My GRL Blog Tour Volunteer Recognition – Herman Kok

January 27, 2014 ~ John W. Howell ~ 5 Comments

I want to thank Herman Kok for helping with the My GRL launch. He has a blog If All Else Fails Use a Hammer which has a sub-text of An Exercise in Percussive Maintenance. So what does all that mean? A visit to his blog quickly explains under the About Hammers tab: “Percussive maintenance is the fine art of bludgeoning an electronic device in order to encourage it to work properly (Urban Dictionary).” Herman further explains: “So this is me whacking stuff (and sometimes just myself) with a verbal hammer.”

A visit to the blog is like going to a multi-faceted, talented, and sumptuous buffet of words and ideas. More words from Herman about this: If you’re looking for a single-subject blog you’re in the wrong place. “While I aim to mostly write fiction and book-related posts, you’ll also get photography, philosophy, recipes and social commentary (which shouldn’t necessarily be taken seriously). Sometimes I just rant. Sometimes I’m silly. Sometimes I write about puppets. It’s fun, really, cause you never know what’s coming up next.”

His About tab gives even further incentives to become a regular follower of his mode of writing. Here you will find the name of his Gravatar KokkieH. It is named after his grandfather Kokkie with an H for Herman and hammer tacked on the end. The important part of the about tab is the knowledge that Herman is from South Africa and is very serious about life. Of course he hides this seriousness behind a very large sense of humor. The example here is his claim to be a Lion trainer (quickly rescinded)

His other tabs: Books 14 and Song Title Challenge show the wide range of Herman’s interest. The books tab list the books he is currently reading. The song challenge tab describes the feature where Herman writes a 300 word piece using a song title as a prompt. He also allows the readers to suggest songs and as a side challenge the genre of pieces to be written. He also encourages all of us to participate with pieces of our own. Great fun.

Thanks Herman for the help on this tour.

Top Ten No Nos is as Top Ten No No’s Does

January 27, 2014January 25, 2014 ~ John W. Howell ~ 19 Comments

Here is the 30th installment of Ten Top Lists of What Not to Do by Marie Ann Bailey of 1WriteWay at http://1writeway.com and John W. Howell of Fiction Favorites at http://johnwhowell.com. These lists are simu-published on our blogs each Monday. We hope you enjoy

Top Ten things Not to do While Grocery Shopping

10. When grocery shopping, do not go to the store on an empty stomach. At best, you will quiet your grumbling stomach with a candy bar or two while waiting in the check-out line. At worst, you will wind up devouring the entire rotisserie chicken that was to be your family’s dinner, guzzling a 64-oz bottle of Coke, and tearing into your kid’s favorite cereal, all before you reach the checkout.

9. When grocery shopping, do not assume that the shortest check-out line is indeed the quickest check-out line. At best, the person ahead of you with five items will want to use a personal check to pay and you’ll only have to wait an additional ten minutes while the cashier and store manager figure out a way to finally approve the check. At worst, the person ahead of you with only nine items will question the cashier on each and every item (naturally, all the items were supposed to be on sale including the ten gallon water jug which looks like it came from the employee break area), then proceed to call the store manager to further argue an unwinnable position, and now that you are stuck every line around you is so long the few minutes you thought you saved have turned into thirty minutes wasted.

8. When grocery shopping, do not assume that all the sale items, especially the 2-for-1 deals, have been entered into the registers. At best, the cashier will take a few minutes to correct the error if you see you were charged for each item instead of 2-for-1. At worst, you’ll be like the guy in #9, having to argue each item on sale and drawing the ire and ill-will of every other shopper behind you.

7. When grocery shopping, do not assume that your regular grocery store will always and forever maintain the floor layout to which you’ve grown accustomed. At best, your store might make only subtle changes like moving the eggs from beside the butter to beside the yogurt, but on the same aisle. At worst, one day you will walk in and become quickly convinced that you’re in the wrong store. You will spend hours trying to find the raisins which used to be on Aisle 3 among other dried fruits but are now on Aisle 36 next to the juice with the logic that fruit is fruit.

