Today’s blog guest is Jack Milgram, Custom-Writing.Org, sharing his latest infographic.
Enjoy reading about the quirks and strange habits of famous authors.
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Visit Jack’s blog: custom-writing.org/blog
Connect with Jack
Twitter: @Jack__Milgram
Facebook: Jack.Milgram
Anniversaries mark accomplishments and are fun to commemorate. This month I celebrate my blogiversary.
On February 24, 2012, I published my first blog with WordPress.com. You can read that very first blog, here.
My original plan was to blog every day. I quickly discovered creating a daily blog took time from my fiction writing.
That goal gradually evolved into two times a week for me and once a week for my daughter aka Chicken Wrangler Sara who blogs every Friday about Life on the Miller Farm.
Guest bloggers also contribute periodically.
When WordPress.com hosted the blog, I received yearly stats on my blogiversary. I switched to hosting the blog on my own website and don’t have such accurate accounting. I get stats, not cumulative data. But, over the years, I’ve posted hundreds of blogs and had thousands of views, followers, and subscribers.
By the way, it’s easy to subscribe and have the blog appear in your inbox. Simply, go to the home page and enter your email address in the box on the right sidebar.
Chicken Wrangler Sara and I cherish your comments. We respond to every one. We attributed our blog success directly to you readers. As a special thank you, we’re offering a FREE Kindle or paperback copy Love in the Morning Calm to one lucky commenter today.
Blurb for Love in the Morning Calm:
In 1966, while on temporary assignment to South Korea, Green Beret Major Alex (Ace) Cabot meets Lily Reed, a Department of Army civilian at Eighth Army Headquarters. Alex is a high-potential career officer, who should resist the temptation of any woman, but he can’t ignore his interest in her.
Lily is a firm supporter of the budding women’s lib movement. She enjoys her freedom and new life away from her stifling hometown. Her plans leave no room for any man. No matter how captivating his smile.
In an uncertain time, in a temporary safe zone, yielding to temptation changes both their lives forever.
Love in the Morning Calm is Book 1 of my newly created Promises Series, which consists of three published novels grouped into a continuous story of two men and one woman who met at Eighth Army Headquarters, Yongsan, South Korea in the sixties. Each sequel is a standalone novel that chronicles their stories from the turbulent Vietnam War years through the decades that follow.
The book winner will be drawn on Monday, March 2 and notified by email so be sure you include an email contact with your comment.
Thanks for visiting the front porch. We hope to stop by often.
It’s hard to believe this is the last full week of January. Did you take time this month to make resolutions or set goals?
Resolutions don’t work so well for me. I usually fail within days of writing them down. I’m not alone. A whopping 80% of us fail within the first thirty days when we make resolutions.
That’s why I prefer setting S.M.A.R.T. goals for the New Year. Being a goal setter comes from my years of teaching and having to establish learning objectives for lessons. S.M.A.R.T. goals work well for developing my writing goals.
Not familiar with S.M.A.R.T. goals?
A S.M.A.R.T. goal is specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and timely. This PDF from the University of Virginia gives a complete explanation.
My 2018 S.M.A.R.T. goals are set and this year I’m trying a new approach. I’m selecting a guide word for the year.
A guide word is sorta like a resolution except it sets the foundation for your year by guiding all aspects of your life. If you haven’t come up goals or resolutions yet, why not select a guide word for the year?
How do you choose one word?
Start by taking stock of where you were in 2017 and where you want to be at the end of 2018. The word you choose should help bridge the gap. It can underscore a tangible outcome, a character trait you want to develop or a skill you wish to acquire or all of the above.
Here’s a neat PDF worksheet to help zero in on what word might work for you from Love Nerd Maggie. Maybe you’ll find your word there.
My word for 2018 is progress.
I kinda lost focus on in 2017. It was a crazy year with a major move and a monstrous hurricane. I couldn’t find blocks of time to write so I let my writing slide. I’m determined that will not happen this year.
I’ve posted this graphic above my computer to remind me progress does not mean something has to be perfect. It’s from the Elsie Joy Get to Workbook (I use her workbook to track my S.M.A.R.T. goals.)
Have you ever used a guide word for your year? How’d that work out for you?
We tell people we bought the massive hundreds-of-years-old live oak tree in our front yard and the house came with it.
So far, all who see the tree agree we made a wise decision.
But the wonderful tree is not the only thing that attracted us to our lovely little cabin house in a wooded development.
There was this sign.
The real estate agent explained the owners had landscaped the yard to provide a sustainable habitat for wildlife then submitted their yard design elements to the National Wildlife Federation and received the certification.
I loved that!
Coming from the Rio Grande National Forest in Colorado, I didn’t expect to see bears, moose, or fox like we had there, but a mama whitetail deer and her twin fawns can be seen in our backyard. Several other does, their fawns, and a couple of bucks are usually around on our early morning walks.
Sitting on our back porch glider, songbirds serenade us, toads croak, colorful butterflies dart among the flowers while squirrels scamper in the grass. We constantly dodge hummingbirds zooming to feeders. 
We recently spotted a blue jay in the front birdbath with a chickadee patiently waiting his turn on the ground below and a cardinal at the bird feeder hanging nearby—all at the same time.
And there are always birds and butterflies in the waterfall the previous owners created as a water feature for wildlife.
It’s so relaxing. It almost makes the heat and humidity of the Texas Gulf Coast bearable. Almost. I’m a native Texan, but I don’t think I’ll ever fully adjust to Texas weather.
Curious about how to invite wildlife back to your own yard and neighborhood? It’s not as hard as you might think. Your landscape must include:
Food: Native plants to provide nectar, seeds, nuts, fruits, berries, foliage, pollen and insects for wildlife. Feeders can supplement natural food sources.
Water: All animals need water to survive and some need it for bathing or breeding as well.
Cover: Wildlife needs places to find shelter from bad weather and places to hide from predators or stalk prey.
Places to Raise Young: Wildlife needs resources to reproduce and keep their species going. Some species have totally different habitat needs in their juvenile phase than they do as adults.
Sustainable Practices: How you manage your garden can have an effect on the health of the soil, air, water and habitat for native wildlife as well as the human community.
Already have those things? You might be eligible to have certified wildlife habitat status too. Check out the National Wildlife Foundation website for all the details.
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