Why I Left Facebook - Almost

I can't remember when I decided to create a Facebook account, but I recall thinking the site would offer a great opportunity to connect with family and friends, and possibly be used as a tool for finding friends I had lost touch with. It would be nice to see photos of the offspring of relatives who lived too far to visit; fun to share a joke or funny picture with a sister across 3,000 miles of geography; and easy it to wish individuals and couples happy birthday or happy anniversary and accompany it with a card or graphic. This was the platform I could engage in regularly.

I might not remember when I decided to create a Facebook account, but I remember when I almost deleted that account, almost erased my presence from this single corner of the web universe, and almost relegated myself to shrinking back into dependence on telephone, mail, and personal visits.

It began with religion.

I am a student of Buddhism. I believe in care and kindness toward my fellow human beings. Despite the lofty goals of Buddhism, I would never suggest that anyone become a Buddhist. In return, I do not want anyone to tell me their religion is best or someone else’s religion is wrong. But then, references to my need to abide by some organized religion or religious group's beliefs began to show up in posts by friends and relatives.

It continued with politics.

My political views begin with research. As a voter and advocate, I study candidates and issues on all sides, trying to get a perspective that matches my personal beliefs, with a keen eye on the impact of any issue on people, the environment, and the future. Once I've analyzed as much as I can, based on news from various sources, I'm set. (Notice I said "news," not opinion.)

My views have always been based on research and study and not along party lines or recommendations from folks who have yet to delve deeply into issues on their own. And definitely not from people who circulate memes that have not been fact checked.

Eventually it became angry.

I never expected my presence on Facebook would become controversial; however, I also never expected to be confronted with so much misinformation, anger and vile hate. But there it was, smacking me in the face almost daily as I scanned the posts of my small group of friends and family.

I read the politically focused memes, posts, links and shared messages with my skepticism. Because some of these messages seemed so outrageous, I looked a bit further, checking Snopes and Urban Legends, clicking on links to uncover origins, looking for truth and honesty. When I found something false or at best, dubious, I did not fail to comment. In effect, I was policing my friends and family, which left a bad taste in my mouth -- and likely exasperated some.

But I did not like having others trying to influence me with their opinions -- opinions, not fact.

It took a while, but I eventually realized nothing I could do would stop the spread of tainted posts, so I began ignoring them or, in extreme cases, blocking them.

Still, I lingered, spending most of my time lurking while commenting on positive posts, and all was borderline fine until one post sent me over the edge. Someone I genuinely care about used the word "exterminate" in relation to the women of congress who appeared at the State of the Union address for the President of the United States.

These were the women elected by the voters, not by Facebook memes. Whether I favored or backed them did not matter. The majorities had spoken; the women were elected; and they expressed their solidarity by wearing white on this particular day.

Yes, I understood that if you were on the opposite side of the results of an election, this could upset you; but angering you to the point of espousing "extermination" was going way too far. To me, it ranked at the top, just above Photoshopped images of Barack Obama hanging from a tree or a similar manipulation showing Donald Trump blowing his brains out.

The statement reminded me of the women's suffragettes who endured torture, starvation and force feeding in a quest for the right to vote.

I was crushed, totally. This is not what I expected from my membership in Facebook. And because I realized I could not stop the publication of material that offended me, I removed the app’s Messenger from my phone and stopped signing in to my account, fully intending to delete it totally.

I did not.

Instead, I waited until I could look at the situation with a cooler head because besides giving me access to family and friends, Facebook also opened the doors to other websites, apps, games, my favorite entertainers, news, occasional bargains, new gadgets and -- I did miss "seeing" my friends. (I hope they missed me a little, too.)

I had also signed on to monitor pages from others, which meant I really should be able to log into Facebook.

 ... give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.

 Finally, when I clicked a link to view a breaking news story, I was shuffled over to the news station's Facebook page and I realized the giant social media company was too big to be ignored.

I decided to give it another try. However, this time around, my participation will not invite or accept certain types of posts or requests and I will not do policing ....

From this point forward ...

I will unfriend and/or block anyone who ...