6. When grocery shopping, do not forget to wear ear plugs. If you do forget your ear plugs, at best, you will simply slow your pace and linger longer than planned due to the hypnotic effect of the “music.” At worst, the subliminal messages of “buy more, buy more, buy more” will enter your brain and you will wind up buying twice as much food as you originally intended, leaving your wallet half as full.

5. When grocery shopping, do not think that by leaving your credit cards and checkbook at home, you can avoid spending over your budget at the store. At best, the subliminal messages from #6 will cause you some mild embarrassment as you decide to forfeit the bottle of Merlot, Death-by-Chocolate cake, and fancy new plastic wine glasses (all items NOT on your shopping list) because you don’t have enough cash. At worst, either to avoid embarrassment or because you are still prey to the messages of “buy more,” you will leave your items at the register, dash to the ATM, withdraw as much as you can, and then promptly ask for a case of the Merlot (which you may need later when you realize how much you have spent).

4. When grocery shopping, do not think that the fresh fruit being offered as 2-for-1 is necessarily a great deal. At best, the fruit will be fine and edible until the next morning when you realize you will have to eat all of it since it is quickly going bad. At worst, after you come home and put all the food away, you decide to have some strawberries and cream. Then you discover that the 2-for-1 fresh fruit has one layer of fresh fruit atop moldy, squishy fruit which moves on its own, and causes you to lose your appetite and throw it all out.

3. When grocery shopping, do not think that the baggers are always well-trained. At best, you will have a bagger who knows enough to put the eggs on the top of other items in a bag. At worst, you will get a bagger who either wasn’t trained or doesn’t care, but you won’t know until you get home and find that a large bottle of laundry detergent was packed on top of your package of sushi rolls, which now resemble sushi pancakes.

2. When grocery shopping, do not think that slowly walking down the middle of an aisle with your head down while talking on your cell phone will not annoy anyone. At best, shoppers trying to get around you may just gently prod your shopping cart and alert you to the need to get out-of-the-way. At worst, you may find yourself pinned between your shopping cart and the cart of the person or persons who finally lost their temper with you and are now sending you, shopping carts and all, into the egg section.

1. When grocery shopping, do not think that being polite to shoppers on cell phones and oblivious to their surroundings will help you keep your temper. At best, you will quickly realize that navigating around these people is futile and that you should just park your shopping cart and step around the offending shopper to get the items you need. At worst, you will lose your temper, causing you to literally crash into the offending shopper with your cart, and the momentum will be enough to send you both into the egg section. As with automobile rear-end accidents, you will be the assumed guilty party and the store will likely make you pay for the broken eggs as well as clean them up.

My GRL Blog Tour Volunteer Recognition – Bradley Corbett

January 26, 2014 ~ John W. Howell ~ 4 Comments

Bradley Corbett tends to remind me of the line in the Three Dog Night song regarding Jeremiah Bull Frog. “He was a friend of mine. I never understood a thing he said, but I helped him drink his wine. And he always had some mighty fine wine.”

What I mean is Green Embers is the place to go for solutions.(ignore the fact that bull frogs are green) Bradley knows IT and WP and you need not always understand what he is saying, but what he tells you works. So let’s take a stroll to his place and I’ll give you an overview of the very neat things you can expect there.

The first thing you see on the left is a tab called My Blog Network which when clicked yields some really fascinating places to visit:

My review blog has a number of reviews on books, movies, music, comics, and TV shows. There is also a submission section to request a review. The review editors (5) have their special talents and will rate a work as Recommended – Something the editors liked, Found Wanting – Something they disliked or Sixes – Something the editor felt had quality, but did not care for.

My Comic Blog is where Bradley demonstrates his artistic talent in the comic genre. Definitely worth a visit. You can also look at the work for which he was commissioned.

Community Story Board where you can link directly into CSB. Bradley is an editor.

Rome Construction Crew where inspiration, goal setting and support is found

Blog Roll Update where you can catch some comment made by Bradley and highlights of recommendations.

The balance of his site gives you other tabs. The Word Press Tutorials tab is where you can learn how to manage your WP blog and add interest with media. Bradley’s novella A Lich’s Tale and Other Stories can be found under the tab Buy My Novella.

Take time to read the About tab since there you will get a view of a man who is committed to self-improvement and wants to lead in this endeavor through a positive example. Bradley Corbett is a very special person and I am so thankful he decided to volunteer for the My GRL tour. Thank you Bradley.

