D.G. Kaye's Blog, page 185

Bittersweet

A few months back, I wrote a post on “Murphy”, my pet name for his origin is Murphy’s law. Murphy has a tendency to show up in my life at most inopportune times, hence the name, so of course it would be inopportune!

Murphy has been circling my orbit for the past two weeks. I have tried to ignore him and refused to acknowledge that it was once again my turn in the universe to be graced with his presence. I know when he’s around, he’s like Santa; he sees you when you’re sleeping.

In these past two weeks, things around my house have been mysteriously breaking down or malfunctioning. Communications have had SNAFU’s and anything I was trying to accomplish was being time-sucked by distractions and mishaps which I had to attend to. One day my Lazy Susan cupboard or ‘the magic cupboard’ as my cabinet maker who designed it named it when I bought and renovated my house completely last year, wouldn’t open more than 8 inches for me to get into it to access my various cooking ingredients. I suppose Susan lived up to her name. That was the week of the Polar Vortex and I need not go into what that weather situation entailed after the great ice storm. Coincidentally at that time my gas fireplace conveniently died. And of course that happened on a Friday night so it couldn’t get serviced until Monday which again turned into Tuesday because people whose furnaces broke down took precedence over fireplaces. The repair man finally came, made it work but found no known reason to man why it didn’t work.

Two weeks ago I went to my mailbox in anticipation of finding my Conflicted Hearts books there, only to wipe out on the icy sidewalk and sprain my ribs and upper arm…and no books! Yesterday in the middle of checking back and forth at my sales rank on amazon during my first KDP promotion, my laptop CRASHED…AGAIN! That would be two hard drive crashes in 5 months. Can this even happen? I spent two hours on the phone (instead of writing) with Dell tech support, chewing them out for a crappy product while trying to analyze the problem. Another thing that got me steamed about the already aggravating situation was they informed me that they would come an repair and put in a new hard drive for me but they were taking the old one with them. WHOA!  I said, “What?” Apparently if I don’t let them have the old one, I would be charged $80.00! “Are you kidding me?”, I questioned in a not so friendly tone. “I’m not giving you guys my whole personal world in that hard drive, that’s invasion of privacy,” I added. I thought the crash was enough punishment. They patiently replied that they don’t look at my information. So what the heck do they need it for! I thought when I bought the darn thing with all its components that it belonged to me. Why is their property? What is this world coming to? So my choice became give up the hard drive or pay. I was steamed So I ventured out to my local business depot today and took the dead machine over so they could swipe off all my info and paid them twenty bucks. I sure wasn’t going to give them my life on it.

In the midst of my mayhem, I was eagerly watching my author rank and downloads during my promo and I was so elated that my book Conflicted Hearts, made #1 in the top free NonFiction/Memoir category. It was a thrilling end to a crappy day. So as the saying goes — There is a silver lining!                  

I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you who participated in getting my book and I hope you all enjoy it and if you did, please write a review on amazon because that is how our books get pushed up into visibility. I also want to thank many of my friends here for helping to spread the word for me and a special thanks to Diane Tibert for doing a lovely post about my book on her website for me. Please click on the link below to have a look.

Free eBook: Conflicted Hearts by D. G. Kaye | Diane Tibert.

I wish you all a great week and remember –Beware of Murphy!

Simple Things

A smile to light up the soul

A song to enlighten our memories

A sunny day to help see the light

Blooming flowers to remind us of nature’s beauty

Words, ‘I love you’ to remind you, you’re special

A gentle touch from someone to show they care

Your birthday, in celebration that you are still living

Waking up each morning, another day of life granted

Milestones, in celebration of a great moment

Thank you, expressing appreciation

Sharing, for all you receive to pay it forward.

 

©D.G. Kaye -2013

 

 

Announcing My First ‘Free’ Day

 

I wanted to write a little post here about my first two weeks as an accomplished self-published author. First I will start by saying the feeling of accomplishment after working diligently to get my book out into the world in the past six months is exhilarating. Secondly, I will openly state that writing the book was the most fun part and if you think editing and revisions and book covers and formatting isn’t a small feat compared to writing, it doesn’t end there.

As writers we are constantly working our brains and are seldom found without a pen in hand for a fleeting thought that may cross our minds when we are perhaps doing something completely off topic, yet we must be prepared to grasp the moments when those juicy morsels of thought come our way. For me, when I am absorbed in some of life’s daily matters, the ideas and thoughts about my new book(s) I am writing and ideas are always on the backburner in my brain, anticipating when whatever it is I have to do at the moment can be done so I can get back to writing.

