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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Yandex in Russia

I was curious why I had so many visitors - initially - from Russia but wasn't able to come up with an answer.

I did find out about a site called Yandex which is suspicious of new websites and which is more popular in Russia than Google.

The site about Yandex is written in Russian so unless I translated it, I'd be unable to figure it out, or what I might have said to attract so many visitors from Russia.

They seem to have fallen off, in any case, and I don't want to attract attention to myself by googling the reasons I may have attracted attention from Russian audiences in the first place.

If you're interested in some Russian news on a couple of later blogs, see here and
here.

I never paid much attention to keywords or SEO other than trying to fit the post to its description. So I certainly didn't attract an audience from Russia on purpose.

I'm very grateful to all my readers and followers, so want to thank those who follow me, but a comment would be great from one of my followers in another country, so I know what I'm saying that you like - or hate.

I suspect many bloggers try to stuff their posts with SEO now that Google and Amazon have made it easier by posting cool keywords. I notice one of those sites is no longer on-line, Amazon's keyword posts.

I've never been very cognizant of SEO or using keywords, but lately have begun to think my blog might be more popular if I paid attention to what people are really interested in.

Yandex in Russia wouldn't really want me to focus on diet, sex and money, as was suggested on one blogger's site I visited, but I wonder what do Russian audiences look for and why was my site more attractive to you at first? What did I say?

I'm a cool Canadian senior woman, don't know much about the rest of the world and am just learning to network. Most of my traffic comes from the USA, and Canada is only slightly ahead of Russia and other European countries. I can understand the USA is the biggest user of the internet, perhaps, and the language is in common.

I love it when people comment and will try to answer all. Perhaps someone can explain to me what brought you to my site?

I've been trying something different recently, just being myself and writing about what interests me. Maybe that isn't of interest to my Russian and other international audiences. I don't want to spam my readers with content about my books and writing. But would you like to know about bees and wasps and Sasquatch aliens lost on Earth? Note that SpaceHive is set to a large extent in India, yet I don't see that I have a large Indian audience.

Kenna searching the globe for an audience

I'm going to experiment with international audiences including what I think my Russian, south American, Asian, European and African audiences might be interested in.

Just because I'm weird that way and I have a B.A. undergraduate degree in Anthropology, the study of various cultures. I was led askew to Classics at one time, but return now to my first love, humanity in all its variations.






Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Natural Easter Egg Dyes by Shannon McRae

Ever wonder about picking out healthy, free range chicken eggs, boiling them for your kids or family at Easter time, and then putting artificial chemical dyes on them?

Ever wonder when you peel that egg the day after Easter and find it's stained with blue or green chemicals?

Shannon McRae posts in KIWI Magazine "Natural Ways to Dye Easter Eggs."

You'll need a troupe of children just before Easter morning and some turmeric or curry powder, blueberries, and beets for yellow, blue and pink Easter eggs. They can put stickies on the eggs before dying them and then take the stickies off to reveal patterns.


Another trick we used to do as children is writing on the eggs with white or colored wax crayons. The wax won't allow the dye to penetrate and you'll be left with cool designs.


The article goes on to say:

"Shannon McRae is a work-at-home mom of three young children whose days are spent wiping mouths, playing Candyland, planning dinners and stealing time in between at the computer for her freelance writing. She's a stickler for healthy eating, with a slight exception for Oreos. She lives in Alabama with her precious children, loving husband and 13-year-old Australian Shepherd named Ricky Martin."
More of Shannon McRae's fascinating and useful articles can be found here.




Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Abou Ben Adhem - a poem by James Henry Leigh Hunt


This is one of my favorite poems. Do you like the message?

Abou Ben Adhem

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold:—
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the Presence in the room he said
"What writest thou?"—The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still, and said "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men."

The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.


Anonymous Submission

Monday, March 25, 2013

Eileen Schuh, author of THE TRAZ, has a question for you

My author friend, Eileen Schuh, is having an event at Famous Five Plus. Answer a question about her debut novel, THE TRAZ, and win a FREE eBook of THE TRAZ.

It's a great book and you'll find the answer to the question in the comments section. I answered it...

She's also written two other great novels, SCHRODINGER'S CAT, and FATAL ERROR.

Look for this great author and her books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and in  bookstores everywhere.

Eileen Schuh at home




The Bible and the Pharisees



Why is it that the Bible is the number one bestseller and yet the world is worse than it ever was?

