Month: June 2015

Review

Book #Review – Stroke of Fear by Deborah Bowman

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Reviews

Stroke of Fear is a short novella, the first of The Denny Ryder series. The genre of this book is paranormal, psychic, combined with a crime mystery. This combination of mystery keeps this book fast paced with engaging writing from the author Deborah Bowman. Below is my review on Amazon.

 

 Five Stars

“Denny Ryder has the gift of clairvoyance, but is it really a gift or a curse? Her vivid dreams come to her as ominous visions about a missing little boy. Tormented by her visions, she remains questioning herself whether they are just dreams or real premonitions. Later her dreams are validated when she hooks up with Detective Collins to offer her visions in search for the missing boy.
The author takes us into a distorted world of Denny’s visions with this fast-paced, page turning novella. As we hope to solve the mystery of the crime along with Denny, the end still leaves us wondering about her dreams about the serial killer – imagined or another premonition. This series is definitely one to keep our imaginations curious and wanting to read more.”

stroke of fear

Here is the blurb for this book:

THIS BOOK IS AGE APPROPIATE FOR “TWEENS”, TEENS, YOUNG ADULTS AND ADULTS INTERESTED IN THE PARANORMAL.
STROKE OF FEAR! ( Denny Ryder Paranormal Crime Series) starts off with a bang! Denise Ryder is in the midst of a gruesome car accident. She’s thrown against the door, pitched to the floor, twisted upside-down, falling, as she claws her way out of a shattered window. She hears loud crashes, hysterical screams, screeching metal, and the voices of two dear friends. Her stomach heaves, and she’s choking, gagging, can’t breathe! Blood is everywhere.
10 YEARS LATER: Pleasant memories of her childhood. She grins at the antics of the two sisters, different as night and day. Denny is just waking up from a soothing, happy dream. She’s had “dreams come true” since she was a child. Sounds like a fairy tale, right? Wrong! It’s her nightmares from that come to life! Yet, she does everything in her power to deny the images.
Denny becomes embroiled in a missing child investigation. When a dream shows her where the boy is, she won’t let herself believe it. A twist of fate reveals that the dream “could” be true. She’s scared, but relieved that she can take action based on fact. She meets Detective Ted Collins, an investigator who doesn’t scoff at the paranormal. The two of them use facts, clues, and intuitive visions to piece the case together. Will they be able to save Jeremy?
A new piece of evidence pulls Denny into another horrific dream. She fears she’s had an out-of-body experience where she meets the psychopathic serial killer who feeds on the blood of innocent children. Denny isn’t even sure whether she believes in astral projection or not, but somehow she becomes caught between the dreamscape and reality. She knows she can’t be both places at the same time. Where does she go from here, and what about Jeremy?

D.G. Kaye ©2015

 

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Annoying things Only #Writers will Understand – Blindoggbooks

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reblogging

 

I came across this fabulous post that all writers can certainly identify with from Blindoggbooks. It’s a great post so don’t forget to read all the way through.

“It is said that writers are a different breed. Hopefully the word different isn’t used in place of a less ambiguous word…like warped.

I don’t know if writers can claim exclusive rights to such a label, but they definitely don’t fit neatly within most accepted classifications.

With that being said, I’d like to talk about some annoyances and problems only writers will understand,. . .” Read more below:

https://blindoggbooks.wordpress.com/2015/06/16/annoying-things-only-writers-will-understand/

writing tips

I am Series — Noise

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WRITING

Writing prompt today, inspired by Natalie Goldberg’s Old Friend from Far Away, is the word “noise”.

 

I am thinking about turning off the noise; the constant thought process that never wants to shut down inside my head.

Life’s dilemmas, demands, and indecisions crowd my inner space. Grocery lists, deadlines, although self-imposed, stay current in my thoughts.

At night I try to turn it off by tuning into some mindless TV or a good book; my long awaited personal time. Reading takes me out of myself and allows me to be somewhere else. The great escape is pleasure, solitude from real life’s daily demands. When letting my mind free, it often wanders too far to a place of comfort and weightlessness, a place I sometimes would like to remain.

When I get up in the wee hours of the night for a drink or a visit to the loo, the beast has been awakened. The active mind begins, and the chances of going back to sleep are narrowed unless I turn on the radio to concentrate on the music or start all over again, reading, to still my active mind, so that I may once again drift into silence.

D.G. Kaye ©June 2015

stress

#Scrivener, #Audits, #Revisions and #Publishing

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I can hardly believe it’s the first real day of summer today. I ask myself where March, April and May disappeared. It seems the days pass so quickly when so many things are going on, and when we come up for air, we try to account for all the days that have gone by.

stressed

 

This past week in particular has been absolutely hectic. I have been working on my latest book off and on due to unforeseen circumstances that seem to have been circling me since I returned from my winter vacation. Throughout these busy months I was caught up in the worry of my dear aunt who passed a few weeks ago while trying to get back to my latest book and working on revisions intermittently.