But writing a new book cannot have all your attention because we also have to keep up with the babysitting of our first book. Our work is never done. If we are adamant about our book being shared in the world, it is also our job to work on exposure for that book, thus marketing and promotions. These are all time consuming parts of the business that we must learn and adapt to and keep up with the trends so we can direct our energies to what methods are a best fit for our works and genre. And so, the life of a writer is a constant. If we are serious about our work there are no vacations, okay we can take vacations but I know when I had two little getaways this past year, my laptop came with me as well as my kindle full of ‘must read’ material. But I do believe everybody needs a break sometime, so if we can prioritize our time wisely and still find some time to have fun, we can rejuvenate ourselves and also being on vacation can open up a new part of the brain to some new experiences which every writer knows is a dream come true.

Everyone tends to form their own schedules what works best for them but for me, I find I can’t stay away from writing too long because I’m afraid it will either make me lazy or I get overwhelmed with the amount of work I’ll have to catch up on if I leave it too many days. So I strive to get something done everyday so I don’t get backlogged. My social life has shrunk exponentially this past year as my days are spent attending to life matters and writing and by night I trade up for my social media and marketing hats. Life of a writer….I love it, thrive in it and I am driven to learn this business and succeed!

On another note, I am over the moon with the reviews my book has been receiving, especially since it has only been two weeks and I am pretty much an unknown author to the cyber world. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank so many of you out there for supporting my efforts and getting my book and giving me inspiring feedback. For those of you who haven’t had a chance or perhaps were hesitant on taking a chance on reading my book, I’d like to let you all know in advance here that my book Conflicted Hearts will be making its first ‘FREE’ debut on Amazon this Friday January 10th! Yup, you are getting the scoop here first! So for those of you who have been sitting on the fence, please don’t hesitate to take advantage of this ‘One Free Day’ on Friday and if you like the book please don’t forget to leave a review on Amazon and feel free to drop by here and comment to me.

Thanks for your kind support!

The Internet Will Land Me In Jail?

I thought I’d share this great article on how overwhelmed a writer is with wearing all the hats; writing, publishing, promoting, keeping up with social media. Many of us know how much time is needed to put efforts in all these aspects of writing and self publishing, but for many the tasks become much more difficult for the untech savvy. The article below may help to diminish some of the angst involved.

Written by Karen Lotter

http://selfpublishingadvice.org/blog/the-internet-will-land-me-in-jail/

Health and Happiness Wishes For The New Year

Health and happiness wishes have become somewhat of a trademark blessing from me when the clock of time turns over a new year. I also tend to write these same wishes to someone when I am signing a birthday card for someone. I suppose it can become so easy to sometimes take our health and life for granted. Studies say that often many don’t fully appreciate things until they experience a near fatal situation which somehow spurs one into deep appreciation mode.

Sometimes we just seem to get so lost in our daily lives that even those of us with best intentions and inner gratefulness can also tend to let these blessings be taken for granted. We all have our moments in life when we sweat the small stuff when we know very well that those problems we are groaning about are miniscule compared to worse things in life but human nature will make us focus on the immediate obstacle rather than overlooking its insignificance compared to a tragedy.

Although I am always grateful for my life as it is, I am no different than the majority. I admit I’ve had my moments of ‘freak out’ but I don’t dwell on things and eventually I shake myself out of those moments. And maybe because I have survived some life altering moments and cheated death once or twice I did become one of those newly awakened people even though I thought I had previously never been ungrateful.

The bottom line is if you analyze things right down to its smallest form, you can wish you were rich and you can wish for materialistic objects but none of it is any good to us if we don’t have our health. All the money in the world can’t make us better if we are fatally ill and we would give our last cent just to be well again. So when I offer someone my wishes I always wish in the highest power and so there is nothing better than to wish health and happiness to someone because there is simply nothing better in this world that we could want for.

So once again, I would like to wish you all health and happiness for this new year and forward.

Author’s First Book

 

Is there any other feeling than exhilaration when a first-time author receives her proof copies?

I received my first copies of my book on Christmas Eve. The previous week was a huge learning curve publishing my book Conflicted Hearts in ebook and paperback as well as enduring the great ice storm. While I spent lots of time learning the process it still was not without its glitches. One hair raising event for me was after using two editors and reading my book about 40 times myself, while downloading it, it went through the system seamlessly but before I hit publish a warning came up…..Amazon has found 2 spelling errors, do you wish to correct or proceed with publish? Wow, seriously? I was freaking out over this as I did not want to leave ‘unseen’ errors yet I had my book formatted by a wonderful, brilliant formatter, which meant I had no way of correcting the errors on my own. I had to send it back to the formatter. Stuart is a very busy man and had been so kind to me through the process of sending and approving and now I had to send an emergency email to him, asking if he would mind making the changes to the file so I could redownload it. With his kindness, Stuart responded and corrected my file within an hour and I hit publish. How lucky I felt that this man dropped whatever he was doing to help me get on my way quickly to publishing. There are truly some wonderful people in this industry and with a little kindness and appreciation it is not so hard to receive when you need, when you put it back out there.

