D.G. Kaye's Blog, page 150

#Coloring Books and Life – One Day at a Time

I have a mantra. It’s been used by many, advised by many, including myself – it’s called ‘One Day at a Time’.

 

I’ve often preached this saying to others when they’re feeling overwhelmed, as words of wisdom to help lessen their load, but I was usually guilty of not following my own advice – until this past year.

 

It’s easy for me to pass on words of encouragement, because I’ve always been a builder-upper of others. But when it comes to myself, I know I sometimes have a difficult time taking my own advice. But this year, I learned the meaning behind that phrase.

 

I’m a bit OCD when it comes to my ‘to do’ list and getting everything accomplished I set out to do in my own self-imposed time restrictions. But when life threw me some frightening curve balls for the better part of the first half of this year, with my husband’s health issues, I had to take heed to my own words or I’d have been swallowed up by the abyss of pressure I put on myself.

 

Duty called. There was no book writing, I had no time, nor the mental capacity to focus on writing. If I wasn’t running to doctors and hospitals on a daily basis, I was nursemaid to my husband’s needs, and couldn’t concentrate on anything while I worried every minute if he needed meds, food, his legs rubbed, some words of encouragement, or if he was too silent left unattended in another room for more than twenty minutes, or that he may have passed out yet again.

 

My blogs were written in midnight hours, and blog reading became my escape from the madness, reminding me that I was still part of a community, other than living in the realms of life and death. I learned quickly that I couldn’t make plans for tomorrow, next week, or even think about next year. My life was on hold, and I only had time to do what needed to be done for my husband at any given moment.

 

My ‘to do’ lists became everything medical – appointments to make, follow up with, chase doctors, and go back and forth from long hospital days and nights. This was when I learned to Let Go. I could no longer worry about my book waiting for me to come back to and all of my self-imposed deadlines to do the things I normally did on a daily basis. I learned to surrender to the moments and let go of letting to dos overwhelm me, and stop dwelling on the things piling up I’d have to catch up on. I learned to accept each day as it came, in gratitude that my husband was alive and that he was my only priority in those moments.

What spurred me to write this post is a coloring book I purchased that caught my eye in a grocery store one day. The pages had beautiful art to color in, but within each picture is an inspirational quote.

 

Now I’m going to be honest, I failed art in high school. Heck, I could never even stay within the lines in a coloring book, which coincides with my atrocious handwriting. But I was always a writer. I had a lot of creativity in my head – it’s just that my head could never translate to my hand, my creative ideas. This is similar to the way I design my book covers – in my head. Sure I have an artist who makes my covers for this very reason, my lack of art skills. But I come up with what I’d like to see for my covers, and describe them to my artist, who then creates my visions.

But getting back to the coloring book, when I pull it out, usually late at night, after the computer is shut down, and I’m looking for a hour to relax, I open it to a new page and I’m immediately overwhelmed by the amount of detail there is to fill in. At first glance, I think to myself, Omg, this page will take forever with all those tiny details.

But I developed a strategy. I start in one corner with one color, then decide where in the picture I wish to use the same color. I then move on to a new color and do the same, using color as my guide to the next place to work on. Within 2 hours I realized I’ve completed a page, and I stand back and say, “It’s just like life, one day at a time, one color at a time, and eventually I get there.”

#Free #BookPromotion – Words We Carry – #Self-esteem

 

I’ve been so busy this year I realized how lame I’ve been in the book promoting department while trying to juggle life and get a new book out. So I just wanted to let you all know my book Words We Carry will be FREE starting today Monday through Friday.

 

What do our shopping habits, high-heeled shoes, and big hair have to do with how we perceive ourselves? Do the slights we endured when we were young affect how we choose our relationships now?

D.G. takes us on a journey, unlocking the hurts of the past by identifying situations that hindered her own self-esteem. Her anecdotes and confessions demonstrate how the hurtful events in our lives linger and set the tone for how we value our own self-worth.

Words We Carry is a raw, personal accounting of how the author overcame the demons of low self-esteem with the determination to learn to love herself.

 

Here’s a few reviews to wet your appetite:

 

 A great gift for young girls just moving away or someone … November 30, 2014

By Di Amazon Customer
Format:Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase


I just now finished “Words We Carry” and wanted to come here and write a review while it was still fresh on my mind. But it is actually the kind of book that you will draw from as needed in different circumstances as the occassion may arise.

