Positive Affirmations, Self-Fulfilling Prophecies and Divine Inspiration

          A wise man once said, “God helps those who help themselves.” What does that statement mean to you? To me it means I have three wishes every day. Sometimes I squander them on silly, unimportant things and other times I use them to save my life. Like the day before yesterday when I went under anesthesia for the first time. No genie in a bottle could have given me what I wanted. Trust me, it went way beyond hocus-pocus, abracadabra and open sesame--this was serious.

 Are you waiting for someone to come read that story you wrote? Do you want people to buy your book? Are you afraid to do marketing? Are you sitting on the sidelines while all your friends are getting published? God knows you have good excuses. Don’t get me wrong--I am huge with excuses and I’m kind of waiting out the publishing crisis, to be perfectly honest. The control freak in me wants someone to care and if no one else does at least I know that I care about my own creativity. My writing is good, and even though I don’t consider it the jewel of the century, I cringe at the thought of those forgotten slush piles.

 Anyway, I just want to offer a little of my backward encouragement. Too bad I can't just snap my fingers or wiggle my nose and presto-chango we are all on the best seller lists.  In other words, I’m great at dishing out and not so great at taking my own advice. I will tell you that I pray (a lot), read the Bible etc. and that has helped me learn more about my craft every day, and the ideas I have seem to come from someplace, because I certainly don’t think I could come up with this stuff on my own. For those of you who aren’t into classical prayer or even free-spirited, new-age prayer, I will offer you some secular reading that has also helped me on this road of life.

1.       Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain

2.       The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

3.       The Hidden Messages in Water by Dr. Masaru Emoto

4.       Law of Attraction by Michael J. Losier

5.       Flow-The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csiksentmihalyi

6.       Power Freedom and Grace by Deepak Chopra

Most of the above books are about positive affirmations and imagination. As a writer, your mind is already wired for imagination and the rest is just work. Good luck and May God Bless you!

A Temporary Workout Buddy

Leaf green, highlighted with small specks of gray made him look distinguished. Mostly, all I remember about the whole strange incident was the way he followed me back and forth along the side of the pool. I would slowly swim across the thirty foot pool and he would slowly walk along the edge making sure I was still there while he turned his head left and right observing flies or whatever else caught his attention. After the first few times across and back, I smiled and looked at him thinking he was very cute, but then I was up to twenty times across and then thirty and forty laps. Around the fiftieth time across he was still there and I introduced myself. I asked him if he was tired of the sleek little strolls he had been making on diminutive legs. After seventy five lengths of my pool, I told him he was handsome and got out to towel off. Yes, I confess, it was a strange thing to say to a little green lizard who took an interest in my swimming, that one day eight years ago when the golden sun was setting in the California sky.

What do you think about this?
Why do you think he did this?
Has something similar happened to you?

The Eleventh Commandment

The Eleventh Commandment

By thedesertrocks

On the Back of the Tablet

There are many different ideas about love and most of

them require following the golden rule of give and take. If I

give on this particular thing; I'll be able to get some of what

I need. In other words most relationships are not based on

unconditional love, but on a series of conditions.

Then, after years of problems, couples wonder why they

are having problems. They didn't meet any of the

conditions, or maybe they did for a while and then

something happened. Somewhere along the line, they let

their spouse down so many times that the best message

for them is about forgiveness. Yes, they say, they are

ready to forgive. To move beyond their mistakes, their

lies, their problems into a whole new world--sometimes

with someone new. Whoops. That defeats the whole purpose of this article.

Now, I propose a different angle. The Eleventh

Commandment uses a whole new way of thinking about

things from the very first day of a relationship. The Eleventh Commandment was written on the back side of the stone that Moses brought down from the mountain. At first it sounds easy, but implementing it into the daily routine of our lives makes it one of the hardest commandments to follow. Following this commandment will help you in all your daily endeavors. It will help you make more money, it will help you with your family and it will certainly help you hold onto the one you love.

What is it? You want to know don't you? The secret to this commandment has aided multimillionaires like Bob Hope and George Burns live over a hundred years in solid loving relationships. It has brought fame and fortune to countless individuals who simply use this as a tool rather than a way of life. You don't have to be a performer. Anyone can use this and be very successful.

Perhaps because it was on the back of the stone however, we forget to use it every day. Practice makes perfect. This is the one commandment that only you and your personality can individualize to suit your personal needs. This is the one that you can study, practice in front of a mirror or in front of your friends and receive immediate feedback regarding your improvement.

