Tag Archives: writers’ helps

Updates, reminder, & be thankful

Hi there everyone!

Just a quick note …

Updates: I have added information to some pages:  Writers’ Helps, Suicide Crisis Lines, and Books I read in 2017 – frequent updates there. You’re welcome to visit often and see what’s new. 

Reminder:  On November 30 I will be drawing a name from the comments on THIS POST and that person will win one of Janet Sketchley’s exciting suspense novels. Be sure to leave a comment, and please pass the news on to your friends. You might want to mention it on Twitter, Facebook, and anywhere else you have friends who could be interested. Spread the word about Janet’s books!

And be thankful:

“Be kind. Be thoughtful. Be genuine.
But most of all, be thankful.”  —Unknown

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated in Canada, the United States, some of the Caribbean islands, and Liberia. It began as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. So, Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends. (Our Canadian Thanksgiving was in October.)

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  :0) 

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Self-promotional help, Word counter & other tools for writers

Today I was checking my links for word count helps and discovered that one I had on my Writers’ Helps page no longer takes us to the page we need. That’s disappointing, especially as it was a link to more than one ‘help’. That sent me on a search. Now in its place I’ve posted four great tools I found, plus a promotional help, that should be wonderful for your use.

  1.  Rapid Word Counter not only counts your words, it counts the number of characters, including punctuation, you use in your story or paragraph.
  2. dCode changes uppercase to lowercase – and vice versa – for you.
  3. Worth a mention is something you might find will come in handy sometime – writing in reverse. How fun is that to work into a story! 🙂  It’s on DCode’s page where you can also see a list of other fun tools to use!
  4. I found an online typing test that rates your typing speed in a one minute test. After you type the words shown you are given a detailed report of your efforts. Very interesting.

Promotional help: Thanks to funtimesthree for this tip! An online business that looks to be a really good way to promote your book, skills, passion for writing and/or reading – or whatever – is Zazzle International. This link takes you to Zazzle.ca but you can select Zazzle.com or one of ten other sites for other countries. (Scroll to the bottom of their front page for the list.) It’s a site where you can order products that make a statement, or you can design products the way you want them – such as business cards, mugs, t-shirts and much more. I plan to use this site; it’s very similar to Café Press which I have tried. 🙂

You can find all the above-mentioned tools on my Writers’ Helps page. Please check them out and the many other helps listed there. I hope there is something of use to you.

Have you found anything that helps your writing, or aids in your promotional goals, that you wouldn’t want to be without?

Thank for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

Create your own promotional products!

Today I’m excited to share with you two helps I have found that writers can use, what is needed but maybe not known to be so simple.

If you are a “creative” looking for an easy way to promote your writing, art, needlework, painting, crafting … whatever work/passion it is … why not create your own promotional products while you’re at it? Here are a couple of very easy ways to do that.

  1. Café Press – you can find thousands of items there! For example: if you are a writer and you want to let people know about your new book or that you are available to write for someone else, you can create your own images to use or choose one already on the Café Press website. They take the image you selected and print it on a t-shirt, mug, bookmarks, cell phone covers … or whatever you like of any of a variety of items. How fun would it be to advertise your own book on a t-shirt by having your book cover design on it! **
  2. Vista Print – you can find a wonderful selection of comparably inexpensive marketing items and promotional tools to personalize with your own design or one they have. They’ll print it for you on address labels, note pads, pens, magnets, letterhead, postcards, brochures, and more of your choosing. **

Both of the above services are ones I use and appreciate. They have very good products, turnaround time and service. You can create your own designs, use ones they already have, personalize however you want. Although it’s easy to do online, they also supply customers with a toll-free number if needed. In my opinion, these both are great ways to obtain items that will help to promote your book, or share whatever interest you have.

** For future reference please find Café Press and Vista Print listed on my Writers’ Helps page with links to their sites; just scroll down to Needing promotional and marketing help.

I hope you will find these to be useful to you.

Have you used either of these services? If so, have you been happy with them?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

Instead of a book review

Hello, everyone!

Today is supposed to be a book review day but, as you can see, this is not one. I’m sorry, I just haven’t managed to get one written yet. My apologies for not even getting a post up over the week-end.

It was an exhausting week for me with spending so much of it with Dad in hospital. He was admitted Monday evening when they determined he had suffered a heart attack. In the morning he was moved to ICU even though he didn’t really need to be there, but it was really God’s blessing because of his state of mind and the excellent attentive nursing care he needed and received. Most of the time he didn’t seem to understand for long where he was. He thought he was home or in another hospital which would have been where he was if he were still living where he grew up. The heart attack really served to add to his confusion, so it was difficult when he became agitated.

