"Hair's" Looking At You, Kid

One of my favorite musicals of all time was the irreverent rock musical Hair. Performed for the first time in 1967, it finally made it to the big screen in 1979, but, by that time, the country had changed. Disco had pushed rock aside; hippies were on their way out. Wall Street greed was sneaking in the back door.

I know every verse of that song in the musical that I call a love anthem about hair. If you're familiar with the musical, you know the one that talks about "... gleaming, steaming, flaxen...."

Why, you're probably wondering, am I talking about hair?

Probably because I was thinking about getting some new photos made. I use an old one on just about everything. The only problem with photos though is that I change my hair style about every six months. So you wouldn't recognize me anyway by my photo. I'm simply not one of those women who wears the same hairstyle their entire life. I like change.

I was thinking about all this today because I made an appointment to get it cut. I've been wearing it rather long for about a year -- a world record for me. Usually, I cut it short and decide I really want to grow it long. It gets long, and I wonder why I thought that was a good idea so I cut it short again.

That's what happened today. Hot weather and long hair just don't make for a good marriage in Texas. Whack. Now it's short again. But not too short. You know? I really like it. No regret at all.

Takeaway Truth

To paraphrase some very wise, but anonymous, person: "Life is an endless struggle full of frustrations and challenges, but eventually you find a hair style you like."

3 Steps To Successful Marketing

A knowledge of marketing will help you in your effort to sell anything from books to widgets. Here are 3 Basic Steps To Successful Marketing.

(This article previously appeared in Writing Hacks, my subscription newsletter for writers. Subscribe today if you want to read articles like this as soon as they are published.)

1. Get noticed.

The world must find you. Have a blog and a website. Guest blog. Join writer's groups. Write book reviews and post on the major booksellers' websites. Find an aspect of Social Media that you can comfortably work. Network your friends and family. Word of mouth from readers who like your books is priceless so work on creating that.

2. Establish credibility.

You do this with your ad copy, i.e. every written text about your book from your Book Description and Biography to your book cover. Reviews can help but you won't get reviews unless you get readers. Everything should shout PROFESSIONAL, INTRIGUING. Your book should be indistinguishable from one published by a big NY publisher. That's your goal with everything you do in producing your book package.

3. Make sales.

Never give a reader a chance to say no. In other words, don't let anything on that book page confuse them or make them pause and think or turn them off.

If you're uncertain about how to go about any of these steps, I always advise writers to find an author whose books are similar to yours and who is achieving the level of sales you want. Then spend a lot of time analyzing what they do: their book pages, bio page, and what they do.

Takeaway Truth

Learn from someone whose career is what you'd like to emulate.

Science of Smell

I've always been fascinated by the sense of smell. Perhaps that's because it's our most primitive sense. The heroine of my newest book -- to be published next week I hope before my next batch of houseguests arrives for the summer -- is a perfumer. She designs fragrances for clients.

Scents and Sensuality is a much expanded and changed version of an older print book published quite some time ago. The inspiration for the heroine's occupation was research I'd done, for my own amusement, into the science of smell.

I've been so interested in the subject that, while expanding this book into an ebook edition, I've simultaneously been plotting another book dealing with the same subject. This all goes to show that nothing can make you lose focus on a work in progress like the idea for a new book.

Facts About Smell

Did you know that we breathe in pairs. Inhale. Exhale. There are only two times in our lives that are exceptions to this rule: our first breath at birth and our last breath at death. That profound observation was made by Diane Ackerman in her excellent book A Natural History of the Senses.

I love this book. It's beautifully written and factually correct. I've read the book many times, and I'm pleased to see it's available as a Kindle book as well as print editions.

Every time we breath, air passes over our olfactory sites. In any given day, that's usually more than 23,000 times in which odor molecules flood our bodies, often triggering vivid memories of a time when we smelled a particular odor. When I smell Youth Dew by Estee Lauder, I instantly think of my mother. When I smell the ocean, I'm carried back to Japan where I had a house overlooking the East China Sea.

Takeaway Truth

In my book, heroine Amanda Whitfield educates the hero about smell. It's a fascinating subject. I'll share more about the science of smell next week.

