As the google doodle so helpfully reminds the casual internet surfer, today is the anniversary of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Birthday. For those English speaking readers who never were a small girl and don't know she was the author of "Anne of Green Gables" (That is Anne with and 'e' thank you very much.) It is the story of an orphan girl who grown up under the stern care of and old maid and her brother on Prince Edward Island as the nineteenth century wound to a close. The story (and its seven sequels) has been loved by children for over a century now. It is rare indeed to meet a girl who did not at some level connect with little Anne, whether they met her in one of the many, many reprints of the books or one of the many film versions. For this author the works of Montgomery were a major influence in both story telling style and voice. 

Remember it is Cyber Monday! A perfect day for book buying. Head on over and check out the deals on "Dying Embers" 

The hashtags are proliferating! Soon every day of the year will have a host of meaningful memorials, odd foods, and weird animals. 
Black Friday is a relatively well known phenomenon. Cyber Monday has been a thing almost since before the internet became the shopping behemoth it is today. Small Business Saturday doesn't have quite the same history yet but is gaining steam every year.  This year there is a new hashtag to add to Thanksgiving Weekend.
#SmallPressSunday! Most new authors can get behind this entirely. All book loving introverts (and extroverts) can stay home with their cups of tea and soft fuzzy blankets and check out all the great books like the ones at Caliburn Books. Entire worlds await eager readers between the pages. Find some great deals and great stories this Small Press Sunday. 

(Having overused the allotted number of hashtags and buzzwords this author would like to apologize.) 

Laryngitis is kind of the body's way of making an author sit down and focus on writing for a few days. It is very effective.
Oh and signed copies of "Dying Embers" are available for $20 from the website store. 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Enjoy the family and friends and friends who are family. 

I was given a chance to write a guest post for the World Hunger  and Poverty Blog, who work to raise awareness of poverty and hunger around the world, and did a short piece on Mamma Baby Haiti. They are a personal favorite charity of mine and ten percent of all of author profits from the sale of "Dying Embers" goes to them.
The post is now up and active. Pop on over and take a look. 
There is also a contest for the guest bloggers. The guest post that garners the most comments on World Hunger blog will have ten of the author's books purchased of a giveaway.
​So stop by and leave a nice long comment. 

Fall is finally solidly here in this author's little corner of the world. The frost in on the tomatoes and the leaves are abandoning the branches in droves. Not that I really need a specific time but this is really ideal tea and book time! #hottea #GoodBooks

Thus spoke one of the most famous and most read philosophers in history. It is pretty much the epitome of an old saying. For the most part it has been shortened to "Nothing new under the sun!". The very nature of an old saying (according to Merriam-Webster :an old and well-known phrase that expresses an idea that most people believe is true) suggests that the concept that it is applied to has been the same for a very long time. 
It is also in the very nature of authors to take old things and package them for a new market. (Seven origonal stories and all that.)  This gives the modern reader #RuinAnOldSaying

For Example: 
A bird in the hand will get you pecked.
If you lie with the dogs you'll stink in the morning.
Never cry over spilt milk unless it will get you a refund.

Of course some of these twisted sayings are old enough to have earned the old saying title themselves. Who remembers what famous personality said this?

"Outside of a dog a book is a man's best friend. Insides of a dog it is too dark to read." 

​What are some old saying that you think need ruining? 

When a scientist writes science-fantasy he/she almost always attempts to explain the supernatural through science. Ghosts become energetic after images; the result of the laws of thermodynamics. There was energy there, it is no longer visible, perhaps it did more than just dissipate as heat. Dragons become an endangered or extinct species with the brains to keep out of human site. Forest spirits become creatures that exist at a slightly different vibrational frequency. 
This is socially tricky as you can step on theological toes very easily. The last thing an author wants to do is to turn potential readers off. It can also irk "real scientists' who look at the hand-waving explanation and declare that that couldn't be. 
But is is so much fun to write!
"Dying Embers" definitely falls into this category. Shapeshifters are a rare genetic phenotype susceptible to a virus. Talking wolves are a sort of manifestation of a hive mind that exists between the individuals of the species. After all it is now known that plants have an internet of sorts to warn each other of aphids. Why can't the animals have something like that as well? 



Also check out my Merchandise Page over at Deviant Art! Cups and magnets and all sort of great "Dying Embers" themed Christmas Gifts. 

Human memory is a very fickle thing with distinct memories coming and going like aster fluff on the wind.

A friend online posts something funny, or touching, or sad and you remember the perfect quote from a book or an article or just something someone very wise once said. But are you remembering it correctly?

If there is one thing that social networking websites have taught authors it is that it is imperative to check and double check sources. A remembered quote might be useful in a flowing conversation but online, where what an author types just might be there long after they die, a single inaccuracy might undermine the author's point.  The dawn of the internet has of course made this much easier; both for the author and any critical readers. Frequently when the author goes back and looks such diligence is rewarded. There was some critical difference in the reality and the memory that must be corrected. Maybe the quote is still as pertinent as before, maybe not, but the author's integrity is preserved.