Sally Ember's Blog, page 31
September 25, 2017
“National Punctuation Day” is having its annual Photo Contest: deadline = 10/31/17
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“National Punctuation Day” is having its annual Photo Contest: deadline = 10/31/17
Yesterday (Sunday, 9/24/17) was National Punctuation Day HAPPY NATIONAL #PUNCTUATIONDAY!
In this post is info from its founder, Jeff Rubin, about this year’s #PHOTOCONTEST!
deadline 10/31/17!
“This year we celebrate the day with a punctuation photo contest.”
As a reminder, I am an ace proofreader and offer “Last Pass” proofreading services, for those who are wondering if the proofreading you already paid for/did is sufficient (take my word for it: it’s not). https://sallyember.com/last-pass-proofreading-available/ for more information, rates and guarantees.
Here are the rules:
PREPARING THE PHOTOS
Take three photos of incorrectly punctuated signage (stores, billboards, businesses, road signs, public transit, etc.), each showing a different punctuation error.
Name the punctuation error(s) in each photo (there may be multiple errors, as seen in some of the examples attached).
One entry of three photos per person.
You must be in the photos. (see me in the “Member’s Testimonials” photo attached.) Selfies are OK. Photos with Photoshopped heads will be disqualified.
Each photo must contain a caption, which will be considered when judging your entry. Be creative.
Photos must be submitted in .JPG format and be no more than 2 MB each.
The file name for your photos must include your last name in CAPS. For example: RUBIN photo #1.jpg, RUBIN photo #2.jpg, etc.
SUBMITTING THE PHOTOS
Send your submission to jeff@NationalPunctuationDay.com.
In the e-mail subject header write: NPD PHOTO CONTEST.
Include your name, address, and location of the photos (city and state).
THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS OCTOBER 31
http://www.NationalPunctuationDay.com
jeff@NationalPunctuationDay.com
1517 Buckeye Court
Pinole, CA 94564
(510) 724-9507, office
Filed under: Blogging and others' content, Writing Tagged: "Last Pass" proofreading, National Punctuation Day, photo contest, proofreading, Sally Ember Ed.D Author
September 22, 2017
How Many #CTE Victims and THEIR Victims will it take to #endfootball as we know it?
Former NFL star Aaron Hernandez, who committed suicide in prison this spring while serving a life sentence for a 2013 murder, suffered from severe chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), his attorneys revealed Thursday. Hernandez’s family, who donated the brain to Boston University to be tested for CTE—a form of brain damage that is linked to concussions…
Filed under: Writing
September 21, 2017
Through Sept 30, 2017 is the time for #10Q ! “Reflect. React. Renew. Life’s Biggest Questions. Answered By You.”
It’s not to late, and you don’t have to be Jewish or celebrate #Jewish High Holy Days (Rosh Hashona, Jewish New Year’s, and Yom Kippur, the “Day of Atonement”) to want to spend some time considering your life and your goals/accomplishments each year. I was raised Jewish, but I am a practicing #Buddhist.
It’s free! http://doyou10Q.com and #DoYou10Q are the connection points. This year is 10Q‘s 10-year anniversary, so many new events and giveaways are occurring. Check them out!
Check out any local Partners with 10Q: http://doyou10q.com/partners: Reach out to Josh Kanter, Reboot’s outreach and partnership manager, at josh @ rebooters DOT net or (go to the site for his phone number (in the USA)].<
You can still respond to all 10 Questions through September 30, online, and have them put into the "vault" for yourself for next year's reflections.
10Q: “Reflect. React. Renew. Life’s Biggest Questions. Answered By You.”
The title and all the info, below, come from the 10Q site. Visit! Sign up! Do it!
http://doyou10q.com/
“10 Days. 10 Questions.”
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“Answer one question per day [or more than one per day, if you have some to catch up on] in your own secret online 10Q space. Make your answers serious. Silly. Salacious. However you like. It’s your 10Q. When you’re finished, hit the magic button and your answers get sent to the secure online 10Q vault for safekeeping.
“One year later, the ‘vault’ will open and your answers will land back in your email inbox for private reflection.
“Want to keep them secret? Perfect. Want to share them, either anonymously or with attribution, with the wider 10Q community? You can do that, too.
“Next year, the whole process begins again. And the year after that, and the year after that.
“Do you 10Q? You should. If you have, already, enter the “giveaway” by sharing one or more experiences and using the hashtag, as directed:
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Click hereto get your 10Q on.
“10Q begins September 20, 2017, and goes for 10 days
http://doyou10q.com/ ”
Here are some of my responses to the Questions, from 2016, 2015 and 2014:
2016
–Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?
My Answer:
I had an up-close-and-personal experience with the American judicial and jury system and I was very disappointed and discouraged from it all. From the attorneys to the judges, the jurors to the laws: all crap, and not in favor of actual justice for the plaintiff, ever, as far as I could tell.
I was severely injured (and still recovering) in a trip-and-fall in a restaurant that was clearly liable and negligent, causing there to be obstacles in the path of a patron which a patron could not easily see. The jury actually agreed on that. However, due to archaic laws, lobbying by the insurance greedies and other mistakes in jurisprudence (which disallowed anyone from actually informing the jury how the “awards” they intended to go to me would be apportioned or the fact the restaurant owner would not pay a dime due to his having insurance), I got nothing, my lawyer was out $30K, and I owe many thousands of dollars to family and friends. I am grateful to all who have helped and continue to help me, but resentful and angry at the unfair outcome of my two+ years of misery.
