Oh well, my blogging day usually starts at 5:30 in the morning and ends about two hours later. Yes, I do have a daytime job that pays the bills, and blogging, as much fun as it is, does not pay off. Considering the time I spend and the money I make, I work way below minimum wage when it comes to blogging. Nevertheless, blogging is fun, and I still hope that some time the efforts will result in some kind of financial independence.

So, on a normal day of blogging I get up at 5:30 in the morning. I take the doggy, Bailey, with me and let her out into the backyard, praying that she does not eat my wife’s carefully planted flowers. She’s a strange dog…

Next step is filling the water kettle, get two mugs from the cupboard, and fill them with a bag of good Barry’s Irish tea (Gold Blend). My wife and my 4-year-old son are still sleeping, but at about 7:30 a.m. I will be prepared to serve my wife her first tea of the morning.

While the kettle is sitting on the stove’s flame, I let the doggy in, but not without carefully checking the surroundings in the dining and living room. Bailey is still a puppy, and she chews everything she can find from aluminum foil, masking tape, newspapers, socks, shoes, gloves, and more.

Finally, the computer is on, and I start my Pandora music station, then the Internet browser. First, I check my blog’s statistics from the previous day. Damn Google and their new algorithm! These days you can’t write and publish anything that is not Google compliant or else nobody will find my blabbering. I have learned a great deal these last years, but all these little tricks, designed to attract search engines, take time to implement. And on top of that I am sure that there is more to learn, but that makes the difference between the amateur and the professional blogger. In all consequence, I should divorce my wife, leave my son, and dedicate my entire being to blogging… Not an attractive aspect, though.

Time to get up and pour the hot water over the tea bag, then it’s time to start the first post. What is Bailey doing in the living room? Good, she is chewing on one of her multiple toys. It’s a situation where you get nervous because you don’t hear anything. You also get nervous when you hear something. It’s a lose-lose situation.

Time to get the tea bag out of the mug and start working on that first post. It’s almost six o’clock, and I haven’t posted anything as of now. Timing is important, and this is where my website statistics are a great help. Naturally, I get the most traffic between 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., while the afternoon does well, too, but not quite as good. According to alexa.com, my audience, middle-aged and well-educated professionals, reads my posts at work.

I hear tapping noises from above, meaning my son is up, and, sure enough, two minutes later he comes into my small office, takes seat on my lap, and demands to be entertained. Puff the Magic Dragon on Youtube is a sure bet. It’s almost seven o’clock, and I grab my tea for the first time. Damn, it’s cold. Time for a new brew. On my way back from the kitchen, I need to admire my son’s newest Lego creation, and he explains everything he did in his own fantasy world.

Okay, let’s continue with the first post, but then I hear my son crying. “Daddy, Bailey took one of my Legos!” After chasing the dog for several minutes and prying the Lego block out of her mouth, I finally put her into confinement in her crate. Back into my office and back to my post.

I hear my wife’s footsteps from above, and I get back into the kitchen to start her tea. After another highly philosophical conversation with my son I return to remove the tea bag from the mug and add a gush of lactaid milk, then, carefully balancing the hot tea, I go upstairs where my wife is waiting for me.

“Thanks for the tea,” she says. “I hope, you had enough time to post some good articles on your blog.”

It is 7:30 a.m. Time for my shower and getting ready for work.

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THE BLEEDING HILLS
A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

A contribution by Maria McCutchen, author of “It’s All in Your Head – A Life of Mental Fogginess And Physical Pain”

Sleep is precious to me, today. Because I typically only get 3-5 hours a night, and some nights, less, I will feel like I hit the jackpot when I get 5 or more hours! It seems so long ago since I’ve slept through the night – and I don’t mean the kind of “sleep” like I get now, where I wake-up a lot, and will have to fight to get back to sleep. I mean, sleep as in – sleep peacefully without waking up in the middle of the night, uncomfortable, in pain, and having odd neurological symptoms. I don’t even remember those days, to be quite honest. I forget what sleeping peacefully through the night was like.

All of my neurological issues cause this sporadic, restless sleep. I have to sleep on my right side, because on my back or on my left side, I get strange symptoms, which my doctor thinks may be nocturnal seizures. For whatever reason I don’t get them on my right side. But the only way to find out what’s going on is to get a sleep study and I just can’t right now….money, and the fact that they are miserable tests! I’ve had one and now I fear going through that again. So I continue to put it off – getting these odd symptoms looked into. And until I do get them looked into, I will just continue to sleep on my right side.

I cannot take sleep aids due to my neurological symptoms, so I have to do more natural things to help me sleep and I have found a few tricks that will help me at least get more sleep than when I don’t do anything at all.  They are:

• Warm Milk – It’s true – a cup of warm milk before bed will help you sleep. Well, most people anyways. It works for me. L-Tryptophan, the same amino acid found in turkey that makes many people tired after a big turkey dinner, is in milk too. L-Tryptophan will bring on the feeling of being sleepy so you will feel relaxed. It’s really like an all-natural sleep aid. It’s one of my favorite tricks to help me sleep.
• Warm shower or bath - Taking a nice hot shower before bed relaxes my tense muscles in my neck that flare up because of my cyst and Chiari. About a 20 minute hot shower before bed and I will feel nice and sleepy, and toasty. This works really well if I combine it with another one of my remedies.
• Heating Pad – Some nights I use a nice warm heating pad for my neck and my head. Mine turns off automatically and I don’t have to worry about it being left on all night. The warmth relaxes me, makes me sleepy, and I will usually fall asleep fairly quickly, and a lot of times – stay asleep.
• Chamomile tea – Chamomile tea contains Matricaria recutita, or Manzanilla. It is an herb that’s been drank for many years. It has especially been used as a sleep-aid. Chamomile tea tastes good, it’s smooth, and within about a half of cup, I am relaxed and very sleepy.
• Meditate – Some nights before bed, I meditate. I turn off the TV and I will put some relaxing music on, and meditate. I like to sit on the floor with my legs crossed, and my eyes closed, and meditate. I will vegetate in my mind until I’m not thinking of anything in particular, and just try to zone into myself. I will start to picture myself getting tired, and suddenly I am. There have been times when I’ve zoned out so much, that I have fallen off to sleep – right there on the floor, in Indian style.

Sleeping can be a big issue for people with brain problems, whether it’s a brain cyst or Chiari Malformation, or whatever. And if you are anything like me and can’t take medications easily, then it can be an even bigger challenge to get a good night’s sleep. If you have sleep problems and are looking for an all-natural remedy, try one or more of my suggestions. You may find that one or more work for you without the need to take heavy medications. One thing to consider is that you may have to do it a few times before your body adjusts, so don’t give up too quickly. If it didn’t work the first time, then do it again and…..sweet dreams!

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It’s All in Your Head – A Life of Mental Fogginess And Physical Pain

by Maria McCutchen

Maria McCutchen did not have time to be sick. With a husband who had just lost a job, two young sons, and a cross-country move on the horizon, who had time to be sick? Maria didn’t have time for a common cold, let alone a major medical condition. But one day while shopping in the grocery store where she had shopped hundreds of times before, she couldn’t find the milk. It was then she knew what she was feeling was more than just stress or exhaustion. There was something very wrong.

After consulting a few doctors, Maria discovered she had a rare brain cyst known as a posterior fossa arachnoid cyst—a very large brain cyst. Hearing these cysts were normally asymptomatic was of little comfort, especially because she felt her mind and body slipping away more and more every day. Normal mental and physical functions were becoming harder to control. Even if the doctors didn’t believe the cyst was a problem, she knew it was.

It would take months of living inside a shell of a person that she’d become, months of living in a mental fogginess and sometimes even physical pain, before she would finally get the medical attention she needed. It’s All in Your Head chronicles her harrowing medical odyssey and her attempts to regain some sort of semblance of her old life after treatment.

Just the other day I received one of those promotional emails asking me if I was prepared for Google’s new search algorithm, and, being curious, I followed the link. However, the article about search engine optimization (SEO) did not reveal anything new, I mean, anything that a good blogger wouldn’t already know. These are factors like unique content, efficient design of a headline, keywords, etc. etc., nothing that you can’t find in a good book or even on the Internet.

This promotional article, however, reminded me of looking into an issue I discovered with some of my posts just lately. I became aware of the problem by using a WordPress plugin (WP-PostViews) that displays the number of reads of a post or page. On a side note: Any other plugin to display full statistics within your WordPress dashboard will take a great toll on your website’s performance. Consequently, search engines will “punish” you with lower rankings.

The WP-PostViews plugin gives an almost “real-time” feedback on the success of a post in terms of number of views. This, admittedly crude, tool pointed to a problem with some posts, meaning their number of views increased significantly slower than others. In my view, this was not a problem with the topic, and I can now prove my point.

The simple problem was the number of hyperlinks within these posts. Usually, I post book reviews with hyperlinks to Amazon.Com, but also the review sections of the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and others. This makes for, at least, four or five hyperlinks pointing to large and popular websites. The posts with lower viewing number contained only links within my website.

I made it a habit of finding article with related topics on the Internet, preferably embedded in popular websites such as Wikipedia.com or others. I try to embed at least three external hyperlinks in my posts, which, in all consequence did do the trick. The number of views are now as good as others.

For more information on the new Google search algorithm see:

• Google’s new search algorithm to crack down on “black hat webspam”
• Google’s New Algorithm Update Impacts 35% Of Searches
• Why Google’s New Search Algorithm Doesn’t Suck

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The stories in Wilfred F. Voss’ “Cemetery Polka and other dark stories from New England” evolve around the small town of Grand Fenwick in Massachusetts. Don’t waste your time trying to find Grand Fenwick on the map. The town of Grand Fenwick, Massachusetts, its residents, and events are a product of the author’s vivid imagination. Grand Fenwick represents every small town or village in New England that managed to escape the gravity of the larger, liberal, and vibrant cities. Unavoidably, due to lack of inspirational stimulation, the people of Grand Fenwick have developed their unique social responses.

The list of short stories, besides the main title, include Don’t Bury My Heart In Grand Fenwick, Gay Pride Festival, The Meaning Of Life, Bad Liver And A Broken Heart, Life In A Soviet-Communist-Amish Society, Bonfire Of The Vanities In The House Of God, Disturbing Email From A Friend, Warm Beer And Cold Women, and more.

Cemetery Polka and other dark stories from New England is available at the Amazon Kindle Store.

For more information on Wilfried F. Voss and his work, see his website at http://wilfriedvoss.com.

Excerpt:

Cemetery Polka

Is it impossible to experience one’s death objectively and still carry a tune? – Modified; originally by Woody Allen

The eighteen feet long 1972 Winnebago Brave motor home came to a screeching hold at the traffic light on Flatbush Avenue. Pawel Jarecki set the directional light for a right turn into Kings Highway and, while waiting for the light to turn to green, he nervously checked the engine’s cooling water temperature gauge. He had spent the entire weekend to get the engine fit for today’s trip, but had been unable to stop the leak in the radiator. Replacing the radiator was simply out of the question. That would eat up more than half of his monthly social security check.

A man’s gotta eat, he thought, wiping off the sweat from his forehead.

Instead, he relied on a battery of twenty gallon-sized plastic milk containers neatly stored in the back of the Winnebago, all thoroughly cleaned and filled with a mixture of engine coolant and water. He had hoped for some colder weather, but it appeared that nature was not on his side. After all, it was November 1^st, All-Saints Day, which should be a guarantee for uncomfortable temperatures mixed with rain, but the sun had been shining all day, and it felt like springtime.

An angry driver behind him honked the horn, pulling him out of his thoughts. Pawel noticed the green light and slowly, much to the distress of the cars behind him, made the right turn.

He waved into the rear view mirror. “I am freakin’ seventy-eight years old,” he murmured to himself. “You guys just gotta suck it up.”

It was another two miles to their meeting place, the bus stop adjacent to the Casa Kielbasa. Everybody in town, especially those of Polish descent, knew “the Casa” as they called it. Good Polish food and excellent service. Lousy beer, though. Pawel didn’t care for American light beer in bottles.

Much to the relief of a growing number of drivers, he pulled the Winnebago over to the right into the bus stop where a large group of people seemed to be waiting for the next pick up. He stopped and looked around until he saw his old friend Josef Dabrowski waving, picking up his duffel bag and making his way toward the motor home.

“Hey there, Pawel,” Josef called out to him as he opened the passenger side door. He threw the duffel bag onto the bench in the kitchen area and then, very carefully, laid his leather clarinet case next to it.

“Where are Klaudia and Jakub?” Pawel growled, concerned that something unforeseen might have happened.

“Oh, they’re at the grocery store down the road to get some sandwiches and soda.”

Pawel grunted. He didn’t like any unannounced changes.

