Happy Christmas 2015!

Christmas Card 2016
The following is sappy sentiment perhaps, but heartfelt all the same.


May your days be merry and bright
May your heart be filled with joy and light
May the yuletide be generous to you and yours
May the season inspire memories good and pure
May your blessings be many and your troubles be few
Happy Christmas to all, Happy New Year too


With hope and love
Shel

An Amazing Anniversary

Today is official!

For those of you who don't recall, last year about this time I announced and celebrated the culmination of a beautiful love story: The wedding of a special couple, my husband's grandparents. At the time, Grandma was 96, and her groom? 99!

As of today, these two are celebrating their 1st YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

Grandma is 97, and her groom? 100!

While his health is degenerating, he is still sharp and still with us, and might even make it to 101.

My heart is still overjoyed, I am still so in awe of this Amazing, Amazing Couple!

Happy Anniversary!

A Birthday Nonsense and Nonesuch

I woke today feeling the need to rhyme. And this is the poor result of that labor.

Today I am forty-one.

For all I have gained, still more is going gone.

For all I am doing, seems so little is done.

And yet of love my years are barely begun

And for tales like fiber to spin and spun

And for battles unending and battles won

Today is the day I am forty-one.

The Transition to 2015

Okay, so another year flew by and I didn't achieve nearly anything that I wanted to. My own fault.

2014, however, was not a Shelton-friendly year. I am grateful for its demise.

2015 I hope will prove much more Shelton-friendly. But even if it doesn't, my sincerest hope is that 2015 will prove to be much more friendly to the rest of you.

May you and yours have the very bestest year on record!

Love and hugs and caviar dreams!
Shel

A Christmas Wish

We've lost too many. Their memories haunt our hearts and make our celebrations bittersweet.

We've lost too much. Our freedoms are chipped for a promise of security that will never be delivered.

We've been kicked down, lied to, robbed from, deceived, and trespassed against. Every single hurt builds inside us like a pearl harbored in an oyster. If it grows, the oyster will die.

And on top of all this pain, the season seems to draw out the worst in some people. Snatching and pulling and pushing and shoving so they can feel better about their situations.

There are people who are left in the cold, made to freeze by cold people. And the cycle of winter in men's souls continues.



Let us make a promise, today, that the chain of winter will be broken. We can only get past pain pearls and other hurts if we learn to love one another and forgive.

My Christmas Wish for you this year is that you can let go of your pains before they become pearls, and find love in the shadows of despair, and discover in yourself the power to forgive.

Our Savior would want this as a birthday present, no matter the time of year we remember Him. Let's do our very best to give him this present from here on out.


With love and peace and hope,
I wish you and yours a very, very Happy Christmas.

Dispelling the Hierarchy of Cousins

The Roots of the Leaves in the Trees Series- Episode 1

GENE 101: Intro to DIY Genealogy

For those of you paying close attention to my life, you’ll already be aware of the obsession I have in all things genealogy, whether my own or someone else’s, often at the expense of my writing time. (See me procrastinate during NaNoWriMo?) My obsession shouldn't be surprising: I love puzzles and I love research and I love history, so voila: genealogy. 

My first challenge with genealogy is still one I face daily. How many ways can I misspell genealogy? An embarrassing number of ways, to be honest with you, and my favorite misspelling happens to be gene-o-logy. 

Moving past my inability to spell the word correctly, I dive down the rabbit hole of my family tree daily. Sometimes I only spend minutes to tweak a birth-date or marriage date, or just to sync my online tree with my offline tree. Other, I spend whole afternoons, well into the wee small hours of long past time I should’ve been in bed, ferreting out the small details of a distant branch, linking that branch to George Washington or El Cid, or to the plumber up the street, Nick…Nick…Something Greek. I have over eight thousand relatives to keep track of now, as if I didn't already have enough cousins that I can’t name right off the top of my head. And the number grows with each of my visits.

But another challenge I face daily with the study of gene-a-logy is what title to give these blood relations. Mom and Dad, simple. Grandma and Grandpa, still simple. My Aunt's kids are my 1st cousins. Not rocket science. My mom’s cousin is my second cousin. Simple.

Wait. My mom’s cousin? Is she my second cousin or is she my first cousin once removed? Now I have a problem. I spent forty years of my life KNOWING my mom’s cousin Lucy IS my SECOND cousin. I spent the last few months puzzled at the online tree stating in black-and-white, Lucy is your first cousin once removed. Not only that but my mom’s uncle Jasper apparently is NOT my Great Uncle, he is my Grand Uncle.

That sound you just heard? My brain cracked itself open like the egg in that “say no to drugs” commercial from the ‘80s and fried.

But, this is a puzzle I have to solve, so on we go.

For those of you who had this figured out already, I applaud you and I ask you not to laugh at me. 