I am an educated, white, older woman with intelligent and supportive friends and family. I can only shudder to imagine how this “justice” system grinds up those without support or resources and other people who are already on the short end of every stick.
USA justice isn’t.
–Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?
My Answer:
The Marriage Equality Act’s being confirmed as the law of the USA by the Supreme Court was a giant step in the right direction for equal rights for all individuals regardless of sexual orientation. As a bisexual woman who eschewed marriage for many reasons, inequality being among them, I am glad to see people who want to get married being able to do.
2015
—Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?
My Answer:
I was able to reconnect with my meditation practice in March & May and again in early Sept. through instruction and connection with my spiritual teacher, Lama Drimed, after many false starts, attempts, painful absences and confusions as well as hurt feelings on my part.
So happy about all that!
—Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?
My Answer:
The upholding of Marriage Equality laws and the enforcing of them across the USA and in other countries feels like a giant victory.
Looser laws, releasing noncriminals from prison when their only “crime” is possession of marijuana, and eventual legalization of marijuana/cannabis use across the USA and other countries also seem imminent, due to the vast success (economic and social) of those places in which it is already legal and those changes have already occurred; another set of great victories.
I appreciate the egalitarians’ winning. I appreciate common sense’s prevailing. I appreciate nondiscrimination’s being enforced. Feels right and good.
—Have you had any particularly spiritual experiences this past year? How has this experience affected you? “Spiritual” can be broadly defined to include secular spiritual experiences: artistic, cultural, and so forth.
My Answer:
Due to a TBI [Traumatic Brain Injury] in April, 2014, I went from not being able to meditate for almost one year (after meditating consistently for over 42 years) to restoring my practice, slowly, bit by bit. Very grateful to my spiritual teacher, sangha and good fortune that this has been possible.
Returning to my practice is like coming home.
—How would you like to improve yourself and your life next year? Is there a piece of advice or counsel you received in the past year that could guide you?
My Answer:
My meditation teacher reminded me that meditation practice in our tradition comes from our heart center, not our brain area. The Tibetans use a term that means “heart-mind” when talking about the mind.
My wish to improve myself and my practice is to keep it centered in my heart. “Meditation: it’s not what you think.”
2014
—Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?
My Answer:
Many science discoveries: proof of the multiverse, ability to teleport particles, invention of pre-tractor beam technology, getting paralyzed rats and others to walk, moving limbs and other things with just the mind: so much!
Very exciting, and all goes into research I use for The Spanners Series books!
—What is a fear that you have and how has it limited you? How do you plan on letting it go or overcoming it in the coming year?
My Answer:
Fear getting more unhealthy instead of more healthy over the next several years. Fear not getting my full meditation practice/brain function restored. Fear being unconnected to community/friends, no lover, no one close to me where I live.
Plan to keep exercising, eating better, reaching out to Buddhist and other groups (writers, Jews, work) to make friends.
Plan to stay in touch with my teacher.
—What are your predictions for 2015?
My Answer:
Movement toward reducing and ending full-impact football, hockey, etc. (headers in soccer, e.g.), in youth and college sports.
More states’ legalizing marijuana.
More states’ ratifying gay marriage.
Proof of alien life on other planets.
How do you want to 10Q? It’s up to you!
Filed under: Buddhism, Gratitude, Life lessons, Meditation, Personal stories, Writing Tagged: 10Q, contemplate, Jewish High Holidays, meditate, meditation, reflect, Rosh Hashona, Rosh Hashonah, self-reflection, Yom Kippur
September 18, 2017
#ArloGuthrie sings his father, #WoodyGuthrie’s song, “My Peace,” which we need!
September 16, 2017
#Indie #Author Day 2017: Saturday, October 14! Start Planning NOW!
#Indie #Author Day 2017: Saturday, October 14!
TODAY (September 16, 2017) were events at our local library’s main branch (St. Louis County) for “Indie Author Day,” but YOUR library may have other plans! Check!
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The second annual Indie Author Day will be held IN SOME PLACES on Saturday, October 14, 2017. This event brings together libraries and local writers around the world for a day of celebration and inspiration devoted to indie authorship.
Registration for Indie Author Day 2017 is officially open. Visit the Indie Author Day website, https://goo.gl/6HJZG3 . to learn more information about this year’s event and how to get involved in IAD programming near you.
From the Indie Author Day website:
HOSTING AN EVENT
In addition to a selection of on-demand video workshops that will be available from Indie Author Day sponsors, there are many activities for your #library to offer as part of its Indie Author Day 2017 event.
To get you brainstorming, here are some suggested activities that #libraries have done at past events:
—An #author panel featuring traditional, hybrid and self-published #authors from the community
—Presentations from local indie authors about writing, marketing and more
—Book readings and / or signings from local authors
—Presentations from local industry leaders
—Writing workshops
—Presentations and workshops to inform the writing community about tools available for them to use through the library
—Author readings and open mics, featuring short segments of each author’s works
Check out our Brandisty page, https://brandisty.com/indieauthorday . for logos, web banners, posters and postcards to help you promote your Indie Author Day!