If used correctly, this commandment can change the world for the better.

It creates smiles in people's hearts. It warms us like a winter fire, and brings us to tears of joy.

Without this special commandment, life is like a sterile hospital room full of cold metal and florescent lighting. Without this particular commandment in our lives, we grow up to be bitter, lonely adults, racing around with rage-filled impatience on packed freeways in uncomfortable cars. If we want to make a difference, if we want to make someone smile and laugh, let us take this message of hope, this tiny talent that we need to polish, this patter we need to embellish and start using it today.

Turn over a new leaf. One more commandment, to add to the others. One more that will change your life! Turn the Tablet over, and read it out loud in a voice that thunders from the sky....

Thou shalt be funny and have a sense of humor.

Face Your Fears And Start Writing. Commence. Propel. Launch. Go!

My publisher was so kind the day I resigned. He asked me if I could commute from the desert or maybe work three days a week instead of five.  The year was 2005 and I knew, as my husband knew, that the market was bound to turn. We read about it daily in our newspaper and heard about it on all the pontificating news channels. It was just a matter of time before the real estate bubble would burst. It was actually the worst time to quit, but the best time to sell our home.  After twenty five years at daily papers, I knew it was time for a change.

Driving down highway 111 in the desert, on Valentine’s Day 2006, my husband asked me what I planned on doing. “I don’t know,” I replied, my mind racing around the track a few times and ending up in the same place. “Go to the courthouse and I’ll file a fictitious business name for a new business,” I added impulsively.

“Okay,” he said slowly, switching lanes and looking in the rear view mirror. “What is your business?”

“I don’t know. How about rocks? There are plenty of those around here,” I answered still wondering how I would come up with something that made sense to my brilliant husband.

Turning into the Indio courthouse, he said, “I’m with you whatever you decide.”

“We love it here. Right? That’s why we moved here, right?”

Smiling he replied, “Yeah, of course. It’s like paradise here.”

“It rocks,” I stated emphatically. “The desert rocks.” Getting out of the car, I gazed up at the flag of the United States perfectly contrasting against the picture perfect sunny February day filled with sunshine, before following my husband into the building. Once inside, he handed me a form to fill out. Where it said business name I wrote, “The Desert Rocks”. After paying the registration fee, we stepped back into the beautiful sunshine.

“What is The Desert Rocks?” he asked, scratching his head with one hand and holding my legal documents with the other. Totally perplexed, he took out his reading glasses and stared at the form before opening the car door.

“It’s my company.” I said with absolute certainty.

“Yes, babe, I understand that part, but what are you going to sell?”

The back of this one says: It comes to this! Rock and roll for decades
 Now I'm accepting a desk job as your paperweight!

“Rocks with poems on the back.” I got in the car and buckled my seat belt. He wasn’t giving up anything emotionally. Maybe because it was Valentine’s Day, he didn’t show any strange conflicting feelings that might undermine my plans or make me feel stupid for having a lame idea. Normally, I was idea central and though I wasn’t all that confident about this one, his face looked like a rock. At that moment I needed support because of the huge risks I had recently made regarding my home and career. “You said, you’re with me, no matter what.”

The back of this one says:Sometimes in our decision crazed fast-paced world
it's almost nice to know that in golf --the ball makes all the plans.

“Yes, honey,” he said, a tiny smile breaking through his unflinching countenance, “I’m with you all the way.”

Stay with me dear readers-- the  back of this one says: Today is like a spa for your soul
conditioning you for tomorrow.

Did you ever have any lame ideas that turned into good ones? The road to publishing a book feels like a long barren desert trail. Do you have someone who is with you all the way?

I have a bunch of these stupid things, sorry. The back of this one says:
I'll be your Rock of Gibraltar--Just whine away and I'll listen.

Obviously, I'm not much of an artist and these paperweights are not for sale. They are mostly to remind me that I had to start from somewhere, just like everything around me that sprung up from the desert rocks. 

Watch Your Incontinence Around My Aging Punctuation!

Sometime after the stone age, but before the advent of computers, our teachers drew funny marks on the blackboard and told us how to use these symbols when we wrote our school stories. Somehow throughout the years some writers develop a love—hate relationship with these often misunderstood characters, eventually casting them into a totally new, but even harsher light.

Punctuation Seems To 

Change as We Grow Older

Maybe it's the eyes?

,    Comma-Spelled with one m sometimes because we forget and fall into a coma.

