the Rain as you read my post, for today I step outside my usual mental meanderings and ask for your support.
I came to Tanzania wanting to help change children’s lives. I came to Tanzania vaguely aware of the injustices of a country with no tangible women’s and children’s rights policies. That awareness has heightened over the past year.
These are issues I feel strongly about but can influence little, however I do what I can.
I was honoured and privileged to be asked to help a good friend finalise her petition to the South African government to take action to save the countries women and children. The cases within her petition; of a paedophile father and a girl being raped on the beach are people she is very close to. The picture of the little girl on the petition page…
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Lofty Plans of Mice and Women
It’s been another crazy hectic week, with not a lot of writing going on. Even when there’s a lot happening in life I still have to get some words down or I’ll pop from the overflow. I generally try and stick a couple of paragraphs in my AllMyNotes folders of the books currently being written or edited, to be added to the manuscripts for later when I can get to banging away properly at the old keyboard again. I’ve built up a habit of writing every morning, and when I can’t it doesn’t stop the book of the day from happening in my head, so I have to scribble it down somehow or it gets lost forever. It’s obvious that people think I’m really, really strange when I stop in the middle of a shop and haul out my scruffy notebook and pencil. Don’t care really.
I did manage to zoom through a bazaar yesterday though. I’m quite disappointed that I couldn’t manage to spend a nice amount of time there, because there were some really cool looking things. Still, I got a fantastic pile of books on my run through, including a 1950 edition of the Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook in excellent condition. I collect old books, and I’m really hoping that a box of them I packed and stored up in Zimbabwe before we left makes its way back to me soon. My Mrs Beeton came with me on the trip down though – can’t take a chance on losing good old Mrs B.
Anyway. Back to work. Apart from catching up with piles of books that I need to read, I’ve got lots of plans for the next couple of months with three books to launch, and with all the bits I’ve learned along the way now I’m getting quite excited. I’m also going to try very hard to use my camera properly from now on. I have a very firm vision for one of my covers, and I don’t reckon that a phone snap will do – although phones do actually take brilliant photos too. So I’m going to be stalking photographers more than usual probably to pick up some tips, but will try not to creep them out too much. Poor guys. Gird your loins photo people – stalker alert! Ha haa. So many people are a little scared of us scribblers. Can’t imagine why really, because we hardly ever barge around trying to lob our books at people, and we NEVER procrastinate, and make silly doodles of ourselves, and come across like creepy dill-pickles at all.
The Compass Key by Charles E Yallowitz
Cover Art by Jason PedersenAvailable on Amazon for $2.99!
Listed on Goodreads!
Dive back into a world of fantasy adventure with Legends of Windemere: The Compass Key!
Book Blurb:
Swords will clash and spells will fly in the newest adventure of young warrior Luke Callindor, Nyx the magic-flinging caster, and their friends.
With Sari captured by their enemies, the champions of Windemere are determined to get her back and destroy the Lich’s castle. Little do they realize, their battles in the Caster Swamp are only the beginning of this adventure. Trinity and her Chaos Elves have invaded the city of Gaia in search of a relic called the Compass Key. Rumored to be the key to rescuing Sari from a magical island, our heroes are in a race to find the mysterious artifact.
Which side will claim the Compass Key? And, what will our heroes do when they’re faced with an enemy whose evil power overshadows anything they have ever faced?
New to Windemere? Then check it Volumes 1-4 of this exciting series by CLICKING ON THEIR COVERS!
Cover Art by Jason Pedersen“I greatly enjoyed the vivid characters, the gripping plot, and the refreshingly unique writing style (present tense).” -kdillmanjones
“This the start of a great series and i cant wait to read to read more.”- F. Guy
“FANTASTIC, RIVETING READING. Great characters, fantasy, magic, mystery and adventure all in one series.” – S/F Old Reader 1962
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Cover Art by Jason Pedersen“There is plenty of drama and action; everyone has a battle or crisis at some point in the story. The adventure, betrayal, loss, and grief throughout this installment makes it a must read for any upper MG or YA.” – Lilysback
“The series kept me on the edge of my seat waiting for more.” – C. Dewey
“This book is a wonderful mix of magic, mystery and adventure. With well developed characters. I look forward to the next installment.” – Amazon Customer
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Cover Art by Jason Pedersen“The action is very well written and it keeps you on the edge of your seat. Also the story is engaging and it flows very well and it keeps your attention right up until the very last page.” -zombie phreak
“This book is alive with great action new characters and unexpected twists.” -Eugene Chambliss
“One of the things I love most about this series are all the characters! They are developed so well that I feel like I know them personally. Even the newly introduced characters fit in immediately.” -BarbBookWorm
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Cover Art by Jason Pedersen“This book follows a linear path from the last book in the series, and this series has everything; intrigue, battles, romance(but not too mushy), plot intelligence, and great storytelling. Really looking forward to the next book!” -lala
“This book would easily compare to Brooks, and sets a good pace. Looks forward to next chapters.” -Mark Potterf Sr
“I really enjoy the battle scenes and the inventiveness and creativity of the author. There is also further character development as we get to know them just a little bit more. The fights are fast paced and held my interest.” -Pamela Beckford
Enjoy the adventure!
August 26, 2014
Cryptomnesia or Inspiration?
I came across a book on a site on Facebook that seemed so incredibly similar to Shadow People, that I rushed off to Amazon to check if it had been plagiarised, or worse still that I had had some sort of cryptomnesia episode when I was writing it. It was a massive relief when I saw that it had been published well after mine, so if any pinching had been going on I wasn’t the one doing it. Still – even though it was a totally different story, quite a lot of the characters in it seemed to be described uncannily similar to mine.