Alert the media with our Press Release templates for Authors and Libraries [there are downloads for each on this website].
Are you a #library hosting Indie Author Day? Spread the word with these pre-written social media post. http://indieauthorday.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Indie-Author-Day-Social-Media-Posts.pdfs [there are downloads for images, logos, more, on this website, such as the Partners’ Logo, below]!
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Here are their sample posts (you can add your own hashtags and other info, such as “RT,” to these):
— Calling all #indieauthors! Join us as we celebrate our local authors for #IndieAuthorDay on Oct.
14!
— We’re hosting an event for #IndieAuthorDay on Oct. 14! Join us if want to support our local
#selfpub and #indieauthors!
— Are you an #indieauthor? We’re #indie you! Join us for #IndieAuthorDay on Oct. 14!
— We’re excited to support our local authors for #IndieAuthorDay on Oct. 14!
Filed under: Indie or Self-Publishing Tagged: authors, book marketing, books, ebooks, indie author, Indie Author Day 2017, libraries, library, marketing, self-published, self-publishing, Writers, writing
September 14, 2017
Sept 20 – 30, 2017 is the time for #10Q ! “Reflect. React. Renew. Life’s Biggest Questions. Answered By You.”
You don’t have to be Jewish or celebrate #Jewish High Holy Days (Rosh Hashona, Jewish New Year’s, and Yom Kippur, the “Day of Atonement”) to want to spend some time considering your life and your goals/accomplishments each year. I was raised Jewish, but I am a practicing #Buddhist.
It’s free! http://doyou10Q.com and #DoYou10Q are the connection points. This year is 10Q‘s 10-year anniversary, so many new events and giveaways are occurring. Check them out!
If you are part of or lead any organizations (Jewish or non) that might want to include this in your autumn meditation/ reflection/ contemplation options, check out becoming a Partner with 10Q: http://doyou10q.com/partners
Have any questions about partnering on 10Q? Want to request materials to use at your event? Reach out to Josh Kanter, Reboot’s outreach and partnership manager, at josh @ rebooters DOT net or (go to the site for his phone number (in the USA)].
10Q: “Reflect. React. Renew. Life’s Biggest Questions. Answered By You.”
The title and all the info, below, come from the 10Q site. Visit! Sign up! Do it!
http://doyou10q.com/
10 Days. 10 Questions.
[image error]
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. When you’re finished, hit the magic button and your answers get sent to the secure online 10Q vault for safekeeping.
One year later, the “vault” will open and your answers will land back in your email inbox for private reflection.
Want to keep them secret? Perfect. Want to share them, either anonymously or with attribution, with the wider 10Q community? You can do that, too.
Next year the whole process begins again. And the year after that, and the year after that.
Do you 10Q? You should. If you have, already, enter the “giveaway” by sharing one or more experiences and using the hashtag, as directed:
[image error]
Click hereto get your 10Q on.
10Q begins September 20, 2017, and goes for 10 days
http://doyou10q.com/
Here are some of my responses to the Questions, from 2016, 2015 and 2014:
2016
–Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?
My Answer:
I had an up-close-and-personal experience with the American judicial and jury system and I was very disappointed and discouraged from it all. From the attorneys to the judges, the jurors to the laws: all crap, and not in favor of actual justice for the plaintiff, ever, as far as I could tell.
I was severely injured (and still recovering) in a trip-and-fall in a restaurant that was clearly liable and negligent, causing there to be obstacles in the path of a patron which a patron could not easily see. The jury actually agreed on that. However, due to archaic laws, lobbying by the insurance greedies and other mistakes in jurisprudence (which disallowed anyone from actually informing the jury how the “awards” they intended to go to me would be apportioned or the fact the restaurant owner would not pay a dime due to his having insurance), I got nothing, my lawyer was out $30K, and I owe many thousands of dollars to family and friends. I am grateful to all who have helped and continue to help me, but resentful and angry at the unfair outcome of my two+ years of misery.
I am an educated, white, older woman with intelligent and supportive friends and family. I can only shudder to imagine how this “justice” system grinds up those without support or resources and other people who are already on the short end of every stick.
USA justice isn’t.
–Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?
My Answer:
The Marriage Equality Act’s being confirmed as the law of the USA by the Supreme Court was a giant step in the right direction for equal rights for all individuals regardless of sexual orientation. As a bisexual woman who eschewed marriage for many reasons, inequality being among them, I am glad to see people who want to get married being able to do.
2015
—Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?
My Answer:
I was able to reconnect with my meditation practice in March & May and again in early Sept. through instruction and connection with my spiritual teacher, Lama Drimed, after many false starts, attempts, painful absences and confusions as well as hurt feelings on my part.
So happy about all that!
—Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?
My Answer:
The upholding of Marriage Equality laws and the enforcing of them across the USA and in other countries feels like a giant victory.
Looser laws, releasing noncriminals from prison when their only “crime” is possession of marijuana, and eventual legalization of marijuana/cannabis use across the USA and other countries also seem imminent, due to the vast success (economic and social) of those places in which it is already legal and those changes have already occurred; another set of great victories.
I appreciate the egalitarians’ winning. I appreciate common sense’s prevailing. I appreciate nondiscrimination’s being enforced. Feels right and good.
