Part 2: The Silliness of English

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with "quick"?

Disclaimer: I cannot take credit for either Part 1 or Part 2 of "The Silliness of English". I rather suspect they were written by a frustrated high school English teacher.

Guest: Carolyn J. Rose

 Carolyn J. Rose is the author of 11 novels including A Place of Forgetting, a story about love, war, betrayal, and Thoreau, set in 1966. A cozy mystery, No Substitute for Murder, is due out soon. I convinced her that appearing here on Straight From Hel was a good way to launch her new book.

Carolyn grew up in New York’s Catskill Mountains, graduated from the University of Arizona, logged two years in Arkansas with Volunteers in Service to America, and spent 25 years as a television news researcher, writer, producer, and assignment editor in Arkansas, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington. Now getting her quota of stress as a substitute teacher, she lives in Vancouver, Washington, and founded the Vancouver Writers’ Mixers. Her hobbies are reading, gardening, and not cooking.

The Etiquette of Eavesdropping

Carolyn J. Rose

As a writer, I’m always on the lookout for unique characters with distinct voices, characters using the language in new and different ways, bending, folding and mutilating it into fresh and interesting similes and metaphors.

Fortunately for me, potential characters are everywhere—in grocery stores and at the mall, in the rec center pool and walking in my neighborhood. They’re where I work, in restaurants and coffee shops, at highway rest stops and in movie theaters.

More fortunately, many of those characters are having conversations—face-to-face, or on phones. Often—and perhaps this is a sign of our social networking age—they make almost no attempt to keep those conversations private. There’s no turning aside, no hunching over, no cupping hands to contain their voices.

Unless I walk away, it’s almost impossible not to hear at least part of their conversations. And because I’m always looking for raw material, I don’t want to abandon a fresh mine of characterization.

That’s why I’ve decided to set aside the “it’s rude to eavesdrop” rule laid down by my grandmother.

But, in the interests of being at least a little subtle, and not drawing the wrath of eavesdroppees (let’s pretend that’s a word, okay?), I established a few Okay and Not Okay guidelines.

Okay
*Jotting notes to yourself if you can successfully pretend you’re making a grocery or to-do list
*Cuing friends with your eyes or a discreet thumb gesture so they can help you remember
*Dialing your answering machine and quietly leaving the information in a message
*Racing to the restroom and scrawling details on a paper towel (Note, a look of urgent desperation gives this verisimilitude, but as more restrooms go to those hot air blasters, towels are harder to find)

Not Okay
*Making eye contact
*Commenting on their conversation
*Asking if they could repeat something you didn’t quite hear
*Being obvious about taking notes, texting, or tweeting
*Pulling out a recording device and pointing it in their direction
*Calling a friend and loudly proclaiming “you’ll never guess what I’m listening to”

Some of the most amazing things I’ve overheard include:
I’m taking my truck and those quaaludes. That’s all I need.
And then the chicken attacked.
The DNA didn’t match either of us.
The safe is hidden behind the baseboard in the corner of . . .
An unregistered gun, two cans of beef stew, and . . .
And there I was, halfway to Seattle without my underwear.

If you’ve heard anything interesting or have some rules about eavesdropping that you’d like to share, please leave a comment. We’ll put your name into the drawing for a copy of A Place of Forgetting.

Part 1: The Silliness of English

To celebrate Thanksgiving, here's a bit of the silliness of the English language:

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert..
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Disclaimer: I did not write these wonderful silly samples. They were sent to me by a friend, who got them from a friend, who....

Eat lots of turkey (or ham or whatever), then come back Saturday for another dip in the silliness bucket.

Book Review: Black Thunder

 Black Thunder is the latest book in Aimee and David Thurlo’s Ella Clah mystery series. Together, they’ve written more than 15 books in this series. Even though this is the first book I’ve read in the series, the Thurlos did a great job of easing in enough information that I never got lost or felt lost.

Ella Clah is a Special Investigator for the Navajo Police. After finding bodies buried on the Navaho Reservation, she and her team, along with a partner from the New Mexico State Police, set out to find a serial killer.

