Make Me Think Monday Archives - Page 22 of 35

28 11, 2016

Cyber Security for the Holidays

By judythemorgan|2016-11-22T16:51:03-06:00November 28th, 2016|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

We’re full on turkey and pumpkin pie leftovers. The serious holiday gift buying has begun. It’s time to think about cyber security.

We all know how hackers use stolen data to create plausible emails to trick people into clicking harmful links and/or opening infected attachments, spreading malware, viruses, and other threats.

Yahoo’s data breach last September was a good reminder we need to be pro-active in protecting our data. I hope if you ever had a Yahoo account, you immediately changed your password or deleted the account if it’s inactive. If not, stop reading this blog and do it now.

We need to use caution when making on-line purchases or sharing posts on social media. We don’t want to put ourselves or anyone else at risk if we are hacked or have our data stolen in a cyber attack.

Here are seven tips for keeping your data safe all the time, not only during the holiday season.

Use different passwords on all your accounts.
Change your password and security question answers for all accounts regularly.
Avoid your name, initials, or birth date in a password.
Avoid actual words as part of a password.
Keep your anti-virus/anti-malware and all your computer programs up-to-date.
Frequently review all on-line accounts for suspicious activity.

Lastly, some reminders about your email.

~Never click on an email link if it’s unsolicited or from someone you don’t know.

~ Double-check before you click even if something seems to be from a friend, call, text, or email that friend and verify before you open.

~Regardless of how official an email appears never open unsolicited email. The IRS, your bank, your credit card companies, and other companies will NOT email you to ask for personal information. They already have it.

Use these tips and reminders about cyber security be security wise this holiday season and always.

21 11, 2016

It’s Thanksgiving Week

By judythemorgan|2016-11-11T10:45:22-06:00November 21st, 2016|Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

Thanksgiving arrives on Thursday making this week filled with family reunions, food, fun, travel, football games, Black Friday, and being thankful.

Not necessarily in that order.

The way we celebrate things today is quite different from how Pilgrims celebrated Thanksgiving feasts.

Historically, Pilgrims in The Commonwealth of Virginia held Thanksgiving services beginning in 1607. Days of prayer, not days of feasting, but services deeply grounded in religious beliefs and gratitude to their Heavenly Father.

Our national holiday stems from the feast held in the autumn of 1621 by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians to celebrate the colony’s first successful harvest. The colonist didn’t call it Thanksgiving, though.

Thanksgiving to them was a religious holiday in which they would go to church and thank God for a specific event. The activities that autumn of 1621 – dancing, singing secular songs, playing games – wouldn’t have been allowed. Not religious. The feast was a secular celebration, so it never would have been considered a thanksgiving in the pilgrims’ minds.

Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation for a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” established what we do today.

Interesting that the basis for our celebration remained the same as the early colonist feasts – thankfulness.

As you go about the preparations this week, spend some time thinking about the origins of the holiday and all the reasons you have to be thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

14 11, 2016

Creating a gratitude list – 4 suggestions

By judythemorgan|2016-11-11T10:04:53-06:00November 14th, 2016|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

Gratitude, I’m sad to say, is not part of most people’s natural disposition.

I understand. It’s hard to be thankful when all around us is hurt and pain and disappointment.

Gratitude doesn’t make sense, but it’s a discipline needed to remind ourselves of the many reasons we have to be grateful, which in turn will push off negativity.

Being grateful is a choice. If you’ve lived most of your life NOT focusing on gratitude, it’s not so simple to change that perspective.

Developing an attitude of gratitude can take time and effort. One way to begin that change is to write a daily gratitude list.

It’s hard at first, especially on those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days, but over time a daily gratitude list can give you an attitude adjustment.

Where to start? How to start? What to put on your list? Here are some suggestions:

Grab a pencil or pen, some paper, and write out a list of things you’re thankful for. The kinesthetic experience of actually writing is valuable for two reasons:

The physical act imprints a feeling of gratitude at the cellular level.
Writing by hand is a slow process and provides more time for contemplation.

Chose a realistic number of things to list. Begin with two or three at first and work your way up to whatever number makes you feel comfortable.

