Church Bulletin Bloopers

September 18, 2016 Tina Frisco 2 Comments

Linda Bethea passes along an appetizing feast of hilarious church humor. “Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don’t forget your husbands.” Hop over to her blog to read the other 29 🙂

Nutsrok

Thank God for church ladies with typewriters. These sentences actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services:

1. Bertha Belch, a missionary from Africa, will be speaking tonight at Calvary Methodist. Come hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa.

2. Announcement in a church bulletin for a national PRAYER & FASTING Conference: “The cost for attending the Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.

3. The sermon this morning: “Jesus Walks on the Water.”
The sermon tonight: “Searching for Jesus.”

4. Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall – Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.

5. Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don’t forget your husbands.

6. The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been cancelled due to a conflict.

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Author Promotion, Authors, Inspiration, Love, Love and Friendship, Writing

“I Love You” . . . Why Are We So Afraid to Say It? – Guest Post…

September 17, 2016 Tina Frisco 5 Comments

The Story Reading Ape has kindly granted me a guest post on his magnificent and magnanimous blog. Thank you, Chris. You’re a gem in the blogosphere. Would it embarrass you very much if I told you that I love you? ❤

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

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Image is courtesy of Lucie Stastkova

LuSt 4 ART

My sisters and most of my friends and I regularly tell each other “I love you.” I usually speak the phrase freely and easily but have noticed over my life that many have difficulty receiving as well as speaking the sentiment. I wonder why that is . . .

I think many of us are afraid of what “I Love You” might imply. Certainly it depends on who is saying it and in what context. A lot of us have received salacious messages from people we’ve friended on social networks, and that is never comfortable — nor is it appropriate. And it most definitely isn’t love. But lust is an entirely different subject and not fodder for this post.

Among true friends, why are we so afraid to speak our hearts? Do we think the sentiment might be misconstrued? Instead of…

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Animals, Courage, Furry Friends, Inspiration, Love

Afternoon Video – Inspiring Beings – Humans saving animals in danger.

September 17, 2016 Tina Frisco Leave a comment

A heartwarming video shared by Sally Cronin… Taking a little time out of our busy lives to help an animal in trouble is a small thing to do. Bless these caring people and all those who share a little of themselves to help another ❤

Author Resources, Editing, Grammar, Indie Publishing, Reading, Writing

EDITING 101: 03 – THAT’s the Problem in Revising…

September 16, 2016 Tina Frisco Leave a comment

Editing can be a nightmare! But Susan Uttendorfsky takes some of the fright out of it in Part 3 of her incredible Editing 101 series on The Story Reading Ape’s blog. A big thank you to both Chris and Susan for hosting and sharing 🙂

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Originally posted as the Dun Writin’—Now Whut? series on this blog, EDITING 101 is a weekly refresher series for some of you and brand new for others.

Courtesy of Adirondack Editing

THAT’s the Problem in Revising

“What’s the problem?”

“That’s the problem.”

“What?”

“That.”

“I don’t get it.”

“That’s the problem.”

Sound like the old “Who’s on first” routine? Extraneous words that make a writer’s work bulky need to be eliminated. But how can you eliminate words that you don’t even see? That’s the problem, and that is one of those words that can usually be cut. Dialogue that is casual regularly contains many incidences of that word, but when it comes to writing, that can usually be deleted.

Are you still confused? If a sentence is understandable without “that” in it, take it out.

Example: “She told him that she was leaving” reads just fine…

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Author Promotion, Authors, Books, Writing

A Thriving Thursdays Introduction – Guest Post…

September 15, 2016 Tina Frisco 6 Comments

Teagans Geneviene serves up a little humor and advice, along with engaging trailers to her books, as a guest on The Story Reading Ape. Hop over and enjoy this delightful post 🙂

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Minion writing

I was delighted when our Ape in Chief invited me here to the tree-house to do a mini-series. Those of you who know me, are used to seeing me write fiction for my blog, Teagan’s Books. However, for these posts, I’m sharing my “office” side. While it’s not part of my job at the moment, I’ve written a log of motivational messages. I continued that via my LinkedIn blog where I do mini posts.

We’re inundated with information. That can result in a lot of gigo… garbage in — garbage out. Yet one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. When I stumbled across this quote, I thought it was a little gem. Let’s give it a try.

Make a list of things that make you happy.

