My Favorite Author - Edgar Cayce

Thank you, Raymond Frazee, for a marvelous presentation on my favorite author, Edgar Cayce. Join us at http://wideawakebutdreaming.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/and-whos-my-next-guest/

Joseph Eastwood's Pep-talk on Self Discipline

Today I would like to welcome guest blogger Joseph Eastwood, as part of our Tasha Turner Coaching Virtual Blog Tour. Welcome Joe!

Who Doesn't Have Self-Discipline Problems? 

Every day we are all constantly followed around by distractions. We have the internet. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Blogger---just there at a click of a button. You can waste hours just chatting with people or promoting yourself, but wait...what are you promoting again? Yourself! As a writer? I suppose that makes sense, but you're wasting an awful lot of time doing pointless things, especially if you're not doing much writing.

So lately, I've been feeling like my life is all jumbled up, I have a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a blog which I love to death and now a Tumblr...why I got one of those, I do not know because its only use is re-blogging pictures of guys with their stomachs out making their cute faces.

I have recently thought a lot about what I wanted to put in this post because I am in no way the poster boy for self-discipline; I have urges, just like every other human.

However, I do have some tips on disciplining yourself.

Top tip! Make time to write, edit etc. and unplug the internet and get someone to hide the router! 

I don't like schedules or anything like that...but what I can deal with is no internet. I do so much better when I know no matter how much I try I just can't get to the internet from clicking the Google Chrome button. I also have a lot of bookmarks just beneath the URL bar, so even if I forget what I came to the internet for, it will always end in me clicking on Facebook or something.

Tip! Having people support you or a support group via Facebook where you can post the word count!

We are always vying for the attention and approval of others. I love it when people agree with what I write; there is no greater feeling (except standing on a mountain top with the one you love, probably is). So join a support group where you can post the word count and it's a self-evaluation and also the evaluation of your peers so you don't want to be the one with the 2,000 word increase from last week.

Tip! Get yourself excited over what you're writing before you write!

I say this because it usually helps me. I find that reading the synopsis motivates me to do edits or if it's something that I'm writing, I usually force myself to look at the notes of what the story means to me. That's another thing, make a list of the things in the notes about what you're currently writing actually means to you. Is it emancipating? Do you have a message that you want to get across? And that should keep the spark of motivation you need.

Tip! Stimulate your sight! Get a picture that inspires you to write!

This is one of my favourite ways to discipline myself because I love just being able to see a picture and have it immediately shout at me! Like the one below [DS: Sorry Joe, it would not copy.] -- "Okay, sir! Let me just post this and I'll be on my way." So get something and have it as a background or maybe even printed and you have it pinned to your wall or something.

So don't make me tell you again! If you have things to do today, then my suggestion is you get your boot off the internet and do them!

I hope that you follow some of these tips, and I hope that they work as well for you as they do for me.

Do you have any tips that you'd like to share?

Joseph Eastwood is the eldest of five siblings. He lives and grew up in Lancaster, England, where he also attends the University of Cumbria, studying English Literature and Creative Writing.

He has always had a giant creative connection in his life, from drawing and writing to having an eclectic taste in music and reading a wide range of books, which he hopes reflects in his own writing. He also loves watching sci-fi, supernatural and fantasy based TV shows and films. Among some of his favourites are Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries and True Blood. As well as, those he loves dramas, like The Good Wife and Desperate Housewives.

Joseph is either busy doing edits and writing or trying to get some university work done. He lives for creativity, striving to be different and thinking up new hoops for his characters to jump through.

Links

http://www.josepheastwood.com/ - Blog

https://www.facebook.com/josephswriting - Facebook page

https://twitter.com/#!/Joe_Eastwood - Twitter

Many thanks, Joe, for visiting with us today and sharing your insights on a topic which we all have to deal with some days.

Edgar Cayce's Story of Stonehenge

Edgar Cayce's Story of Stonehenge was recently published again at 
http://www.examiner.com/article/edgar-cayce-s-story-of-stonehenge?cid=db_articles.

An Alternative Blog

Thank you very much, Bruce Blake, for welcoming me and my story of An Alternative Blog idea to your blog. Visit us at http://bruceblake.wordpress.com/2012/06/10/welcome-to-my-blog-doug-simpson/

You Light Up My Life

Many thanks, Cathy Brockman, for featuring me and You Light Up My Life on your blog! Visit us at http://cathybrockman.com/stop-number-two-on-the-ttc-virtual-blog-tour/#.T8uwf9VtpX0

Someone Has To Pay by Joe McCoubrey

It is my pleasure to welcome Joe McCoubrey to my blog today, as part of our Tasha Turner Coaching Virtual Blog Tour. Welcome Joe!

A song to match the mood of my book?

I have to admit to raising my eyebrows, shaking my head, and muttering unprintable things when I was challenged to come up with a song that described my book Someone Has to Pay! Here I am with an action thriller book where the bullets fly and the body count mounts up, and someone is asking me to tie it in with a song!

I wasn’t exactly humming lyrics while my fingers danced across the keyboard during my writing hours. Putting down the bad guys seemed to occupy my attention more than the thought of singing to them! No, this one wasn’t for me…..until I started to think about it some more.  Maybe it wasn’t as crazy as it first sounded?

My first thought was about how the story would set against some well-known film soundtracks such as ‘Where Eagles Dare’ or ‘Mission Impossible.’ They would both suit nicely to ramp up the background drama and the sense of impending action. In the way that soundtracks are supposed to act, these two examples would warn the reader of the different moods within the story. Yeah, they would work.

But hold on……soundtracks are not songs. I had to tell myself to stop prevaricating and make a choice!

In the end it was simple. I fell back on one of my all-time favourites and realised it fitted the bill. Released in 1969 it is the inimitable “There’s A Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

What about this for an opening?

I see the bad moon arising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightning
I see bad times today.
Don't go around tonight
Well, it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise.

The song was written by John Fogerty who claimed it was about "the apocalypse that was going to be visited upon us.”

That’ll do for me, John! My creation of Someone Has To Pay could be interpreted as a hard-hitting tale that visits all sorts of mayhem on people who deserve to have all sorts of mayhem visited upon them!

So there you have it. I’ll leave you with Fogerty’s last verse:

Hope you got your things together.

Hope you are quite prepared to die.

Look's like we're in for nasty weather.

One eye is taken for an eye.

Joe McCoubrey is an Irish thriller writer. His first book is due to be published this year by Tri Destiny Publishing, with a second book already at the editing stage. He has had a short story published in the anthology ‘Action: Pulse Pounding Tales’ and is currently working on his third full length novel.

Joe’s website: http://joemccoubrey1.com/

The Reincarnation of Thomas Jefferson

The Reincarnation of Thomas Jefferson has been published again at
 http://www.examiner.com/article/the-reincarnation-of-thomas-jefferson?cid=db_articles