Identify things around you to put on your list. Chose simple things like you woke up. Your house. The sunrise/sunset. There is so much to be thankful for, if we only have eyes to see.

Fake it, if necessary, until the habit is established. You may not actually feel grateful for anything at first, pretend. Before long you’ll discover gratitude is all around. Next, you’ll learn gratitude grows the more you use it.

If writing a gratitude list isn’t for you, try grateful beads. That’s what I use.

Grateful beads are a string of the ten beads that serve as a guide to being thankful. Three beads for three people who touch your life. Six beads for six things, events, and occurrences and the final bead to remind you to give thanks to your creator.

And in case you were wondering, this is my grateful bead list for today:

Like-minded friends and encouragers: Jody and Millie

My husband, who is my biggest fan and strongest supporter

Good health

Living in the forest where I can enjoy nature

Being able to share stories with readers

Readers who write to tell me how much they enjoy my stories

Old church hymns

Last, and most important, Grace — God’s love that cannot be explained (only surrendered to)

Here’s my challenge for you: Whether you use a gratitude list or grateful beads, find some time today, wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing, to be grateful.

What would be on your gratitude list? Share in the comments.

7 11, 2016

Thankfulness: the beginning of gratitude

By judythemorgan|2022-11-13T18:13:53-06:00November 7th, 2016|Make Me Think Monday|2 Comments

Blogging about thankfulness and gratitude in November is cliché, but there’s no better time than the month when our whole nation pauses and gives thanks to focus our thoughts on thankfulness.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that in order to achieve contentment, we should “cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously.”

As we celebrate the coming holiday in America, most of us will have a thankful attitude on Thanksgiving Day. Too often, though, our attention wanes for the rest of the year. We should seek out things daily to be thankful for, i.e. give thanks continuously as Emerson suggests.

Here are two ways to focus an attitude of thankfulness beyond one Thursday in November.

Use social media

Surprised? In our plugged-in culture, it’s impossible to avoid social media no matter how hard you try so why not use your posts, pictures, videos, and tweets to cultivate thankfulness on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Heaven knows we get enough of wars, earthquakes, floods, fires, sick children, murdered spouses and, lately, politics.

It seems the more suffering and mayhem, the more mass media coverage. Yet research shows the opposite: good news spreads faster and farther than disasters and sob stories.

By sharing positive, uplifting posts, memes, and videos, you encourage attitudes of thankfulness in yourself and others.

Keep a gratitude list.

According to Henri Frederic Amiel, gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Writing down what you’re thankful for everyday reinforces positive thoughts and grateful feelings.

We’ll explore gratitude lists more next week. For now, can you think of ways you can foster thankfulness?

31 10, 2016

Fiction Interrupters – Is your writing interrupting your reader?

By judythemorgan|2016-10-01T14:06:23-05:00October 31st, 2016|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

Our story worlds become tangible to us as writers. A video plays in our head as we write. We see the setting; we feel the emotions. Our characters become genuine people moving in an authentic world we’ve created.

While our story worlds are real to us, the reader enters a story world as a visitor exploring what we’ve created.

Interruptions can happen. The telephone rings, a text comes in, or the doorbell rings. Distractions we choose to ignore or respond to.

If a reader is truly engrossed, they will return to the story world just as we return to our writing.

Not so if the writing itself causes the distractions. Then readers turn from explorers into critics or worse yet, quit reading.

Beth Hill (The Editor’s Blog) says “Interruptions from inside the story world become a part of that world and influence our [readers’] reactions to it.” She offers a list of fiction interrupters that writers should avoid.

These are the interrupters that jar me as a reader.

Dialogue

Characters who speak like fictional characters rather than real people. Actors in old movies from the 40s and 50s used pseudo acting voices. Actors today don’t. Neither should our characters’ voices be false.
Unnecessary character dialogue, i.e. characters sharing already known information or dialogue used simply as fill

Plot

Contrived plot lines
Deus ex machina endings or endings that don’t follow the story lines
Leaving some story issues unresolved

Characterization

Characters who act in a ways not compatible with their established worldview or the story era
Lack of character motivation for unexpected actions
Too-stupid-to live characters who do senseless things or act in ways simply so the plot works out a certain way

Writing Craft

Failure to include setting references of time and place. Readers need to be grounded – who, what, when, where – at the beginning of chapters and scenes.
Bad grammar, incorrect facts, inconsistent spelling, poor punctuation, preaching or teaching
Lyrical or poetical writing that doesn’t match the story’s style, i.e. purple prose.
Poor sentence structure or confusing words

You can find Ms. Hill’s blog about reader interruptions here. Her list is longer than mine, but neither list contains everything that can distract a reader from a story.

