And winter continues, by J.C. Kavanagh

WINNER Best Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers' Poll

I live in rural Ontario and at this time of year, winter seems endless. I don't mind it, though. In previous blogs, I've shared a number of photos from my outdoor adventures because I'm enthralled with the beauty of nature. I just can't get enough of it. Daytime or night time, there's always something new to view and be inspired by. Were you fortunate to see the Super 'Blue' moon last month? As you might know, the 'Blue' moon term denotes a rare event. Most people think it refers to a second full moon occurring in the same month. That is true, and this happens every 2.7 years, but the 'Blue moon' reference is a seasonal one, meaning that it is the third full moon in a season with one more full moon still to come. Therefore, four full moons within a season of three months.

My awesome new camera (Christmas present from my partner, Ian) was my photo-partner in capturing this beautiful event at home last month.

I admit I'm fascinated by the moon - there's something about the ghostly orb that draws my attention. I'm compelled to study it whenever its pale face rises. My trusty telescope is another appendage I rely on to view its dips and chasms, cracks and crevices. The moon in its fullness is an image I conjure up in the playground of my mind each and every time I write a dream world sequence in my book, The Twisted Climb, and also the sequel, Darkness Descends (coming soon!) It provides backdrop, mood and sensory stimulus. Just imagine being drawn into a moonlit dream world where you have to climb a mountain, with adventures and paranormal activity galore, in order to 'fall' to sleep. Gah!

Enjoy the beauty of nature, wherever you are.

J.C. Kavanagh
The Twisted Climb
BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers' Poll
A novel for teens, young adults and adults young at heart
Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com
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www.Amazon.com/author/jckavanagh
Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)

A Digital Magna Carta?

It may be said that the Digital Economy, also known as the New Economy or the Internet Economy, started in Silicon Valley, in California, during the 1990’s. The term was coined from the title of Don Tapscott's 1995 best-seller, The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence, one of first books to show how the Internet would change the way we do business.

One of the commonalities of all economic revolutions, whether the Industrial age, Colonialism, or the introduction of Banking, and thus modern Capitalism, is the disruption they cause, not only to economic patterns, but also to society at large; repercussions that reverberate for decades, sometimes even centuries. An example would be the economic revolution that occurred at the beginning of history, when humans moved from hunting/gathering to agriculture, leading to the establishment of towns and cities, the flourishing of language and literature, and the formation of a class of people much wealthier than the rest.

A common feature all these economic revolutions share is the transfer of assets from common ownership to private ownership. During the move to an agricultural society, land, which the hunters/gatherers considered common to all, became privatized. Without privatization of land, agriculture would not have been possible. During the Industrial revolution, resources needed for production, such as water, timber, and iron ore, became privatized, allowing profits from these resources to accumulate to industrialists or their share-owners.

The digital economy is privatizing information, specifically, personal information. In almost all cases, it is being gathered surreptitiously, stored on servers beyond our reach, for indeterminate periods of time, and sold to other companies (and more ominously, to police and other government authorities,) for profit. We know, for example, that Facebook can come up with a relatively good idea of who you are; what you read, your political inclinations, your sexuality, what you buy and what you watch; but most people have no idea how much personal data is being gathered. For example, Google is able to access, from smartphones, data about when you wake up, when you get into a car and every place you visit--and download all that information onto their servers, and sell that information to advertisers. Using algorithms, they are able to determine items you may buy: for example, stopping at a school every day signals interest in children’s or educational products; and at a hospital, medical or pharmaceutical products.

History has shown that invariably, developments of this sort lead to social backlash. The Magna Carta was essentially a revolt by the British Lords who owned (relatively) smaller amounts of land against the King, who exerted ownership rights over the entire country. The revolt against the Industrial Revolution led to the idea of Communism, whose central tenet is the common ownership of the means of production.

The revolt against the Digital Economy will center, naturally, around the ownership of personal information. Currently, ordinary people have not challenged the existing legal and political systems on this topic. Google, Amazon and Facebook, among others, have privatized personal data. They collect it from you at no cost, with relative secrecy, and for the profit of their shareholders. This privatization has led to enormous profits—Mark Zukerberg’s billions are a prime example.

This push-back is at its infancy. There have been calls for governmental regulation of Facebook, but given its wealth and power, and the lack of exposure of this issue, it remains to seen how far these calls will go. If history repeats itself, the future will hold a struggle where ordinary citizens will have to claw back their rights to own, or at least, fairly share, their personal information with extremely large, secretive and manipulative companies who are well on their way to create real-time, moving digital avatars of each one of us in their computers.