For those of you in the same boat as me, let me help you row this boat a little closer to shore. Of course, maybe by the time I’m done, you’ll be begging to pull the little stopper at the bottom of the boat so we can surrender our souls to Davy Jones Locker.. 

I’ll start with the easy part. Grand Uncle vs. Great Uncle Jasper.

Well my mom’s mother Lena is my maternal grandmother, right. Lena’s mother Jessie would then be my great-grandmother. 

Parents, then Grandparents, then Great-Grandparents. Check.

Uncles, then Grand Uncles, then Great-Grand Uncles. Check.

It makes sense then that Grandmother Lena’s brother Jasper is my Grand Uncle.

Again, for those of you who had this figured out already, STOP LAUGHING AT ME. I've been calling Jasper my Great Uncle my whole life. This is a tough habit to break.

Now comes the fun part. Cousins. 

We don’t call them Cousins, then Grandcousins, then Great-Grandcousins, so on and so forth. Cousins are instead assigned degrees, like the Master Masons of Free & Accepted Masonry. Okay, it’s not an exact similarity, but it’s just as shrouded in mystery to me, so it’s the analogy I’m going with. These degrees are based solely on where the link actually happens.

First Cousins:
The relationship to me of my Parents' Siblings' offspring.
One step up. Sibling. One step down.

• Once removed: the child of my first cousin.
• Twice removed: the grandchild of my first cousin
• Thrice removed: the great-grandchild of my first cousin, etc.

Second cousins.
The relationship to me of my Grandparents’ Siblings’ Grandchildren.
Two steps up. Sibling. Two steps down.

• Once removed:  the child of my second cousin
• Twice removed: the grandchild of my second cousin
• Thrice removed: the great-grandchild of my second cousin, etc.

Third Cousins.
The relationship to me of my Great-Grandparents’ Siblings' Great-Grandchildren.
Three steps up. Sibling. Three steps down.

• Once removed: the child of my third cousin
• Twice removed: the grandchild of my third cousin, etc.

Fourth Cousins.
The relationship to me of my Great-Great Grandparents’ Siblings’ Great-Great-Grandchildren.
Four steps up. Sibling. Four steps down.

• Once removed: the child of my fourth cousin
• Twice removed: the grandchild of my fourth cousin

There's a few more steps in-between this that I could go into, but I will stop here because I’m running out of frying power in my brain skillet. And my only real goal behind this post was to be able to explain this someday to my nieces and nephew. Or maybe even my cat, if I can keep her attention long enough to listen.

But, I do have a cheat sheet available for those of you who would like to noodle through this. Feel free to share and distribute this as you want. It’s not fancy, but it might help you out. 

Of course, it might also be what sends you to the Funny Farm, so download at your own risk.

My Roots of the Leaves in the Trees series addresses challenges the amateur or hobbyist DIY genealogists face when attempting to map out their family trees. It stems from a passion I have to solve puzzles, compile research, and bring history back to life. The more we know of our past, the better we can understand ourselves and the struggles of others. 

Precipice 2014 - Save the Date!

Precipice III is now available for pre-order!

If you don't want to pre-order, mark November 17th as the day you will buy this third volume of Precipice, the literary anthology of Write On Edge. 

If you want to have a physical, dead-tree, paperback copy because you think your e-book reading device is eating your brain, your date is December 1st. 

If you just want a paperback copy as a companion for your other paperbacks, that's good too. Your date is still December 1st. 

Precipice 2014 will make an ideal Christma-solsti-hanu-kwanz-akkah gift for those of you who participate in the gift-giving festivities of December.

It'll make an even better "I just had to get this for you because I love you that much" present for any of the other days of the year.

The point, honored guests, that I am trying to make is that you don't want to miss adding this volume to your Precipice collection. 

And if you're a Shelton Keys Dunning fan, you'll want to add this volume to your collection of Shelton Keys Dunning works, because, yes this is a shameless plug, I AM IN THIS BOOK! 

If you're tired of all things Shelton Keys Dunning, Precipice 2014 is your chance to check out amazing authors from the talented Write On Edge community. There is something in this volume for everyone!

This is an immoral imperative. This is mandatory fun.

This is a basic human necessity.

So go get it.

A Toast to Love and Wedded Bliss

Last Friday, my husband’s 96-year-old grandmother eloped with her 99-year-old boyfriend.

Friday. October 3, 2014. My husband’s 96-year-old grandmother married her 99-year-old boyfriend.


They wanted to keep their marriage on the down-low. Technically, I’m breaking a family trust by telling this story, but I can’t help it. So the names and locations are omitted to keep confidence.

Their marriage, whether they believe so or not, is a celebration of hope and acceptance. Due to their ages, they are probably more aware of their finite future together than any other newly-married couple in America. And they took the plunge anyway.