What pulls you from a story when you’re reading?

24 10, 2016

21 Grammar Rules and Writing Mistakes

By judythemorgan|2016-10-01T14:36:48-05:00October 24th, 2016|Make Me Think Monday, writing, Writing Craft|2 Comments

Grammarcheck.net recently posted this infographic of 21 frequently ignored (or unknown) grammar rules and writing mistakes that everyone who writes should know.

How many do you know? How many do you ignore?

I’m with them on all but the serial comma and semicolon. I only use a serial comma for clarity in my writing. And, I think the semicolon is too formal for my voice. I only add it when my copy editor insists.

Source: www.grammarcheck.net

17 10, 2016

Who reads Romance?

By judythemorgan|2016-10-02T16:13:14-05:00October 17th, 2016|Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

I read a blog recently where certain elements of the blogger’s stories were listed with the question, Are you my reader? That got me to thinking about who reads romance.

According to Maya Rodale, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that romance readers are single women in possession of cats and in want of a man.”

I’m a long time romance reader and neither truth applies to me.

She adds, “Other “true” facts about the romance reader: They’re “nice people with bad taste in books”, uneducated, bored, stupid, “lack romance in their lives.” Or if we want to be really specific, they’re “middle aged women who are bored in their marriages and want to fantasize about hard, chiseled men.” Or maybe they’re “younger women who are using them as emotional porn.”

None of those characteristics apply to me either.

So who reads romance?

Romance Writers of America did a survey and created the graph below to identify romance novel readers. These demographics are a closer match to who I am as a romance reader.

If you’re a romance reader, do the stats fit you?

BTW, if you’re interested, you can read the rest of Ms. Rodale’s humorous post on romance reader myths and truths here.

3 10, 2016

Elmore Leonard’s Rules for Good Writing

By judythemorgan|2016-10-01T16:00:32-05:00October 3rd, 2016|Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

SOURCE for image: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/20/living/elmore-leonard-author-interview/

Elmore Leonard (1925-2013) began writing Westerns in the 1950s. From those, he went on to specialized in crime novels and suspense thrillers.

Because of his trademark rhythm and pace, many of his short stories became films. You might recognize Get Shorty (1995, John Travolta and Gene Hackman); Jackie Brown (1997, Pam Grier,) and Out of Sight (1999, George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez).

He also wrote scripts for television.

That’s how I became acquainted with the writer’s work through U. S. Marshal Raylan Givens, star of the television series Justified.Trigger-happy Marshal Raylan exemplifies the author’s use of the Western theme inside crime fiction.

The character first appeared in Leonard’s novel PRONTO (1993), again in RIDING THE RAP (1995), and RAYLAN (2012). He resurfaced as the main character of the short story “Fire in the Hole” (2012) which screenwriters used as the basis for the television series.

If you’ve watched the series, you’ll remember Raylan’s Stetson Open Road. It’s said that Leonard was particularly keen that the producers of the TV show get Raylan’s hat right, an indication of the hat’s importance in Raylan’s characterization.

Btw, Leonard won the 2010 Peabody Award for Justified.

As a writer, Leonard was skilled at gritty, realistic dialogue and a master of the tight scene. He gave the reader immediate access to a character’s thoughts, what we call deep POV today.

The thing that impresses me most about Mr. Leonard is, unlike most genre writers, he is taken seriously by the literary crowd.

In his 2007 book, he offered 10 tricks for good writing:

Never open a book with weather.
Avoid prologues.
Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”…he admonished gravely.
Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

He then summed those ten rules into one:

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

Personally, I like his summation best. What about you?

26 09, 2016

They Steal Our Hearts and then …

By judythemorgan|2016-09-19T09:33:45-05:00September 26th, 2016|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

We lose them.