;   Semi-colon- A small piece removed during an obese author’s weight reduction surgery.

!    Exclamation Point- The climactic orgasm is the only place this symbol is allowed by editors. No sex in your book or story? One less thing to worry about, because you'll have no use for this at all.

()  Parentheses- Literally behind closed doors. Notice the word parent?

.    Period-Stop before you start bleeding again.

---Dash-Hurry up, you don’t have all day.

….Ellipsis—Actually used in place of words that are omitted from a sentence but also for omitting things you forget.

-Hyphen-Has the prefix hyp as in hypertension, hypersensitive and hyperventilation. You’ve survived this long, might as well use it.

“Quotation marks- Those things that remind you of crow’s feet.”

? Question marks-Strange unidentifiable stains someone is bound to question you about.

$     Dollar sign-Used less and less these days and being replaced by fractions. Becoming extinct.

:  Colon-Whatever’s left after the colonoscopy.

 %- This percentage symbol evokes the blurred vision and cross-eyed feeling of reading too much.It almost looks like a pair of crooked glasses.


Note to young whippersnappers who can't relate: This post is intended to be humorous and is not factual in any way. Furthermore, you will need to learn correct usage of said offending symbols, unless you have a close relationship with a professional editor. Be thankful you have time on your side. 

A Publisher as My First Guest Blogger!

Live from New York—it’s my first guest blogger! Not just any guest blogger either, but someone with his hands on the pulse of tomorrow--ahem, today. I’m honored to introduce to you,  Publisher, Rick Tannenbaum from Hen House Press, here to give us all an inside scoop on the world of modern day publishing.

Our Small Slice of Life

by Rick Tannenbaum

Publisher, Hen House Press

We don't exist. Well, not really. Okay, that is a bit of an overstatement. Perhaps. But, you can't walk into WalMart, Target, or even Barnes & Noble and find our product on the shelves. There are no wrapped Christmas packages containing our wares. And, we have little use for the shelves in even the grandest libraries. Our products are delivered without trucks, corrugated cardboard, packing tape or bubble wrap. We exist in the ether, over the air, on the net, or through the web. And yet, we serve (at least) two useful purposes. We bring joy to readers all over the world, and we offer authors access to markets they could not have touched a few short years ago.

You see, traditional publishing is on the ropes. Of course, if you are a celebrity, a former politician (disgraced or otherwise) or a felon (convicted or otherwise, especially otherwise) then you can publish your book in the traditional media. Or if you have a track record of already having sold a million books, then you can always publish another. But, if you are mid-list, or (look the other way) an unknown, then your chances of getting published equate with those of winning the immigration lottery for a green card. Not impossible, but hardly a retirement plan.

And bookstores, forget it (mourn the loss of Borders, maybe). Between the agents, publishers, printers, designers, distributors, warehousemen, publicists, shippers, returns, damages, allowance, holdbacks, etc., there is no money left for the author, especially if you are mid-list or unknown.

So, that brings us to our small slice of life. Hen House Press publishes and distributes eBooks. Yes, of course we still use editors, designers and publicists, but a small press can publish a well-edited and professional eBook for a fraction of the cost of a traditional print book. And, because our upfront investments are modest, we are able to do what very few traditional publishers can do -- bring out books from unknown authors. We can take chances on controversial genres, or create new genres. We can compile similar pieces into anthologies, and we can do it all more quickly and with more attention to detail than traditional large presses.

This year (among other offerings), we published a collection of short stories by NPR radio host Susan Barnett called "The View From Outside." We published a collection of essays from New York Post columnist Tina Traster called "Burb Appeal." We published "shorts" (stories close to novella length) including "Mauraine" a tragedy by Richard Luster and a Hitchcock satire called "Dial L for Latch-Key" by Hollywood screenwriter Scott Fivelson. All of these eBooks received wonderful reviews, raves from readers, and allowed competent, creative authors a vehicle to reach a large audience. Our crime fiction, including Semyon White's "One Way Out: Tommy Pulls the Trigger" and Rivka Tadjer's "Two Weeks Under" brought complicated characters and carefully drawn stories to new readers.

And, this August, we published an anthology called "Fiction Noir: Thirteen Stories" that featured veteran writers like Joanne Dobson along with newcomers like Eve Gaal, Isaac Grimm and Dennis Brock. (Full disclosure: Eve was a contributor to the anthology and asked me to be a guest blogger on her blog.)

