D.G. Kaye's Blog, page 84

August 8, 2019

Special Friday Feature – Balroop Singh Launches New #Poetry Book

I’m thrilled to welcome Balroop Singh here today as part of her Blog Tour to help spread the word about her newest Poetry Book Launch – Moments – We Love. For those of you new to Balroop’s poetry, you’re in for a real treat. Balroop pulls from the heart and soul, her thoughts on life’s moments and leaves us feeling inspired and often with something to think about. The beauty of all Balroop’s books is that they can be read in bite-sized pieces, one sitting, randomly, and you may just take something from each poem and find something new when you read again. Oh, and isn’t the cover just beautiful! So let’s get to know more about Balroop and her latest book.       Balroop Singh Author Bio: Balroop Singh, a former teacher and an educationalist always had a passion for writing.  She is a poet, a creative non-fiction writer, a relaxed blogger and a doting grandma. She writes about people, emotions and relationships. Her poetry highlights the fact that happiness is not a destination but a chasm to bury agony, anguish, grief, distress and move on! No sea of solitude is so deep that it can drown us. Sometimes aspirations are trampled upon, the boulders of exploitation and discrimination may block your path but those who tread on undeterred are always successful. When turbulences hit, when shadows of life darken, when they come like unseen robbers, with muffled exterior, when they threaten to shatter your dreams, it is better to break free rather than get sucked by the vortex of emotions. A self-published author, she is the poet of Sublime Shadows of Life and  Emerging From Shadows, both widely acclaimed poetry books. She has also written When Success Eludes, Emotional Truths Of Relationships Read FREE with Kindle Unlimited and Allow Yourself to be a Better Person.     Book Blurb: Moments of fragrant love that stand frozen in time, of dreams that dare not unfold, of passion that fleets by, of erratic joy that we meet at the crossroads of life, butterflies of time that add color to our dark moments to scare the demons away – I have gathered all of them in this book. Some of them whisper softly to create a magical aura while spring of life sings with them, trying to wipe silent tears. Mother Nature steps in with all her grandeur to breath quiet messages of tranquility. Each poem would soothe your emotions with élan and add a dash of color to your life. Life – that doesn’t halt for your sad moments; that just floats by. You just need to dive in to soak in myriads of moments to discover how it could ignite positive tones. All the poems in this collection are imaginary but inspired from people around me, some of whom chose to share their frustrations and tremors with me. Sometimes I could read between the lines to pen my thoughts down.   Memories and moments merge here Today when I return to share The glow of rainbows Embers of emotional entreaties And smoldering debris.   Book Information:   Title: Moments We Love Author: Balroop Singh Genre: Poetry Available at: Kindle https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07W57M462 US UK DE FR ES IT NL JP BR CA MX AU IN     The Editor’s Review:   A brilliant poet may not color the tangible but rather unearth the hues of the intangible to coat specific dimensions to life. Balroop Singh masterfully spots the hues, decluttering them to seek particularity, taking us to the core of her dynamic worldview. ‘Words just swirled around us, Eager to be spoken, Sitting on the tip of tongues, We were guessing, The stories that lay within’ is one of her call-outs to help unhide the potent of what we don’t express.   Moments We Love is an enthralling and affecting spread of poems on a table where Balroop’s polished menu commands that the cuisines of life be consumed gently, each breath be taken consciously, and the fleeting feels between the lines be mined timely. While ‘Breezy silence of your eyes, When they stirred skies’ points to the unimaginable possibilities of a heart with warmth, and ‘Morning mist obscured my view, Chilly winds enveloped me, Yet the lure of unknown love’ romances us into the sweetness of longing, ‘I pass by this desolate path, Receding foliage reminds me, Blossoms don’t smile here’ singes our passivity to avoid a future of disquiet. What oxygenates in the book for the reader is the author’s uncompromising clarity that flows inward, and while it brims inside with rhythm and melody, we begin to make sense of what rushes outward, altering perspectives. And though the world that her words weave reflects our realities, she doesn’t abandon us for her webs of hard truths—if maneuvered lovingly, have solutions within. ‘A precursor of serenity, Glimmer glows within me, I abandoned your crutches.’ When I was reading the book, I was constantly reminded of the likelihood that some of the poems might be autobiographical, impressing me since only a brave and intelligent writer could dish out the emotions like she did; only a compassionate writer could stand in the line of fire and yet smile, and yet be thoroughly objective for the benefit of the others. Book after book that Balroop has penned, she has been unwaveringly consistent with her universal themes. And with Moments We Love, she eloquently inspires us to believe in self and stand tall without fear; that our fear is indeed our solution. The impact of her verse is such that when I look at a peach and think that if peach were fear and its seed a solution, I can chew through the fruit—gently and consciously and through the heartbeats of resistance—to find my solution. Well, Balroop can unearth the hues of the seed without a single bite, which defines her writing. Like she writes, ‘Still holding the fragments? Still haunted by ghosts? Loosen that grip, Let the demons fly.’ Yes, I say. Eat your fear. After all, the solution is at the core and we can plant the seed to sprout more solutions. –  Mahesh Nair   Excerpt:   Eternal Love Like soft flowers under our feet Like lovely drops of first rain Like moonlight soothing our eyes Love tiptoes into our life It carries us far into wilderness, Its magic unfolds with trust Its gentle caresses mesmerize Its fragrance ferries amorous delight Love is that exquisite emotion Which remains deeply dormant Till that irresistible urge beckons And it becomes a force to reckon Love ignites a fire within us A fire of passion, of quest, of possession It leads us into new adventures It makes life so exhilarating Love drowns dreary thoughts It gives wings to our heart, It transports us into another world A world of blissful choice True love keeps smiling in our eyes Like a fountain that never dries It instills hope, respect, patience The journey of love is so elating.   Balroop Singh has always lived through her heart. She is a great nature lover; she loves to watch birds flying home. The sunsets allure her with their varied hues that they lend to the sky. She can spend endless hours listening to the rustling leaves and the sound of waterfalls. The moonlight streaming through her garden, the flowers, the meadows, the butterflies cast a spell on her. She lives in San Ramon, California.   You can visit her blog at: http://balroop2013.wordpress.com   Connecting links: https://twitter.com/BalroopShado https://www.facebook.com/pages/Emotio... https://www.pinterest.com/balroops/ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.amazon.com/Balroop-Singh/...    
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Published on August 08, 2019 22:13