Ella Clah has a lot to deal with, beyond the case. Her daughter is the age when most kids begin to rebel, her mother doesn’t seem to be her usual self, and Clah’s longtime companion has stronger feelings for her than she does for him. Plus, there’s taking a bullet to keep a little boy from being shot in the head.

I have to say that I guessed the serial killer before the reveal, but that did not hurt my enjoyment of reading the book. I may have guessed the killer, but I didn’t guess the killer’s motivation. Besides, figuring out who dunnit meant much less to me than reading about the Native American culture and people. That, to me, was fascinating. Over the course of the book you learn a lot about the Navajo culture and way of life. The Thurlos wove it into the storyline and ended up making me wish I could go to New Mexico and sit down with Officer Clah, her mother, Detective Nez and Dr. Roanhorse. Or, better yet, be invisible and follow them around.

Characters and setting in a book don’t often come alive for me. They did in Black Thunder.

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Powell’s Books

I give Black Thunder a rating of Hel-of-a-Cast

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FTC Disclaimer: Black Thunder was sent to me by Karen Lovell with Forge Publicity. That did not influence my review. Ella Clah did. She’s a fully realized person walking a thin line between the “modern” world and the traditionalists of the Navajo nation. Like the rest of us, she has more than just her job to deal with. She’s smart, independent, caring, strong, and can shoot a gun. Like me. Okay, like me without the being-able-to-handle-a-gun part. And the strong part. I’d’ve been crying like a baby if someone shot me or even shot at me. Or pointed a gun at me. Clearly, I need to be braver … or read more Ella Clah mysteries.

Disney Goes E

According to Publishers Weekly, Disney recently issued their first E-Book Original novel. The YA book is called: Confessions of a High School Vampire: Birth.

Suzanne Murphy, v-p and publisher of Disney Publishing Worldwide noted:

 We were able to turn this around much faster than we would a print book, even though the e-book requires the same editorial care, copyediting, cover design, and all those things required for any good book”

On December 20, they plan to come out with a second original e-book, this one a collection of four short stories starring zombie teens. It’ll be called: Generation Dead: Stitches: Stories of the Undead.

These titles are certainly not the old “Disney” books. Things have changed since the Bambi days. But then, so have teens and pre-teens.

To me, this says that Disney believes lots of kids and teens read on e-Readers and that’s where Disney is starting to invest its money. I wonder how many e-Readers will be under the Christmas tree this year? And how many of those will go to pre-teens and teens, pre-loaded by Santa with Disney books?

Signing Your eBook

If you write eBooks, you may already know about a company that ‘s made it possible for you to sign your eBooks. In case you don’t already know, the name of that company is Autography. Autography works on “every major ebook eReader platform.”

You can even choose to sign something other than a blank page:

Authors are no longer restricted to signing a blank page. Autography's solutions include graphic-rich, customized signature pages that extend the author's brand beyond the book's cover. Authors can also elect to autograph a picture, taken at the event or from a stock menu, and insert that into their ebook.

If this intrigues you, visit their website. You can also watch a video explaining how it works. Note: the video is not easy to hear.

Has anyone tried Autography? What do you think of the idea, either as an author or as a reader?

Author Lauri Kubuitsile

 Lauri Kubuitsile is an award winning, full time writer living in Botswana. Her short stories have been published on four continents and she has 14 published works of fiction, primarily for children. (You can read my review of her book, Signed, Hopelessly in Love.) She’s also written six textbooks, two television series and numerous radio scripts. She has twice won first place in Africa’s prize for children’s writing, The Golden Baobab. Most recently she was shortlisted for The Caine Prize.

Recently, she set off on a book tour and graciously agreed to make Straight From Hel one of her stops. I’m asking her some questions, and I hope you’ll have some of your own to ask in the Comments Section.

Welcome Lauri Kubuitsile.

 When you started writing Signed, Hopelessly in Love, was the ending already decided or did the full plot develop as you wrote?