My GRL Blog Tour Volunteer Recognition – Helen Valentina

January 25, 2014 ~ John W. Howell ~ 7 Comments

Helen Valentina is a writer who loves to explore why we do the things we do and how our characters are formed by our beliefs and actions. The essence of the reason for her blog is best said by her: “Like most people, I have a number of sides to me. The most interesting one probably emerges through my writing, hence this blog. I love to read, and also to write, and so this is a way to share both. A visit to her blog will show you how uniquely talented Helen is in her writing. Her poems will cause you to think and ponder and then react.

She has organized tabs on her site where she has sorted her work into Fire (action, ego, creativity, passion, lust, activity), Water (emotions, love, sorrow, grief, joy, connection), Air (thoughts, belief, theory, philosophy, satire and science), and Earth (the physical, earthy, sensual, appetite, money) to make it easy for the reader to look back in retrospective as to what she has written. One of the more entertaining tabs is labeled Chronicle of Proofs the World Has Ended. Here you will find a collection of logic leading you to believe the world has in fact ended long ago. You must visit to read the items under this tab.

Not content with poetry alone, Helen has written two books:

‘The Seed’ is a dark romance that looks at the impact of dreams and myths on our romantic natures and choices – an intense and sometimes ambiguous journey into the heart of passionate people. The Seed, now available on lulu.com, iTunes (link via lulu.com), Amazon Kindle and POD and on Nook. Helen describes The Seed, “ is a dark romance, exploring passion and the reasons that we choose to follow relationships and the implications that can arise from those choices. For those familiar with my poetry, the mix of passion/love and mystery/ambiguity will be quite familiar.”

‘Curiosity’ is about a man who believes the world has already ended and no-one noticed, and how his beliefs and nature propel him into being an unlikely hero for the modern, media age. She says: “As a black comedy/satire, Curiosity is a major departure from my first novel The Seed. It’s writing style, though of course my own, is lighter and more cynical – more extroverted and action oriented than introspective and contemplative. As I’ve said before, if my novels were my children The Seed would be the moody, passionate artist. Curiosity is a bit of a brat to be honest, but hopefully a clever child, who will one day grow to cut a swathe in public relations or the gossip column industry.”

Curiosity is available:

http://lulu.com/spotlight/helenvalentina

It is also now available on Amazon (Kindle and POD) at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G726GRQ

And also at Apple ignore at:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/curiosity/id745194071?mt=11

And finally it’s also available at NOOK as a POD at:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/curiosity-helen-valentina/1117336145?ean=9781483403656

And at NOOK as an ebook at:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/curiosity-helen-valentina/1117336145?ean=9781483403649&itm=1&usri=helen+valentina

Thank you for your help on the launch of My GRL Helen

My GRL Blog Tour Volunteer Recognition – Papi Z

January 24, 2014January 27, 2014 ~ John W. Howell ~ 4 Comments

Papi Z could be the godfather of the writing community. He embraces the good in each and every one of the Indie authors and has set a tableau which gives exposure to one and all. I think of Papi as the matriarch holding court at the biggest literary dinner of all. He calls it the Literary Syndicate and the rest of us call it god send.

If you have not taken advantage of being listed as an artisan on Papi’s site you ought to go out in the yard and kick your own ass. He has taken the time to place in one spot not only the writers, poets and other assorted crazies who put words together, but also book reviewers, cover designers, editors, and helpful literary sites. It is all there under the Friends of the Syndicate tab. In short almost everything a struggling author might need to actually be successful.

On top of the information on the site Papi calls for submissions for collections that are to be published under the Literary Syndicate banner. The first Literary Syndicate collection has been decided upon. Monsters Under The Bed: A Horror Compendium (that is a working and not final title) has an official due date to have your stories in by March 15th, 2014. These should be stories in the 5,000 to 15,000 word range. Where to send them: theliterarysyndicate@gmail.com with Monsters Under The Bed in the subject line. For full details go HERE.

The Literary Syndicate is also accepting smaller word count stories for those authors who are challenged by the bigger count requirements. You can go HERE for the details.