When I finally put my head to the grindstone and got into third round revisions, I discovered that I was not happy with this book and sent it to an editor friend with a great pair of eyes for a beta read. Sometimes, it’s very hard for writers to find what they feel isn’t right when they’re constantly going over their own work. My friend gave me a lot of positive feedback, helping me figure out what needs to be moved and changed etc., but then it dawned on me. Bingo! My book wasn’t one book, but two. I thought I could meld past and present ideas together but it wasn’t sitting right with me. So, I’ve decided to separate it into two short novellas, which of course entails more writing and revising, thus this book will not be ready for edits until later in the summer.

This realization sent me scurrying through my Word files trying to pick out what should be moved, deleted, etc. But it became a daunting procedure. This is when I reminded myself of how badly I NEED TO LEARN SCRIVENER.

I promised myself after my last book that I would master the beast. But after watching a few tutorials, reading many publications, and reading ‘Scrivener for Dummies’, I couldn’t wrap my ahead around it fast enough, and found that I need to dedicate a few solid days to learning it. The program sits inside my computer, I have tried to fiddle with it, but I felt it was eating my precious time while so much was piling up that I’d just continue to use my prehistoric method of sorting chapters until I could dedicate the time.

good monring stress

 

So after much frustration, I printed out the manuscript draft and begin separating the chapters, sprawled out on my floor. And that is where they are currently residing, for the past four days. Why you may ask? Because once again, life has interrupted my flow of thought by Revenue Canada coming down on me for an audit. As if I needed something else to do!

As many of you know I moved at the beginning of the year, which left my income tax files buried in boxes at the back of a storage locker. I had to find the boxes and files and start digging for all receipts and files for not only 2014, but 2013 also. Fun wow! Not!

I lamented to my accountant, “Why on earth do these people pick on me, a tiny author, working her butt off trying to make a living with her costs to publish and advertise, far outweighing the income. And he answered, ‘Precisely, because they go after the small guys claiming write-offs and they want proof that they are not being scammed.”

So I once again dropped the book writing and revisions and spent the better part of this week searching, sorting, and photocopying receipts for the accountant to help me get this situation rectified and out of my hair. My dining room floor is carpeted with income tax files, and my living room floor is blanketed with book chapters. Thank goodness my place is ‘L’ shaped so we can walk through the kitchen to get to the bedroom. I ain’t moving that stuff until I can deal with it all. So needless to say my social interaction and blog reading has suffered once again. It seems when I finally catch up, something else lands on my lap. Oh, and I will add that for the fourth time in one year, MY LAPTOP DIED AGAIN. Surely I am being tested!

Here are a few tips you can all take from this:

1. If you’re writing a book, make it a point to learn scrivener (something I will be doing before this year ends!)

2. Make sure you keep all your receipts and files pertaining to income tax intact and accessible because you never know when Rev Canada or the IRS will call your name.

3. And never put off for tomorrow, what you can do today because you never know what else is coming.

I’ve recently been reading from a few author friends that they have been taking technological vacations, ie: time-out, or vacations sans laptops. I envy the way they can just ‘say no’ and take a breather without worrying about how much more they will have to catch up on when they return. I am going on a MUCH NEEDED vacation in two weeks and have been threatening myself that I will also go away without my laptop. The thought terrifies me, yet sounds so inviting. In fact my friend Sue Dreamwalker has dared me to do it, and I’m thinking I just might!

If any of you have discovered an orderly way to play catch up after taking a techno break, I’d be more than happy to hear your suggestions.

 

 

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#Blogging – Best Tricks to get more Eyeballs on Old Posts – Janice Wald

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reblogging

In these past few months, I have discovered, followed and befriended writer Janice Wald from www.mycurrentnewsblog.com

Janice has a wonderful blog which is most helpful to writers; author and bloggers alike. Her posts are very insightful to various methods of promoting our blogs, to sharing tips on how to make the most out of our writing and social media.

 

Below is a snippet of Janice’s latest post on how we can get more people to read our posts:

 

“Repurpose means you are going to find other purposes for your posts.  You are going to take a piece of content and change it so that it can get new audiences.

“Reduce, reuse, recycle” is an expression that normally relates to the environment.  You are going to reduce the time you spent blogging by getting extra value to those hours. You are going to reuse your old posts by recycling them.

In blogging lingo we talk about Return on Time Invested (ROI).  This post will show you how to maximize the amount of time you invested in a post by using it again for a different purpose.”  Read more by clicking the link below . . .