—Have you had any particularly spiritual experiences this past year? How has this experience affected you? “Spiritual” can be broadly defined to include secular spiritual experiences: artistic, cultural, and so forth.
My Answer:
Due to a TBI [Traumatic Brain Injury] in April, 2014, I went from not being able to meditate for almost one year (after meditating consistently for over 42 years) to restoring my practice, slowly, bit by bit. Very grateful to my spiritual teacher, sangha and good fortune that this has been possible.
Returning to my practice is like coming home.
—How would you like to improve yourself and your life next year? Is there a piece of advice or counsel you received in the past year that could guide you?
My Answer:
My meditation teacher reminded me that meditation practice in our tradition comes from our heart center, not our brain area. The Tibetans use a term that means “heart-mind” when talking about the mind.
My wish to improve myself and my practice is to keep it centered in my heart. “Meditation: it’s not what you think.”
2014
—Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year. How? Why?
My Answer:
Many science discoveries: proof of the multiverse, ability to teleport particles, invention of pre-tractor beam technology, getting paralyzed rats and others to walk, moving limbs and other things with just the mind: so much!
Very exciting, and all goes into research I use for The Spanners Series books!
—What is a fear that you have and how has it limited you? How do you plan on letting it go or overcoming it in the coming year?
My Answer:
Fear getting more unhealthy instead of more healthy over the next several years. Fear not getting my full meditation practice/brain function restored. Fear being unconnected to community/friends, no lover, no one close to me where I live.
Plan to keep exercising, eating better, reaching out to Buddhist and other groups (writers, Jews, work) to make friends.
Plan to stay in touch with my teacher.
—What are your predictions for 2015?
My Answer:
Movement toward reducing and ending full-impact football, hockey, etc. (headers in soccer, e.g.), in youth and college sports.
More states’ legalizing marijuana.
More states’ ratifying gay marriage.
Proof of alien life on other planets.
Filed under: Buddhism, Gratitude, Life lessons, Meditation, Personal stories, Writing Tagged: 10Q, contemplate, Jewish High Holidays, meditate, meditation, reflect, Rosh Hashona, Rosh Hashonah, self-reflection, Yom Kippur
September 12, 2017
Some New #Books for Your “To-Read” List for 2017-18 and Beyond
Some New #Books for Your “To-Read” List for 2017-18 and Beyond
I can’t afford to buy books and almost never buy fiction because I never re-read it. BUT, I am a life-long, semi-weekly borrower from public libraries and frequently request purchases, which they often honor, so I do my part.
I used to read upwards of 8 books a week, plus magazines, newspapers and other materials; more when I was getting my Master’s and doctorate degrees. But, after not reading at all during my first 6-week meditation retreat, other than assigned excerpts from the Buddhist text our teacher was using, I lost the habit. For a while, I didn’t read much fiction at all and mostly read short articles or Buddhist non-fiction.
In the early 2000s, I gradually began to read fiction, but I no longer read a lot of it and often do not finish books. I have no interest in or patience with stories whose plot or characters I do not care about, or those that display bad writing or poor editing (FAR too many, even from trad publishing houses).
Also, I mostly don’t care about the topics that many authors and publishers are obsessed with: too much violence, too many billionaires seducing women, etc. Life is already too dystopian for me to want to read “for pleasure” most stories of disasters, diseases, dysfunction and/or defeat. Furthermore, I am refusing to read any more addiction pseudo-bios, cancer or other “survival” or “elegant death” scenarios (lost too many friends and relatives to those already), chronic illness depictions (same), “can’t have a baby” stories, adultery fantasies, or glamorizations/gritty details of endless wars (look around!). I also won’t pick up a series anywhere but the beginning, so mid-series installments of series I haven’t read are out.
I won’t even pick up, much less read, many of the books listed on the original pages of Bookish.com‘s site. Therefore, the abbreviated list I am sharing, here, has books I do plan to read. But, recognizing many readers do not share my limited tastes, I’m including the links to each category’s page so you can make your own choices. There are many other lists, too, so look around.
What’s on YOUR “To-Read” list? Comment here: http://www.sallyember.com/blog on this post!
LINK to Bookish.com main page of lists: https://www.bookish.com/articles/must-read-fall-books-2017/
The following suggestions and review snippets are mostly gleaned (I add others, too) from the lists compiled by Bookish.com and are in categories of their design with which I do not always agree and from which some are missing (e.g., historical fiction, graphic novels and short stories are combined with Fiction; some novels whose main character is a teen are NOT listed in either category of YA; there are no art books; there are no Indie authors), but here they are.
FICTION
https://www.bookish.com/articles/must-read-fall-books-fiction-2017/
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I mostly do not read “modern” fiction, any more. So, only one of these made my list:
1) Manhattan Beach, by Jennifer Egan (already the recipient of one Pulitzer Prize)
The main character is “Anna Kerrigan, a child living in New York City in the 1930s” whose “father disappears…. [Y]ears later when she encounters an old business acquaintance of her father’s…she more fully comprehends what his life must have been like.” (quotes are from the review on Bookish.com)
Available October 3, 2017
NON-FICTION
https://www.bookish.com/articles/must-read-fall-nonfiction-books-2017/
I like books about many science topics, Buddhism and a few other non-fiction subjects, so I was hoping some new books would capture my attention. Alas, none did, from THIS list.
