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Two ways to spread light.jpg

We are together only to be the church of God in Christ.  We are not here by chance, but God through grace is making of us a fellowship to embody and to express the Spirit of Christ.

In this fellowship, "there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of us are one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).  Therefore, we reject any status in this fellowship in terms of church office, possessions, education, race, age, gender, sexual orientation, mental ability, physical ability, or other distinctions.

As a member of such a fellowship, I intend to live under the following commitments:

  • I will gather regularly with the church to worship God, share the good news, and continually examine its implications for my life.
  • I will study the Bible, meditate, and pray so that I will more fully experience the presence of God.
  • I will also be sensitive to God's message as it comes to me from persons, history, the arts, nature, current happenings in the world, and other sources.
  • I will be responsible to God through the creative use of all my income and possessions.  I will give systematically and even sacrificially to the financial support of our church's ministry.
  • I will discover and affirm the gifts God has given me and use them in God's service; I will evoke, affirm, and celebrate the gifts God has given to others.
  • I will intentionally give myself as Christ's servant through participation in His mission in the world.
  • I will offer to know and love my sisters and brothers in this fellowship, and I am willing to be known and loved by them.

With God's help and the help of my brothers and sisters in this fellowship, I make this covenant.


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Jojo73 on FamilyTreeCircles - journals

Jojo73 on Family Tree Circles

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Journals and Posts

Mcclintons scotland to new york

Searching for info on my ggrandfather Robert McClinton and his family. He was born in scotland in 1898 and i know my grandmother irene (roberts daughter) was born in winnepeg canada. He was married to isabella macintyre. They sailed to niagra falls new york in 1930. Isabella died around 1940 and he remarried in 1945 to a woman named ellen hanson from the bronx. I believe he died in 1960?

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FAO Home>Fisheries & Aquaculture
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nationsfor a world without hunger
The designations employed and the presentation of material in the map(s) are for illustration only and do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of FAO concerning the legal or constitutional status of any country, territory or sea area, or concerning the delimitation of frontiers or boundaries.

  1. Country brief
  2. General geographic and economic indicators
  3. FAO Fisheries statistics

The Profile (2005)

    Additional information

    1. FAO Thematic data bases
    2. Publications
    3. Meetings & News archive

    Part I of the Fishery and Aquaculture Country Profile is compiled using the most up-to-date information available from the FAO Country briefs and Statistics programmes at the time of publication. The Country Brief and the FAO Fisheries Statistics provided in Part I may, however, have been prepared at different times, which would explain any inconsistencies.

    Country briefUpdated 05-2017

    Current situation

    Finland has a long sea coastline, about 189 thousand lakes and a large number of rivers. The Finnish archipelago is Europe’s largest, with more than 81000 islands. Although the maritime sector has an important weight to national economy the share of fishery in the Finnish gross domestic product is at the level of 0.1%. Among the traditional maritime sectors, equipment and shipping are the largest in terms of employment.

    The Finnish fishery sector includes fishing and fish farming in the Baltic Sea and in a smaller scale also in the inland waters. In 2015, the total commercial catch in the Baltic Sea was about 153 400 tonnes and had a value of EUR 47 million. The most important species in capture fisheries is the Atlantic herring, representing on average about 86 percent of total marine catches, although sprat, cod and several coastal species such as pike-perch also play an important role. A significant part of the herring and sprat catch is used as a raw material for animal feeds and mainly in the fur industry. Aquaculture production is dominated by the farming of rainbow trout (over 90 percent) in Finland. National aquaculture production was about 14 900 tonnes in 2015. As of 2014 over 1 000 people were reported as employed either part or full time in aquaculture.

    The catch of the commercial fishing in inland waters totalled over 6 000 tonnes in 2015 with the value of EUR 9.9 million. Recreational fisheries are common in Finland as about 28 percent of the population (about 1.5 million persons) are engaged in this activity. The total catch in recreational fishing in 2015 was about 23 450 tonnes. The inland catches consist mainly of fresh water fish distributed in coastal and inland waters, the most important species is vendace, a freshwater whitefish. Inland water fishing employment was reported as 405 people, with almost 70% full time. Another 2 084 people were reported as engaged in marine fishing with 7% of those people women. Most people, about 78%, were only engaged on a part time basis.

    In 2015 the fleet numbered 2 733 vessels and a total capacity of 15 420 GT and total engine power of 156839 kW and over 71 percent of the vessels were gill netters.

    There were 136 companies on fish processing in 2011 in Finland. Although companies are mainly small and often in multiple businesses, segments' yearly turnover is over EUR 350 million. A large majority of firms are located in coastal areas. The processing industry uses raw material from domestic fish production as well as from imported fish. Fish processing, retail and trade has increased in recent years.

    Finland is a net importer of fishery products and in 2015 imports of fish and fishery products were valued at USD 410.8 million and exports at USD 37.2 million. Major imports include fishmeal, largely from Iceland, fresh and chilled fish from Norway and Sweden, and prepared or preserved fish, as well as caviar and caviar substitute. Finland's per capita fish consumption, estimated at about 35.2 kg in 2013, is well above the world's average.

    The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is the primary administrator for fisheries in Finland. However, much of management is decentralized. Finland became a member of the EU in the beginning of 1995. The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) of EU has an important role in the fisheries conducted at the Baltic Sea but it plays a smaller role in the coastal and inland water fishing.

    The European Commission has adopted an investment package for the Finish maritime sector and especially its fisheries and aquaculture industry. Roughly €141 million will be made available under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund for the period 2014-2020, €70 millions of which are EU funds. The EMFF assists EU Member States to reach the objectives of the reformed EU Common Fisheries Policy.

    Current issues

    The Finnish fishery sector has gone through a major change during the last couple decades and the number of vessels has been decreasing while the capacity increases. In 1995 the Finnish fishing fleet numbered 4 106 vessels, with a combined total tonnage of 24 600 GT and a combined total power of 224 800 kW by 2005 the fleet had been reduced to 3 266 vessels, with a combined capacity of 17 200 GT and a total power of 172 000 kW.

    Likewise, while total fish production has remained relatively stable, the number of commercial fishermen has decreased, for example, the 2014 employment in marine fishing had declined by 34 percent in fishing employment from the 2000 level. There are plans to expand and diversify the aquaculture in the Baltic Sea. The share of recreational fishing is in increasing in inland water areas. Compared to other European countries, recreational fisheries in Finland is not limited to fishing with rods only. Sports fisheries for salmon are important in some rivers. Substantial efforts and financial resources are used in Finland to restore major watercourses having salmonid species. Significant economic potential is seen in the recreational fishery.

    Since June 1996, Finland is Party to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 1993 FAO Compliance Agreement. Finland is also Party to the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement.
    General geographic and economic indicators

    Table 1 - General Geographic and Economic Data – The Republic of Finland

    Shelf area: 81,185 km²

    Sea Around US:

    Length of continental coastline: 6,299 km

    European Commission:

    EMFF - Finland

    Fisheries GDP (2012): <0,1% National GDP

    European Commission:

    EMFF - Finland

    *Value converted by FAO as per UN currency exchange rate

    Key statistics

    Country area338 420km2FAOSTAT. Official data, 2013
    Land area303 890km2FAOSTAT. Official data, 2013
    Inland water area34 530km2Computed. Calculated, 2013
    Population - Est. & Proj.5.497millionsFAOSTAT. Official data, 2018
    Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) area81 072km2VLIZ
    GDP (current US$)238 678millionsWorld Bank. 2016
    GDP per capita (current US$)43 433US$World Bank. 2016
    Agriculture, value added2.69% of GDPWorld Bank. 2016

    Source: FAO Country Profile

    FAO Fisheries statisticsTable 2 in this section is based on statistics prepared by the Statistics and Information Branch of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department and disseminated in 2016. The charts are based on the same source but these are automatically updated every year with the most recent disseminated statistics.

    Table 2 – Fisheries statistics – The Republic of Finland

          1980 1990 2000 2010 2012 2013 2014
    EMPLOYMENT (thousands) 8.45 6.33 5.72 3.79 3.78 3.63 3.54
      Aquaculture 0.97 1.55 1.99 1.26 1.24 1.18 1.07
      Capture 7.48 4.78 3.73 2.53 2.54 2.45 2.47
        Inland 2.75 1.74 1.02 0.34 0.38 0.38 0.41
        Marine 4.73 3.05 2.71 2.2 2.16 2.06 2.07
    FLEET(thousands vessels)     10.89 8.74
    Source: FAO Fishery and Aquaculture Statistics
    1) Due to roundings total may not sum up

    Please note: Fishery statistical data here presented exclude the production for marine mammals, crocodiles, corals, sponges, pearls, mother-of-pearl and aquatic plants.

    Updated 2005The Profile

    This country profile provides statistics and indicators produced through FAO’s Statistics programmes, supplemented with information derived from national and other sources and valid at the time of compilation.