Make a list of things you do every day.

Compare the lists.

Adjust accordingly.

Enough said.

Thank you, my dear Ape, for…

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Author Promotion, Indie Publishing, Writing

Pendulum Type Action – Guest Post…

September 14, 2016 Tina Frisco 4 Comments

A delightful guest post on The Story Reading Ape’s blog by Craig Boyack on writing short-form fiction…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Thanks to The Story Reading Ape for this incredible opportunity to run four monthly articles on his website. The big question is what exactly to use this space for. Quite honestly, I do want people to buy my books, but I am the brand and will stick with that for a few paragraphs.

One of my great loves is short form fiction. These can be micro-fiction, short stories, even novellas. I grew up reading these, and was saddened when they nearly died out.

In hindsight it’s easy to see. Short form was the preference of magazines and newspapers. If you look back far enough some of our classic fiction came from those media, and not what we call novels. Sherlock Holmes came to light this way.

When the Internet took control of our lives, most of the paper media faded away. We get our news online, or on television. Magazines…

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Author Resources, Indie Publishing, Inspiration, Writing

Guest Post: Finding that book inside you

September 14, 2016 Tina Frisco Leave a comment

Ari Meghlen hosts the inspirational Sally Cronin, who offers superb advice on breaking into publishing through writing non-fiction. A must-read for new as well as veteran authors…

Author Ari Meghlen Official Website

This week’s guest post is by the lovely Sally Cronin who is discussing the option of writing Non-Fiction books.

sally Finding that book inside youby Sally Cronin

Not everyone can dive into publishing with a best-selling novel, and most successful authors who have sold a million copies of their books are a rare breed.

Writing and then marketing our own books can be exciting but it can also be a daunting task. Whilst most of us who write love the process, we understand that we are competing with hundreds of thousands of other fiction titles that are published each year. This is particularly true if you are writing within one of the most popular of the genres such as Thrillers, Mystery or Fantasy.

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Author Promotion, Authors, Short Stories

New Series – Smorgasbord Short Stories – Seeing is Believing – Sally Cronin

September 13, 2016 Tina Frisco Leave a comment

AUTHORS: Sally Cronin is accepting short-story submissions for free promotion on her largely followed blog. Don’t miss this terrific opportunity and her own beautiful story that she shares ❤

Companion Animals, Furry Friends

Zoe and Those Feline Blues…

September 13, 2016 Tina Frisco 2 Comments

Zoe the Fabulous Feline, aka Zoe Gmitter, has a wonderful summers-end story for us. Humor, sunshine and shadows, and a best friend highlight this titillating tale. Even her human, Emily, is mentioned more than once 🙂

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Zoe and Those Feline Blues

pose 2 in condo

I can hear you all now. Zoe’s got the blues? Yes, I do . . . well, I did. Now I’m doing the happy dance! Before you go diagnosing me with some sort of mood disorder, let me explain this story of mixed emotions.

Before I do, though—a big “hello!” to my fellow felines, and to those friends of the canine and humanine persuasion, as well. To anyone who may not know me, my name is Zoe and I am a fabulous feline (so fabulous, I coin new words as needed to suit my purpose). I write about my adventures, and sometimes about my life with my human, Emily, which can be an adventure.

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer, though its end is fast approaching. I hate endings, don’t you? Some say an end is just a new beginning. “When one…

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Cultural Diversity, Inspiration

my big, color-filled American family

September 12, 2016 Tina Frisco 5 Comments

Tanya Cliff tells us about the America she has always known ~ family reunions “filled with three generations of multicultural, American relatives who range in tone from dark, chocolate brown to milky white.” All racism must be checked at the door…

At last year’s reunion my color-filled American family played a non-contact game called human foosball. This year’s gathering, complete with log rolling, swimming, boating, fishing and good food, involves a 100 foot homemade poly-plastic slide that empties into a man-made lake for those of us brave (stupid) enough to try it. Attempting that slide will be three generations of multicultural, American relatives who range in tone from dark, chocolate brown to milky white. This is my America.

As a little girl, I loved attending weddings on that side of my family. My Detroit cousins, the second generation of mixed White and African-American descent, knew how to move. My love of dance started on one of those wedding dance floors, kicking up my heels with one of my Motown cousins. He was very dark (still is), and I was very light (still am). He is my flesh and blood. This is…

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