I am looking forward to the next books from Mishio Kaku, though, or Brian Green, Lisa Randall and other quantum physicists/futurists, so I’ll keep you posted on those!
Meanwhile, check out this list of new #physics books, from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA USA): http://libguides.mit.edu/c.php?g=175935&p=1158686, where I found this gem:
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2) Quantum Weirdness, by William J. Mullin
Apparently, this book “focuses on some of the more bizarre aspects of quantum mechanics.” He begins with a discussion of “classical waves,” then goes right into the “latest ideas and experiments , e.g., quantum Bayesianism, weak measurements.” He tries to make it accessible to those of us without doctorates in physics, since he “uses basic high-school mathematics (algebra and trigonometry) to explain quantum mechanics”and employs a “gradual build-up of concepts” (quotes are from the book’s blurb).
Available now (September, 2017).
MYSTERIES/THRILLERS
https://www.bookish.com/articles/must-read-fall-books-mysteries-thrillers-2017/
I don’t read most “thrillers” (too violent or stressful for me), but I do like bloodless mysteries, especially with female protagonists who are smart, courageous, witty and quirky. Some romance is also all right in these books, for me.
I also used to be a John le Carré fan and heard an interview recently on NPR with him about this new book, so it’s now on my list. I may skip some parts, but will probably read it.
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3) A Legacy of Spies, by John le Carré
His often-used main character, George Smiley, appears in this novel, for the first time in 25 years. “Smiley works with the British Secret Service (or Circus, as some call it). Smiley calls a retired member of the Circus, Peter Guillam, when the specter of Guillam’s past involvement in the Cold War resurfaces” (quotes from Bookish.com’s review). Apparently, le Carré brings in many familiar characters from previous works, so it could be fun for long-time fans.
Available now (September, 2017)
YA/SCI-FI/FANTASY
https://www.bookish.com/articles/must-read-fall-books-young-adult-fantasy-science-fiction-2017/
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4) The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage, by Phillip Pullman
How fun! A prequel to His Dark Materials, set in the same world!
“Set ten years before The Golden Compass, this new trilogy will explore how Lyra Belacqua came to live at Jordan College. The tale begins with an 11-year-old boy named Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon, Asta. Malcolm is living with his parents near Oxford when he hears that the nuns in Godstow Priory are housing a baby, and he decides to take his boat, La Belle Sauvage, across the Thames to investigate” (from Bookish.com’s review).
Available October 19, 2017
YA CONTEMPORARY
https://www.bookish.com/articles/must-read-fall-books-young-adult-2017/
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5) Moxie, by Jennifer Matthieu
This sounds fun. Love the title, too. This could have been my biography, if I had been born 50 years later than I was!
“Vivian Carter never thought she’d be the leader of a movement. She’s always preferred to sit back and go unnoticed, but one day something within her snaps and she decides to take action. Drawing from her mom’s Riot Grrrl zines of the 90s, Viv creates Moxie, an anonymous zine that she begins to distribute around her school, calling out her school’s sexist dress code and preferential treatment of football players. Soon Moxie becomes a movement and begins connecting girls from diverse cliques and backgrounds” (from Bookish.com’s review).
Available September 19, 2017
Read any of these or want to recommend others, especially those from Indie/Self-Published authors? PLEASE read my standards before making suggestions; then, please send them along to the comments section of this post: http://www.sallyember.com/blog, post from September 12, 2017. Thanks!
Also, check out the three ebooks and POD paperbacks in my sci-fi/romance series for YA/NA and adults, The Spanners Series: http://www.sallyember.com/Spanners First ebook, This Changes Everything, is permafree.
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Filed under: All Volumes, books, Science, Science Fiction and Fantasy, The Spanners, This Changes Everything Tagged: books to read, ebooks, fiction, mysteries, new books, Non-fiction, physics, The Spanners Series, to-read lists, YA
September 7, 2017
1 out of every 8 USA adults has 4 or more #ACEs (Adverse #Childhood Experiences)
It is estimated that 1 out of every 8 USA adults has 4 or more #ACEs (Adverse #Childhood Experiences); MOST people have at least one out of 10 ACEs. “An ACE score is a tally of different types of #abuse, #neglect, and other hallmarks of a rough childhood. According to the Adverse Childhood Experiences study, the rougher your childhood, the higher your score is likely to be and the higher your risk for later #health problems,” including #cancer, #hepatitis, #heart disease, #diabetes, #hypertension, mental illness, frequent sicknesses of other kinds (e.g., “auto”-immune diseases), COPD (obstructive breathing problems), #addictions and #allergies, and many other problems.
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These effects are due to the bodies’ stress response system’s being on overload, chronically and continuously (adrenalin, cortisol), which can screw up one’s immune system. The symptoms can show up immediately (childhood #asthma, skin #rashes, #ADHD and other “behavior” issues, including #eating disorders) and throughout one’s life, especially after age 40.
Children who live with/are exposed to conditions that put them under extreme #stress, repeatedly, have our brain structures altered forever, developing abnormal #hormonal and #immune systems, and affecting the ways one’s DNA is read and transferred (so, ACEs influence current AND future generations).