His book Retail Memories: When Customers Attack updated version is now available on Amazon

Papi thank you so much for helping with the My GRL launch. You pitching in is like Payton Manning tossing the ball around with a little league receiver. This receiver really appreciates it.

My GRL Blog Tour Volunteer Recognition – Rhonda Blackhurst

January 24, 2014 ~ John W. Howell ~ 2 Comments

Rhonda Blackhurst’s blog–A Novel Journey Experiencing life through words and grace is as descriptive of the content as could be made. Rhonda says it best, “A Novel Journey was born by my desire to live a life of grace, through the grace given to me daily, by reaching out to others through words and story. A Novel Journey. Novel–‘new’ and ‘books.’ Fitting for my loves. Each “new” day is a novel one. One in which to live with abundant gratitude and grace, for there is so much to be grateful for in this life.”

While reading Rhonda’s blog I became aware that she is a wife, mother and grandmother. She is also a lover of words and has written a number of novels which are in various stages of finish. The NaNoWriMo of 2013 produced 50,000 words by Rhonda and is a rough draft for her mystery novel titled; The Last Resort. Rhonda is also a member of Northern Colorado Writers

Rhonda took some time to capture the reasons why she writes. I think you might enjoy an insight into her motivation. Here is what she said on a post recently:

I write because when I do, I:

* Feel freedom and the ability to express myself in a way that nothing else can match.

* Feel joy, peace, and pure contentment. Even if I’m working on a piece that doesn’t come easy, I’m in my element in the quiet of my office with pen in hand or fingers on the keyboard, mood music playing softly on Pandora, and my mind creating whatever it happens to be creating at that moment.

* Get more connected with God by making my thoughts concrete on the page, where oftentimes it’s then I can see where God is working in my life, or where I’m not, showing me I need to make myself available for more of God.

* Am able to live vicariously through my characters–where else can one live so many different lives and have so many fun, funny, loyal, and even quirky friends?

* Have the ability to reach and connect with other people who I wouldn’t have been able to without the magic of written words. I’m able to connect with my sponsor kids through Compassion International, making a difference in lives in another country. How blessed am I! I’m able to connect with readers on this blog, every one of which I am so grateful for. It’s a magical connection that other writer’s at heart can likely understand.

* Can turn a bad day to better from being able to escape to another world, whichever I happen to create, or by simply writing my feelings on paper, making me aware of them and then being able to let them go.

* Spent a number of years getting too busy with life, which resulted in not writing, and I’m a much happier person when I write.

* Cannot imagine my life without words and story, whether handwritten or from the keyboard. The vehicle which produces those words doesn’t matter, only the fact that I’m able to do it.

When you visit her blog you will also get a sense of the spiritual side of Rhonda as she is thankful for the gifts given her. She is one of those people who make you feel good through her love of life. Thank you Rhonda for helping me launch My GRL and I hope to return the favor on your novel

My GRL Blog Tour Volunteer Recognition – Melissa Janda

January 24, 2014 ~ John W. Howell ~ 2 Comments

Thank you Melissa for helping launch My GRL. In following Melissa’s blog titled: Melissa Janda A Time to Write for the past year I have learned so much.

The first thing I learned is she is one of the nicest, most considerate bloggers in the sphere. She seems to be everywhere when it comes to supporting her fellow bloggers. The support of my book launch is a small example of the many times you will see her using her space to promote someone else.

The second thing I learned is when Melissa makes up her mind to accomplish a goal you can put your money on the fact that she will do it. In 2013 she wanted to compete in NaNoWriMo. She became a winner with 50,004 words. This on top of all the other things she has to do. For 2014 she plans to read 50 books and to make ten of them from the Modern Library’s Top 100 list. Anyone want to bet against her? I’ll take that bet.

The third thing I learned was Melissa’s dedication to the writing craft. She is actively involved with prompts and teasers and does challenge each of us to join in the fun. She also has a word of the day feature which I find very helpful. Over time I am finding that the exposure to her word of the day causes me to upgrade my use of words which have been dormant since the old memorize vocabulary days. It is really nice to pull something from the brain while writing and not have to go look up a word. I would say just checking in for the word of the day would be very beneficial, but do yourself a favor and stay for a while and read. Another thing you should do is; check out her Resources for Writers tab. Melissa has eliminated the need to hunt for a place to get information on writing, publishing and marketing. She has a bunch of links which can prove to be useful if you investigate them.