Something's wrong here, and I'd like an answer. Here's a link to a book that purports the Bible is 666 and created by the antiChrist.

Then I'll wait for the sugar to hit the fan.



Note there are two reviews and both of them pan the book. It's interesting, though, that the authors say we should depend on the spirit of God, not scriptures, and that's what Jesus always said.

I heard a minister say once that evangelical churches today are like the Pharisees.

I've always thought that.

Have you read this poem about a godly man who lives with the spirit of God?

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Fundamentalist Churches Need Dieting for Dummies

large delicious cinnamon roll tempting a Christian
I posted a comment recently about fundamentalist Christians loving their potlucks and sashaying up to the trough. I wonder if they're fatter than the average North American?

I have a long history with fundamentalist churches and most of them are well meaning and considerate of others in their fold, if not in the entire world (look at the Baptist church which pickets funerals of American soldiers).

My observation lies with dieting and their potential for feeding themselves like little greedy cliques.

I think feeding the homeless and poor is a worthy venture. I do that myself, if I can, buy lunches or coffee for the homeless. There but for the grace of God go I.

I do have a problem with overweight adult WASPs who sidle up to the communal dinner table rather than get out there and work with their hands and move their feet for God's world and the people beyond their little cults.

Now that Easter is on the equinox horizon, it's time to revisit Jesus and his actions and what he said or was purported to say, not the misguided words of his followers.

Have lunch with a homeless person or sit down and don't evangelize, really get to know your neighbor there on the main drag, realize they're not so different from you.

Don't just serve food to fill your belly and then feel good about yourself because you've worked at a soup kitchen. That's "them and us" thinking, and Jesus, if you recall, actually sat down with the sinners.

We're all sinners, remember that, and let's not forget gluttony is a sin, and there are no sins that are lesser or greater than others. Baptist church.

Dieting for dummies. I haven't seen that particular book out yet but I think I might write one if I ever find an audience.

Churches seem to be full of cookies, cakes, squares and good intentions.

Read this, too, if you'd like a new outlook on the Bible

Friday, March 22, 2013

Bizarro Writer and Books

Raw Dog Screaming Press posted an interview with Jeremy C. Shipp, young Bizarro writer of dark horror books and short stories.

Don't look too long because I found it only once and now the interview seems to be gone from Raw Dog Screaming Press. It's on Jeremy's website, Slices of Bizarro Pie.

Jeremy was nominated for the Bram Stoker award, and is author of numerous novels and short story collections, such as my very favorite weird tales, Attic Clowns, Complete Collection.

Amazon says, "Men, women, children, and things beyond imagination all interconnect in ATTIC CLOWNS, where laughter is only the prelude to the bizarre and terrible."

Fiction horror books fascinated me for a short time when I was writing my own, but I found my talents lie elsewhere. I haven't found those talents yet but I know they're there somewhere, maybe buried in Jeremy's basement far from the attic of his imagination.

Speaking of creepy, I found this on Slices of Bizarro Pie:


Do you have a favorite site or writer?

I will answer all comments. Eventually.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Can people with schizophrenia work?

I have schizophrenia. Paranoid schizophrenia. I've been told by a therapist who also happened to be a nun(!) that I had "boundary problems." That was my problem, according to her, and according to a half crazed psychiatric nurse who told me she worked only with "low maintenance patients," referred me to the nun because my delusions were "religious delusions" and she thought the nun would be appropriate to deal with religious delusions. I'm not making this up. The nun lit candles before every session with me and threw the matches in the waste bucket without extinguishing them first. When I suggested that was unsafe she glared at me and told me I had boundary problems. The nun also related to me how a client had hugged her and she was appalled and told him off because he had "boundary problems." I wondered at the time who had boundary problems!

Whew! When I was first diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1978 I was told I would be in and out of psych hospitals for the rest of my life. I was 31 years old at that time. I was also told (by a minister, coincidentally) that I would never be able to work. My psychiatrist told me I should be satisfied with "coping."

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I've worked almost continuously since then, at odd jobs sometimes, at temporary jobs often, but at a school of psychiatric nursing for five years, at a university for two years and then on disability insurance for another two years, during which time I worked so much part-time that I didn't make any money from my disability insurance. Then I worked three part-time jobs to make ends meet, then I was hired full-time and worked for an oral pathologist as a medical transcriptionist for eight years, then I started my own medical transcription business in 1999 and worked part-time often to get my business off the ground. My entrepreneurship paid off and I now am self-supporting with the help of Old Age Security and Canada Pension Plan (CPP). I am a published author and live by myself very successfully in a small fancy studio suite in a highrise in downtown Edmonton. I don't own a car, microwave, bathroom scale, television set or property and I am very happy.

