Notes from the author

Thank you for stopping by to grab your copy of these spring flower banners. Each was created from a photograph I took of flowers in my garden. The images are 1000px by 200px jpegs. Simply right-click the preview picture and save the .zip file to your computer. Extract and enjoy!

Flower Banners by AmyJoGarner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

I always like to support my fellow writers. Rubies in the Garden is a lovely inspirational book from Cynthia Boyer. She writes:

Rubies in the Garden has been divinely penned to help you tap into God’s reservoir of blessings, blessings you may not even be aware of, but are always present in your everyday life.

Rubies in the Garden is available in eBook format for instant download for $9.95.

I’m a member of a service called ExpertClick that connects experts and journalists, and I want to thank Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound, for originally bringing this service to my attention last year. Some of the benefits of participating in ExpertClick include a detailed profile page (see mine) and the opportunity to submit press releases. These press releases are quickly indexed by Google and can help with your Internet rankings.

In addition, the site allows journalists to use key words to search for experts. If you have a good profile page and links to good content about yourself, you may just get a call from someone who needs to interview an expert in your field. Authors trying to market their books on their own need all the help they can get, and I believe ExpertClick is an excellent tool to add to the author’s promotional toolbox.

For more information visit the profile of  Mitchell P. Davis, founder and editor of ExpertClick.

(PS: No, I’m not getting paid for this! I just like the service!)

I’m working on an e-workbook called The Priority Reset that will be a gift to everyone who registers at Soul Path Personal Development but will otherwise sell for $12.95. The purpose of this workbook is to help people identify their priorities and align their actions to support those priorities. Too often we believe something is important to us because it is important to others. Or, we know something is important to us but we give it a low priority because it is not important to others. The Priority Reset challenges us to reset this thinking and assign high priority status to the things that matter to each of us individually.

I’m creating this in a workbook format because this is not a quick task. It takes time to identify our true priorities and establish plans to bring them to the forefront of our thinking and our planning.

Keep an eye out here or at The Soul Path for more information.

Here’s an inspiring novel from my friend, Gazelle Simmons. I’m pleased to affiliate with her in spreading the word.

I’ve migrated all of my basic themes for sale to their own home… kind of like a hermit crab moving to a new shell!

Visit ThemeHermit.com to purchase basic WordPress themes for $5. A new theme is added each week.

Preview of Cut Flowers

I love taking pictures of flowers. And I love using Photoshop to remove the background, leaving nothing but the beautiful bloom. My Christmas gift to you is a collection of 10 flower blooms from my garden. The zip file includes each bloom as a jpeg on a white background and as a gif on a transparent background. Use them in your digital scrapbooking, your graphics, or for websites. You are free to use them in any commercial or non-commercial project.

Merry Christmas!

Right-click the picture to save cutflowers.zip to your computer and then unzip it to access the pictures.

Cut Flowers by AmyJoGarner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

In case you don’t run in web writing circles, the past couple of days have been filled with a major internet-driven backlash against a small magazine called Cooks Source. Apparently the magazine used a writer’s previously web-published article without permission. They published her byline; they just didn’t ask first. All would have been well if the editor of Cooks Source had responded professionally and apologetically to the writer’s inquiries. Instead, the writer got a snarky response and a lecture on how everything on the internet is public domain. What the editor apparently failed to comprehend is that today’s writers are connected to one another via the very internet from which Cooks Source has been skimming for articles.

The response to the Cooks Source editor’s actions was swift and brutal. The Cooks Source FaceBook fan page has turned into a never-ending barrage of flames. Blogs and mainstream media alike have covered the story. Cooks Source advertisers have been contacted. Diligent supports of the wronged writer have discovered numerous other cases in which the magazine used web-based articles and photographs without permission and have contacted those sources to inform them of the misuse.

Watching this play out has been fascinating. It’s also been instructional: if you’re a professional, act like one. It seems the editor assumed she was dealing with a writer without any resources or any means to enforce her copyright claims. Her assumption allowed her to treat the writer with disrespect. But she miscalculated. One ticked off writer blogs her experience and shares with her online network of friends. They all share with their friends. The links get forwarded, liked, twittered, and facebooked. In a nutshell, the story went viral—in a hurry. And now that editor understands that there is no such thing in the year 2010 of a writer without resources.

Thinking about stealing web content? Take it from Cooks Source—it’s probably a bad idea.

Links for more info:
the original blog post
Cooks Source FaceBook page (caution:the remarks are often off-color)
Washington Post article
Publishers Weekly article

It’s that time of year. No, not the time for apple cider, hay rides, and s’mores around the campfire on a chilly autumn evening. It’s the time for coffee, comfy chairs, and late nights in front of the computer screen. It’s National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a 50,000-word novel between November 1 and November 30. That’s 1667 words a day.

I’m not sure why writers take this challenge each year. I know my November is so over-scheduled that I’m checking my phone for alerts every hour to figure out what I’m supposed to do next. Yet, tonight, like last night and every night until midnight November 30, I’ll be writing a novel.

I like what’s happened in my storyline so far, but what’s not to like in 1600 words? My main characters are developing nicely. No surprise that one is a tall, strong woman. What is a surprise to me (and how plot lines can surprise the creator I’ll never understand) is the level of conflict developing in the story. We’ll see what happens tonight as Kevin and Veronica try to track down BigX, the mysterious serial killer loose in Polk County.

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