 

http://mycurrentnewsblog.com/2015/06/16/12-best-tricks-to-get-more-eyeballs-on-your-old-posts/

writing tips

I am Series – #Writer’s World

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WRITING

I enjoy these writing prompts by Natalie Goldberg, not only because they get the mind exercised, but for the material they bring forth. Goldberg’s book is mainly directed toward memoir writers, although can be very useful for all writers. She explains that if we do short little writing exercises using her prompts, by starting our story with a memory or an object, it will take us into a deeper subconscious level where we find the topic we’re writing about  taking us to something we remember from the past or leads to things we feel strongly about.

 

Today I am thinking about famous writers from the past. Isn’t it ironic that back in earlier decades, many writers such as Dickens self published? Many of our esteemed fellow writers we look up to struggled for recognition, and for many of them, it wasn’t until they had long passed that they achieved their fame and recognition for their brilliance.

 

I don’t believe any writers are left unscathed from self-doubt. We are our own first critics. Later, when the editors and publishers get their eyes on our works, it is once again criticized and picked apart. As writers, we have to grow some thick skin. Is it any wonder many writers turn to isolation and alcohol?

We are constantly striving to perfect our work. The clock ticks time away for so long before we notice how long we’ve been living in our solitudes, in the confines of our own little bubbles in our special world, sometimes forgetting the world around us exists.

I sometimes feel this way and I’m grateful in those times for my writing friends; for only they are the ones who can identify with the angst a writer experiences.

 

The results of our work are simple words on pages. Simple? Certainly not a simple journey for our search for those perfect words we strive so hard to fine tune so they appear eloquent and effortless. The numerous strike-outs, rewrites, days, months and years, and then revisions again, all this before our work goes forth to the editor for our work to take on a new form yet again, weigh heavy in our hopes of achieving perfection.

To simply say, I am a writer is much too understated. Our minds are fascinating, filled with stories from almost everything we see and do. Our words fill people’s minds and feed their souls. We share our knowledge and experiences whether from our own lives, or from the stories we create, invented from our own knowledge.

Writing is so much more than simple.

D.G. Kaye ©June 2015

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Great Advice To Writers, From Writers | The Literacy Site Blog

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 reblogging
The Literacy site is a great place to find various articles about writing. I chose this post to reblog to enlighten writers by reading what some well-known writers have to say about the craft.

“Be true to yourself and to the culture you were born into. Tell your story as only you can tell it.”

WILLIAM ZINSSER

Read more at http://blog.theliteracysite.com/great-advice-to-writers/#bhsjjTugoDICVQIE.99

 

“Great Advice To Writers, From Writers

The writing process is something only other writers understand. For those days when the inspiration just isn’t coming, here are a few quotes that will inspire you to keep at it — from a few people who have been there.”
Read more at http://blog.theliteracysite.com

Great Advice To Writers, From Writers | The Literacy Site Blog.

writing tips

The New “I Am” . . . Series

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WRITING

I’ve been thinking of a new series to post and occasionally when I have spare writing time, or, if I have the dreaded writer’s block, I turn to my favourite writing book by Natalie Goldberg, “Old Friend from Far Away.” This is a wonderful compilation of writing teachings, as well a great book of writing prompts given to stimulate our creativity. The prompts in this series relate to ” I am thinking of, I am remembering, etc. I think you get the drift.

 

These are exercises to get our creative juices flowing and prompt us to write about the first thing that comes to our mind in a five or ten minute writing allowance time. The idea is to keep the pen flowing, without stopping to second-guess your thoughts. We start out writing about something in particular, and we then let the thought carry on to wherever it may lead.

Some of you may remember I wrote a post about a year ago based on these writing prompts, titled The Pink Basket. If you’d like to read it, here is the link https://dgkayewriter.wordpress.com/pink-basket/

I have a few pages of these writings that are waiting to be shared. It’s interesting to find that whatever happens to be hanging out around our subconscious  at the time of writing, becomes a story.

Todays post is about, I am Thinking about a Suitcase

how we write

 

As I took stock of the state of my luggage, in preparation for my next vacation, I realized the ravaged condition of the zipper and the frayed corners of my suitcase from the numerous whippings it had taken through the careless attitudes of luggage handlers at numerous airports I had traveled through.

I remember the many trips now, my mother took without me as a child, and how I’d cry myself to sleep in her absence. She was barely ever home, as her life was an eternal mission to seek fun and adventure, and attention from others.

I had yet to realize these things about my mother, being that I was only about seven at the time. I had yet to grow resentful of her absence in my life, physically and emotionally. All that mattered to me at that age was that my mother was once again going away, and I wouldn’t have my mommy.

I wasn’t yet aware that I had never really had my mommy, but the implication that I had a mother still remained in my existence. And in case I may have needed her to kiss something better if I was to get hurt, or on the off-chance that she may have stayed home just one odd evening to perhaps watch a movie with me, I knew my hope would have to carry on much longer, until she returned once again, and hopefully would spend some time with me.

©D.G. Kaye May 2015