1. Tries to convince me I need the words "under God" in a pledge to the American flag (It wasn’t there when I was in elementary school), or that I must say Merry Christmas as opposed to Happy Holidays.

2. Posts dangerous messages of hate, racism, or homophobia.

3. Reposts memes and/or links I know to be based on disinformation.

4. Insists their religion is the only true religion.

5. Challenges me to repost an inappropriate meme (see #1).

6. Posts too many "chain" posts.

7. Believes Bill Gates will donate a kidney (or at least a dollar) for every repost, which I know gives some company a tidy list of people on my friend list for marketing (or spam) purposes.

There are more, but a list of seven covers the most important bases for now. If the list offends you, so be it

I guess what I'm trying to say can be summed up via Facebook's full mission statement: "... give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together."

How the media shapes your thinking -- part two

If you think this article is just about your choice of liberal or conservative media, you need to continue reading. There are no politics involved ... at least not directly.

Last year, while confined to my sister's sofa due to illness, I did something I haven't done in years. I watched daytime television. She has some kind of basic satellite connection that offers a "rerun" station. That is, it takes current-running shows and repeats their older airings. Since I was not feeling well, I decided to watch reruns of a show called The Doctors. From what I've read, this is a very popular TV show but if you don't know anything about it, here's a summary: A team of medical doctors discuss various medical issues, problems, and solutions.

In this particular episode, the panel did a take on a recent study which (they said) indicated that diet soda is actually good for you. They went on to explain the study was commissioned by Coca Cola. 

Now you can probably tell where this is going. A study on diet drinks by a diet drink giant is not going to say anything bad about its products, right? And you can probably expect that these doctors would not only bring that up, but also would have substantial evidence to discredit this "study."

Guess again. Yes, they pooh-poohed the study, and did not offer rebuttal evidence ... but they did something even more interesting. One of the doctors recommended you take two plants, give one of them water for a week and one of them diet cola for a week and see what happens.

For now, we have to surmise that the cola-laden plant will do poorly but it would probably do just as poorly if you decided to use MILK instead of diet cola. Milk? Wait a minute. Is that not the drink that makes a body good? What will it do for the plant? I'm not going to try either experiment but I am going to wonder why the doctors did not explain that this study, like the study that "proves" milk was good for you back in the 30s or 40s was funded by -- drum roll, please -- the dairy industry.

I am not saying the panel was wrong or right. I'm saying they do the public an injustice by not explaining exactly how the conclusions were arrived at ... exactly who was studied, for how long, and what are the comparitive results. They might also point out how other industries finance studies that we not only accept as true and correct, but also live by. (By the way, milk does not make my body good ...) Or, at the very least they could have quoted the study completely because I cannot find anywhere that the study concluded that diet soda is better for you than water.

Here is the summary of the abstract (from https://www.sweeteners.org/category/21/article/71/does-low-energy-sweetener-consumption-affect-energy-intake-and-body-weight-a-systematic-review-including-meta-analyses-of-the-evidence-from-human-and-animal-studies):

“We found a considerable weight of evidence in favour of consumption of low energy sweeteners (LES) in place of sugar as helpful in reducing relative energy intake and body weight, with no evidence from the many acute and sustained intervention studies in humans that low energy sweeteners increase energy intake. Importantly, the effects of LES-sweetened beverages on body weight also appear neutral relative to water, or even beneficial in some contexts.”

It's nice that these professionals took a document and interpreted it for their viewers ... but how accurate was their interpretation ... or more importantly, do we need someone else to explain a document?

Here's my take for the doctors: Go ahead and report on this stuff if you think it is important for your audience to know ... but report on it completely with the traditional who, what, where, when, and why.... then interject your opinion and state it as opinion.

You decide.

How the media shapes YOUR thinking

In a past life, I taught high-school English (for a very short time). My approach wasn't to lecture with facts while bored teens daydreamed about dates and basketball and the latest dance craze. I thought the most important way to teach facts was to teach how to think about information.

In short, I wanted students to think for themselves, to carve their own opinions based on evidence because I believed learning to think and analyze is the way to learn and draw strong conclusions.