August 6, 2019

Felony or Flattery? #Copyright Infringement and Content Scraping

I had a couple of non-fun-filled days chasing down copyright thieves. It seems to be a rampant thing these days as quite a few of us writers share with each other when we spot an author friend’s books for sale – somewhere they shouldn’t be.   Hugh Roberts mentioned in a post last week about finding his book on a site KissLibrary dot net and shared that he sent them a DMCA (the old cease and desist letter or further action would follow). No, I’m not going to highlight a link to them and give SEO the pleasure. Hugh informed me he saw all of my books for sale there too. Interestingly enough I could not find my books there and nothing came up when I put my name in the search bar. I commiserated with Hugh through email and he took a screenshot of the page where my books were, yet I couldn’t see them. I FBI’d the site for a contact to send a DMCA, and found it down at the way bottom of the page in small print, filled out the form and sent it off, but not before I did a little more sleuthing. Their address was proudly listed on their front page – somewhere in Alberta, Canada. Was that why I couldn’t see my books but others could? Because I’m Canadian? I needed to dig a little further. I Googled up Domain Tools and clicked on the WHOIS, to look up the site owner. There I discovered a wealth of information, then copying the IP address and typing that into the IP Addresslookup  and found this little setup is actually  run from Russia! It wasn’t so easy to send my notice because we have to include the links to the infringed material we’re accusing of stealing – Links I couldn’t see. So I got my Fey Sister, Colleen, to go to the site and type in my name. Sure enough she saw all my books for sale, but there was no way when I went to that link that I could see them! Well . . . I guess they didn’t know who they were dealing with. Colleen clicked on each of my books at a time and copied each link to each book and pasted and sent to me. I had my back up evidence! I could see them listed individually. By the next day, my books were removed without even a reply from them. That event took up half my day, then I proceeded to Google myself and found another site selling my books. That one was Thriftbooks dot com. There they were my books for sale. I’ve been told this is a resale site for our books. I personally, don’t appreciate seeing my books on a thrift resale site. This site was even trickier to find a contact person, but I’d learned from my investigations that if I can’t find the owners, I can send my complaint to the Host of the server. I went through the WHOIS again, which led me to find GoDaddy was their host. I then proceeded to the GoDaddy page and clicked on the bottom of the page “report abuse’ and filled out the form there and sent it off. Oh, the day didn’t end there. About an hour after sending out notices, Colleen sends me a link to tygpress.com where many of us bloggers have our blogs stolen and displayed in plain day! The site is called tygpress.com. If you find your blog posts violated on that site, this is where you need to go and report (many of us have already done the WHOIS search on them). Below is the link where anyone can send  a DMCA notice to. https://www.digitalocean.com/company/...   BUT . . . before I could get this post out, it seems enough bloggers complained because as of yesterday afternoon . . . Update: I found this on tygpress – now a 404 page apologizing for harvested content. I guess all the complaints really do work!   About free books  Colleen, Hugh, and myself have come to the conclusion that the way these sites steal our books and sell them on their sites is when we give our books away on free promo. Both Colleen and Hugh found their only books pirated were the ones they ever put on free. As for me, I’ve had all my books on free at some point over the years, hence, all my books have been pirated on various sites. Stealing an artist’s work is not right, it’s not legal, and it’s quite frankly disgusting. Like everything else in life, if we don’t stand up and speak out and call out the thieves, they will continue to get away with these copyright crimes. It’s important that we take a stand, call out these pirates publicly and send forth DMCA letters to have our work removed from the offending sites. Like I mentioned above, if a site doesn’t offer a link to fill out a DMCA, then we must go investigate the site owner through the WHOIS. It’s also a good idea to fill out Google alerts with our book’s names so that Google can send us alerts when they spot something with our names listed, so we can investigate. In the meantime, I’m still waiting for replies from the DMCA notice I sent out to the thrift site, but I’m going to share some interesting links you can check out on how we can best try to protect our copyrights:   How to protect your blog from being copied http://www.blogtipsntricks.com/2014/0...   How to find out if your blog is being ‘content scraped’ Content Scrapers – How to Find Out Who is Stealing Your Content & What to Do About It   Is your blog being ‘harvested’? Please Read – Your Blog May Have Been Harvested!     I came across this helpful blog on how to file a DMCA https://www.whoishostingthis.com/reso...     Hugh’s recent post includes information on what he discovered, and he’s included some helpful links to sleuth out copyright criminals in his post 5 Things I Discovered During My Blogging Break   Here’s more info on tygpress, it seems Godaddy was a previous host and now digital ocean seems to be the current host. https://statuslite.com/domain/tygpres...   One blogger even went so far in his post to create an image he began adding to every one of his posts so that when they were infringed and showing on tygpress, this image would display on the post. He kindly offered any bloggers to help themselves to copy and save the image. (I had planned on adding this to each of my posts, but gratefully, the site has been taken down.         If you Google ‘tygpress dot com’ you will find a slew of blogger’s recent posts writing about and warning of this infringing site. All one had to do was type in their name or blog name and I saw so many of friend’s posts there. It’s difficult to keep abreast on all the thievery going on in our cyber world, but one thing that’s helpful is making sure your copyright notice stands out on your page. I have moved up my notice on my top side bar and also including at the bottom of my posts now. For the not so daring infringers, these blatant notices may help to deter them – somewhat. Please be proactive and Google yourselves every once in awhile. If we don’t stop this thievery on infringement one at a time, these infringers will continue to steal our work. And if you come across any suspicious sites, be a buddy and share on your blogs to give others a heads up.   Do you have anything to share with us here about anything suspicious you’ve come across?   ©DGKaye
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Published on August 06, 2019 07:46