With each manuscript we accept, a labor of love begins. From the cover design, to the careful editing, to the coding of the eBook, to the creation of the video trailer, to the marketing plans with the publicist -- with each step, there is a certain maturity vested in the creation. And, at the end of the day, the readers judge the final product. They either rave about it to their friends, enjoy a quiet knowing smile, or simply digest the messages the author sought to share. And, we have served our purpose -- we've added to the creative community, enabled an author, and hopefully made a reader happy.

Visit us at: http://www.loveandpublishing.com or follow us on Twitter at @eHenHouse.

The Door Slammed Into My Face!

I really don’t know how I’m always late with these contest thingies. Seems like I just found out about this…. Oh well, here is my entry—I realize I’m not in the running for any prizes. I am just posting it because I wrote it and don’t really know what to do with it. I was supposed to write 200 words that starts with the door swung open and end with the door swung shut.  

The door swung open with its plethora of potentialities and possibilities. The optimistic rays of sunlight filtered into the dark and gloomy room, bouncing off the floor tiles and gently glaring off the full length mirror. It was more of a tentative and sideways sort of light that strains to puncture through the leaves in the fall rather than blasting full force with a scorching, powerful harshness that most people run from in the summer by hiding behind curtains, shades, hats and sunblock. No, this sun invited and beckoned like a naughty mistress pulling her lover from beneath the sheets, luring and alluring with blessed radiance that made the dust in the room look like golden stars from heaven. The light that evoked memories filled with laughter, lazy afternoons near a lake and the giggles of children who couldn’t be coaxed into coming home for dinner.

Wheeling her chair closer to the screen she said, “Simon, let’s go for a ride.” Like an excited butterfly about to leave her cocoon, she shivered from the slight trace of autumn crispness that floated onto her shoulders, making her sneeze.

Simon entered the room holding her sweater and then the door swung shut.

My California Tribute to 9-11

I have just read a touching piece in my paper about people who moved here after 9-11 but will always miss their NY home. It made me think about how we all deal with pain in different ways. Although I know there are brave California folks who traveled across the country to assist with the search and rescue, I also feel that the majority of us just sat in stony silence wondering how anything like this could ever happen. Besides praying for the victims and their families there was little I could do and no words ever written could change the horror that happened on that day. Yesterday, I wrote this poem as a tribute to those souls who will be remembered as...forever young.

The sorry state of interpreting pain,

Far removed from ground zero,

Far from blood stain—

Smoke filling lungs like mustard gas during war,

Agonized hearts fleeing,

Towers and tears burning like acid

We hate what we’re seeing.

Where’s the remote?

We were not there to bear the weight

That fell on innocent shoulders

Like a cinder

That smolders--

Inside.

A personal flame-

Residual ashes...

Where nothing is the same.

Even after the wind has blown everything out to sea.

Even after ten years of carrying the fears--

Some staying defiant.

Praying for their dears.

Some leaving to join the circus or to watch it from afar.

Where’s the remote?

Faded photographs plastered behind memorials

Like the missing on milk cartons,

Young forever

Never forgotten—

Inside.






by Eve

Write like the Kudzu--Determined to Grow and Never Giving Up!

Years ago, some southern states decided to plant a very aggressive ground cover called kudzu to prevent erosion on highway embankments. Little did they know that this plant is practically unstoppable and wants to conquer every foot of open space. It wants to take over the world....

Your desire to write needs to be like kudzu, bamboo or horsetail reed. In my yard we have two concrete flower beds with horsetail reeds, which is an incredibly invasive plant. We knew they were invasive when we planted them and thought that they would take over the planter and stay nice and green all the time. Unfortunately, our hot desert summers took a toll on the appearance of the horsetail reeds and so we pulled them out. Digging out the old soil and replacing it with fresh bags of new soil was the most difficult part before planting pansies and petunias. The colorful flowers were quite enjoyable for a short time, until the clown-punching-bag horsetail reed started coming up again. After the flowers dried up, we repeated our efforts and concentrated on digging out the roots—or so we thought. A week or so later we see the persistent horsetail reeds pushing through the ground. I keep imagining that the other side of these plants has gone all the way through to China and are being enjoyed by Panda bears for dinner. We have temporarily given up trying to eradicate our yard of these obstinate plants that so desperately want to grow. These horsetail reeds will never give up and just like our stories, our poems and our dreams they need to continue growing up from the ground into the sunshine where everyone can see them! Don’t ever give up. Stay determined. Remain focused, while remembering to grow in some way every day!

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