I don't have boundary problems, I had delusions and obsessions because I had a mental illness. I never had a personality disorder, I had schizophrenia. So many unfortunate therapists who hurt me over the years.

Yes, people with schizophrenia can work. People with schizophrenia can fall in love, marry, have children and grandchildren. People with schizophrenia can laugh, cry, hurt, bleed, and be outrageous if they choose. They sometimes are violent. "Normal" people are violent much more often, statistically, than schizophrenic people. But we get the media, don't we?

What's your story?


Sunday, March 17, 2013

GIVEAWAY - THE FIRST PILLAR - ONE MORE DAY

My friend Roy Huff is giving away a signed copy of his great new fantasy/science fiction novel, The First Pillar, for the next two days. Get your copy from Goodreads here.

It's on my list of books to read at Goodreads. I'm presently reading Divergent, a dystopian young adult thriller that I'm enjoying almost as much as the Hunger Games, and almost as much as The First Pillar, I'm sure! I've entered the contest for The First Pillar and hope to win a SIGNED COPY from author Roy Huff.

Wish me luck. I love my Kindle and I love eBooks.

Join me on Goodreads, all you avid readers and authors, and find some really...er...GOOD READS!! No, find some GREAT READS, because they're all there!

Have any of my readers found a great read today? If so, tell us all about it! Don't be shy.
Friday, March 15, 2013

SUBMERGED author, Cheryl Kaye Tardif, talks about fear






SUBMERGED author, Cheryl Kaye Tardif, talks about fear

As part of her official SUBMERGED Blog Tour, international bestselling author Cheryl Kaye Tardif has stopped by my blog to share with us one of the themes of her new thriller…

What inspires me most to write the novels I've written? Fear!

One of the most common questions I hear as an author is: "What inspired you to write this novel?" If I were to answer 100% truthfully, my answer is: "Fear." As a suspense author, my goal is to tap into the deepest of fears and make them one hundred times more terrifying. I am always asking, "What are you afraid of?"

In DIVINE INTERVENTION, I deal with the fear of not being accepted for who you are. I also explore the fear of being hunted by a serial arsonist. I'm sure most of us can identify with the first fear, but hopefully none of you can identify with the latter. This thriller also deals with the fear of the unknown, of past events and secrets. Or of moving on with one's life.

In THE RIVER, I deal with the fear of discovering that a father you thought was dead was actually alive...and in danger. It also touches on the fear that the world as we know it may end much sooner than we think. There are many who fear conspiracies, and that is a key factor in this thriller. How are we changing this world for the worst, and at what point have we become God?

In my thriller, CHILDREN OF THE FOG, I explore every mother's worst nightmare―the fear of losing a child. What's more, I take this to a more terrifying level by delving into the fear of having a child abducted and of having the main character make a terrible choice:  to let a kidnapper take her child, or watch her son die. What would YOU choose?

And in my new psychological thriller, SUBMERGED, I explore one of my own fears—the fear of being trapped in a car that is submerged underwater. Just the thought of this happening makes my breath freeze in my lungs and makes my fingers curl. I can imagine the fear, the burning water in my nose and lungs, the moment when I know I can't hold my breath any longer…and the realization that I'm about to drown.

When my husband and I are traveling, I am always leery of driving too close to the edge of the road if water sits at the bottom of an embankment. When writing this novel, I often found myself holding my breath and then gulping in air when I finally remembered to breathe.

And now I have an important question to ask you: What are YOU afraid of?


Learn more about Cheryl Kaye Tardif at http://www.cherylktardif.com and follow her on Twitter.

Enter Cheryl’s March Giveaway – 59 Prizes! http://www.cherylktardif.blogspot.com

http://cherylktardif.blogspot.ca/p/submerged-blog-tour.html



Thursday, March 14, 2013

BIGFOOT BOY: LOST ON EARTH - an excerpt





A sample from my young adult novel that's actually written and looking for an agent or publisher. Bigfoot Boy: Lost on Earth is the story of Errl, an alien Sasquatch teen, who is stranded on Earth when his spaceship leaves without him. He struggles to find his way home in a series of misadventures and a love interest (Hunny, the golden native Sasquatch girl who befriends him and his human pal Joey). 