This past month, down with illness, I was watching the news on TV. The moving headlines at the bottom of the screen (officially called chyron) was scrolling along with short blurbs concerning important topics of the day.

One particular crawl caught my eye and reading this, I got to thinking ... is this leader board reporting or indoctrinating ("helping" you shape an opinion by the way a sentence is worded?)

The Potential Headline

Let me give you an example of a headline that could have worked its way across the bottom of the TV screen.

Four people killed, four seriously injured in head-on crash.

What are your thoughts when you read that? Do you wonder where the crash occurred? Do you wonder if you might know any of the victims? Do you immediately empathize with the families of the victims? Do you want to know if children were involved? Do you care that four human beings were snuffed out of existence in an instant? Do you think, "How sad," or "There for the grace of God," or "rest in peace"?

If you do, then you are indicating that you are a thoughtful human being who cares about his or her fellow human beings.

The Real Headline

Now the example I gave was an edited (by me) headline of one that was actually broadcast and it would have been correct because it reported one thing--a traffic accident claimed four lives. But that's not how the network headline read. Read the actual wording and tell me how whether your reaction changes:

Four illegal aliens killed, four seriously injured in head-on crash.

Do you still care about any of these human beings and the fact that they lost their lives or do you see this as fuel for a political issue--in this case immigration?  Do you wonder why the network decided to write the headline this way or if the local station made this decision?

Do you see how two words can completely shape how you think--or fuel the way you've already been taught to think? 

It seems that gone are the days when a news reporter would report information without injection personal opinion specifically to bolster decisions or opinions you've already made or to sway you into the opinion of the media you are watching. Sometimes the "influence peddling" is blatant opinion disguised as real news and sometimes, as with the example here, it is kind of shaded as real news. And it's almost always distinguished by the political leanings of the news source, be it radio, TV, newspaper or internet.

Do you let media do your thinking for you?

10 Modern Clichés to Avoid or Stop 'Thinking Outside the Box!'

 I recently spent some time cat sitting for a friend. In the process, I managed to get in a few hours of television watching, something that takes up very limited amount of time in my home. After messing around with the remote for a while, I discovered many shows and people I had never heard of before. Now ordinarily, this would not bother me ... but it did make me realize that cutting the cable and relying on just two networks (one of which is public television), I was getting close to the morass of ignorance with regard to what is going on in the world beneath the heavy veil of politics.

Not only did I discover a whole world of reality personalities, cooking celebrities, and detailed forensic methods for murdering women, I discovered also that either the writers or the unscripted dialogs have created a new wave of clichés or there is very little creative effort by media.

I call this phenomenon "modern clichés" because while the combination of words has not been around as long as the true cliché, the rampant overuse leads me to believe I can call them clichés.

In just a week, I heard these worn phrases while surfing various channels and shows.

• Think outside the box. Really? How many times have you used this?
• Kick it up a notch. Now this one was used six times on six different cooking related shows.
• You know what I'm saying? This is kind of like adding "you know" to your statements.
• I'm just saying. (Don't we know what you are saying; after all, you just said it.)
• I mean. (Have you noticed how many speakers answer questions by using these two words to preface their responses?)
• It is what it is. Ah, this needs no further discussion.
• To be honest ... (Oh, so otherwise what you have to say is dishonest?)
• I cannot even ... (I cannot even think of what this means!)
• That's a game changer.
• That's my final answer. (Is that show still on TV?)

Now, the 2nd Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (1989) has 21,728 pages in 20 volumes. I have no idea how many words that equals but I would wager it is at least 13,000,000. Not surprisingly, English-speaking Americans use only (an estimated) 3,000 of 20 volumes of words.

I realize that broadcast media has to get a message across quickly, but I wonder if they assume the public will not be able to understand what they are trying to convey if they use more than the 3,000 words.

Surely with this many words available to us, we could cease employing these "clichés" and become more descriptive.

Where or where have 18 months gone?