When one encounters beauty in this world, the kind of beauty that shakes one at the core and brings one to one’s knees, one cannot keep it bottled up. I cannot keep this bottled up. I have to share.

Because love this beautiful is too powerful to keep on the-down-low.

I have only been in Grandma’s life a little over ten years. But during those years, I never once felt like I didn't belong in her family. She accepted me straight-up with open arms and a welcome home.

And what I have learned from her in those ten years cannot be quantified. She’s the most amazing person that I am privileged to know.

Grandma is fond of military men – her first marriage was to an Army man, the second to a Navy pilot who survived Pearl Harbor -- and her new husband is no exception. Her now-husband was a Rear-Admiral in World War II and for a time during his military career, he worked at the Pentagon. His dry sense of humor is still quick and sharp, and he still enjoys a finger or two of a fine whiskey neat.

I want it known that I admire Grandma beyond measure. I know of the tragedies that have painted her life with devastating sorrow, the kind of sorrows that most would never recover from and no one would blame them for it. Yet, she is the phoenix that rises from the ashes, more radiant and glorious than ever.

And her husband I am equally in awe of. Again, open-hearted and accepting, from the first moment I met him. A man who knows the price of sacrifice, a man who made the call again and again, knowing that his decisions impacted the lives of his men in the Pacific Theater and the lives their loved-ones back home.

They don’t make men like him anymore.  His breed is so rare that I wonder how I could possibly be so fortunate to have met him. And I get to call him Grandpa now.

My heart is so full: I’m having difficulty finding the words I want to say, or even the words I should be saying. I only know that words must be said.

A toast to the happy couple, who represent hope and heroism in their truest, purest form, an inspiration to all; May God continue to bless and keep you, and give you a thousand years of happiness each and every day.

Spambox Sunday: Something Enlightening to Read

Okay, it's that time. Please keep you hands and arms inside the train at all times. Hang on to those hats and glasses, and check that your seat-belts remain securely fastened. All aboard? Here we go again!

I.

whoah this weblog is great i really like studying your posts.
Keep up the great work! You realize, a lot of people are searching around for this info, you can help them greatly.

Thanks! I'm always happy to help.

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it's one thing to accomplish with Lady gaga!
Your individual stuffs nice. At all times maintain it up!

Ah, you've been here before. This is your second visit. I'm starting to think you doth protest too much about Lady gaga fascination.

III.

Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video 
to make your point. You definitely know what youre talking about, why waste 
your intelligence on just posting videos to your weblog when you could be giving us something enlightening 
to read?

You know, I hate to break this to you but this isn't YouTube. I haven't posted a single video here. And I'm not particularly inclined to do so either.

But don't worry, people make this mistake all the time. Cheers!

IV.

I'm really loving the theme/design of your web site.
Do you ever run into any browser compatibility issues?
A number of my blog visitors have complained about my blog not working correctly in Explorer but looks great in Safari.
Do you have any advice to help fix this issue?

You've been here before, too. I think this is maybe the third time? You really need to get someone to look at your Explorer. Maybe drive it to your local Ford dealership and get a Ford certified mechanic to look on it before you take it out on your next Safari? Otherwise, I got nothing



Okay folks, thanks for joining me for this edition of Spambox Sunday. I hope you enjoyed your stay, and you'll tune in next time for some more gems of wisdom from the spambox.

Spambox Sunday: At All Times, Handle It Up!

Some more gems from the Spambox ready for your entertainment.

I.

I'm really enjoying the design and layout of your blog.
It's a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more enjoyable for me to come here 
and visit more often. Did you hire out a developer to create 
your theme? Fantastic work! My site: boston celebrity style



Nope, this is your basic plug-n-play Blogger set-up. I'm technically-challenged like that.

II.

What i do not understood is if truth be told how you are not actually a lot more neatly-appreciated 
than you might be now. You are very intelligent.
You understand thus significantly in the case of this 
subject, made me personally imagine it from a lot 
of various angles. Its like women and men are not fascinated unless it's one thing to do with Lady gaga!Your own stuffs great. At all times handle it up! my weblog


I pledge this to you now, faithful readers: At all times, I will handle it up, despite the fact that I'm not Lady Gaga!

III.

Despite the fact that addiction to pc video games doesn't (yet) 
qualifies to the Diagnostic and Record Manual of Psychological Disorders (DSM), extreme gaming is something which is something which has begun to obtain widespread attention and there's a raging 
discussion on its dangerous side effects.
You are able to customize the body that enables you to change or take away components 
based on your personal preference. Of course, it doesn't demand you to become a 
pro gamer to beat your enemy.

My weblog 

Phew! It's good to know that I don't have to be a pro gamer to beat my enemy. Like any respectable author, I'll settle for having my revenge by writing my enemy into a book. *Insert evil laugh here* 

IV.

