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 |   Exploring the future through the present. One day at a time. |
| Wow, has October started off goodly for me! First off, the response to my website has been outstanding. Thank you all for checking it out and giving suggestions. Already it feels like a success. Two days ago I was chosen as one of "The WDC Angel Army"  's Port Raid Author of the Month, and featured in "Angel Review Forum" . So far I've received 6 reviews, and they've been quite helpful with suggestions on improvement.Members will then vote and choose an Author of the Month and highlighted in "WDC Army Angel Hall of Fame" Cool, huh? A while back, author Randy Ingermanson ( http://www.ingermanson.com ) highlighted a startup publishing company called Marcher Lord Press ( http://www.marcherlordpress.com ). It seeks authors who write sci-fi, fantasy, and other "weird" genres with a Christian world view. The owner, Jeff Gerke, started a contest to help spread the word about his company. Anyone who signed up for the newsletter was automatically entered. If people referred other people and they signed up were entered again to increase their chances. The drawing was yesterday, and I won one of the prizes: Two books written by Robert Liparulo entitled "Watcher in the Woods" and "House of Dark". Even better cool, huh? Hopefully this is but the beginning of the good stuff. |
| Okay, I went to your link...the homepage was okay...so I clicked on About Me...that's when I freaked. "I am nothing special: ...." OMG how can you say something like that in your opening line? Who are you to decide if you are special? I mean, you are one of God's children, and a mother and a talented writer...that alone would make you special. You cannot start off your page with such negativity. You must blow your own horn.... I couldn't even get past that before coming here to tell you. How are you going to sell your books if you cannot sell yourself? Love, Sheila That email is what caused me to remove the [About Me] page. She was absolutely correct. As most of you are aware (and to your frustration), I tend to tear myself down. I could chalk it up to people pointing out all my horrible faults growing up (real or imagined, it didn't matter). I then, as a defense mechanism, pointed them out myself before anyone else has a chance. But I'm 39 now, and know better. I'm not the terrible person I used to think I was. There's no reason I need to defend my ego in that manner still. My original thinking with adding "I'm nothing special . . ." was to indicate humility or modesty. Nada  inferred otherwise, and rightly so.There is a difference between humility and self-flagellation. The statement implied self-flagellation. When selling myself or my writing, I must show confidence. If I am not confident in my abilities - in writing or otherwise - how can I expect people to gain confidence in me? How do I do that without appearing arrogant? Easy. Through my actions. Can I back up my claims? Anyone who peruses my website will discover right away whether or not I can. Funny. As a land surveyor, I am confident in my abilities, and am not afraid to exude that confidence. Why, as a writer, do I find doing the same so difficult? Part of it is because I don't pour my heart and soul into it. When someone points out a mistake with my work, I don't take it personal. I merely made a mistake. I fix it, and hopefully learn from it so I don't do it again. It's also due to land surveying being concrete. It's based on mathematics, so I can prove quite easily whether or not my product is sound. Writing is more subjective. I succeed or fail (to an extent) based on the opinions of others. I need to remember - as Nada pointed out – to believe without a doubt that I produce quality work, just like I do with surveying. If I'm excited about my product (and most of the time I am), it will spill over to anyone who checks out my website. They'll want to not only read more, but spend money in order to do it. |
| It's finished. My novella is complete. That includes the cover and even my website. Gulp. I haven't sent the manuscript off, yet. I'm scared. Once it's sent, that's it. No more modifications. Any mistakes I missed will be permanent. Gulp. Wanna know how stressed I am about it? My fingers broke out in eczema, and even a few patches on my face (luckily not so bad as to be noticed by anyone but me). I know once I send it, I will relax. The longer I keep it on my hard drive, the more I'll worry that I missed something. I can convince myself that I did my absolute best once it's out of my hands. I might even believe my readers will be forgiving if they find a small error here and there. After all, most readers aren't writers, and won't even notice. Above all, they care about a good story well told. Once it's on the market I'll find out if I succeeded. I have one request of you -- if you can spare the time. I put together a website. It's simple, possibly a bit rough yet. If you could check it out and let me know of any changes you'd like to see I'll be forever grateful: http://www.almarquardt.com Thank ye! NOTE: Special thanks to Nada for pointing out a glaring error in my [About Me] page. So glaring in fact, I removed the offending page until I fix it. If you click to that page, you'll get a "404 Not Found" error. Come this evening it should be fixed.NOTE2: It's fixed! You can now peruse all pages and point out even more glaring errors  . |
| . . . why after two days no one left a comment in my last entry. At first I thought it's because no one loves me, or that suddenly my little boy wasn't cute anymore. *sniffle* (So I can be a drama queen at times. Deal with it *snicker*). But! After reading your blogs (I still have mucho to catch up on), I've discovered some have left town, others are super busy, not even having time to write in theirs, and yet others are taking a short (I hope) hiatus. What do you know, not everything is about me after all  .If'n you got time: A friend and I talked earlier about assisted suicide, and in what situation (if at all) would you pull the plug on a loved one. As a Christian and one who is supposed to treasure life, is it appropriate to believe there are circumstances when a person's life must end? For instance, in "Million Dollar Baby" with Clint Eastwood and Hillary Swank (if you haven't seen it yet, but plan to, read no further!) Swank's character was paralyzed from the neck down and couldn't even breathe on her own. She asked Eastwood's character to kill her, because living had become torture. After much debate and soul-searching, he ended up giving her enough drugs her heart stopped. Would I have done the same? I hope I can say yes. If I truly love someone, and there's no hope of recovery, where every breath is torture whether it be in pain or just in not being able to complete the most basic task such as breathing, then I have no choice but to pull the plug. I also must look at it from God's point of view and ask, would he want someone to continue living in such a state? Are there not times when we must let nature take its course? Now I could bring up the horrific circumstances of Terry Schivo. In that case I don't believe they should have removed her feeding tube. She still could function at some level both physically and mentally, and her parents were more than willing to take complete responsibility for her care. The biggest factor was even without water she held on for seventeen days. Most people die after only three or four days without water. That tells me she still wanted to live. What about you? Are there circumstances when you would pull the plug on a loved one? Or do you think people should do all they can (medically-speaking) to keep a person alive regardless of the hope of recovery? |