A year-and-a-half ago, I input my last blog. The subject matter was New Year's resolutions, and I listed five things I planned to do but did not resolve to do. Here's the list I was considering:

• DRINK MORE WATER 
• EAT MORE CHOCOLATE 
• READ MORE BOOKS 
• BREATH MORE AIR 
• LISTEN TO GOOD MUSIC

I ended the list by stating I might post a follow-up now and again -- that didn't happen.

The 18 months passed as timely as 18 months should. In that time, I did manage to carry out most of the list.

(The biggest disappointment was the music promise. The battery gave out on my trusty Ipod classic so I could no longer carry it with me on long walks or don its earphones while checking email and scanning facebook. Luckily I was able to pick up a used Ihome at the thrift shop next door so I can still use the Ipod. Also, since I bought a new phone, I transferred a lot of my music to my old cell and I now use that as my walking music player.)

 One thing I did not expect to do during that time, and it became one of the biggest contributors to lack of input on the blog, was learning to use Wordpress. Also, I returned to my second favorite pastime (art), designing t-shirts for Amazon. I guess it's a matter of focus. (I do tend to spend a lot of time on new projects, often neglecting old ones.)

I'm still not sure how much effort I'll manage here because I did discover that blogging, like building websites, took time away from other writing, which does not please me. Just last week, I opened my backup laptop and looked at the list of unfinished work sitting in a documents folder, saved for later updates --- two non-fiction books, three novels (one nearly complete, one in rough draft and one in outline form) and a dozen short stories I planned to put together in a collection. This is not good, especially when that list gets added to the miscellaneous writing in progress on this desktop.

That said, I'm going to pretend today is the beginning of the new year. I put a few sticky notes on the desktop with reminders to share time between all projects and to walk away from the computer more often. Perhaps I'm relearning the discipline one has when involved with the work force. I'm not sure I want to bring all of that back because I enjoy the impromptu life too much. However, I have already opened the oldest novel to read and refresh my train of thoughts and look forward to seeing where all this leads.

2017 NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

I'm working on my 2017 New Year's resolutions. I usually resolve NOT to resolve anything. This allows me to have a totally open mind, or at least I think that's what it does. In reality, it just ensures I won't mess up and break a resolution on January 2, by accident, of course. In short, I'm making certain that I'm not setting myself up for failure.

You see, I understand keeping resolutions is a tough job. A quick search on the world's most popular internet search engine (You know which one I'm talking about.) for suggestions for keeping NYR reveals 84,400,000 results in 0.42 seconds.

One of the sites (www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/) indicates that the percent of people who are successful in achieving their resolution is 8 %. (This study was done by University of Scranton. Journal of Clinical Psychology.) Even if the figure is off, it's still a pitiful number, isn't it?

Now that we've established that difficulty exists (which we already knew), let me announce here and now that I've found the real answer to the conundrum of keeping resolutions:

Just resolve to do the GOOD things you normally do BETTER.

(Kind of a poorly constructed sentence but I'm sure you get the point.)

With that in mind, here are a half-dozen resolutions I'll been working on for 2017--resolutions I'm sure I'll keep. Note: I've included some interesting, fun -- and in a few cases suggestible -- links. Check them out to see where they lead.

DRINK MORE WATER

Even if you're not interested in hydration, you might be interested in this site which pinpoints natural springs across the U.S. and in parts of Canada. (Might make for an interesting if very long road trip.)

EAT MORE CHOCOLATE

After all, according to Charles Schultz, "All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." (Who are we to argue?)

READ MORE BOOKS

I can't imagine a day without reading so this won't take effort. This year I'm focusing on learning more about how the brain operates.

BREATH MORE AIR

Does this really need additional input? In Nevada, you can still smoke in public places, especially in casinos, though many are now sporting smoke-free areas.

LISTEN TO GOOD MUSIC

I know I have my trusty mp3 player as well as access to all kinds of music on the web, but there's something special about actually being up close to music while it's happening.

That's it. I'm definitely setting myself up for success. I was thinking of doing a follow-up every now and then but I don't think that's necessary. What I would like is a suggestion or two that I can add to the list. Anybody?

I'm Still Standing

Or rather, I'm still moving.

This blog has been temporarily (a long temporarily) on hold. It will  be revived in the near future, after I've finished a new venture that's become almost overwhelming.