We’re doing this for six years now, he thought angrily. We’re doing this every freaking All-Saints Day, and, by God, they had enough time to think about food and drinks.

But he didn’t say anything. Instead, he pulled into the road, cutting off a white BMW. He looked into the rear view mirror to check for an extended middle finger, and he grinned. Sure enough, there it was.

Another mile down the road he pulled into the large parking lot of the local supermarket. They looked for their friends, Klaudia Malinowska and Jakub Chmielik, but couldn’t make them out and decided to wait.

Pawel popped the motor hood and stepped out of the Winnebago, carrying a gallon of coolant water under his arm. He used some old boxer shorts, stained with oil and grease, to cover the radiator cap, and slowly started to turn it, careful not to get burned by the hot steam emerging from the top of the radiator.

“Do we have a problem?” came a voice behind him, and when he turned around he saw Klaudia watching him curiously.

“No,” he answered. “She’s just getting old, just like us. And she needs some special care, just like us. And she needs a lot to drink…”

“Just like us,” Klaudia finished his sentence, laughing.

She held up a couple of plastic bags. “I got us some coolant, too,” she grinned. “Mainly coke and sprite.”

She winked, “And there’s some special for later in the night.”

“We’re all set then,” Pawel said, carefully pouring the coolant into the radiator. He screwed the cap back on and used the rag to wipe off the liquid he had spilled on the radiator and the rest of the engine. Then he followed Klaudia and Jakub, who were still busy storing their luggage and their instruments, an accordion and a saxophone.

“All aboard,” he yelled and looked in the mirror to check his passengers who took their seats at the small kitchen table, ready to play some cards.

Pawel finally relaxed. They were on their way now. He had his ham and cheese sandwich and a cold soda. Who could ask for more?

They had another twenty miles to go, and it took another two refills of coolant before they arrived at Saint Stanislaus Cemetery. The sun had already begun to set. They left the Winnebago in the front parking lot, carrying only their instruments and some plastic bags containing a few essentials for tonight’s event. Driving into the cemetery didn’t make sense. They would spend the night in the Winnebago, and they would not take any chances by driving home during dark, not to mention the inevitable consumption of good Polish vodka.

“Where exactly is Szymon’s grave?” Pawel asked, confused. Szymon Babka had died just a few months after their last visit, and on the day of the funeral Pawel had been in the hospital after a mild heart attack.

“You should know,” Klaudia looked at him disapprovingly. “He’s buried with his wife.”

Pawel felt foolish. Of course, he had seen Szymon’s wife’s grave every year during the past six years. Actually, seven years, he thought.

They had met, just by chance, on All-Saints Day seven years ago. They all had tucked their small red lanterns in front of the gravestones and lit a tea light inside, all this to honor their deceased spouses. Over a cup of coffee in the nearby family restaurant, they had agreed to meet again each year. Everything fell into place that afternoon. Szymon pitched the idea, and Pawel offered to use his Winnebago, and, as they say, the rest is history.

Ironically, it was also Szymon, just months before his demise, who came up with the idea of playing polka music.

“I don’t know about you guys,” he explained the concept, “but when I become one of the permanent residents here, I wouldn’t want to look at the long faces every time you come by.”

He grinned. “What do they say? Don’t mourn a death. Celebrate a life. I, for my part, would like some good polka music during my funeral.”

In the end, he didn’t get his wish fulfilled. A funeral is for the living, and most of them were appalled by the thought of joyful music during a funeral.

With Szymon now dead, this year was different from the previous ones. The old friends proceeded to his grave first, planted the lantern, lit the light, and said a prayer. Then they went their own ways to visit their respective spouses, place the lantern, light the tea light, talk to the spouse, say a prayer, and wipe their eyes.

They assembled again, one by one emerging from the dark, at the small gazebo surrounded by the lawn in the center of the cemetery. Pawel had brought his camping gas lantern, which he put on the floor in the center of the gazebo. Not a word was spoken, and Klaudia produced the bottle of vodka and passed out shot glasses to everybody. Then she filled the glasses one by one, and when finished, they all saluted and gulped down the liquor.

Pawel sat down on the bench, watching the others unpacking their instruments, Josef his clarinet, Jakub his saxophone, and Klaudia strapped on her accordion. Pawel had never had the chance to learn an instrument, but that didn’t bother him in the least. After all, he could sing, maybe not good, but undeniably loud, and that was just good enough.

Advertisement

THE BLEEDING HILLS
A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.

A contribution by Maria McCutchen, author of “It’s All in Your Head – A Life of Mental Fogginess And Physical Pain”

It seems like we all have a story to tell. Most of us have something that has happened in our life that is worthy of sharing with others – something that others can learn from or relate to. It can be a story of family issues, work related issues, or as in my case, a medical related story.

Whatever your story, writing it can be a way of coping and healing. It can be therapeutic. And it can help mend any wounds that developed over the years. It can be a great way to finally get to a state of acceptance, if that is what you need. And in the process of healing your wounds, it can help others. Maybe there are others going through a similar situation that need to know they are not alone. Maybe there are others who could gain an insight to their own problem or situation. Whatever it is that others may gain from writing your story, it is sure to be beneficial to someone.

When I was diagnosed with my rare brain cyst, writing my story never crossed my mind.  It wasn’t until I began having one thing go wrong after another, and one doctor after another either denying me treatment or telling me that I was “imagining things.” Making me feel like a hypochondriac. It was demeaning to me to be made to feel as if I were crazy, when I knew that something was terribly wrong. That there was something medically wrong with me and not psychological. When I healed enough – just enough to be able to put thoughts together and write so that my story made sense, I wrote it.

“It’s all in Your Head,” is my book – the book that tells the story of what I went through after finding out that I had a very large and very rare brain cyst. It is a human interest story that will help others realize that they are not alone -  no matter what type of medical problem they are dealing with. It is a story that I hope is making it to the medical profession and reverberates the need to listen to their patients.

If you have a story to tell; if you have ever been through something that you think could benefit others in some way, consider writing it. You never know who it may help and what good could come of others reading about it. You may also realize that you feel much better, getting it told – getting it down on paper. It may just be the best part of your healing.

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Click on image to buy from Amazon.Com

It’s All in Your Head – A Life of Mental Fogginess And Physical Pain

by Maria McCutchen

Maria McCutchen did not have time to be sick. With a husband who had just lost a job, two young sons, and a cross-country move on the horizon, who had time to be sick? Maria didn’t have time for a common cold, let alone a major medical condition. But one day while shopping in the grocery store where she had shopped hundreds of times before, she couldn’t find the milk. It was then she knew what she was feeling was more than just stress or exhaustion. There was something very wrong.

After consulting a few doctors, Maria discovered she had a rare brain cyst known as a posterior fossa arachnoid cyst—a very large brain cyst. Hearing these cysts were normally asymptomatic was of little comfort, especially because she felt her mind and body slipping away more and more every day. Normal mental and physical functions were becoming harder to control. Even if the doctors didn’t believe the cyst was a problem, she knew it was.

It would take months of living inside a shell of a person that she’d become, months of living in a mental fogginess and sometimes even physical pain, before she would finally get the medical attention she needed. It’s All in Your Head chronicles her harrowing medical odyssey and her attempts to regain some sort of semblance of her old life after treatment.

DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF WHAT MAKES A MEGA-BESTSELLER IN THIS ENTERTAINING, REVELATORY GUIDE

What do Michael Corleone, Jack Ryan, and Scout Finch have in common? Creative writing professor and thriller writer James W. Hall knows. Now, in this entertaining, revelatory book, he reveals how bestsellers work, using twelve twentieth-century blockbusters as case studies—including The Godfather, Gone with the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Jaws. From tempting glimpses inside secret societies, such as submariners in The Hunt for Red October, and Opus Dei in The Da Vinci Code, to vivid representations of the American Dream and its opposite—the American Nightmare—in novels likeThe Firm and The Dead Zone, Hall identifies the common features of mega-bestsellers. Including fascinating and little-known facts about some of the most beloved books of the last century, Hit Lit is a must-read for fiction lovers and aspiring writers alike, and makes us think anew about why we love the books we love.

About James W. Hall

James W. Hall is the author of seventeen novels, four books of poetry, two short-story collections, and a book of essays. He’s also the winner of the Edgar and Shamus awards.

Editorial Review

The author animatedly shares a distinct fascination with books and reading that has taught him “secrets about the real world that I could discover nowhere else.” Inspired and developed by a popular fiction course he began teaching more than two decades ago, Hall examines 12 of the most successful novels of the 20th century and “reverse-engineer[s]” them, mining their separate defining qualities and their comparative appeal to readers. Chosen for their dexterity and entertainment potential with consideration for gender diversity, location, familial dysfunction and their “strikingly similar techniques and themes,” they range from melodramas like Gone with the Wind, Peyton Place and Valley of the Dolls to suspense/horror hits The Exorcist, Jaws and The Dead Zone, as well as classics like To Kill A Mockingbird and The Godfather. For readers, Hall writes, an emotional connection with a central character is paramount. Social taboos, time constraints and the “threat of danger” also draw (and hold) attention, as does secrecy and mystical mystery (see The Da Vinci Code and The Exorcist). Hall writes that the graphic sex in Peyton Place and Valley of the Dolls takes on a deeper adulterous subtext in The Bridges of Madison County and The Firm. Similarly, the author partially attributes the runaway successes of The Hunt for Red October and The Godfather to the irresistibility of the American Dream. Referential and cleverly elucidated, the book raises many good points about the precise methodology of bestselling novels—Hall’s own work included. – Kirkus Reviews

On Writing A Best-Seller (Shhh, There’s a Formula)

NPR Book Review – April 17, 2012 (Excerpt)

Like many people in the book world, I’ve found it impossible to ignore the phenomenon that is E.L. James’ erotic novelFifty Shades of Grey and its two sequels, which morphed from Twilight fan fiction to word-of-mouth blockbuster. The books aren’t to my taste, to put it tactfully, but I keep reading article after article attempting to explain their appeal. Some of the most popular theories put forward so far: The escapist fantasy is catnip for exhausted working moms. It’s a BDSM-flavored take on the Cinderella fantasy. It’s a dirty book for people who don’t ordinarily read dirty books (or read much at all).

Naturally, I have my own theory: James, like other 21st-century mega-sellers Stieg Larsson and Dan Brown, writes genre fiction that reaches far beyond genre readership, bursting open the doors to what the savvy may find old hat but newbies find intoxicating. But is it possible to find a more substantive explanation for James’ breakout success by looking back at the previous century’s biggest and fastest sellers?

In her excellent overview of American best-sellers, critic Ruth Franklin warned, “No possible generalization can be made regarding the 1,150 books that have appeared in the top 10 of the fiction best-seller list since its inception.” But in his new book, Hit Lit, mystery writer James W. Hall makes a case that the biggest hits from the past hundred years share 12 features. [Read the full article...]

THE LONDONDERRY AIR

Testament of an Ulster Gunman
A Novel by Garrad Gawler 

It all changed for Charles Cunningham, a Physics teacher at the local College of Technology in the County Derry town of Maddenstown, on a June afternoon in 1973 when a bomb exploded in his neighborhood. He answers an advertisement by the UDR, the Ulster Defence Regiment, but, in the time to come, he will experience the consequences of his decisions, and how his involvement complicates matters with family and friends, Protestants and Catholics alike, to an unexpected degree.

With “The Londonderry Air – Testament of an Ulster Gunman” Garrad Gawler describes in minute detail and with an astonishing level of authenticity not only the inner workings of the Ulster Defence Regiment, but also the activities of underground paramilitary groups of regular citizens who planned and carried out the assassination of suspected Republican terrorists in their neighborhood.

The Londonderry Air is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon Kindle (US), Amazon.co.uk, Amazon Kindle (UK), Barnes & Noble, smashwords.com, and any other good bookstore.

For more information on Garrad Gawler and to read an excerpt of “The Londonderry Air,” please see the author’s section on this website.

Millions of documents and books at your fingertips! Read, print, download, and send them to your mobile devices instantly. Or upload your PDF, Word, and PowerPoint docs to share them with the world’s largest community of readers. – Source: Scribd.com

The problem with Scribd.com, however, is their – let’s put that diplomatically – lax policy when it comes to protecting copyrights. When users of the website post documents, which can also be eBooks in PDF form, they need to acknowledge that they have the right to do so, meaning they confirm they are the rightful owners. As it turns out, not only people in far away countries, but also a few right here in the United States don’t take that statement seriously, and Scribd.Com does nothing to prevent the posting of copyrighted material.