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More facts and anecdotes are in this podcast, Hardwired, including info about the genetic connection to personality traits and other significant science about our biology’s and environment’s interdependent influences. Listen to that and more here–the same page as other archived shows is linked to: http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/archive
Want to see or take the ACEs quiz? http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/03/02/387007941/take-the-ace-quiz-and-learn-what-it-does-and-doesnt-mean
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I responded “yes” for 9 out of 10 ACEs.
Unsurprisingly, my health has been “compromised” or difficult all my life. Oddly, though, I consider myself “a healthy person with particular problems that are /have been mostly under control,” mostly because they haven’t completely prevented me from many types of success.. Some problems have gotten worse after I suffered a TBI/concussion 3.5 years ago (which we know now also adversely affects one’s immune system, among other consequences. I have many blog posts about this in 2014 – 2015, at http://www.sallyember.com/blog). Some ongoing health issues have been worsening with age (I am well over 40). I have, however, never been addicted to anything even though that “runs in my family.”
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Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The majority of the people who have scored over 7 out of 10 ACEs have been/are still incarcerated, living with severe mental or physical illnesses, or are already dead by my age. I am one of the few luckier ones who isn’t in the worst situations.
This “luck” is probably due to my having had many positive conditions, some self-selected:
1) since age 17, been meditating daily;
2) always making sure I have regular exercise;
3) many positive older teens and then adults were in my life during the most stressful years;
4) lots of individual and group counseling/ therapy during and since undergraduate years in college;
5) access to thousands of books (Yay to public libraries!) and excellent, advanced education and training (including in self-care and mental/social health);
6) some good family support;
7) education/experiences with music, the arts, summer camp;
and,
8) great friends.
For more information about resources and prevention as well as the original research on ACEs, visit the USA’s CDC (Center for Disease Control)’s website: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/index.html
Filed under: Personal stories, Science Tagged: ACE score, ACEs, ADHD, Adverse Childhood Experiences, asthma, cancer, childhood, diabetes, eating disorders, health, heart disease, immune system, mental health, mental illness, physical health, stress
August 26, 2017
It’s my Birthday and I’ll Discount my #Books if I Want to! #Scifi/#Romance #Paperbacks and #ebooks #Sale!
My birthday was August 22! It’s my Birthday and I’ll Discount my #Books if I Want to! #Scifi/#Romance #Paperbacks and #ebooks #Sale!
5 more days: through August 31, 2017.
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Sally Sue Fleischmann Ember, age 6
Too much DYSTOPIAN REALITY? Time for some UTOPIAN Sci-fi/Romance!
The Spanners Series’ Volume I #ebooks are permafree; #CreateSpace #paperbacks Vol I, II, III are 25% off!
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Smashwords, Amazon/Kindle, Barnes & Noble nook, Kobo and iTunes have The Spanners Series for YOU, as does CreateSpace! AND, if you buy these books via Kindle Matchbook, Vol II or Vol III—usually $3.99 as ebooks—are each only $1.99 when purchased from Amazon along with the paperback versions for Volumes II and III!
Vol I, This Changes Everything = B00HFELTG8 (ebook is permafree everywhere);
Vol II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever = B00KU5Q7KC ;
Vol III, This Is/Is Not the Way I Want Things to Change = B0177Z1KRM
OR use https://goo.gl/q0Qqyn for CreateSpace to use the discount codes, below, on the paperbacks
See below for links and more info.
The Spanners Series‘ cover art and logo by WillowRaven: http://www.willowraven-illustration.blogspot.com/
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The Spanners Series first three Volumes of utopian science-fiction/romance by Sally Ember, Ed.D. are on sale NOW! Proud member of Clean Indie Reads #CR4U and Fantasy and Science-Fiction Network #FSFnet
Whether you’re sweating, freezing, rained or snowed on or anywhere in between, there is still time to READ!
Give books as gifts for birthdays, graduations, holidays, anniversaries, vacations, back-to-school or school’s out: any time!
The paperbacks of all three Volumes are 25% off on CreateSpace! See below for details and coupon codes for each of the Volumes.
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This Changes Everything, Vol. I, The Spanners Series
Dr. Clara Ackerman Branon, 58, begins having secret visits from holographic representations of beings from the Many Worlds Collective, a consortium of planet and star systems in the multiverse. When Earth is invited to join the consortium, the secret visits are made public. Now Earthers must adjust their beliefs and ideas about life, religion, culture, identity and everything they think and are.
Clara is selected to be the liaison between Earth and the Many Worlds Collective and she chooses Esperanza Enlaces to be the Chief Media Contact. They team up to provide information to stave off riots and uncertainty. The Many Worlds Collective holos train Clara and the Psi-Warriors for the Psi Wars with the rebelling Psi-Defiers, communicate effectively with many species on Earth and off-planet, eliminate ordinary, elected governments and political boundaries, convene a new group of Global Leaders, and deal with family’s and friends’ reactions.
In what multiple timelines of the ever-expanding multiverse do Clara and her long-time love, Epifanio Dang, get to be together and which leave Clara alone and lonely as the leader of Earth?
This Changes Everything spans the 30-year story of Clara’s term as Earth’s first Chief Communicator, continuing in nine more Volumes of The Spanners Series.
Are YOU ready for the changes?