The writing continues to fill up all the empty spaces on my hard drive and eventually the words will find their way here.

Meanwhile. it's nearing the end of a year. I'm hoping to have the big project wrapped up by the last day of this month.

I hope to have a Merry Christmas and wish the same to you.

Later,
m

Don't clean up my act

Even a few days after reading about the app, my body is still reacting the way it does when I accidentally bite into a burrito filled with sriracha sauce. Maybe my face did not change to watermelon red and my cheeks did not streak with tears, but the sting, oh the sting, it certainly does exist.

What is this app that has me feeling so irritated?

It is the modern-day version of bowdlerising, the so-named cleansing of the English language to make it more acceptable to some unidentified group of individuals--well, maybe not so unidentified in some cases.

To me, this is censureship at the lowest level, right down there with book burners. Yes, down there, not up there, because I am sure there is a hot place for those folks who find it necessary to make sure I do not get them verbally mixed up with the offspring of their wayward female terrier.

Clean Reader! It is available through the customary downloading sites and it will zip through any book on your electronic reader, zap out "dirty" words and replace them with "clean" words.

Can you imagine the lack of satisfaction the reader gets when reading this line?
[Frankly,] My Dear, I don't give a pitooey! (Gone with the Wind)

And how much of a rally would result if the Admiral had cried,
Gosh dang the torpedos (David Farragut)

Do you think we would still be quoting Paddy Chayefsky if his sadly disillusioned character had shouted
I'm mad as heck and I can't take it anymore. (Network)

Maybe this would be acceptable in third grade (but would a third grade kid actually be reading this play)...
Darn Yankees (Broadway musical)

 Of course, Twain has already been sanitized by the academic world so maybe this is superfluous:
Go to Heaven for the climate, that other place for the company. (Twain)

We either love or hate Shakeaspeare. I think we would really dislike him if he had written this:
…[thou] art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel female dog. (King Lear)
I had a love/hate relationship with William Blake when trying to prepare my thesis. Maybe I should have done a clean up version of his work instead.
The Marriage of Heaven and Something Else (Blake)

If I downloaded the clean up app and applied it to my ebooks, I am sure I would find many examples of the sanitized segments.

I am not going to download it! Are You?

Writers do read...but do they cook?

Writers usually have fairly decent-sized libraries.

I was thinking about this as I started packing some of my personal library to make room for some of the books I’m selling on ABE.

I’ve read many of the books I’m offering but there is one catalog that I’ve been collecting for a while now and it’s pretty much a surprise to me.

See, I don’t cook. I gave that activity up about ten years ago. Okay, I do make little things, quick meals like breakfast and lunch, but I don’t consider that cooking.

Cooking happened a long time ago when I made my own won ton dough for homemade war won ton soup, when I perfected my shrimp scampi, when I made 20-pound turkeys (and all the fine food that goes with them) to feed groups of friends on Thanksgiving.

So when I looked at the number of cookbooks I’ve put together to sell, I was shocked to discover I had forty books listed on ABE!

My favorite books do fall into the non-fiction genre, especially books about the brain and certain crafting books, especially on mosaics (which is a hobby of mine) and crocheting (not because I’m very good at it but because I’d like to figure out how my mother made some of those fantastic tablecloths and afghans).

I know I’m rambling here. I guess it’s because I can hardly bare to stuff all my lovely reading material into the guest bedroom closet.

I’m just glad I don’t have the extensive libraries some writers have (or had).   (I bet there aren't many cookbooks on those shelves.) I’d have to move into bigger digs if I did.

Happy New Year

February 19 is the start of the lunar new year, also the start of the new year for many cultures.

This is the Year of the Goat for the Chinese New Year. If you were born in one of the following years, you were born in the Year of the Goat -- 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015, 2027. (I was born in one of them but you'll have to guess which one, 'cause I am not telling.)

So far, the New Year that started on January 1 has been pretty good, but I think the one starting tomorrow is going to be even better.

I hope it's the same for all of you.

Do we really need editors? Do we really need proofreaders?