The thought that was the seed of this book was how we make mistakes and how we think they’re the end of the world when they’re really not. And how this is amplified by a million for teenagers. Everything they do seems to be wrong and they’re absolutely positive everyone in the world saw it and are having a grand time about it at their expense. But the truth of the matter is usually very different. That’s what I wanted the book to be about. So in that sense, I knew the ending, I knew she would find her way to the other side and see that it wasn’t quite the end of the world as she had thought. So how to get from A to B was the complicated part, the work of writing the book. There was some pre-planning, and some plot development along the way; this is the normal way I approach books. I need a guide but I’m not a slave to it if I find the plot going elsewhere.

I really enjoyed Signed, Hopelessly in Love. When you wrote it, did you channel your teenage self a bit? If so, which character did you relate with most?

Amo was definitely me. I had a huge, mammoth crush on a guy on the football team two years ahead of me in school. He didn’t even see me. I was invisible. And yet I had this whole drama built around our interactions. For example, I’d pass him in the hall while laughing with my friends and for weeks I’d fret about how stupid and childish I must have looked. But like I said, I was invisible to him. It was an entire universe in my head. So I could definitely identify with Amo.

I love that Amo had a definite character arc over the course of the book. Will there be a future book with Amo and Nono ?

When I hear terms like “character arc” I shake a bit and my palms start to sweat. I know what such terms mean but- I need to lay myself bare here- I really am an instinctual writer. I’ve been a story addict since birth, so the story format has become part of my DNA, I occasionally get things right but by complete accident. I’m glad Amo has a complete character arc but anything that happened in that direction was not purposefully guided by me.

Every stop on this book tour people have asked me about a sequel, so I think it may be a good idea. Initially, as soon as I finished the book, I wanted to write a second one. I had a very good idea that I was sure would work, but didn’t write it down and have forgotten it a bit. (Be that a lesson for all of you writers out there- write it down!) Then it was all about getting it published, and this you know takes time, so things have grown a bit cold. But who knows? Maybe that’s better. As a reader I love series, so perhaps.

Thank you so much, Lauri.

Signed, Hopelessly in Love is a Young Adult book published by Tafelberg, a South African publisher. You can find it online. Check the review I did on Monday for links to online places where it’s available.

Before you zip away, leave a comment and/or question, please.

Book Review: Signed, Hopelessly in Love

 Amo, a student at Puso Ka Junior Secondary School is a serious journalist. She writes the hard pieces, like “Is writing notes harmful?” Then she’s given the fluff assignment of becoming “Aunt Lulu” and answering questions in the school newspaper. She, for sure, does not want to be Aunt Lulu. Then a letter arrives and it’s signed “Hopelessly in Love” and her life changes. She discovers she’s good at giving advice. But can she handle the consequences of her own advice?

Signed, Hopelessly in Love was written by Lauri Kubuitsile, an award-winning author who’s written 14 published works of fiction, primarily for children. This was the first one I’d read. I liked it for several different reasons.

Kubuitsile lives in Botswana and the book is set there. I know little about Botswana and loved getting to read about the people there, as well as the setting. Life there is different from here – and yet, not so different. Parents love their children there as much as they do here. Botswanan kids want the same things American kids want. And childhood friendships are lasting, no matter where you live.

It was fun reading this story from Amo’s viewpoint. Amo lays her heart out for us to see. She’s being raised by her grandmother whom she loves and respects but doesn’t always agree with. Things don’t always go her way and, like all of us, she messes up sometimes. You can identify with her when things go wrong and she loses more than just her heart.

I think this would be a great book for pre-teens or early teens. And don’t be hesitant because it’s set in Botswana. No matter where you live, feelings and dreams are the same. Plus, it’s always good to read about characters and places far away, places that may look different, but the people are not.

Places to go to purchase Signed, Hopelessly in Love:

Book Depository

Amazon.com (limited availability)

Kalahari.com

Amazon.co.uk (preorder)

Loot.co.za

I give Signed, Hopelessly in Love a rating of Hel-of-a-Character.