Battle of the Browsers

I've always used Firefox for my browser, but with the last upgrade they did, I had major problems. I was locked out of some of my apps and links. After some digging around, I discovered a simple solution. The upgrade had changed my View option to Full Screen which locked out the Toolbar and a host of other things.

Since I never use Full Screen, I was stumped as to what to do. I spent a couple of hours browsing help forums and finally figured out the problem. Simple fix, but the time wasted was something I could ill afford to lose.

Easy Solution, But Still In A Snit

Thoroughly disgruntled at Firefox and the whole situation, I rebelled and downloaded Google's Chrome. I had resisted adding another browser, but I thought the time had come to explore my options. For once, I wasn't disappointed.

Chrome seems to move much faster in loading apps than Firefox which has slowed over time. I find Firefox still faster than Internet Explorer which I don't use unless I absolutely must. Interested in Chrome, I decided to do some research and see how a tech analysis would rate it compared to the other browsers.

Knowledge

I found Browser Wars, an article in PC Magazine, was a coherent and easily understandable analysis of the major browsers. I think you'll find the article which compares Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Chrome interesting too. Some of the lesser known browsers are discussed, and a handy comparison chart is given.

Takeaway Truth

We all resist change, but, often, when we bite the bullet and try something new, we find it's an improvement, or, at the very least, another good tool to have at our disposal.

Days Without Sunshine

That wise philosopher Steve Martin once said: A day without sunshine is like, you know, night."

Well, Steve-a-reno, you must never have spent a week in Houston during a rainy spell! We've had a solid week of gray, rainy skies, and no sunshine at all.

The St. Augustine grass in the yard has become ghillie suits for the gazillions of mosquitoes that are hatching after all this rain.I hate to grouse about too much of a good thing after we had such a terrible drought last year, but, honestly, enough is enough!

Takeaway Truth

John Ruskin wrote: "Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."

Hmmm. Needless to say, Mr. Ruskin didn't ever travel to Houston either.

Review: Where Are They Buried by Tod Benoit

I just finished reading Where Are They Buried (Revised and Updated): How Did They Die? Fitting Ends and Final Resting Places of the Famous, Infamous, and Noteworthy by Tod Benoit on the way home tonight.

As is my custom when I review ebooks, I give the Kindle Buy Link because I read most books on my Kindle. However, I'm certain every book I review is available at most ebook sellers so look for them on the platforms that match your ebook reading device. (Want your own Kindle? Click here.)

Visiting Cemeteries

The enormously-long title perfectly describes this entertaining nonfiction book. Some may think the book is a bit morbid, but I found it endlessly fascinating. Maybe that's because my mother was a genealogist who taught me that cemeteries were pretty interesting places.

You see, I grew up in Louisiana where above-ground tombs were rather commonplace. It's the high water table that makes in-ground burial not an option in a lot of towns. So as a child, I tromped through cemeteries while my mother wrote down dates and read epitaphs aloud. I learned to appreciate tomb art and architecture which, for wealthier "residents" had been commissioned from the most important architects and artists of the particular generation.

Yet, the poorest "residents" had grave ornamentation that touches the heart. I remember marbles embedded in a century-old plain square of what looked like baked clay tile that marked the grave of a child.

It may sound macabre, but I've visited cemeteries in lots of cities and small towns -- and in countries to which I've traveled. Because of my early exposure to the history inherent in the cemeteries where my ancestors are housed, I never considered a burial ground as spooky or creepy or even depressing. In fact, there's a certain peaceful quietude to be found in a cemetery.

Fascinating Book

When I saw Tod Benoit's book, I knew I had to read it if only to satisfy my curiosity about whether Jim Morrison was really in his grave in Paris. Benoit gives the myth of Morrison according to conspiracy theorists. Whether or not he's in the grave in Paris in the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery is up for debate. Regardless, the grave draws a million visitors a year, and, I understand, most Parisians consider it bothersome. (I'd have gone if I'd had time when I was in Paris.)