It is a journey through this author’s life, describing the effect that words have had on her. And it really makes you think twice. It helps you kind of re-evaluate your own life and agree with a lot of the points she brings up and has you feeling not so alone in your own journey.

D.G. Kaye makes you feel as if you are sitting at her kitchen table, just having a friendly conversation about “life” and experiences we have as women. I wish I’d read “Words We Carry” in my twenties! She makes you think that other people think and feel and have had the same experiences as you. She talks about abuse and red flags, jealousy and lonliness. It is empowering and real and was timely for me, since I just quit a job of ten years and am beginning a new one next week! A great gift for young girls just moving away or someone like me who has already lived a half a century, and am starting a new job! Thumbs up on this one!I am becoming an avid fan of D.G. Kaye books!Can’t wait for the next one.




Another great book by D.G. Kaye….I’m a fan! November 1, 2014

 

This book will be free starting today July 25 until July 29th. Get your copy HERE 

#Free #bookpromotion on Amazon - Words We Carry #Self-esteem www.smarturl.it/bookwordswecarry
Click To Tweet

#BookReview #Memoir – Mourning Has Broken – Carol Balawyder

Today I’d like to share my book review of author Carol Balawyder’s book, Mourning has Broken.

You may have noticed the date of this review was from two years ago, after I first read it. But as I have always enjoyed and reviewed Carol’s books, it only recently came to my attention that I’d forgot to post the review here.

Carol is a versatile writer. Besides her writing this poignant memoir on love, loss and grief, Carol also has a fiction book series about a group of girlfriends and how each of them deal with relationship issues, love gone wrong, and self esteem as they approach their middle years.  She is also working on a new crime series, as her background will tell you she was once a criminologist and taught Police Technology and Corrections in a college.

You can have a look at Carol’s books Here on Her Amazon Page.


 Buy This Book:  https://www.amazon.com/Mourning-Has-Broken-C-Balawyder/dp/1461029279


5 Star – A Heartwarming Accounting on Grief

By D.G. Kaye on February 24, 2014

Format: Kindle Edition

The author conveys her emotions she battled during the mourning process on the loss of her parents and more deeply on the loss of her sister. I felt as though her beautiful literary prose was her aid in announcing her healing.
Balawyder invites us in to share in her well-travelled life and shares her deep insights into her grieving process. She raises some of the valid questions we ask ourselves when we have lost a loved one or going through the transition of losing a loved one. Questions encompass things such as, could I have done more, did I say all that I had to say and there is much discussion about the sometimes difficult discomfort of saying “I love you.”
Her inner turmoil is expressed deeply and I would recommend this book to anyone who has loved and lost or perhaps may be going through the process of losing someone dear.

You Don’t Have to be Famous to be #Pirated – Blasty Part 2

I’d like to thank the first three people here who must have signed up to Blasty, because they accepted me yesterday instead of the 12 day waiting period. And I’m willing to bet several more of you have also signed up. And if you haven’t, you may want to after reading this. And if you’re wondering what Blasty is, please see yesterday’s post Here.

 

I received my confirmation today, allowing me to add my other books to the site, as well as my blog. When I first signed up, they allowed me to enter only one of my books. So I entered my first book Conflicted Hearts, and WHAT DID I FIND?

 

I found 165 suspicious postings on Google about that book, and after going through the list, 135 of them were pirate sites offering free downloads on my book! I BLASTED them right off Google! Now I’m afraid to go back later and find how many more are pirating my other books. Sheesh! One would think I should be a famous author by now, lol.

 

But here’s the thing, I’ve read many articles by some well established Indie authors about piracy who say we can’t control all the thievery going on, so we can hope that those who are downloading our books for free are giving us FREE exposure. I certainly don’t have the time to send cease and desist letters to hundreds of sites. I can be grateful now that Google has banned them from being allowed to promote on the world wide web and now they will be small potatoes promoting to whoever happens to read.