August 3, 2019

Sunday Book Review – Glossy Lips – Cold Cream Murders Book 1

My Sunday Book Review this week is on Barbara Silkstone’s  – Glossy Lips -Book 1 of her Cold Cream series. I don’t remember where I got an introduction to Silkline’s books, but as I do enjoy a great escape, cozy murder chicklit romp once in awhile, I took a chance on this book, and was not disappointed.       Blurb: Series: more books on the way! ~~~Olive Peroni put out her family therapy shingle six years ago, never thinking her top client would be Myron Meyers, head of a New York crime family. When Olive’s Nonna dies and leaves her a condo in Florida and a secret recipe for miracle cold cream, she grabs the chance at a new life in Starfish Cove, Florida, making designer creams for ladies who spend far too much time at the beach. Business is brisk and life is good! Olive even makes a wild new best friend in Lizzy, the real estate agent who handles the transfer of Nonna’s condo. When a dead body is found in the trunk of Lizzy’s car, Olive despairs that life in Starfish Cove won’t be any different than the one she thought she’d escaped. But this time, instead of listening to confessions of murder, Olive’s going to have to solve one. Maybe two… Contains a recipe for Olive & Lizzy’s super-creamy homemade lip gloss! Book I in series ~ GLOSSY LIPS Book 2 in series ~ SMOKEY EYES Book 3 in series ~ SOAP ON A ROPE Book 4 in series ~ SUN SCREAM – Coming July 2019   My 5 Star Review: This book was a fun romp in the cozy mystery – chicklit genre that made me feel as though I was tagging along the ride with Lizzy and Olive. Olive Peroni, a family therapist in New York receives news her Nonna (grandmother) died in Florida. Olive packs up to go there to settle Nonna’s estate and in doing so, serendipity strikes when Olive hires Lizzy to sell Nonna’s condo, and before the deal is sealed, Olive decides to keep the condo and relocate there after making fast and good friends with Lizzy. Olive had enough of listening to people’s problems and decides to start a new business in Florida selling Nonna’s prized beauty cream, a secret that only few were aware of to bring back the fountain of youth. Once the friendship blossomed, the action heats up when strange things begin happening, starting with a dead body found in Lizzy’s trunk. Soon more characters emerge and Olive finds herself right in the thick of things when this cleverly written mission to solve the murder ensues and the new best friends become entangled in the murder investigation. To be honest, I was only going to give this book 4 stars because I felt the story moved a bit slow through the first few chapters, but once the body showed up, I was hooked and wondering whodunit. As the evidence mounted (with well done clues dropped throughout the investigation), my suspicion was correct. And I’ll also add that the blurb may have one thinking this is a mafia story when in fact, the character of Myron is by far, not a significant character in the story. But the book offered a satisfying ending with lots of witty lines by the characters, and I will definitely be reading more in this series.   ©DGKaye
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Published on August 03, 2019 22:09

August 1, 2019

Writer’s Tips – Rejected Manuscripts, Formatting in Word, Create Free Book Covers and More!

This week’s edition of Writer’s Tips is focused on: Working with your Word Styles Ribbon, Author Tips, Writing Aids, Creating Free Book Covers, Why Manuscripts get Rejected, and How to Formulate the Elevator Pitch.     Louise Harnby shares in-depth information on how to work with your Styles ribbon in Word to help format your books. https://www.louiseharnbyproofreader.c...     9 Things Authors should be doing, by Indies Unlimited. 9 Things Authors Aren’t Doing (And Should Be Doing)     The Kindlepreneur, Dave Chesson, offers a great list of writing aids. https://kindlepreneur.com/software-fo...     How to create Book Covers for free with Publishing Drive. How to Create a Book Cover for Free     Ruth Harris on the blog of Anne R. Allen sharing tips on how to formulate an Elevator Pitch for our books. Razzle-Dazzle: The Art and Craft of the Elevator Pitch     Anne R. Allen is sharing 8 potential reasons our manuscripts may be rejected. Source: Rejections: 8 reasons why your manuscript is getting them   ©DGKaye  
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Published on August 01, 2019 22:00