What we learned through all of this is that we are losing our dad more quickly now as certain things are not working well anymore. It is a waiting game, not within an expected amount of time as it was with our dear Mum, but time is shortened. As his daughters, my sister and I have much to be thankful for and much to deal with yet, but we have very good support in place and we have each other. Teamwork counts a great deal in this.

What I learned is that God’s provision comes in many ways, usually without our realizing it in the moment, and in such a loving fatherly way. Also, on another track, I learned through our recent experience more about how totally fascinating the brain is — and if I were younger I would want to make that my advanced study and learn more about dementia and how to treat it or even prevent it. How much I want to know! How much there is to know!

Now I wish to thank you for faithfully checking in to read my book reviews and other posts. You make blogging enjoyable for me, and it helps to keep me writing. Please remember to visit my BUY THE BOOK page when you are looking for a book to read as there are many good ones listed there that I’ve reviewed, and check out my Writers’ Helps page for helpful links and fun things to do, not only for writers.

I will get into my reading and writing again, and a new book review will be up soon. Thank you for your patience.

I have two questions for you today:

  1. Have you learned something helpful during time of crisis?
  2. If you could study something that would be of benefit to mankind what would it be?

PS:  I just realized I failed to mention Dad was released from hospital Friday afternoon. He is doing well enough they said it would be okay but we keep the nitro spray handy and continue on as we were. He is more content in his own home and sleeping better at night. Not having to remain in bed or in one room works so much better for him.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

 

 

 

Great stuff added to my Writers’ Helps page!

Last week was a different one at home as I was trying to get over an upper respiratory thing that tackled me. It started before I left my caregiving duties for the week; I woke every morning with a sore throat, and here I am again still hoping to soon get over this! He appears to be fine again, had it before I did but not completely the same way as it didn’t hold on long. I, on the other hand, can’t seem to shake it. It’s not a cold but my voice is raspy and my throat gets tired quickly, so I am not talking much.

Hear the silence?  *crickets chirping*)

It acts like laryngitis but without total loss of voice, so whatever it is seems to have settled around my larynx for a lengthy stay. Have you had anything similar this season? (I hope you’re enjoying a healthy summer.)

I planned to get a book review written by now, but which will come in my next post instead. This one is to let you know that you can find some new things added to my Writers’ Helps page, including a new category. In it you will find a link to music by Lee Fitzsimmons for your promotional book trailer! yay! And I’m loving the free music. (Be sure to contact Lee and remember to give him credit for creating the music you select.)

I hope when you check out my Writers’ Helps page that you’ll find something of use to you there, maybe even music for your book. 🙂 You will also find a link to Free Rice which is a challenging and educational word game. It makes for a fun change when you need a break from your writing, and in a big way it helps others at the same time. It might even give you ideas for whatever creative writing you’re working on. I will warn you though, you may want to set a timer so you don’t spend too much time playing the game. 😉  Yes, it is that captivating.

Also, I very much appreciate the feedback I receive on my posts. I enjoy the interaction, and it’s so interesting reading your comments. I’m learning from you as we make progress in our writing journeys. 🙂  Thank you.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

More great Writer’s Helps!

Do you not only come up with great stories, but you also create whole new worlds? If you do, then you may need to put your world on a map.

Have you ever tried to follow a story and wished you could see what the author could see? I have, and a map would have been a great help to me so I could follow along with a visual. Well, if you have ever thought you would like to – or should – have a map for your story or fantasy world, then check out the links I have added to my Writer’s Helps page. One is for maps you can use for free, the other is free software to make your own. How cool is that! 🙂

While you’re there, be sure to check over the other links as I sometimes move things around and I don’t always announce when I add one link to a list.

Just a final reminder, at about 5:00 PM EST a name will be drawn for the book How My Savior Leads Me. Be sure to read my review before entering. Then watch your email as I will be sending notice to the winner.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

More Writers’ Helps

This is another quick post to let you know that if you visit my Writers’ Helps page you will find a few more links to check out. They are interesting and fun, I am sure you will agree.

I also made a change on my About Me page which is now About Me/Contact Page. After you scroll down past the me blurb you’ll find a contact form. This is just in case you want to contact me about writing or reviewing or something else valid – without knowing my email address – but you don’t want to leave a comment the usual way. This form puts your message through to me after checking it for spam. (Thanks WordPress!)

I’m glad you visit my blog, and I hope you enjoy what you find here.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