 

Blasty is now just one more job for me to keep check on, but at least by Blasting them off Google, they are being punished. The site is easy to navigate. When you sign in, it will show you a list of suspicious Google posts and you will then have the choice to ‘Blast’ them away, or ignore. Note:  Don’t just Blast away without checking the sites because there are legitimate posts from sites you may have advertised with, or a fellow writer or blogger may have featured you and your books on. If you ‘Blast‘ a site in error, you can go back and ‘Unblast’. The rules are simple but must be adhered to because you don’t want to blacklist a legit post in error.

 

Now, I suggest you take another look at this helpful site and start Blasting away the pirates! Blasty

 

I’d love to know what you guys who are using it think about it. I know I’m happy to have a free babysitting service with ‘Blasty’.

Does your #WordPress need a tune up?

 

Heads up people! Today’s lesson is about another mysterious WordPress issue it seems many of us have been encountering.

 

We all talk about crazy things WordPress does, sometimes without our knowing, leaving us in the dark, only to be discovered when something goes awry, or by another blogger who points out their findings, as I discovered.

 

Well, for a few weeks I hadn’t been receiving quite a few blog posts I follow. It took me awhile to realize because I receive at least 50 notifications on any given day. And sometimes I’ll notice that one of my favorite bloggers hadn’t posted in awhile and I’ll pop over to their blog manually to check if if they’re okay and see if I missed any posts. Usually I’ll find they may just be on a blogging break. But sometimes I find I’ve missed a slew of their posts.

 

This finding has happened to a few bloggers I’ve chatted with who’ve had the same problem. This prompted me to go into my ‘managed follow’ under the reader drop box in the upper left corner of our blogs. And voila! I found that WordPress had ‘magically’ turned off all forms of receiving notifications for many blogs I wasn’t receiving. So I carefully went down the list of blogs I follow, and re-selected how I preferred my notifications and turned them back on.

Are you missing blog posts you've subscribed to?
Click To Tweet

 

So, my advice today is to go to your notifications and manage your subscriptions and follows. And try and make it a practice to check on those every once in awhile to make sure WordPress isn’t up to their shenanigans and playing hide and seek with you too.

 

Now I’m sure my 50 posts will become well into the 70s flooding my inbox, but what’s a blog addict to do?

 

Have any of you noticed you weren’t receiving the usual flow of blogs in your inbox or reader?

Are We Lost in #Social Oblivion?

 

Today I’m going to share my thoughts here on the madness of social media, and book promoting, and our constant battle to keep up with everything social media to stay afloat with our presence.

 

I’m speaking for myself, but I know my thoughts are shared by many a writer. As writers, we all develop our routines, and although every one of us has our own methods of tackling our ‘to do’ lists, if we’re writing books, much of what we do will involve ways to market our books using social media.

 

With the explosion of new authors and books in the past few years, there are waves of cries to ‘buy my book’ in order to be heard through a sea of social media blasts. I sometimes feel as though I’m drowning in that sea. But I don’t wish to become one of the ‘hard sell’ authors, and I don’t even spend nearly enough time or dollars doing the amount of marketing I’m urged to do through all the social outlets I follow and with all the subscriptions I read from newsletters telling me about another method to push my books.

 

Sure I read many articles to stay abreast. I’ll bookmark pertinent information and save it to Evernote for the time I’m ready to tackle it. But with all I read, I still can’t bring myself to become an aggressive marketer. I have my daily routine planned the night before with my list of things to accomplish, and that keeps my plate full as it is. As much as I want to try a million new ideas out, there are only so many hours in a day. So I prioritize with my book writing days and my blog post days. I’ve learned what social media sites I gravitate to most. I’ve built friendships and followers who I can chat with, share with, or just have a simple ‘thank you’ for sharing rapport with for dedicated sharers. I read many blogs, and like and comment where I feel like contributing, and if I enjoyed a post, I’ll share it to my social sites.

 

This routine I have was never a strategy to gain followers, but somehow it had led me to gathering readers and making some wonderful friends along the way. This is who I am, and I don’t wish to conform to being one of those hounds shouting hashtags to ‘buy my book’.

 

And what may have prompted me to write this you may be thinking?

