Author: admin

Plaid and Plagiarism

by Molly MacRae

Book 1 in the Highlands Bookshop Mystery Series

The mark of a really good book is that I find myself sneaking away from what I should otherwise be doing, just to get back into that world. When the characters in the book are just as real to me as the people I encounter at the local store, I know I have found a winner.

This book is a winner.

I would love to spend some quality time in Yon Bonnie Books, sitting by the cozy fire and reading snippets of new books while I decided which one to embrace first. Doing this while munching on tasty confections from the adjoining tearoom would be fun in fantasy, but in reality, the idea would be frightening to a bookseller!

While I thoroughly enjoyed all of the characters in this book, it was a bit dismaying to find that I most closely resembled the murder victim. Luckily, I have no burning desire to travel to the Isle of my forefathers, so I will remain safe from the guilty party in this tale!

The reason for the murder made total sense to me, as did the solution. On the other hand, the character flaw that got the victim murdered was not the flaw that made me say “Serves you right!”

I am totally unfamiliar with Scotland‘s legal process, but I do know that this would not be a trial where I would want to serve on the jury. Once upon a time, rumor had it that certain places accepted “he needed killin’…” as a valid defense. Were I working on the defense legal team, I just might be tempted to apply for a change of venue to one of those places.

It was my mom’s birthday on February 19th, and she turned 85 years old.

We sent up smiling rockets for her!

Not a warm day, but the sky was clear — it was 33F  when we went out and did the finale for mom’s birthday party.

Well, that certainly escalated fast…

For this year, it was my job/role/position to line up the “program speakers” for the Minot Camera Club. We have a short business meeting and then an educational program or presentation of some kind on the first Monday of every month.

The club is evenly split between the people who not only take photography and competition seriously but also gave lessons to Mathew B. Brady, Eastman and Kodak and the other half of us who are still learning to operate our first DSLR (digital single lens reflex camera.)

I especially like the hands-on projects where we actually use our cameras and do *stuff* at the meeting. I was able to line up one hands-on presentation on making use of the available light for people pictures and portraits this fall…and it rained. We did not have the same results inside the building that she had planned for using outside. Weather is never guaranteed, so that stuff happens.

I lined up two presentations where they showed us pictures and explained how they got them and what kind of different ideas we can try next time.

I wanted a presentation on lenses. I have read all sorts of reviews on different lenses. I have looked at several. I have clicked “add to cart” more than twice…but never pulled the trigger.

One person (from the experienced side of the club) who I spoke to thinks it is a silly idea for a program, but he already has more lenses than he would ever be able to carry to a single event. He scoffed at the idea of us poor beginners ever buying a serious lens. As I actually know people who put a Sub-Zero refrigerator and a Viking range in their kitchen and only use them to heat up pre-packed Lean Cuisine frozen dinners, the argument that we beginners would refuse to spend a chunk of change on a good lens does not hold water.

We do, however, need some education to know what we are buying!

I wanted a knowledgeable retailer to come in with a selection of lenses to present and explain. This is what we carry, this is what we can order, these are really a great deal for the price, these are extremely expensive but worth every penny, these are overpriced and over-rated….

You know…information.

The first choice for me was the place where I bought my camera, but he was not available for the dates I needed to fill.

So I started looking around for retailers that sold both Canon and Nikon camera lenses. The best local selection seemed to be at Best Buy, so I talked to the assistant manager there. He seemed agreeable, but said he needed permission from “corporate” because the guy would have to be “on the clock” or he could not ask him to do it.

OK, that makes sense. For him to remove the lenses from the store, he would need to be on duty.

Yesterday, I went over to check back in with the assistant manager I had spoke to and make sure it was approved. He said sure, no problem. Then he added a bombshell – since that would be considered a branded Best Buy Service Call, there would be a “small” service charge of $100.00.

Ummmm – no.

I am not going to pay you to make a sales pitch of your products to a captive audience. Aside from the fact that the camera club does not and cannot pay for speakers, I personally refuse to pay for advertising.

Marketing strategy for the win!

Over the past two months, my social media newsfeed has been filled with pop up sales and testimonials for LuLaRoe clothing. Glowing testimonials abound!

