Courtney Wendleton's Blog, page 142

Upcoming Book Reviews

I have over 2000 books on my “To Be Read List” and while I am trying to make a small dent in it, I keep adding to it. So my Kindle is a mess, since we are unable to compartmentalize the books. I have come up with a system but it still isn’t as clean as I would like it. Here is a rundown of the First Ten on my List:

1. Blockade Billy by Stephen King (Currently reading)

2. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Author Conan Doyle

4. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

5. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (Still not sure about this one)

6. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

7. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

8. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

9. Cirque Du Freak-A Living Nightmare by Darren Shan

10. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Short list, but some long books. I’ve also realized there are quite a few classics just in the top ten. Am I crazy?

#Paranormal Experience

I love anything to do with the paranormal, and have had enough run-ins with it that I could be considered a medium. My most vivid experience terrified me so much I never went back to my grandma’s house until she moved again.

First let me explain, up until this experience happened, my ghostly encounters had been peaceful intermittent through life. I’ve seen whole apparitions, I’ve felt cold spots and have had them interact with me on numerous occasions. This encounter was soo not what I was accustomed to by the age of 14.

A few months before the incident, my grandpa died in a house fire. My grandma obviously lost everything and had to start over. She spent Christmas in a house, but for some reason that house was only temporary. When the lease was up, she had found a little ranch style house in the town where she had grown up and moved in.

I went to visit her after she had moved in, but was still unpacking. My first thought of the one story brick house sitting a little ways back from the road on top of a knoll, was that it was cute. The closer I got the more uneasy I felt. I brushed it off thinking it is just a new house, they tend to be creepy for a few days, until you’re used to it. I walked into the house through the parking garage and laughed. It was apparent the house was built in the 70’s and never updated. As I started walking around, the funnyness of it disappeared and was replaced with dread. I noticed there were closets, almost every ten feet. I found that just bizarre, but when I opened the big one in the living room I freaked out.

I opened the door and automatically I started seeing images of a dead body shoved into the closet on the left. Blood was splattered and smudged along the back wall and yellow police tape was crossed on the door frame. It was as if I was looking at Polaroid pictures instead of an empty closet. I quickly closed the door and turned to keep looking around the house, but the images didn’t stop. I could see blood smeared halfway up the walls, and down the hallway to the two bedrooms. I went into what would have been the spare room (aka my room when I visited) and I don’t remember looking around. I think I just poked my head in with my eyes closed, afraid of seeing more bodies. In my grandma’s room I did see the body of a woman, sprawled on the floor.

Needless to say I never went back. I told my family about it, playing it off as a joke because I knew they wouldn’t believe me. I told them the place looked like it could be a 1970’s Murder House. I told them how I could just see police tape everywhere and a couple of dead bodies stuffed in the many closets. Since then I have always referred to it as 70’s Murder House. Thankfully she was only in that house for a short while before she moved in with family.

The Many Facets of Bullying

Originally posted on Ramblings of the Claury:

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Prior Lake dad uses YouTube to share the bullying his daughter in going through

Originally posted on Duck Duck Gray Duck:

This is unbelievable. Just sickening. If you have a child at Prior Lake High School or live in the city, demand the district expel these bullies. Prior Lake High School Phone: (952) 226-8600

Reposted from MyFoxTwinCities

A Prior Lake father is calling out his daughter���s bullies on YouTube, Snapchat evidence and racist voicemails included.

In a nearly��6-minute YouTube video, father Brad Knudson opens by saying his words aren���t scripted, but they���re emotional.

���We have a very beautiful African American daughter that we were very fortunate enough to adopt 11 years ago. We���ve dealt with a little bit of racism, you know, stares, things like that when she calls us mom or dad, but she didn���t notice so we just blew it off because it was directed towards us,��� he says in the video.

However, on New Year���s Eve, Knudson says a set of twin freshman girls from���

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How To Get Your Momentum Back

Originally posted on Aura E Martinez:

It can be easy to lose your momentum in life, especially when life or circumstances can get in the way. When you start losing momentum is when you tend to get lazy or even give up. Perhaps you wanted certain things and things didn���t turn out the way you planned them to be. You had certain expectations and you are not yet where you want to be in life. When you get to that point is when you can start spiraling down and all you are left asking yourself, if you are not careful, is what just happened.