Volume I, This Changes Everything:
Ebooks are PERMAFREE on Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/376197
and Amazon: http://www.amzn.com/B00HFELTG8
Paperbacks are now $13.49, 25% off the regular price of $17.99, on CreateSpace, using coupon code H93664AM: https://www.createspace.com/5837347
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This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, Vol. II, The Spanners Series
Intrigued by multiple timelines, aliens, psi skills, romance and planetary change? Clara and the alien “Band” are back in Volume II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever.
Now as Chief Communicator, Clara leads the way for interspecies communication on- and off-planet. Fighting these changes are the Psi-Defiers, led by one of the oldest friends of the Chief of the Psi-Warriors, its reluctant leader, Rabbi Moran Ackerman. Stories from younger Spanners about the first five years of The Transition fill Volume II.
How would YOU do with the changes?
Volume II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever:
EBOOKS now $1.00, 75% off the regular price of $3.99, on Smashwords, any ebook format (reader’s choice), using coupon code YX27E on: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/424969
Vol II: http://www.amzn.com/B00KU5Q7KC
Paperbacks are now $14.99, 25% off the regular price of $19.99 on CreateSpace using coupon code H93664AM: https://www.createspace.com/5844431
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This Is/Is Not the Way I Want Things to Change, Vol. III, The Spanners Series
Clara, Moran, Espe, Epifanio and the alien Band of holos are back in This Is/Is Not the Way I Want Things to Change, Volume III of The Spanners Series. Psi-Defiers launch increasingly violent protests during this five-year Transition, attempting to block Earth’s membership into the Many Worlds Collective. Earth’s nations and borders must dissolve and Psi-Warriors must strengthen in their battle against the rebels.
Clara, as Earth’s first Chief Communicator, also juggles family conflicts and danger while creating psi skills training Campuses to help Earth through the Psi Wars. Clara timults alternate versions of their futures as the leaders’ duties and consciences force them to make difficult choices across multiple timelines, continuing to train and fight.
Will the Psi-Warriors’ and other leaders’ increasing psi skills, interspecies collaborations and budding alien alliances be enough for Earth to make it through The Transition intact? If there is no clear path for Clara’s and Epifanio’s love, does she partner with Steve or go it alone?
What do YOU do with wanted/unwanted changes?
Volume III, This Is/Is Not the Way I Want Things to Change:
EBOOKS now $1.00, 75% off the regular price of $3.99, on Smashwords, any ebook format (reader’s choice), using coupon code VE86U: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/588331
Vol III: http://www.amzn.com/B0177Z1KRM
Paperbacks are now $14.99, 25% off the regular price of $19.99 on CreateSpace using coupon code H93664AM: https://www.createspace.com/5844474
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The Spanners Series‘ three paperbacks on CreateSpace
Print editions and ebooks published under Timult Books
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REVIEWERS: Ask for FREE ebook coupon codes for Volumes II and III on Smashwords any time: sallyember AT yahoo DOT com
For more information about Sally Ember, Ed.D., her bio, books, blog, video talk show (CHANGES conversations between authors), guest blog posts and guidelines, links to author interviews, book trailers and more: http://www.sallyember.com
Filed under: Indie or Self-Publishing, Marketing, This Changes Everything, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, This Is/Is Not the Way I Want Things to Change, Timult Books, Volume I of The Spanners, Volume II of The Spanners, Volume III Tagged: Amazon, Birthday, Book sale, CreateSpace, discounts, ebooks, iTunes, Kindle, Kindle Matchbook, KOBO, nook, permafree, Sally Ember Ed.D Author, Smashwords, The Spanners Series, This Changes Everything, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, This Is/Is Not the Way I Thought Things Would Change
August 21, 2017
My birthday is TODAY, August 22! It’s my Birthday and I’ll Discount my #Books if I Want to! #Scifi/#Romance #Paperbacks and #ebooks #Sale!
My birthday is TODAY, August 22! It’s my Birthday and I’ll Discount my #Books if I Want to! #Scifi/#Romance #Paperbacks and #ebooks #Sale!
Now through August 31, 2017.
[image error]
Sally Sue Fleischmann Ember, age 6
Too much DYSTOPIAN REALITY? Time for some UTOPIAN Sci-fi/Romance!
The Spanners Series’ Volume I #ebooks are permafree; #CreateSpace #paperbacks Vol I, II, III are 25% off!
[image error]
Smashwords, Amazon/Kindle, Barnes & Noble nook, Kobo and iTunes have The Spanners Series for YOU, as does CreateSpace! AND, if you buy these books via Kindle Matchbook, Vol II or Vol III—usually $3.99 as ebooks—are each only $1.99 when purchased from Amazon along with the paperback versions for Volumes II and III!
Vol I, This Changes Everything = B00HFELTG8 (ebook is permafree everywhere);
Vol II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever = B00KU5Q7KC ;
Vol III, This Is/Is Not the Way I Want Things to Change = B0177Z1KRM
OR use https://goo.gl/q0Qqyn for CreateSpace to use the discount codes, below, on the paperbacks
See below for links and more info.
The Spanners Series‘ cover art and logo by WillowRaven: http://www.willowraven-illustration.blogspot.com/
[image error]
The Spanners Series first three Volumes of utopian science-fiction/romance by Sally Ember, Ed.D. are on sale NOW! Proud member of Clean Indie Reads #CR4U and Fantasy and Science-Fiction Network #FSFnet
Whether you’re sweating, freezing, rained or snowed on or anywhere in between, there is still time to READ!