July 31, 2019

A Day in the Life of this Retrograde

Seriously, you can’t make this shyte up. I just had to share the craziness of how Mercury remains well at work in my life.   This is an episode of yesterday’s visit to the dentist. It demonstrates how communications get misconstrued, change comes suddenly, and the usual surprise of something that is going to cost money. I’ll give a little backstory to the lead up.   Me and my husband have gone to the same dentist for twenty years. When we first found Dr. B, it was while we were living in our condo and Dr. B was newly opening up shop a mere 5 minutes from our home. She’d sent out flyers to the neighborhood to promote herself and gather new business. This worked out great for me as my long-time dentist had recently announced he was retiring, and hub had a dentist far away he didn’t care for. Through the years we moved several times and some of our homes had us living a good 45 minute drive from Dr. B’s cozy office, but we kept the same dentist. When we moved to where we live now, we were back to a 5 minute convenient drive. Throughout the years I’ve made friends with new hygenists coming and going as well as receptionists. But Marcy was a constant throughout the years, Marcy was always part-time, Saturdays, and very efficient. Going to the dentist for me was a social event chatting with the girls, including Dr. B and often staying way longer after my appointment finished, for chats. We go to the dentist every 3-4 months, and at my previous appointment I booked for the next appointment which was to be for June. Nancy was the receptionist there for years and very efficient at reminder calls and rescheduling and so forth. But two weeks before my booked appointment in June, it wasn’t Nancy, but part-time Marcy who called midweek to inform me that Dr. B. was moving her office in July, so she was calling to tell me about the relocation. Apparently, the kerfuffle began a month after my previous appointment in March. So in April Dr.B was informed by her lessor that the medical complex had been sold so everyone in the plaza was getting booted with 3 months notice. Me and Neem (my hygenist and friend) surmise Dr. B knew it was coming because conveniently she’d bought herself her own building over a year ago and built a new very mode dentist practice, knowing the boot would eventually happen because real estate in Toronto here is very precious and stores and plazas are being torn down left and right to put up more condos. Condos, condos, condos! But I digress, so anyhoo, Marcy gave me the scoop and I questioned why she was there during the week instead of Nancy, and apparently there was some unpleasantries taken place between Nancy and Dr. B about the relocating notice. Marcy told me she was now working a few days a week plus her standard Saturdays. And so I asked her where the new place was located. I will mention that Nancy and Marcy both live close enough to walk to work. Marcy gave me the address of the new location, which I knew the area well because it was 2 minutes from my dad’s old family business. But I also knew the area was an industrial area and across from the University so it was a traffic cored area. Not thrilled to say the least after being so conveniently located for years, I weighed out the facts, remembering she’s a great dentist and the girls who work there are always great, so decided we’d try it out and see how we felt about the new location, so I made the appointment, a double for both hub and myself since it was no longer conveniently located, which previously permitted us to go separately when it best fit our own calendar, plus I knew hub would definitely get lost going their on his own the first time. So Marcy booked hub with Neem and Dr. B would clean my teeth at the same time. But, that’s not how it all actually turned out. A day after I make the new appointments with Marcy, I get a letter in the mail announcing Dr. B is closing the office because the building has been sold, and asking that we let her know if we want our dentistry records sent to another recommended dentist office with 4 dentists right in the plaza of the condo we first lived in – again a 5 minute drive to where I live now, and virtually, a 2 minute walk from where Nancy and Marcy live, or we should call her new office building for booking future appointments. Now I knew my June appointment was moved just the day before to the new locale so I didn’t pay the letter any mind till I looked at it again yesterday to get the phone number from to add to my phone because the email I received the day before confirming our appointments from Marcy, left directions, and after the labyrinth we’d go through we were instructed to park in a particular area, and call her, then she’d come outside to give us a parking pass and proceed to show us where we were to park. I will mention, it was 34 degrees celcius, more like 40 with the humidity. Well, I left hub in the car to meet Marcy halfway, and instead of standing in the heat, proceeded to walk into the office. She was still busy at her desk. A family of 3 walked out as I entered and commented, this set up of parking and coming from afar was not worth it. In that moment I was silently nodding in agreement to myself. While Marcy was finishing up with payment from a patient, Neem came out and grabbed the parking pass and took me outside to show me where to park and where to leave the pass on the dash then we chatted for a few minutes about what the heck is going on with the location, and that it wasn’t convenient for many long-time patients. While we’re chatting I’m watching 2 police officers having a field day writing up tickets for illegal parkers. Neem lets me know that this place is too far for her with a now commute of almost 3 hours a day for a 5 hour shift. She said she’ll stick it out until the snow comes and is pretty sure the winter will help make her decision to leave. We also talked about the letter that I found weird. Neem proceeds to tell me that the letter was a mistake, it was an option for those who wished to stay in the area, but apparently quite a few were taking that option. So I said I may check out the suggested dentist office as well, and ask a few questions about their services, and maybe I’ll end up going there too. So Neem says, if I go there, would I mention her availability to whomever I speak to because she wouldn’t mind working there too. Then she went inside and I ran back to the car with the pass and drove with hub to the parking lot, and we grabbed a beautiful handicapped spot right facing the front of the office building. We were instructed to place the pass on the dashboard, and return it to Marcy when we were ready to leave. Pass was in place on the dash and we walked across the street and when we walked in the office Marcy greeted us. We chit chatted, my husband’s phone rang so Marcy and I continued to chat, then Neem came to call me in and stopped to chat with us too. We had a few chuckles of the craziness going on with the move, and I asked where Dr. B was because she was doing my teeth and Neem told me no, Dr. B wasn’t coming in today (as she had her own mercury madness to contend with),  so Neem would be cleaning my teeth and someone else would be cleaning hub’s teeth. My arms flew up as I was a bit disappointed that nobody told me this or I may have booked for another day because as much as I love Neem doing my teeth, I had a few questions for the dentist, and hub was complaining of feeling a lot of sensitivity in one of his teeth – both requiring Dr. B to have a look. But we were there and after all the kerfuffle and having finally parked the car, we stayed. The dental rooms were partially open concept – 4 rooms with half walls. I could see hub diagonally located across from me. Neem and I are gabbing (as best as I could respond with tools in my mouth) about making plans to get together socially. Then 2 minutes later, while Neem is working on my teeth, I had a revelation and pushed her hand away, and darted out of the chair. I shouted to my husband kitty-corner to me, Did you put the handicapped license on the dashboard? He replies with garbled words with an instrument in his mouth, “Shit, I forgot.” I knew it! We were so frazzled with the parking pass, and placing it on the dash, we both forgot to pull the handicapped license from the visor and place it on the dashboard to avoid a steeeeeeep ticket for illegally parking in a handicapped spot. It already happened once before, my hub was fined in front of his doctor’s office for not placing the license in a perfect eye level place for a police to see it, which I fought and won, and thought I’d drilled the lesson into him. But, apparently, we both forgot this time, which has never happened, and I had a flash of those cops writing tickets while we were waiting for the parking pass, and I didn’t recall seeing the license on the dash, so I panicked. If those cops were still ticketing, this could be a $500 fine, and this time there’d be nothing to fight because it wasn’t about how the license was positioned, but that it wasn’t there at all. I jumped out of the chair, ran over to hub to grab the car key and ran like a bat out of hell to the parking lot. And gratefully, no ticket! I opened the door and grabbed the license from the envelope and placed it precisely on the dashboard, smacked the door shut, and ran back to my chair. It was hot. When I came back, Neem presented me with a lovely gift, a whitening kit. She told me she told Marcy she wanted to give me something in appreciation for how long I’d been with Dr. B and all the crap I went through already. I finished getting my pearly whites cleaned and checked up on hub, and found he has a cracked crown causing his discomfort, which in turn will have us going back soon again when Dr. B is there for hub to get fitted for a new crown. $$$$. Yup, Mercury Retrograde supposedly ends tomorrow, but I know from experience, it will take its sweet time leaving as it lingers and wanes for another 2 weeks. Till then, I’m lying low!   ©DGKaye    
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Published on July 31, 2019 11:34

