As We Head into Not Just a New Year but a New Decade ...

I would love for us all to be a kinder, gentler version of humanity. Yet I also see the need for boundaries and for standing up to bullies, with kindness and tact as needed but with a firm stand when required as well. That said, here are some recommendations as we near 2020:

1. Read Candace Cameron Bure's book, Kind Is the New Classy, and others of its ilk. We can all change the world, one person at a time, starting with ourselves. If that book title doesn't call to you, then I suggest watching the rip-roaring action movie, 6 Underground, with Ryan Reynolds, currently offered on Netflix. Yes, I'm tongue-in-cheek here, as you don't need to be a billionaire tech guru or to own guns to pull off this "save the world" motif. But this should get your blood pumping and may inspire you to at least get off the couch and to make yourself into a better human being, one step at a time.
2. Follow through with actions, not just speaking your words or reading someone else's words about good ideas for New Year's resolutions. Make active resolutions, where you follow through. When I cut back on my drive-through Starbucks addiction (ha!), I ended up funneling that money into Kiva loans. I still drink Starbucks but mostly the home-brewed version. Yet this change felt right back then. Feels true now as well.
3. I urge everyone of legal age to register to vote and to cast your vote, regardless of which political election is involved. NOTE: This is not a political forum. Any comments too pointed in that vein will be deleted, even if I agree with you. No names to be named, please. No name-calling will be tolerated here. I urge everyone to register to vote and to cast your vote. It's the American way. So many countries in the world don't have this right. Heck, we American women just got the right to vote less than one hundred years ago, via the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to our US Constitution, officially adopted on August 26, 1920. Not even one century ago could US-born females of age vote. Shaking my head as here I sit, in this country, the land of the free. Hard to fathom, yes. But, regardless of your sex, vote. Offer to drive a senior citizen to the polls with you or someone without a vehicle or whoever you can help to get there who might not otherwise make the effort without a nudge.
4. Be gentle with yourself as well as others, as long as your rights aren't being violated.
5. Speak up if you are being violated. Speak up if you witness others being violated. You have to stand up to bullies. Don't wait. Do it now. This reminds me of a famous Ayn Rand quote, which goes something like this, "Evil requires the sanction of the victim." I would love to further tweak that line to say:

The continuance of evil requires the continued silence of the victim.

Don't be silent when it comes to evil.

Here's to New Year 2020. May it bring in a better era, a brighter decade, a healthier, happier and more peaceful humanity.

Denise Barker

Author, Blogger, Copy Editor

My Wonderful Local Writing Group and My Foremost Advice to All Authors

I met with my local writing group this week. It was wonderful. Having a home away from home that nurtures your writing addiction and fosters your creativity and encourages your every step, as well as your leaps and bounds, is priceless, folks. So find one for you in your area.

But this post is about something else.

I have over two thousand e-books on my Kindle, waiting to be read. I hope to read more when I'm "retired," whenever that is. Since I'm a serious workaholic, I don't see me retiring. Regardless, even though I am a copy editor by day, by night I'm a reader. It's not uncommon for me to read two hundred books in a year, on top of the sixty or so copyediting projects that I handle each year (which I read through twice completely, doubling the original document's word count). I read a lot. All the time.

And those two thousand or so e-books on my Kindle are a sort of safety net for me.

I fear running out of good books to read.

Now that is my main message here.

So, as I told the four new attendees (yay!) at our writing group meeting last night, don't hesitate to write what is on your heart. Go with your gut. It doesn't matter what the latest booming genre seems to be, as that will change. It doesn't matter what the best-selling authors may write about. As they change too.

I believe each author has its own designated readership in the world, just waiting for those books to be written, to be published, to reach their eager hands. No one author appeals to every person on this planet. You only need your particular readers to find you, to read your stuff. So don't worry. I believe the appropriate matching of the readers to authors happens over time. So just write. And write some more.

Write YOUR message, YOUR story, YOUR voice, YOUR soul, YOUR uniqueness.

That's today's message, which my own intuition pushed me to write about in this post. And this message is for authors at all stages of your career, whether just starting out or long into this wonderful and sometimes maddening profession.

That's all for now. Gotta run. I have copyediting projects awaiting me, akin to the unread books on my Kindle, which are both like Christmas every day, with packages for me to open to see what lies within.

Have a great week/weekend, y'all!

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Welcome to My World, Where Every Day is Saturday

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Standing Against Plagiarism

This just hurts my soul. There are some things I hate with a fury: bullies, abusers, people who steal the efforts of another. Here is such a story.

Rachel Ann Nunes had one of her stories stolen by someone using the pen name Sam Taylor Mullens, whose real name seems to be Tiffanie Rushton. I say this "seems to be" her real name as she has twenty-two aliases, per a recent post entitled "Utah Schoolteacher Charged with Plagiarism and Cyberbullying" at http://www.davidfarland.net/writing_tips/?a=414.

If you care to donate even $5 toward Ms. Nunes's court costs, go here:
http://www.gofundme.com/StandingAgainstPlagiarism.

For another excellent article on the topic, see http://johndopp.com/plagiarism-sam-taylor-mullens-busted/.

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

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What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra