B is for Biblical Dreams

The Bible records dozens of dreams and they all have specific meanings that often need interpretation from a very wise person or directly from God. 

They came while people were sleeping (dreams) or wide awake (visions). Some dreams were personal or affected one’s offspring while other dreams were directed at kings from mighty nations. Some dreams saved the individual’s life while others saved entire regions. 

One such is recorded in Genesis. Joseph was not only a dreamer, he later became an interpreter of other people’s dreams. Later in life Joseph interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh and instructed him there would be seven years of extreme abundance followed by seven years of extreme drought. 

Egypt saved enough grain during the seven years of plenty to not only endure the drought but help those from surrounding areas buy food from them and survive. 

Honorable Mention Blue, Brown, Burgundy, Black, Black and White (more on colors later in the A to Z Challenge). 

Monday’s Post C is for Compensatory Dreams and Colors.

Question Do you think dreams can come from a higher source and that they have specific meaning regarding your life or someone else’s life?

Dreams: A is for Abandoned House

I’ve had quite few of these and they are all houses I’ve lived in the past. And that’s the key. Often there are unresolved issues from your past.

Many believe these dreams represent a belief system, a way of life, past relationships or abandoned hopes and dreams where people hang onto something they should let go of. The settings of my Abandoned House dreams were almost always at night. 

I don’t want to start the A to Z Challenge on a bummer note, so it’s important to understand these dreams are not necessarily bad dreams. 

As I look back, some of my hopes and dreams were not the best ideas, and l’m glad many past failed relationships failed. I feel like I dodged a lot of bullets over the years and decades as many people I knew didn’t turn out so well. Abandoned House dreams are often good dreams if you dig down and think them through.

Honorable Mention: Animals (flight, land and water), Animation, and Dreams of Abundance.

Tomorrow B is for Biblical Dreams.

Question Have you had dreams centered around an abandoned house? Do you now have a more positive perspective on these types of dreams?

A to Z Theme Reveal: Dreams

My A to Z Theme Reveal: Dreams. 

Where to begin? I could blog on this topic alone for a solid year and only scratch the surface. As far back as we have written records, there have been accounts of unusual phenomena occurring in connection with dreams. 

Dream interpretation is something I find fascinating and have studied for decades. Let’s go a bit deeper. What are the sources of dreams? Where do they come from? Within the person? God? An outside source? That bad burrito or double pepperoni extra cheese pizza you ate before going to sleep? 

I’ll be exploring what dreams are, the different types of dreams, and the meaning behind things in our dreams such as colors, people, location etc. It’ll be a lot of fun and I hope you stop by and visit during A to Z. I’m confident you won’t be disappointed! 

To visit your blogging friend Theme reveal, simply Click Here. 

Very Cool Astronomical Events I know people want to visit a lot of blogs and see the themes their blogging friends have chosen. So I’ll highlight a couple celestial events and leave a link if you want to come back and follow up. 

The Comets Are Coming. The Comets Are Coming I had to say that twice because there are two. 

“This is one for the record books,” says Michael Kelley of the University of Maryland, who’s never heard of two comets approaching close to Earth a day apart ... It’s a fantastic opportunity for professionals to learn more about comets, and if you have a chance to try to find them and see part of history as it happens Reference Link 

Baby Planet Ultrasounds Planets are a lot harder to study than stars, because they do not give off any visible light or radiation on their own 

"This is quite different from the case of star formation, where, in different objects, we have seen stars in different stages of their life cycle. With planets, we haven't been so fortunate, so getting a look at this very early stage in planet formation is extremely valuable." Reference Link

Question: What's your Theme Reveal? Do you find dreams fascinating, or do you pass them off as crazy stuff your brain is thinking as you relinquish control of it while you sleep?

Jupiter is Here! 5th Wave, Moonshot and Zootopia

March 8 Jupiter at Opposition Hey folks, this is super dooper cool!!! The giant planet will be at its closest approach to Earth and its face will be fully illuminated by the sun. It will be brighter than at any other time of the year and will be visible all night long. This is the best time to view and photograph Jupiter and its moons. 

A medium-sized telescope should be able to show you some of the details of Jupiter’s cloud bands. A good pair of binoculars should allow you to see Jupiter’s four largest moons, appearing as bright dots on either side of the planet. Weather permitting, do whatever you have to do to check out this incredible and amazing celestial event! 

What I’m Reading I just finished The Fifth Wave. It was good and even great in places. I did speed read through some of the teen lovey dovey stuff. Over all I give the book a 4 star. I’ll have to watch the movie once it hits the two dollar theatre. 

I started Moonshot by John Sculley, former CEO of Pepsi and Apple. Sculley argues every entrepreneur now needs to think and act like one of those elite entrepreneurs who could go the extra mile and cause disruptive change… It’s time to adopt the adaptive innovator entrepreneur mindset principles, capitalize on the game-changing new technologies, and go for the gold. 

Moonshot Term in Silicon Valley reserved for just a few of the most important innovations that reset everything following after them i.e., the Apple II, the Mac, the World Wide Web, Google, and the iPhone are examples.

I’m only 10% into it. So far so good. I'm already inspired to do or write something great! I’ll finish it this week and give my rating next week’s post. 

Finally Took the fam to see Zootopia Sunday. Fun film with a theme of tolerance that I think intolerant people and those who think they are tolerant but are just as bad should watch. I give it a solid 5 Star! 

Worth the $12.75 per ticket and $25.75 in popcorn and Coke Regal Cinemas gouged me for.

Question Are you making an effort to see Jupiter, preferably with binoculars or a telescope. You can also see it with the naked eye, weather permitting. Whatcha reading? Seen any good movies lately?