Mohan Ashtakala is the author of "The Yoga Zapper - A Novel," published by Books We Love. He lives in Calgary, Canada, with  his wife Anuradha, son Rishi ,daughter Gopi. He can be sometimes be spotted chanting mantra absent-mindedly in the city's parks.

www.mohanashtakala.com

www.bookswelove.com

A Valentine Worth Waiting For...by Sheila Claydon

Sheila's books at Books We Love

So it's my turn to post on Valentine's Day again! Not surprising really as I always post on the 14th of every month. Last year I wrote in detail about the history behind Valentine's Day. How it started off as a pagan fertility ritual which segued into a feast day in the Catholic Calendar of Saints when a  third century Pope  named 14 February Saint Valentine's Day. However it wasn't until the Middle Ages that the poet Chaucer linked St Valentine with romantic love. Now, centuries later, it's hearts and roses all the way...or is it?

I thought so, but then I write romantic novels so I would, wouldn't I. And remembering back to my own long ago youth, I thought all young girls longed for a valentine card to land on their doormat. I thought they spent a lot of time yearning for romance and Mr Right, but a recent conversation with some modern teenagers has shown me otherwise. While they are happy to be part of a mixed sex friendship group, like it in fact, they are not looking for a boyfriend. I was fascinated so I kept listening.

One of the best comments was, 'why would I want to tie myself down with a boyfriend when I'm this young? There is a great big world out there full of things I haven't seen or don't know yet. I want a career too, so I've a lot of studying and learning to do. Being exclusive to a boy would get in the way of all that, and it might mean I wouldn't see so much of my friends either. I'd rather just be part of a fun group until I'm much older.'

These are all beautiful, bright, confident girls. They don't know it of course, because their teenage hormones often tell them otherwise, so sometimes they beat themselves up about their looks, their figures, their exam results...but on good days, when they look in the mirror they know, and they also know when the boys in their group ask them for a date. 

Sometimes one of them succumbs for one date, or several, but never more. Then it's back to the friendship group, boys and all, where they variously do things like skating, sailing, horse riding, hiking, playing sport, eating pizza, having sleepovers (the girls), playing musical instruments, singing, experimenting with hair and make-up, watching films, baking, reading, discussing life...

So off you go St Valentine. The young girls of the twenty-first century might want romance eventually...but not yet! They have too much to see and to do before they take it seriously, and they are quite right. It is a big and interesting world out there and they have a lot of living to do.

In my book Remembering Rose, the heroine is also looking for more. What is different about her is that she already has exactly what she needs, she just can't see it even though it's right under her nose. There isn't a valentine in the book, but there is love...real love...the sort of love worth waiting for. The sort of love I hope all those beautiful girls find one day...when they are ready.

Golden Girl is a Books We Love March release where another of Sheila Claydon's heroines finds love - but not until she's ready.

In the Name of Love by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

http://bwlpublishing.ca/authors/donaldson-yarmey-joan/


Family love stories

#1

My husband and I lived on an acreage and my husband work in the country for an oil company. Therefore he didn’t make it into town to buy me a Valentine’s card. So early Valentine’s morning he went outside and packed some snow into a pile. He got a can of red spray paint and painted a heart with an arrow through it on the snow. He also printed Be My Valentine on it. I could see the pile of snow from the kitchen window for months as it was the last snow to melt in the spring.

#2

My mother had moved from Alberta to B.C. to pick fruit and then got a job at a store in Vancouver. Mom’s parents, my grandparents sold their farm in Alberta and bought an acreage near Vancouver. My father was in World War II and was repatriated to Vancouver when it was over.

When dad left the army he got a job and began to look for a place to buy. My grandfather’s health was bad and so they decided to sell their acreage. One of mom’s friends was my dad’s sister and my dad found out about it through his sister. He bought my grandparents acreage and met my mother. They married seven months after meeting and were married for fifty-four years.

The way dad put it: He bought the acreage and got the daughter for free.

Finally, A Title -- or Two

For more information about Susan Calder's books, or to purchase visit her Books We Love Author Page. 

For the titles of my mystery novels, I inadvertently backed myself into a corner. My novels are series books. While the titles of individual books in a series don't have to follow a pattern, this helps connect the books in readers minds.

Mystery author Sue Grafton hit on a brilliant idea with her Kinsey Millhone 'alphabet mysteries.' Her plan was to write 26 books in the series, titled with each letter of the alphabet. She started with 'A' is for Alibi and continued to 'Y' is for Yesterday until illness stopped her one book short of completing the series. 

Sue Grafton, 1940-2017

A big plus for this particular pattern is the obvious order of the books in the series. Many mystery readers like to read series books in order, to follow the character and overall story arc developments. With Grafton's books they instantly know which novel comes next and next and next. For her titles Grafton managed to find a fitting word for some challenging letters --'Q' is for Quarry -- but modified the pattern for one book. Series novel # 24 is simply called 'X.' Her website notes X: The number ten. An unknown quantity. A mistake. A cross. A kiss.

I'd be curious to know how much the letter/word in each title influenced the particular story.

I didn't start with a plan of writing a four-book series set in Calgary's seasons. The working title for my first novel was In Remembrance of Me.  I felt the title suited the story, but it didn't identify the book as a murder mystery novel. While revising the story, I pondered what aspects of it might work in a title.