I seldom comment, but i did a few searching and wound up here 
"Travel Tuesday: The Vista south of San Onofre".
And I do have a few questions for you if you usually do not mind.
Is it just me or does it look as if like a few of the comments look like coming 
from brain dead folks? :-P And, if you are writing on other 
online social sites, I would like to follow everything fresh you have to post.
Would you list of all of all your social sites like your Facebook page, twitter feed,
or linkedin profile?My webpage


Now, hang on a minute. The spambox has several wonderful hacker-type people and scammer-like people and phishing-like people and spambot-like people. You just don't know them the way I do. My suggestion? Lurk some more and get to know them before you call them brain dead. If you insist on this foolishness, you won't make the next Spambox Sunday report. So there. *sticks tongue out and blows raspberry*


So that's it for this installment folks. Tune in next time for more gems from my spambox!

Memorial Day 2014

Ordinarily on this day, I would post something profoundly patriotic, an acknowledgment of those who have sacrificed so that I can sit on my duff and blog without fear.

And I would like to post such a thing, especially as the adverts for Memorial Day Sales flood my inbox with deals I can't afford to pass up, and I really can't afford to buy to begin with.

Any drop of blood sacrificed for our sins should be counted and revered. And those gone are not lost from us forever if we honor them and keep them close to our hearts.

This Memorial Day is overshadowed by a tragedy that borders on the peculiar. A man spurned rampaged against those he felt responsible for his loneliness. And the public appears now obsessed with a handful of individuals Tweeting misogynistic dribble in support of this man they feel kinship with at the hashtag YesAllWomen.

The tragedy is three-fold. A broken man. The deaths of the innocent. The martyrdom of one who cannot possibly deserve it by those who should know better.

At first I was loathe to comment, for this sort of circus leaves me uneasy. Participating in blame games at the expense of those burdened with loss and despair is counter-grain to the core of my beliefs. People need their space to grieve and heal and they shouldn't have to see their grief used to fuel any agenda. It's sick and immoral. 

Still, here I am, on this of all days, and I feel compelled to call Humans out on their bullshit..

See, Humans, if nothing else, are predictable in their anti-social behaviors. Individuals said some pretty vile things in the public arena because they're seeking attention. By discussing it, even to point out how viciously flawed their outlook is, we are unintentionally lending them a credible platform for their justification and fueling their frenzy. Negative attention is still attention..

At the heart of this, a deeply troubled man felt justified in taking lives, and while we don't have to condone any aspect of what he did, we can at least agree that his very nature is pitiable, regardless of his motivation. Mental illness takes on many, many forms and any small event can trigger an episode that impacts on a epic scale.

Unresolved frustration leads to anger. 

Unresolved anger will twist broken souls until there is nothing decent left. 

Victims of his violence are to be mourned and given respect, and their families should be afforded what sympathy and support we can provide. Witnesses too, for shock and stress can haunt those ill-equipped to deal with horrors beyond their control or comprehension. Each one of them could have easily been one of us, our siblings or parents, our children or loved ones. 

In short Humans, the lesson we need to learn isn't the lesson anyone else seems to be discussing. We can't move forward as a species until we learn to love each other more, comfort those who despair, heal those who are wounded, and protect those who cannot fend for themselves. And stand our ground against those that insist on perpetuating unconscionable evil. 

Take this time to reflect on the souls we miss. 

Take care of their legacy. 

We are the only ones left who can.

Travel Tuesday: The Vista south of San Onofre

My husband and I recently took a drive along the coast of California to attend an event in Oceanside. We made this drive several times before as a couple, and hundreds of times during our courtship when we lived 109 miles from one another.

Our shadows

This time though, we left earlier than we needed to, armed with our cameras, so that we could take a few minutes to enjoy the vista turn off south of San Onofre, the nuclear power station. We couldn't have asked for better weather and we got some remarkable pics between the two of us.

San Onofre Power Station

Traffic looking southbound from the vista

Not entirely sure what purpose this was for, so I took a picture. I'm goofy like that.

Wildflowers common to California

a surprise in the sun

At some point, a couple of tourists decided to open a bag of potato chips and started feeding the ground squirrels. The creatures surrounded us in tens and twenties and were so stinking cute. My husband and I stayed longer to snap nearly 200 pictures of ground squirrels doing ground squirrel things.

A word to the wise however: no matter how cute critters are, there is a reason wild animals live in the wild. They are not defenseless, nor are they harmless. Ground squirrels may not be carnivorous, but their teeth are strong enough to crack the toughest nuts and can easily break stray fingers. Tiny fingers of children are exceptionally vulnerable to having a bad day. So please, don't feed any wildlife anywhere. There are dangers and diseases waiting in a single bite or a simple scratch, never mind the danger it poses to the animals. So again, word to the wise, don't feed the wildlife. They're fine on their own, trust me.