 

I came across an article yesterday while reading my morning newsletter subscriptions. This is part of my morning routine with coffee in hand, my morning newspaper. I check my personal emails first thing in the morning, and catch up on what’s going on with the writing and publishing world with my Indie newsletters. This is usually when I send out my Twitter tweets while I’m reading articles. Some also get sent to Google and Linkedin and my Facebook author page. But I check Twitter once a day only, every morning, because I have a lot of writers that follow me, and I know some will find these posts informative because I’m sure that’s why they followed me in the first place. I know my posts are interesting to some because I’ve gained quite a few followers in the past few years, and I can honestly say I never search for people to follow, they find me, and I decide if I will follow back based on the criteria I have for following back.

 

My usual stipulations for NOT following back are: They use an egg as a replacement for a photo, no bio or website, hard sellers, or promisers to get you hundreds of followers for a price, or of course pornographic posts. I don’t hesitate to follow someone just because they may have few followers. I’m not looking for popularity, but sincerity and something informative offered. I always follow back authors because I believe if they took the time to follow my posts they’re eager to learn, especially if they’re new and just starting their platforms. This is just the way I roll in life with the people I congregate with and develop friendships with. If they’re sincere, forthgiving, and informative, I’m in.

 

Now, the reason I’m sharing this here today goes back to 2 relevant posts I came across from 2 articles I read in parts from a writer, Delilah Dawson from Whimsydark.com. She wrote about herself not being one of ‘those authors’ who are constantly pushing their books at every opportunity. She makes a pertinent point in her post that if people like you, and like what you have to say they may just follow you and buy your books because of those qualities, and eventually, hopes that word of mouth become our best marketing tool. Her point is to keep writing and doing what works and states that current trends don’t necessarily dictate what works for everyone.

 

The articles resonated with me because that’s what I do. I do my thing, and socialize where I enjoy being best, not trying to dance at every wedding (every social site) because there just isn’t enough time to do everything. Below I will give you a sampling of the two posts with the link to continue reading. I think you will find them good reads.

 

http://www.whimsydark.com/blog/2015/4/13/please-shut-up-why-self-promotion-as-an-author-doesnt-work

“Spend your energy and time being kind to your colleagues, thanking your publishing team, and making new friends with no expectation that you will eventually use them to claw your way to the top. Before you Friend another writer on Facebook, make sure it’s because you legitimately want to know them better and be part of their life and not because you’re planning on sending them an Event invitation or a link to your book… Continue Reading 

 

And here is her follow up article:

 

http://www.whimsydark.com/blog/2015/4/14/wait-keep-talking-author-self-promo-that-actually-works

 

“Adding value means passing on truly helpful links, retweeting job listings or calls for submissions, wishing someone a happy launch day, recommending books you’ve enjoyed, discussing the news of the day in a respectful and thoughtful manner, talking about an upcoming event, or generally saying things that make someone’s day just a little brighter. Over time, people will begin to trust you as you repeatedly add value to their life…Continue Reading 

 

I hope you enjoy these posts and take something from them as I did. They confirmed to me that I’m doing just fine the way I’m doing.  And please feel free to leave me your comments because I’d like to know where you guys stand on the marketing front.

 

And PS, this article reminded about how lame I’ve actually been this year with a serious lack of book promos. So not to be pushy, lol, I’m giving you a heads up that my book, Words We Carry, will be free on Amazon all of next week. You can be sure I’ll post it. Yup, that’s the extent of my ‘buy my book’ process.

 

 

Keep Calm and #Blasty off #Piracy

Hi people! I know, so unlike me to post twice in one day, but I just wanted to share something of interest I came across last night while reading a post from a fellow blogger, Damyanti’s blog.

 

She mentioned a new site called Blasty . This is a new site still in beta. It’s created for writers and artists to enroll their books and anything copyrighted to be flagged to your account if any suspicious ‘BUY’ links are found from pirates on Google. When suspicious links are found WE are then given the right to ‘blast‘ the link right off Google ourself! Imagine that, we don’t have to go through the ringers to submit our findings, begging them to take them off, we have the power to blast them ourselves!

 

Natch I joined! Once you’ve joined and submitted your own copyrighted content, it takes 12 days until you’re accepted because they have to verify you are holder of copyright and that takes time. BUT if you share and get 3 people to sign up, they will push the registration to 1 business day! They will send you an invitational link by email to share with others in case they want to join. And not only that, if you join now while it’s in beta stages, they waive the membership fee!

 

As a published author, it’s a no-brainer for me to have Google babysit the pirates, so I’m in. The site has a great FAQ section and little videos demonstrating how to use Blasty correctly and efficiently. You can even ‘unblast’ if you’ve blasted something in error.

