Gary J. Darby's Blog
September 16, 2019
Fear of Reviews
Speaking of reviews; every author is dying for them, but many readers feel intimidated by the thought of writing one, even for a book that they loved.
Books survive or go into obscurity according to how many reviews they receive or don’t receive. For instance, did you know:
1. If a book never gets a review, it will not show up in Amazon’s search results?
2. Honest reviews are invaluable. They let you know whether a book is worth your time because it has the things that make your reading experience enjoyable or not. By leaving a review, you are helping fellow readers.
3. You are not allowed to review books for friends and family on Amazon. So, you're off the hook, at least for Amazon, if one asks you for a review and you didn't like the book. However, no such restriction applies for reviews on Goodreads and Bookbub.
4. Amazon requires you to spend at least $50.00 a year in their marketplace before you’re allowed to review anything. Goodreads (also owned by Amazon) does not.
I asked someone the other day why she didn’t give reviews for the books she read. She said that she didn't know what to say. So, for those of you in the same frame of mind, let me share the following from a blog about writing negative reviews, though much of what she says can be said about writing reviews in general.
------------------
Form Firefly Hill Press, by Dani Mod.
Number One Rule of Reviewing: Be Honest, but BE NICE.
5 Tips for writing a Great NEGATIVE BOOK REVIEW:
1. Be Honest and Be Fair, but be tactful and considerate. Be honest. That's what readers, and authors/publishers expect. We all want to trust reviews and reviewers and trust comes only with unmitigated honesty. So please articulate that you didn't enjoy a book! That's more than fine! It's great, in fact! But please do it kindly and when possible justify your opinion with reasons. Ask yourself: would I say this to someone's face? If I did, would they cry? If the answer is yes, they'd cry, then maybe you want to reword it. Don't change WHAT you're saying, just maybe HOW you say it.
2. For a review that would receive less than 4 stars, try to give at least two things that you enjoyed about the book and two things that left you feeling dissatisfied. It's called the sandwich method: you sandwich the less than flattering points between the good bits. So you'd start with something positive, shift to the critique, and then end again on something positive.
3. Be specific when you can when discussing things you don't like about the work. Was it the pacing? The subject matter? Was the hero too chauvinistic for your liking? Was the world building too confusing? Give some examples of where you feel the novel fell short or maybe even what you would have preferred to see and didn't.
4. I always like to include a PERFECT FOR FANS OF... and that can be followed by an author, a genre, or even subject matter! Though it may not have been YOUR cup of tea, maybe it'd be received more favorably in the hands of someone else?
5. Last but not least, don't write off an author just because you didn't like one of his/her works. Each book is a different endeavor and though authors tend to lean into a particular style or subject matter, each book is a different journey - for you and for the author. Maybe the work you read was the author's debut novel and they hadn't found their footing yet? Or the content and characters just didn't resonate with you? Just keep an open mind - in reading and in life!
Books survive or go into obscurity according to how many reviews they receive or don’t receive. For instance, did you know:
1. If a book never gets a review, it will not show up in Amazon’s search results?
2. Honest reviews are invaluable. They let you know whether a book is worth your time because it has the things that make your reading experience enjoyable or not. By leaving a review, you are helping fellow readers.
3. You are not allowed to review books for friends and family on Amazon. So, you're off the hook, at least for Amazon, if one asks you for a review and you didn't like the book. However, no such restriction applies for reviews on Goodreads and Bookbub.
4. Amazon requires you to spend at least $50.00 a year in their marketplace before you’re allowed to review anything. Goodreads (also owned by Amazon) does not.
I asked someone the other day why she didn’t give reviews for the books she read. She said that she didn't know what to say. So, for those of you in the same frame of mind, let me share the following from a blog about writing negative reviews, though much of what she says can be said about writing reviews in general.
------------------
Form Firefly Hill Press, by Dani Mod.
Number One Rule of Reviewing: Be Honest, but BE NICE.
5 Tips for writing a Great NEGATIVE BOOK REVIEW:
1. Be Honest and Be Fair, but be tactful and considerate. Be honest. That's what readers, and authors/publishers expect. We all want to trust reviews and reviewers and trust comes only with unmitigated honesty. So please articulate that you didn't enjoy a book! That's more than fine! It's great, in fact! But please do it kindly and when possible justify your opinion with reasons. Ask yourself: would I say this to someone's face? If I did, would they cry? If the answer is yes, they'd cry, then maybe you want to reword it. Don't change WHAT you're saying, just maybe HOW you say it.
2. For a review that would receive less than 4 stars, try to give at least two things that you enjoyed about the book and two things that left you feeling dissatisfied. It's called the sandwich method: you sandwich the less than flattering points between the good bits. So you'd start with something positive, shift to the critique, and then end again on something positive.
3. Be specific when you can when discussing things you don't like about the work. Was it the pacing? The subject matter? Was the hero too chauvinistic for your liking? Was the world building too confusing? Give some examples of where you feel the novel fell short or maybe even what you would have preferred to see and didn't.
4. I always like to include a PERFECT FOR FANS OF... and that can be followed by an author, a genre, or even subject matter! Though it may not have been YOUR cup of tea, maybe it'd be received more favorably in the hands of someone else?
5. Last but not least, don't write off an author just because you didn't like one of his/her works. Each book is a different endeavor and though authors tend to lean into a particular style or subject matter, each book is a different journey - for you and for the author. Maybe the work you read was the author's debut novel and they hadn't found their footing yet? Or the content and characters just didn't resonate with you? Just keep an open mind - in reading and in life!
April 3, 2019
Books I recommend
I do a fair amount of reading and thought maybe I’d share with you some of my favorite novels I’ve read over the past few months or so.