My reference is to “posting,” because, after all, Scribd.com allows you to contact them and have the document in question removed, provided you render detailed information that you are, in fact, the rightful owner of the document. It is kind of a reversed process, i.e. the author/publisher has to detect the copyright infringement and inform Scribd.com, and they will remove it. The question is, why are Scribd.com users not required to prove their ownership in the same strict way that rightful owners are forced to do after their copyright had been violated?

The fact is that Scibd.com is walking a very fine line between legal document sharing and illegal support for violating copyright laws. The legal situation is complex, to say in the least, and there have been lawsuits in the past that, apparently, didn’t have any impact on Scribd.com’s operation. The problem is the damage done to a great number of authors who lose their royalty payments, and I am one of them.

But let me refer to a real and personal example: Just yesterday, I did some research on a topic related to a technical book I wrote a few years ago, and I found my book in its entirety on Scribd.Com, downloadable free-of-charge for everybody interested in the topic. The book still sells well through Amazon.Com and other online bookstores all over the world. In addition, I sell the eBook (PDF) through my own websites. In the past, I had found two of my books posted on Scribd.com and had them removed, but there is no way of preventing the illegal posting of my other books. You find out by chance after the fact. You can also set an “alarm” at Scribd.com, which is helpful, but, again, the alarm comes after the fact and when the damage is already done.

Let me prove my case:

Click on image to enlarge...

The first page of my book clearly shows the title, the author, the ISBN plus a copyright statement. Thank you, Mr. Ravindra Pallwai – if that is, in fact, his real name and photo – for committing such a blatant copyright infringement. You have to wonder about his motives, his ignorance, or both.

According to the website, there were 2,436 reads, and I sell the document for US$9.95. You do the math. In total Mr. Ravindra Pallwai had 2,585 reads for his 5 uploads, which makes my book his top rated document.

Click on image to enlarge...

After all, it is good to know that my book is so popular, especially when it comes free-of-charge. And thank you to Scribd.com for the financial damage done. Unfortunately, I don’t have the resources of suing them.

See related topics at:

• Scribd.Com Comes to the Dark Side
• Update” Scribd Responds!

THE LONDONDERRY AIR

Testament of an Ulster Gunman
A Novel by Garrad Gawler 

It all changed for Charles Cunningham, a Physics teacher at the local College of Technology in the County Derry town of Maddenstown, on a June afternoon in 1973 when a bomb exploded in his neighborhood. He answers an advertisement by the UDR, the Ulster Defence Regiment, but, in the time to come, he will experience the consequences of his decisions, and how his involvement complicates matters with family and friends, Protestants and Catholics alike, to an unexpected degree.

With “The Londonderry Air – Testament of an Ulster Gunman” Garrad Gawler describes in minute detail and with an astonishing level of authenticity not only the inner workings of the Ulster Defence Regiment, but also the activities of underground paramilitary groups of regular citizens who planned and carried out the assassination of suspected Republican terrorists in their neighborhood.

The Londonderry Air is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon Kindle (US), Amazon.co.uk, Amazon Kindle (UK), Barnes & Noble, smashwords.com, and any other good bookstore.

For more information on Garrad Gawler and to read an excerpt of “The Londonderry Air,” please see the author’s section on this website.

June 15, 1971 was the end of an Era. It was the day of the sad demise of a distinguished actor, Sathyan.

He started his career as a schoolmaster. Then became a Military man, and afterwards a Sub Inspector in Government service. He was very interested in seeing plays, which were performed frequently.  Despite being a public servant his ultimate ambition was becoming an actor in films. At last he passed in the examination.

In the past, there were celebrated actors in the Indian film world. But nobody can be compared with Sathyan. After his death forty one years have passed out. None has come to sit on the vacant throne of Sathyan.

In fact he was not with the qualities of an actor. His color was charcoal black and his body was a short one. His hands and legs were not matching with his body. But his ambition for becoming an actor was big. He tried for it and became a great actor.

He believed in realistic acting. He spoke like common people speak. But he was an artiste with powerful talent and imagination in acting.

He first acted in ‘Thyagaseema’ (The Limits of Sacrifice) with Abdulkhader who had known as as Prem Nazir afterwards. For his ill-luck the producer could not complete the film.

He had to wait for another film. It was ‘Atmasakhi’ (The Soul mate), which was taken in Malayalam and Tamil simultaneously. In both the films Sathyan and his costars Miss. Kumaari and B. S. Saroja acted. M. N. Nambiar, T. S. Muthayya etc had acted with him. when Atmasakhi was filmed in Tamil language it had become Priyasakhi.

‘Neelakkuyil’ (The Blue Cuckoo) was Sathyan’s famous film. Miss Kumaari was his heroine. The story and screenplay were of P. C. Kuttikrishnan who had been known as Uroob. He was very famous connecting with his renowned novels ‘Ummaachu’ and ‘Sundarikalum Sundaranmaarum’ (The Beautiful and the Handsome). Neelakkuyil was awared the first silver medal.

When ‘Mudiyanaaya Puthran’ (The Prodigal Son) was released it was a break in his life. It was the film version of a play written by Thoppil Bhaasi. Sathyan was proud of telling about the role about Raajan, which he had taken in ‘Mudiyanaaya Puthran’. Raajan was with an Anti-Heroic conduct. Sathyan could act the role with great brilliance. Ambika was the Heroine of Sathyan.

In ‘Kadalppaalam’ (The Ocean Bridge) Sathyan acted two entirely diffent roles as a father and a son. The son and the father were trying to defeat with each other. But at last the father failed before the son. ‘Kadalppaalam’ was the play of K. T. Muhammed a famous Malayalam writer.

When the works of Thakazhi Siva Sankara Pillai, Ponkunnam Varkey, M. T. Vasudevan Nair, Muttathu Varkey, Kesava Dev, S. K Pottakkatt and Uroob were filmed Sathyan was the Hero.

Some Heroines as Sheela and Sreevidya came with Sathyan in their first films. In ‘Bhagya Jaathakam’ (The Lucky Horoscope) Sheela was fourteen.  While she had been acting as the Heroine of Sathyan with ‘Chattambikkavala’ (The Road Junction of Hoodlums) Srividya became and actress with Hero Sathyan. Srividya too was in the age of fourteen.

The film ‘Chemmeen’ (The Prawn) was a new experience for film goers. Sathyan played the role of the husband of Sheela who was a lover of Madhu before. When some foreign people saw the film they misunderstood Palani (Sathyan) as a local fisherman. In 1966 ‘Chemmeen’ got the Gold Medal of the President of India.

Sathyan had been a late comer to the film world. While he was acting in his first film he was forty. Within some years he became the prey of a fatal disease Leukemia.  But he was a man of great willpower and mental strength.  Frequently he used to go to hospitals for blood transfusion. On the previous day of his death, he went for film shooting. But he was reluctant in divulging the fact about his ailment before others.

Ninety percent of his characters were of heroes.  In ‘Lilly’, ‘Arappavan’ (The Half Pound), ‘Karakaanaakkadal’ (The Endless Sea) and the like were some of his films in which he acted the roles of old men. In all his roles he was unparalleled.

When the shooting of his film ‘Vazhve Maayam’ (The Life is Meaningless) was going on Sathyan fell down unconscious. It was the beginning of his horrible disease.  From the set of ‘Inkwilab Zindabaad’, he drove his car to his home and then to a hospital. They were his last journeys.

Sathyan had acted in 145 Malayalam films and four Tamil films.  ‘Aalukkoru Veedu’ (A House for Each Man) ‘Pesum Daivom’ (The Speaking God), ‘Aasai Magan’ (A Son for Hope) and ‘Priya Sakhi’ (The Soul mate) were his Tamil films.

Still his films ‘Bhaarya’ (The Wife), ‘Puthiya Aakasam Puthiya Bhoomi’ (The New Sky and the New Earth) ‘Nithya Kanyaka’ (The Perpetual Virgin), ‘Snehaseema’ (The Limit of Love) and the like are glittering in the memories of the people who had once seen the films.

The Ayurvedic Healer

by Joy J. Kaimaparamban

Set in the intriguing atmosphere of India in the early 20th century, full of mysticism, love, compassion, and political drama, The Ayurvedic Healer tells the story of Madhavan Namboodiri, a physician practicing an ancient medical science, and his enduring love for Rosilie. By healing the underprivileged, regardless of their civilian and religious status, touching the untouchables, he follows his beliefs and disobeys the rules of his society. His life story is set in the background of India’s struggle for freedom, the communist revolt in the Southern State of Kerala, social advancement, and the emergence of new societies. The Ayurvedic Healer sweeps the reader into an exotic place and time, rendering an intimate experience through sharing Madhavan Namboodiri’s life and love.

Joy J. Kaimaparamban is not only a passionate story teller. He envisions people and events, past or present, in his native India as material for unwritten works. These visions and the ability to transform them into fascinating stories about his country is a trademark of his novels. [More information...]

The Ayurvedic Healer ia available through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

The “About the Author” Page—Your Hello to the Reader

by Irene Watson, Reader Views

Because of the frequent interviews, both live and written, as well as the features on the Reader Views website we do, we frequently need to download the bio of the authors from their websites.  You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve gone to an author’s website to find no bio, or a bio that only talks about the books he or she has written.  In the latter case, the author is identifying himself as the books, not as to who he really is which isn’t an effective way to say “hello” to your potential reader.

Your “About the Author” or “About Me” page is one of the most important pages on your website, perhaps second only to the page that allows people to buy your book. Why? Because your potential readers want to know you are human and to be reassured that you know what you are writing about. They also want to put a face to your name, so that means using an up close and personal headshot.

Before you rush to put up that “About the Author” page or you go to revamp one you already have, here are some key Do’s and Don’ts for creating your “About the Author” page, including what to include and what to leave out.

Your Bio Content
Your bio needs to accomplish several things and in a small space. Here are key things to include:

· Where You Were Born: Your city, state, or country if you were born outside the United States. This simple fact helps to start building a relationship with people. If a reader is from the Midwest and you were born in Ohio, the reader might feel a connection to you, or the reader may have visited and liked Ohio. That connection makes the world a smaller place. If you were born in Sri Lanka or Germany or Australia, the American reader might find you a little exotic or intriguing and want to know more about you and how you ended up living in Delaware, thereby piquing the reader’s curiosity about you—and your book.

· Your Education: You don’t need to include every school you went to, but simply any universities or programs relative to what your book is about. For example, if you wrote a novel, mentioning that you have an MFA in Creative Writing is important. If you are a novelist, a degree in computer programming may be less relevant, unless maybe you’re writing a science fiction novel about people who get sucked into a video game they are playing, which may reflect that you know something about how computer programs or video games operate.

· Your Experience: As with your education, your experiences might be noted. For example, if you’re writing about health and nutrition, then your experience as an Olympic athlete is definitely relevant. If you’re writing about the Civil War, that you belong to a battle reenactment group is interesting and gives you some expertise for writing battle scenes.

· Previous Books You Have Written: If you haven’t published any other books, no problem, but you could say something like, “Joe has been writing stories since he was eight years old” or “After fifteen years of researching his topic, Mark finally published his book.” If you have written several books, go ahead and list them all. Readers may not know your name, but they may know the title of one of your books, which may make them more willing to take a chance on buying your newest book, or even an old one.

· What You Stand For: Perhaps you want to mention groups or causes you are involved in, preferably not controversial ones, unless relevant to your book. For example, if your book is about teaching sexual education and you’re involved in a Planned Parenthood group, it would be appropriate to mention it. However, if your book is a fantasy novel, Planned Parenthood may be irrelevant, or it might even hurt you if people have different opinions than you on birth control and then don’t want to buy your book. If your book is about education, by all means, mention the teaching association you belong to. Stating that you’re a Republican might make you lose most of the readers who are Democrats, or vice versa, so pick and choose who your audience is and avoid anything that will isolate potential readers.

Tone
It’s more important that you come off as a real person than that you come off as intimidating or overly knowledgeable. Depending on your topic, that you have three cats might help you sell more books than that you have five Ph.D.’s. People want to read about people like themselves, or whom they perceive to be a little smarter, more advanced, or more successful than themselves; they want to feel good about themselves and believe that you have been where they are, but that you have gotten farther than them and maybe can help them to do the same. In short, you want to inspire people. Try to come off as a real person your readers could sit down to chat with, not someone too stuck up to talk with them or who will intimidate them. Write like you talk so the reader can resonate with you. Be human.

The tone you want to convey may also influence whether you title your page an “About the Author” page and write it in third person, or an “About Me” page and write it in first person. Either can be fine, but a first person page that lists a lot of accomplishments may sound like you are bragging, so be careful how you word it. At the same time, you can sound more human and friendly in first person. You may want to write two separate bios, one in each voice, to see which one feels more comfortable to you. Then get some feedback from others to see which one resonates with them the most.

