Why Easter Eggs?

Even as a child, Easter Eggs made little sense to me. I mean, I was smart enough to know the Easter bunny didn’t lay eggs.

However silly Easter eggs might have seemed to me, they were a family tradition that I passed on to my kids.

I know that eggs have always been a universal symbol in many religions for more than a thousand years. The egg symbolizes new life, rebirth, and fertility.

The Easter Egg’s origin can be traced to the fertility lore of the Indo-Europeans—our pre-Christian ancestors. The egg was a symbol of spring.

Vernal Equinox, Perfect Time

In Persia, people gave eggs to each other at the vernal equinox. For them, it was like a New Year’s present because that marked the beginning of a new year in their culture.

In Judaism, eggs are a part of the Passover seder plate. For some Christians, the egg symbolizes the tomb from which Christ emerged on Resurrection Day.

Another reason eggs were popular with Christians on Easter was that they were forbidden during the 40 days of Lent. Chickens didn’t know this of course so they kept laying eggs. People collected the eggs and decorated them.

Many religious groups and/or countries have traditions of decorating eggs for Easter. Orthodox Christians stain them red to symbolize the blood of Christ. Intricate designs are created by eastern Europeans. Eggshells are pierced to remove the egg, and the decorated shell is hung from trees and shrubs in Germany.

Every year, the White House lawn is the scene of an egg-rolling party, but in today’s world, plastic eggs filled with treats are often used in egg hunts.

Takeaway Truth

Plastic eggs for hunting are a great improvement because I can remember the bad smell emanating from a neighbor’s yard when hidden hard-boiled eggs went undiscovered. Not a nice smell at all.

Laugh, Don't Cry on Tax Day

Hey, Americans, it's tax day! Pay up or rue the consequences.

Have you filed your income tax return? If so, here are some quotations to give you a chuckle before you engage in that last minute rush.

From Mortimer Caplan, a former IRS Director: “There is one difference between a tax collector and a taxidermist—the taxidermist leaves the hide.”

An anonymous wit once observed: “One difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.”

Humorist Art Buchwald said: “Tax reform is when you take the taxes off things that have been taxed in the past and put taxes on things that haven’t been taxed before.”

“An income tax form is like a laundry list—either way you lose your shirt.” —Fred Allen

American humorist Will Rogers once said: “The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has.”

Takeaway Truth

If you haven’t filed your tax return yet, quit reading blogs and get busy. Happy Tax Day!

SlingWords Celebrates 17th Birthday With Free Book

On April 12, 2005, 17 years ago today, I posted for the first time on my then-new blog, SlingWords.

(Giveaway Alert: Details at the end.)

That 9-sentence post, Japanese Proverb, has been read 173 times.

I'd already been blogging for a few years for clients. I liked doing it so I decided to start my own blog.

In fact, for a few years, I wrote and published SlingWords and another personal blog I used in freelance writing. On that second blog, I wrote and published a few hundred posts.

Those were busy years, and I learned a lot about blogging. I'm finally publishing Blog Ops: Be a Better Blogger, a book of best blog practices to help those who struggle with blogging. The book is on pre-order now. You can read more about it at the end of today's post.

Looking Back to the Beginning

In 2005, I blogged mostly about these topics:

(1) my thoughts on everything from the art, craft, and business of writing to zany people behaving badly

(2) funny things I thought, read, or heard

(3) book, music, TV, apps, and movie reviews

(4) "war" stories from other authors in the trenches

(5) interviews and spotlights on other authors and their books

(6) personal and professional triumphs and disappointments

(7) miscellaneous bits and pieces of informative and entertaining trivia

(8) and some things I learned from life.

In other words, I blogged about the same subjects then as I do now. I've added a few topics along with some standard posts that I normally write on a certain day of the week.

Posts like Thursday3Some with 3 questions an author answers or 3 bits of information on a subject of interest to readers.

Another common post for wannabe writers was If Only I'd Known in which authors share insights into things they wished they'd known when they began. I think I'll start publishing those posts again because the old ones have 1,000 to 2,000 reads.

Back then, there weren't labels or tags, but I quickly learned how to use them. I didn't add graphics to each post in the beginning.

Most Popular

My Review posts—whether reviews of books, apps, TV, movies, or music—have over 1,000 hits. My Review: How to Starve Cancer by Jane McLelland has 3,685 reads. I still get email about that post.

In 2005, the most popular post I wrote was 10 Best Smells in the World which has been read 3,835 times! Actually, through the 17 years, I've had many posts that have become popular and continue to be read.

Milestones

Toward the end of 2005, I began adding graphics to each post. 

After 17 years, the graphics began to take up too much storage space so I've begun removing some from early posts.

I began adding my closing phrase, Takeaway Truth, in mid-2008. By the end of the year, I used that closing phrase on every post.

To date, I've published 3,868 posts. That's an average of 227 posts a year. Rarely did I skip days. The last 2 years have been challenging due to family medical crises and writing deadlines so my blogging fell by the wayside.

Posts That Are Queen of Content

I won't list all of the posts that have thousands of views and continue to be read. One of the most popular is How to Create a Clean Amazon Link

I've tried to teach the importance of this to other authors because it's crucial to success. So I re-publish that post once every few years. To date, those posts have 14,550 reads.

Another post I re-publish fairly often is How to Write an Online Book Review. I do this to encourage readers to review books they like. Many do not because they don't know what to say. To date, those posts have been read 3,375 times.