    Full text of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Country Profile available at /fishery/docs/DOCUMENT/fcp/en/FI_CP_FI.pdf

    Additional information

    FAO Thematic data bases

    Meetings & News archive

    Powered by FIGIS


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Home > Handbags > Totes > Realtree® Max-4 Camo Twist Lock Classic Tote
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    About Realtree® Max-4 Camo

    Max-4 camo is frequently associated with wetland environments, where waterfowl hunters swear by its “duck blind” capability. The pattern features a collection of cattails, millet, milo, cornstalks, sunflowers, oak and maple leaves, cedar and oak limbs, and a variety of other plant life. Compared to other camo patterns, Max-4 is currently the largest camouflage artwork on the market. This distinction makes our Max-4 print handbags and wallets highly popular with fans of larger and bolder camo designs.
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    The Realtree® Max-4 Camo Twist Lock Classic Tote has an average rating of
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      Fast shipping, great packaging, decent quality for the price, and looks real pretty. It's a small, but yet spacious purse. I bought the brown one, the color is versatile as it matches almost everything. Love it. :-)
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    This area allows consumers like you to express their feedback on a product they purchased. Please note that Fashlets does not guarantee the accuracy of any statements or product claims made here, nor endorse any opinions expressed within this section.

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Small Talk Can Have Big Results At Any Social Obligation

August 6, 2014

talk_web_7-18-14_v1I have a confession: I’m bad at small talk.

I don’t know if it’s so much a confession, or that I’m finally willing to admit it to myself. Same as how I don’t know that I’m really bad at small talk, I just flounder in a conversation with anyone new and always find myself being that girl who awkwardly makes eye contact and brings up the weather. Because yes, Minnesota winters really are that cold and I was told to always look directly in someone’s eyes when you’re speaking to them.

My realization came last week when I found myself elbow-deep in Twin Cities movers and shakers during a store-opening party, but couldn’t bring myself to take advantage of the opportunity right in front of me. Starting a conversation with someone new. Networking. Enjoying the beautiful goods and making an offhand remark to someone near me. Nope. Nothing. No new friends. Hell, I walked out of there with nary a new acquaintance or awkward run-in with someone I knew from a past life. I stuck to my corner and the company I arrived with, and did my best to lurk around long enough to scurry home. Pretty lame.

Small-TalkWhile it’s not the first of the year, it’s never too late to create new goals and work diligently to change old/bad habits. And this is one I plan to shake.

The “how” and the “what” of my “how to small-talk good” plan still have yet to be fleshed out, but there was no shortage of good advice on and its recent article, ‘How to Turn Small Talk Into Smart Conversation.’ Some of the best suggestions for interacting at Social Obligations Involving Strangers include:

Ask for stories, not answers
Rely on open-ended questions to invite a larger conversation instead of one-word answers. For example, instead of asking someone “What do you do?” opt for a question with a more robust, intriguing possible answer like, “How did you get into your line of work?”

Break the mirror
Small talk falters because people often times revert to “mirroring,” a behavior described as answering questions directly, repeating observations or blandly agreeing with whatever they say. Stop it. Stop it, right now.

Be provocative. Be quirky. Make the years spent playing Trivial Pursuit with your parents on a Saturday night worth the pain and suffering.

Leapfrog over expected responses
On that same level, don’t fall into the trap of the expected response. An obscure response will be your conversation to the next level, and the examples provided are pretty comical.

Instead of:
Ron: How was your flight?
Carlos: My flight was good!

Beverly: It’s hot today.
Gino: Yeah, it sure is hot.

Riz: What’s up?
Keil: Hey, what’s up?

Ron: How was your flight?
Carlos: I’d be more intrigued by an airline where your ticket price was based on your body weight and IQ.

Beverly: It’s hot today.
Gino: In this dimension, yes.

Riz: What’s up?
Keil: Washing your chicken just splatters the bacteria everywhere.

I also received some great suggestions from Facebook friends when asked about what has either terrified them about small talk, or helped make them more conversational. Check out the suggestions below and feel free to comment with any of your tips and tricks for turning an introvert into an extrovert during any Social Obligation Involving Strangers. Solicited Facebook advice includes:

  • The weather. Always talk about the weather.
  • Working customer service has been a big help. People just want you to listen to what they have to say.
  • I suggest talking about politics or religion. That’s just about the only way to quickly make things interesting.
  • Ask people where they went to high school!
  • Instead of asking “what do you do,” ask “what are you doing that you’re most excited about right now?” Sometimes it has to do with work, sometimes it’s totally random.
  • Don’t talk; try listening.
  • Ask people where they are from and remember the details to connect the dots later. It’s not only a good tool for getting conversation going, but also makes people feel special and appreciated.


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Fat Tony's Video Poker
Video Poker Home
To Get Started
- How To Play Video Poker
- Start Your Strategy!
- Video Poker Pay Tables
- Full Pay Video Poker
Sitting Down To Play
- Which V-Poker Machine?
- Tough Decisions
- Payback Volatility
- Jacks Or Better Strategy
- Deuces Wild Strategy
The Issues
- Long Run Volatility
- Bankroll Blues
- Online Casinos
- How Many Coins?
There's Always More
- Video Poker Variations
- Triple Play Video Poker
- Deuces Go Wild
- Progressive Video Poker
- Online Video Poker
My Free Video Poker
Online Blackjack
Online Poker
Special Picks

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Tough Decisions

Decisions are what Video Poker is all about. Much like Blackjack, another game of skill, what you choose to do with what you're presented on each hand has a direct effect on your chances of winning that hand. As this skillfulness in decision-making varies, so too does the house edge.

The best way to play blackjack perfectly is with a basic blackjack strategy chart, which maps out each decision for you. Video Poker strategy charts can be arrived at the same way (computers are used for both) and give similar advice. Strategy cards for Video Poker often claim 'expert strategy' status, meaning they claim to be a refined strategy that will truly get you as much as possible out of the particular machine it's written for.

Since there are many card combinations which can be held / discarded in a number of ways, the right choices aren't always obvious. When you run into this situation, you check your trusty expert strategy card and dive in.

Although you may have done the research and chosen your machine, a beauty with full return and all, it's still just a machine, you're not playing it yet. Just like if it was just a car, one capable of 200MPH, it still wouldn't be any good if you couldn't drive it, and it wouldn't hit 200 unless you could drive it well. The same is true of the Video Poker machine; you need to be able to play it to win it, and you're chances of success are better when playing off of a strategy card.

When you go to the casino, you can bring as many non-electronic aids with you as you like, just no computers. Playing video poker online however gives you the freedom to use your own PC software to analyze the pay table of an online casinos machine. Very handy.

Now would be a good time to have a look at the actual strategy charts.


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Temporary Closure – A154 Trinity Avenue (June 2017) (reference: .Felixstowe, A154 Trinity Avenue (June 2017))

Posted by Town Hall Staff 05 June 2017

Suffolk County Council intends to make an order closing the A154 Trinity Avenue, Felixstowe westbound only from Dock Gate Number 1 roundabout to Anzani Avenue and eastbound only from the A14 Overbridge to Dock Gate Number 1 roundabout to facilitate carriageway resurfacing. Other coordinated works may also take place during this period.

Access will be open for pedestrians and cyclists.

The diversion route will be the A154, the A14 and vice versa.

It is intended that the closure will operate from 15/06/2017 – 24/06/2017 from 7pm – 5am but if necessary the order may remain in force for 18 months (or longer if extended by the Minister).

Enquiries should be made to David Keeble of Suffolk Highways. Tel: 0345 606 6171. Email: enquiries@suffolkhighways.co.uk


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Apollo Ray’s Blessing Day

18 December 2016

My sweet Christopher blessed our sweet first born at church on Sunday. This is a moment that I’ve been pondering since before I was even pregnant with little Apollo.

First of all, it was a feat to make it to church on time. :) In this past month with our boy, the only other time that I had somewhere to be before noon, was to his one week check up at 9:30 am. So church at 10… not as easy as it once was. It’s just more to coordinate to make sure he and I are both ready, and that he’s all fed and content before we leave. And I have a hard time deciding what to wear because I have to wear clothes that I can nurse in, but I knew what Apollo was going to wear! Precious boy in his little suit. And we arrived at church about 9:53. Nice.

I love how he is looking at Chris and me in these pictures.

His blessing was one of gratitude, for the wonderful spirit that he brought to the world, and especially the spirit he brings to our family. It is a spirit of contentment and a spirit of peace.

Apollo is blessed to be a steady force for good, that he will love his fellow man and be kind to others, that he will reach out to the down trodden and those who need help.

He is blessed to be a follower of Christ.

And to be a peacemaker in this world, in his family, friendships, and relationships.

Apollo is given a blessing to have a special connection to his Heavenly Father and a special knowledge of Jesus Christ that he will be eager to share with others in his younger years and adult life. He is blessed that he will spread the word by serving a mission and by starting and having an eternal family founded on temple marriage and sealing.

Apollo, your family loves you dearly, not only your blood family but you ward family. You have so many friends and special people you can reach out to to learn from.