Length
I just gave you a bunch of things to include in your bio, but remember to include it all in a short space. You’re not writing your life story, just enough information to interest the reader. No one wants to read a long biography of you. Aim for about three paragraphs or a page at most, and less than five hundred words.

Author Photo
It’s imperative you have a good, high resolution, author photo. That doesn’t mean a photo taken with a cell phone that is blurry, dark or small, nor a mug-shot or driver’s license looking photo. And not a photo of you with your spouse, three kids, and two dogs where the viewer has to pick you out from among several people. You want a headshot of yourself that is large enough that it makes the viewer feel like he is making eye contact with you. It doesn’t have to be a fancy studio photograph, and you don’t have to get all dressed up for it since it’s a headshot that will at most only show your shoulders.

Consider also the background of the photo and how it reflects your author image. Remember, you’re telling the reader through this photo who you are so the reader can resonate with you—at the same time, you don’t want to disappoint readers when they meet you in person, so make sure it’s a current photo. A photo of you at twenty-five may look nicer than a photo of you at sixty, but if you’re sixty, use a current photo. Stay current by updating your photo at least every few years.

A Final Note: Does Your Reader Know Who You Are?
By following the advice above, you can create a simple and effective “About Me” page. When you are done, ask yourself and some friends/potential readers:
· Does the page tell my potential readers who I am?
· Can the reader resonate with me?
· What is on the page that makes me human?
· Is there something on this page that will make my potential reader say, “Yes, I want to read this author’s book! This author sounds like someone I can relate to”?

If the answer to all those questions is “Yes,” you’ve created a successful author page. Just remember to update it (information, photo, contact information) as needed so it stays effective. Now, you’re ready to meet your readers online.

What are your thoughts on this? Does your bio reflect who you are or are you identify yourself as your book? I’d like to hear from you here.

Sir George Greyerson who has researched on the subject of Indian languages stated as having 723 languages in the country. Despite of its prominence Sanskrit is considered as a dead language.

Khadiboli, Avadhi, Vrajalanguage, Rajasthani and such languages are the dialects of Hindi. Some Dravidian languages are spoken only by a minority. In that sense you can consider 33 languages as prominent. Each of them are spoken by a million people. These can be included in four language clans, (1) Indo-Aryan (2) Dravdidian (3) Austro Asian (4) Sino Tibatan.

Dravidian languages are spoken in the southern part. In the boundary of Orissa and Baloochisthan you can meet with Dravidian languages speaking people. Bishop Cladwel has said about the clan.

Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada are the main Dravidian languages with script and spoken by majority of people. Almost all the scripts of Indian languages with script and spoken by majority of people.

Almost all the scripts of Indian languages excluding Urdu had shaped from Brahmi language.

Assamia, Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Urdu, Gujarathi, Punjabi, Kashmiri and Sindhi are the Indo Iranian languages. Dead language Sanskrit too comes in this group. Urdu is written in the Persian script. The scripts of Hindi, Marathi, Konkani and Sanskrit are of Devanagiri. Oriya, Punjabi and Kashmiri show no resemblance with Devanagiri script.

Hindi which has been recognised as the National Language of India is spoken by the majority of India. English has been considered as the Link Language. In several Indian fields English is used widely.

In the outskirts of Mountain Himalaya Sino-Tibetan languages are spoken. In the East boundary of Assam Austric (Agneya) languages are handled. Those languages have or scripts of literature. Small minorities speak them.

Konkani, Dogri, Nepali, Manipuri, Maidhili and Rajasthani are with scripts, which were borrowed from the nearest languages.

Sanskrit is the language of Ancient Indian Culture. The meaning of the word Sanskrit is ‘refined’. It was formed by using several old trivial languages. Due to its artificial nature people were unable to assume it as a speaking language. Only highly learned ones spoke it. The grammar of Sanskrit is so hard to study that common people keep away from it. But its grammar and literature have influenced all the other Indian languages. Excluding Urdu those languages have accepted the letter order of Sanskrit language. In European languages word scripts are used while in the latter letter scripts. All the Indian languages have borrowed more than half of words from Sanskrit. Tamil language is seen different. In it Sanskrit words are rare.

In the time of Buddha around B.C. 500 Paali was the main speaking language of North India. Magadhi, Souraseni and Paisaachi languages were used. From those languages two kinds of Sanskrit were formed ‘Vaidika Sanskrit’ and ‘Loukika Sanskrit’. Paanini the ancient Sanskirt Scholar has written the laws for dealing those languages.

In the Southern part of India, Dravidian languages are spoken. It is said that all the scripts of Dravidian Languages were formed from Brahmi Script. Some languages as Tulu and Beary have no scripts for writing. From generations to generations they travel vocally. But Tulu and Beary speaking people have made films in those languages. They use Malayalam or Kannada scripts for writing scenario. Malayalam is a flourishing language, which is used for writing and speaking in Kerala, the South most State of India.

The Ayurvedic Healer

by Joy J. Kaimaparamban

Set in the intriguing atmosphere of India in the early 20th century, full of mysticism, love, compassion, and political drama, The Ayurvedic Healer tells the story of Madhavan Namboodiri, a physician practicing an ancient medical science, and his enduring love for Rosilie. By healing the underprivileged, regardless of their civilian and religious status, touching the untouchables, he follows his beliefs and disobeys the rules of his society. His life story is set in the background of India’s struggle for freedom, the communist revolt in the Southern State of Kerala, social advancement, and the emergence of new societies. The Ayurvedic Healer sweeps the reader into an exotic place and time, rendering an intimate experience through sharing Madhavan Namboodiri’s life and love.

Joy J. Kaimaparamban is not only a passionate story teller. He envisions people and events, past or present, in his native India as material for unwritten works. These visions and the ability to transform them into fascinating stories about his country is a trademark of his novels. [More information...]

The Ayurvedic Healer ia available through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Indira Gandhi was the third Prime Minister of Independent India.  She served the country twice as Prime Minister between 1966 and 1977 and 1980 – 1984.

Indira Priyadarsini was her real name the daughter of the first Prime Minister Jawaaharlal Nehru. She had been the second lady Prime Minister of the world and the first lady Prime Minister of India.  The periods in which Indira had served India can be considered as the Golden Times of Independent India. For separatonists she was a nightmare as well as a ferocious enemy.

Indira Priyadarsini was born in Anandabhavan of Allahabad as the single daughter of Pandit Jawaaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru in November 19, 1917.  From the very early childhood she witnessed the arrests of her father, mother and other family members by the British police. Anandabhavan was considered to be the original source of freedom fighting.

Her father showed keen attention in the studies of Indira. When Nehru was in jail he wrote letters to Indira in the aim of educating her.

In her 16^th years of age Indira became the inmate of Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Santhinikethan’, from where she could shape a new vision about the world.

In connection with her education Indira had to stay in several foreign countries as Switzerland and Oxford When she was in Oxford, she could befriend with Feroz Gandhi who had become her husband later.

Being the wife of Feroz Gandhi, Indira Priyadarsini became Indira Gandhi.

Nehru had gone to Switzerland with his family members for the medical treatment of his wife Kamala, but she expired in 1936.

The first son of Indira and Feroz Gandhi Rajeev was born in 1944 and the second son Sanjay after two years.

Almost all their times Indira and Ferozs were in jails connecting with freedom fighting. Feroz Gandhi had become a Member of Parliament who had died following a heart attack.

In Indira’s life a deep stroke was taken place in June 23, 1980, which was the unexpected death of her second son Sanjay in an aero plane accident.

Despite Indira had started her public life earlier, her political life was beginning in the age of 21 by joining the Indian National Congress. In 1959 Indira had been selected as the President of All India Congress Committee.

Jawaaharlal Nehru had always negotiated with Indira Gandhi whenever National and International problems had risen before. When Nehru had been the Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi became a Minister of the Central Government Cabinet.

Lal Bahadoor Sastri became the Prime Minister after the death of Nehru. Indira Gandhi was a Minister of his Cabinet too.

In January 11, 1966 Lal Bahadoor Sastri was expired. Following an election Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister of India.

In 1971 India was forced to fight with Pakistan as she could not endure the horrible deeds of the neighbour country towards the people of East Pakistan. Pakistan was defeated in the war and East Pakistan was removed from the World Map, instead Bangladesh was installed.

May 18, 1974 had become a notable day for India as she could prove that she too was strong in the battlement of Atom Power.

Following a High Court Judgment Indira Gandhi was about to perish her political position. By declaring a National Emergency in June 25, 1975 she could skip over the judgment.

Opposition parties had thought that Indira Gandhi had diminished forever. But in 1980, she was elected by the people. Indira did a lot of things for the progress of India.

In October 31, 1984, Indira was assassinated by some outlaws.

The Ayurvedic Healer

by Joy J. Kaimaparamban

Set in the intriguing atmosphere of India in the early 20th century, full of mysticism, love, compassion, and political drama, The Ayurvedic Healer tells the story of Madhavan Namboodiri, a physician practicing an ancient medical science, and his enduring love for Rosilie. By healing the underprivileged, regardless of their civilian and religious status, touching the untouchables, he follows his beliefs and disobeys the rules of his society. His life story is set in the background of India’s struggle for freedom, the communist revolt in the Southern State of Kerala, social advancement, and the emergence of new societies. The Ayurvedic Healer sweeps the reader into an exotic place and time, rendering an intimate experience through sharing Madhavan Namboodiri’s life and love.

Joy J. Kaimaparamban is not only a passionate story teller. He envisions people and events, past or present, in his native India as material for unwritten works. These visions and the ability to transform them into fascinating stories about his country is a trademark of his novels. [More information...]

The Ayurvedic Healer ia available through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Dhundiraj Govind Phalke lay in his house at Nasik. He had become very weak due to his age. Seventy four years.

He had done a lot of works mainly connecting with films. At last he had completed a film under the title ‘Gangavathaara’, incarnation of Ganga.

He had been fully satisfied with his feature films more than a hundred and twenty small films. The first of his feature film was ‘Rajah Harischandra’, the story of the most honest King of Indian Mythology.

He felt to be sitting in Olympic Cinema in April 23, 1913. He could remember it well as if seeing the outer scenery of the day. It was the first show of the film. He had his best friends around whom he had invited for the function. After seeing the film they were all congratulating him with full hearts. When the film was exhibited for the publics in Coronation Cinema in May 13 people were thronging to the theatre.  Even when films brought from foreign countries had run only four or five days. But Rajah Harischandra was shown for twenty three days. It was a wonderful starting of a film maker. But he himself had done all the works behind it. And he himself carried the film to the theatre in a bullock cart.

When thought about such things his lips veiled a smiling. In those days he had never been weak or idle.  Each vein had filled with the enthralling of the intoxication of satisfaction.

In the Wilson College of Bombay his father had been working as a Sanskrit Professor. He too could have become a great teacher. Instead he was turning to Arts. Studied painting joining in J.J. School of Arts.  He had acted in many plays as well. He did several jobs following one by one. He had worked in government service also.

“But they were not my paths,” he thought.

He had gone to Germany for undergoing in color processing. “In the partnership with Sir Purushotham Visram Maavji I decided to start two illustrated color magazines in Marathi and Gujarathi.” He could not suppress a shout like laughter shaped in his throat. He had been thinking about the unexpected separation from Maavji following some discord. Some other persons were ready to help him to start another business. He neglected their offerings.

He had faced with several failures and they had made him desperated.

In a day of December 1910 he reached before America-Indian Picture Palace a Cinema Theatre where an English film was about to show. He saw the title of the film, ‘The Life of Jesus Christ’. Buying a ticket he got inside. While seeing the film, an imaginary world was blooming in his soul. At last Jesus Christ slowly ascended upwards from his tomb for reaching the proximity of his heavenly father. Once more he saw the film.

In his mind the Ancient Indian Heroes as Sri Krishna, Sri Rama, and such great Mythological figures began to shine.  He wished if he could have given them before the Indian spectators.

“But I was tight in finance,” he whispered. Moreover he was a man of middle age. He had a wife and children.

But he could not keep reluctant. Day and night were pestering him with the thought of making a film as his own. He was unable to sleep well at nights. At last he could have made a short film under the title, ‘The Growth of a Pea Plant.’

“So my old friend Yashwanth Naadkurni could help me. He gave me money loan after seeing ‘The Growth of a Pea Plant.’

In those days it was difficult to get females to act in films. When he filmed Rajah Harishchandra, a man named Saalunke Played the role of the Heroine.

He had enough technical knowledge about films as he had read a lot of books on film making. By all means he was an Artist. So he could make such a good film.

Despite a film under the title ‘Pundalik’ was made before the production of Rajah Harischandra in contrast it was nothing.

“If I was willing British producers would have helped me by giving participation with their English film attempts,” he remembered. He wanted to be a pure Indian film maker.