If you’ve owned a dog, you know what I mean. You invest time, energy, money, and love. They fill your heart to overflowing, yours day with laughter. Then one day your beloved pet journeys over the Rainbow Bridge.

From the moment you pick up that fluffy little ball of fur, your head recognizes a dog’s life span just isn’t the same as yours. Yet, for some reason your hearts refuse to acknowledge what your head knows and when the time comes your heart cracks into a bazillion pieces.

I know. Mine did when we lost our beloved Toby this summer.

Toby was our fourth Old English sheepdog. Obadiah, Micah, and Rhinestone met him on the bridge. So did Lucky, Azariah, Bernie, and Scuttles, our little mixed breed babies.

Toby left behind two very, very sad and lonely humans, and his four-legged pal, Buster.

Even though losing is pet is part of owning a pet, the goodbyes never get easy. The separation is hard no matter how many times you go through it.

We coped in different ways with each loss. This time we have a memorial stone (from a friend who loved Toby as much as we did) to place in Toby’s favorite spot on the front porch.

Our grieve is the same as when we lose a human loved one or friend. Time will heal the sadness we hear, we know. That doesn’t stop the tears.

We move on one day at a time. Some days are better than others.

On those not so good days, we focus on the fun times: the long walks, the snuggles, the tug-of-wars, all the comical things Old English are known for…

And, quietly hope that one day another Old English sheepdog puppy will appear to steal our heart, and we can start the journey all over again.

19 09, 2016

The Romance Genre Part 2

By judythemorgan|2016-09-15T22:20:51-05:00September 19th, 2016|Make Me Think Monday|2 Comments

As defined in my last post on the romance genre, a romance novel centers on the developing relationship of two people, culminating with a happy ending. Length can vary from 25,000 (Novella) to 75,000+ words (Single Title).

The heat level divides romance novels into very specific classifications. Publisher guidelines provide specificity. My classifications for readers include:

Erotica is no holds barred with the caveat that the novel must have a compelling story.

Most mass-market romance stories fall under the General Market (Steamy) category. Readers expect several sex scenes. Descriptions within the sex scenes are toned down, euphemistic.

Sensual romance novels have kissing, heavy petting, making out, but explicit body parts are not mentioned, and the deed occurs behind closed doors or off the page. If you watch Lifetime movies, you know what I mean.

Sweet is sometimes classified as clean, i.e. no sex, no swearing and no religious/spiritual content. If you love The Countdown to Christmas Hallmark movies, you understand clean.

In Inspirational stories, characters are Christians when the story begins. Physical attraction centers on character, not lust. There is limited physical contact. (Occasional kissing allowed.) NO sex before marriage. No quoted scripture, sermons. Story may center on a spiritual lesson like forgiveness.

Evangelical stories follow inspirational guidelines with additional limits on sensuality. Publisher guidelines define specifics such as only one or two kisses, scenes should include quoted scriptures, prayers, and sermons, and the resolution of the relationship must include a profession of faith.

Romance novels also fall into recognized subgenres. These are what I consider major subgenres:

Romantic Suspense – the two main characters must are involved in something that threatens one or both of them. If the romance is removed from the plot, the suspense is gone and vice versa.
Paranormal – stories include vampires, werewolves, faeries, shape shifters, etc.
Fantasy – a romance story in a fantasy setting
Time-Travel – one or both of the main characters travel through time. The most famous is probably Outlander.
Science Fiction/Futuristic – To be classified as romance, the fantasy must center on the relationship.
Licensed Theme – Publishers sign licensing agreements with a professional sport or organization and writers’ books feature that sport or organization. Harlequin’s NASCAR series would be an example.
Medical – one of the main characters must be a medical professional and a medical situation must be resolved along with the relationship.
Regency – stories set in England between 1800 and 1820.
Medieval/Highlander – stories set between 900 to 1400 in England, Ireland, or Scotland.
Gothic – generally written in first person and the heroine is in peril (real or paranormal, genuine, or imagined)

There are other subgenres combinations — as many as a writer can imagine and mash together. Pam McCutcheon combines fantasy, science fiction and paranormal while Leanna Ellis blends Amish and vampires.

If you’re a romance reader, what would you add to my list?