Hidden

 

At day’s break, when air is silent,

No sun, yet hidden in the sky.

With daily life yet to begin,

The promise of day’s gifts, hidden in fate.

Our minds, still settled in serenity,

Untouched with woe, hidden in our peace.  

Today what life will bestow upon us, a mystery awaits,

Revealed at nightfall, no longer hidden.

 

©D.G. Kaye – 2013

Are Self Published Authors On Par with Traditionally Published? Toronto Star

In response to an article written by the Toronto Star article, linked below:

As a newly published Canadian author, I am so glad to hear success stories such as Georgi’s. We know how hard it is to rise to the cream of the crop and it takes hard work and dedication. I believe the stigma attached to self published authors is slowly fading. When self publishing became a hot commodity I think there were many out there that thought that they could write anything and hit publish. As more and more information becomes available I believe many of those types of authors are learning that there are many elements to writing and publishing, and putting out shoddy, unedited work  becomes a public humiliation. As good self published authors who wish to keep their higher royalties and don’t wish to waste years in rejection letters it doesn’t make us any less than a traditionally published author; we just need to work that much harder at acquiring exposure.

D.G. Kaye

Toronto, Canada

http://bit.ly/Kaj9LE

Jesus at the Door

 

This is another episode about – My friend Mary. This story she told me last week was inspiring and in the spirit of Christmas, I thought the time of year was appropriate to share this story.

Last Sunday Mary was getting ready to go to church, as she tries to make it a weekly habit. Even on the days that Mary doesn’t feel up to going, she makes every effort.

As many of us can relate, the east coast got hit with a boatload of snow last weekend. Mary’s husband was out of town on business and when she stepped outside to get in her car, she found her driveway laden with snow, impossible to get her car out. Mary took it upon herself to begin shoveling her driveway and almost halfway through she found that she could no longer do anymore shoveling. She was exhausted from the weight of the snow, and so she decided that she had given it her best effort and conceded. She resigned herself to the fact that there would be no church that day and went to sit down and make a cup of coffee and thaw out.

As Mary was enjoying her coffee, there was a sudden knock at the door. She went to the door filled with curiosity who it could be given that she wasn’t expecting any company and the inclement weather. There stood a man looking rather tattered and disheveled. He carried in the crook of his arm a shovel. He told her he had walked from the other side of town and was offering to shovel her driveway for whatever amount of money she could spare because he desperately needed to buy some groceries. Mary’s compassion was touched and she felt sorry for the man and gave him some money and bid him God bless, also telling him she didn’t require him to shovel.

When Mary told me this story she said that many others may have closed the door or perhaps thought the stranger was scamming for money but she felt compassion for him and he wasn’t asking for something for nothing in return. She also told me that these kinds of offerings don’t usually happen in her neighborhood. Mary was really puzzled by this visitor. After he left, Mary sat back down in her kitchen and felt bad that she didn’t give him more.  As the day wore on, the stranger’s visit played on Mary’s conscience. Earlier, Mary had felt guilty that she couldn’t make it to church; but later she began to feel if she had gone to church, the stranger may not have received anything from anyone else. Mary then quoted a psalm from the bible to me and as I am not a very religious person, I can’t quite recall it verbatim. But her words were to do with Jesus who went in disguise to strangers seeking kindness and watching to see who were the givers and who would deny him. It was Mary’s revelation that she was snowed in so she would be home for the knock on the door to pay a kindness.

Mary said to me, “Deb, I think Jesus came to my door and I am so glad I was there to fulfill his request.

God bless you Mary.

The Great Christmas Ice Storm inToronto

Weighted trees with ice, causing havock to all the power lines:

 

It is now 3pm EST and this is the first sign of power since yesterday’s 10 minute gift. We have been stranded with no power since Saturday night. It’s been very cold in our homes and I am grateful that I had tins of salmon and tuna in my cupboard along with cereal for sustenance. I am posting this article I wrote yesterday while I still have power at the moment. Below you will also find a link to the newscast regarding the carnage of this storm.