He lay alone in his room. Slowly the clouds of night began to cover him. His eyelids fell downwards. Thoughts and memories about the past seemed as fully leaving him.

February 16 of 1944 opened its eyes for seeing the eternal departure of the great man Dhuntiraj Govind Phalke Saab.

The Ayurvedic Healer

by Joy J. Kaimaparamban

Set in the intriguing atmosphere of India in the early 20th century, full of mysticism, love, compassion, and political drama, The Ayurvedic Healer tells the story of Madhavan Namboodiri, a physician practicing an ancient medical science, and his enduring love for Rosilie. By healing the underprivileged, regardless of their civilian and religious status, touching the untouchables, he follows his beliefs and disobeys the rules of his society. His life story is set in the background of India’s struggle for freedom, the communist revolt in the Southern State of Kerala, social advancement, and the emergence of new societies. The Ayurvedic Healer sweeps the reader into an exotic place and time, rendering an intimate experience through sharing Madhavan Namboodiri’s life and love.

Joy J. Kaimaparamban is not only a passionate story teller. He envisions people and events, past or present, in his native India as material for unwritten works. These visions and the ability to transform them into fascinating stories about his country is a trademark of his novels. [More information...]

The Ayurvedic Healer ia available through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

The Retired Policeman

Opening the front door of the house, I looked outwards.

The nature seemed in the horripilation of the coolness of the last night. Unexpectedly a raining has watered the soil and trees.  A swift wind came towards for smooching me with its comfort giving lips.

I had lain late at night. So I was in deep sleep, which made me ignorant about the night raining. It was a good event. The ambience was in the rough hands of summer and all living beings were suffering hot.  As an act of a superhuman, the drops were sprinkled from above.  The earth has become wet.  My soul too filled with an unusual mood.

I stepped my feet outwards.  I was in the beginning of my walking, which I have been continuing for years.

A half-blackness of the early dawn was oiling the body of the ambience.  In the two sides of the footpath stood cashew trees in a semi-drowsiness.  Dried leaves have soaked in the caressing of the night raining.  Chirming of birds have begun proclaiming the coming of a day.  As the earth and trees I too was in an extraordinary air of happiness. I walked slowly until reaching the tarred road, which lay south to north with a drenched surface.  I turned southwards. A pocket road is meeting the black one when it is reaching beside a chapel. From there, I will turn to eastwards.  It is a vermillion colored road, which is meeting the shore of lake Vembanad. To reach the shore I have to walk 15 minutes. Then the returning.  When I get back home I have had walked half an hour.  Daily I am used to it except on Sundays.

I walked in speed but carefully by the tarred road.

I saw a man running against me from the south. I was about to give him a side for passing.

He stopped beside me with a panting. A trembling seemed to have caught him. I identified him as Velayudhan, a mason who had worked for me some months before.

“Don’t go sir,” he said as if crying in a slow sound. “I was coming to your house sir.”

“Why?”

“Today you please stop your walking for my sake,” Velayudhan said.

“What happened Velayudhan?”

“I shall tell you all sir. Please come with me.”

I believe that my daily walking is the savior of my health. I felt Velayudhan’s need was more prominent than of me.

Velayudhan was leading me towards his house. It is in a long distance.

He began to tell me the reason of his coming.  His immediate neighbor Albin came daily in an intoxicant mood.  Being a mason, he daily took toddy or any kind of other liquors and returned his home at nights. He quarreled with his wife Leena up to midnight.  In his vision Leena is a shameless prostitute.

Whenever got time Velayudhan has tried to make Albin good.  At the time of work Albin will not have taken intoxicant. And he will be in a pleasant mood and in a decent manner.  When given advices, he blamed the liquor which he had taken.  In his consciousness, he is loveful with his wife Leena too.

Yesterday evening Albin scolded Sudha, the wife of Velayudhan using bad words.  Velayudhan was unable to tolerate. He gave a blow on Albin’s face.

“You’ll be in jail tomorrow.” Said Albin. “I’m going to write a letter to them showing Velayudhan’s torture on me. And I’ll commit suicide today night.  you’ll learn a good lesson.”

Velayudhan began to lament as a small boy. I tried to console him by telling smooth words.

Then it was the place of Albin and Velayudhan.

Albin lay before his house in a half turned stage. A big crowd stood around him speaking aloud.  Seeing me all became silent.  Despite a retired common police man, I felt myself as great for some moments.

I looked at the body of Albin. I saw his chest moving up and down. He is alive.

“Bring some water,” I ordered. Velayudhan himself brought a metal glass. I dripped some water on Albin’s face. Suddenly he lay straight and opened his eyes.

“Get up,” I shouted looking at his face.

Albin ascended as from a hell.

At the same time the sound of a vehicle was heard. It was a police jeep. I stood looking at the policemen trying to shake down my transient mood of arrogance.

The Ayurvedic Healer

by Joy J. Kaimaparamban

Set in the intriguing atmosphere of India in the early 20th century, full of mysticism, love, compassion, and political drama, The Ayurvedic Healer tells the story of Madhavan Namboodiri, a physician practicing an ancient medical science, and his enduring love for Rosilie. By healing the underprivileged, regardless of their civilian and religious status, touching the untouchables, he follows his beliefs and disobeys the rules of his society. His life story is set in the background of India’s struggle for freedom, the communist revolt in the Southern State of Kerala, social advancement, and the emergence of new societies. The Ayurvedic Healer sweeps the reader into an exotic place and time, rendering an intimate experience through sharing Madhavan Namboodiri’s life and love.

Joy J. Kaimaparamban is not only a passionate story teller. He envisions people and events, past or present, in his native India as material for unwritten works. These visions and the ability to transform them into fascinating stories about his country is a trademark of his novels. [More information...]

The Ayurvedic Healer ia available through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

One of those collectors with 105,565 tweets and 23,508 followers at the time of this writing is “author” Janie Johnson. I put the word “author” into quotation marks, because, according to Amazon.Com, she has published one book on the Kindle Store, and, as we all know, everybody can put anything resembling a book on Kindle.

According to her Twitter profile:

Janie Johnson takes a stand for conservatism, patriotism & optimism in her books: Don’t Take My Lemonade & Obama 2012 Slogans Rewritten. Protect our Kids!

Oops! Did I miss her second book? Well, not quite. I just can’t find any reference other than her website. I admit, though, that my “research” might be flawed…

Nevertheless, what caught my attention was not the conservatism (nothing wrong with that), the patriotism (nothing wrong with that, either), but, strangely enough the “optimism” in her messages.

Let me quote her last three tweets I found today:

1. If when you can’t win an argument, name call, you just get louder or make personal attacks, you might be a Liberal!
2. Hate speech is all you got! … You have a sick mind and a black heart…
3. You really should not talk about your friends and Obama that way – you know they are watching you. Janie

Well, excuse me for being ignorant, but where is the optimism…? All I see is that conservatism and patriotism is promoted through… well, hate speech, definitely not a typical American attribute.

But let’s get to the point:

Firstly, every author should know that you should not promote your work based on negativity. It ticks off too many potential readers, and it damages your reputation (unless, of course, you are Ed Koch, who insults so eloquently).

Secondly, as a publisher I would stay away from any literature that is based on hate, and Janie Johnson is driven by hate. Hate speech goes along with misinformation, as history has shown (The name Goebbels comes to mind). Again, it damages the reputation not only of the author but also that of the publisher.

Thirdly, hate speech, as it is used by Janie Johnson, will not sit well with the majority of American citizens. It is simply the wrong message when it comes to promoting conservatism, patriotism, and optimism.

Last, but not least, this post reflects my very personal opinion and is, of course, not necessarily shared by others.

The meaning of Jawaahar is Gem. Jawaaharlal Nehru was unique and unbeatable. Precious Gem of India. Despite of his separation in 1964, each citizen of India keep the memory of the Great man in his heart as an unfaded Rose flower.

Jawaaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of Independent India who was born in 1889 in the Nehru family of Allahabad.

The ancestors of Jawaaharlal was the natives of Kashmir. They had left their birth place 250 years ago and had come to Delhi. Then they were forced to go to Agra. From there Mothilal went to Allahabad thinking about the progress of his job. He worked hard for getting a high position as an advocate.

From the very early childhood Jawaahar began to read books. Being a lonely child he had no alternative for spending his time. It helped him a lot for moulding his character.

As Mothilal Nehru had earned enough fame and wealth, he had been leading the life as a European.

After the birth of Jawaahar it took eleven years for the coming of the second child. Vijayalaxmi. Jawaahar got another sister, Krishna too when he was in the age of 18.

Being a progressive and liberal Brahmin house holder Mothilal wanted to give Jawaahar good education. He arranged learned teachers for teaching Jawaahar Sanskrit and Hindi. The boy could get enough knowledge in both languages.

English teachers and governesses taught Jawaahar English. Then he was sent to Harrow School of England. Following it, he joined the Cambridge College from where he got a Degree in Natural Science.

After gaining a Barrister Degree in 1912, he returned to India. In 1916 he married Kamala Kaul and he had been working as the Assistant of his father. Mothilaal Nehru was a leading Barrister of Allahabad.

Movements, which were forming against the British Rulers had begun to attract Jawaaharlal Nehru. When Gandhiji came forward protesting the Rowlath Act, the mind of Jawaahar became turbulent. He wanted to move against the British openly. Mothilal could not support the opinions of Jawaaharlal.

The massacre taken place in Jaalianwalabagh and the Military ruling of Punjab were very cruel. Mothilal’s mind changed against the British Rulers.

Jawaaharlal joined in the fighting movement of Mahatma Gandhi, which was working for the freedom of India. He was becoming the beloved disciple of the Mahatma.

Jawaaharlal was arrested many times and was put into jails several times. His wife Kamala too was a freedom fighter. In 1936, Kamala Nehru was expired due to chronic ailment.

Jawaaharlal had never been idle while staying inside the prison bars. The imprisonment days were filled with solitude and hellish torments. He made his time useful by reading and writing outstanding works. He wrote ‘The Glimpses of World History’, ‘Autobiography’ and ‘The Discovery of India’. He has written six more celebrated works.

In the Congress Party he could gain prominence due to his faithfulness and constant work. He declared that India would get ‘Full Independence’, not ‘Dominion Status’. He had visited several countries including Soviet Russia. His inclination towards Socialist ideas made a minority of the party enemies. Jawaahar did not take it a big thing.

When the Second World War was broken out, the British Rulers did not give deserving participation for expressing the ideas of Indians. And no step was taken for giving India freedom. Jawaaharlal Nehru showed his strong opposition on such matters.

‘Divide and Rule’ policy of the British caused the partition of India into two countries. So many Hindus and Muslims were killed following religious riots all over India. At last in 1947 August 15^th, the foreigners left the country after giving it freedom.

The Ayurvedic Healer

by Joy J. Kaimaparamban

Set in the intriguing atmosphere of India in the early 20th century, full of mysticism, love, compassion, and political drama, The Ayurvedic Healer tells the story of Madhavan Namboodiri, a physician practicing an ancient medical science, and his enduring love for Rosilie. By healing the underprivileged, regardless of their civilian and religious status, touching the untouchables, he follows his beliefs and disobeys the rules of his society. His life story is set in the background of India’s struggle for freedom, the communist revolt in the Southern State of Kerala, social advancement, and the emergence of new societies. The Ayurvedic Healer sweeps the reader into an exotic place and time, rendering an intimate experience through sharing Madhavan Namboodiri’s life and love.

Joy J. Kaimaparamban is not only a passionate story teller. He envisions people and events, past or present, in his native India as material for unwritten works. These visions and the ability to transform them into fascinating stories about his country is a trademark of his novels. [More information...]

The Ayurvedic Healer ia available through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

An innovative essayist and his fact-checker do battle about the use of truth and the definition of nonfiction.

How negotiable is a fact in nonfiction? In 2003, an essay by John D’Agata was rejected by the magazine that commissioned it due to factual inaccuracies. That essay—which eventually became the foundation of D’Agata’s critically acclaimed About a Mountain—was accepted by another magazine, The Believer, but not before they handed it to their own fact-checker, Jim Fingal. What resulted from that assignment was seven years of arguments, negotiations, and revisions as D’Agata and Fingal struggled to navigate the boundaries of literary nonfiction.

This book reproduces D’Agata’s essay, along with D’Agata and Fingal’s extensive correspondence. What emerges is a brilliant and eye-opening meditation on the relationship between “truth” and “accuracy” and a penetrating conversation about whether it is appropriate for a writer to substitute one for the other.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

About John D’Agata and Jim Fingal

John D’Agata is the author of About a Mountain, Halls of Fame and editor of The Next American Essay and The Lost Origins of the Essay. He teaches creative writing at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, where he lives.