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FTC Disclaimer: Signed, Hopelessly in Love was sent to me by the author, Lauri Kubuitsile. That did not influence my review. Nor was my review influenced by Lauri being here this coming Wednesday to answer some questions about her writing. [Notice how I slid in a plug for a Q&A with her? Hope you all come back for it.] Speaking of coming back, here is a message for all of you. (I composed it using the Glossary in the back of Signed, Hopelessly in Love.) Dumela, tsala. Tla kwano the day after kamoso. There will be magwinya for all….I’m hoping I didn’t just write something that will get me kicked off the Internet. Wait a minute. That might be a good thing. I’d see my family more often. Okay, maybe not such a good thing.

Book Giveaway: Treasure Hunter

This past Wednesday, W.C. Jameson stopped by to answer my questions about his latest book, Treasure Hunter. It was fun having him here on Straight From Hel. Also fun was getting the opportunity to draw a name from all the commenters and giving that person a copy of his book.

The winner is: Yvonne Osborne.

Congratulations Yvonne!

Jameson’s publicist, Stephanie Barko, will be getting Treasure Hunter: Caches, Curses and Deadly Confrontations out in the mail to you.

Book Review: My Zoo World

 Joanne Faries has written a book about her life – or to be more accurate, a book about her phobia. She’s afraid of animals. Dogs, cats, horses, goats, lizards, you name it, she’s afraid of it. And she has tales from her life to prove why. It’s not like she runs at the sight of a horse or dog. As you read her book, you discover she’s ridden horses, reluctantly. She’s been around dogs and other animals. But something always goes wrong and she’s never happy or comfortable around them.

For example, as a child she, along with other neighborhood kids, went to a neighbor’s house to ride their new Shetland pony. Her friends had a grand time. She did not. The pony bit her.

Then there was the time her son Kevin, who loved animals and longed to have a pet in the no-pets household, talked her into letting him have a fish tank. The fish didn’t last long, but Kevin, in cahoots with his dad, got a lizard. She found out when she heard the chirping of crickets (dinner for the lizards).

Then there was the swan. The Swedish swan. Oh, but I’ll let you read that one and all the other stories yourself.

If you, too, are scared of certain animals, you’ll sympathize with Faries phobias. If you aren’t, then you’ll be amazed at how things go terribly wrong every time she’s around any kind of animal.

My Zoo World is a fun read, although clearly not fun for Joanne Faries. As she says in the prologue, “It is a dog eat dog world and I’m mere kibble.”

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Smashwords

I give My Zoo World (If All Dogs Go to Heaven, Then I’m in Trouble) by Joanne Faries a rating of Hel-of-a-Life-Story.

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FTC Disclaimer: The author sent me a PDF copy of her book, but that did not influence my review. I was a bit excited (before I even read the book) that I could not only download it, I was able to open it by using iBooks. Yay! I was influenced by Joanne Faries’ plight. I can’t imagine being scared of all animals, dogs, cats, lizards, birds …. I had a dog as a child and my kids had dogs and cats. As a young child I had a mud turtle. I found him in the creek and kept him in a pan with water. I loved that little turtle. But we won’t talk about what happened to him. Let’s just say it involved an overnight freeze and me accidentally leaving him in the outside shed. I also had chickens, each a different color, each with its own name. I raised them to big chickens. They all ran away one day while I was at school. My mother told me about their disappearance at dinner, as she passed the chicken casserole. Hmm, perhaps I should write a book.

Being Thankful

Today, I'm over at The Blood-Red Pencil talking about being thankful. (It is almost Thanksgiving, after all.)

You might be surprised at what I'm thankful for.

I'm always thankful for those of you who stop by Straight From Hel and leave comments. And I'm of course thankful for books and wonderful authors. Then there's my family. I love them dearly. So many things to be thankful for.

But ... that's not what I'm talking about on BRP. No. Today, I'm letting everyone know that I'm thankful for not killing someone. Even though I had reason.