Apollo is blessed to grow strong and healthy and happy. <3

We love our boy, and I pray that he can always feel our love and God’s love and all the love around him.

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Sheriff’s Dept. To Conduct Sobriety Checkpoints

The Fentress County Sheriff’s Office will be conducting Sobriety Checkpoint roadblocks on Thursday, April 30, Friday, May 1, and Saturday, My 2, 2015 between the hours of 4 p.m. and 2 a.m.

The areas in which the roadblocks may take place are Highway 62, Highway 52, Highway 127, Highway 154, Highway 297, Tinchtown Road, Gatewood Ford Road, Banner Springs Road, Roslin Road, and Stockton Road.


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Go Ahead and Scrub my Mouth Out

The recent release of a new app, CleanReader, has created quite a stir in the indie writing community. The app replaces any profanity in a book with euphemisms, offering a choice between Clean, Cleaner, and Squeaky Clean settings.

Many writers are upset, complaining that their work is being censored and diminished. Try as I might, I can’t understand the consternation. Like any other writer, I give a lot of thought to the words I use, especially when I put profanity in my characters’ mouths. If it’s there, I put it there deliberately, to create a certain effect. So why am I not steamed that a piece of free software may go in and chop it right out?

Because it’s nothing new. Writers have never been able to control how readers encounter their books. You can’t keep them from reading the last chapter first. You can’t keep them from reading the whole thing in five-minute chunks while distracted by the TV. You can’t keep them from skimming your battle scenes, or mispronouncing your character names, or deciding that your ending sucks and the one they have in mind is what happened instead.

And you certainly can’t control the lifetime of experience they bring to your work, which will inform and distort how they perceive it.

Given all this, is it really that big a deal that you also can’t make them read fuck?

Perhaps the problem is that many a writer sees himself as the director of a movie—when in fact he’s really the producer of a script. You hand that script over to the reader, and she performs it, in her own mind. And like any performer, she is apt—and even entitled—to make alterations as they suit her.

In fact, it is almost inevitable that she will.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Technician’s Life: Maternity Leave

See this gorgeous face? It is two and a half months old. Which means it’s about time for me to wrap up the maternity leave I’ve so generously granted myself, and return to writing.

Getting back in the groove after a long hiatus is always a painful thing for me, fraught with stomach-churning anxiety, Herculean feats of procrastination, and bouts of real depression. A friend of mine recently posted this image on Facebook:

and I don’t know whether it makes me want to laugh or cry. I only know that it’s the truth. There is rarely a moment when I don’t feel anxious about the writing that needs to get done, or guilty about the fact that I’m not doing it.

So what if I just gave it all up? What if I raised my babies and took care of my home, and at the end of a long day, I knew that there was nothing else that required doing? Instead of stressing out about writing, I could spend the last hours of the day pursuing my hobbies, or maybe just kicking back for a couple of guilt-free hours in front of the TV?

Honestly? It’s a fantasy I return to from time to time. It sounds like a really nice life.

It just wouldn’t be my life.

Posted in My Life | Leave a comment

Wool, by Hugh Howey
Publication: Self –> Hybrid
Genre: Dystopian Sci Fi
Verdict: Yes

If you keep abreast of the news in self-publishing (or possibly even if you don’t), you don’t need me to tell you that Hugh Howey’s Wool is selling. It’s the Next Big Thing, the latest book that proves that self-publishers can in fact find an audience, excite them, and make a zillion dollars. It is also a really compelling piece of dystopian science fiction, and as your local Technician, I set out to analyze why.

Wool starts out with the promising premise,

The children were playing while Holston climbed to his death…

and goes on to tell us all about Holston, and the life of desperate misery he’s been living for the last three years, ever since his wife left the underground silo in which their entire society lives to clean the lenses of the cameras that provide them their only view of the bleak, dangerously toxic world outside. People don’t come back from cleaning, so sending someone out to clean is the method of execution. And as the silo’s sheriff, Holston had to help do it to his wife.

But he’s now determined to join her, to find out for himself what actually exists beyond the silo’s walls. Could his wife still be alive? Holston, in his grief, seems to simultaneously believe she is, and isn’t. Why was she so determined to leave the silo? And why do the exiled people clean the lenses anyway? Why don’t they just sit down on a rock and wait for death, to spite the society that sent them to their doom?

Before the end of the sample, Holston will have the surprising and horrifying answers to all these questions. And that is what makes the sample of Wool such a compelling selling tool: it tells a complete story. It is a sample in the purest sense: it tells you what this writer can deliver as a storyteller, not just at the beginning of a tale, but at the end.

This is a tactic frequently employed by self-publishing authors, though usually in a slightly different form: release an abbreviated version of your book, or a short story based on your characters, for free. Use that to sell your larger work. It’s a good tactic, and what makes it even more effective here is two things:

1. It leads seamlessly into the larger novel, and
2. It not only answers questions, it raises others.

In the final pages of his story, Holston will learn of a terrible lie that has shaped life in the silo. It will bring his tale to a satisfying end, but it will leave us readers with a couple of important questions to answer: Why perpetrated this lie? And why?

This, I think, is the best way to use a short story as a selling tool, whether you’re releasing it as a standalone story or as the initial pages of your book. Let some balls come to rest, but leave others in the air. Satisfy and perturb. Tell us that you know how to end a story. But whatever you do, don’t end it completely.

Posted in Dystopian, Hybrid Publishing, Reviews, Sci Fi, Self-Publishing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Technician’s Thoughts: No, Knitting is My Hobby

Since we moved to Seattle, I have been fortunate to make many friends who, like myself, are stay-at-home moms. They are wonderful. They are sweet and caring, and generous with their time. They are, on many days, the linchpin of my sanity.

But they don’t understand what I’m doing here.

As a writer, I mean. By and large, I’ve found that my mommy friends just don’t get what writing means to me. Some of them have referred to my writing as “something for you” and “a really great hobby.” I say this without rancor, really without even irritation, but just with a sense of quiet surprise. Because writing fiction is not, and never can be, a hobby for me. It is my Real Work, just as it was when I worked at a newspaper, just as it was when I worked in the game industry. It is the thing I’m meant to do.

(So, does that mean that motherhood has become my new day job? Well, no, not really. Motherhood is my real work, too. I’ve got two real jobs, and though there are times when the writing must get short shrift, I am trying to make them both work.)

I was thinking, when I began this post, that this was sort of a Mommy Issue, that once you have kids, people start to think of your work as more of a pastime than a vocation. But as I look back, I realize that this is how people have always thought about my work. It seems to me that this is less of a Mommy Issue than an Artist Issue. Specifically, an Unpaid Artist Issue.

If you work at a bank, and your family comes into town for a visit, no one expects you to take a vacation day. If you work at home, for no pay? They pretty much do. And the fact that this expectation is there makes it easier for you to do it. After all, you  probably want to anyway, because who doesn’t like a day off work now and then?

And the same thing is true for all sorts of small social and familial obligations, like letting in the neighbor’s cleaning lady, or being the one to drive a yowling, incontinent cat halfway across town to the extra-special, inconveniently located and outrageously expensive kitty eye doctor. People assume you will do these things, because you are the one who is “not working.” And in some cases, you really should, because you are the one with flexible work hours, and it’s nice to help out people who don’t have that same luxury.

But in other cases, you should hold your ground. Treat your work with respect, and others will do the same.

Back in mid-2011, I started The Indie Book Podcast, a show that reviewed self-published books. After Story was born, I didn’t have the time, much less the quiet space, to keep recording—but for a while there it was something I was pursuing with gusto.

One day I was browsing around the Kindle boards, where self-publishing authors like to congregate, and saw someone mention that she had sent me a review copy, and she hoped I’d get around to it. I posted that I enjoyed the opening of her book, and was planning to review it. She then responded something to the effect of: “This is a lesson for all of us: always be really careful what you say online. I had no idea Jane would be stopping by this forum!”

This amazed me. I was just a girl who had bought a microphone. This other woman could have bought a microphone, too, assuming she had eighty bucks to spare. I wasn’t anybody special, not a Name, not a voice to be heeded.

Except I was. By starting the podcast, by promoting it and taking it seriously, I had begun treating my work with respect. And the moment I did, the entire world around me followed suit. Not one of the writers I contacted about interviews ever responded with anything less than enthusiastic courtesy. All I did was ask for respect, and respect appeared.

My point is that if you are a writer who thinks you do not have the authority to speak on your field, well—you’re right. But it’s not because you’re not published, or not traditionally published, or not making enough money.

It’s because you think the authority isn’t yours. But the moment you grab it, it is.

Writing this blog is, in some way, an act of faith. I’m betting that people will care what I have to say about plot and structure, not based on the strength of my career (which is minimal), but on the strength of—well, of me. Of me being here and telling you I have something to say.

So, the next time a friend refers to my writing as a hobby, I’ll kindly but clearly say, “Well, really, it’s my job.” That is likely all I’ll have to do.