Rainy Days & Mondays: Greenhouse Mishap

Agasga gohi-iga.

Cherokee for "It's raining today."

It's also windy, so in the immortal words of Winnie-the Pooh: Happy Winds-day!


For me though, the wind was cruel. Utterly cruel. Before I get to that though, I should explain how I got here. Don't worry, I'm not starting with how my parents met or discussing awkward tales of growing up today.

Of late, I've been neglecting my social obligations - for which I apologize wholeheartedly - mostly because my family and I are in the midst of our annual Spring Rite. We are tearing apart our backyard and creating a Victory Garden of epic proportions. Okay, maybe not so epic in the scheme of things, but pretty epic to me. I'm not even doing most of the heavy lifting and still, every day I go to bed early, exhausted, with every muscle flagging. My parents have been wonderfully obliging and are allowing me to experiment with different plants and layouts this year. I'm trying my hand with companion planting and trellising plants that wouldn't normally trellis, and so far - and this is HUGE - I haven't killed anything yet, at least anything that came already sprouted.

But, I am concerned that seeds will not grow for me.

The first batch of seeds, I had a bit of a labeling mixup. That is to say, the ink washed away when I watered. That's not a big deal, I thought, I'll just figure them out when they sprout right? Well, then the seed-pots did a face plant off of a table when I wasn't looking. Who knew seedlings liked gymnastics? Marigolds really like gymnastics, because they disappeared right after the mishap. I have a suspicion that I'll see my marigolds on the parallel bars at the next Olympics, playing for the Canadians.

No worries though, right? I mean Canada's a pretty cool place and populated with super friendly people. And Marigold dated Dudley Do-Right. No wait, she dated Tom Slick...but I digress.

I made an attempt to salvage the rest of the seedlings, but the usually predictable Southern California weather refused to cooperate and made things colder than normal. I however, learn from my mishaps and mush forth, undeterred. I did a bit more research and went back to the drawing board. My husband didn't even laugh at me.

Next, I purchased a little 4-shelf greenhouse because it was on sale at Harbor Freight. It's not the best design necessarily, but it's functional and with a few extra zipties to provide some stability, it's become the closest measure of perfect I can afford. Oh and the plants I bought from Home Depot LOVE it. I wasn't going through nearly as much water to keep everybody happy. And inside the plastic, it was a balmy heat. The plants could sit in their happy little sauna and wait patiently for transplant time.

And as it occurred to me, the greenhouse was perfect for seeds. (Don't laugh, I'm new to greenhouse gardening) I started a new set of seed pots, excited that this time, with the greenhouse providing the best environment, that the seeds would sprout right up in no time at all. What could possibly go wrong?

Well...I mentioned the wind today didn't I, how cruel it was to me? One enormous gust toppled my little greenhouse right over on it's nose, snapping a green pepper I had in half. But that wasn't the only damage I suffered.

Every seed-pot, every hope for a brand-new, started-from-seed plant, dumped right out onto the concrete in a confused mass of compost.

Some of those seeds had roots starting when this event happened. I know because they were now exposed in the compost mess. I am trying to salvage what I can, but as the labels upturned as well, I have no idea - again - which plants I'm actually attempting to rescue.

And to make matters worse, I just realized I didn't get pictures of ANY of this. Not one. So I can't even show you the progression of my life over the last few weeks.

So much for missed opportunities. I'm a rotten blogger. Bad Shelton, no biscuit.

I do, however, have a few pictures I took this afternoon, between rain drops and chasing the neighbor's third-generation feral cats out of the newly turned dirt. (Honestly people, if you live in a housing track, please be responsible pet owners and keep your cats indoors. I guarantee your outdoor cats are SHITTING in your neighbor's backyards)

At any rate, this is what I've been up to:

A Blue Lake varietal Bush Bean on the far left, an eggplant and four pepper plants to the center and right, and a view of Squash  in the background and the Tomatoes along the white wall in the very back. The redish stuff is mulch we picked out to form little walkways to make it easy to reach everything. I'm all about making things easier. I'm lazy like that. 

The Green Bell Pepper that snapped in half when the wind knocked over the greenhouse. 

Great snap of the deep root waterer (green and plastic, designed for a liter water bottle to screw into)...next to a Crookneck Squash. It's not very pretty nor particularly interesting I guess. I wasn't paying attention to what I was taking pictures of here...

A Cherokee Purple, an Heirloom variety

Tomatoes

Red Onions...or wait, those could still be weeds...

There you have it folks. Shelton Keys Dunning, amateur gardener, attempting self-sufficiency in Suburbia. If my city would let me keep chickens, I totally would...

Spambox Sunday: Shame on the Seek Engines

So a few anonymous British massage parlors and a Google Translate nightmare ended up on my Today's Spotlight: Finishing Touches post over the last couple weeks. Enjoy the following from my anonymous friends:

I.

