For years, I suffered with an illness no one could name. I didn’t have health insurance, so the doctors were baffled as to what to do, because the tests they needed to do to treat me were expensive. I fell into that bracket of employed persons without health insurance who made enough money to prevent qualifying for medical assistance but not enough money to pay out of the pocket for medical treatment I needed.

There’s a catch-22 where healthcare is concerned.

For people like me, health insurance is impossible to get. I have an autoimmune disorder, and even if I were to get a job with an employer who offered health insurance, I am currently considered ‘uninsurable’.

Sadly, I’m not the only American who falls into this category. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 39%

It is my pleasure to announce the winners of the BIRTH theme for the Accentuate Writers Short Story Contest.

These writers will receive the prizes listed for winning the contest, including cash prizes of $100, $75, and $25 for each placement – and they will also be included in the anthology and will receive a royalty contract for their percentage of participation in the final book. While all authors will be included as the official authors on the legal and promotional pages, only first place finishers will get their name listed on the gorgeous covers we’re using on this series of books.

Competition is getting harder and harder to judge, with new writers we’ve only just met entering this time around, and our veteran forum members improving more and more with each story they submit. The quality of some of these stories is just unreal; that is, they are good, solid stories. I’m impressed.

So let’s get on with the BIRTH theme winners – today, we have two third places, one second and one first place. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 89%

~~”Touching, tender and gentle, the moments between father and son in When You Went Away pull at the heartstrings and the tear ducts.”

Gerry is our unlikely hero in When You Went Away, a novel by Michael Baron, published by The Story Plant, a relatively new and different sort of publisher, operated by publishing industry veterans. I received an advanced reading copy of  When You Went Away for review, and it appealed to me: I liked the cover, the concept of the novel from the blurb. Because of these two things, I bumped this book up in my review queue. Hey, even reviewers like to read for pleasure now and then. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 21%

It was a good night, a quiet night, a peaceful night, when she fell asleep, at an unusually reasonable hour for her habits. It was much needed sleep, as anyone who knew her would surely tell you. What started out peacefully, full of wondrous dreams and silent comforts soon turning into a nightmare in Wasabi’s Revenge…

We catch up with our hapless heroine at 2:58 in the morning, Texas time, approximately 15 minutes after a startling realization: she shouldn’t have eaten half a canister of wasabi-coated dry peas just minutes before falling asleep in bed.

Let’s listen in: Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 19%

Yesterday, I went to the doctor. For over two years, we’ve been struggling to determine ‘what’s wrong with me’. Yeah, I know you all know what’s wrong with me in my head, but I’m talking about what’s wrong in my body, you silly folks! Yesterday, I feel we made a huge leap forward in understanding what is wrong.

Before I get to that, I want to say something to everyone out there… go to your doctor when you don’t feel right. Aches and pains on a daily basis are not normal and just a part of aging. Depression, lethargy, lack of energy, lack of stamina, poor sleep, poor appetite, weight loss, weight gain, and on and on, are not normal. Anything that keeps you from being happy, healthy, vibrant and mostly height and weight proportionate is a symptom of something wrong in your body. Fix what’s wrong and the symptom will go away too.

Go to your doctor. Get tested, tell the truth, ask for help. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 28%

So you guys who have read me and my blog all along know that I adore commercials. I mean, I have so little time to waste on watching television, always working or writing, writing, writing… but since I don’t live alone, the television is always on, even though I’m not watching it. I rarely look up long enough to follow the plot of a show, but every now and then, I’ll look up an catch a commercial. To me, commercials are mini-tv.

What I like the most though is when a commercial is really stupid or uses a really stupid premise to present the ad. For example, I recall the commercial for a paper towel or toilet paper commercial that says their products are made from recycled paper, not trees. First, who wants to wipe their ass with used paper? Okay, I get it, but really THINK about it and you’ll see what I mean. Secondly, where do they think the paper they are recycling came from anyway? Dirt? No, probably came from trees. Just because they are two generations separated from trees doesn’t mean they weren’t originated from trees.

Plus, let’s talk about how recycling some things puts more pollution into the air than chopping down a tree causes damage… I’m digressing. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 28%

When I read a book written by Cody McFadyen, I was grabbed by the throat and dragged across the pages. I didn’t want to put it down, couldn’t stop reading it. That doesn’t happen to me a lot anymore, so I was very pleased when his publicist sent me a hard back copy of his next novel to review. I am hoping it is as wonderful as the first. In case you haven’t read it, the name of the book is The Face of Death. Read it. It’s good.

So then, I started reading another book for a book review, an unedited proof copy of the book When You Went Away, a new book by Michael Barron, due to be released soon. I like this book. It’s good. While there’s a sad premise to it–lead character’s wife died and his daughter ran away, leaving him to raise an infant son by himself–it’s sort of a ‘feel good’ book. As much as I like it, it isn’t dragging me across the pages. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11%