Posted in My Life | Leave a comment

Exposition Done Right

The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge
Publication: Traditional
Genre: YA Steampunk
Verdict: Yes

Last week I blogged about a book with a disappointing lack of exposition, which prevented me from becoming truly engaged with it. This week I’m flipping the bit, and talking about a book that does a lot of exposition, and does it very well: The Iron Thorn, by Caitlin Kittredge.

Just from reading the back cover copy, you know that a big draw of The Iron Thorn is going to be its setting. That’s because it takes place in the city of Lovecraft. The city of Lovecraft! And as we move into the story, it’s clear that Kittredge has created a complex world, and has a lot of information to convey about it. This is tricky.

Because despite my assertion last week that readers are more interested in exposition than you may think they are, you still want to slip that exposition in smoothly. You want the information to come across as the character’s natural thoughts, not as the writer’s deliberate efforts. You don’t want to be seen standing behind the curtain.

That is very much what Kittredge manages, as in this passage, in which the narrator, Aoife, sits beside her mother, Nerissa, in a madhouse:

I picked up the mirror and ran my thumb over the backing. It was silver, and it had been pretty, once. When I was a child I’d played at being beautiful while my mother sat by the window of Our Lady of Rationality, the first madhouse in my memory, run by Rationalist nuns. Their silent black-clad forms fluttered like specters outside my mother’s cell while they prayed to the Master Builder, the epitome of human reason, for her recovery. All the medical science and logic in the world couldn’t cure my mother, but the nuns tried.

There’s a lot of information here: religion, for one, is not like we know it in our own world. The nuns in the city of Lovecraft don’t pray to God the way we understand him, but instead to a Master Builder. Reason, not kindness, is considered the ultimate virtue. And it’s all conveyed very naturally through Aoife’s point of view, focusing on the thing that is most important to her at this moment: her mother’s insanity.

After Aoife leaves her mother to return to her boarding school, we get a few more glimpses of Lovecraft:

Dunwich Lane ran under the feet of the Boundary Bridge, the iron marvel that Joseph Strauss had erected for the city some thirty years before…it was the model we practiced drawing schematics with, until we were judged competent to design our own. If you couldn’t recreate the Boundary Bridge, you had a visit with the Head of the School and a gentle suggestion that perhaps your future was not that of an engineer  There had been three other girls in the School until that exam. Now there was only me.

Again, while we’re learning about the world, we’re also learning about Aoife’s relationship with it. From this paragraph, we know that she’s isolated in her school, and perhaps more talented or tenacious than the other female students. In nearly every expositional passage, Kittredge makes an effort to tie in Aoife’s interests and feelings.

I also think it’s worth noticing how much space is invested in these paragraphs. Each takes up about a third of a page, no small sum of words. And in the case of the Boundary Bridge, it’s not even critical information. In fact, this paragraph exists for nothing more than local color.

Does this mean the author would be better off cutting them, that we should go ahead and get to the chase, find out where this plot is taking us?

Not on your life. An intriguing plot is worth its weight in gold–but you cannot sacrifice readers’ interest in your character for their interest in your plot. Nor, when you’re writing a deeply setting-driven book like this, can you sacrifice reader interest in your setting.

So when Kittredge takes her time to paint a picture of Lovecraft with expositional brushstroke after brushstroke, it’s absolutely the right decision. Her investment in expositional text is large–but it’s one that pays off.

I’ll be reading The Iron Thorn. Even though I can’t seem to stop calling it The Iron Throne.

Posted in Dystopian, Steampunk, YA | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Technician’s Thoughts: I Only Buy Weird Chocolate Now

Spoilers For: A Trace of Smoke by Rebecca Cantrell

I recently finished reading A Trace of Smoke, a mystery by Rebecca Cantrell, in which the narrator, Hannah Vogel, faces a fascinating dilemma. Hannah’s brother has been murdered, and during the course of trying to find out whodunit, she uncovers a stash of love letters to her brother from Hitler’s best bud, Ernst Röhm. It’s 1931, Nazi power is on the rise, and now Hannah has the means to destroy one of the party’s most powerful members. The problem? She has to destroy him for the “crime” of loving her brother.

This is the classic “Do the ends justify the means?” dilemma, which I always find interesting, because I am not a hardliner on this old adage. I feel that sometimes the ends do justify the means, provided that the ends are necessary and the means bearable. So for me, each new combination of means and ends is, of course, different and interesting.

In this case, I think I could publish the letters for the purpose of bringing down Röhm. Or I could, at least, knowing what we know now about how history unfolded. But if I try to imagine myself in 1931, the question of what to do becomes a bit more murky. Picture yourself as a good German citizen in 1931. You’re appalled by the Nazi ideology and methods, but you don’t really have any idea yet of how bad things are going to get. Even if someone told you, you might not really believe it. Surely your country is going to walk itself back from this precipice. Surely you don’t have to betray your dead brother to make that happen.

And there’s another question to consider, which is that you are mucking about with a degree of power you really can’t control. If you try to take on Ernst Röhm, you don’t know what’s going to happen. Maybe you bring him down, and the man who replaces him is even worse. Maybe you create a situation that becomes the catalyst for the Nazis to grab even more power. Maybe you bring a lot of notoriety upon other gays in Germany, and some of them wind up dead.

It would be tempting, considering these possibilities, to just walk away from the power you’ve accidentally acquired. To say to yourself, “I don’t have the wisdom to choose the right course. I can’t choose at all.” But that’s a false choice. Choosing not to choose is really just choosing not to act, and denying that you’re responsible for that choice. The power to choose is the responsibility to choose.

In a small way, the chocolate is like this. I recently learned that a significant chunk of the world’s chocolate is produced by slave labor—specifically, the slave labor of children. I learned this by reading Refuse To Do Nothing: Finding Your Power to Abolish Modern-Day Slavery, by Shayne Moore and Kimberly McOwen Yim. I had two fears when I began to read this book. The first was that it would tell me I had to stop buying something I rather like to buy (Fear realized!) And the second was that it would prompt me to take action that might end up hurting the people I intend to help.

Back in the nineties, Americans got very interested in the plight of children working in sweatshops in Southeast Asia. It began to be a big part of the public conversation, and many of us began to boycott companies, like Nike, that had significant amounts of their goods produced in sweatshops. We used our consumer power, and we made a difference. The sweatshops began closing.

And the rate of child prostitution in Southeast Asia soared.

In hindsight, it seems obvious that removing crappy jobs from an economy without replacing them with anything might lead people to seek even more desperate ways of keeping their families fed. But, that’s hindsight for you. It does not seem completely obvious to me what a widespread boycott of chocolate produced by child slaves might do. I know it would make those cocoa farmers poorer, and more desperate. I don’t know what the price of that desperation might be, but I’ll bet there will be one. And I don’t know who will wind up paying it.

The fact is, I don’t have the foresight to make this decision perfectly. But, the power to choose is the responsibility to choose.

So, for now I am buying only Fair Trade chocolate, or chocolate sourced from South America, where child slavery on cocoa farms is not a problem. In particular, I will be supporting Fair Trade products from major chocolate producers, like Hershey’s Bliss line and Cadbury’s Dairy Milk bars. These companies buy a ton of cocoa, and so what they do has the power to really impact the supply line. And I want to do what I can to show them the way I, as a consumer, would like them to behave.

Part of me feels like this is the easy choice, the one that makes me look, and feel, like a good person. But I have to accept that, although I lack the wisdom to see all the possible consequences of my actions, I still am responsible for making the best choice I can.

I do recommend A Trace of Smoke, although, sadly, I feel the author kind of punted on this oh-so-interesting dilemma. I still don’t know what Hannah Vogel would have done, if she had really forced herself to make the choice between dishonoring her brother’s lifestyle or letting a powerful Nazi continue to flourish. Note to authors: when your character is facing a difficult choice, never, never let them off the hook. After all, we seldom get to do that with ourselves.

Posted in My Life, Mystery | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Front Page Fatality by LynDee Walker
Publication: Self
Genre: Mystery
Verdict: No

I read a lot of genres, but probably my sentimental favorite is the cozy, i.e., the amateur sleuth mystery. These tend to feature female protagonists, cute pictures on the cover, and puns in the titles–and they also tend be filled with almost an equal amount of mystery and romance.

They are my thing.

So I was ready and eager to dive into Front Page Fatality by LynDee Walker. It’s about Nichelle Clarke, a crime reporter who, you guessed it, will wind up solving a mystery. But just as I was preparing to settle in for a fun read, I realized that the author was more interested in rushing me along.

Facts were coming fast and furious, with little time to absorb them. Consider the following passage, after Nichelle has walked into her editor’s office:

“I’ve got another dead drug dealer on Southside. They just found him this morning.” My words dissolved his annoyed expression to one of interest, his perpetual aggravation with my last-minute arrivals for the morning staff meeting forgotten at the mention of a homicide.

From this, we’re meant to understand that Nichelle has just walked into the staff meeting, late once again, and that the editor’s office is in fact full of people. But we’re never actually told that, and we’re given no details that might help set the scene, no, “The chief copy editor had taken up her usual position by the coffee machine,” or “The sports columnist grinned at me and pointed to his watch.”