Come on over and tell me your opinion. Don't worry, I wasn't plotting against any of you!

http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2011/11/im-thankful.html

Author W.C. Jameson

 Best-selling treasure author W.C. Jameson is here today to answer a few questions about his writing. First, though, let me tell you a bit about him. He’s the award-winning author of 70 books, 1500 articles and essays, 300 songs, and dozens of poems. His prominence as a professional fortune hunter has led to stints as a consultant for the Unsolved Mysteries television show and the Travel Channel. He served as an adviser for the film, National Treasure starring Nicolas Cage and appears in an interview on the DVD. Jameson has written the sound tracks for two PBS documentaries and one feature film. His music has been heard on NPR and he wrote and performed in the musical, “Whatever Happened to the Outlaw, Jesse James?” Jameson has acted in five films and has been interviewed on The History Channel, The Travel Channel, PBS, and Nightline.

Welcome W.C. Let’s get right to the questions.

 Your latest book, Treasure Hunter: Caches, Curses, and Deadly Confrontations, is an adventure memoir of some of your most memorable expeditions. Why did you write this book?

At first I did not want to write Treasure Hunter. The principal reason is related to the fact that one of the best advantages a professional treasure hunter can have is anonymity. The truth is, most of what I do as a professional treasure hunter is illegal, therefore the less that is known about me and what I am involved with, the better.

My wife has encouraged me for years to write about my adventures as a treasure hunter. I resisted but finally gave in a few years ago for a couple of reasons. Because of age and increasing obligations relative to writing, speaking, and other things, I am no longer as active as I once was. The partners I worked with for years are either dead or have moved on to other things. Most of my recovery expeditions required the cooperation of several men – since they are no longer active, I have cut back on my own my involvement.

While I still have a couple of treasure recovery projects on the burner, neither is likely to be affected by the release of this book.

Do you still hunt for lost mines and buried treasures?

Yes. I have a couple of ongoing projects I won’t discuss. In addition, there are still a number of caches of Spanish gold and silver we had to abandon in Mexico for a variety of reasons. I am tempted to try to go back and retrieve some of those, but recovering and transporting such things in Mexico is very difficult these days.

One of my current projects is located in Arizona, another in Texas. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

Interesting. You are regarded as the best-selling treasure author in the world. How many books about lost mines and buried treasures have you written?

Of my 70 books, at least 22 have dealt with lost mines and buried treasures. The first was published in 1988. All but two are still in print. During the next few years at least 12 more will be released.

I have had the good fortune of having publishers contact me about writing books for them. These books sell well and make the publishers money. With a renewed interest in this country for searching lost mines and buried treasures, the books seem to be in great demand.

What is your next book?

At this writing I am awaiting the release of three books:

Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of Arkansas
Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of Missouri
Billy the Kid: The Lost Interviews

Billy the Kid: The Lost Interviews can be considered a sequel to my best-selling Billy the Kid: Beyond the Grave. Searching for lost or missing people is very similar to researching and seeking a lost treasure cache. In this case, the man we searched for was the outlaw Billy the Kid who, in truth, was never killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett but went on to live in hiding for another 69 years.

The evidence for this is found in Billy the Kid: Beyond the Grave. A few so-called experts on historical American outlaws have gotten upset because my findings make a lie of what has long been perpetuated as the truth. These experts have been challenged to debate me for years but none have responded.

Thank you W.C.

W.C. Jameson lives in my home state of Texas, but no matter where you live, keep an eye out for him. When not working on a book, he tours the country as a speaker, conducting writing workshops and performing his music at folk festivals, concerts, roadhouses, and on television.

W.C. will try to stop by today, so leave a comment or a question. Then check back this Saturday when I’ll announce who wins a paperback of Treasure Hunter. All commenters will be entered in the drawing!

Book Review: Treasure Hunter

 Treasure Hunter: Caches, Curses, and Deadly Confrontations is a memoir by W. C. Jameson. It doesn’t cover his entire life, as that would take many books (in the front of the book, there’s a full page of Other Books by W.C. Jameson). This one covers highlights of some of the treasure hunts he’s been on in Texas and Mexico.

