Earth-Friendly Friday

We're all spending more time outdoors and some of us love to be in the garden. I'm one of those people who loves to plant in the spring and fall, and . . . I just love to plant things and watch them grow. But then the pests come and attack our happy home--um, garden.

A lot of people run out and buy Round-up, or some other products to help them destroy unwanted guests, like Ivy, or aphids. But I try to look for organic alternatives, like spraying soapy water on my rose bushes. But some things aren't effective enough to cure all the problems in the flowerbeds.

But I've found a helpful link, and you can check it out here. It's called Alpha Ecological. And who wouldn't love a company called 1-800-Say-Frog. . . ? I haven't tried it-yet, but I'm going to look into it a little more. And, if you know anything about this company, please post your comments and lend us all a helping hand-in the garden. :)

ANSWER to Thought for Thursday

Answer: Limoncello.

Danny DeVito's Premium Limoncello lauched in May 2007

Thought for Thursday

Thought: What's the alcoholic beverage being marketed under actor Danny DeVito's name?

Take a guess and then come back around 3 to see.

ANSWER TO WORD FOR WEDNESDAY

Answer: Reticent is reluctant, silent, reserved. If you want to read more and listen to the pronunciation, check it out here.

Word for Wednesday

Word: Reticent

Do you know what it means?

Take a guess. And, don't forget to come back around 3:00 to find out if you were right.

The 7-Sins of Bad Writing

Writers love to describe things: scenes, people, places. It’s no wonder we get carried away sometimes and over qualify our descriptions.

I thought I'd share my list of 7-deadly sins to boring writing:

1) Rather
2) A little
3) A lot
4) Seemed
5) Only
6) Slightly
7) Just

These are words to watch out for and then, when you find them in your writing, cut them. This is one time you don’t want to reuse – instead, recycle and reduce your word count by eliminating these unwanted words.

Here are a few more to watch out for:

8) Almost
9) Nearly
10) Sort of
11) Kind of

I hope this helps you find ways to watch your “word” weight and cut down on your waste

;-)

Happy Writing

The BEA

I was talking with a group of writers and mentioned the BEA. One of them finally said, "What's the BEA? Is it like DOA?"

I know . . . , kind of a little morbid but, then, she works in a hospital and we are all colored by our perspectives.

"I'm no expert." I told her, "It's some kind of a book fair or exhibit--I think."

That conversation made me think, "I should look it up and see what all the on-line hype is about."

So I did.

Here is a link, thanks to A. Suen

The Children's category is supposed to be a bright spot in publishing right now, which is encouraging to me since that's the genre I write in.

I read that not only are books on display, there are over 1500 exhibitors including book accessories.

So I came to the conclusion that the Book Expo America is a bookaholic's dream come true - at least that's what it looks like to me.