Author: JAB

Judith A. Barrett writes fast-paced dark thrillers, romantic suspense, and mysteries with a twist featuring sharp minds, moral tension, and characters who refuse to stay victims. Best known for her dark vigilante thriller series starring Maggie Sloan, Judith creates stories where small towns hide dangerous secrets, instinct matters more than appearances, and justice is rarely simple. Judith lives on a small farm in rural Georgia with her husband, two dogs, and a flock of unapologetically sassy chickens. Thou shalt not plagiarize. (See Commandment #8) But it's okay to share!
QuickJAB

American Library Association and their Banned Books Week

JAB

Bannedbooks

The American Library Association uses Banned Books Week, September 23-29, to highlight books that have been (are going to be?) banned. I think it’s kind of a reverse psychology thing. You know, better read these banned books before we take them off the shelves again, wink, wink.

Good marketing, ALA. However, as an Indie Author and publisher, I shun the American Library Association. I’m sure there are a few indie authors who have managed to get a library to include an indie book on their shelf, but the library process is definitely not indie author friendly. I’m sure libraries would welcome donations of books, and there may be authors whose intent upon publishing is to provide a free book for anyone to reads. Not me.  I donate my free books to schools. And one or two to the local library while I wait for the ALA to catch up to the world of Indie Authors.

Maybe I’ll unshun ALA for a week. After all, maybe their campaign will encourage one or two people to pick up a paperback or an ebook and READ!

Here’s the link to the blog where I first learned about BBW.  Any blog titled Dysfunctional Literacy should be on everyone’s Must Read list.

What Books Would You Ban for Banned Book Week?

QuickJAB

How to Do Nothing

JAB

I love lists and a list on how to do nothing? Brilliant!

robert okaji's avatarO at the Edges

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHow to Do Nothing

First you must wash the window to observe more clearly
the dandelion seed heads bobbing in the wind. Next,

announce on Facebook and Twitter that you will be offline
for the next two days, if not forever. Heat water for tea.

Remember the bill you forgot to pay, and then cleanse
your mind of all regret. Consider industrial solvents

and the smoothness of sand-scoured stone, the miracle
of erasure. Eliminate all thought, but remember

the water. Hitch a ride on a Miles Davis solo and float
away on a raft of bluesy notes and lions’ teeth,

and wonder how to sabotage your neighbor’s leaf blower,
but nicely, of course. She’s a widow with a gun.

Now it is time to empty yourself. Close your eyes.
Become a single drop of dew on a constellation of petals.

Evaporate, share the bliss. Stuff that dog’s bark
into a…

View original post 57 more words

QuickJAB

New! The Girl Who Saw Clouds

JAB

The Girl Who Saw Clouds is a story of conspiracy, family, and survival.  The novel is available NOW on Amazon in both ebook and paperback.

Link to The Girl Who Saw Clouds on Amazon

Girl Who Saw Clouds Cover 5.5x 8.5 June 1 2018 ebook cover.png

AIMEE LOUISE is a bright, quirky 14-year-old with autism who doesn’t recognize facial expressions, but instead sees clouds that reveal a person’s true intentions. After a cyber-attack takes down the nation’s electrical grid, can her ability to see danger where no one else does expose the secret plot to take over the U.S.?

FlatRose

Pink Baby Alligator in Austria

JAB

The very best way to travel…

Flat Rose Travels Landy in Austria May 2018

 

First stop – Wien – or Vienna for those of us who are US-bound. This is the Upper Belvedere Palace. May is evidently the best month of all to go sightseeing in Wien… nobody else is around.

Flat Rose Travels Landy Vienna Upper Belevedere May 2018

 

Oh. Here are some people leading the way to the Museum of Natural History.

Flat Rose Travels Landy Vienna Museum of Natural History May 2018

 

The Imperial Palace, Hofburg, is in the center of Wien and was built in the 13th century.  I think it looks brand-new.

Flat Rose Travels Landy Vienna Hofburg Palace

 

The gardens and parks in Wien are beautiful and very well-maintained.

Flat Rose Travels Landy Vienna Garden May 2018

 

Pink Baby Alligator and an orange tree. In Austria. Can’t you just hear her?

“Look at this, folks. Landy from Florida found an orange tree in Austria.”

Flat Rose Travels Landy Lemon Tree in Vienna May 2018

 

The Schlossberg is in the center of Graz, the second largest town in Austria. It’s on top of a high hill, that looks more like a mountain to Rose, that overlooks most of the city. Two hundred and sixty steps lead to the top of the hill, but there’s a lift for those who prefer to still be breathing by the time they get to the top.

Flat Rose Travels Landy Graz Austria Schlossenberg UNESCO World Heritage Site June 2018

 

Guess who Landy and Rose ran into at the Eggenberg Palace? Yep, it’s Petey!