Do we really need editors? Do we really need proofreaderes?

Before anyone comes after me with hammers raised, I'll answer the questions.

Yes. We need both. But, life might be a tad easier for these experts if we had more a more effective education system. After all, look at the picture below. It's a sign that's been posted all over the complex where I live.

Almost makes you want to through (sic) up, doesn't it?

Now either someone was in a hurry to get that sign off the computer, off the printer and onto the local sign posting areas or they weren't paying attention in English class. I don't know who made the sign but if it's the person I think was responsible then I believe that person was just in a hurry and didn't proofread it before sending it to the printer.

Using proper grammar and spelling presents a problem for many people, even those of us who make a living in the writing trade. I recall writing an article I prepared about something I was very familiar with, and the final product was perfect -- almost.

When it came to the closing "For further information, call ...."

Being a creature of habit, I listed a toll free number starting with 1-800. Unfortunately, the number was supposed to start 1-888. I was embarrassed. The head of the company I was writing about was angry. And the company to whom the 800 number belonged tracked the magazine down to find out why he was getting so many calls for something that had nothing to do with his business.

Oh, my proofreader apologized, but nobody outside of the magazine staff cared. The magazine and the writer were to blame.

Unfortunately, I make mistakes, mainly because I write fast, and because I am often satisfied with my first draft. My grammar is better than average but I still goof up at times. My spelling is much better than average but I am grateful for spell check. I paid attention in all 12 years of high school English.

Still, I'd be overjoyed to have a full-time proofreader as a roommate.

Writing is the only thing ...

Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else.

I like this quotation from Gloria Steinem because it fits me perfectly. (I bet it fits a lot of writers perfectly.) I write in the morning, after walking the dog, of course, and don't feel guilty because I haven't emptied the grounds from the coffee pot. I write in the afternoons, after walking the dog, and don't feel guilty about not dusting or running the vacuum, or taking out the garbage. I write in the evening, sometimes eating dinner by the keyboard. And I write at night. When others might be worried about getting to sleep or not being able to sleep, I'm  hoping I don't get too sleepy to write.

You'd think I do little else, but that's not the case. Of course I'm not writing every day, morning, noon and night. But I do manage to find time to write without effort, mainly because I know I might be neglecting something, but that something isn't all that important. 

It's not even important if no one reads what I write. What's important is that I accomplish it because it's what I want to do, what I like to do, and what I do.

Just wanted to say that before I walk the dog (and take out the garbage).

 

The Writer's Block: Newest Addition to Downtown Vegas

Most tourists don’t come to Las Vegas to shop at a bookstore. Of all my friends and family who have visited me over that last several decades, not a single one, not even the ardent readers, have asked for directions to the nearest bookstore.

Aside from the fact that everyone wants to cruise down The Strip at night, visit the restaurants run by the top chefs from the Food Channel, and try their hand at the tables or slots, they might not even realize the city has bookstores. And, except for the widely spaced Barnes and Nobles (and some very excellent used bookstores), that’s about the truth.

Or at least it was.

Today, my friend Ann and I journeyed to downtown Las Vegas specifically to find a place called The Writer’s Block. I’d read about it months ago and again recently and knew I’d have to check it out. A quick google search told me the place was located at 509 South Fremont, just across the street from the famed Fremont Street Experience.

But it wasn’t.

That address was a storefront with windows obliterated by brown craft paper. Next door was a café, and peeking into the windows, I noticed some magazines draped across racks, but no books.

According to the article in the Las Vegas Sun, the store was renovating an old motel called the Alicia, further down Fremont Street. Plans were to take this well-seasoned old building and turn it into a super bookstore with new and used books and the state-of-the-art equipment that turns an ebook into a print book. So, it was in the car and out on the street, looking for Alicia.

But before I found the Alicia, I found The Writer’s Block, a little store next to some kind of battery service shop (or something), where we parked.