Finally I learned Melissa wants to become a published author. She has the ability, the skill and I believe the determination to make that happen. I believe one of these days this will be a goal met by her. Thank you again Melissa.

TGIF is as TGIF Does

January 24, 2014January 23, 2014 ~ John W. Howell ~ 16 Comments

Friday is here again and it is time to celebrate the week. If you read my stuff you know I am knee-deep in a blog tour helped by wonderful bloggers around the world. Since My GRL has been published a retrospective of thought brought me to a truism of writing which I have often read about, but never experienced. The truism goes something like this: THE EASY PART OF WRITING A NOVEL IS WRITING A NOVEL. I could not imagine this to be true working alone in my garret with no one to test ideas on but a cat. I have to say at this point it seems to be true. To recap:

You write . . . (check)

You edit . . . (check)

You submit and query . . . (check, check, check, check how many queries?)

You edit some more . . . (check)

You pick out art . . . (check)

You wait with bated breath . . . (check)

You watch your book go live . . . (check)

You die as something is delayed on the e-version . . . (check)

You die as the image on the e-version refuses to download properly . . . (check)

You pray for good reviews . . . (check)

Now the real work begins, selling the damn thing wonderful story to the reading public.

I wrote a little Haiku with the spirit of the situation in mind. I hope you like it

Write a book alone,

Finally see it published…

Selling is hard work.

Have a good weekend.

My GRL Blog Tour Volunteer Recogntion – Julian Froment

January 23, 2014 ~ John W. Howell ~ 6 Comments

Julian Froment has a very active life. His blog which he titles appropriately Julian Froment’s Blog has an interesting mix of prose, poetry, and importantly book reviews. Julian’s overall direction of his blog is summarized by his sub headline; Life, Literature and Lewd Comments. The picture of a lion is on this post since if Julian were an animal (come on Ionia no giggles) I think he would be a lion

Julian is also a collector of books and describes his collection as follows: “I also enjoy collecting books and have a (very) small collection of first editions, mostly Enid Blyton’s children’s adventure stories.”

Those of you who regularly stop in to visit Julian know he is a man of beautiful words and a keen sense of good writing. His prose and book reviews always hit the mark. What you may not know is Julian is also a world traveler and lately is commuting between the UK and the US. The reason for this is he has the love of his life living here and cannot seem to convince the US government that he is worth having as a long-term resident. So he must limit his visits to the time proscribed by the government. He is 43 years old, and a senior manager at an environmental analysis and ecotoxicology services company, CHEMEX Environmental International Ltd.. His job is mainly concerned with the environmental chemistry side of the company. So WTF gov. We don’t have an unskilled laborer here, he will be able to support himself.

This situation has created a global Romeo and Juliet story with the government acting as the patriarch. The rest of us can only stand and watch. I do want to thank him for supporting My GRL launch blog tour. Also Julian has a birthday on January 27^th. Go visit and wish him a happy day.

Thank you Julian for helping with the My GRL launch

My GRL BLOG Tour Recognition – Marie Ann Bailey

January 23, 2014 ~ John W. Howell ~ 11 Comments

Marie Ann Bailey is a My GRL blog tour volunteer today. She is a wonderful person who dedicates herself to her job, her husband, her cats, her knitting and most certainly to her writing. Marie is the author of 1WriteWay a delicious combination of original work, collaboration, interesting reblogs and other supporting posts in favor of supporting other authors. Marie was also an editor for the Community Story Board in 2013 and was responsible for creating the post that was honored with the Freshly Pressed designation by WordPress.

I have also had the pleasure to work with Marie on the collaborative posts that are simu-published on each of our blogs on Monday. The idea came out of the fact there were numerous blogs on the subject of top ten. There were top ten cute animal photos and top ten ways to ask for a raise among a few. We could not find a top ten things not to do. Long story short we decided to create a feature of the Top Ten Things Not to Do. Next week we will be posting our 30^th.

Marie’s motto is,” I am therefore I write.” She is hoping to get a novel going and has posted the Writer’s Creed for all to see to give her inspiration. Perhaps it will inspire you as well. Thank you so much for the help Marie.