Jim Fingal is now a software engineer and writer in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Editorial Review

In 2003, D’Agata (Creative Writing/Univ. of Iowa; About a Mountain, 2010, etc.) wrote an essay that was rejected by the commissioning magazine for “factual inaccuracies.” That essay, which became the basis forAbout a Mountain, was eventually accepted by The Believer. The editors asked their fact checker, Fingal, to wade into the piece, red pen in hand, but they offered some important advice: “John is a different kind of writer, so you are going to encounter some irregularities in the project. Just keep your report as thorough as possible and we’ll comb through it later.” The two men spent seven years wallowing in the murky waters surrounding esoteric literary questions such as, how important are memory and imagination in writing literary or creative nonfiction? Just how far can an author go when altering the facts for literary effect, and still be writing the Truth? What constitutes fabrication? At one point, D’Agata vented his frustration at Fingal’s refusing to acknowledge the differences between the techniques of journalism and creative nonfiction. “I am tired of this genre being terrorized by an unsophisticated reading public that’s afraid of accidentally venturing into terrain that can’t be footnoted and verified by seventeen different sources,” he writes.The authors present the narrative in a question-and-answer format with sections of the original essay under scrutiny reprinted on the center of the page, allowing readers to understand the back-and-forth conversation between D’Agata and Fingal. – Kirkus Reviews

In the Details - ‘The Lifespan of a Fact,’ by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal

The New York Times Book Review – February 21, 2012 (Excerpt)

This book review would be so much easier to write were we to play by John D’Agata’s rules. So let’s try it. (1) This is not a book review; it’s an essay. (2) I’m not a critic; I’m an artist. (3) Nothing I say can be used against me by the subjects of this essay, nor may anyone hold me to account re facts, truth or any contract I have supposedly entered into with you, the reader. There are to be no objections. There are to be no letters of complaint. For you are about to have — are you ready? — a “genuine experience with art.”

This is so liberating!

Under consideration in this essay is “The Lifespan of a Fact,” which is less a book than a knock-down, drag-out fight between two tenacious combatants, over questions of truth, belief, history, myth, memory and forgetting. In one corner is Jim Fingal, who as an intern for the literary magazine The Believer in 2005 (or it might have been 2003 — sources disagree) signed on for what he must have thought would be a straightforward task: fact-checking a 15-page article. In the other corner is D’Agata, who thought he had made a deal with The Believer to publish not just an article but a work of Art — an essay already rejected by Harper’s Magazine because of “factual inaccuracies” — that would find its way to print unmolested by any challenge to its veracity. “Lifespan” is the scorecard from their bout, a reproduction of their correspondence over the course of five (or was it seven?) years of fact-checking. [Read the full article...]

‘Lifespan’: What Are The Limits Of Literary License?

NPR Book Review – March 8, 2012 (Excerpt)

When an author writes something that’s supposed to be a true story and readers discover he’s stretched the truth, things can get ugly fast. Recall Oprah Winfrey’s famous rebuke of author James Frey for making up much of his memoir, A Million Little Pieces. “I feel duped, but more importantly, I feel that you betrayed millions of readers,” she told him.

Now a new book is making waves by defending an author’s right to embellish the facts. The book is called The Lifespan of a Fact, and is a collaboration between author John D’Agata and his former fact-checker, Jim Fingal.

Ten years ago, D’Agata was in Las Vegas when a 16-year-old boy committed suicide by jumping off the Stratosphere Tower. D’Agata wrote an essay about the tragedy — but in the telling, he took a generous amount of artistic license.

“All of which I was completely open about, but was unwilling to budge on,” D’Agata says. “I was too enamored, I guess, of my pretty sentences to alter them in any way.”

Harper’s, which had originally commissioned the essay, rejected it because it played so loose with the facts. It was eventually accepted by the magazine The Believer, where Fingal, an intern at the time, was put on fact-checking duty. Fingal expected to find maybe 10 inaccuracies or inconsistencies in its 15 pages — instead his response ended up filling more than 100 pages.

This report was the seed for The Lifespan of a Fact, which reprints Fingal’s queries alongside the original essay. [Read the full article...]

“The Lifespan of a Fact” by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal

The Washington Post Book Review – April 20, 2012 (Excerpt)

Reporters and fact checkers disagree about the accuracy of articles every day. Seldom, however, do the disputes last beyond deadline — and very few last seven years.

Such was the case with John D’Agata and Jim Fingal. In 2003, D’Agata penned a piece for the Believer about a young man’s suicide in Las Vegas. When Fingal, then an intern at the magazine, was assigned to fact check, he found that D’Agata had fudged a number of details — from how many teenagers kill themselves in Nevada each year to how long it would take for a body to fall from the top of the Stratosphere casino. D’Agata objected to most changes, and an epic argument began that lasted until the piece was published in 2010. “The Lifespan of a Fact” offers D’Agata’s work alongside his and Fingal’s heated discussion of what truth is and when it matters. [Read the full article...]

The Sabina Strong Series Continues – Vampire’s Trill

Lorelei Bell has created another unique and mesmerizing mystery masterwork that tops its prequel Vampire Ascending in drama, fast-paced action, love, passion, heartache, and devastation. New friends, new adventures, shocking revelations, and harrowing experiences make for riveting reading in this second installment of the Sabrina Strong Series. Sabrina learns more details – through Vasyl’s recounting of his human and vampire life – of what her role as a sibyl means and how the past and the future will come together. She finally learns what role Vasyl has played in his search for the next sibyl and why she is so tremendously important. [Read more...]

Vampire’s Trill is available at Amazon.Com – including the Kindle Version, Barnes & Noble – including the Nook Version, and any other good bookstores.

Also available in the United Kingdom at Amazon.co.uk including the Kindle version.

I know nobody in the world will be ignorant about this half naked man. Despite of his study in law, he himself chosen the dressing of a poor Indian citizen throwing away his pants and such decorations of a barrister.

In his Autobiography ‘My Experiments with Truth’ Gandhi has described all about him.

He was the main sculptor and leader of Indian Independence struggles. His real name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who took birth in a Vaisya family of Porbandur in Gurarat in 1869 October 2. His father Karamchand Gandhi was a Divan of a native country Rajcot in Katiawad. His mother Puthlibai had great influence in the formation of the conduct of Mohandas.

At the age of 13 he got married with Kasturba. After passing matriculation he went to London for getting a degree in law. Then he practiced as an advocate in India. Connecting with his job he had to go to South Africa where he met with several bitter experiences. Foreigners seemed to be considering the black colored people as slaves.

Gandhi began to think about the real condition of Indians. He read the books of Tolstoy, Thoreau, and Ruskin. He considered that he had the duty of fighting for the well being of Indians who had been living in South Africa.

He contacted with the leaders of India as Gopalakrishna Gokhale and the like. In 1894 an association under the title of ‘Netal Indian Congress’ was formed. A news paper was started in 1904 with the name ‘Indian Opinion. In the next year a Hermitage was formed by Gandhi. So many Indians began to live there as if in a joint family. The authorities were not inactive. Off and on they produced several laws for disturbing the Indians. Gandhi had to resist the cruelties of the white. In the name of ‘Sathyagraha’, he manifested a new method of resistance. It was based on Affection. Truth and Non-violence (Ahimsa).

He wrote a small book ‘Hind Swaraj’, in which he said about an exploitationless society. In that society, the part of the ruling authorities would be small. Each individual would be able to rescue his claims, he described.

In 1915 he returned to India. By 1919 the First World War started. For suppressing the protest of Indians against the war, the British Authorities produced Rowlath Rule. Gandhi led riots basing Truth, Non-violence, celibacy, fearlessness and self-control. During that period his dressing was like of a white man. In 1921 he refused the style by wearing only a Dhothi.

In between there were several riots and arrests. Whenever the people became violent he withdrew the agitations which he had started. For self purification he had adopted ‘Hunger strikes’. No other leader had walked through such paths before.

The support which he had made to Khilaphath Movement caused mental change in some Congress Men. Some of them turned towards Hindu Fundamentalism.

When Swaraj Party was in great force Gandhi got back from politics and spent his time for flourishing the growth of Khadi clothes for four years.

When Nehru declared about getting India full freedom, Gandhi started a struggle with the name of Uppu Sathyagraha, which was violating the right of the government’s claim of making Salt. Following it, people got the right for producing salt from sea water.

In 1934 Gandhi resigned from Congress Party. He began to work for villagers.

When the Second World War started in 1939 without the consent of Indians, the British Authorities made India, a participant of it. The State Congress Cabinets, which had come into ruling in 1937 resigned for showing their protest.

Quit India Movement was getting more strength than before. The Congress Party wanted to wash away the Whites from India.

Hindu Muslim riots spread almost all over India. So many killings were taken place. The British Government thought about the partition of India into two. Gandhi was always dead against it. But his ambition was not fulfilled. In 1947 August 15 two countries were given Independence by the British India and Pakistan.

1948 January 30^th was a curse day for Indians. The Mahatma was gunned down by an aggressor.

The Ayurvedic Healer

by Joy J. Kaimaparamban

Set in the intriguing atmosphere of India in the early 20th century, full of mysticism, love, compassion, and political drama, The Ayurvedic Healer tells the story of Madhavan Namboodiri, a physician practicing an ancient medical science, and his enduring love for Rosilie. By healing the underprivileged, regardless of their civilian and religious status, touching the untouchables, he follows his beliefs and disobeys the rules of his society. His life story is set in the background of India’s struggle for freedom, the communist revolt in the Southern State of Kerala, social advancement, and the emergence of new societies. The Ayurvedic Healer sweeps the reader into an exotic place and time, rendering an intimate experience through sharing Madhavan Namboodiri’s life and love.

Joy J. Kaimaparamban is not only a passionate story teller. He envisions people and events, past or present, in his native India as material for unwritten works. These visions and the ability to transform them into fascinating stories about his country is a trademark of his novels. [More information...]

The Ayurvedic Healer ia available through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

A classic how-to manual, William Wallace Cook’s Plotto is one writer’s personal method, painstakingly diagrammed for the benefit of others. The theory itself may be simple — “Purpose opposed by Obstacle yields Conflict” — but Cook takes his “Plottoist” through hundreds of situations and scenarios, guiding the reader’s hand as a dizzying array of purposes and obstacles come to a head.

Cook’s method is broken down into three stages: First, the master plot. This four-page chart distills the most basic plot points into a three-line sentence. Next, the conflict situation. Each master plot leads the reader to a list of circumstances, distributed among 20 different conflict groups (these range from “Love’s Beginning” to “Personal Limitations” to “Transgression”). There are over 2,000 unique conflict situations in the book, and each is cross-referenced with designs for how the situation might have started, or where it might go. Finally, there are character combinations — Cook offers an extensive index of protagonists, each cross-referenced with various supporting players — themselves tied to various conflict situations, for what appears to be an inexhaustible reservoir of suggestions and inspiration.

‘Plotto’: An Algebra Book For Fiction Writing

NPR Book Review – February 19, 2012 (Excerpt)

It’s been said that there are only seven basic plots in fiction. Pulp novelist William Wallace Cook would beg to differ.

According to Cook, there are a whopping 1,462 plots, all of which he laid out in his 1928 book, Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots.

Plotto has just been reissued for the edification of novelists everywhere. Author Paul Collins, who wrote the introduction to the new edition, tells weekends on All Things Consideredguest host Mary Louise Kelly that the book came out of Cook’s need to sustain a punishing writing pace: In one year, 1910, he churned out more than a book a week.

“He was known as the man who deforested Canada,” Collins says. “He had to systematize it. He was literally manufacturing fiction, to the point that when he wrote a memoir, he titled it The Fiction Factory.”

Plotto looks like an algebra book at first: Protagonists A and B, and their numerically designated friends, rivals and relatives all combine and compete in pursuit of love, money, success and sometimes even a mysterious item X.

Each plot is cross-referenced with other plots that combine well with it. For example, here’s plot 1,258: “B, a woman criminal arrested by A-6, a detective, seeks to effect her escape by artful strategy.”

Cook notes that this can be preceded by plots 448 and 1,309b, and followed by 3b, 10a, and 16a — which involves A-6 finally catching up to B, but then falling in love with her. [Read the full article...]

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THE BLEEDING HILLS
A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.

Writing and Revising to Attract Different Readers

by Irene Watson, Reader Views

I don’t have my usual editorial today because I really don’t feel like writing one. Over the past week it’s been a roller coaster with one of our best friends going through heart surgery complications and beening stable/critical throughout the whole time. He made his transition on Thursday, Feb. 9th.

But…I do have something you might be interested in reading. It’s an interview I gave but for the life of me I can’t remember to whom.