I don’t know what I was expecting, maybe some mediocre little joint to match the rundown neighborhood (disclaimer: there’s a lot of redevelopment going on and a lot more planned), but I was totally surprised, thrilled, in fact, to find a shop that was both quaint and modern, filled with new titles and nooks and crannies jammed with the most interesting décor. To the left of the entrance was an old 1800s printing press, partially reassembled and next to it a young man who very willingly (almost lovingly) talked about restoring it with hopes of having it totally operational by the grand opening of the planned mega store.

And, despite the location, customers streamed in and out during our short visit.

It was after lunch and we hadn’t eaten, which is the only reason we didn’t stick around longer; but, we’re planning to go back very soon, very often, in fact. And we most definitely will head back to the café on the corner of Fremont and Las Vegas Boulevard to have a couple of my eBooks magically turned into pBooks. (Not going to wait for the Alicia project to finish.)

We both walked out with a good feeling about the store and its future and I’m thinking those tourists, family and friends are going to start making a visit to this bookstore part of their stay in Las Vegas--or at least they should. In the meantime, they can keep track of the place via the list here.

Who wrote the Bible again?

Since I sell used books via Amazon, I am often looking for stock numbers, condition notes, and other comments about books I plan to list. It's a bit time consuming but at least once a week, I find something that breaks the monotony and either makes me smile (or laugh out loud), or gives me a reason to shake my head (in chagrin).

I recently acquired two Giant Print editions of the Bible and in order to list one of them, I had to find the same item on Amazon in order to use their required stock number (since the Bible doesn't have an ISBN)

It took some scrolling through numerous listings to find what I was looking for but the task had it's moments because it appears other sellers just couldn't get a handle on how to handle the required "author" section of their Amazon listings.

Here are some of their creative approaches.

Holy Bible King James Version Giant Print Center-Column Reference Edition (893NB) by Many

Holy Bible, Keystone Giant Print Presentation Edition: King James Version by Bible

Holy Bible(Containing The Old and New Testaments): NKJV, New King James Version, Giant Print Center-Column (Reference... by Unknown

LARGE PRINT EDITION Authorized King James Version Holy Bible: Old Testament & New Testament (ILLUSTRATED) by God and Christian Miracle Foundation Press

LARGE PRINT EDITION The Catholic Bible | The Catholic Holy Bible - Church Authorized Douay-Rheims / Rheims-Douai... by God, Bible Kindle, The Catholic Bible and Christian Miracle Foundation Press

The Living Bible/Giant Print by Holy Spirit

Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments ; King James Version Giant Print Edition by A Regency Bible

Holy Bible - Giant Print - Toffee Leathersoft - Red Letter Edition (Read-Along References and Faith-Building Gift... by through the inspired writers God

So there you have it. Presenting The Bible by Many, Unknown, the Holy Sprit, and of course, BY GOD!

Happy New Year

Merry Christmas

Rest in Peace, P.D. James

It's interesting to observe how the death of someone you've never met can profoundly affect your emotions.

When I learned about the death of P.D. James, I felt a little bit of my own breath slip out into the ether. No, I never met James, but her work as a mystery writer steered me to read a genre I had yet to start. While titles featuring her most notable investigator, the poetry-writing Adam Dalgliesh all eventually found a home on my bookshelves, it was Cordelia Gray who caught my eye one day at the Flamingo branch of the Clark County Library. My arms were burdened down with science fiction when I spotted An Unsuitable Job for a Woman on the table where I'd unloaded my week's finds.

"Cool title," I said to myself, thinking about the unsuitable job I had to report to on a daily basis. Without even looking at the cover blurbs, I plopped the book on my pile, completing my two-week reading list to a total of seven books.

I decided to read the James book first and within a few chapters, I was caught, mesmerized by the character development, the meticulous plotting, the subtle but necessary backstory and the vivid descriptions of a country I'd never visited.

Off to the library the next day, I returned all the science fiction and picked up four more James titles, took them home and devoured them.

What really caught my attention in these books was the way James wove little incidences into the fabric of her plot. Nothing happened without reason. There were no coincidences. There were no minor characters showing up and going away, never to be heard from again. Her style was tight; her sentence structure impecable, her major characters human, slightly flawed, dedicated.

