Tuesday, January 28, 2020

WARNING: Writers Avoid the Internet!!

Writers--Avoid the Internet

Hello and Welcome to the Focused on Story Blog. Focused is the word of the day for this post. Do you find yourself not quite focused on your writing? You can't seem to remember things? You are easily distracted?

In a study published this summer entitled The online brain: how the Internet may be changing our cognition., lead author Dr Joseph Firth reported, "...high-levels of Internet use could indeed impact on many functions of the brain."

Starting your day by checking your email and social media will set your brain up for a day of distraction. It's like starting the day eating sugar, so the rest of the day you will crave sugar. With all the multi-tasking online, you set up a pattern for your brain to be in high gear for the rest of the day.

In an article from the writing and wellness site, 5 ways are suggested to start off your morning so you will have a productive day of writing.

1. Read a poem
2. Read a book
3. Meditate
4. Make a gratitude list
5. Write down your thoughts for 5 minutes

If the Internet interferes with an adult brain, just imagine what it could do to a child's brain. The Internet has already shortened the attention span of adults to 8 seconds...shorter than a goldfish attention span. !!! 

Click here to read the entire article--5 Ways to Power Up Your Writing in the Morning.

Have you noticed you have trouble concentrating during the day? Do you have any other suggestions on how to start your morning without the Internet?  Please share them below in the comment box. Thank you.
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Dream Big!
Painting courtesy of Julie Ann McKevitt
GOOD NEWS:
Next week I'll reveal the book cover for my upcoming book release,
Arranging a Dream: A Memoir.  I'm putting the final touches on it for the release in June from BWL Publishing. I have enjoyed looking back at the first year we were in the floral and greenhouse business. Oh, did I mention we had no experience in the floral business or the greenhouse business, except for GT's hobby greenhouse? All I can say is to Dream Big! No matter your age or experience. Go for it!
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If you need inspiration and howw-to tips to write your memoir, Your Words, Your Life Story can help you.
Check it out as a journal paperback book or as a guide in eBook format. 

Your Words, Your Life Story: A Journal for Sharing Memories by J.Q. Rose 
Click here to order the paperback journal.


Your Words, Your Life Story: A Guide to Sharing Memories
Click here to download the digital copy from your favorite online bookseller.
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For group support, click here to join us at the Facebook Support Group, 
Telling Your Life Story and Memoirs Circle. 
Jog your memory, tips on memoir, informational videos, and meet like-minded people like you.











Writing and the Internet
http://writingandwellness.com/2019/12/02/5-ways-to-power-up-your-writing-brain-in-the-morning/

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

5 Reasons Why Writing a Memoir is Harder to Write Than Fiction

5 Reasons Why Writing a Memoir is Harder to Write Than Fiction
5 Reasons Why Writing a Memoir is Harder to Write Than Fiction by J.Q. Rose

What is a memoir? A memoir is actually a slice of your life. If a pie is your entire life from birth on, then a memoir is just one piece out of the pie. That portion has one theme. For example, stories about the places you lived, your career, your travels, etc.

Let me count the reasons why writing a memoir is harder to write than fiction.

1. The hard part about writing a memoir is that it has to be true! You can't fudge that you have your Ph.D. and you were a professor at Harvard. No, that is fiction for most of us. In fiction, you can make up everything and anything and nobody cares if it's true. And in most stories, a reader has to suspend reality to go ahead and read it!

2. Reflecting on your life can be difficult, but freeing. Seeing your life through the lens of time helps us understand why things happen and puts a unique slant on situations or family members. Oh yes, many of us in fiction take great fun in making someone we hate a character in our story and then torment that character or even kill him off! But that is not the same pleasure as seeing your life in a completely different way--a new awareness. 

3. Telling the truth can be painful. Re-living the difficult times in your life through memories can bring up those long-hidden feelings inside you. But writing about those times can be cathartic. 

4. A memoir is based on memories and your memory of an event or situation may differ from others who witnessed it. This may cause some disagreement and hard feelings. But, since it is YOUR story, your memory wins out. Nobody argues with the author of a fictional story. 

5. You are the main character in this story. Trying to decide what part of your life you want to share with others can be the point when you wish to just give up on telling your story. Passion about leaving a legacy to your family is needed to forge on. "You are the author of your life. Don't let anyone else tell it." I hope that quote will inspire you to keep going.
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If you need inspiration to write your memoir, Your Words, Your Life Story can help you.
Check it out as a journal paperback book or as a guide in the eBook format. 

Your Words, Your Life Story: A Journal for Sharing Memories by J.Q. Rose
Now that you've read the book description, 
you may want to know more about the journal for you or as a gift for someone in your life. 
Click here to order the paperback journal.


Your Words, Your Life Story: A Guide to Sharing Memories
The content in the journal is available as an eBook, 
a Guide to readers on telling their life stories.
Click here to download the digital copy from your favorite online bookseller.
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For group support, click here to join us at the Facebook Support Group, 
Telling Your Life Story and Memoirs Circle. 
Jog your memory, tips on memoir, informational videos, and meet like-minded people like you.




Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Author Toolbox Blog Hop: HTML Information to Format Your Book Description on Amazon

#AuthorToolboxBlogHop
Hello and welcome to the Focused on Story Blog and to the Author Toolbox Blog Hop #AuthorToolboxBlogHop which meets every third Wednesday of the month to share resources and tips for authors. Thanks to Raimey Gallant for hosting this venture. 

Please join us to learn more about the craft of writing and to meet bloggers who are dedicated to helping each other become the best writers possible. Click here to visit other blog hop participants.
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If you are an author or publisher, you know how important a book cover and book description are for getting eyes on your book.

You also know how difficult it is to write a book description whether it's for a fiction or non-fiction book. Spending hours on figuring out just the right phrases, choosing the bullet points, and crafting the correct Call to Action at the end can all be for naught once you upload it to the KDP form that is all about your book.

I filled in that box on the KDP form for the book description for my journal, Your Words, Your Life Story, and waited for my masterpiece to be published. Below is what I copied to the book description space. 

Notice the larger font in places, the bold and italicized words, the bullet points and spacing.

Do you want to tell your family and friends about your life experiences, but you don't know where to begin? The task is overwhelming? You need help in recalling memories to share? Life story teacher and published author, J.Q. Rose, can help.

Your Words, Your Life Story: A Journal for Sharing Memories, is a journal and a guide for capturing the moments that impacted your life—the happy, sad, funny and crazy times that shaped a generation. Family and friends want to relive your experience through your words.
Not into writing? Discover audio and video programs to bring your authentic voice to your family.
This journal does not ask silly questions but prompts you to remember life experiences and details to develop a rich tapestry to share in single vignettes or in a compilation. You can take the opportunity to tell those small stories you know so well, and then organize and keep them just for your family and/or to publish them. 

Your Words, Your Life Story will help you ignite and share your memories.

Free added bonus: Receive support for your journey down memory lane through the Private Facebook group, Tell Your Life Story and Memoir. In this helpful group, we share our stories, resources, tips, experiences, and memories. You’re invited to join in no matter where you are in telling your story, just beginning or completed. Hope to see you there. (You need not purchase this book to come in.)

Preserving the experiences of the past for future generations is important. They will wonder as they peruse the stories how you ever lived without a TV, computer, or microwave (or what else they may be using in the future?). 

The story of your life, the struggles, the joys, the accomplishments, will be what the next generations understand. Your account will be a guide to help them through their own lives.

Start now to put together the stories that make up your life story, a treasured family keepsake.

Inside Your Words, Your Life Story you will find:
·        *Larger print
·        *No silly questions
·        *An easy way to begin
·        *Inspiring quotations
·        *Ways to spark memories
·        *Exercises for you to recall YOUR life stories
·        *Lined pages to jot down memories
·        *Information on storytelling
·       * Links to sites for submitting your story
·       * Links to sites for telling your story via writing, audio and/or video
   
     INSTEAD, all the formatting was gone! Just a bunch of sentences piled together all in one paragraph. I didn't realize I had to use HTML in order to format the description. With my heart pounding, I checked the KDP help page and sure enough, there are supported HTML tags on the sales page, but no help in how to use them. Click here to see the KDP help page for supported HTML tags.
  
      Now I was really scared! Was I done? With a junky description like that, no one would take time to read it.
     But I was saved by a timely video by Keith Wheeler who directed viewers to use an HTML Auto Generator that would format the description for me.

     YOU TUBE VIDEO--Book Descriptions That Sell by Keith Wheeler



    Click here to discover Dave Chesson's Kindlepreneur Amazon HTML Book Description Auto Generator.

         Click here to join the Telling Your Life Story and Memoir Circle Facebook Group. It's so much easier and more fun to tell your story when like-minded people are there to support and share with you. See you there!

       I hope this information is helpful to you. Do you have another way of converting your book description into the HTML format? Please comment below.
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Your Words, Your Life Story: A Journal for Sharing Memories by J.Q. Rose
Now that you've read the book description, 
you may want to know more about the journal for you 
or as a gift for someone in your life. 
Click here to order the paperback journal.


Your Words, Your Life Story: A Guide to Sharing Memories
The content in the journal is available as an eBook, 
a Guide to readers on telling their life stories.
Click here to download the digital copy from your favorite online bookseller.
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GOOD NEWS: I finally figured out how to send the Rose Courier out to subscribers. The inaugural edition went out on Thursday, January 9. 
If you subscribed and didn't receive a copy, let me know!
To receive the February edition, please enter your email address at the top of the page under The Rose Courier to get this jazzy update every month. Thank you!!


    








Tuesday, January 7, 2020

IWSG: Writing Fiction-- It's All Because of My Mom!

IWSG Badge
IWSG Blog Hop---the first Wednesday of every month.
Hello and welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group Blog Hop! 
Always on the first Wednesday of the month.
What is the Insecure Writer's Support Group?
Founded by author Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writer’s Support Group offers support for writers and authors alike. It provides an online database, articles and tips, a monthly blog posting, a Facebook and Instagram group, Twitter, and a monthly newsletter. To find out more, click this link:  Insecure Writer’s Support Group

The purpose of the group is 
* to share and encourage. 
* Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. 
* Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. 
*It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! 
You're invited to become a member of this supportive group. Click here to sign-up to join.
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Happy IWSG Day and Happy New Year 2020!