I didn't have this handy chart at the time, but settled loosely on #10 When Your Story Takes Place. In my novel's case, this was the season of fall, with its many resonant meanings, including the fall of (wo)man. Then I asked myself what popular mystery title word might go with it? How about Deadly?  Deadly Fall. I checked Amazon and library listings to see if the title was overused. To my surprise, it wasn't. 

The title for my series book # 2 didn't come right away, but it was easier. I knew the story would be set during The Calgary Stampede, my home city's annual 10-day rodeo and exhibition, which takes place each July. To continue the pattern, I wanted the word 'summer' in the title along with a reference to the Stampede. Titles like Summer Stampede and Stampede Into Summer didn't quite do it. Ten Days in July would have been great for a series incorporating months of the year in the title. Months rather than seasons would have also given me scope for more books in the series.

   
Then it hit me: Ten Days in Summer. Calgarians use the phrase interchangeably with Ten Days in July when talking about our Stampede. I set myself the challenge of framing the story with the Stampede's 10 day time period. Okay, I cheated a little by setting the first two chapters on the evening before Parade Day, the Stampede's official start. But events do begin on Stampede-eve with Sneak-a-Peak night at the exhibition grounds.    

And now I am working on Book # 3, set in Calgary winter. The case involves a hit and run car accident, which killed a woman under suspicious circumstances. Almost immediately, I thought of a great mystery book title, Dead of Winter. But a search on Amazon.com revealed a couple of dozen mystery novels with this name. Titles aren't copyrighted, but I'd prefer one that won't be confused with numerous other books.

Back to my Book Title Chart, I considered # 13, Where Your Story Takes Place. I decided that the hit and run would take place on a street named Wintergreen Close, which became my working title. I wasn't satisfied with it, but figured it could be okay.

During the Christmas holidays I was listening to music CDs while preparing dinner. A stanza from the Christmas carol "Good King Wenceslas" jumped out. 
                                             
                                                     Mark my footsteps my good page,
                                                     tread thou in them boldly:
                                                     Thou shalt find the winter's rage
                                                      freeze thy blood less coldly.

Winter's Rage. That's it! What is murder about if not rage and my story in particular features characters who can't get past their rage at what happened to them.  

Now as I write the book, I think of how to emphasize rage in the work. Except, the street, Wintergreen Close, has a large focus in the story and sometimes I like the subdued Wintergreen Close better. So I've gone from thinking that the perfect winter title is out of reach to having two titles I like. Who knows which one will win in the end? It's a work in progress.

       

Black Gold Isn't Texas Oil Anymore by Karla Stover

I just finished a book where a Sikh taxi cab driver in New York gets involved in the hair imports market. Naturally, a mystery ensues. A rather unusual topic, I thought, but one that taught me something. Before reading the book, I never gave any thought to hair extensions--to how Britney Spears could be bald one day and have a full head of hair the next. I wonder if she was thinking about the where her extensions came from as someone was attaching them. 

Right now, when women world-wide have jumped on the "me too" bandwagon and are fighting for equality with men, I recall something Caroline Cox wrote in The Guardian. "When women try and change their role," she said, "their hair becomes short and chic like in the 60s and 20s, but when gender roles become more traditional, fake hair comes in. Extensions also reflect a retrogressive attitude towards women's place in society."

Which brings us to a controversial commercial recently aired which compares actress Winona Ryder's comeback to the restoration of damaged hair. In the ad, Ms. Ryder has a beautiful head of hair. I wonder where she got it?

In 2010, a reporter named Scott Carney traced some of the ubiquitous tresses to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, a temple in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. There men and women were separated and, as Mr. Carney waited his turn, he noted that "The pilgrim at the head of the line bows low as a man with a straight razor makes swift work of his curls." (the pilgrim's, not the barber's.) Hindus offer their hair as a way of thanking the gods for answering prayers, or to honor said gods. The majority of India's Hindus have had their heads shaved at least once. Writing for motherjones.com, Mr. Carney found the shaving a disgusting business, noting that, the "Human hair contains all sorts of secretions, including sweat and blood, plus food particles, lice, and the coconut oil many Indians use as a conditioner. Put 21 tons of the stuff in a room blooming with mildew and fungus and the stench is overpowering."


Dieter Telemans/Panos


After it is cut, the hair--otherwise known as Black Gold--is carefully untangled, cleaned of all vermin, and washed in vats of detergent. When that is done, it is stored in warehouses until sold--curly hair to markets in Africa, straight hair to those in Europe, and both to the "cosmopolitan" United States. The sales bring in million to the temples; the pilgrims are generally paid little or nothing. It is the sacrifice that counts.

So here we are, with Ms. Cox's opinion, the me too movement, and long hair everywhere, often dragging down the faces of mature women. Perhaps, it is as Victoria (Posh Spice) Beckham said, "I love fashion, and I love changing my style, my hair, my makeup, and everything I've done in the past has made me what I am now. Not everyone is going to like what I do, but I look back at everything, and it makes me smile."

I think Ms. Beckham trumps Ms. Cox.
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