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Birthday Wisdom

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My birthday was on Sunday, December 1st. In the days leading up to this joyous occasion, I began to think about my life; where I’ve been and where I’d like to go, things that have happened, etc. I suppose I should pass along some nuggets of wisdom, for people who are younger than me. So, here it goes.

When I woke up on the morning of my thirtieth birthday, I felt a mild sense of panic. I thought, “Oh God, I’m thirty! I’m single! What do I do now?” I had ended a long term relationship about a year and a half prior to this, and there weren’t any prospects on the horizon. Then I got over the shock, enjoyed my birthday, and moved on. In fact, that’s what I’ve done with every birthday since then. 

June 2018
Yes world, this is me. 

My little nugget of wisdom is simply this: live your life the way you want to live it. We set goals for ourselves, and we have such high expectations of where we’re supposed to be at certain stages of our lives. When we don’t achieve those goals or meet our own expectations, we begin to feel like failures. I had to teach myself to get over this.

live your life the way you want to live it

I don’t need to impress anyone. I don’t owe anyone an explanation of my life. All I need to do, is wake up each morning, be the best me I can be, do no harm to others, and just live my life. When I woke up yesterday on my birthday, I decided not to put any pressure on myself. I’m past that point where every birthday needs to be celebrated fabulously (thirty-seven isn’t a milestone, but forty will be). I spent the day with my mother, eating  Thanksgiving leftovers and watching football. The gifts I ordered online are on their way, and I’ll celebrate when payday rolls around again. My Patriots lost, but Julian Edelman got a touchdown, which is what I wanted, so that’s my little b-day gift. Thank you, Jules.

Aside from my birthday, it’s also Woolaston Entertainment’s birthday. My creation is twenty-five, and I’d like to think over the years, we’ve gotten better together. 

Woolaston Entertainment

 

NaNoWriMo: Creative Nonfiction

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Greetings, folks! It’s still November, so it’s still NaNoWriMo. I hosted a Creative Nonfiction Workshop on Nov 14, for seven people (not bad for an introvert who doesn’t like speaking in front of groups, eh?)

We had a wonderful discussion about what CNF is, and we looked at some examples. Memoirs are among my favorite forms of CNF. I read Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine when I was in middle school, and back then I had no idea it was actually a memoir from the author’s childhood. Stephen King, one of my favorite authors, uses a lot of his personal experiences in his writing. “The Body”, the short story that was adapted into the film, Stand By Me, is an example of this. When King was a child, he and his friends really did discover a dead body. 

Of course, not every CNF book is completely honest. Take for example, A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, published in 2003. This moving piece of literature about a man who overcomes alcohol and drug addiction won the hearts of readers all across America, including Oprah Winfrey. Oprah invited James to be a guest on her show. Eventually, someone did a little research, and exposed James as a fraud. Most of the info in the book was either made up or exaggerated. Instead of spending weeks in jail, he apparently only spent a few hours, and so on. 

Should CNF be honest? I’d like to think so. But the title of the genre is tricky. Creative makes you think along the lines of things that are made-up, while Nonfiction leads you to believe, the information is completely true. Put them together, and they almost sound like an oxymoron. CNF is telling a true story in a way that is engaging. It’s almost like the difference between a story on your local news channel, vs a story on Dateline.  Your local news will be very cut and dry, and straight forward. They give you the facts, and then they move on to the next story. Dateline, on the other hand, draws you in, and makes the details of the story more interesting. Sure, facts are still facts, but they’re being presented in a way that makes them interesting, and not just mere facts. 

If you’re considering writing a CNF of your own, here’s a list of great books to look at from Bookriot.com :

Creative Nonfiction Books

Have a happy NaNoWriMo!

Do You Know About Worldcat.org?

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Let’s say you head to your local public library, in search of a particular book. However, you discover your local library doesn’t own a copy of the book you want. What should you do? There’s a few options. You could try and purchase a copy of the book online, via Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or another website. Or, maybe check with a different library. The best option, may be this one: have your library check the World Catalog.

WorldCat

Most public libraries participate in a program known as Inter Library Loan, or ILL. Some academic libraries participate as well. This allows libraries to receive materials from libraries outside of their city, state, and in come cases, country. Maybe you use the Queens Public Library in New York, and you need a copy of Of Mice and Men, and they don’t have one listed in their catalog. Perhaps a local library in Atlanta, Georgia has a copy to spare. Queens can use the ILL system to borrow the book from the library in Atlanta, so that you can borrow it from Queens. Pretty sweet, right?

This is where the World Catalog comes in. It lists materials available at libraries all over the world. So, if you’re looking for something, but can’t seem to find it at your local library, you may want to ask your librarian to check the World Catalog, to see if its available elsewhere. The borrowing time may differ from that of your local library, but at least you’ll have access to what you need. 

Check out the World Catalog when you have time!

The Finale of Lucia and the Saints

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Everything has a beginning and an ending. The same is true for my novella series, Lucia and the Saints. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but here it goes: the sixth and final volume of the series will be available next week. Yes, folks. The series is coming to an end.

The first volume was released on July 5, 2019. Readers were introduced to a young John Rafferty, when he was attempting to become a business man. This is not the John Rafferty we know (and potentially hate) from the Valentine series. Older Rafferty is cruel, vicious and uncaring. Younger Rafferty can be a bit of a wuss. 

But forget Rafferty for a moment. The main character is Lucia. Everything that happens, and every character in the world of Valentine can be traced back to Lucia. She’s bold and outspoken, and thirty times braver than Rafferty. Truthfully, between the two of them, she should be running the Syndicate.

I used to think prequels were useless. However, writing this series has given me a deeper appreciation for prequels. It’s interesting to find the connections between characters and events from the other series. With Lucia and the Saints: Volume Six, there’s a pivatol moment in which Lucia makes a decision that affects the lives of every other character in both the Valentine series and the Valentine Apart series. 

The entire series is available in ebook form. I will release the paperback versions by the end of the year. 

Woolaston Entertainment

Thank Goodness I Still Have CS5!

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I love using Amazon’s KDP. Seriously, I do. All of my books have been published (or re-published) via Amazon. However, when they combined Create Space with KDP, a terrible thing happened. Some of the templates for the cover designs, were removed. Unfortunately, this made things harder for me, because I prefer to have the books in a single series share a common cover design. But, all is not lost! I still have Adobe Photoshop CS5 on my old laptop!

I acquired CS5 when I was in art school. Becuase I was a student, I was allowed to purchase the program at a discounted price. While my old laptop nolonger runs as fast as it used to, CS5 is still installed. I have used it over the years, to create some of the images that appear on some of my book covers. With the loss of some of the templates in KDP, I turned to CS5 to create the entire cover for the upcoming The Age of the Daughter and Jo Fuentes: Project Sleep. They’re not perfect, but at least everything will still be uniformed.

Jo Fuentes: Project Sleep

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. 

Woolaston Entertainment