Give books as gifts for birthdays, graduations, holidays, anniversaries, vacations, back-to-school or school’s out: any time!
The paperbacks of all three Volumes are 25% off on CreateSpace! See below for details and coupon codes for each of the Volumes.
[image error]
This Changes Everything, Vol. I, The Spanners Series
Dr. Clara Ackerman Branon, 58, begins having secret visits from holographic representations of beings from the Many Worlds Collective, a consortium of planet and star systems in the multiverse. When Earth is invited to join the consortium, the secret visits are made public. Now Earthers must adjust their beliefs and ideas about life, religion, culture, identity and everything they think and are.
Clara is selected to be the liaison between Earth and the Many Worlds Collective and she chooses Esperanza Enlaces to be the Chief Media Contact. They team up to provide information to stave off riots and uncertainty. The Many Worlds Collective holos train Clara and the Psi-Warriors for the Psi Wars with the rebelling Psi-Defiers, communicate effectively with many species on Earth and off-planet, eliminate ordinary, elected governments and political boundaries, convene a new group of Global Leaders, and deal with family’s and friends’ reactions.
In what multiple timelines of the ever-expanding multiverse do Clara and her long-time love, Epifanio Dang, get to be together and which leave Clara alone and lonely as the leader of Earth?
This Changes Everything spans the 30-year story of Clara’s term as Earth’s first Chief Communicator, continuing in nine more Volumes of The Spanners Series.
Are YOU ready for the changes?
Volume I, This Changes Everything:
Ebooks are PERMAFREE on Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/376197
and Amazon: http://www.amzn.com/B00HFELTG8
Paperbacks are now $13.49, 25% off the regular price of $17.99, on CreateSpace, using coupon code H93664AM: https://www.createspace.com/5837347
[image error]
This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, Vol. II, The Spanners Series
Intrigued by multiple timelines, aliens, psi skills, romance and planetary change? Clara and the alien “Band” are back in Volume II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever.
Now as Chief Communicator, Clara leads the way for interspecies communication on- and off-planet. Fighting these changes are the Psi-Defiers, led by one of the oldest friends of the Chief of the Psi-Warriors, its reluctant leader, Rabbi Moran Ackerman. Stories from younger Spanners about the first five years of The Transition fill Volume II.
How would YOU do with the changes?
Volume II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever:
EBOOKS now $1.00, 75% off the regular price of $3.99, on Smashwords, any ebook format (reader’s choice), using coupon code YX27E on: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/424969
Vol II: http://www.amzn.com/B00KU5Q7KC
Paperbacks are now $14.99, 25% off the regular price of $19.99 on CreateSpace using coupon code H93664AM: https://www.createspace.com/5844431
[image error]
This Is/Is Not the Way I Want Things to Change, Vol. III, The Spanners Series
Clara, Moran, Espe, Epifanio and the alien Band of holos are back in This Is/Is Not the Way I Want Things to Change, Volume III of The Spanners Series. Psi-Defiers launch increasingly violent protests during this five-year Transition, attempting to block Earth’s membership into the Many Worlds Collective. Earth’s nations and borders must dissolve and Psi-Warriors must strengthen in their battle against the rebels.
Clara, as Earth’s first Chief Communicator, also juggles family conflicts and danger while creating psi skills training Campuses to help Earth through the Psi Wars. Clara timults alternate versions of their futures as the leaders’ duties and consciences force them to make difficult choices across multiple timelines, continuing to train and fight.
Will the Psi-Warriors’ and other leaders’ increasing psi skills, interspecies collaborations and budding alien alliances be enough for Earth to make it through The Transition intact? If there is no clear path for Clara’s and Epifanio’s love, does she partner with Steve or go it alone?
What do YOU do with wanted/unwanted changes?
Volume III, This Is/Is Not the Way I Want Things to Change:
EBOOKS now $1.00, 75% off the regular price of $3.99, on Smashwords, any ebook format (reader’s choice), using coupon code VE86U: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/588331
Vol III: http://www.amzn.com/B0177Z1KRM
Paperbacks are now $14.99, 25% off the regular price of $19.99 on CreateSpace using coupon code H93664AM: https://www.createspace.com/5844474
[image error]
The Spanners Series‘ three paperbacks on CreateSpace
Print editions and ebooks published under Timult Books
[image error]
REVIEWERS: Ask for FREE ebook coupon codes for Volumes II and III on Smashwords any time: sallyember AT yahoo DOT com
For more information about Sally Ember, Ed.D., her bio, books, blog, video talk show (CHANGES conversations between authors), guest blog posts and guidelines, links to author interviews, book trailers and more: http://www.sallyember.com
Filed under: Indie or Self-Publishing, Marketing, The Spanners, This Changes Everything, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, This Is/Is Not the Way I Want Things to Change, Timult Books, Volume I of The Spanners, Volume II of The Spanners, Volume III Tagged: #CR4U, Amazon, Birthday, book, books, CreateSpace, Discount, fiction, free ebook, FSFnet, indie author, Kindle, Kindle Match, romance, Sale, Sally Ember Ed.D Author, science fiction, scifi, Smashwords, The Spanners Series, This Changes Everything, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, This Is/Is Not the Way I Want Things to Change, Timult Books, Volume I