The Christmas posts in which I feature authors with special bargains on their Christmas romance novels still get huge numbers of reads—almost 8,000—even though most of them are several years old. But the authors' books are still available so an old post can help a new reader discover an author she may love.

Author and Book spotlight posts always get about 100 to 200 reads initially, but because the post stays on the blog, always found in Archives, the posts continue to be read. Most of those posts end up with 1,000 to 2,000 reads over the years.

Authors can thank Google for providing links to a post on SlingWords when their names are entered into Google search—and give a hat tip to me, I guess, since I keep their content available.

About Blog Ops: Be a Better Blogger

I'm sharing concise, specific tips to help you not only be a better blogger but also to enjoy blogging rather than looking at it as a tedious task.

If you have an old blog that needs rescuing, BLOG OPS will show you how to breathe life into it.

If you started a blog and don't know how to keep it going when the initial excitement wanes, BLOG OPS will give you a strategy to keep it fresh and vibrant.

In case you think blogging is dead, think again. It's alive and well and paying rewards to those who utilize it smartly.

 Available for pre-order now, Blog Ops: Be a Better Blogger will publish in June—maybe before if I quit having emergencies. *G* 

Giveaway

To celebrate the 17th anniversary of SlingWords, I'm giving away free copies of April Fool Bride, the first book in my All Brides Are Beautiful series. This book is FREE Wednesday, April 13, 2022, 12:00am PDT, through Saturday, April 16, 2022, 11:59 pm PDT.

Is it a marriage of convenience or something more?

Oil heiress Madeline Quinn needs a husband by the time she turns twenty-five in order to claim her full inheritance. Mad Maddie, as the tabloids christened her, learned the hard way that men only see dollar signs when they look at her.

Maddie decides a marriage of convenience is the only answer. She turns to the one man in the world she can trust, her housekeeper’s son who always treated her like a little sister when they were growing up—until one disastrous night when she acted impetuously.

Jake Becker hasn’t seen Maddie since the night she tried to seduce him. Why should he help the woman who changed the course of his life? Simple. Revenge.

Or is it something else? Something that sizzles like steam heat between Maddie and Jake that neither can resist!?

Takeaway Truth

I lift my glass of champagne to you. Thanks for being a SlingWords reader. You can look forward to more grreat content and great guests in 2022.

Monday Magic: Instructables

This morning, I have a great online app for you especially if you like DIY projects or crafts.

On Instructables, you can learn everything from baking 4 ingredient beer bread to 3D printer projects to, well, to just about anything you can think of.

Best of all, Instructables is free. Browse the categories, and I'm sure you'll find something to pique your interest.

If you're looking for a craft to learn, try Origami Craft for Beginners. This past weekend, I was reminded of how delightful origami is.

I was packing up the last of the clear glass vases used as centerpieces for our daughter's wedding reception.

She had made hundreds of tiny origami cranes, a marriage good luck symbol.

The vases contained tiny twinkling lights and crushed irridescent cellophane.

We dropped the colorful paper cranes into the vases and sprinkled a few on the tables for guests to take away.

The centerpieces were beautiful, unique—memorable! 

And that's why I'm thinking about origami today.

Takeaway Truth

Have a wonderful week. Come back tomorrow to get information on my free book this week.

April Fool Romance Novels on Sale

Yes, I have 2 books with April Fool in the title!

Something about April Fool's Day  always intrigued me.

Both of the books are on sale for 99¢ each from now through April 10 at midnight CDT.

First up is April Fool Bride, a book readers love! Here's the blurb for this heartwarming, sexy marriage of convenience romance.

Is it a marriage of convenience or something more?

Oil heiress Madeline Quinn needs a husband by the time she turns twenty-five in order to claim her full inheritance. Mad Maddie, as the tabloids christened her, learned the hard way that men only see dollar signs when they look at her.

Maddie decides a marriage of convenience is the only answer. She turns to the one man in the world she can trust, her housekeeper’s son who always treated her like a little sister when they were growing up—until one disastrous night when she acted impetuously.

Jake Becker hasn’t seen Maddie since the night she tried to seduce him. Why should he help the woman who changed the course of his life? Simple. Revenge.

Or is it something else? Something that sizzles like steam heat between Maddie and Jake that neither can resist!?


2nd April Fool Romance

Next up is April Fool Proposition, a steamy, romance about a girl who feels like a bit of an ugly duckling.

Matchmaker gone wild! That's the label that should be plastered on the forehead of her friend's mom, romance author Lorelei Lorelle aka Margaret Smith.

Unfortunately, Brenna O'Reilly is late to realize that she's part of a romance plot using real people rather than fictional characters.

Brenna is the middle button—that's what her grandmother who raised her and her older sister and younger brother—called her. Her sister was the wild child; her brother is the smart, happy-go-lucky player. Brenna is the responsible one who takes care of everyone.

In her quest to fulfill that role, she's given up every part of herself and become the even-tempered, responsible young woman on whom everyone depends.

She doesn't realize she's put her personal life on hold. When her friend's mom tells Brenna her sister Maura won't commit to the man she loves because she's afraid Brenna will be alone, she plants the seed of an idea for Brenna to pretend to have a lover of her own, and that Dr. Travis Larsen is the perfect man to play the part of her pretend lover.

Brenna doesn't realize until too late that her friend's mom, a noted romance author, has set her up! What will Brenna do when she learns the woman has her own agenda for throwing Brenna and Travis together? Will Travis settle for being a pretend lover? Will Brenna cut loose and yield to her own desires?

Takeaway Truth

Read Romance, the Optimistic, Feel-Good Genre.