July 30, 2019

Strange Happenings In This Mercury Retrograde – Technical Woes

I don’t know about you people, but this Mercury Retrograde is wreaking havoc in many aspects of my life – especially everything technical and digital.   Mercury Retrograde is the phase in the planets where planets pass each other, and the more going on, the crazier things get. Let us add to this Retrograde the full moon with a half lunar eclipse and we have a recipe for crazy time. Mercury goes into Retrograde 3 – 4 times a year. This means that Mercury appears to be running in the opposite direction of the earth as it orbits around the sun. As Mercury moves slower than the earth it leaves us with the illusion that it’s moving in Retrograde. Mercury rules communications, technology, and transportation systems, so it’s really no big surprise that in these times of Retrograde that many plans – travel, communications, and technical devices are affected. And I can say with certainty that I’ve had my fill of this edition! We are told to avoid signing legal documents, making travel plans, buying a home or to refrain from making expensive purchases during the Retrograde phase. But life goes on and many aren’t aware of the crazy snafus occurring, only that ‘weird things’, delays, and cancellations of plans are common fallout of this phase. I for one cannot waitttttttttttt for this Retrograde to be over! I won’t bother getting into the mishaps I’ve endured in these past few weeks, but I will mention some of my technical woes I’ve encountered – ironically, only beginning when the Retrograde was surfacing.       So here are some of the hair-tearing experiences I’ve been dealing with on a daily basis since early July: My laptop needs an exorcism big time! It has developed a new habit of freezing up on me where I have no option but to do a hard shutdown and reboot. Intermittently, my laptop likes to just close all tabs in the middle of doing anything or just go to a black screen, forcing me to do another hard shutdown and reboot. This is still ongoing and happens approximately 20 times a day! I am blaming it on Google Chrome. I’ve surmised it’s the culprit in the madness from my investigations. And following all the prompts and updates to the extension hasn’t helped. Windows 10 updates are a nightmare (as usual), when it takes the liberty of downloading updates that coincidentally wind up unticking items and ticking other items I haven’t ticked off in my systems operations, leaving me having to waste hours searching for what went wrong, and of course, fixes for the ailments. My website – don’t get me started! I went through 2 weeks of madness every time I drafted a post and previewed it, only to find my header took the liberty of plastering itself in duplicate and triplicate all over each blog post I drafted. Despite the agro I endured, I am grateful for the ‘preview before posting’ option so I could see the disasters before I posted, which then sent me on a couple of hours of madness trying out different tricks to stop the invasion. I thought it was my theme, but in the end, I discovered that after a recent Jetpack update that I could no longer copy and paste from another blog that I was reblogging or sharing links from because it was now catching code from the blog I was copying from. Resolution – I’m now copy and pasting what I need from a post onto a Word doc. After I paste, the option comes up asking me if I’d like to ‘keep source formatting’, and that’s where I click NO. From the Word doc I then paste over to my blog. Yes, I love all the new added steps. NOT! And if the above website woes were not enough, I’ve began to encounter problems with sharing buttons when I visit other blogs: Facebook is giving many of us writers grief when it comes to sharing a post there. I’ve come across a few blogs where I hit the FB share button on a blog and it won’t share because FB deems A POST ON WRITING inappropriate and abusive! As a person who believes in sharing a post I enjoyed and feel would benefit or entertain others, when the share buttons don’t work, I take the long way around to share. I simply copy the URL of the post, go to my FB page or group directly, and share it to the page or group manually – and yet, some blogs are still deemed unacceptable to share according to FB rules, I find the whole thing totally moronic that writers posts are inappropriate but trolls are taking over that site at alarming rates. Tweet buttons on over 80% of the blogs I read daily have disappeared and are merely replaced with the word ‘tweet’. This mystery I have yet to resolve, but I’ve found a workaround, yet again. I added an ‘Add Any‘ extension to my bookmarks bar. It’s a universal sharing extension that when I click on while on a post, or any other site I wish to share info from, a dropdown box appears with icons for all the various social media sites. I just click on the icon to where I want to share an article to and it sends. The only problem I’m having with using Add Any to tweet from is that it copies all the info just as if I’m sharing from the Twitter button on a blog, only it doesn’t tag the handle of the post owner. And to be quite honest, I certainly don’t remember the handles of every writer. And when I’m reading numerous blogs and sharing, I’m just not able to jump to Twitter every single time I’m sharing and look for the person’s handle. So please forgive me, and know that when I’m reading your blogs, I’m still sharing to Twitter, only you may not be notified that your post was shared by me. I will continue to tweet by this method until such time that a new WordPress update stops the madness. I also use the Add Any to share to MeWe.com where several writers have opened up a page of their own and a few of us run author groups there. As of yet, there is no share button offered from WordPress for that site, so Add Any is helpful in that respect. Comments – There are a few blogs I visit regularly which I leave comments and never get a reply back from. Now, I know these writers, and I know they always reply to comments. I think I’ve detected the problem: Some of these blogs have boxes to tick off after we leave a comment. One of those boxes says: ‘Click here to receive replies to comments’. Well, I tried that route, and some of those blogs get many comments on their blogs and what I receive in notifications by email are tonssssss of comments and replies from every blogger who leaves a comment on that post. I had to uncheck this because I assumed it meant a reply to my comment not every comment that is written on that blog. So if you are responding to my comments, please know that if I don’t acknowledge your responses it’s because I’m not receiving them as I normally used to up in my notification bar from WordPress. I also will note all blogs I visit that are not on the WordPress system, such as Blogspot, I never have and still don’t receive replies to my comments from there. Just to inform you of the duration period for this Retrograde period, Mercury began it’s pre-shadowing to the Retrograde on June 20th, going full Retrograde July 7th, and won’t end until it’s post-shadow on August 15th. Ya, that’s a long time, especially when it comes to having to endure with technical woes. If you’d like to share your Mercury woes in comments, please feel free. And if any of you have encountered same share button and/or comment issues on other blogs, I’m all ears!   ©DGKaye  
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Published on July 30, 2019 02:00

