With Thanksgiving on its’ way this Thursday, we welcome our favorite School Psychologist, Dr. Valerie Allen, with words of wisdom for this holiday centered on gratefulness.

An Attitude with Gratitude

by

Dr. Valerie Allen

Even in difficult economic times, we live in a land of abundance. Most families exceed the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter. Children have more than ample toys and clothes. Often, they have difficulty finding storage for the excess items in their bedrooms and play areas. In this land of plenty, it is difficult to teach children how to appreciate what they have. The joy of giving is often lost in the expectation of getting.

How do we teach children to be thankful for what they have? We need to engage them in the act of giving and doing for others. They will not only develop an appreciation for what they have, but will learn…

MEET…

AUTHOR D. L. Finn

Here is her works…

Poetry by D. L. Finn

DARKNESS

The air is thick as you breathe it in

Filling your lungs with its silence.

It unnerves you when you’re alone

Because in the darkness there are shadows.

They are filled with the unknown

While the quiet is lurking with danger.

It’s unseen, watching while your heart is racing

And your skin drenched in sweat, you scan the night.

You see nothing and hear nothing

Yet, you know it’s there.

You hurry back into the light where it’s safe

Shut the door and lock it with a sigh of relief.

You quickly forget the darkness

But, what you don’t know is…

It
hasn’t forgotten you.

We
fly by the ranches…

TO FLY (Musings from the Back of a Harley)

Cows,
goats, and horses.

Grazing
golden-grass untroubled…

As
we rumble loudly past them.

The
ponds are…

on Just Publishing Advice:

It can happen at any time. All of a sudden, for no logical reason, you find that one of your social network accounts has been blocked.

You feel upset, of course. You lose contact with your friends. But you also lose the means to promote your books or your blog on the suspended account.

What can you do?

The first thing to do is calm down and don’t panic. Take a deep breath and get ready to take steps to get your account suspension lifted.

However, be prepared for it to take a few days.

Let’s first look at why social media platforms suspend accounts and then what you can do to get the account suspension removed.

Continue reading HERE

on The Creative Penn:

I’m just back from the Independent Author Conference in Philadelphia.

Here are some of my thoughts from the trip in this solo show:

People don’t buy books, publishing wide is more than just retail, tips for being a better publisher, strategy is what you DON’T do, plus, learn what you need for your stage of the author journey.

Continue reading HERE

Hello to all the Story Empire readers. PH here today, getting ready for Thanksgiving! No, this isn’t a themed post. Instead, I’m here to help anyone out there who needs a start with Scrivener and just can’t figure out what to do with it.

I’ve seen several comments from other writers over the last few years which indicates they have Scrivener but just didn’t know where to begin. I understand the feeling. When I first started with Scrivener there was so much to learn and I needed to do other work that I didn’t have time to learn it. It wasn’t until I read several posts in which other authors described how they used Scrivener that I began to understand its power.

Why the confusion and reluctance in engaging with Scrivener?

It is fundamentally different from just using a text editor. It is a robust development software for an entire…

Hello, everyone! Today I thought I would mention some of the places in my Fantasy Angels Series, along with some of the supporting characters and other beings introduced in Son of the Serpent.

FLORAISON by Jeff Brown

Dracúl is the main character in Son of the Serpent and Lilith is the villain in the book. Interspersed chapters in Dracúl’s voice and chronicles in Lilith’s voice divide the book.

There are three realms of Heaven:

Heaven Most High– Where God resides.

Metá Heaven – Where God’s presence could be reached in His throne room. Only by His expressed permission could one cross the portal to this level of heaven. It is in the throne room God passed laws and judgments.

Floraison – The lowest realm of Heaven. A paradise where angels are born.

Different dimensions separate these realms and only God traveled between them as He pleased.

*Hell…

A friend has turned into a writer. Unbeknown to me, she’s been chipping away at a novel and her husband just sent this email.

Her novel is more or less finished!!! I may need to pick your brains about marketing! We also think we need to get it professionally proof-read. We tried doing it ourselves with Grammarly, but realise it’s way more complex than it seems …’

Ah bless. If you’re well seasoned in the author world, you’ll already be counting the many erroneous assumptions. Carts before horses. Running before walking.

But we all have to start somewhere. And even if you’re already wiser than my beginner friend here, you might know a writer who’s effervescing in a similar state of enthusiastic, ecstatic, multi-plinged euphoria. High on all those well-earned Es, they can’t possibly know what’s coming next.

So this post is a gentle reality check, a bit of tough love…

on The Book Designer:

One of the biggest lessons you can learn when you start to really look at marketing your books is about creating anticipation.

Think of the last big movie you were looking forward to.

Continue reading HERE

Try to paint emotion in thick when you have a dramatic scene.

Use more words than you think you need.

When Bonnie, the killer, is about to confront the random fisherman after the murder, YOU have the scene in your head. You’re seeing it in all its tension-filled glory.

But is the reader?

Did you put it on the page?

Then, dwell there.