Got some pictures of Thomas: He's rolling over, but doesn't it look like he's posing like a runner? Do I see future Olympiad here?  I never knew drinking milk could tire a baby out so.  "Talk to the hand."  Still a happy boy. With regard to the last picture, it was taken a day after I cut his hair. Thomas' hair had grown so much it was starting to grow over his eyes, and the top was so long it looked like a comb-over or toupee. Here's where going to cosmetology school over fifteen years ago came in handy. I sat him in his highchair, and draped the haircutting cape around him. I then proceeded to chop the top, around the ears and cut off the little tail growing in the back. I couldn't believe how good he was! I expected him to wiggle and protest as I cut (almost two inches in some places), but once he wiggled his hand through the top of the drape and could suck on his thumb, he made nary a sound and sat completely still for me. Oh, and if you look close at the last picture, you'll see Thomas now has three teeth. More are coming, because he's not sleeping well, chews and drools more than usual, and his top gums are swollen. |
| I've been keeping a secret from you. I lacked the courage to share it, because to some it will seem a traitorous act. I know none of you will hate me for it, but you may lose respect for me. Most of us, especially those who self-publish, are well aware of Amazon's policy of rejecting any 'indie' books that don't use their Booksurge subsidiary publishing company. There have been many a call to boycott Amazon until they change their policy. Well, you may have figured out by now I have decided to use Booksurge to publish my novella. Please understand, I made this decision long before Amazon changed their policy. I researched into other companies, and Booksurge provided the exact package I was looking for, and for the right price. So there you have it, my deep-dark secret. I understand if once the book is done you'll refuse to buy it. I hope you'll still be willing to, though. Mostly I hope you don't think less of me for choosing this publication route. |
| In editing another book item, I happened to see at the end of the entry [Leave Comment]. I checked other books, including my old blog, and sure enough, they also have the option to leave comments. Even the previous comments left on my old blog reappeared. Looks like I can create another blog for Thomas and not have to create an Authorized Second Account. Coolness. As busy as I am right now, who knows when, or if, I'll get around to it. Still, it's nice to have that option, and I figured you would like to know your books have the same new feature. I haven't checked yet if it applies only to the Journal/Blog type books or all of them including Handbooks, etc. I am sure only everyone's official blog will appear on the blog pages. I have more to write, but will do it later. I'm at work and stealing time as it is. |
| Babies are all about firsts: the first smile, the first laugh, the first rollover - you get the drift. There are other firsts not so fun. My baby caught his first cold. It started yesterday, but I wasn't certain that's what he had. Now I am with the flushed cheeks, coughing, sneezing, runny nose, lots of sleep, and all-around fussiness. No fever, thank goodness. Poor little guy. He's such a trooper, though. We went to Walmart and Hobby Lobby with Mom and he was his normal, quiet and absorbing-all-the-sights-and-sounds self. When I gave him a new toy, he giggled, and he wasn't above flirting with my mom and all the other ladies who fawned over him. He despises when I wipe his nose though! Oh, does he get pissed at me. Takes after his mom, I suppose. I hated my face wiped when I was little, too. Now that he's bedded down for the night, I will tackle more editing that I've fallen behind on. Caught a bit of a cold meself, I haven't had the gumption to do much except take care of Thomas and catch up on my sleep. G'Night all. |
| There comes a time when every child believes his or her parents are idiots. This becomes especially prevalent during teenage years when the teen knows everything, and, of course, the parents know nothing. I realized not long ago this parental idiocy phenomenon starts even before the child learns to walk. From little ones' point of view, when they talk and cry they know exactly what they're expressing though it sounds like nothing but babble to us. Our talking I'm sure sounds much the same to them - nothing but babble. To children I bet we sound like the "waa waa waa waa" in those old Charlie Brown cartoons. I can tell when Thomas gets frustrated with me. He talks and whines and cries and soon gives me this expression that says, "Come on, Mom, it's so obvious what I want here! Now give it and quit giving me that stupid, 'I have no idea what you want' look!" Before Thomas came I didn't like to see or read stories about child abuse and death. Still, I could at least stomach the details. Now when I see the title of a story or hear about one on the television my skin wants to rip itself from my body. I can't even tolerate reading the headline let alone read (or watch) the details. I keep seeing Thomas in that situation for one, and second I feel so helpless because I couldn't do anything to stop it. Children are so helpless and trusting, I consider harming one the ultimate of an evil act. As David McClain talked about in an entry a while ago, the death penalty should be a given when it comes to harming children. |
| Mel aka Mrs Tor commented in my last entry (in part): Hey, that Thomas is a smart kid. I totally agree with everything he typed !!! I think he should start a blog of his very own !! I think it's a great idea, and would be lots of fun writing from my son's perspective as he grows up. The only way for me to do it and not violate my membership agreement is to create an Authorized Secondary Account (assuming I can create a blog in that account. I asked that question in the support forum a few minutes ago). My question for you is, would you read a blog I create for him? I don't want to spend the money on another Upgraded account (as that's the minimum for an ASA) if no one will take a gander and (hopefully) enjoy it. |
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