Then I saw a bit of a movie about a ghost writer that again made me wonder if I was subconsciously swiping other people’s ideas, although to be honest the only similarities to my Emmaline were that there was a ghost writer in it, and one of the characters was called Emmaline. Even though my book had been completely written – albeit roughly – quite a while before I saw the movie, I immediately and crossly started thinking of other names for it – not wanting anyone to be thinking that I’d got the idea for one of my scribbles from someone else’s story. Finally I opened a new book from my TBR pile, and saw that one of the characters in it suffered from the same disorder, and displayed similar traits as one of mine, in one of my three books to be published this year. My first thought was that I’d wasted quite a chunk of my time writing a book that I now had to bin because someone else had written about the same issue. I’ve done that before – deleted whole stories – always wanting to be totally original.
After quite a bit of jumping up and down – tantrum wise – it occurred to me that pretty much everything under the sun has been imagined or written about by some scribbler or another, so my over the top behaviour with these things was actually not very clever. The penny dropped finally. There’s more than enough to be getting on with in this industry without inventing new hurdles for yourself to angst over, so I’m not ever going to worry again about what I write, because I know myself, and I know that what I write all comes from me regardless of whether the topics or issues in it are popular or written about by many others.
The cryptomnesia is quite an interesting thing though. It’s amazing how our own brains have the ability to nobble us. Helen Keller was accused of plagiarism at the age of eleven when her story The Frost King appeared to have been nicked from Margaret Canby’s The Frost Fairies. Helen insisted that she had found out that The Frost Fairies had been read to her earlier, but that she had no recollection of it when she wrote her story. She also said much later in her life that that incident had put her off ever attempting to write fiction again because of the furore it caused, although she did have a lot of supporters, including Mark Twain.
So even though this serious form of unconscious plagiarism seems to be a real thing, I don’t see any point in worrying too much about basic similarities in stories now. It’s all about the writing after all, and if anyone really does swipe any of mine on purpose, I suppose that’s quite a compliment.
August 25, 2014
Seriously Bored With The Excuses
Some animals always become heroes when they do something for us. They sit by a death site or grave, or sniff out cancer, help us to see when we are blind – sniff out the bodies of loved ones lost in disasters. They are much better souls than we. They keep us company, and love us unconditionally when there is no other love around. We don’t give a thought to the rest though, and most of us don’t recognise that they are people just like us – better than us really. People is just a word for soul. Of course they have souls – and they should be entitled to go about their natural lives.
We justify our terrible actions with the words of those who have gone before – the bible (misinterpreted), and the scientists who tell us that creatures other than ourselves are too stupid to feel pain. Really? We have “pets.” We lock them in cages and tanks, and feed them crap – for YEARS, and deprive them of a natural place to sleep, or to love others as they are naturally inclined to do – “animals love more faithfully than we do”. We forget to change their water. We STEAL their lives so that we can have a Pretty Boy on top of the fridge for our kids to say “How Cute!”. Please stop doing this. These creatures are adults of their species, and entitled to lives not particularly born for your artistic, fashion, or menu pleasure.
Hunting? As a sport – just for the fun of the chase or fur – NAAH! – A***-holes every one of you. Hunting for food – GREAT idea. The animal lives wild and dies in seconds if you’re a decent shot – I was brought up in apartheid South Africa – I’ll get you right in the iris of your eyeball every time. So much better than the factory farming hells and grinding up of live chicken babies – because of eggs. I don’t eat meat personally, but I would happily shoot an animal for a carnivore. So much better than the raising of meat commercially. I’m quite a good shot by the way – so feel free to contact me. I truly believe that if you’re not prepared to kill and prepare your food, you shouldn’t be eating it. If the sight of a whole dead chicken carcass gives you the willies, then don’t eat the buggery thing. And don’t ever make a joke out of an animal carcass in front of me with your turkey joke on your head. I will seriously kick you in your obviously very tiny inoperable nads.
Anyway. All I’m saying is that life isn’t all about YOU. Try and be a little mindful about the other residents of this planet. No matter how entitled you feel, no matter how in control you feel, you will die in the end too, and you may just find out that your soul is not at all different to that of a gnat. In fact – you might just find out that gnats are much better people. And they have a right to their own God given life just as you do. Live your own life and leave them alone.
Compassion is not a favour bestowed – it’s a test of your “HUMANITY” – and probably where you will end up after this – hoping for the compassion of those thousands you harmed without thought. Hold thumbs that there really aren’t pitchforks.
Stop hurting the helpless people – take a bit of responsibility for YOU. Being cool is not a must but a choice. And what is cool is kind of obvious if you take off your blinkers.
August 23, 2014
Reblog Saturday – nostalgia, memories and just good writing!
It’s time for Sally’s lovely Reblog Saturday – and I’m not late!
Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:
Much as I am enjoying my usual Saturday morning stroll through terrific blogs I am heading out to the nursery down the road to buy plants for the garden. We are anticipating bringing in the Estate Agent by the end of next week and I am afraid that the plants in the raised beds have suffered from the 32 degrees and dry humidity the last few weeks. Still they have done a wondeful job in tough environment and they have provided much needed colour.
So it will be gardening for me for most of the day but I will be back and forth to add to the selection already posted.
Thank you so much for bringing even more colour into my life.
I am taking a short break from the Sunday Show as I prepare the next series – I have some wonderful people lined up and they will be…
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