July 27, 2019

June Non-Fiction/Memoirs/Biographies Author Interviews International Book Promotion

Something a little different here today instead of my usual Sunday Book Review – which I happen to be only 3/4 of the way through my current read.  So today I’m sharing my responses to a collaborative author interview series I was invited to partake in last month by Jasveena Prabhagaran at International Book Promotions. Jas is a generous promoter of the work of writers and always has a call out to authors to join in her monthly interview series, with every month’s features focused on a different genre of writing. If you are a member of any of my groups on Facebook or MeWe you will find Jas a member to all those groups, so it’s easy to meet her there.   You can find this interview HERE, along with answers to each question from 11 other authors. In this post, you will find the questions asked of all 12 of us with solely my answers.       1st Question: An author could easily write a fiction book out of some true events to keep things confidential. But you chose to write a non-fiction book. What encouraged you?    I’ve always been a truth teller and a sharer of stories of my observations. When I wrote my first book, it was born from a compilation of years of journaling about my life growing up with a narcissistic mother. Putting that book together became like a cathartic release. From that book forward, I wanted to continue talking about real life situations I encountered and overcame, wanting to share my experiences in hopes that others may be enlightened. I chose not to disguise my stories in fiction, but to share my truth openly.   2nd Question: What is the message you aim to deliver from the non-fiction book(s) you wrote?  All my books hold messages in them. I share my stories on various topics on life experiences so that others who relate can learn how I overcame my own obstacles, giving them hope that there is always a way for resolution if we first identify and admit our shortcomings.   3rd Question: Have you written anything based on your life experiences? All my books are written based on my own life experiences. My books cover topics such as: growing up as an emotionally neglected child, living with a narcissistic mother, finding forgiveness, menopause humor, growing my self-esteem, travel observations, and how I kept a marriage going strong despite all the curve balls along the way.   4th Question:  Have you felt called in some way to write a book on a given topic?  I’m not sure about a calling. But I can say with certainty that when I get an idea about something, I’m sure to write or talk about it in some method, whether it be by a new book or writing on my blog. If I learn something new, I feel compelled to share with others.   5th Question: There are cases of non-fiction books being fabricated with false and misleading information. How much truth should a non-fiction book hold? If it’s a non-fiction or memoir book, it absolutely must be factual. It’s not uncommon for an author to use creative non-fiction, for instance, in memoir, when we recall an exact detail – example, maybe it wasn’t a bright, sunny day or perhaps the red dress was really green although we remember it as red, or the description of one of the character’s jobs has been changed to protect identity. These examples stated are just a few to demonstrate how truth may be altered, as memories are as the storyteller remembers something. And as far as changing names and occupations of characters goes, it is to protect identity and should be declared in the front matter of the book as a disclaimer. This is all acceptable for writing non-fiction – making up events and characters is not.   6th Question: Did you use references from other sources/facts/science when writing your book?  No, all of my stories are taken from my own real life experiences.   7th Question: What do you primarily aim to achieve with your book? I write to share my experiences with others. I’ve always felt it was my duty to share what we learn with others. I hope that my stories inspire others by letting them know that there is always a way out of a bad situation. Despite there not being any overnight remedies for life, if we dissect the issues around us and strive to find solutions, we’ll find there is always one.   8th Question: Have you feared rejection or being judged by your family and friends with the topics you choose to discuss in your book? Absolutely! I think every author fears rejection. But when we write personal stories, which almost always entail bringing in other people in our lives and ultimately, into our stories, it’s quite unnerving to think about the prospect of sharing it to the world. We worry about who we may upset, will we get sued, will that person in my book ever talk to me again? My advice is to write freely; don’t get blocked by possible repercussions. Get the story out on paper then begin working on the concerning issues when revisions begin. We must be cautious about our descriptions and wording. It’s highly advised to speak with the characters in our books for permissions and to settle uncomfortable conflicts before publishing.   9th Question: As a non-fiction writer, what is the challenge you face when writing your book(s)?  How much I can possibly tell without hurting someone else or divulging private information.   10th Question:  Writing the truth is very liberating. How do you feel when the book is finally out and being acknowledged by the public? I always feel apprehensive just before publishing, worrying if the book is good enough, entertaining enough in narration, and worrying about if my readers will enjoy it. But once the book is out, there is a sense of accomplishment and excitement in anticipation of the first review to come in, which gives me a sense of what the reader took from my book.   11th Question:  Have you written anything else apart from non-fiction books?  I have written quite a bit of poetry and flash fiction and essays. But to be honest, even my poetry and fictional stories are always based on a truth – in these instances the truth is hidden within the story instead of directly spoken by me as I write in non-fiction.   12th Question:  How do you market and brand yourself as an author?  Marketing is not my favorite part of being an Indie author, as many Indies will agree about marketing. We write because we have the passion. We market because we must get our names and our books out into a world that is swimming in millions of other books, so it becomes part of our job as writers to promote our own work. This is far from the fun stuff and also very time-consuming – eating into our writing lives. I try to balance my marketing by sharing the works of others in my writing community, which causes the effect of others sharing in return. I run a blog on my website where I share all kinds of information, from my own stories, to writing tips, book reviews, author interviews and blog shares. I’m active on social media, doing the same. I run several groups on various social media sites. All these things are part of being an independently published author because if my presence isn’t kept alive, neither are my books. By sharing and helping others, we build good rapports with others in our writing community, and in turn we become part of other people’s network. The trick is to share useful information, share the work of others, join writing groups, keep abreast of the publishing business by subscribing to newsletters, and most importantly – don’t spam people with ‘buy my book’. Nobody is interested in being sold to. If we become a part of a community and give back, others are only too happy to help celebrate and share our victories.   Please visit International Book Promotions to read about 11 other author’s answers to these same questions, offering varying perspectives. And while you’re there, why not sign up to be interviewed too by Jasveena.   Originally posted at International Book Promotions – 12 Questions for 12 Nonfiction/Memoir Author Interviews    
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Published on July 27, 2019 22:00