I’m exploring different types of dreams and their meanings during the #AtoZChallenge at Stephen Tremp’s Breakthrough Blogs I’m exploring different types of dreams and their meanings. Stephen Tremp’s Breakthrough Blogs I’m exploring different types of dreams and their meanings. Stephen Tremp’s Breakthrough Blogs

IWSG, Turn a 1-Star Amazon Review to Your Advantage and March 2016 Celestial Calendar

Hi everyone, as always thanks for stopping by! This week’s IWSG is brought to you by Alex Cavanaugh, Lauren Hennessey, Lisa Buie-Collard, Lidy, Christine Rains and Mary Aalgaard. Don’t forget to stop by their blogs and show some love! 

Turn a 1-Star Amazon Review to Your Advantage This is a concern of any writer. Amazon reviews mean everything to a writer. We love receiving them, except when they are 1- Star or 2 - Star. 

I received a 1 - Star a couple weeks ago for Salem’s Daughters that actually nailed what my book is all about: “Ghastly violence. No Heroes here. This is a horror story. Not my kind of book.” 

This, after the synopsis uses words like witches, possessed, killings, murders, curses, malevolent, deviltry and ghosts. Anyway, I decided to make lemonade from lemons and use it as a promotional tool. 

Example I used the following on Twitter and included an image of the book’s cover art with the Tweet: 

Best 1-Star Review Ever! Nailed it!! http://tinyurl.com/qeymcqc #paranormal #thriller #suspense Thx Amazon reviewer! 

Tip Use some of the 140 Twitter characters for cover image of your book rather than your book's title. 

Using Facebook and Twitter I had close to 50 downloads that weekend. Many Twitter followers felt the pain of 1-star reviews and Retweeted! Nothing earth shattering, I know. But I did use it to my advantage. 

Kindle Book Preview Kindle allows you to embed either code or a link into your sidebar so visitors can preview a segment of your book(s). Go to your Kindle Book Page, look toward the right for the work "EMBED" and copy and paste the code into an HTML gadget or the link into a an IMAGE gadget into your side bar. 

Easy! Check it out by clicking the top two Black Cat images of my right side bar for Salem's Daughters! I'm not going to keep both. I'll probably keep the link which is the one on top.

March 2016 Celestial Calendar 

March 8 Jupiter at Opposition The giant planet will be at its closest approach to Earth and it’s face will be fully illuminated by the sun. It will be brighter than at any other time of the year and will be visible all night long. This is the best time to view and photograph Jupiter and it’s moons. A medium-sized telescope should be able to show you some of the details of Jupiter’s cloud bands. A good pair of binoculars should allow you to see Jupiter’s four largest moons, appearing as bright dots on either side of the planet. 

March 9 Total Solar Eclipse A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon completely blocks the Sun, revealing the Sun’s beautiful outer atmosphere known as the corona. The totality will only be visible in parts of central Indonesia and the Pacific Ocean. A partial eclipse will be visible in most parts of Northern Australia and southeast Asia. 

March 20 March Equinox The March equinox occurs at 04:30 UTC. The sun will shine directly on the equator and there will be nearly identical amounts of day and night throughout the world. This is also the first day of Spring (vernal equinox) in the Northern hemisphere and the first day of fall (autumn equinox) in the Southern Hemisphere. 

Question Have you turned a bad review to your advantage? Checking out Jupiter next week? Do you have binoculars or a telescope or thinking of buying them? Do you have an option for visitors to preview a few chapters for free on your blog?

Reference

Summer Promotions and Such

Hi all, thought I’d take a moment and tell you what I’ve been up to regarding promotions and such. 

Like many of you, planning for book promos takes place well in advance. So here’s what’s on tap for me beginning the first of many and going all the way through Labor Day Weekend. 

What I Won’t Do Often as important or more so than what I will do. I’m hitting the Easy Button. There are a lot of things I won’t be doing simply because they are not productive when it comes to a full-on promotional campaign. 

Blogging is one. I usually take the summer off with the exception of the Insecure Writers Support Group anyway. Social Media such as Twitter and Facebook will take a back seat, although I will use them just not as much as I have in the past. 

What I Will Do I not only live in a major metropolitan area, but also in a major tourist magnet. Local book signings are on my list. I sure do miss the days of Borders Books and Barnes and Noble book signings. But there are lots of Indie bookstores from San Diego to Los Angeles, Orange County, and the Inland Empire. All within a short drive from home as I’m right smack dab in the center of everything. 

I'm Great at Hawking my Books on the Street

And I’ll peddle physical books out of my trunk up and down the coast to locals, tourists, and smaller hotels. I’ll include a sign on an easel with a QR code for those who would rather download a copy directly from Amazon. 

QR Code for Easy Download

I’m also booking booths at large events such as Fourth of July Street Fairs and Readers Festivals that are everywhere. Possibly libraries too. I’ve overlooked these opportunities far too long. I’ll sell my physical books as well as have my QR code for people to download copies. 

Forthcoming Breakthrough Trilogy Box Set

I’m also putting together really cool new graphics and such. Then there is the Breakthrough Trilogy Box Set. And I’m trying real hard to complete the first book of my new Young Adult / Middle grade series that I think will be a real winner! But these are a post for another day. 

Question What have you been up to? Planning any promos for the summer? Do you use QR codes for people to download copies of your books?

Better Late Than Never IWSG Post

My concern this month, forgetting all about IWSG while I’m on break. D-oh! I mean, how easy is it to post once a month, the first Wednesday of said month? But it happened. Better late than never. 

I have a cold and I hope this is the peak of it so I do have a it of an excuse for not posting in the morning. Well, that’s about it for me. Time for some over-the-counter drugs and lie down with my favorite blankie fresh and warm out of the dryer and binge watch Netflix.

Question Do you warm up your favorite blankie in the dryer when you're sick?