From Aaliyah to Warren Zevon, from Buddy Holly to Kurt Cobain, from rappers to Elvis, from Lombardi and Tom Landry to Walter Payton, Lou Gehrig, and Shoeless Joe Jackson, from Heath Ledger to Marilyn Monroe, from Truman Capote to Norman Mailer, this book covers all who were significant in their respective fields of endeavor.

The book gives a short entertaining biography of the person's life, tells how they died, sometimes gives the epitaph, and tells where they're buried, with directions on how to get to the grave site. Although the names in each category aren't listed under the chapter headings, there is a clickable Index in alphabetical order.


Chapter Headings

Gen-X Standouts
Baby Boomer Icons
Senior Memories
Sports Heroes
Television & Film Personalities
Original Women
Greats of Literature, Philosophy, & the Arts
Heroes of Rock & Blues Music
Popular Music Icons
Famous Personalities & Infamous Newsmakers
Notable Figures from History
Appendix: How to Find Where Someone Is Buried
Index

Takeaway Truth

Like the epitaph on the tomb of Mel Blanc, the man of 1,000 voices, says: "That's all, Folks!"

Storm Protection For PC

This has been a week of rain, rain, and more rain plus a few power outages that make being online a rather risky proposition.

Ever since my router blew out a couple of years ago in a storm, I've made it a habit to turn everything off and unplug from power during these storms. Routers like the one I have a a tad expensive, and I don't want to blow up another one. So I haven't spent a lot of time online as you can tell by the absence of daily blog posts.

Today brings another day of stormy weather (feel free to hum along at this point) so I thought I'd post about how to protect your PC and your data from damage caused by sudden power disruption.

Most Dangerous Time

The most dangerous time for the power to go out for your computer is when it's booting up or shutting down. If the power is cut during those two events, it can not only fry your computer but also the processing system and possibly other software linked to startup.

If you're working on a laptop, you have a battery – and hopefully, it's charged, so you have time to finish the startup or closing, and then go through the proper procedure to shut everything down.

If your on a desktop, you should have the same time if you've been smart and bought what is commonly called a Battery Backup.

Uninterruptible Power Supply

A battery backup is more properly called an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS for short). Everyone who depends on a computer needs one of these. I've used UPS's for years, but I never plugged the router into it – until the storm killed the router that time.

Depending on the kind of UPS you have, you'll have X amount of time to finish the exit process or the boot process then go through the shut down procedure or to save data and close open apps then shut the PC down. Every crucial expensive piece of equipment should be plugged into a UPS which is then plugged into a wall.

Buy The Right UPS

The longer the battery operational life; the more expensive the UPS. So judge the individual options with that thought in mind. Also, you need one with enough open outlets to plug in, at minimum, your PC, monitor, router, sound, and maybe your printer.

Some UPS units have opposing rows of outlets with one side for battery backup and surge protection and the other for surge protection only. I've been using the APC brand for years and have never had a problem with any of them. The one I've got resembles the illustration above which is a APC BE550G Back-UPS ES 8 Outlet 550VA 120V. This one is less at $55.00 than the one I bought a couple of years ago.

Proper Usage

The UPS is used to protect your equipment during booting and closing and to allow you to save data, properly close programs, and properly turn the equipment off during a sudden power outage. It is not to power the computer for a long time – unless you pay a huge amount for one.

Once you've got the UPS installed and everything plugged into it, make it a habit to always turn off your PC if you are leaving for more than a few hours. That way if the power goes out, you aren't draining the UPS to keep what's plugged into it powered.

If I'm to be gone overnight, I turn everything off including the UPS then I unplug from the wall outlet. If left on, I suppose the UPS could conceivably drain itself just by giving the warning beep that alerts you to the fact that the power has been disrupted. Of course, that would probably take a couple of days, but here in hurricane country, that's always a possibility. (By the way, it's good to have a UPS for an expensive flat panel TV also.)

A UPS is another expense, but your monetary investment in computers and other electronics is probably significant. I checked out the APC page on Amazon. Prices range from $45.00 to about $300.00 and up. Saving a system and data at a cost of less than a hundred dollars isn't bad.

Takeaway Truth

Protect that investment with a good uninterrupted power supply. It might just save you a lot of money and grief later.