But what’s worse is that we’re given no interiority, no notion of what’s going on in Nichelle’s head. Does she feels embarrassed for arriving late, or perhaps nervous about potential consequences? Is she relieved to have redirected her boss’s attention to her story, or does she consider him a big pussycat whose bark is worse than his bite? I don’t know. The writer has given me no clue.

And I sympathize. I often feel, while writing the opening pages of a book, that I need to keep moving. Make stuff happen. Get this plot in gear. Don’t pause, don’t even slow down, or the reader will lose interest!

Right? Wrong. Too little exposition saps reader interest far more reliably than too much.

The thing you should be asking yourself when you’re writing exposition—by which I mean all the little bits of text where action doesn’t occur, but information is conveyed—is not whether it’s too long, but whether it’s interesting.

And don’t be too hard on yourself when determining where the bar for “interesting” lies. The lines I penned about where the copy editor was sitting, and the sports columnist taunting Nichelle—these are pretty mundane details, but I think they are interesting. They help to draw Nichelle’s world. Whether your book’s about a crime reporter or a refrigerator repairman, you have to assume that if a reader picked it up, she’s willing to be interested in that character’s world.  But she can only sustain that interest if you give her something to hang it on.

But regardless of how much scene-setting you do, the one place you must show us is the inside of your character’s heart. Let’s look at another passage:

Political jokes fired faster than a drunken celebutante’s antics circle the blogosphere, and I chuckled at the warring punch lines as my eyes skipped between the faces of my colleagues—my family in Richmond, really. They adopted me the second I’d stepped into the newsroom without a friend in a six-hundred-mile radius, the ink still wet on my degree from Syracuse.

This is the good stuff. Knowing how Nichelle feels about her colleagues makes everything sharper, realer, more involving. I do dearly wish this paragraph was expanded to about twice its length, that we got a look at a maternal copy editor, or a political reporter who Nichelle considers a sort of big brother. I could even go for a few pages of anecdote showing young Nichelle being folded into the witty, competitive, but ultimately loving bosom of her newsroom family.

In short, I want more.

Posted in Mystery, Reviews, Self-Publishing | Leave a comment

Technician’s Thoughts: Thank You, Sir, May I Have Another?

I took the following picture at Barnes and Noble the other day:

photo (1)

Do you notice what I notice? That every book is trying to look like Fifty Shades of Gray? What am I saying? Of course you notice. “Domination romance” has taken over the romance market, tied its wrists with silken cord, and demanded that it call this previously non-existant sub-genre “sir.”

I’ve been predicting for a while that fetish romance was going to become mainstream. But this was not how I expected it to happen. What I expected, actually, was that it would all happen in the form of e-books.

See, here’s the problem fetish romance faces: in order to be sold, they have to communicate what they are to the reader. And the established way of doing this is through what I like to call “cover code,” the pictures, palette, and font types on a book’s front cover that indicate what subgenre it belongs to. Over in mystery, a red and black cover, with a thin, spiky font indicates a grisly serial killer mystery; a candy-colored palette, with cartoonish images and a pun in the title, indicates a lighthearted cozy mystery.

In order to sell a spanking romance, a bondage romance, a domination romance, you would need to invent a cover code, because how else would readers know what they were buying? But then the readers would be compelled to carry that cover around with them, everywhere they wanted to read your book. You might be able to read a traditional romance in front of your mother-in-law, fifty people on the bus, or your teenage son—but you are never going to do that with a domination romance. It’s just too weird.

Or so I thought. But evidently there are plenty of people who are willing to pick up Fifty Shades of Gray (or one of its many clones), carry it to the register, pay for it, and, presumably, read it. There are enough of them to move the entire romance market. My prediction, that these types of books would become popular through the oh-so-discreet e-book format, was obviously a big bust.

I was wondering aloud to my husband why this was—had we become a less private people, due to Facebook, blogs, and all this modern sharing? And Mark pointed out that the only way you possibly can create a cover code is in the bookstore.

He’s right. In order for a cover code to work, it must be widely understood by the reading audience. And for that to happen, it must first become prevalent. And the only way it can become prevalent is in public. It has to be seen, and seen widely. It has to enter the public mind.

This difficulty is something for self-publishers to keep in mind. One of the things that excites writers about the new availability of self-publishing is that books that don’t easily fit into a genre are much easier to get out into the world. Writing a cross-genre zombie mystery? A sci fi romance? You can publish it now, and readers can be the judge.

Except, there’s the problem of cover code. On your own, can you establish a cover code? Maybe. Fifty Shades did it. But it did it with the help of an existing Internet fan base and a huge marketing campaign. Most self-publishers aren’t going to have those resources to bring to bear.

And, as more and more self-published books enter the market, are we going to see a dilution of cover code? Self-published books typically have privately produced covers, and if the artist you hire doesn’t understand the cover code for your genre, the cover is likely to be slightly off, slightly confusing, slightly less communicative to potential buyers than the cover produced by a traditional publisher. That’s a problem.

So, no matter how effective e-books are at opening up the world of publishing, I think it’s clear that we writers are not done with the brick and mortar bookstores just yet. They still have a lot to offer us, and a lot to teach us about how to sell.

Posted in My Life, Romance, Self-Publishing | Leave a comment

On Clumsiness, and Balance

The House Girl by Tara Conklin
Publication: Traditional
Genre: Literary
Verdict: No

The House Girl is a dual story. One narrative takes place in 1852, and it’s about Josephine, a slave about to make a run for her freedom. The other is present-day, and concerns Lina, a young hotshot lawyer who, according to the back of the book, will soon be working on a Supreme Court case addressing reparations for the descendants of slaves.

I say it was on the back of the book, because on p. 34, the last page of the sample, I have yet to see this plotline introduced. Mostly what has happened to Lina is that a dude at her law firm dangled the case in front of her, but didn’t actually tell her what it was about. And then she went home and had a conversation with her dad.

If you can’t tell, I’m not too into Lina as yet. Which presents me with a bit of a dilemma when confronted by the Buy button, because I am into Josephine’s story. In a big way. It begins like this:

Mister hit Josephine with the palm of his hand across her left cheek and it was then she knew she would run.

Josephine doesn’t really know why her master is pissed at her, just that he is, and that it’s his right to hit her. And the petty, casual cruelty of that moment rankles deeply, for her and for me.

Making your character the victim of an injustice is a quick and powerful way of putting the reader firmly on her side. And on her side I very much am. It also seems that Josephine’s story is quickly going to involve a lot of danger, drama, and emotional conflict (there are, after all, people on the plantation who she loves).

In other words, it’s going to make damn good reading.

Lina’s story hasn’t really kicked off yet. That may be a function of the length of the sample, but I think it also illustrates the difficulty of making a dual story like this work. Frequently when I read these I find myself drastically more committed to one narrative than the other; this unfortunately has the effect of making my B narrative a bit of a chore, a slog I have to get through to get back to the story I’m actually trying to read.

The only dual story I can think of that really worked for me was Art Spiegelman’s classic graphic novel, Maus, which dealt with the survival of the author’s Jewish father through the horrors of the Holocaust, and also with their strained relationship in the present day.

I think what made this one work was a deliberate imbalance between the stories. The Holocaust story was clearly the primary narrative, where most of the reader’s time would be spent. If you didn’t care much about this narrative, you knew to put down the book. And if you didn’t care much about the father-and-son narrative, at least you knew those sections would be brief. By clearly setting the reader’s expectations, Spiegelman removed the necessity of balancing the narratives perfectly.

Back to the House Girl. Conklin has set herself up for a really hard task, balance-wise, because it seems unlikely these stories are going to match in intensity. Josephine’s about to be running for her freedom, and her life. Lina’s about to be reading legal briefs. The book is marketed as literary, not thriller, so I’m just not optimistic that Lina is going to be dealing with stakes that match those of a runaway slave.

The only thing, then, that is drawing me into Lina’s narrative is the subject matter, slavery reparations. I don’t know much about the subject, and I’m interested to see it discussed in an intelligent, fair, and thorough manner.

But do I have faith that this will happen? Not really, and the reason why brings us back to that first sentence.

Mister hit Josephine with the palm of his hand across her left cheek and it was then she knew she would run.

Clumsy, clumsy, clumsy! Why not just “hit?” Why not just “slapped?” Why include the detail about the left cheek at all? Why use thirteen words to do what three could do with more punch?

This inelegance is the sort of thing I could forgive in the middle of a book, but on p.1, it makes me leery. It speaks to a lack of effort on the behalf of both Conklin and her editor. And that translates to mashing Delete.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Plot is Tech: My Four-Act Formula

Spoilers for: His Majesty’s Dragon, by Naomi Novik; The Princess Bride, by William Goldman; Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card; Star Wars series

As a writer, I consider myself to be in the journeyman stage of my career. Even though I haven’t really made any money at it yet, I feel like my apprentice years are behind me. I’ve written a couple of books. I no longer find “How to Write” books particularly interesting. I’m sort of in the middle stage of my expertise, even if I’m still in the beginning stages of my professional career.