While I'm sure I don't measure up to James' expertise, I realize how much her process seeped into my own writing. My own former detective, Andrew Atkins, doesn't believe in coincidences, he takes the lint and string and torn pieces of fabric of life and tries to weave it back into whole cloth. He doesn't write poetry but he does have a deep appreciation for music, particularly classical and opera. Like Adam Dagliesh, Atkins knows the cloth will never be as it was before the crime, and while it won't be perfect, like life, it will go on to be useful again.

Since that first P.D. James novel, I've read all her books, watched all the movies on PBS, and waited for the next release. Of course, unless she hid some unpolished or finished manuscripts in some drawer in her writing room, there will be no more.

P.D. James died on  27 November 2014 at the age of 94. As I stated in the beginning, I never met her but I am ever so grateful for having met her work.


*** Read theTerry Gross PBS Interview with P.D. James online.

We did our best!

I picked up a book today titled Stories of Service, which consists of a bunch of articles about and from people who serve others, be they crisis counselors, volunteers, advocates, etc. I bought it because I admire people who can reach out to help those who can't help themselves.

The book, subtitled Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Northwest National Service Symposium, was published at Portland State University.

There are 2,100 copies of the first edition in print, according to the title page.

When I opened the book, I noticed just above the date of May 2003 were the words,

This book was proofread. We did our best.

This made me smile because I know how difficult it can be to proofread. When I worked at a publishing company in LA many years ago, the company had four full-time proofreaders. One would read the edited manuscript word for word while another followed along with the proofing copy. When finished, they sent it back to editorial where any errors were corrected. Then, the corrected copy went back to the second set of proofreaders who mimicked the first crew. When they finished, and any changes were made, the editor gave it one last look.

The completed work went to the printer who sent back a blue line. This went to the editor who, despite approving the work of four proofers, almost always found something wrong -- a typo or a misspelled name, or an incorrect date, or a missing end quote.

Everyone who worked on the publication did his and her best but it seems as if some little error seemed to slip through. (And sometimes, we'd still find something wrong in the finished, printed copy.)

So even though we know how important it is to proofread, proofread, proofread, unless we are perfect, our manuscripts won't be, but if we do it diligently, we can always know that in our hearts  ...

We did our best!

New Directions

Since I've done two or three eBooks on my own, I was had the opportunity a few months back to work on a video poker book. Not unusual since I worked in the gaming publishing industry for many years and knew many authors and publishers, but also because I reviewed a number of books on the subject, wrote a few articles, ghosted a couple of books--and I've been known to play the game.

I formatted the work for publication then published it under the banner of Green Felt Books.

Doing that prompted me to look at other options for the clever name ... but it also made me realize how badly I've been neglecting all sorts of promotion for the stuff that I do to keep active and (not incidentally) to help supplement a retirement income sorely incapable of fulfilling retirement dreams.

So I'll be changing directions a bit here, which is something I do naturally anyhow so for me, it won't be a major trauma. I have a naturally curious mind that's always interested in learning something new. I can't even say for certain where I'm going with all this but I do know I know I'm heading into new territory (I will, of course, continue to write) to discover more about, well, about anything that pops up.

And ...

All this will just continue to reinforce my belief that every day is a lesson.

Oh, and here's a link to that video poker book.

Still alive, still kicking, just not here

It's not like a million people read this blog, so I'm surprised to hear from one person, let alone several, who want to know why I'm not writing any longer.

The answer has to be in the form of another question.

What do you mean, not writing any longer?

Just because I haven't been posting doesn't mean I'm not writing. In fact, I've just finished the first draft of a fourth novel, have been helping two other individuals with their manuscripts, and I've been writing articles.

So, I have been busy creating both projects and money.

And, I don't buy this "post everyday" mantra that so many "experts" recommend. I blog when I have something to say or when I have nothing else to do.

I'd like to blog more often to please, entertain, inform, or even annoy my small cadre of readers. Truth is, I have about a dozen half-finished blog posts sitting in my documents folder on my laptop, all of which have been set aside in favor of other work.

So, to those of you who have faithfully looked for some words on this site, I say thank you, and

I WILL try to find time to finish those works in progress and slather this page with them.