 

Anyhoo, I suggest you check it out. And I’m leaving the link here with my invitational code to their site for you to visit, so if you sign up from my link, they’ll know you were invited there, and I’ll get to add the rest of my books in one day instead of 12.

 

You know me, always glad to pass on great info after doing the investigations. So if you decide to sign up who wouldn’t, please go in through this link https://www.blasty.co/invitation/bituzNcZ so I can get my books up by tomorrow. Then you will be emailed your own ‘invite’ link and you can ask the same of others.

 

Please let me know what you think about this.

The R’s of Life – Chapter Five – #Relationships – A tangled Web | Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life

Sally Cronin has taken on a new venture of writing her next book on her blog in weekly chapters. Sally’s newest book – The R’s of Life, is about the important things in life pertaining to the letter ‘R’.

 

In this poignant chapter, Sally talks about ‘relationships’, how our younger lives interactions can play an important role on the relationships we choose to form when we get older, our choices, happiness, and the compromises we choose.

 

The R’s of Life – Relationships – A Tangled Web

 

So far I have covered respect, recognition, relations in previous chapters, which leads me very conveniently into relationships.

 

Multiple personality disorder is where a person can exhibit different personalities without any of the others knowing anything about it. Whilst this is a recognised mental health disorder, we all in fact have something similar when it comes to relationships.

 

Think about it. In essence you are a different person to both the groups of people in your life such as family and close friends, and also to individuals that you meet along the way.

 

In the last chapter I talked about our relations including our parents, siblings and extended family. Even within that tight knit group, you are either perceived by or behave differently with individuals within it. You are likely to have a different relationship with your mother than with your father, and that too will depend on whether you are male or female. As will your interaction with a sister or brother, grandparents and cousins. . . Continue Reading 

 

Source: The R’s of Life – Chapter Five – Relationships – A tangled Web | Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life

#WordPress Post Editor Changes. | ronovanwrites

Many of you may be aware, and possibly confused with the changes in the WordPress editor. Ronovan has written a post with detailed graphics on how to navigate those changes.

 

Do note that this article is intended for WordPress.com bloggers, as these tools are not automatically available on self-hosted sites, such as mine.

“There is nothing permanent except change.” – Heraclitus With that being said, you may have noticed the changes in your WordPress Post Editor. Let’s look at the two obvious …” Continue Reading

Source: WordPress Post Editor Changes. | ronovanwrites

#ExcerptWeek – MenoWhat? by D. G. Kaye | The Write Stuff

Marcia of Marcia Meara Writes is a generous blogger, not to mention a fantastic writer/author, who promotes the works of other authors on her blog. Incidentally, Marcia has just released the third book in her Wake-Robin Ridge series. Please visit her books HERE

 

Today I was invited to share an excerpt from my book, MenowWhat? A Memoir.

Excerpt –MenoWhat? A Memoir by D.G. Kaye

FROM HIP TO WAIST WE JOIN  

Until we actually live through something, it’s difficult to imagine what the experience is like. When I was young but nearing menopause, I became interested in how the physiques of menopausal women began to change. Women come in all shapes and sizes, but I noticed that even the waistlines of smaller women weren’t as proportionately small as their slight frames suggested. I was certain the dreaded middle-age spread would not apply to me, and I referred to it as circumference expansion.

As we approach the early stages of menopause, estrogen begins to cozy up to our midriffs. Then, when we reach menopause, our depleted estrogen is replaced by cortisol-induced fat cells. Cortisol compensates for estrogen loss and loves to store fat cells around the belly. Thanks again, estrogen, for abandoning us and leaving us with an unfair trade-off of fat as your substitute! This is certainly a cruel punishment for those of us who worked so diligently to stay on top of our weight issues.

As a woman who had spent most of her young life on diets and lived fearfully by the scale, I was sure this phase would spare me. I thought it was simple: If we let ourselves get out of control and eat too much, of course we’ll gain weight. I believed that if I was disciplined in my diet and exercise regime, I wouldn’t have a problem with my waistline expanding.

Wrong again… Continue Reading 

Source: #ExcerptWeek – MenoWhat? by D. J. Kaye | The Write Stuff