Part of being a journeyman, I think, is developing your own tricks of the trade, the little knacks and small arts that, along with the philosophies behind them, eventually earn you the title of “master.” One of mine is my Four Act Structure, which I use in plotting a novel. I don’t know if it will work as well for everyone, but I find it a serviceable tool.

Act One: The Challenge Accepted

This takes up maybe a quarter to a third of the book. It’s the part wherein your amateur detective decides to investigate the murder; the young soldier marches off to war; the swineherd decides to kill the dragon so he can claim the princess’s hand.

Except sometimes the challenge seems to be accepted right at the outset of the novel. You’re writing the third book in a detective series, and everyone knows the detective’s going to take the case the moment the client walks in his door. In that case, I think it’s useful to have a secondary challenge, one that can ultimately serve to bring this arc to a close. In the case of the detective series, The Challenge Accepted likely ends when the detective decides to take a personal interest in the case before him, or when he decides to continue pursuing it despite some very persuasive reasons not to.

Naomi Novik’s fantasy novel His Majesty’s Dragon, begins with Captain William Laurence discovering a dragon egg. Over the course of the first thirty pages or so, he determines that the egg will soon hatch, that a member of his crew must make an effort to bond with the dragon and become its rider, and furthermore, that that person must be him. He undertakes this task with dedication, but no enthusiasm, as it will mean the end of his Naval career. And on page 28, there he is, inextricably bonded with his dragon, Temeraire.

But that isn’t where The Challenge Accepted ends. Instead, Laurence spends a good third of the novel learning to see Temeraire as a fellow being, rather than a burden. The Challenge Accepted ends when Laurence accepts the second, hidden Challenge—becoming Temeraire’s true friend and companion.

Act Two: A Grave Setback

This act also takes about a third of the book, maybe a bit less. It involves the characters proceeding along with their efforts, until, bang! A Grave Setback occurs. The prime suspect in your murder mystery turns up as another victim; the young soldier’s unit is mowed down in battle; the swineherd learns that the dragon is not only not the one who’s been terrorizing the peasantry, but is actually a pretty nice guy.

The ideal Grave Setback challenges everything that has gone before it, and makes things immeasurably harder for your heroes. It leaves the reader asking, “Yeesh, what are they going to do now?

In The Princess Bride, the Grave Setback occurs when Westley dies. He dies! The hero dies! That is, as Mercutio might have said, about as grave a setback as you can get. The plot marches forward, and Westley comes back, but in a much-reduced state. Everything he does from this moment on must rely on strengths other than the ones he’s used to get this far.

Note: I know you’ve seen the movie. If you haven’t read the book, read the book!

Act Three: All is Revealed

This act takes up most of the remainder of the book. Any mysteries you’ve developed along the way are laid bare here. Here’s where your murderer is unmasked; where the young soldier discovers the betrayal that led his unit to their doom; where the swineherd learns that the king is actually the evil sorceror who has been making the peasants’ lives miserable.

All is Revealed is where all the little pieces click into place, where your reader can finally make sense of what’s come before. It should surprise the reader, yes, but a moment after that surprise registers, he should begin to slowly bob his head, to realize that this is the only way things could have gone. In other words, All is Revealed should grant answers that feel both surprising and inevitable.

In Orson Scott Card’s Speaker for the Dead, this act concludes when we finally learn the reason for the strange and brutal murders committed by the race of aliens called “piggies.” It all makes sense, then: not just why they committed those crimes, but also why their behavior doesn’t sem to gibe with their feelings of respect for the murder victims. A dozen little mysteries are cleared up with one revelation, which winds up seeming inevitable indeed.

Act Four: Someone Wins

This act is basically comprised of the climax and denouement. Note that it’s not called “The Hero Wins.” It is only necessary that someone win. Failing that, you can go for some sort of stable resolution or compromise—but that’s not my style. I like a good, solid victory or defeat.

In The Empire Strikes Back, it’s the villain who wins in this act, setting us up for the heroes to be in deep trouble at the beginning of Return of the Jedi. I do feel that letting the villain win works best in a series, where you have room to correct the injustice in later novels. But it can work in standalones, too. One of the members of my writing group has written a standalone literary novel with a bitterly shocking Villain Wins fourth act, which leaves the hero alive but forever diminished.

And so…

Not every book will easily break down into these four acts, or even break down into them at all. Like all writers’ tools, the Four Act Structure is a guide, not a harness. It’s meant to give you a way of thinking about your novel that can help you chart your way through the murky first stages of plot-work.

It works for me, and I imagine will continue to do so. But I won’t be afraid to step away from it if it isn’t serving the needs of a particular novel, and I’ll always be looking for ways to change it up and make it freshly surprising.

Posted in Plot, Tech | Tagged , | 1 Comment


text:
May 25, 2018

Workshop Microlocal Analysis and Mathematical Physics
September 8 -14, 1997

Monday, Sept. 8
09.00-09.05 D.Dawson Director's Address
Chair: J.Sj\"ostrand
09.05-09.55 I.M.Sigal The Ginzburg-Landau equation (joint work with Stephen Gustafson)
09.55-10.20 Coffee Break
10.20-11.10 S.Zelditch Level spacings and eigenvalue correlations
11.20-12.10 G.M.Graf Stability of non-relativistic matter and ultraviolet cutoff QED Chair: B.Helffer
14.00-14.50 F.Nier The dynamics of some quantum open systems with short range non linearities
15.00-15.50 A.Fedotov Almost periodic Schr\"odinger equations. Adiabatic case. II
16.00-16.50 A.Sobolev Absolute continuity of the periodic magnetic Schr\"odinger operator Chair: I.M.Sigal
14.00-14.50 M.B.Ruskai A bound on the maximum negative ionization of one-dimensional models for many-electron atoms in extremely strong magnetic fields
15.00-15.50 R.Pyke Positive commutator methods for nonlinear wave equations: minimal periods and exponential decay of time-periodic solutions
16.00-16.50 A.M.Horn Microlocal methods in control and stabilization of elastic systems

Tuesday, Sept. 9 Chair: V.Ivrii
09.00-09.50 V.Bach Renormalization group analysis of spectral problems in quantum field theory
09.50-10.20 Coffee Break
10.20-11.10 H.Siedentop Stability of relativistic quantum systems
11.20-12.10 D.Robert Semi-classical spreading of quantum wave packets and trace formulas. Chair: J.Ralston
14.00-14.50 B.Helffer Laplace integrals in large dimensions
15.00-15.50 F.Klopp Almost periodic Schr\"odinger equation. Adiabatic case. I
17.00-17.50 V.Petkov Scattering poles for several strictly convex obstacles Chair: A.Grigis
15.00-15.50 S.Spagnolo Some global existence results for nonlocal hyperbolic Cauchy problems
17.00-17.50 B.Buzano Spectral Asymptotics for Hypoelliptic Operators

Wednesday, Sept. 10 Chair: A.Melin
09.00-09.50 A.Grigis Examples of quantization conditions
09.50-10.20 Coffee Break
10.20-11.10 B.Vainberg Resonances for multistratified acoustic strip and ellastic half space
11.20-12.10 A.Soffer Time dependent resonance theory and applications Chair: A.Laptev
14.00-14.50 P.Kerdelhue Resonances generated by a critical point of the potential
15.00-15.50 T.Ramond Semiclassical resonances in dimension one Chair: V.Petkov
14.00-14.50 P.Kuchment Periodic differential operators and photonic crystals
15.00-15.50 X.P.Wang An inverse problem related to channel scattering operatorsX.P.Wang An inverse problem related to channel scattering operators
17.00-17.50 S.McDowall An Inverse Problem in Chiral Media

Thursday, Sept. 11 (Niagara Falls trip) Free day

Friday, Sept. 12 Chair: G.Uhlmann
09.00-09.50 A.Dynin Rigorous functional integration via microlocal analysis
09.50-10.20 Coffee Break
10.20-11.10 L.Seco The arithmetic nature of atomic structures
11.25-12.15 A.Sa Barreto Existence of Resonances in Metric and Potential Scattering Chair: A.Sa Barreto
14.00-14.50 D.Pravica Spectral resonances which become eigenvalues
15.00-15.50 G.Vodev Existence of resonances close to the real axis Chair: A.Soffer
14.00-14.50 M.Solomyak The regular and the pathological behaviour for the problem $-u''=Vu$ on the semiaxis
15.00-15.50 T.Paul Excited levels in a well and Nekhoroshev's theorem

Saturday, Sept. 13 Chair: V.Buslaev
09.00-09.50 A.Melin The characterization problem for scattering matrices and microlocal decomposition of wave operators
09.50-10.20 Coffee Break
10.20-11.10 B.Paneah A problem in integral geometry with application to the Dirichlet problem for hyperbolic differential equations
11.20-12.10 G.Zhislin Method of fixation of pseudomomentum for many particle neutral systems in magnetic fields: the hopes and the results
  We are hiking in a ravine!

