Sally Ember's Blog, page 101
September 25, 2014
5 Stars for This Changes Everything from “Raving in Alaska” on Amazon!
5 Stars for This Changes Everything, Volume I, The Spanners Series, by Sally Ember, Ed.D., from “Raving in Alaska” on Amazon!
Here is his/her review:
After seeing all the other reviews why did I give this one five stars? Because it was not light entertainment and did cause me to think. Much like a role-playing video game, the entire book shifted perspective, past, present, future, within a page or paragraph. Interesting concept. And, at times I had to put it down and think about what I just read. Intriguing and with a bit of a twist. How would I react in the given premises? Very good question indeed.
Read review and my response here: http://goo.gl/e47jZ6
Now Permafree everywhere ebooks are available!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HFELTG8?tag=viewbookat0e-20
More links for purchase of Volumes for the series and much more info: http://www.sallyember.com Look to the right and scroll down!
Filed under: Reviews, The Spanners, This Changes Everything, Volume I of The Spanners Tagged: Book Review, Book Reviews, The Spanners Series, This Changes Everything, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, Volume I, Volume II
September 22, 2014
Goodreads’ Genre-Specific Review Group’s Fall 2014 Blog Hop Tour: “COMFORT”
Do you like to read and/or write: mysteries, fantasy, science-fiction, romance, children’s, young adult (YA) or any combination of these? Genre is what we call those types of stories and novels, and if you say “YES!” then this Blog Tour is for YOU! Visit, read, comment, LIKE, share, reblog!
My “COMFORT” post appears in a week, on Sept. 27, so visit these sites, below, and then please come back!
Goodreads’ Genre-Specific Review Group’s Fall 2014 Blog Hop Tour: “COMFORT” is this year’s theme.
TOUR DATES and SITES
September 21 – http://www.elizabethlos.com
— http://thebaffledkingcomposing.wordpress.com
— http://www.melindabrasher.com/
September 22 – http://kchrisbacherauthor.weebly.com
— http://sue-blake.com/
September 23 – http://www.elainepcantrell.blogspot.com
September 24 – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/387792.Marilyn_Peake/blog
— http://www.marilynpeake.com
September 25 – http://rjcrayton.com/blog
September 26 – http://www.susandayauthor.com
September 27 – http://www.sallyember.com/blog
— http://michelle-abbott.weebly.com/
Filed under: Blogging and others' content, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Writing Tagged: #Blog tour, authors, blog hop, bloggers, Children's Books, comfort, Genre writing, Goodreads, mystery, romance, YA, Young Adults
10Q begins September 24th, 2014 (Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah)
10Q begins September 24th, 2014 (Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah)
image from: http://9pixs.com
“The ten days starting with Rosh Hashanah and ending with Yom Kippur are commonly known as the ‘Days of Awe’ (Yamim Noraim) or the ‘Days of Repentance.’ This is a time for serious introspection, a time to consider the sins of the previous year and repent before Yom Kippur.”
from http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday3.htm
10 Days. 10 Questions.
Whether you’re an observant Jew or not Jewish at all or don’t observe Jewish holidays for whatever reasons, this exercise/personal/spiritual practice is an excellent self-assessment/check-in tool to be used during the special ten days that are between the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). This can be done online, but you can use it during those days or other days, offline or on, for whatever purposes you want, which I highly recommend.
Here is the way 10Q works:
10Q : Reflect. React. Renew.
Life’s Biggest Questions. Answered By You.
1) Answer one question per day in your own secret online 10Q space. Make your answers serious. Silly. Salacious. However you like. It’s your 10Q.
2) When you’re finished, hit the button and your answers get sent to the secure online 10Q vault for safekeeping.
3) One year later, the vault will open and your answers will land back in your email inbox for further private reflection.
4) You may keep your responses secret or share them, either anonymously or with attribution, with the wider 10Q community.
5) Next year, the whole process begins again. Could become an annual ritual even if you’re not an observant Jew.
Do you 10Q? Try it. You will like it.
And, in case you are observant and want to have Tashlich, the ceremonial casting away of “sins,” misdeeds, regrets, mistakes, which usually requires having some moving water nearby that you can go cast these symbolic negativities into during the first afternoon of Rosh Hashanah, you can do THAT online as well!
May all beings benefit and have a better year than ever before. Blessings and sweetness to you all! L’Shana Tova!