You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this matter to be really something that I think I would never understand. It seems too complicated and extremely broad for me. I am looking forward for your next post. I’ll try to get the hang of it!

I can't wait. Good luck.

II.

Great work! That is the type of information that are meant to be shared around the web. Shame on the seek engines for now not positioning this submit upper! Come on over and consult with my website. Thank you. =)

No. Thank you. SHAME ON SEEK ENGINES! 

III.

This paragraph provides clear idea for the new people of blogging, that genuinely how to do blogging. Here is my blog post

So glad I can help...?

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I achieved web taste! I will be the envy of all! 

V.

Very great post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to say that I have truly loved surfing around your blog posts. In any case I will be subscribing for your rss feed and I hope you write again very soon!

Ah, thanks! I always look forward to your comments.

VI.

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Well, hey, points for honesty.

VII.

Hello. I think you blog might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your blog in Opera, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, terrific blog!

Hmm. I have had this issue before. I'll check the Explorer for peanut butter.

VIII.

Peculiar article, totally what I wanted to find.

I can be peculiar.

And last but not least:

IX.

Odtuz chwilowki oroEz my page procent chwilowki ktory

Google Translate hinted at Polish, turned inside out, and exploded. 

My First Blog Tour!

The beautiful and talented Karen at Time Crafted invited me to be the next stop on the writer's blog tour.

I'm excited that she has confidence in me, but at the same time, I have no clue what I'm doing. But here we go!

The theme of this tour is the writing process. Four questions. Four answers. Starting in 5...4...3...

1. What am I working on?

I have several irons in the fire. The next scheduled project to finish is the next in my Trouble series. The Cold Side of Trouble is promised to be released this year and I'm a solid 10 chapters in. I'm also starting another series that is going to be more paranormal urban fantasy than mystery, my usual haunt. Not to mention a few short stories and a flash fiction piece for submission to Write on Edge's 3rd Precipice. And that's just stuff on the front burner. On the back burner? It's pretty hectic.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

If I start to compare my work with others, I'm going to get a healthy dose of insecurity. I don't know that my stories differ much from others of the genres they belong to. Other than telling the stories through my voice and vision, and I have a pretty unique view of the world, I don't know how to answer this one.

As far as genre though, I don't stick to one, even within a story. Elements of humor and paranormal and intrigue and history and present day weave through the words I write, but I try to let the characters drive their stories. I think that way, it keeps the situations pretty real, no matter how much fantasy I'm infusing into the plot.

3. Why do I write what I do

I write the stories I want to read, and because nothing beats the feeling of opening the box that UPS or FedEx delivers and finding a dead-tree print copy of a book with my name on it. It's happened to me twice now, and I'm addicted. So I will write and write until UPS and FedEx stop delivering.

4. How does your writing process work?

It doesn't. Not very well at any rate. I'm not nearly as focused as I should be. One thing though, I don't suffer writer's block. Maybe I get stuck in one  story I'm writing. That's okay, I've got others. I cycle through all my stories until I find one that inspires me to keep going. It's slower writing that way I think, and often counter productive, but it keeps me in the habit of writing every day. 

Editing and formatting? Completely different story. I'm aggressive as an editor and I love the process of formatting for publication. So much so, I'm happy to do it for anyone else. Hint, Hint, Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge, Say no more!

Thank you Karen, for letting me be a part of this tour. It was a ton of fun! The next steps of the tour have not yet responded to my emails, so until they do, I will give you over to others in the tour that you might have missed. 

Check out my fellow colleges:

Kirsten Piccini is a gorgeous, gorgeous woman with exceptional talent, and one of the few romance authors I follow. She weaves humor and passion like a master craftsman, and her road to successful publication began with the release of Precipice volume II last year. 

Cameron D Garriepy is a writer am I in constant envy of. She makes crafting setting and memorable characters look easy. Yup, I'm pretty green, but she gives me an ideal to aspire to. 

and stay tuned for more authors coming your way!

Death and Taxes

Aspects of Independent Publishing part seven: Necessary Evils

There are only two certainties in life: Death and Taxes.

As we are in the throes of dying season and as tax season is come upon us, I feel now is a good a time as any to address the unpleasant stuff we, as individuals, don't want to face. We all know you can’t cheat Death, but the IRS believes everyone cheats with their taxes.

Before we go any further, I need to make it very clear that I am not, repeating for emphasis, I AM NOT ANY FORM OF A TAX EXPERT OR TAX PREPARATION PROFESSIONAL. I have a tax professional I employ for one very good reason: the IRS scares the jeebus out of me.

Don’t go to a baker for legal advice. Go see a lawyer.

Don’t go to a grocer for tax advice. Seek a tax expert.

How important is it for a self-published author to seek professional legal and tax advice?

If you’re asking that question, I’d say it was of tantamount importance, and there’s little my blog can offer you.

