7 Good Health Tips Within Your Power

Everyone always wants to know simple things one can do for good health. The only problem is that simple often doesn't mean easy.

Here are 7 things that are simple and easy. Best of all these 7 things are totally within your power to do every single day. They pay big benefits for your short term and long term health.

No pills, potions, or injections needed.

No supplements--weird or common--no gym memberships, or money needed.

7 Good Health Tips

1. When you get up each morning, drink a glass of water. That's so easy. That gets your digestive system primed and ready to go. Plus, it hydrates you and gets you ready for the day.

2. While you're drinking that water, take a few minutes to think about your day. Focus on what's important to do and what you can do for fun or to please yourself.

3. While you shower, take a couple of minutes to visualize yourself being happy, healthy, and successful. Create a mental image that reflects that. Do this visualization often during the day. This will grow an optimistic attitude within you.

4. All day long if you see people you know, smile. If you see people you don't know, smile. Smiles are contagious plus the act of smiling releases endorphins in your brain that lift your mood. That will increase your optimism and diminish pessimism.

5. All day long, wherever you walk, walk briskly, standing straight, and breathing deeply.

6. Remember to say thank you with a smile. Do an experiment. When a cashier asks the required: "How are you today?" Smile and reply: "I'm good. How are you?" Often, they'll look surprised. Sometimes, your answer and attitude will make them pause and perk up. Optimism begets optimism.

Writer's Journal Design by Joan Reeves

7. Get a jump on tomorrow by planning tomorrow. Use a calendar, a Day Planner, or a blank book. Make a list of what you want to do so you'll be on track as soon as you get up.

Shown at left is my journal design available on my CafePress shop.

Bonus Tip

Write in a journal about an hour before bedtime. Dump all your worries, cares, anxieties, and fears onto paper. Get all that black bile negativity our of your head and onto paper then forget about it.

Some do this on looseleaf paper then shred the page full of crap. Others put it in a journal. Writing down all the woes of life can have a cathartic effect. Once you've dumped it on paper, it actually frees your mind from thinking of them all the time.

Takeaway Truth

These are all really simple and easy to do each day, but if you're the type that's overwhelmed by change, just take it one tip per day at a time. Seven tips; seven days. Build up to doing all these. I think you'll find that your day runs smoother and you work more effectively.

Happy Valentine's Day

I'm traveling, but I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day.

Be sure and take advantage of the many Valentine Romance box sets.

There are posts scheduled until I return to the office.

Takeaway Truth

See you next Monday.

High Cost of Home Repair

Today is one of those days you don't want. The furnace and air conditioning system were replaced in our house in Houston. What a way to blow major bucks.

I guess it's not really blown since we do need heat in the winter. Not to mention air conditioning in the long hot summers.  Even though I grew up without air conditioning, I'm used to it so it seems a necessity.

Two crews showed up bright and early. The plumber first at 7:30. The old heating system was electric. The new one is gas so we had to have a plumber run the gas line and install a vent in the roof. That translated into more expense.

The air conditioning/heating installers arrived at 9:30. They left at 8:30 tonight. We spent the day without heat and listening to all kinds of banging around from the attic. The noise alone was disconcerting. There's a lot of technical stuff that goes into modern heating and air conditioning systems including an electronic brain.

The temperature outside was 39 when they started. We spent the day spent trying to stay warm. I worked on the laptop and tried to focus on my manuscript.

By the time the crew started testing the new furnace, the temperature in the house had dropped to 60. Bearable, yes. But I was glad when the new furnace quickly raised the temp to 70.

The difference between heat produced by a gas furnace and that produced by an electric furnace is truly amazing. For the first time, the house feels uniformly warm. How wonderful.

The good news is that we have a brand new heat/AC system. The bad news is that the plumber identified problems with the water heater and some of the connectors to the copper pipes. So he'll be visiting us again in about a month. *groan*

The other bad news is that the AC installer head honcho identified a problem in the electrical panel box. Our electrician will be visiting up in a couple of weeks. *another loud groan*

Takeaway Truth

I hope I sell a boatload of books. That will help pay for today and the upcoming visits from the plumber and electrician. Seriously, I'm in the wrong business. I should have been either a plumber or electrician. I could already be retired to a hilltop villa in Tuscany! *g*

Review: Quest Multicast TV Network

In my local area, Quest, a new TV network, debuted on January 28, 2018.

This American network is described as a digital multicast television network, and it's owned by Cooper Media which also owns the Justice Network.

Quest, self-described as entertaining "viewers with exhilarating adventure programming, is broadcast nationwide via OTA digital television. In other words, you can watch it via an HD antenna, no cable or satellite required. I must say it lives up to its programming description.

The target audience? Adults between the ages of 25 and 54.

Love Documentaries?

If you're a documentary fan, you'll love Quest because it specializes in travel, historical, science and adventure-focused documentary. They also show some of the more interesting reality series like Modern Marvels, Storm Chasers, IRT Deadliest Roads, and Auction Kings.

They also shows like Life After People which is an interesting blend of imagination and science with a heavy dose of post-apocalyptic solemnity. 

If you're an armchair military historian, you'll really like all the shows about the various wars.

