Geeks

Coming soon!

Status

I’ve some major news for everyone!
I have toyed with the idea of opening a publishing house for years, I have the necessary skills to run a business.
What I need is for those of you who’d like to be considered for various positions to send me your resumes and samples of your work.
Needed are: Authors with books ready to go! Authors please send query letters in standard format, subject line Query for (title of work) to: ciccas_world@yahoo.com
Content writers, for web site. Editors: Technical and Style.
Formatters: Both for print and EBooks, Marketing, Agents, Readers, Artists for cover art etc.
If you think you have the skills needed, please send an email with attached items to: Subject line Job opening, ciccas_world@yahoo.com
Thank you.
P.J.

Camp NaNoWriMo!

Chat

I can’t believe it is already time for #CampNaNoWriMo!
I’m not doing my usual #TruethatThursday post because I think CampNaNo is awesome enough all on its own! 😀
If you are a writer and you have not done this you really should. It helped me a great deal to meet my writing goals when I was struggling to get anything done. Remember: You can “polish” crap. You cannot, however, polish the non-existent. Perhaps more importantly, it allowed me a chance to communicate with other writers outside the small, albeit an awesome community I’m proud to be a part of over at Mythic Scribes. http://mythicscribes.com/forums/

The link to the Camp Nano is at the bottom of this post. I really hope that if you write or just want to write you will check it out. There is something for everyone and NaNoWriMo always has some awesome giveaways too! Who does not like free stuff right? 😉
https://campnanowrimo.org/sign_in

I hope to see some of you there!

Updates- Indie Author interview with James G Pearson

Chat

I’m still not feeling well and have not done the interview with Mr. Pearson yet.
I am hoping to connect with him sometime next week. It will depend on his time availability and my health.
Again, I can not apologize enough to you for this delay. 😦
I look forward to getting well and taking care of the back log of items I want to bring to you, but for now I need to deal with getting well.

Hugs to all.
~P.J.~

New Authors – Epic Oppertunity.

Standard

This is a chance to toss your hat into the ring for a chance to win a publishing deal and a 10k Advance!

I hope someone I know wins this, because I am privileged enough to know so many people with talent in spades! 🙂

Good luck everyone! Opportunity only knocks once, for most don’t miss your chance. #WickedWednesday

http://www.hayhouse.com/the-writers-workshop-san-francisco?utm_id=5813&et_mid=663029&rid=239073963

Updates and Poll Winner Announcement

Status

Updates:
I’ve been so ill it is not funny, a trip to the ER and several medications later I still am not up to speed. I’m hoping to have the interview with James G. Pearson up on the 2nd, there is just no way I can get it done by tomorrow. I’m so very sorry!

This won’t happen again mainly because the lead time is a lot longer for the next author interview, but also because I detest letting everyone down.

Announcements:
I’m removing the chapter posts, the winner for anyone who does not follow my Facebook page is Merge ’em!

I’m so glad that many of you took the time to read and reply with your thoughts and comments on these chapters. I can’t wait to get the final draft all done.

I think that about covers everything. I’ll let you know if there are any more delays with the interview asap. Cross your fingers I sure hope not!
Hugs to all, stay warm out there,
~PJ~

Freaky Friday – Hope for the New Writers

Chat

I found this on FB and though it had to be shared. I read it end to end praying that there is hope for someone like myself who wants nothing more than to see their name on the cover of a book they wrote.

I found information, sure. And advice, most certainly, but hope?
You tell me.
http://thebackseatwriter.blogspot.com/2014/02/self-publishing-failure.html?zx=ef8af25eb222a019

It all goes back to what I have long suspected that self publishing does not work for 99% of people.
It is a giant slush pile where a few gems get buried for all time.
Unless you have something really special, or half a million friends that is…

Does that mean it can’t work for you? Not at all, but it underscores with a fine point just how hard it is; this dog eat dog world of publishing. You must know what your main goal is. Is it to just get it, your work, out there into the world? Do you want fame and fortune? Do you want your work in stores?

For me, I’d rather try to go with the traditional route. I want my books in stores, I don’t own an E-reader and I never will. For me, books are like Alice’s magic mushrooms. Little bits of goodness that have the ability to transport me to their world the moment I see the cover, smell the old paper, and when I finally crack the pages open to reveal their secrets it is as if they are doing so solely for me.

Do I look down on those who self publish? Not at all. These authors did what they felt was best for them. They are miles ahead of me most of the time, their work is A) finished. B) Edited (usually) C) it is published! Some have even sold a copy or two.
So yeah, they totally get props from me for letting it all hang out for the world to judge, but as I said usually the bad work outnumbers the good ones and everything becomes a victim in a sea of who the heck knows.

Trolls are another issue with self publishing work. Someone can read half a book, write a scathing review and the novel is dead in its tracks. At least with traditional publishing you have some type of safety net to defend against these rabble-rousers. Nothing is 100% foolproof, but something is better than nothing right? One does not jump head first into a hungry, angry, shark infested tank without at least some shark deterrent spray right?

I might consider self publishing after the traditional world has fully destroyed my hopes of publishing the traditional route.
However, I have friends who write, who plan to self publish. Their work is fantastically done, and they don’t want the hassle of trying to go through the gatekeepers and then travel down the long and strenuous, winding road to final publication. That is what their heart tells them is right for them. And I support that decision one million percent.
#FreakFriday

Twisted Tuesday.