You might think treasure hunters hear about a buried treasure and they pack their bag and head out to find it. In the end, they stumble upon a fabulous fortune, sort of like in the movie National Treasure. That’s not the reality in Jameson’s life and adventures. He and his three fellow treasure hunters often spend months researching, trying to pinpoint where a certain treasure might be located. When they set out, they are loaded with equipment they’ll need and are aware of how dangerous each expedition can be.

He’s written many other books, but since this one was set in Texas and Mexico, just about every expedition involved rattlesnakes, huge ones in big hives. Enough of them to quell any ideas I might have ever had about going on a treasure hunt. One hunt included quick sand that almost cost him his life; another involved deadly dust. In a lot of the tales, the four friends go home empty handed. More often than not, they find the treasure, but they can’t always take it home (Remember the previous comment about hives of huge rattlesnakes? Throw in people shooting at the team and other obstacles, including near death experiences.)

Jameson has had some amazing, scary, adventures. In his final chapter, he says that the only time one can fully understand what a privilege it is to just be alive is “when one has faced death and survived.” He writes: “I feel sorry for those who have never undertaken a quest, and whose only exposure to adventure is movies.”

Although I disagree with him on that, I have to say that he’s lived a full and exciting life. Because of that, I give Treasure Hunter: Caches, Curses, and Deadly Confrontations a rating of Hel-of-a-Life-Story.

Click to buy a copy of Caches, Curses, and Deadly Confrontations

***

FTC Disclaimer: When publicist Stephanie Barko asked if I’d like to read Treasure Hunter: Caches, Curses, and Deadly Confrontations by W. C. Jameson, I thought, hmm, I don’t read a lot of memoir. Then, she told me the author was a consultant for the movie, National Treasure. Well, my husband is a fan of the movie and watches it about once a year, so I told her to send the book to me. The tales are high adventure and almost every quest is a near death experience. My husband knows about near death experiences – he has one every time I cook dinner.
And here’s a bonus: Tomorrow, W. C. Jameson will be here on Straight From Hel answering some questions of mine. Not only that, we’ll be doing a giveaway!

Interview with Rana DiOrio

 Today on Straight From Hel, we have Rana DiOrio, author of the What Does It Mean To Be …? series of books for children. Rana is an investor, investment banker, lawyer, and the mother of three children. She is also the founder and CEO of Little Pickle Press which is dedicated to helping parents and educators cultivate conscious, responsible little people by stimulating explorations of the meaningful topics of their generation through a variety of media, technologies, and techniques. Her latest and fourth in the series is called: What Does It Mean To Be Safe?

Little Pickle Press (LPP) creates beautiful picture books that are also environmentally friendly. Not only are the books visually appealing, though, they are also mentally appealing and provide chances for kids to read alone or with a parent.

Please welcome Rana DiOrio.

Q: Rana, your series has won awards and now, with this new book, you’re tackling a subject that all parents worry about – how to keep their kids safe, but it’s not necessarily an easy one to address with kids. How did you first approach the idea of safety for kids?

I find that children first identify with physical safety and what that means. Once I have them engaged, then we explore social, emotional, and cyber safety as well. The take-away messages of this book are two-fold: (1) listen to your inner voice and it will tell you when you are not safe (most children know what I mean by "inner voice", even very young children; if they require an explanation, I tell them it is the "2 Is"–––intuition and instinct.); and (2) if your inner voice is telling you that you are not safe, seek the help of a trustworthy adult.

 Q: In this book in your What Does It Mean To Be …? series, you explore physical, emotional, social, and cyber safety. That’s a lot to tackle for a children’s book. How were you able to write it in such a way that it would be clear yet not frightening to children – or parents, for that matter?

 I think that Sandra Salisbury's thoughtful and soft illustrations go a long way towards making the topics approachable and not frightening. The book is designed to start conversations between children and their grownups about these various types of safety and how we can all remain safe.

Q: You’re an investor, investment banker, lawyer, and the mother of three children. Plus, you’re also the founder and CEO of Little Pickle Press. When do you find time to write?