July 25, 2019

#WATWB – Random Acts of Kindness | Kindness Ideas for Children

For this month’s #WATWB – We are the World Blogfest, I hopped over to Randomactsofkindness.org to see what was new and found this wonderful effort to educate young children in the classroom about kindness.       This project is geared at promoting a social, emotional curriculum to help make schools create a culture of kindness. This is a FREE program that teachers can use to incorporate in their classrooms, taken in 6 steps – Respect, Caring, Inclusiveness, Integrity, Responsibility, and courage. I think this is fantastic method of integrating all the goodness and elements of kindness into young children to set the path straight for them to learn about treating fellow classmates and human beings with respect and kindness. Please feel free to click on the link below to learn more about this program. And help yourself to a download of the various options offered.   Kindergarten – 5th Grade Our new Kindness in the Classroom® curriculum is a Tier 1 evidenced-based social emotional learning curriculum designed to help schools create a culture of kindness. Use the tabs below to find everything you need to effectively teach important kindness skills to your kids. Click here if you are looking for Grades 6-8.   EACH UNIT TEACHES SIX CORE KINDNESS CONCEPTS: Continue reading at: https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/...   This site offers anyone to become a ‘Raktivist’ (Random Acts of Kindness activist) and join in on any of their many acts of kindness. https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/...   If you’d like to join in #WATWB, where we post on the last Friday of the month, something good going on in the world, please feel free to add your link HERE.   Your hosts for this month are:    Shilpa Garg, Simon Falk , Damyanti Biswas, Lizbeth Hartz and Eric Lahti.   ©DGKaye  
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Published on July 25, 2019 22:15

July 23, 2019

My Sixth Sense – Human in Every Sense of the Word – Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

Today I’m sharing my  “Human in Every Sense of the Word” article shared at Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord as a contribution to her series. If you’d like to take part in the series with a story to share, you will find the submission info link below.   Welcome to the Sunday Interview- Human in every sense of the word.   As humans there are five main senses that we rely on to navigate through this world.  And there is one that we all possess but do not necessarily use all the time…   Sight, Hearing, Touch, Taste, Smell….Sixth Sense. You can choose to write about one sense or all of them, including that elusive sixth sense we have clung on to from the early days of man.    If you would like to participate then here are the details along with my take on senses:https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpre...   This week’s guest is no stranger to most of you joining us this morning. Non-Fiction author D.G. Kaye (Debby Gies) has been writing the Travel Column on Smorgasbord for the last year, enticing us to travel to wonderful destinations, to be safe and to get the best from our vacations… She has also become the Comedian in Residence, joining me a couple of times a week in a quest to bring a smile to your faces.       Human in Every Sense of the Word – My Sixth Sense – IAS (Inner Alert System) – D.G. Kaye     My sixth sense superpower is my inner warning signal, urging me to take a pause and pay immediate attention to an occurrence. The delivery method to this sense is through my stomach. When something isn’t right, this messaging system is almost always never wrong, the knots within, feeling like twisted intestines, take hold. I do believe many of us have an inner alert system, flagging us to pay extra attention to a wrong-doing or danger. We have only to recognize these inner warnings so we may act on them. It’s important though to assess what we are feeling to help identify what exactly isn’t sitting right with us. Is it a feeling of unease or just plain fear? If you aren’t well versed on being able to decode these warning issues, then perhaps this isn’t your superpower. But for me, I’ve never been led astray when my twisted insides are trying to get my attention. Now, truth be told, my radar alerts are almost always warnings portending to something bad coming. It’s quite possible my intuition knows I don’t require a happiness warning, as pure joy is what comes naturally when elated. With me, it’s a message of doom that stirs within. My intestines are like my Achille’s heel. Through the years and decades, I’ve sadly had too many of these awakening moments, and I’ll share here just one incident to demonstrate how this feeling transpires. This IAS (inner alert system) is something I can’t really explain, but I know its presence well. This incident stays with me till this day and was a confirmation to myself for the first time that I was able to receive premonitions. I was twenty-five and living in my same cozy apartment I’d lived in for some 7 years by this point. I sat in front of my vanity table putting on the finishing touches of my makeup to get ready for work when I felt a sharp pull on my heartstrings and an uncomfortable twisting of my insides. I put down the lipstick and leaned back in my chair as unexplained tears began spilling down from my freshly mascaraed eyes. I didn’t question what I was feeling. I knew instinctively the weird feelings I was experiencing had nothing to do with my own health. I knew something was wrong with my father. I darted out of my chair, heading to the phone to call my father, and before I could pick up the receiver I was startled by the ringing of the phone. I made note of the time – half past 7, and everyone knows calls coming in at that time of the morning aren’t usually good news. . . please continue reading at Sally’s blog . . .   Do you have a Superpower?   ©DGKaye   Source: Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Human in Every Sense of the Word – My Sixth Sense – IAS (Inner Alert System) D.G. Kaye | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine    
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Published on July 23, 2019 02:00