However, I find their listed sizing confusing. I have seen some items that are tempting, but I have never purchased any.

Six months ago, I had honestly never heard of the company. Suddenly, I am seeing it everywhere I look, which fits my definition of marketing genius. It appears to be sold on the party plan, like Tupperware and so many others. **

**disclaimer – I tried selling Tupperware.

Twice.

Sales is not my strong point, but I do love Tupperware.

So I clicked the links on “you can make a kazilllion dollars selling LLR with no work” and “selling LuLaRoe for fun and profit!”…etc.

The links took me down a rabbit hole. Glowing testimonial after glowing testimonial led me to actually check out what kind of investment is required.

Whoa!

Not quite the hundred dollar investment I expected to pay for my basic initial starter kit. I was thinking maybe five hundred dollars, but my decimal point was misplaced.

Then the “anti” videos started popping into the stream. Not everyone has glowing reports on their experience selling LLR, it seems. The drawbacks I saw on these videos about being part of the sales force were enough to convince me not to buy a starter kit. Plus, there is that whole “**disclaimer – I tried selling Tupperware.

Twice.

Sales is not my strong point, but I do love Tupperware.” thing.

I know Tupperware. I use it daily. I have used Tupperware for fifty years, and still love it today. If I cannot make any money selling a product I will praise to anyone who listens (and some that don’t) – how can I possibly expect to make money selling a product I have never seen?

So now I am on the prowl to find these products in “real life.” I had good luck the last time I bought a product “sight unseen” under similar circumstances – and I did also flirt with the idea of selling Jamberry products. However, that flirtation came after using and loving the product. Which totally proves the marketing genius of LuLaRoe, at least to me.

So if you decide to have a local party selling LLR, I would love an invitation to see these products in real life. (And if you have a local party selling Jamberry or Tupperware, you would be a fool to *not* invite me, as those are things I do love already…)

Looking over some of the past topics, and this one still rings true for me.

With a new grandbaby on the way, I was thinking of all that advice everybody loves to give new mommies.
The best piece of advice I ever got actually came when I was not actually a “new” parent any longer – and it came from a highly-unlikely source, but it is still the best advice I have ever heard for parents of all ages.
When your kids need a ride, for a school trip, to a dance, to a movie, to the mall, to the next county, even! – do not bother keeping score to say “I drove last time, it is Suzy’s mom’s turn to drive this time.” Just say “yes, I can drive.”
If you drive, you know where the kids are, who they are with, and what they are doing. Plus, you hear the blow-by-blow discussion between the kids in the back seat on the trip home – inside information you will not get when they arrive home and you ask “how was the dance?”

The worst piece of advice I got came from a highly trusted source, and I am ashamed to say I followed it for far too many years:  “do not let your kids hear you praise them, because it will give them a swelled head. If you are out with child A, praise child B.”
I did that for years.
It was wrong.
I am truly sorry I followed that piece of advice.

Praise your kids to other people – and let them hear you.
Trust me.
It is good advice.

Drunken Beanie Babies

Once upon a time, in a world not-so-very-far-away, there was a short-lived craze to “invest” in Beanie Babies. Several local people actually put their retirement account money into plush toys as an investment.

People were paying premium prices for “rare” toys, or the one that was currently in popular demand. While the manufacturer was selling them at the normal retail price of less-than-ten-bucks, people were going insane and paying out premium prices as an “investment” in the “rare” toys. The maker of the toys did not get any part of these high prices that were being paid by speculators.

These were an item currently being made. Now, Picasso paintings can command a premium price as an investment because the world contains a finite number of them, but an item still being produced can always be produced in increased quantities.

Which brings me to the “drunken” part of my tale…

The city of Minot sells a liquor license for $3,125 per year. That is what everybody should be able to pay to purchase a liquor license from the city of Minot. There should not be any limit on the number of liquor licenses issued in the city – just let the market determine how many places can turn a profit by selling liquor. If I want to buy a liquor license and hold dollar-per-cup keggers in my garage, that license should be available for me to purchase. If a club wants to sell beer at their club meetings, they should be able to buy the license to do so.

Current license holders are screaming objections to issuing more licenses. They claim if the city opens the doors to competition, it will cheat them out of all the money they spent on their investment.

Ummmmmm – no. Just like the people that paid a premium price for real estate after the flood, they paid the “going rate.”

Much like those gamblers that speculated a purchase of Beanie Baby “collectibles” would increase in value, they have discovered that not all investments will retain the same value we pay for them originally.

Adding a huge “application fee” for new license holders is wrong. Minot already has a reputation of being the “good ol’ boys club” and working hard at keeping out new people. Don’t add more fuel to that fire.

The No Campfire Girls

book review by Nikki D Paulsen

As we sit back and search for a break from all the holiday whirlwind, a fun book shows up at the top of my reading stack. The No-Campfire Girls by Mark R. Hunter (ISBN 97814497559264)

While people around me are singing “White Christmas” and telling me this snow is a good thing because “We neeeeeeeeed a white Christmas!”…I am heartily sick of snow. Having yet another blizzard in the forecast does not please me.

Escaping into a sultry summer day was exactly what I needed to get my mind off the nasty weather. And this book is just plain fun, set in a “Lookout Girls” summer camp. (Disclaimer – part of the proceeds from this book go to “Friends of Camp Latonka” to assist Camp Latonka, of Wappapello, Missouri with maintenance and operating costs. While I never went to that camp, as the book points out, once you’re a Girl Scout, you’re always a Girl Scout!)

The Lookout Girl’s camp is Camp Inipi, located in southern Indiana. Camp Inipi is in the middle of the county that is part of a county-wide burn ban area, so campfires are forbidden. As campfires are a big part of camp life, the no-open-fires rule causes some muttering and aggravation among the campers.

I like the girls we get to know in this book — Beth, who is a bit of a know-it-all; shy Cassidy, who did not realize how important her heritage was to her until she found herself fighting to defend it; and Rotten Ronnie, who shot off fireworks during the worst drought in thirty years.

The big fire, however, was not caused by the fireworks. It was caused by lightning, which packs a far greater punch than a package of Black Cat firecrackers. The circumstances that placed the teenagers on the front line of the fire crew were both believable and realistic. As the author is a real fireman, the fire fighting scenes in the book actually taught me a few interesting things I did not know!

The No-Campfire Girls is available on the author’s website www.markrhunter.com, on Amazon.com, or can be ordered through your local book retailer.

Christmas Decorations

I want to live in the house you see pictured on the Christmas cards. The one you see pictured in a two-page centerfold in every glossy magazine. The house with the perfect decorations in every single room.

So every year, while I am thinking about Christmas, I have these visions of putting up a Christmas tree in every room of my house. Family lore told me that I had an aunt that did have a tree in every room, so I think it is possible to do. When I was a child, I heard the stories of my Aunt Beece and her amazing decorations every year. We lived a thousand miles apart, and so I never did get to see her decorations in person. I never even saw very many pictures of them! Kids today, growing up with email and digital cameras and internet connections, will never understand why photographic sharing was limited “back in the day.”

Without having actual pictures to see exactly what my Aunt Beece was putting up, my mind came up with spectacular decorations, stuff with amazing special effects that would make Walt Disney and Steven Spielberg jealous. In my mind’s eye, I can see all of these lovely Christmas trees. I picture each of them with a different decorating theme, something special and incredible for each room.

Now that I have my own house, I imagine replicating these amazing decorations from my imagination. I could put up one tree with all doll decorations – Barbie and Raggedy Ann and Madame Alexander will all play nicely with each other, and maybe I could also hang some of those adorable tiny china teapots for them to have a treat at teatime.

I could put up a tree with fun Star Trek ornaments, so we can Live Long and Prosper. My grandsons would be thrilled to see a tree filled with all different trains and trucks and tractors – but I am not sure how long those would actually stay on the tree. It is fun to imagine all the different “themes” I could have on multiple trees.

Reality, however, always speaks up.

Silly old reality, anyway!

Reality points out how much work would be involved in trying to set up and organize multiple Christmas trees.

I scoff at Reality.

Starting with good intentions, I carve out a spot in my living room for the first tree. I start looking in other rooms for the perfect location to set up tree number two and tree number three.

Then I remember the part where I am lazy, and it takes me far longer to finish decorating the first tree than originally planned. For example, this year’s tree is not-quite-halfway decorated at the moment. When I unwrap an ornament, I often need to stop to tell the story. I have a wardrobe of stocking hats on my tree, each hanging there because my little one made it in school. Nestled against the hubby’s fancy Terry Redlin collector ornament hangs the stocking hat made of yarn and a piece of cardboard tissue roll, up against the beautiful “You Paid HOW much?” ornament snuggles the snowman painted and created from a wooden paint stir stick.

I think about setting up fancy themed Christmas trees. There is nothing fancy about the tree I set up, but it does have a theme – the theme of my tree is love.

Before I jump right in to telling everybody what to think and why to think it, a very quick intro for the friends that do not know me yet is needed. I enjoy meeting new people and making new friends.

I like meeting people in person, and I also like meeting them online, in the newspaper, and even in books. I do always refer to the people I have only met online as “my imaginary friend named Bob” rather than just as “my friend Bob.” If I have only communicated with Bob on the internet, Bob might very well be a cat in real life, after all.

I am not afraid of talking to strangers, often embarrassing my family by striking up conversations with random people in a crowd. After all, a stranger is just a friend you have not had the chance to meet yet.

Therefore, until I do get the chance to meet you in person, I will claim the title of your “new imaginary friend.” Like all good imaginary friends and beloved teddy bears, I am a little shabby around the edges, like a well-worn pair of jeans – soft and comfortable and starting to fray a bit, but still tough enough to keep going strong.

I am Nikki Paulsen and I live in the House at Pooh Corner.

**waves**

I like coffee and popcorn and chocolate, but when I say it out loud, it arranges itself into the tune of that old Tom T Hall melody. While I do also like little baby ducks and old pickup trucks, I am not at all fond of rain.

I am allergic to peanuts and hard work and keeping my mouth shut. Avoiding contact with peanuts is much easier than avoiding the other two, I must admit.

I find the world to be an exciting place. I use exclamation points freely, not just in my writing but also in my face-to-face conversations. I do talk with my hands – the joke has been made (more than twice) that instead of gagging me, all they would have to do to keep me quiet is tie my hands behind my back.

I often leap before I look, and when I jump, I jump with both feet! I go all in on anything I care about. I celebrate my holidays with abandon, taking as much wide-eyed joy at the lights and sounds and spectacles of the Christmas season as any three-year-old. Shopping and baking and eating, oh, my!

As I write this, I am looking forward to squeezing in as many holiday events as I can honestly squish into my calendar: turning on the Christmas lights, attending the Singing Christmas Tree performance at the Minot First Assembly of God church, attending at least one and hopefully two elementary school music programs, attending the spaghetti dinner, Christmas Concert and Nativity display at Bishop Ryan High School, square dancing with friends, putting up a tree inside my own house, putting up my Christmas village, and, if the weather smiles upon me on a day off from other responsibilities, heading to Garrison for their amazing Dickens Festival!

Literally.

I am searching for technical info so I can put a picture on the banner.  What I would consider the perfect solution is to have the last picture from the post be the “cover shot” at the top. If there was no photo uploaded for the post, I would have a generic picture.

I just uploaded one to be my **insert random technical word here** ummm – cannot remember, but it had to be square. So I <I>thought</I>  it was going to be showing up on my header for each page, but it did not appear there.

Somewhere in cyberspace, a picture of Eeyore and the turkeys is rotating endlessly…

I am coming to the end of my current work contract, so I will have a bit more time to actually sit down and put the pencil on the paper. This was not a writing position, but after a day of work I found no time to sit down and write.

Were I honest, I would admit that time does not have much to do with inspirational writing, but it has everything to do with the craft of putting words onto paper. Genius is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. Similar clichés are endless — 90% of accomplishment is just showing up, etc… The bottom line is, if I do not sit down and get the words out of my head and onto the paper, there will be nothing to show.