On airplanes! True story––I wrote What Does It Mean To Be Safe? during several transcontinental flights.

Thank you Rana DiOrio.

You can find out more about Little Pickle Press at their blog or website. Little Pickle Press is also on Facebook and Twitter.

You can find out more about What Does It Mean To Be Safe? at the Little Pickle Press shop. You can buy a copy there, too! Remember, Christmas is fast approaching. Plus, for joining us today for this interview, you can get free shipping and a SAFE poster made of TerraSkin, the tree-free paper, with your order. Just enter BBTSAFE at check-out.

Click here to see the book trailer for What Does It Mean To Be Safe?

I bet I’m not the only one with questions for Rana DiOrio. I hope everyone who stops by will say “hi” in the Comments Section or use that chance to ask a question of your own.

Annoying Books

How many of you have read a book even though there was something annoying about it? A character didn’t appeal to you or a plot twist came out of the blue. Or maybe you kept reading to find out what happened to a particular character, only to discover that character disappeared with no reason or mention.

I recently read such a book. I’m not giving the title or author name. I’m not reviewing it because, although it was a good story, on the final page there was a twist that changed everything. The final page. The twist was along the lines of the gimmick they used on the old Dallas show where it turned out J.R. wasn’t shot and killed, it’d just been a dream.

I closed the book and was mad as a pig on a blazing hot tin roof, Yes, that sentence makes no sense, but it’s about as logical as the ending to the book I was reading.

Honestly, I was so stunned that a well-known author would resort to a gimmick to end the book. And, frankly, I was pissed.

Have any of you read a book that annoyed you? Maybe you finished it; maybe you didn’t. What was the trigger that made you put down the book or suspend your belief in the characters?

Book Funding

You know publishing is in trouble when even publishers need help. I’ve written before about a new thing: authors publishing via financial support from future readers. I’ve also written about big publishers raising funds to help with the publishing. And here I am writing about it again. This one, though, hits close to home for me since it’s my publisher.
TSTC Publishing, for whom I’ve written three books in their TechCareer series, is publishing a book by Bradley T. Turner called Cotton Bales, Goatmen & Witches: Legends from the Heart of Texas, according to Digital Journal. TSTC is a university press and wanted to publish this book, but needed more funding in order to be able to do it. The book will include photos. The promotion will include a video of one of the stories included in the book.

Contributors to the project will receive a variety of Cotton Bales gift items, based on the amount of the pledge, such as commemorative postcards, calendars, autographed copies of the book and framed metal art of the donor’s choice of photographs from the book.

TSTC Publishing plans to do this with other projects and is calling the program “Kickstarter.” You can go to the article to learn what other ancillary products might be included in Kickstarter projects, as well as what happens with the funds.

Now that this type of publishing is coming even to small presses and, in this case, university presses, what do you think of the idea?

Disclaimer: TSTC Publishing did not notify me about this new program. I read about it online. Nor did they ask me to blog about it. I haven’t even talked to Publisher Mark Long.

Google Invades Canada

As of yesterday, Google Inc. opened it digital bookstore to Canada, according to the Financial Post. It’s called the Google eBookstore. Canadian readers can “download digital books which can then be read on tablets, e-readers and PCs.” In addition, Canadian booksellers can sell their books online.”
The good news is that: “Google eBookstore in Canada will boast a library of “hundreds of thousands” of digital books for sale, as well as more than two million public domain books, which will be offered for free.”

The bad news: “…there will be fewer free books available in Canada than in the U.S. according to Scott Dougal, Google’s director of product management for Google Books.”

But then, there’s more good news: “Readers will be able to enjoy Google’s e-books on just about any device, including smartphones and tablets powered by the company’s Android operating system. However, the books will also be available on Apple Inc.’s iPad, as well as on e-readers from Kobo, Sony Corp. and Barnes and Noble’s Nook.”

Check online for more info, including a video.

Any Canadians here? Do you like that Google eBookstore is now in your country?