July 20, 2019

Sunday (Book Review) – Something Different -The Wife – Movie #Review

  Today’s Sunday Book Review is a little different. Today I’m reviewing a movie I only recently watched – The Wife. The movie – taken from the book by Meg Wolitzer, left me with lots to think about – especially since the main characters – husband and wife, are both writers – only the storyline depicts the husband as the worthy literary master.   I’m typically, not a ‘watch the movie first and then read the book kind of gal’, rather, quite the opposite. If I’ve already read a book and loved it, I will absolutely see the movie, and of course scrutinize the writing as I watch, (bad habit), and hope the movie will do a good book justice. I’m sure we’ve all encountered a box office let down after waiting in anticipation for the movie version only to be disappointed. So, being as I missed out reading the book before the movie came to my movie channel, starring Glenn Close, I had to watch it.     Blurb: Now a major motion picture starring Glenn Close in her Golden Globe–winning role! One of bestselling author Meg Wolitzer’s most beloved books—an “acerbically funny” (Entertainment Weekly) and “intelligent…portrait of deception” (The New York Times).  The Wife is the story of the long and stormy marriage between a world-famous novelist, Joe Castleman, and his wife Joan, and the secret they’ve kept for decades. The novel opens just as Joe is about to receive a prestigious international award, The Helsinki Prize, to honor his career as one of America’s preeminent novelists. Joan, who has spent forty years subjugating her own literary talents to fan the flames of his career, finally decides to stop. Important and ambitious, The Wife is a sharp-eyed and compulsively readable story about a woman forced to confront the sacrifices she’s made in order to achieve the life she thought she wanted. “A rollicking, perfectly pitched triumph…Wolitzer’s talent for comedy of manners reaches a heady high” (Los Angeles Times), in this wise and candid look at the choices all men and women make—in marriage, work, and life.   My 5 Star Review: I can only imagine how good this book must be because the movie was so well done with Glenn Close playing an amazing and emotional role and winning the Golden Globe Award for that role as ‘the wife’. How long can a sham go on? I love a good movie with deep characters and stories that make me question how I’d react if what I was watching had happened to me – especially when it involves writers. The movie was engaging from the get-go and the plot thickened at a comfortable pace leading  to the deep-seated issue and question: What would you do if you spent a lifetime helping your spouse be praised in the literary community, when YOU are the actual one doing THEIR writing for them and the day comes that a literary award is bestowed to your spouse for your writing. It certainly made me stop and think as a writer. Yes, it’s a fictional movie, but certainly gives us pause. And no, I personally couldn’t do it, writing under the shadow of someone else to give them the credit for – spouse or no spouse. I should think if Joan chose to be a ghostwriter, there would be no story. But this is a story. The story begins with the seemingly happy middle-aged couple – Joan and Joe, elated after just receiving the news that Joe has been selected as the next winner of the International Helsinki Award to honor his work as a novelist. The story progresses along inviting us into the personal lives of the couple, the friction between Joe and his son who is also a writer desperately seeking his father’s approval, and the glamorous travel and dinner parties that come along with Joe’s new elevated fame, leaving Joan feeling slighted by Joe’s escalation to fame and the rising anger within that Joan struggles with because of. Earlier in the movie, Joan holds back her hurt and accompanies her husband to all the limelight events in his honor, but her face and actions clearly demonstrate she’s not as happy for Joe as she earlier on led us to believe. We are made to think perhaps she’s jealous of the attention he’s getting, and we don’t find out till midway through the movie what is really irking Joan. Resentment trumps love when we discover through Joan’s flashbacks, Joan’s earlier life, taking us back to Joan’s college days in English class where she fell in love with her professor – Joe. We learn that Joan had all the makings of a literary scholar, but she was young and enamored by Joe, and somehow fell into becoming the writer of Joe’s books because she was ultimately, the better writer and wanted to help her now husband succeed. The years turned into decades with this undercover operation, until Joe receives this award, which becomes the final blow to what Joan can no longer accept. I’ll end the review there, as I don’t want to give away the end. But I put myself in Joan’s shoes as a writer and couldn’t conceive myself putting out a lifetime of my work under the name of anybody else. Could you?   ©DGKaye  
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Published on July 20, 2019 22:00