1. What’s the best way for writers to draw readers into their articles?

In writing articles, it’s necessary to remember that everyone does not have the same tastes or interests, and everyone does not respond or learn in the same way. Readers have different personalities so being aware of those personalities and writing with them in mind will bring your writing to life for a larger number of people.

First, you need to understand the four types of reader personalities:

1. Methodical: These readers are not interested in the personal touch but want hard data, step-by-step explanations, and bullet points.
2. Spontaneous: These readers are in the moment, they want things quickly, and the proof up front.
3. Humanistic: These readers want the personal touch and personal stories. They want to know who you are so they come to trust you; then they’ll listen to the point you’re trying to make.
4. Competitive: These readers want you to prove to them that you have something they want or need because they often think they already know everything. They will have attitude if you can’t deliver, but they will value you if you can keep them on the cutting edge so they can stay superior to others.

To write a successful article, you need to know how to target your audience, which means determining which type of reader personality is likely to read your article, and also how to write your article to cover these different personalities as much as possible so you include more than one personality type and do as little as possible to isolate readers. That said, remember you can’t please everyone, and your topic isn’t necessarily going to interest all personality types.

2. Many methods of attracting reader interest exist. What do you feel are some of the best methods?

Figure out who your target audience is. Build a persona and ask yourself how your target audience member fits into the above categories. For example, if your article is about healthy cooking, is your reader the college male who lives on fast food or the thirty-something mother concerned about feeding her children properly. It’s probably the mom. Then determine which personality she fits into and deliver the information to meet that personality trait’s criteria. For instance, she may be the humanistic type, so if you are a mom as well, relate stories about cooking for your own family so she realizes you understand her situation and needs; then she’ll be more likely to listen to your information.

3. What are some kinds of articles that really don’t need much “fleshing out” or being “brought to life” for readers? How would they compare to the articles that would benefit from such revision?

If your target audience is methodical or spontaneous, you can get to the point quickly. You can use bullet points and limit your examples and not provide personal stories. “How To” articles fit into these categories or more informational articles that are in line with reporting rather than personal essay articles.

4. How can revising writers hone in on areas of their work in which they can determine that it should be “fleshed out” or made more “real” for the reader?

Ask yourself again, “Who is my target audience? What does my target audience want from this article?” For example, if your article is about how to be a good wait staff, you are probably writing to a humanistic audience. A humanistic person—a people person—is going to be a better wait staff than a competitive personality. You can use examples or personal stories about situations where wait staff have had to deal with difficult customers as well as ways to be pleasant to customers and friendly without going overboard. Personal stories will make the reader trust you know what you are talking about, and for more methodical readers, it will also show that you have experience and prove that you know what you are talking about through your practical examples.

5. If the revising writer can’t figure out the right words to use to describe something (such as the sound of a person’s voice or how something tastes), what are some resources he or she can use?

Description is not necessarily the best way to flesh things out. It sounds like you’re talking about fiction writing a bit here, in which case, what your characters’ say will be more effective than descriptions of what they say. Of course, for both fiction and non-fiction, a good thesaurus is an advantage for finding the “right word.” Too many beginning writers, however, tend to go overboard. I recommend never to use a three syllable word if a one syllable word will do. A perfect example that I see all the time is the use of “utilize” instead of “use.” “Use” is sufficient. Nor should wordiness be mistaken for fleshing out. Fleshing out is “developing” not filling the page with words. It never hurts to look at individual sentences and the word count. If the first draft of your sentence has fourteen words, you can probably revise it to have eleven. Being “succinct” is the best advice, and “succinct” is the perfect word to remember precisely because it is succinct. It is better to say “Be succinct” than “Use as few words as possible.”

6. Can the whole “fleshing out” thing be overdone? How can the writer avoid this?

Absolutely, and that ties into being succinct. We do not have to state the obvious or what is implied. In your last question, you asked about the right word to describe the sound of a person’s voice. In writing dialogue, adverbs are frequently overused by beginning writers. For example, take the following piece of dialogue:

“I’m not going to do it,” Ted said defensively.

The adverb “defensively” is completely unnecessary. It’s implied in the words. Here’s another example:

“You know, I really do love you despite what you may think,” Ted said apologetically.

Again, a good writer can create dialogue that tells us the tone of the speaker’s voice without having to find an adverb to describe it.

In terms of the personality types, bullet points may be more effective because they get to the point right away compared to explanatory sentences.

Sometimes too much information results in overkill. Too many examples can bore or wear down the reader. Your methodical reader, for example, will want you to get to the point, not tell your life story. Your humanistic reader likes the personal information, so give one powerful personal example to back up your point. It will be more effective than multiple examples.

I’d give you another example, but I think I’ve made my point.

7. Why does it help an article to bring it to life for the reader?

Articles tend to be short. Sometimes just a few hundred words. Rarely more than about 5,000. That only gives you a short time to capture the reader’s interest and attention—more time than it takes to watch a commercial but less time than to watch a TV sitcom. Bringing the article to life can create images and memories that will stay in the reader’s mind long after the article has been read. Despite how short an article may be, no piece of writing has to be insignificant because of its length. A well-written article can be as successful and powerful as a full-length book, even more so. Many articles have changed the world by revealing information that was unknown or not thought about previously. Powerful stories and examples and persuasive tones can change your readers’ lives.

By remembering the different personality types of your readers and considering your target audience, you can reach the largest number of people most likely to benefit from your article, provide them with the information they want in the manner that will make them most receptive, and ultimately, enrich their lives.

In the Indian State of Madhya Pradesh, there is a district known as Chathaarpure, where you can see a lot of beautiful Temples there.  In ancient times there were growing numerous date palms, which being called as Khajur in Hindi language. From the word the place got the name of Khajuraaho.  The town is with an aerodrome. It is because of the thronging of foreigners to that place.  It is with a perimeter of two and a half kilometers where situated eighty five Temples.  Many of them had completely perished and twenty exist without having any fatigue.

It is believed that the Temples were made between the centuries of ten and eleven.  There are full of sculptures in the Temples showing the glittering beauty of sculpturing.

Chandela Kings ruled the country about five centuries.  Between 950 and 1050 they had taken leadership for making the Artistical Buildings.  Among the Temples, twelve numbers are prominent as they are unequal in the matter of sculptures.  Kanderia Mahadeva Temple is the biggest one with thirty three meters length and eighteen meters breadth and thirty five meters breadth and thirty five meters height.  It was built between the period of 1025 and 1050.  In that period sculpturing had got in the peak of expansion.

Famous British Archeologist Cunningham had counted the number of the sculptures as 872. Out of them 226 are inside the Temple and 646 are outside.  The main Temple had sub temples around with several declination. But the main one is still in perfection.

Among the temples including Siva Temples and Vishnu Temples and Buddha and Jaina Temples.  Six Jaina Temples are in the Southeast direction.  Beside them you can see a Buddha Temple.  Buddha and Jaina Temples are different in making.  Deities and warriors and singers had been given place in the sculpturing group.  You can see even animals there.  Realistic and unrealistic figures can be seen.  Inside the Temples, there are the places of Deities and the facilities for worship.  Outside the Temples Erotic scenes had been sculptured.  Breath obstructing scenes.  All the females and males are in the pose of lovemaking. They all are with naked bodies.  You can describe them as the scenes of obscenity.  But nobody can deny the beauty and vivaciousness of each dealing.  The limbs seem to be moving with unequal harmony.  A number of artists had worked behind it.  Those who understand the values of original art can only praise the artistical talents of the unknown persons.  In fact all arts are depending on sex, which is the basement of life. Visitors of all over the world come to enjoy the beauty of sexual relationships dynamic and original.

Once the place was densed with thickets.  And the climates are irritation giving ones. In summer, it is hotful and in other seasons with sultriness of the Sun.  Dustful ambience. Nobody can imagine about the mentalities of the Kings who planned the makings of such Temples.  Nobody can reach the place with a plan of enjoying a comfortful climate.  Avoiding all such hostile matters people get there in trains and Aero planes. Auto rickshaws move to and fro constantly carrying foreigners and others.

The sculptures who had built the Temples might have come from distant places.  The huge rocks used for basements and walls were taken from afar. If you think about such things, flowers of wonder will bloom in your hearts.  In the Ancient periods there were people with commanding powers and a numerous talented artists.  They could make the desert like land immortal.  Thousands of people worked number of years in the past. You cannot imagine the coming of such time again.

That is why the people all over the world think the monuments as precious.  The rulers give great care in the matter of keeping them alive.

Khajuraaho Temples considered to be the ‘Seven Wonders of India’.

All the Temples stand with facing their fronts to Eastern direction.  In former times black granites were used for building Temples.  Later White lime stones too were used for it.

Each sculpture is with a name, which proclaiming its mood. From the mode of the movement of each sculpture you can separate one from another.

Great Sage or Maharshi Vaatsyayana had done a Sanskrit scientific work on sex, which had influenced the sculptors of Khajuraaho a lot.  In the book Maharshi described sixty four kinds of sexual relationships.  But the sculptors who worked on the Temple walls had skipped over the limits of the Great Sage.  They had sculptured a lot of sexual scenes, which they felt convenient for them.

The Ayurvedic Healer

by Joy J. Kaimaparamban

Set in the intriguing atmosphere of India in the early 20th century, full of mysticism, love, compassion, and political drama, The Ayurvedic Healer tells the story of Madhavan Namboodiri, a physician practicing an ancient medical science, and his enduring love for Rosilie. By healing the underprivileged, regardless of their civilian and religious status, touching the untouchables, he follows his beliefs and disobeys the rules of his society. His life story is set in the background of India’s struggle for freedom, the communist revolt in the Southern State of Kerala, social advancement, and the emergence of new societies. The Ayurvedic Healer sweeps the reader into an exotic place and time, rendering an intimate experience through sharing Madhavan Namboodiri’s life and love.

Joy J. Kaimaparamban is not only a passionate story teller. He envisions people and events, past or present, in his native India as material for unwritten works. These visions and the ability to transform them into fascinating stories about his country is a trademark of his novels. [More information...]

The Ayurvedic Healer ia available through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

eBook Pricing Strategies – How Much Should I charge?

by Irene Watson, Reader Views

Usually I have an informed opinion on a lot of things in the publishing industry but I have to admit I didn’t have a clue how to answer an author’s query:

I am thinking of placing my new children’s book on Kindle and need to make informed decisions on the cost and whether it is a good decision at this point.

I turned to the publisher of my books that has140 eBooks titles, Victor Volkman of Loving Healing Press, to enlighten me as well as have a professional answer for the author.  He says:

My system is simple:

1.  Start with 50% off List Price as the basis for eBook price for Black-and-White books.  If this new amount is above $9.95, Amazon will punish you by cutting your royalties in half thus all our eBooks are $9.95 or less, even for printed books with a list price of $29.95.   In practice, this means our B&W eBooks are $7.95, $8.95, or $9.95.

2.  Color books (for children mostly) are priced at $5.95 because they are shorter.

3.  Magazines and Journals are $4.95.  Although this may seem “pricey,” our journals are 55,000 words so it is really not a lesser product than a book, other than its product-positioning.

4.  Monographs and shorts 2,000 to 10,000 words are priced at $2.99 because that is the lowest price that Amazon allows for maximum royalty (70%).  A few very short articles are bargain-priced at $0.99

We do not participate in KDP Select program because we don’t believe in monopoly marketing.
I don’t believe the extra bonus money would compensate for the loss in sales on B&N Nook, Kobo, iBook, eBrary (academic), and OVERDRIVE (libraries) combined.  I’ve seen publishers move 20,000 free eBook copies through KDP Select but I don’t have evidence that this causes paid sales later.  Also, I think there is a tendency for people to “binge” on free books that they never actually read or they have no commitment to read because they have nothing to lose.

Amazon tracks free book “sales” separately for a ranking basis so even they know that a free book isn’t as good as a paid copy.

After I read Victor’s model I kicked into the psychology mode. There are some established “rules” when it comes to pricing eBooks or in fact anything that you are going to sell:

1.  Always end your price with a 5, 7, 8, or 9.  Never end in a 1 or a 0.  Our brains seem to think that $9.99 is much less than $10.00 and 99 cents is a better bargain than $1.00.

2. Purchases are often made by emotions, especially non-necessities like books/eBooks.  This is referred to impulse buying.  Impulse buying is often determined by price – buying a 99 cent eBook rather than paying $9.99 gives justification of “saving” after the purchase.

3.  Buyers have a tendency to purchase a product if they feel they are getting something for free.  There are many sites, especially those for business gurus and those selling non-fiction books or children’s books, that will offer something for free if you purchase their eBooks/books.  For example, you will get white papers or “secrets” valued at $197 if it’s a business themed book.  Or, in a case of a children’s book, if you purchase the book/eBook you’ll get 15 free templates that you can print and have your children color the pictures.   Value could be $9.95 for the templates – not a bad deal when you “just” pay $5.95 for the eBook.

