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Showing posts from October, 2014

Romance Author Liz Flaherty: Writing and the Art of the Quilt

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Back to McGuffey's Author Liz Flaherty: I grew up loving quilts. I have ones that were made by my great grandmother, my grandmother, and my Aunt Nellie. They’re old and beautiful, with tiny stitches and scraps of memories scattered over them like the leaves that are rustling through my yard these days. While I treasure the quilts and the memories, making quilts wasn’t something I ever truly thought I’d do. For one simple reason.           They are art. I am a writer. I’ve had nine books published and am still at it. There is little that I love more than writing, but it’s a craft to me, not an art. Some writers  are  artists, and I writhe with envy when I read their books, but I am not. This is okay with me. I just write. But then I had grandchildren—they are seven of the things I love more than writing. When I got ready to retire, I was afraid—for one wild, crazy instant—that I would be bored, so I thought why not go ahead and make a quilt for each grandchild? Not

Blog Talk: Should your blog use a site map or Sitemap?

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Say what? I'll just start by saying that I'm not the most internet techy person. But I pick up a lot of information as I talk to other bloggers, scan other pages, and rework this site. Let's start off with what a site map and Sitemap is (yes there's a difference between the two which will be discussed later). According to sitemaps.org , "Sitemaps are an easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about pages on their sites that are available for crawling." Sitemap (XML) is used by the biggest search engines; Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft . (Other, but not all, search engines are capable of reading Sitemaps and using them to index pages.) It uses site information and tags to categorize data , and that data is what search engines look for. There are various types of sitemaps; each serving a unique purpose. Some are meant for site visitors to use (site map), others are meant for only search engine use (Sitemap). I don't know  all of the differences,

Author Larry Farmer: Gasp! A Man Writing Love Stories?

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The Kerr Construction Company Fiction is not always just making stuff up. Sometimes an author draws heavily on personal experience. Larry Farmer’s bio-fiction novelette,   The Kerr Construction Company , is about a disenchanted ex-Marine after the Vietnam War. Searching for a new direction in life. Dalhart McIlhenny heads to Gallup, New Mexico, and finds employment in a construction company working with the Navaho, illegal aliens, and   ex-bullfighter from Durango.     Far away from fast cars and parties, Dalhart searches for meaning. Finding peace in a callous world seems impossible. Then he meets Carmen. How much of this story is based on your life? Most of it. After a stint in the Marines during the Viet Nam era, and time spent traveling the world, I came back home to Houston. It was the fastest growing city in America at the time and perhaps the most prosperous. All around was wealth with no substance. People elevated material things over culture. I had seen povert

Book Blitz: The Roche Hotel (Season 1) by Mysti Parker

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The Roche Hotel Season One A serial romantic comedy by Mysti Parker             After her husband ditches her for a blonde actress wannabe, Jane Seymour needs a job that pays the rent. The struggling Roche Hotel needs a miracle. With the former owner’s wife butting her nose into the renovations and new owners who are in way over their heads, Jane may be the answer to their prayers. Sure, she can handle The Roche Hotel’s quirky staff. But, can this skittish divorcee keep it all together when handsome Henry the Donut Guy makes his first delivery? This collection of serial fiction stories is a Tudorific romantic comedy that will leave you laughing out loud and hungry for more. **** The Story Behind the Stories THEY say a lot of things, don’t they? Like don’t wear white after Labor Day or don’t fry bacon with your shirt off (that’s probably good advice, come to think of it). Most of what THEY say goes right in one ear and out the other. But, in terms of writing, when THEY sa