Shel, why are you bringing this up
if you’re not at least pretending to be an expert on this topic?

Because.

Listen, if your writing goals include the phrase “professional quality” at any stage, it behooves you to treat your writing career and your publishing career like businesses. All businesses have at least these three things in common: paperwork, liability, and fiscal responsibilities.

Get thee a business plan. Get thee a taxman. Get thee a lawyer.

Unpleasant Business #1: Business Plans

This is the one aspect that I’ve harped on about before, so I won’t spend a lot of time on it now. But. If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. Scope out successful small businesses, not necessarily in the publishing world, and explore their practices. 

• Adopt the practices that work for you, but above all that, establish a business plan. 
• Keep it flexible enough to evolve with the times and the markets, but solid enough that you can follow it daily, weekly, monthly, and annually. If you’re a hybrid author, as in one who publishes traditionally as well as independently, you’ll want a plan in place for when your rights revert back to you. 
• Keep in mind that overnight successes in the publishing world are far from it. There’s a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes, sometimes for years. When you ask your favorite indie author “how do you do it?” make sure you’re asking about their business practice as well as their creative process. Not everything they do will work for you, but it’s important to have a strong knowledge of the industry you’re in, about the players that make the system work for them and about the players who struggle while the system controls their product.

Unpleasant Business #2: Taxes

Taxes are necessary evils the world over. We are obligated, some of us even at a religious level, to “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.” And no one likes an IRS audit. So, if you do nothing else professional in your writing career, at the very least, get thee a taxman.

Shel, we get it.

You’re not a tax professional.

So everybody's on the same page? Good. Let’s look at some of the ways we’re screwed we incur tax liability. And my apologies to my non-United-States readers, as an American, my scope of experience here is limited to the United States. 

Hobbyists vs. the Self-Employed

IRS definitions are found in the intent of your writing goals. Are you dabbling at writing, maybe offering most of your work for free, or entering the odd poetry competition like one enters their pie at a county fair? Or do you have plans to eventually quit your day job and make a living off of your writing alone?

Hobby: one cannot deduct against any income except the income from the hobby.

Say you publish a novel and you receive your 1099 from Amazon that states you earned $1000 for the year off of that novel. You go back through your saved receipts and you see that you shelled out $300 for a cover design, $400 for editing services, $125 for your ISBN, and $525 for a writer’s convention all-weekend workshop pass. You brought $1000 in and paid $1350 out. A hobbyist can only claim $1000 in loss against his income. The hobbyist cannot offset that remaining $350 against his day job income.

So, as a hobbyist, you cannot spend on your hobby more than you earn with your hobby, at least as far as the IRS is concerned.

However, if your writing is a business, you can probably include the $3000 you spent in airfare, hotel, and meals on top of that $525 workshop pass and get a business loss deduction of $3350.

Why is this loss important? It reduces your taxable income then, and therefore, your tax liability. And your tax liability, as a self-employed 1099 anything, is at least 30%. You don’t take those deductions, you owe $300 on that $1000, $150 of which YOU HAVE TO PAY NO MATTER WHAT.

Why? What is that $150?

It’s that pesky thing called a self-employment tax.

What?

Those of us who have ever lost a job, you know that COBRA letter that comes in the mail? You may have only been paying $150 a month for your health insurance while you were working, but under COBRA, you can continue to get your health insurance benefits at full price. So for a mere $800 a month, you can keep your medical benefits. I know, it’s a bad dream.

The self-employment tax is kinda the same thing. Okay, it's completely different, but bear with me here. As an employee at your day job, you are required to contribute a little over 7% to fund Medicare and Social Security and your employer matches that. The result is 15% to Medicare and Social Security. But, being self-employed, you are both your employee and your boss. You are liable for both halves. So, if your writing is a business, you should expect to pay $0.15 on every dollar you earn.

But that 15% is AFTER all your deductions. If you earn $1000, and can deduct $900 in losses, your taxable income is only $100, and at a 15% tax bracket + 15% self-employment tax, the final tax of $30 is much softer to your pocketbook than $300.

Watch it though. The IRS doesn’t like 5 consecutive years of business loss. They’ll suspect you’re hiding your hobby as a business, and will audit accordingly.

Unpleasant Business #3: Death

Even before you hit the publish button, you become a copyright holder. Current copyright law affords protection of your completed or in most cases incomplete work (this area is a little fuzzy for me so don’t quote me here and expect it to stick) whether said work is officially published or not, for your lifetime plus 70 years.

I’m repeating for emphasis: Your lifetime plus 70 years.

At the risk of sounding like a life insurance salesman, what do you have in place to help your loved ones manage your estate? Will your estate end up in probate and tie the hands of your heirs for years while the government tries to sort out the dotted Ts and the crossed Is?

We have a living trust, Shel.
Give us some credit.