God Bless you all and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and happiness and health in the coming year!

http://www.cp24.com/video?clipId=68596&binId=1.1127680&playlistPageNum=1

They had been calling for it all week! After getting a wallop of snow last weekend here in Toronto and weather-wise being a very frosty week, there were warnings that we were in for a weekend of freezing rain. I hadn’t really paid it any heed; after all, this is Toronto, and it’s winter. So undoubtedly we would be getting our share of precipitation.

Saturday was an icy day, freezing rain, slick roads and frankly, not the best day for last minute Christmas shoppers. I was quite happy to be home writing in my flannel p.j.’s with the fireplace on. I decided not to work on Saturday night and snuggle up under a blanket on the couch and watch It’s a Wonderful Life. That was working out nicely until the power went out.  Although the power did manage to come back on intermittently through the evening, by midnight the lights were flickering non-stop so I took it as a sign to head up to bed and read on my kindle.

When I woke this morning, there was no power. What? No computer? No Sunday Football? NO COFFEE? I NEED MY COFFEE! I turned on my cell phone to check my email and found that I was unable to send any.:) Our son-in-law who lives blocks away called on my cell to update us as to what was going on in the outside world. Truthfully, I hadn’t even looked outside at that point because it was winter so what did I expect to find different? Our son-in-law offered to come over and help chop off the layers of ice on our walk and driveway. He said he had been to Tim Horton’s to get his family coffee and breakfast already and just after he got his order they had to close down. Previously he had gone to the gas station to fill up his car and scathed that as well. There was a huge line up there and shortly after his visit, all the pumps were closed down. He had heard on the car radio that many transformers were blown in the city from the rain freezing on the wires. They are saying we may not have power until Christmas!  A quarter of a million homes without heat and power and I am one of them.

I WANT COFFEE! I decided to brave the ice and the cold and I went out in the knee-deep snow filled backyard so I could turn on the bbq to boil some water. Layered up with boots, coat, gloves and scarf, I found myself having to stomp very hard with my every step to break the ice layers that had formed atop the snow. When I approached the bbq which my husband had so meticulously wrapped with it’s cover, laden with bricks atop so the winter would not blow it away, I began chiseling about 4 inches of ice which had formed on top of and around the full-length cover. It was as stiff as a brick wall. I kicked it continuously to shatter the ice and continued chiseling for about ten more minutes. THAT COVER WASN’T COMING OFF UNTIL NEXT SPRING!

Before coming back inside, I turned around to have a look at the extent of the ice formulation in my garden.  I couldn’t believe my once bare leafed trees after autumn’s departure now weighted down by icicle branches. The pictures below should give you an indication as to the conditions just by seeing how the branches had sustained the falling rain and being frozen instantly in mid air.

So I have resolved myself to no coffee and a bowl of cereal and I am declaring this a writing day.  I am grateful that I had gotten the flashlights and candles ready last night as well as charged my laptop’s back-up battery. I cannot connect to the outside world on the computer but I have a lot of publications stored I can read and catch up on and right now I am topping up the charge to my cell phone on it as well.

2pm – The lights came on for a brief interlude. I thought the media was over-hyping the outage and within 20 minutes my exhilaration was short-lived. I am writing now at 7pm by candlelight. Instead of my lovely seabass dinner, I shall be dining on a can of salmon and some crackers. As I wrote the afternoon away, I waited and waited to go take a shower and blow dry my hair, but I finally succumbed to a candle lit shower as the dark was fast approaching. In the excitement of my big power reprieve at 2pm I had stuck in a load of laundry, which still remains soaking in suds 20 minutes into the cycle, hours ago. I am currently typing this as a word document so it’s ready to transfer onto my blog at the next sign of power.

Perhaps the media got it right – no power until Christmas? One quarter of a million people here without power! They are calling for the temps to drop to minus 18 on Tuesday. I sparingly went on my cell phone to get a news update on the situation and was disheartened to learn there is no news, no resolve as of yet. They are calling this the worst ice storm to ever hit Toronto.

Today, now it is 3pm EST I am posting this as I just got power! A Christmas blessing after having to leave my home this morning in search of warmth and coffee and a car charger, I am happy to be here back to my cyber world. We often take things for granted because they are always there, but let us be aware of the tender mercies we receive every day and please pray for the 200,000 others who are without heat and electricity at this special time of year. Many won’t have power until the weekend.

Besides the many stranded travelers who are trying to get to their loved ones for Christmas and the many last minute shoppers who are out of luck until this passes, the question remains….Will anyone be getting a nice cooked turkey dinner for Christmas?

Happy Holidays to you all!