Standard

I love Tuesdays! For those of you who are new to my page on Tuesdays I do a post called #TwistedTuesday, On this day I bring you some oddity that spins otherwise normal everyday objects, phrases, etc. on their heads.

Today I bring you space lovers, this little gem from Nerds Raging
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nerds-Raging/155349644524204

The ugly truth. Manic Monday

Standard

I want you to watch this clip. It is not very long, but it is very important. After you have seen it, then finish reading this post.
http://www.upworthy.com/4-ladies-get-the-cover-model-makeover-of-their-dreams-and-then-hate-the-results-11113?c=ufb1

OK, So you watched the video right? Now let’s talk for a moment.

First off, the body image issues people have these days makes me ill. I don’t see fat people, or skinny people I just see people. However, when I was in India, this happened…

It was the holiday Holi, and it was my first visit to India, I have always felt a connection to the country even before stepping foot there. Now I was there for reasons beyond being a “lookie loo.” I went to have some dental work done as it was way too expensive here in the US. But I figured, “when in Rome.”

To make a very long story short, I’ve always had issues about how I look, I was a child of a mother who placed for more importance on looks than brains. She still does, but she is getting better. I don’t blame her, her own Mother was the same way, and I’m assuming my Grandmother’s Mother was like that as well. Being raised where your appearance is given such scrutiny I had hang-ups to start with and I was very tiny, as in at least 20lbs underweight and I was still called “Chunky” and “Tank” There were other terms, but they are not words I care to reiterate now or ever. At Fourteen I had open heart surgery, I was in the hospital for a week, and not surprisingly I lost weight, about 10 lbs.  My Family thought this was “Fantastic” and that I looked “Better.” I felt like poo on a stick, but I’ll be honest, I don’t know how much was from the surgery and how much was from weight loss. But I tried harder to maintain this new accepted body weight, however, since my heart was now functioning nearer to normal than it ever had my body was now getting what it required to work properly and eventually the weight crept up.
It is not something that has stopped to be honest, as my heart begins to decline again, it makes exercise a tricky problem. I won’t get into details, but for my whole adult life I have felt poorly about the way I looked and by extension myself.

I married, divorced, remarried and traveled to an exotic land that I have longed to see since I was a child. I finally felt in control of my life, and that things were pretty close to perfect, save for the lingering body image issues that while I had managed to fight back and become comfortable with myself still cropped up from time to time.

So I’m in India, and my heart is acting up, I see a cardiologist, and everything checks out about the same as it has always been. But, the Doctor’s advice was to not get my heart rate above 150bpm, unfortunately I do that in my sleep… Arrhythmia is so much fun!

I’m enjoying my visit, doing the things I came to do and all is going well for about a month. Along comes the holiday, one that for years I have wanted to take part in. I jump into my friends Jeep, and his neighbor’s kids are in the Jeep and she is maybe Six or Seven, her sister is younger, perhaps four or five. I won’t get into the issues I had with these children while I was there, but their parents were some of the biggest stuck up, self-centered, egotistical, jerk wads that I’d ever had the bad fortune of meeting. Monkey see Monkey do right?

Anyhow the eldest of the girls looks at me, and says “My Daddy says you are very fat, and Mommy said fat is ugly.” So when the girl’s Mother gets into the back of the Jeep I’m mad, offended, and kinda hurt, I mean her kids were brats, and I was nice about the worst of the situations and now she has the gall to talk about me behind my back like she knows something about me? No, doll, not this chick, and most defiantly not today! She gets seated and I look at her and inform her that then next time she wishes to be a catty B!^(# she should make sure her kids don’t overhear it because the kids have not learned to filter what they say.

She made up some BS to try to validate herself and said she’d not be offended if I talked about “how tall, ” she was… Yeah like that is such a problem… >.> Bite me Barbie.

In the end, I said I’d rather be fat and happy than thin and so utterly miserable that I had nothing left to do, but build myself up by tearing people down. I also added that my kid would never behave like hers to anyone because my kid was raised better than that.

But, because of this incident, I felt poorly about myself and it made me rethink my seemingly happy life. Was I in fact ugly? Ugly people don’t succeed in life, and most def does not make it as an author, not women at least. Have you ever seen a woman Author who was utterly unattractive in modern times?

So, I’m talking with my dentist and I tell him about the thing’s mouth-wise that I am self-conscious about. We extend my treatment beyond the normal care that I had come in for. Now we are doing caps, and veneers and all kinds of things, we even talked about in the future when I return doing surgery to extend my lower jaw. I’m sitting there and I hear myself talking, and I can’t believe it. ME? The most grounded person I know when it comes to being realistic about one’s self, did I really just ask for and agree to these painful and unnecessary procedures?
I even went through with them! 😮

Words have a lot of power, remember that the next time you speak. You never know what someone is going through and you never know how your words will affect someone and what they will do because of the effect those words had on them. If I were a weaker person would I have considered something more self-destructive?
I’m glad I am as strong as I am and won’t have to find out, but it was a lesson in how words can drive people’s actions as well as forcing me to examine my own reactions to words spoken by someone who really I already had zero respect for.

Try to learn to just see people, please! We can do better than this can’t we?
#ManicMonday