Yea! Credit is given as credit is due. But just to make it clear for that someone who isn’t as prepared as you, let’s pretend we’re brand new at this.

A copyright isn’t a tangible thing, like a desk or a lamp. It’s more akin to an idea, and it has a life of its own, one that is guaranteed to outlive you by 70 years. It’s not something one can list among other tangible possessions.

To Aunt Petunia I bequeath 30 pairs of worn socks, my barbed-wire collection, all my copyrights, and the Phil Collins album of her choice from my personal record collection.

The government treats your literary and other creative endeavors differently than they do your barbed-wire collection. And you should, too.

Okay Shel,
what do you have against Aunt Petunia?

Wait, don’t get angry. Aunt Petunia could very well be the best bet for maintaining your literary estate. My suggestion though would be to ask your loved ones, all of them, who would be interested in fostering your writing after your untimely demise. Don’t just dump this responsibility on your kids or your cat because you think they should want the job, and don’t blindside them at the reading of the will either.

Ask them if they have the same vision with your writing that you do. Ask them if they know of an author who could finish a manuscript that you might leave unfinished. Ask them if they want to be in this family business before you shuffle your dusty computer files over to them. Tell them you expect them to be honest in their responses, because this is a 70 year commitment, one that could outlive even them.

It’s a 70 year commitment that will require of them a working knowledge of the publishing industry and the way it evolves so that they can balance between keeping your legacy alive as according to your desires, and staying flexible enough to incorporate new avenues of production that might exist in the future. It’s a 70 year commitment that will require of them the ability to negotiate secondary and tertiary rights agreements to interested movie studios and action figure manufacturing companies.

I would further suggest that you keep your mind open to the idea that the perfect person or persons equipped to handle your literary estate just might not be related to you. Maybe that person or persons come from your literary circle of friends, the ones that helped you publish independently to begin with.

And once you have a good idea as to who you want in charge, make sure you keep them in the loop for the rest of your life. This is a commitment you want to keep fluid and flexible, because times change, and people change.

And get thee a lawyer, one who specializes in literary estates, one you trust. Consider their advice. Discuss your options with all interested parties present. Take an active role in protecting your work and your loved ones. A lawyer doesn't have to cost a lot either. Services like PrePaid Legal can provide top-quality legal eagles for a monthly fee that fits your budget.

It's important to keep in mind that your divorce lawyer isn't a living trust specialist, and your real estate lawyer isn't a criminal defense attorney. Just because your friend knows a good attorney doesn't mean he's going to fit your needs. Like all the professionals you contact, vet him first.

If you have other questions of a non-legal nature about publishing independently, or if you would like a cheer squad to help you walk through the process, feel free to ask me. I’m willing to help where I can. If it takes a village to raise a child, why not a community to publish a book?

Spambox Sundays: The Plan of a User

Found these gems in my spambox this week. This time, "they" seem to be after Today's Spotlight: Finishing Touches, which was highlighting a guest article I wrote for Write on Edge, and To Copyright or Not to Copyright, which is part of my Aspects of Independent Publishing series.

I have had more entertaining ones for sure, but these are still fascinating in their own right. I copied the texts just as I found them so rest assured, the grammar and spelling issues this time aren't mine.

When someone writes an paragraph he/she maintains the plan of a user in his/her mind that how a user can be aware of it. Therefore that’s why this post is perfect. Thanks! Feel free to surf  to my site…

 and this one:

Saved as a favorite. I love your blog! Have a look at my web page animation 

To be honest, I posted this last one not because I think it's particularly entertaining. I just liked the idea that someone somewhere bookmarked my site. Even if it's spam, it still tugs a bit at the old heartstrings.

That's what I got for you this week. How about you? Did you find anything fun in your spambox?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

May the conditions be perfect for you to keep each and every one of your resolutions!

All the best,
Shel

Spambox Sundays: It is Trump to Tell

Spambots are striking me again. This time they're after my Sticky's World story about  Podgy-Warbles. Look at the gem I found in my spambox:

believed. It is endeavour to go either. If you seem comforted, do not retrieve out when sales are natural event by requesting that dwell searching for it. It is trump to tell on straight from a digit verbalise legal instrument eff a greater investiture of $200-$400 for a fooling top. You Michael Kors Purses Outlet quadruple quotes when your purchase since you can feature colour later on the someone ahead offset. hence, you are or how diligently you think you can have discounts and deals. If you are making their monetary system locomote if they are comparison prices online, spend a penny Tues your day on sites equal Target, on Podgy-Warble (WoE #11 Bubble & City Hall Challenge)

This was a straight cut and paste. I did not alter anything about this comment. All irritation aside, it's still extremely entertaining. 

Happy Christmas!

I wish you the best and brightest of the season and joy and love beyond measure through the coming year.

Love Always
Shel