The LAST Word

March 3 is the day dedicated to encouraging literacy through reading. It used to be known as Reading Across America. March 3 was chosen because it was Dr. Seuss' birthday. He was instrumental in increasing literacy among American youth. This year, many areas chose not to include Dr. Seuss books in favor of ones that are indoctrinating children with an agenda instead of teaching them how to read. This is wrong for many reasons.  As a journalist and author , I am concerned about the precedent set by taking Dr. Seuss from schools and libraries. Banning books is the first step toward having a government telling us what we are allowed to read, what we are allowed to think and what we are allowed to say. His books might offend some people, but they have a right be available. He is allowed to have his say. And, the replacements might offend more people. When does it stop? Huckleberry Finn will be next or To Kill a Mockingbird will be found offensive, but at the times they were w

    In June, rainbows are used for ugly references to people who do things they shouldn't. Instead of using rainbows as symbols for that, try using rainbows for inspiration for your writing. 1. Beautiful Colors -- If you have ever seen rainbows after a storm in the sky, the colors are vivid against a dark stormy sky . These can make you think of colorful descriptions for your settings. Everyone knows the seven colors of a rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and indigo). However, the colors of the sky can range from a bluish gray to a deep charcoal when a rainbow appears. Those bright colors against the deep charcoal can be impactful.  2. Resilience -- They also can represent resilience of your characters. When a rainbow appears, it is usually after much destruction has happened. In your stories , the characters might have had to endure something similar and came through the problem with stronger life. They are shown to be resilient. In addition to fiction, rainbows

  It started when libraries banned Dr. Seuss . This is violating the 14th Amendment. Now, "Sensitivity Committees" want to rewrite Roald Dahl's books to make them "sensitive" to today's audiences. How can they know what Dahl wanted his characters to be. They are his characters. Only he knows what they are thinking and doing. No one can say, "It was meant to say this." That is the first problem.  The second problem is that if "Sensitivity Committees" rewrite characters and books, they are making everyone the same. That will read quite boring. In the real world, people say negative things, do negative things, do not care about being sensitive or politically correct, and act whatever way they want. Most people know what is right and wrong. Therefore, fiction should reflect life. That is why these stories stand the test of time. They reflect life, and readers can relate because they know people like the characters. The third problem is rewri

When you are looking for ideas for stories, blogs, poems or press releases, you should consider holidays, such as Valentine's Day or Presidents Day. You can find ways to use them in your writing or business marketing.  You might be surprised to know that I write romance novels but hate Valentine's Day. This might seem odd. I write about love, but I don't like the day dedicated to love. The reason I don't like Valentine's Day stems from being alone in high school and college. In high school, one of the fundraisers was to sell heart-shaped lollipops with messages on them. It was hard to watch many of my friends get messages and I didn't. In college, everyone on my floor was given something for Valentine's Day except me.  To me, Valentine's Day is set aside to make those without a significant other feel bad about himself or herself. Even after I met my future husband, I asked him not to give me anything on Valentine's Day. To this day, he will give me

 I noticed that I have not been posting a regular blog. This has made me think about being persistent in marketing . Whether you are marketing books , a writing business or another business, if you are not persistent in how you market , you are probably going to not be successful. You want to use all your resources available to you , including blogs. I have been remiss in keeping up my blogs, which has been hurting my business. Sometimes, it is hard for writers to promote their own business when they are helping other companies and authors . This year, I plan to write my blogs more often even when I go on vacation . Here are reasons why you want to be persistent in your marketing. 1. Google Rankings -- When you are persistent in your marketing, you will consistently be on top of Google in search results. Regular and fresh content on your Web site is one of the criteria used to establish who comes up when people search. Without regular and fresh content on your Web site, you might d

   Every business owner and employee knows that to avoid burn-out and stress , you need to take a break. You could take a short trip within your state, a staycation or you could spend the money to take a longer trip. My husband and I are celebrating a big event -- our 30th wedding anniversary, so we decided that this was going to be the year we traveled to Alaska, see our natural resources and the midnight sun. We were gone for a week in June. Many people were telling us that we wouldn't want to travel that distance or that it might be cold. We went anyway. It was not cold (80 degrees most days in Fairbanks), and the plane ride was long but nothing unbearable. We wanted to do this, so we did. The point is if you work nonstop, you will quickly become stressed. You will be uninspired, and you will not want to do your job any more. Everyone needs time away from their writing and marketing. Although staycations can be helpful for some, I find that they are tempting to go back to my w

  Recently, politicians have attacked our freedoms and rights in the name of public health. The most recent was the removal of the intellectual property on the vaccines against the coronavirus disease. The idea is that it is available to all, but already, the vaccine is given freely to Americans, but pharmaceutical companies should be allowed to protect their formula so they could license it to other countries or companies. It was removed to protect health, but it sets a dangerous precedent and authors should be outraged. If pharmaceutical companies could lose their intellectual property, authors could too, namely their copyrights on books or cookbooks .  The Constitution guarantees Americans the right to pursue property. Intellectual property is still property. Patents, trademarks, copyrights, software coding, music, art, formulas and much more are protected and should be allowed to be retained. In Sept. 11, 2001, we started losing rights in the name of security. Now, we are losing

   As a journalist and author , I am concerned about the precedent set by taking Dr. Seuss from schools and libraries. Banning books is the first step toward having a government telling us what we are allowed to read, what we are allowed to think and what we are allowed to say. His books might offend some people, but they have a right be available. He is allowed to have his say. And, the replacements might offend more people. When does it stop? Huckleberry Finn will be next or To Kill a Mockingbird will be found offensive, but at the times they were written, that was what common. You can't impose 2021 political correctness on 1960s or older books. Goes Against Constitution We have a Constitution and first amendment that guarantees free speech, which includes printed books, electronic books, information on the Internet and newspapers. While the publisher is within its rights to remove books from print and not sell certain books, the libraries are not allowed the same perm