Filed under: Gratitude, Life lessons, Meditation, Support for Good Causes Tagged: Atonement, Jewish, Jewish New Year, personal growth, religious, Rosh Hashona, self-reflection, spiritual, Yom Kippur
September 18, 2014
Last week for YOU to apply to be a TED2015 Fellow
Get on it, you scientists of all sorts, engineers, artists, filmmakers, photojournalists, entrepreneurs, NGO founders, technologists, inventors, human rights activists and more.
Originally posted on TED Blog:
Dear [Your Name Here],
At the TED Fellows program, we look for extraordinary young innovators, inventors and leaders—like you—from many categories of human endeavor: scientists of all sorts, engineers, artists, filmmakers, photojournalists, entrepreneurs, NGO founders, technologists, inventors, human rights activists and more. Our goal is simple: to help you accelerate your career.
Concerned about whether you have a chance of becoming a TED Fellow? Learn more about the program below. But first, read the fears and concerns that some of our most successful TED Fellows felt before they filled out that fateful online application.
“I didn’t think I was good enough. I applied on a whim because I didn’t think there was anything to lose. I still have apprehensions about whether I am good enough or not.” —Asha de Vos, TED Senior Fellow, marine biologist and blue whale expert, Sri Lanka
“When I first applied, I…
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Filed under: Writing
Practice rejoicing – #quote Ven. Thubten Chodron #buddhism for #reflection
One of my favorite practices! #Rejoicing in others’ good fortune is extroverting #gratitude!
Originally posted on grevilleacorner:
“When attentive, we will find more situations each day in which we can practice rejoicing. By each day making a mental note of our pleasure in others’ good fortune, well-being, virtue, and excellent qualities, we will become joyful.”
– Ven. Thubten Chodron, Working With Anger
For reflection:
Today, be mindfully attentive to finding situations where you can practice rejoicing.
At the end of the day, reflect on your experience in light of the Ven Thubten Chodron’s quote
Filed under: Writing
“Actualists” vs. “Realists”: The Evolution of Modern #Fiction thanks to #Quantum #Physics
FULL DISCLOSURE: I have not read the book, FICTION IN THE QUANTUM UNIVERSE, being reviewed in the blog post I am quoting, written by Marti. I probably won’t.
But, I’m fascinated by the topic, which relates directly to my own writing and choices in The Spanners Series ebooks and appreciate her review and snippets enormously.
I’m sharing some of Marti’s review, linking to her blog (below) and commenting here on mine.
Of course, I encourage anyone interested to read the full review AND read Susan Strehle’s book. Some day, I will.
FICTION IN THE QUANTUM UNIVERSE by Susan Strehle
Reviewed by Marti on What has Been Read Cannot Be Unread book blog
9/15/14
Marti characterizes this as an “interesting but academic book” which is hard to argue with, for sure. Her summary of Strehle’s premise is: “a new fiction has developed from the influence of modern physics.”
I LOVE this idea! As a new-ish speculative fiction writer (This Changes Everything, Volume I, and This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, Volume II, published as ebooks, so far) who would definitely fit into this category, I’m glad to have these choices honored and recognized as parts of a trend.
Strehle calls this new fiction actualism, which I like as a term. However, I don’t like her positioning realism as its opposite, since Buddhists and quantum physicists all realize that NOTHING is “REAL” in the sense of the word as we currently know it.
Marti writes that Strehle claims we actualists are writing the way we do “in order to reflect more accurately what we now understand as real.”
This I do agree with. For example, I am choosing to write my novels in the present tense (which aggravates and confounds many readers and reviewers; too bad) to emphasize the simultaneity of time and the “nowness” of everything. I also write about the existence of multiple timelines and some people’s abilities to know facts, events, circumstances, etc., across these timelines in the multiverse. How would I and and other sci-fi writers be doing this without the influences of quantum physics?
I adore these quotes from Marti’s review, some of which are double quoted, since they’re from the book:
[Strehle] says that in the new physical or quantum universe, reality is discontinuous, energetic, relative, statistical, subjectively seen, and uncertainly known — all terms taken from new physics, and that rather than choosing between art and actuality, contemporary novelists pursue both in fiction.
“Contemporary fiction departs from realism without losing interest in reality. Reality is no longer realistic; it has more energy and mystery, rendering the observer’s position more uncertain and more involved.”
