Public Domain ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_Marriage#/media/File:FleetStreetMarriage_300dpi.jpg

Marriage ceremonies associated with the Fleet Prison is London were many in the mid to late 1700s. It is estimated that in the 1740s over half of London’s marriage ceremonies took place in “marriage shops” surrounding the Fleet Prison. By some accounts, 800,000 people named in the marriage records of the times were married in this manner. These were what some termed as “clandestine” or “irregular” marriages. According to GenGuide, “A marriage without banns or licence or conducted away from the parish of residence of both parties was considered ‘clandestine’ and a marriage that took place in one of the party’s parishes without banns or licence or away from the parish of either party by banns or licence was considered ‘irregular’. Whichever way was chosen, the union was in the eyes of the law a legally binding contract. Many nonconformists married in this manner often…

…this ol’ Scots Jurassic scribbler has long since realized that any complaining or whining from me, about anything, seldom achieves positive results… and that fact pertains especially to my publishing aspirations… over the past ten years, I’ve experienced the sum’time exhilarating, sum’time depressing, pendulum familiar to many authors… when my first wee literary baby came hot onto Auntie Amazon Kindle, I savoured the high that came with a successful first book sales volume… that tome reached #3 on Amazon (all titles) at the time… subsequent titles were equally well received… from a novice self-publisher, I graduated into having an excellent, small, hybrid publisher, but amicably parted company with them after a year, as the sales were not to my expectations, dropping to levels well below those that my own marketing and promotional activities generated… in between then and now, I’ve also dabbled with a freelance agent, but equally friendly severance…

Today is Earth Day … the 48^th anniversary of Earth Day, to be exact.  I am always surprised by people who say, “Yeah, so???” Or those who say “What the heck is Earth Day?”  So, please bear with me while I explain very briefly.

History – In The Beginning

The concept for Earth Day was conceived in the mind of then-Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Senator Nelson recruited help from Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey and others, and on April 22,1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the…

A few weeks ago, there was a big argument on Twitter on whether writers with little money should be kept out of publishing. There were those who wondered how writers not being able to pay the $20 PitchWars fee, how could they afford to be on the internet? Basically, they were saying that if you can’t afford to pay, you shouldn’t be trying to write a book or publish it. I’m on a fixed budget with mental health issues and I don’t think it’s fair that myself, or any other marginalized writer, should be blocked from publishing because of funds. I responded early when the post came up, not in negativity toward the PitchWars creators as they put up a voucher which I applied for, but then I heard about all that happened on Twitter as far as some writers arguing that $20 wasn’t much and if you couldn’t afford…

on Anne R. Allen site:

Did the title catch your attention? I’m older and the word “Dork” speaks to me. I didn’t grow up with social media in my life. The phone that I talked on was still attached to the wall. A smart phone and communicating electronically was a later addition to my world.

The world of social media is new and unfamiliar to many writers, and I understand the feeling of uncertainty, the unfamiliarity, the hesitancy. However, there are some pretty easy things you can do to increase your comfort level.

Continue reading HERE

Reblogged from Suzie Speaks… the mysteries of the eponymous hashtag revealed:

What is a Hashtag?

A hashtag, put simply, is a label or category that allows others to find something within a specific theme or content and are primarily used on Twitter and Instagram. Once you have copied a URL or used the share button on a post, hashtags can be used to direct your post towards the people you want to read them. On Twitter you can use a hashtag for everything – #cats, #dogs, #football, #sandwiches – but as a blogger the main focus is to use categories that will gain interest in your content and grow your readership and traffic.

Using Trending Hashtags

Trending hashtags are the most popular things on Twitter at a particular moment in time  and at several points in the last few years I have written a post about a topic while it…

It’s important for indie authors to know how to write an author bio that tells readers: who you are, what you write, why readers should trust you, and how you stand out from other writers.

An author bio is like a calling card. “It’s something that will let readers get a sense of who you are, and is an important part for pitching media and book proposals,” sums up marketer Rachel Cone-Gorham, formerly of Penguin Random House.

This step-by-step guide dives into the four main components of a killer author bio and provides tips from our talented marketers for nailing each section.

Find out more HERE

It baffles me that so many people don’t know their constitutional rights, so today, I want to share with you those rights, as outlined by the Constitution of the United States of America via the Bill of Rights, whether our government or law enforcement honors them or not…

Here are the first 10 Amendments:

Amendment 1 – Freedom of religion, speech and the press

Amendment 2 – The right to bear arms

Amendment 3 – The housing of soldiers

Amendment 4 – Protection from unreasonable searches and seizures

Amendment 5 – Protection of rights to life, liberty and property

Amendment 6 – Rights of accused persons in criminal cases

Amendment 7 – Rights in civil cases

Amendment 8 – Excessive bail, fines and punishments forbidden

Amendment 9 – Other rights kept by the people

Amendment 10 – Undelegated powers kept by the states and the people

To read them all…