I would like to start by explaining the importance of having momentum in life and then I will go on to offering some suggestions to getting your momentum in life back. Having momentum is what keeps you going, keeps you going after your dreams in life and momentum provides you with energy���

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Seperation of Home and Work

I have noticed that a lot of employers are keeping tabs on their workers through their social media pages. My question is WHY? Social media is outside of work, not on work property. What they do or say on the internet outside of work should not have any consequences at their job. It is probably because of my stance on this that I don’t have a job and that is stupid. My aunt has friends at work that she likes to talk to but is too afraid to add them to her Facebook page simply because some have their bosses as friends and she doesn’t want to lose her job.

How is it possible that people can be fired just because of their social media posts? If they go to work, and do their jobs well why should it matter what they do on Facebook? What kind of things they tweet about? Because it reflects poorly on the company? Honestly, who DOESN’t complain about their job? Not one person has a perfect job that they love all the time, so of course, if they had a bad day they might go vent about it on Facebook or in their blog. They shouldn’t be punished at work for how they feel. Now I don’t think that they should or do write bad things about their jobs or coworkers intentionally to start crap.

The whole point of this was, I found an article where a substitute teacher was fired from a Catholic school for announcing his upcoming wedding on Facebook. The simple fact that he is gay and publicly announced his wedding through social media, got him fired. He even said that everybody already KNEW he was gay before the announcement, but they fired him anyway. It is stupid and I think shouldn’t have happened. If it was any other straight person, it never would have happened. Social media should stay at home and have no repercussions at work.�� http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/14/lonnie-billiard_n_6472566.html

How do I get more followers on my blog?

Originally posted on My thoughts on a page.:

Why are some blogs more successful than others? Where do they get all their followers, page views and visitors? Why do some wonderful writers have so few followers, while others with less well written blogs have ��so many?

Most new bloggers will google this endlessly, (probably second only to ���how can I make money from my blog?). The number one answer they will read is ���write good content���.

Well listen up new bloggers. That���s not strictly true.��

Content is not what makes a successful blog, although it will make you more successful than others. No, in my opinion what makes a successful blog is the many different things a blogger does before pressing publish, and the efforts they make afterwards ���off blog��� to promote their post.

What do I mean?

Well firstly imagine you have written a post. Does it have a catchy title, feature photos, and begin with a���

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Kindle Ebook Formatting Example

Courtney M. Wendleton:

Formatting through me for a loop when I was trying to add my books to Smashwords. Here’s a little info to help others.

Originally posted on chrismcmullen:

KINDLE FORMATTING EXAMPLE

I just published a new Kindle e-book and it occurred to me that it might be helpful to show on my blog how I formatted it.

This way, you can see an actual example of the formatting in action. You can also check out the free sample if you have a Kindle to see how it turned out. (Or the whole book, free if you have Kindle Unlimited; just 99 cents to buy.)

It���s a fun little book (by fun, I mean it involves puzzles���word scrambles, but not the usual variety: these have a Romance theme). But even if you don���t like the book, you can still check out the free sample to explore the features and how they were made. After all, this article isn���t about word scrambles; it���s about formatting Kindle e-books.

Formatting a puzzle book or a workbook for Kindle poses several formatting challenges���

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I’m Coming out . . . as a Closeted Writer, I Mean

Originally posted on Kylie Betzner:

Nobody can know . . . not even you

Have you ever kept a secret from your family and friends? I mean a deep dark secret that was likely to tear your whole family apart and turn everyone you loved against you? Neither have I. And yet, for years I kept my writing hidden from��those who would probably have provided me a great deal of support. Why would I do that?

Well, for one, there���s the stigma that aspiring authors face, and don���t tell me it doesn���t still exist. Just last week, I contacted my local library to inquire on potential author events, and they sneered at me���yes, sneered at me! A librarian sneered at a local author. Sneered at a literary contemporary! But it���s not like this was the first time my dreams were snubbed. When I was younger, anytime I���d divulge my dreams to trusted adults, they���d often���

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#AuthorTag ~ Let’s Give Each Other A Boost Upwards

Originally posted on Cate Russell-Cole: CommuniCATE:

The one task I want to devote myself to this year is to give fellow authors a lift up above the static of the Internet. I want to assist as many of you, as I can, to be seen��� which of course, should lead to more book sales and blog visits for everyone. I���m not doing this just to be nice. ;-)

To do this I have created #AuthorTag. Each week I will select an author, or two, and directly tag people on Facebook and Twitter, to ask them to support the author. If you get tagged, please tag another few friends (name them so they see the post and it isn���t lost in Facebook���s dreadful system) and pass the tagged author along so they are seen by as many people as possible.

For example:

I would love to see many of you to take up the gauntlet and���

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