Fiction writers can “bundle” their series, for e.g., sell three eBook titles for the price of two.  If each eBook is priced at $9.99 then you would sell all three for $19.98. The buyer will perceive a bargain.  For those that have only one eBook title then you could team up with another author and offer his or her eBook for free.  The other author will do the same.  More than likely each of you have a different social network therefore your eBook will be accessible to a whole new world in the sphere. Get the idea?  (Granted, these ideas will only work if you are selling the eBooks on your own site but just because you have your book in Kindle or Nook format doesn’t mean you can’t market the eBooks from our own site.)

Back to you and pricing…if you are really, really, serious about selling your eBook and getting paid for what it is worth, then these are the questions you have to ask yourself:

How much is this thing really worth? How much am I worth?

You have options in this realm.  You can let peer pressure intimidate you into pricing the eBook for less than you are worth or you can be firm and decide you are going to charge a realistic value for your work.  And oh, “realistic value” needs to be based on the quality of your eBook which  means fantastic plot or information, professionally edited, and something that could easily stand by the best-of-the-best on the market.  (And, no…just because Aunt Gert “loves” the book it doesn’t mean it is a quality eBook.)

By-the-way, did you know majority of people don’t really buy books based on price?  They buy on value (and that means a really good book) and then rationalize the price they paid.  But…you are saying…yes, I know there are those that want everything for dirt cheap or for free.  Are those really the ones you want to spend your time and effort marketing to? They aren’t going to buy your book anyway because they are looking for freebees so I say, price the eBooks at what you are worth.  Is it 99 cents or is it $9.99 per eBook?

Did I stir up some “stuff”?  How are you pricing your eBooks? I’d like to hear from you here.

Have you noticed that almost every new movie that is being released lately comes with the tag “One of the best movies of the year”? And when you release a movie on January 1, you may truly call it “The best movie of the year so far!”

Sometimes you wonder about those people who are in the business of promoting movies and their display of lack of originality. It’s in the same class as, for instance, “But wait! If you order within the next five minutes…” My point is, those slogans, as much as they did their job the first few times, are being overused and thus lose their effectiveness to a point that they might as well read as “Handle with caution!” Now, there is a slogan that didn’t lose its verve…

Another new term, that is in the same danger of being annoyingly overused, is… Unputdownable!

Well, by maintaining this very website I am in the business of posting numerous book reviews during the day, and this term… Unputdownable… has come up more and more frequently.

Unputdownable…

Is this one of those unique and ingenious American-made terms that will have the same impact on a customer as a whole sentence (or even two) in previous times? Is it one of those modern-world words out of the management dictionary that (like manager, suicide, midlife crisis, flat rate, and more) will make it into the Duden, the German equivalent of Webster’s Dictionary? Should the person, who invented the word, trademark it? Think of the guy who trademarked “Are you ready to rumble?”

Unputdownable…

Just sit down, relax, close your eyes, and discover the emotions that evolve when you think of… Unputdownable…

Does it create a shiver of excitement that slowly and teasingly spirals down your spine? Or does it create an involuntary cramping of your stomach followed by pulsing, acid reflexes, and the desire to run into the kitchen to get some TUMS?

But, after all, it’s all a matter of taste, and I would be thrilled if you found my post “unputdownable.” But on second thought… Nuh! I will just thrive in humble delight, knowing you read my blabbering, and hoping you pass it on to a friend or even to somebody you don’t like.

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THE BLEEDING HILLS
A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.

Gauthama who had been known as Buddha and Siddhartha after getting ‘Light of Knowledge’ was born in Lumbini.  It is in Kapilavassthu, which is situating in the north part of Basthi district in Uthar Pradesh.  He took birth as the son of the King Suddhodana.

From the very childhood Gauthama showed the mood of a very thinker.  King Suddhodana was very anxious about his son.  He made Gauthama in his sixteenth old, the husband of a beautiful princes Yasodhara.  She tried to do her level best for making the prince happy.

Suddhodana had taken great care for not witnessing Gauthama any inauspicious event Suddhodana thought that such things would make his son more contemplative and nervous.

One day while the prince was travelling in a horse cart, he saw a group coming against him carrying something. He had never seen such a scene before.  The servant who had been travelling upon a horse tried to transfer the attention of the prince from it, in futile.  Gauthama wanted to know the fact.  Looking at the passing crowd, the servant told the prince that it was an old man’s dead body and his relatives and friends were taking it to a burial place.  From the words of servant Gauthama was grasping a truth, all the people would die when they become old.  The servant revealed about the death of younger people due to illness.

The heart of the prince filled with unlimited sadness.  He felt that all the things of the world being mortal and perishable.  Many people were suffering from poverty and ailments.  Love and compassion had become rare among the rich people.  Gauthama had fallen into a dilemma. He did not know what to do.  Every night bloomed before him with shivering giving bad dreams.  Yasodhara tried to console her darling-mate by telling smooth words. In fact all her words were falling in scorched loose sand.  She bewailed in her solitidues.

Suddhodana and his queen were in endless grief seeing their son’s growing gloominess and thoughts.  They too tried for his happiness in vain.

Once Gauthama saw a man with long whiskers and hair.  He had worn only necessary clothes for covering his body.  The prince ordered the horse carter for stopping the cart.  Then he approached the man and asked him about him.  The stranger introduced himself as a Rishi or an Ascetic who had left all the worldly pleasures for doing the works of the Almighty. While talking with him Gauthama felt as a river of calmness and happiness smooching his soul.

With a contentful heart, he returned to his palace. Seeing change Yasodhara became happy. She thought that it would be a stagnant mood.

The prince had decided to assume the lifestyle of a Rishi throwing away all his worldly comforts and happiness. But he did not divulge the fact before his wife.  He had been in his age of twenty nine. And in that time he had a child in Yasodhara.

One midnight when his wife Yasodhara and son Raahulan and the total world were in sound sleep Gauthama left the place with the aim of finding out the ‘Eternal Truth’.

He wished to have a preceptor for guiding him the correct way.  But his effort had become fruitless. So he was forced to reach the aim by his own exertion. He went to the city of ‘Uruvela’ and sat under a huge fig tree in meditation for six years. From there he could get the ‘Light of Knowledge’.  He decided to pour it into the souls of other people.  He believed that by that dealing he would be able to release them from all kinds of sufferings.  He advised them ‘Ashtaamgamaargam’. His first disciples were three brothers who had converted into ‘Budhism’, openly.  Followers began to increase and Gauthama sent them all over the world for propagating his ideas. Even his son Raahulan had approached Buddha and he too was recognized a disciple.

Not only common people but also great men as King Suddhodana become the followers of Siddardha. Disseminating ‘Dharma’ (Charity) he travelled all over the world for forty five years. At last covering Naalanda he reached at Vaisaali and stayed in the house of a famous ‘Devadaasi’. Then he went to the City of Kusi where he stayed under a Banyan tree.  In BC 544 on a Vaisaakhapournami day his soul left the cage of his body.

The Ayurvedic Healer

by Joy J. Kaimaparamban

Set in the intriguing atmosphere of India in the early 20th century, full of mysticism, love, compassion, and political drama, The Ayurvedic Healer tells the story of Madhavan Namboodiri, a physician practicing an ancient medical science, and his enduring love for Rosilie. By healing the underprivileged, regardless of their civilian and religious status, touching the untouchables, he follows his beliefs and disobeys the rules of his society. His life story is set in the background of India’s struggle for freedom, the communist revolt in the Southern State of Kerala, social advancement, and the emergence of new societies. The Ayurvedic Healer sweeps the reader into an exotic place and time, rendering an intimate experience through sharing Madhavan Namboodiri’s life and love.

Joy J. Kaimaparamban is not only a passionate story teller. He envisions people and events, past or present, in his native India as material for unwritten works. These visions and the ability to transform them into fascinating stories about his country is a trademark of his novels. [More information...]

The Ayurvedic Healer ia available through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

January of 2012 marks the 150^th Birth Anniversary day of Swami Vivekananda, the Greatest Holy Sage of India.

He is known as a ‘Karmayogi’ who had done his duties without expecting any reward.  He had been blowing as a whirlwind all over the word.

He was born in 1863 January 12 in Calcutta in a Kayastha family.  His father was a famous Attorney in the High Court of Calcutta. And his mother was a devotee of Lord Siva and such Deities.  Narendra Nath was his name, which was given by his prarents.  The name Vivekananda was changed by the Khethri King of Rajputana Ajith Singh while the young sage reached his palace.

After passing matriculation Narendra Nath joined the Presidency College first and then the Assemblies Institution which is now known as Scotish Church College for continuing education.  He could pass BA Degree from the college.  For two years he had studied law but did not appear the examination.

When he was a student, his mind had askewed towards the thoughts about the Almighty.  He went to see several famous sages for talking about Spiritual subjects.  For some time, he had been a member of the Brahmasamaja.  Until meeting with Sriramakrishna Parama Hamsa his mind was turbulent.  He was in search of getting the proximity of the Supreme Soul.  In 1882 he went to Dakshineswara and met with Sriramakrishna Parama Hamsa.  At first sight Vivekananda felt that he had been searching for such a preceptor.  The ‘Guru’ too was impressed with the personality of Vivekananda.

In 1884, his father died.  His family fell into the hearth of miseries, which troubled him a lot.  He was between two main problems.  One was connecting with Spirituality.  The other was of the miseries of the family.  He presented the matters before the Guru and got an advice from him for leaving his mother and the family members under the mercy of ‘Jagadamba’, the World Mother.  In 1886 his preceptor left the mortal earth.

Then Vivekananda constituted a Group of Sages.

He wanted to know the original color of living of different kind of people in Indian villages.  So he began journey from North to South East to west.  In 1892 he visited Kanyakumari of Tamil Nadu.  He saw a mountain in the sea and swam towards it. Sitting on the rock in meditation he thought how to solve the miseries of India.  By purifying the Eternal Religion India would get salvation, was the invention of his mind.

In 1893 he started to America with the decision of participating the Big Religious Assembly, which was congregated in Chicago.  When he was in America he could get helps from Professor J H Wright and Mrs. Hail.  In September 11 he made a small oration before the foreign crowd with a beginning “My Sisters and Brothers of America….” It had stirred up the people a lot.

Following it he was invited for making several speeches there.  The newspapers of America propagated his ideas by giving big coverage.

Then he travelled all over the world for giving the people the knowledge on Indian Ideology and the never fading Culture of the country.  So many foreigners became his disciples.  He could acquaint with many great men of the World.

In 1897 Swami installed in Calcutta ‘Sriramakrishna Sangham’ in memoriam of his preceptor Sriramakrishna Parama Hamsa.  It has started a number of hospitals, schools, and charitable institutions all over India for the progress of poor ones.

Swami Vivekananda had wished not to die even a dog due to starvation.  He worked for the Physical and Spiritual progress of Indians.  Moreover he was in the effort of making an India without poverty, illiteracy bad customs and superstitions and inhuman dealings connecting with castes and religions.  In 1902 in the age of 39, the Holy Sage left his Country and people forever.

The Ayurvedic Healer

by Joy J. Kaimaparamban

Set in the intriguing atmosphere of India in the early 20th century, full of mysticism, love, compassion, and political drama, The Ayurvedic Healer tells the story of Madhavan Namboodiri, a physician practicing an ancient medical science, and his enduring love for Rosilie. By healing the underprivileged, regardless of their civilian and religious status, touching the untouchables, he follows his beliefs and disobeys the rules of his society. His life story is set in the background of India’s struggle for freedom, the communist revolt in the Southern State of Kerala, social advancement, and the emergence of new societies. The Ayurvedic Healer sweeps the reader into an exotic place and time, rendering an intimate experience through sharing Madhavan Namboodiri’s life and love.

Joy J. Kaimaparamban is not only a passionate story teller. He envisions people and events, past or present, in his native India as material for unwritten works. These visions and the ability to transform them into fascinating stories about his country is a trademark of his novels. [More information...]

The Ayurvedic Healer ia available through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Is B & N competing with Amazon for Bad Customer Service?

by Irene Watson, Reader Views

You are probably well aware of the issues we’ve been having with Amazon.com removing our (along with many others’) reviews and banning us from posting.

We contemplated on posting all the reviews on BarnesAndNoble.com but their system is not user friendly nor are reviews a focal point. I contacted B & N to see if I can speak to someone that may consider making some changes to their site and actually was able to communicate with a person in their headquarters in the U.S.  She asked me to send her an email and she assured me it will be directed to the appropriate department.  Well, not to make this story long, it just didn’t happen.  My contact said she forwarded the email but it seems the suits aren’t interested in responding or talking to me.  End of story. Oh well, I tried.