Flat Rose Travels Landy Graz Austria Petey June 2018

 

Here’s an admirer who is wondering if that really is Petey.  Or… if I may …. a fan looking at a fan. Hahaha.

Flat Rose Travels Landy Eggenberg Palace and Petey June 2018

 

Pink Rose found a pink rose. Well done, Landy.

 

Flat Rose Travels Landy Graz Austria Roses June 2018

 

T

 

 

QuickJAB

National Doughnut Day Month

JAB

Sweet Deal Sealed LettersizeLargerMedX9

If you’ve been waiting all year for National Doughnut Day, you’re in luck. It’s National Doughnut Day Month! Yep, in honor of the Doughnut Lady and Woody, we aren’t doughnut-deprived because June 1 was National Doughnut Day.

This will be a short post because I want to beat the crowds at the local Doughnut Shop. I know Dunkin Doughnuts, Krispy Kreme, and all the other smaller doughnut shops will heartily support National Doughnut Day Month. Don’t believe me? Walk into a shop and take a big whiff…doughnuts, right? See! All month!

And while you’re waiting in line for that doughnut, how about using your phone, which I see in your hand, to leave a review for Sweet Deal Sealed on Amazon. I know you’ve read it. Doesn’t have to be long or flowery. How about “I’m standing in line waiting for a doughnut because I read Sweet Deal Sealed and now I need a doughnut.”  See? Easy.

Oh. You haven’t read Sweet Deal Sealed? See the phone in your hand? Sweet Deal Sealed is on Amazon. You can read the ebook on your phone, tablet or computer.  Or if the feel and convenience of a paperback is your preference, same link and your postal carrier will deliver!  Link to Sweet Deal Sealed on Amazon

 

QuickJAB

Acknowledgments

JAB
thank you text on black and brown board
Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

The novel’s done. The final draft has been copyedited, proofed, and formatted for publishing. Now for the Front Matter and the Back Matter. Somewhere in the Front Matter or the Back Matter, it depends on which template you use or source you listen to or read last, is the Acknowledgments.

I’ve read that writing the Acknowledgments is a drudge. Harder than writing the book. It took me a year to write the book. Don’t need a year to write Thank You, right?

I did a little internet search on how to write an Acknowledgement for a novel. I learned I spelled it wrong. The next thing I learned is that I shouldn’t bore the reader or be superficial. Of course, I immediately decided anyone who can’t even spell Acknowledgment correctly must be superficial, so I’m doomed.

The Ack – we’ll call it – is supposed to be specific, walk the reader through the entire process of writing the book, but not be too long, must be witty, and again with the not boring. Also, mention names, but respect people’s privacy…ACK!

So here ya go….

ACK!! THANKS Y’ALL, FOR EVERYTHING!

There. That should just about cover it. Didn’t even split an infinitive or invoke a gerund. Nailed it!

 

 

FlatRose

Pink Baby Alligator in Czech Republic

JAB

Flat Rose Travels Landy Oreo May 2018

#FlatRose is ready to travel with Landy to the Czech Republic. Oreo is ready to go too. Oreo has a reservation at a Doggie Spa while #FlatRose and Landy fly. But I’m not going to tell him.

Flat Rose Travels Landy comfy bed May 2018

#FlatRose Travel Tip: Check the bed. This one checked out just fine.

 

Flat Rose Travels Landy Maiselova synagogue May 2018

#FlatRose is at the Maiselova synagogue in Praha. Or Maisel Synagogue in Prague for us who aren’t fluent.  It is one of the historical monuments of the former Prague Jewish Ghetto.

Flat Rose Travels Jewish Cemetery Landy May 2018

#FlatRose visits a Jewish cemetery with Landy. Europe, especially Eastern Europe has centuries of history. Our eyes might find the stones crowded, but the Czech Republic is roughly the size of South Carolina.

 

Flat Rose Travels Landy Soan Synagogue May 2018

#FlatRose and Landy visited the Soan Synagogue – the Spanish Synagogue for us English-only readers.

 

Flat Rose Travels Landy Bone Church May 2018

According to #FlatRose, the most interesting building they saw was the Bone Church.  The Sedlec Ossuary is a small Roman Catholic chapel, part of the former Selec Abby in a suburb of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic.  After 1511, the task of exhuming skeletons and stacking their bones in the chapel was given to a half-blind monk of the order. There are reported to be between 40,000 to 70,000 skeletons in the ossuary.

No more bone church pictures, just in case you’ve got the heebie-jeebies, but can you imagine the monk stacking the bones and skulls carefully, praying for each person? No? That was my first thought – what a responsibility!

Flat Rose Travels Landy Pizza May 2018

#FlatRose recommends a Four Cheese pizza and a nice dark adult beverage – for those who are adults – after a long day of walking and sightseeing in the Czech Republic.

Na Zdravi, Landy!