Question for January 8

January 8 Question 

What started you on your writing journey? Was it a particular book, movie, story, or series? Was it a teacher/coach/spouse/friend/parent? Did you just "know" suddenly you wanted to write?

My mother started me on my writing journey. Not because of her love of reading or writing nor because she thought I was a smart kid and adorable (which I was--wink wink). I began writing to stay out of trouble. My mom was my second-grade teacher--a long story. She taught a split class of second and third graders. 

I must admit I was a bit of a social butterfly and liked to "talk" to my fellow classmates when I finished my assignments. I was usually the first one done.

 My mother thought I was keeping my friends from finishing the assignments and distracting the class, so she found other things for me to do when I finished. She piled up books to read, math problems to solve, worksheets, drawing sheets and of course, a tablet(such as lined pages, not the electronic kind of tablet we know today). I filled those pages with stories and loved sharing them with the class. I'd found my passion.

Many many many years later, I made the decision to try writing fiction for fun. After writing so many freelance non-fiction articles for papers and magazines, I chose to write mysteries. I gobbled up the alphabet mysteries, Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone series e.g. A is for Alibi, and Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, e.g. One for the Money. I loved to try and figure out whodunit, but I also marveled at the humor as the story played out. So entertaining.

Their writing styles influenced my storytelling so I added light, funny scenes in my novels to break up the dark murder mystery.

Here's an excerpt from my romantic suspense, Dangerous Sanctuary, Chapter 10--I hope you'll get a giggle out of it...

“The detective practically accused me of killing William, right there, right in the park.” Sitting on the screened-in porch at the rear of the parsonage, Christine expected Lacey to be as angry as she was at such a ridiculous idea.
Instead, her friend held her slice of pizza midway from the greasy box to her mouth long enough to ask, “Hey, you didn’t tell me you were at the park with Detective Stephens this afternoon. How’d that happen?”

“What? You’re more interested in why I was at the park instead of being accused of murdering William? Come on, Lacey.” Planting her feet firmly on the cement floor, she stopped the gentle rocking of the glider. “Don’t you get it? I could be tossed in jail for something I didn’t do.”
“Don’t be silly. You’re innocent. You know it, and so does everyone else.” Lacey popped the last morsel of pepperoni in her mouth. “Anyway, tell me how you met Cole Stephens at the park. He is super cute.” Her friend licked the pizza grease from her fingers and then grabbed the thin paper napkin to complete the grease removal from her lips.
“Excuse me, Lacey. Some people in this town are spreading rumors that I did kill William. I wouldn’t be surprised if it weren’t some of my own parishioners involved in spreading them. There were several folks who weren’t too happy to have a young woman for their pastor.”
“You don’t think they would spread malicious lies to get you out of here, do you?”
“I would hope not.” Christine sat back on the glider and sipped her light beer. She was too upset to eat the pizza Lacey had brought over.
“I guess we could always do our own investigation, eh?” She threw it out there to get a reaction from her friend.
“Sure, Sherlock.” Lacey laughed. “We could go to William’s house to see if someone left a note telling us who killed him.”
Christine sat bolt upright. “You’re right! We could run out there and investigate.”
“I’m sure the police have already done that. There’s nothing left to check out.” Lacey piled the paper napkins next to the half-empty pizza box on the patio table.
They sat in silence for a few minutes allowing the peaceful twilight to restore tranquility. Christine couldn’t let go of the idea of checking out William’s home. After all, William had shown her where the key was if she needed to get into his house in case of an emergency. I think trying to find William’s killer could qualify as an emergency.
Christine moved to the patio table. “We’ve got to go to William’s house and look for clues to his killer.”
“We can’t even get into his house.”
“Oh yes, we can. I know where he hides his house key. Come on, let’s go.”
“Hey, what about the pizza?” Lacey asked as Christine swooped up the pizza box and bottles.
“I’ll store it in my refrigerator for a midnight snack. Let’s go now. “ Christine was fired up to prove her innocence. Sitting back and waiting to find out who murdered William was no longer an option. She needed to take action toward solving this mystery, so she and her congregation could deal with it and move forward.
Dangerous Sanctuary by J.Q.Rose
Romantic suspense
Pastor Christine Hobbs never imagined her flock would consist 
of a cat, a pig, a kangaroo and a murderer.
Click here for more about Dangerous Sanctuary on sale now for 99 cents!
Click here to order a paperback book.
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GOOD NEWS: I finally figured out, I think, how to send the Rose Courier out to subscribers. The inaugural edition will be in your inbox on Thursday, January 9 IF you signed up for it. Please enter your email address at the top of the page under The Rose Courier to get this jazzy update every month. Thank you!!



Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG) Blog Post: Now About That AI! #IWSGbloghop

  Insecure Writers Support Group Blog Hop #IWSGbloghop What is the Insecure Writer's Support Group? Founded by author   Alex J. Cavanaug...

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