Sunday, Sept. 14 Chair: P.Greiner
10.00-10.50 Y.Kannai Hyperbolic methods for second-order linear equations
10.50-11.20 Coffee Break
11.20-12.10 M.Birman Second order periodic elliptic operators. When the spectrum is absolute continuous? Chair: M.Zworski
14.00-14.50 M.Joshi Recovering singularities of potentials from backscattering data
15.00-15.50 P.Stefanov Inverse scattering by metrics (joint work with G.Uhlmann) Chair: M.Solomyak
14.00-14.50 A.Komech Long-time asymptotics and attractors of nonlinear wave equations
15.00-15.50 S.Graffi Quantization of toral symplectomorphisms and deterministic models with glassy behaviour in statistical mechanics


text:
Monday, 5 October 2015

A £10 Evening In by Poundland 2

 Almost 6 months have passed since the original £10 at Keynsham Poundland article.
We return again to squander the same amount of money on the delights a local pound-shop can provide for an evenings worth of amusement.

Like before, 10 items have been randomly chosen in a trolley dash around the same store as before. I make the grab, bring the goods home and give each £1 item a rundown whether I like them or not. Most of this stuff is tat at best, but what does anyone expect? It seems the best way forward is to make the best with what there is. That's part of the fun (yes it is fun!).

So here we go:

1/ Slush Puppies: Slush Pops.
Slush Puppies in the form of Ice Lollies. Frozen or thawed out, they taste just as good as they do in the newsagents! The blue raspberry ones are also still the best!

2/ Doodle Pad.
Featuring isometric patterns that look lifted from the land of Q-Bert. Plenty inside to keep busy with, and there's also blank pages to sketch on too...

3/ Christmas With Tucker DVD.
Had to buy at least one Christmas item in October, and this was it. A boy and his dog Christmas movie... I normally have a bee in my bonnet about the perpetual product placement of dogs in Christmas movies, but having watched this offering last November on Christmas 24 (Sky ch.327) I know this is one of the better flicks that promote the adoption of canines rather than giftwrapping them. Well worth the Pound sterling!

4/ Generic Packet of Pencil Crayons.
To go with the Doodle Pad mainly. The Pound 'stretches' far with this item with the large selection of colors and shades to choose from.

5/ Frozen: The Light-Up Yo Yo!
Anything with the sisters on smiling at the forth wall will sell, even a mispackaged yo-yo that has the product upside down inside. Still considering on keeping this as a collectable. Even still sealed on the card it provides amusement.

6/ Creepy Spider Lights.
Featuring 10 fragile plastic spiders that sometimes fall off, this is another amusing item and amusingly another Christmas product recycled into a Halloween one. All the same it provided an ambient radioactive green glow for the evening.

7/ Star Wars Money Tin.
A bit of a miss this one. No change to put in. Still good to have around in the long-run however. When this badboy eventually fills up with shrapnel, there's no opening or way to get at the contents unless there's a can opener on standby.

8/ Toy Tiger.
Like with the lizard from last years haul, I chose another plastic animal. This one sat on the arm of the sofa as a guard cat whilst Christmas with Tucker is on. I know now that if I ever come into possession of a Walking Dead King Ezekiel figure, this big cat would double up nicely as his loyal zombie stomping pet kitty Shiva. The scale is near enough!

9. Chewitts Blackcurrent Scented Candle.
Not bad this one. If you don't mind the overpowering smell of charred blackcurrent this is a pretty decent candle.

10. Runts.
Often found in those 20p handle turning machines (where lots fall out if you turn the handle slowly and tactfully). That's about it really. The box is fairly sizeable for £1 and contains a decent quantity of fruity candy.

There you go. Ten items rambled on about. That's your lot really!

In hindsight, Material goods can only provide material company. This is all for a laugh after all, and a fun summary of the cheap n cheerful entertainment that a high-street Pound-shop can provide.

Try it yourself! If you have £10 (or equivalent currency) spare to squander on bargain basement tat in a Discount Store – have a go and make the most of the results. Surely there aren't a Bazillion and one better things to do with that amount of money?

You've been reading the watered down sequel to the Poundland experiment (Mucho thanks again, Keynsham Poundland!). Hope you enjoyed the showcase. Until next time!


text:
Release Year: 2006
Studio: aWizardOfAss
Genres: BDSM,Enema, Anal Play, WaterSport, Spanking, Punishment, Bizarre Penetrations, Plug, Bondage
Video language: English

It's even more brutal and humiliating treatment for Natalia, after she gets sent back to the Reform School. The Schoolmaster ties her up and spanks, canes and paddles her - hard and at length.

Format: Windows Media
Duration: 57:50
Video: 480x360, Windows Media Video 9, 1220kbps
Audio: 62kbps

File size: 447.3 MB


text:
Release Year: 2006
Genres: Anal, Creampie.
Video language: English

Busty young girl itself declared that wants, that her kissed on the back... Well to kiss that didn't become, and here she there received a big snag and so that already an attractive face warped.

Format: avi
Duration: 30:48
Video: 512x384, XviD, 662kbps
Audio: 78kbps

File size: 172.6 MB


text:
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Download - PyGavel 1.0

PyGavel 1.0
PyGavel is a trainer for learning parliamentary procedure, and Robert`s Rules of Order in specific. Users can make and import modules for their own bylaws, variations, etc.

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~~ Improve Your MP3s ~~ Drop in your audio files. Platinum Notes will make them acoustically perfect. Platinum Notes uses studio filters to process your files. It corrects pitch, improves volume, and makes every file ready to be pla
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This nifty little Application take the stress out of your live performance. With OnStage running seamlessly alongside your chosen DAW, a new level of MIDI controllable file management is added above the either Logic Studio or Ableton Live enabl
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Music Player X is the premium alternative music player for Mac OS X. Music Player X features automatic loading of your iTunes library and playlists, multiple spectrum visualizers, slowing down and speeding up of music, menu bar integration...
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Lights and Shapes is designed for those who are studying RYA exam (or similar grade) and wish to get access to an accurate reference to identify ships at sea. The program is based on the Part C of the International Regulation for Preventing Co
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Download - Custom Avatars For Comments 0.3

Custom Avatars For Comments 0.3

Custom Avatars For Comments
This was initially written for a client and he agreed to open-source it. Thanks, John! Your visitors will be able to choose from the avatars you upload to your website for each and every comment they make. Various configuration options are available.See a live demo on the plugin's home page.My pluginsBetter tag cloud: I was pretty unhappy with the default WordPress tag cloud widget. This one is more powerful and offers a list HTML markup that...

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Netcat is a featured networking utility which reads and writes data across network connections, using the TCP/IP protocol. It is designed to be a reliable "back-end" tool that can be used directly or easily driven by other programs and...
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HTTPTunnel is a tunneling software that can tunnel network connections through restrictive HTTP proxies over pure HTTP "GET" and "POST" requests.HTTPTunnel consists of two components: 1. The client that resides behind the firewall and accepts...
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WebCleaner is a filtering HTTP proxy. It can be customized to your needs.
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Synergy gives you total control over your music without interrupting your workflow. It puts attractive, unobtrusive buttons in your menu bar that allow you to navigate your music collection and control iTunes without ever having to leave your...
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JavaScript Browser Sniffer is a browser identifier written in JavaScript (EcmaScript) and released under the LGPLlicense. It will tell which browser, version and operating system you (the visitor) are using (it's like phpsniff, but in...
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Thousands of users around the globe rely on Firewall Builder to help simplify their firewall management. Here are just a few of the reasons new users are joining the Firewall Builder community every day. Easy-to-Use GUI Instead of...
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Mantra is a free and open source, overhead style adventure game inspired by Zelda for the NES. Saric, a servant of the Ambassador of Kish, had been aboard the ship Seraphim, en route to the kingdom of Zarin. A great storm arose,...
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Urchin is a web-based RSS aggregator and filter. The primary purpose of Urchin is to allow the generation of new RSS feeds by selecting items of interest from the collection of items in the Urchin database.
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Gspoof is a GTK+ program written in C language which makes easier and accurate the building and the sending of TCP packet with a data-payload or not. It's possible to modify TCP/IP fields also Ethernet header working to Link Level.
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VegaDNS is a tinydns administration tool written in PHP to allow easy administration of DNS records through a web browser. Features * Tiered access with Senior Admin, Group Admin, and User levels * Import...


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Robei 2.1

Robei is the world smallest EDA tool for FPGA design and simulation. With this tool, you can design your hardware visually at anywhere, and view the simulation result through waveform. It is a tiny, fast software for hardware prototyping and verification. Imagine that when you are waiting for a bus, on a business travel or laying on the bed, suddenly a genius idea for a piece of hardware showing to your mind, how can you implement it with just...


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123 DVD Ripper 1.00

123 DVD Ripper
So that you can keep a small avi file in your notebook or mobile MPEG4 player to watch movie when you are travelling. Compared with other DVD rippers, 123 DVD Ripper has more settings that you can customize, and it is easier than ever to use. Whether you are a veteran or a beginner, you will feel that it was developed for you! 123 DVD Ripper provides you with excellent image/sound quality and a smaller file size with just a few clicks.