Actualist fiction is characterized by incompletions, indeterminacy, and “open” endings unsatisfying to the readerly wish for fulfilled promises and completed patterns. Gravity’s Rainbow [by Thomas Pynchon], for example, ends not with a period but with a dash. Strehle argues that such innovations in narrative reflect on twentieth-century history, politics, science, and discourse.
Read Marti’s full review by following the link, here, and read Strehle’s book by following her links to it or getting it from your local library. Enjoy!
http://whathasbeenread.wordpress.com/2014/09/15/fiction-in-the-quantum-universe-by-susan-strehle/
Filed under: All Volumes, Blogging and others' content, Indie or Self-Publishing, Science, Science Fiction and Fantasy, The Spanners, Writing Tagged: authors, Book Reviews, fiction, physics, quantum physics, science, science fiction, speculative fiction, Writers, writing
September 17, 2014
MIT & Harvard Scientists Create Light Sabers
We need more Jedi Masters, then.
Originally posted on Al Philipson, Science Fiction Author:
Using an effect called a Rydberg blockade to create the first “photonic molecule” — a sort of quantum bromance (what a pun).
“The team made no mention of the potential for weaponizing the new molecules to take on any Sith lords, but I suppose DARPA or any number of Jedi masters who follow Crave could come calling at any moment.”
… This new bond between photons could also have practical applications for contemporary chipmakers working to convert light into electric signals.
Most mind-blowing of all, … the breakthrough could one day lead to technologies that allow for the creation of complex 3D structures, like crystals, made out of light.
For the complete article by Eric Mack, go here.
Filed under: Writing
How To Grab That Coveted Online Audience
Great tip! Thanks!
Originally posted on Kobo Writing Life:
By Adam Dreece
There’s nothing like finding readers live tweeting your book as they read it, or finding them promoting your book to their friends. It’s one of those things that a couple of mo
nths ago, I looked at other authors on Twitter and wondered just how they did it, and could I do it? Now I’m watching it happen and have cracked a 1000 Twitter followers of my own.
I created my twitter account in February, and when I released my first book, The Yellow Hoods: Along Came a Wolf (Book 1) at CalgaryExpo in April, I had maybe 50 followers. At my booth, I figured out how to connect with people, but online I was still a couple months away from that. In June, something clicked. By early August, as I approached 600 highly engaged followers, I realized I’d figured some things out.
Understa nd Brand
My…
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Filed under: Writing
New Kids Releases – 9/16/14
Don’t forget: “Made by Raffi” by Craig Pomranz and “When Panda was a Boy” by Connie Dunn! Great LGBT awareness children’s lit!
Originally posted on BookPeople's Blog:
The fall books have started to arrive on the shelves in BookKids, and it’s another great week for new children’s books! We are getting so many new and great books, that it’s hard to keep up. It’s also very exciting.
Over the course of the next several weeks, we will be sharing that excitement and rounding up many of the new kids books that hit our shelves during the fall publishing rush. As always, we’ll continue to post pictures of new releases on the store’s Instagram. Head over to our Teen Press Corps blog for the fall teen releases.
Here is a selection of what has arrived on our shelves in the two weeks since our last installment.
Staff Recommendations
Stephanya~
Hello, I’m Johnny Cash by G. Neri, illustrated by A.G. Ford
“It’s never too early to introduce your child to the Man in Black, complete with gorgeous paintings…
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Filed under: Writing
Why you need a writing process more than a writing ritual (and a 12-step writing process to slay your writing demons)
I want to check out these FILES soon! Thanks for posting!
Originally posted on Live to Write - Write to Live:
I wish I could recall which of the masters painted this piece. If anyone knows, please let me know in the comments.
Are you fascinated by other people’s writing habits and routines? I am. There’s a great series on Copyblogger called The Writer Files that profiles the writing lives of different business writers and authors. I hardly ever miss an installment.
I’m a sucker for the allure of the writerly way.
Though I love knowing who uses Scrivener vs. who uses a yellow legal pad and a blue felt-tip pen, I think as writers we have a penchant for getting overly caught up in the romance of the craft. We are, most of us, confessed addicts when it comes to new notebooks and writing utensils. We each of us crave a room of our own and aren’t shy about drooling (metaphorically or literally) over another writer’s creative space. We believe…
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Filed under: Writing