AN EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER ONE

"Errl. Pssst. Look at this. It's ill," Errl's best friend Berndt whispered. "The humans eat eggs. They're camping right below. Something is sizzling in a flat iron pan. Worm infested pig meat and eggs. Gross."
"Shut up. The Teach is looking at us."
"Dr. Teach? He's too touched in the head to notice."
"He thinks out loud same as us. He's just different. Old codger. Gummy wad, Berndt?"
"No, thanks. My cud's full."
The boys and girls with big hairy feet were on their yearly field trip to Earth from Planet X. Errl, the smallest of them, combed the hair on his legs. He didn't want to listen to their MiddleSchool teacher. They were learning English and Errl heard enough to get by if he had to. Getting by was good enough for him. Later he wished he had listened more carefully.
"Shhh. Some cute girls just got on the airpod."
"Where?"
"Oh, that's your sister, Errl. Torannee. Hard to tell with the long blue streaked hair down the front."
"Ee-yah. All the girls are coloring their body hair now."
"Still. Your sister's cute, Errl."
Their speech sounded like grunts and bleeps to an untrained ear. Even by Bigfoot standards, Errl was ugly. He began to comb the hair on his face.
"Gross. Who's her friend?"
"I think it's Lally. I wish Teach hadn't kept the girls in another part of the ship. It's hard to tell one from the other." Berndt flattened his webbed fingers and whistled. "There's water down below." He scanned the Moduports in the front of the airpod. Teach grunted into the control panel. The pod eased across the tops of the forest below, scaring deer into the open. Their ship was silent and still invisible to the group of young human campers.
"They're eating eggs and wormy pork meat, with chunks of rat infested bread."
"Ee-yah, their eyes and smell aren't as keen as ours, Errl. The rest of us, anyhow. Maybe not you." Berndt laughed. He slapped Errl on the back.
 Errl put down the comb. Teach dropped his gummy wad. He picked it up again and chewed. Errl's sister smiled at Berndt behind her long blue hair.
"What's that white stuff on the big hills?"
"They call it winter. Don't you know nuffin'?" Berndt winked at the six feet tall Bigfoot girl. She was starting to show signs of stars in her eyes and long hair on her belly.
"I'd rather sleep than listen to Dr. Teach."
The ship lurched. Teach went skidding past them. The laser machine that guided the airpod sparked and smoked. The girls clung to the rails at the side. They tried to get to the control panel. Lally whipped her long arms around the controls and pulled. Teach skidded past them again as the ship righted itself. Errl grasped the rails. The ship screamed to an emergency landing in the forest below, Torannee and Lally at the controls. Teach grunted and swore. His fuzzy hair matted where he sat on his butt.
"Holy pine nuts," Errl said. "What happened, Dr. Teach? The Humans must have seen that."
"One of their radio satellites knocked out our power," Teach said. "I forgot to set the screens."
"You forgot to set the screens?"
"No harm done," Torannee said. "The human campers didn't see us." Her voice sounded like sacks of rocks crunching together. Berndt thought she was beautiful.
"I don't think they saw us, anyhow." She was wrong.

I'm looking for an agent for this 35,500 word young adult/middle grade novel. Any comments?
Monday, March 11, 2013

My mystery novel, RED HERRINGS, and the concerns of an author



My little mystery novel is taking shape. Oh, someone guessed the farmer in the red truck did it. What was his motive and did he have an alibi? Was he from the Haida Nation by the lighthouse? Only Annie Hansen knows for sure, and that not until the end of RED HERRINGS.

The float house on Serendipity Island may require major repairs before Annie is safe there. Her neighbor on the mysterious boat next door knows more than he is telling. What about the blunt instrument that felled Dr. Hubert like a polled ox before his brains were removed in a wet heap by his skull opened with a surgical drill? Who would have the strength and expertise to do such a heinous deed?

The little nurse with the karate brown belt is a suspect. So is Annie herself, or her Sudanese boyfriend Samir.

Oh, doom and gloom, Annie is taken off the case and thrown aside to sink or swim alone. No, not totally alone. There is the handsome detective with the piercing blue eyes…

I may post an excerpt from the first draft of this chilling yet humorous tale of possible revenge, possible love unrequited, possible madness and its presentation as voices that belittle and scorn, and visions that inspire.

Wait for RED HERRINGS, the book and the story of one new adult's flight into sanity and a crime that shocks an entire nation.