According to Wikipedia, Quest has "pending affiliation agreements with television stations in 36 media markets (including 24 of the top 30) encompassing 24 states..."

I do love good documentaries so I've been watching the ones of WWII battles using computer graphics to "reenact" the battles which really gives an interesting perspective to these historical events.

Takeaway Truth

Documentaries not only entertain, but they are a rich source of ideas for authors. Two of my books were inspired by documentaries. So if you're in need of inspiration, watch a few documentaries.

Get Busy

All I have for you today is a quotation because I'm busy writing.

Just typing the words, "busy writing," made me think about the quote I'm sharing because professional authors are always busy writing. I think it's because we know if we stop, the doubt and fear about the story we're pulling word by word from our brains will overwhelm us.

"If you want to conquer fear, don't sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy." ~ Dale Carnegie

Takeaway Truth

Oh my goodness! Those two sentences hold so much truth.

Public Voting on Book Covers Now Open

The Judges of JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER Contest have had their say. Now it's time for the Readers Choice Voting to take place.

Fire up your laptop, tablet, or phone and go to JABBIC Readers Choice Page and start voting. It's really easy. Click on the Category name, scroll through the book covers posted there, and select the number of stars for each cover. (The stars are below each cover, and they're gray until you vote for the cover by clicking the number of stars you wish.)

Get DEAD HEAT from Your Amazon Kindle Shop.

By the way, my cover for DEAD HEAT is in the Romantic Suspense Category. I'd love a vote if you like the cover art.

Take note of the artist's name listed below each book cover if you're in need of cover art. If you reach out to a designer, be sure to let them know you spotted them in the JABBIC!

Readers' Choice voting ends at midnight, February 15, 2018.

Takeaway Truth

Scroll, browse, and vote now!

Bulletproof Your Title

If you are an author, or you want to be an author, you need to learn about the business side of writing. You need to know there are legal implications of publishing your work.

Do you know about "fair use" and about words or phrases that may be trademarked?

Fair Use

In U.S. Copyright Law, the doctrine of Fair Use means brief excerpts of copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder.

Under U.S. Copyright Law, a song title cannot be copyrighted. That's why you see so many book titles that bear the title of very popular songs.

Copyright Vs. Trademark

There's another kind of registration that companies depend on to protect their intellectual property, and it's Trademark Registration.

How does Copyright Registration and Trademark Registration differ? In essence, each protects different types of assets.

Copyright is for literary and artistic work, such as books and videos. Trademark protects items that help define a company brand, such as its logo, or the goods (and sometimes services) that company makes.

Because companies want to protect their products and their economic livelihood, they are fierce in registering and protecting trademarks. To that end, there are certain words or phrases you can NOT use in book titles without incurring corporate wrath.

I learned from the late Kate Duffy, one of my first editors, that I couldn't use the title, "What's up, Doc?" on my romantic comedy they'd contracted.

Why? What'S Up, Doc?® is a registered trademark used for Printed Matter and Paper Goods, Namely, Books ... and owned by Time Warner Entertainment Company.

Kate explained the matter to me, and we agreed to change the title to Just One Look , and the comedy of errors courtship romance has been a huge seller for me ever since it was first published.

Bulletproof Your Title

You don't want to use a title that is already used by more publishers than you can count. You also don't want to use a title that is a registered trademark without permission of the trademark owner. If you do, they may unleash their big dog lawyers on you.

If you're thinking you're just some small fry, unknown by one and all, so you're safe, allow me to correct you. They will take you to the cleaners. (By the way, I use Google alerts to keep track of where my name and book titles pop up so you know trademark owners do this too, and they have a whole lot more people guarding their names and trademarks.)

Before you carve your title in stone, here's what you need to do.

3 Ways To Research Your Title

1. Plug the proposed title into an Amazon Search. I'll admit that it's getting harder and harder to find a title that hasn't been used. Do you honestly want a title that's got dozens of books with the same one? When you have a list of 5 or 6 titles, move to the second step.

2. Plug the proposed title into a search engine like Google and check the first 2-3 SERP to see what pops up. Take what's left of your title list and move to step 3.

3. Search the United States Trademark Database for those title phrases. That's the main page which explains the various options. Scroll down until you find Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) and you'll see a big button that says Search Trademarks. Click it and get started.

A Few Tips To Get Started

There are HELP tips on the webpage so just read if you don't know what to do.

When you do a search, don't use quote marks around the title the way you do in most searches because one or more of the words in the title might be trademarked but not the entire phrase you want to use.

On the Trademark website, you'll see in the middle of the page, Basic Word Mark Search which allows searching of the most commonly searched fields: word marks, serial or registration numbers, and owners and is designated New User.

Type in your tentative title, and you'll discover if the phrase is, or has been, trademarked. Personally, even if it comes up "dead," meaning not currently registered, I'd play it safe and still not use it because it has once been registered and that may create legal problems for you.

For more information, specifically about movie titles and trademark, read this article by Jonathan L. Handel. Yes, it was published 10 years ago, but I believe the information is still valid.

Takeaway Truth

It's easier and cheaper to prevent an infringement problem than to fix one.