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Track The Book 1.3.3

  Date Added: June 10, 2013  |  Visits: 263

Track The Book

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This plugin gives visitors the option to track their book by entering their location and book number into a form. Their location is then turned into coordinates through the use of the Google Maps API and is able to be plotted onto a map. A KML file is also dynamically generated and can be displayed in a map using a separate plugin that reads KML files (i.e XML Google Maps).Installation : 1. Download the archive file and unzip it. 2. Put the "track-the-book" folder in "wp-content/plugins" 3. Enable the plugin by visiting the "Plugins" menu in WordPress and activating "Track The Book". 4. Go to the "Track The Book" settings page under the "Settings" menu and enter your Google API Key. If you do not have a Google Maps API Key, you can get one for free at display the link to access the Track The Book form, you would include the following code in your post: [trackthebook]Register my book[/trackthebook]Or to include the link directly inside of your WordPress template, add the following code:The address to access the dynamic KML file is http://your/wordpress/site/?view=trackthebook.kml. You can also use [trackthebook_kml] to support filters and prevent the KML file from being cached.To use your KML file in conjunction with with XML Google Maps, you would add the following code to your post: [xmlgm {[trackthebook_kml]}] or [xmlgm {http://your/wordpress/site/?view=trackthebook.kml}]

Requirements: No special requirements
Platforms: PHP
Keyword: Access Bookquot Enter Google Httpcodegooglecomapismapssignuphtmlto Httpyourwordpresssite Fview Dtrackthebookkml Include Location Plugin Quotsettingsquot Quottrack Settings Track Trackthebook Kml Wordpress Xmlgm
Users rating: 0/10

License: Freeware Size: 10 KB
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text:
A couple of good Eye Tattoos photos I located:

Gingerbread Personas
Eye Tattoos

Image by kev/null
Carla demands to offer particulars

Eye Tattoos

Image by Gidge Uriza

Gidge Is Wearing:
Eyeliner: cheLLe – (eyeliner) Cleo Called Navy
Lashes: Amacci – Eyelash Tattoo six
Eyeshadow: cheLLe – Moon Dust (Brass)
Lipstick: Baiastice_Tirel gloss lipstick-red emotion
Blush: cheLLe – (blush) Everyday Blush 1
Hair: /Wasabi Tablets/ Clementine Hair – Rye
Dress: 22769 ~ [femme] Beach Dress Americana two M FOR FLUX – Opens July 4
Hands: Slink Mesh Hands (av) Elegant
Nail Colour: FLAIR
Skin: [PXL] Dafne PA NE PassionLips MEB
Eyes: Nomine Stained Eyes – blue light
Standing Pose: Pretense

Sophie is Wearing: Punkie Babies July 4 Dress


text:
The firmware 'BL2U' is for the following drive(s):

  • Lite-On iHAS524 A
  • Version: BL2U
    Date: 9th August, 2010
    Filename: BL2U.EXE
    File Size: 953 KB
    Download Time:
    56K Modem: 4 Minutes, 32 Seconds
    Broadband (512 Kbps): 17 Seconds
    MD5: d8b32ac03a2404c860027040d72730c9
    Download Count: 4054

    Download File
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    Home | Forum | Search

    All rights reserved. Flash firmware at your own risk.


text:
Axiom Artis Zee combo Training

SIEMENS Combination Course

Axiom Artis and Artis Zee TRAINING

This Combination course provides the highest level of in-depth training on the Axiom Artis and Artis Zee platforms that the most experienced imaging engineers expect out of a training course. This course is second to none in the industry. It provides the service engineer the knowledge and tools to diagnose and repair both the Axiom Artis and Artis Zee platforms.

Advanced Diagnostics & Troubleshooting on the following sub-system components:

  • FD Components
  • AXIS Image System
  • System Controller (RTC)
  • User Interfaces, Stand, Patient Table
  • A100 Generator/ CAT Plus X-ray Tubes

In addition:

  • System Recovery – System backup & restore
  • All calibrations will be performed on entire system
  • Complete Image Quality and Performance verification (IQAP)
  • Advanced Diagnostic & Troubleshooting on both Axiom Artis & Artis Zee platforms

Reserve Your Spot Today!

Choose your preferred dates from the list and complete the Registration Form, or call 800-782-0003 to register your training date.

2018 Course Dates

2-Week Course

  • September 10 – 21, 2018

Additional course dates may be added based on demand. Contact us for further information.


text:
History of Islam

Up to the Demise of the Prophet

  • News Code : 20
  • Source : Abna

The precious legacy left behind by the Holy Prophet’s Household [ahl al-bayt] (may peace be upon them all) and their followers’ preservation of this legacy from the menace of extinction is a perfect example of the all- encompassing school [madrasah] that embraces all the different branches of Islamic knowledge. This school has been able to train many talented personalities by quenching them with this gushing fountain. This school has given scholars to the Muslim ummah who, by following the Holy Prophet’s Household (a.s), have done their best in order to clear up the doubts and skepticisms put forth by various creeds and intellectual currents both inside and outside the Muslim society. Throughout the past centuries, they have presented the firmest answers and solutions to these doubts.

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Thai Family Law: Relationship Registration

The pursuing article discusses Thai Relationship Registration for overseas nationals in the Kingdom of Thailand.

For those people viewers who are familiar with the English “Common Law” program, the thought of relationship registration is relatively tough to absolutely grasp at 1st glance. However, from the family law level of perspective there are quite a few similarities among Thailand’s “civil law” program and a “common law” program these types of as that of the United states. However, a noteworthy variance among the Thai program and the “common law” program is the absence of an thought of “common law relationship”. In nations these types of as the United States of The united states there are states which acknowledge “common law relationship”. A “common law relationship” is in essence a creation of the Court whereby a choose (or panel of judges) finds that a few is legally married notwithstanding the actuality that they did not solemnize or legalize their relationship.

In Thailand, in purchase for a relationship to be viewed as legal both parties have to look before a civil registrar and sign-up their relationship. As “common law relationship” is not recognized in Thailand, even a few that overtly cohabits for a sizeable time period of time will very likely be found to be single. Also, as the doctrine of equity is just about absent in Thai jurisprudence, there is frequently no equitable recourse for both celebration in an unregistered relationship. Consequently, irrespective of the actuality that a few has experienced a relationship ceremony and been accepted as married by the neighborhood, the Court is unlikely to grant both celebration any style of compensation should really the unregistered relationship dissolve as the Court would very likely not acknowledge the existence of a legal relationship in the 1st spot.

These notions are quite sizeable for those people alien nationals hoping to marry in Thailand. For example, if a few will come to the Kingdom of Thailand and performs a relationship ceremony with all customary solemnization, the relationship itself could still be viewed as unregistered if the few does not execute a relationship registration. This is vital to take note for those people partners from other nations due to the fact failure to really sign-up a relationship could consequence in the couple’s residence state, or nations, not recognizing the legal union.

Of achievable further more desire to partners who are not Thai nationals is the problems of registering a divorce in Thailand if the relationship is legally registered to begin with, but afterwards dissolves. In the Kingdom of Thailand, it could be relatively tough to uncover a Court that will acknowledge jurisdiction for uses of granting a divorce if neither celebration to the relationship is registered on a Tabien Baan (Thai Property Registration) inside the land borders of Thailand, or if 1 of the parties is not accessible for individual support of method in Thailand. For all of the earlier mentioned factors, those people overseas national’s wishing to marry in Thailand should really request legal information prior to relationship in Thailand so as to stay away from achievable legal issues at a afterwards date.

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text:
Food for the Fall

Mmmmm squash... Although it didn't come to me via csa, I thought it deserved a little celebration. I've been indulging a lot in foods I missed last year while living in Japan. (squash, mac and cheese, risotto, hot chocolate, apple cider, roasted veggies) There was plenty of squash in Japan, but it was never pureed or roasted. Speaking of which... I'm a little behind on the veggie drawings. Here's a squash study for a Butternut Squash, Sage and Bacon soup. Butter is so hard to paint!

I've been busy mailing out promo cards, visiting A.P.E in San Francisco (more on that later) and trying to finish up patterns in my East vs. West series. I'm hoping to sew them into lovely totes for the holidays!

I've also been busy creating work for contests lately! Including: They Draw and Cook's Holiday Recipe contest! This is a blog I've recently stared following and has become a fast favorite. They feature recipes from artists all over the world! Their contest will feature favorite holiday food recipes over the month of December and one will be featured each day on The Food Network, which would be great exposure! I love cooking at the holidays but I'm not sure what I should draw for this... any ideas? What are your favorite dishes to eat?

Okay well that's it for now. I'm still working on a post with favorite purchases from the Alternative Press Expo but I might lump it together with the NY Art book fair, which I'm going to check out this weekend! Also the YOSHITOMO NARA show! If your in NY and want to catch up, come by the Art book fair! (It's free!)