Fantasy:
- Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive. Brandon Sanderson is an incredible author who weaves fantasy in such a way that you forget that you’re in a fantasy creation world. Very complex plots and characters that you either root for their success (and that they live to the end of the novel) or you really hope they die within the next few pages because they’re so evil.
Science Fiction:
- Michael Grumley’s The Breakthrough Series. For me, science fiction at its very best and, the series takes place mostly on Earth. Believable characters who will sweep you up in a flurry of feelings, but for me, it was the animal characters that stole my heart and my emotions. Tense plot with great action scenes. Those with a military background will appreciate how well Grumley does the military pieces.
- Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward. Full disclosure on this novel. I received it as part of a 2 for 1 audiobook deal and at the time I was reading/listening to two other books and was going to put this on my waaaay future reading list. However, I decided to listen to just a bit of the novel, and well, it hooked me right away. Reminded me a lot of some of Robert Heinlein’s early young adult books. For me, a wonderful, fun read that I devoured in a few days. In fact, I had to force myself to stop listening so that I could get some of my own writing done.
- A.G. Riddle’s Pandemic (The Extinction Files). Very well-written Sci-Fi and Riddle keeps you guessing with some amazing loops and twists to an already amazing plot that you definitely don’t see coming.
Historical:
- Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. An amazing documentary of the African-American migration from the Jim Crow south of the 1930’s to the 1960’s to northern cities and the West Coast. Told from the perspective of several black families and individuals who took place in the migration, it is a real eye-opener of the harsh conditions that several million individuals endured to escape Jim Crow society and laws of the deep south. A testament to their fortitude and bravery in seeking a new life for themselves and their families.
May all that you read bring you a sense of wonder, of awe, and hopefully, uplifting thoughts.
Fantasy:
- Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive. Brandon Sanderson is an incredible author who weaves fantasy in such a way that you forget that you’re in a fantasy creation world. Very complex plots and characters that you either root for their success (and that they live to the end of the novel) or you really hope they die within the next few pages because they’re so evil.
Science Fiction:
- Michael Grumley’s The Breakthrough Series. For me, science fiction at its very best and, the series takes place mostly on Earth. Believable characters who will sweep you up in a flurry of feelings, but for me, it was the animal characters that stole my heart and my emotions. Tense plot with great action scenes. Those with a military background will appreciate how well Grumley does the military pieces.
- Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward. Full disclosure on this novel. I received it as part of a 2 for 1 audiobook deal and at the time I was reading/listening to two other books and was going to put this on my waaaay future reading list. However, I decided to listen to just a bit of the novel, and well, it hooked me right away. Reminded me a lot of some of Robert Heinlein’s early young adult books. For me, a wonderful, fun read that I devoured in a few days. In fact, I had to force myself to stop listening so that I could get some of my own writing done.
- A.G. Riddle’s Pandemic (The Extinction Files). Very well-written Sci-Fi and Riddle keeps you guessing with some amazing loops and twists to an already amazing plot that you definitely don’t see coming.
Historical:
- Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. An amazing documentary of the African-American migration from the Jim Crow south of the 1930’s to the 1960’s to northern cities and the West Coast. Told from the perspective of several black families and individuals who took place in the migration, it is a real eye-opener of the harsh conditions that several million individuals endured to escape Jim Crow society and laws of the deep south. A testament to their fortitude and bravery in seeking a new life for themselves and their families.
May all that you read bring you a sense of wonder, of awe, and hopefully, uplifting thoughts.
February 16, 2019
Technology Disrupts
Recently, I read an interesting blog from an outfit called Habit Tech. They train individuals to be successful personal coaches using both traditional methods and technology. The premise of the blog was that technology disrupts industries and businesses forcing them to either adapt or fail.
It was a fascinating article and centered around the impact/disruption that technology has had on a specific industry: medicine.
For example, several studies show that millennials prefer doing virtual or electronic visits than the traditional go into the office and do a face to face with a doctor. Hospitals and insurance companies are pushing patients to do more “portal” electronic visits than in-house.
The marketplace now has dozens of devices that can do your vitals (blood pressure, temperature, oxygen intake, heart rate, and so on) and then download the information to your doctor’s workplace.
Surgeries that once required large incisions now are done with small incisions and tiny, less invasive surgical tools. Robots are assisting surgeons with complicated procedures, replacing the once-needed second surgeon in the operating room.
Technology has dramatically impacted my own industry, book publishing, over the last twenty years. When I wrote my first novel, Star Scout Rising, e-books were a tiny “niche” market. I tried to get a mainstream publisher for that novel, but no takers, and ended up with a small publisher in Alaska. I think we sold twenty books total, which I once figured out had me making less than a dollar an hour for the time I put into the effort. Oh well.
Since then of course, e-books sell far, far, more copies than traditional soft or hard copy and audible books are becoming ever more popular. Technology has undoubtedly turned publishing on its head.
Has it been a good thing? I think so, at least for me as I now have fourteen books out there and am getting close to publishing number fifteen. Truth is, if not for e-books, I seriously doubt if I could lay claim to being a “published author.”
However, my view is that technology can be the proverbial two-edged sword. For example, the same technology that allows my sweetheart and I to talk to and Skype or FaceTime with children and grandchildren hundreds and thousands of miles away is the same technology that leads to addictive pornography.
The same technology that gives me the opportunity to post blogs on Facebook is the same technology that’s used by electronic bullies to savage young people to the extent that they commit suicide.
The technology that gives us the ability to shoot down incoming missiles is the same technology that improves a nation’s ability to launch ever more sophisticated and destructive weapons.
Technology can be wonderful and marvelous, it’s just too bad that we always seem to find ways to use it in its most evil forms instead of for the betterment of our lives.
It was a fascinating article and centered around the impact/disruption that technology has had on a specific industry: medicine.
For example, several studies show that millennials prefer doing virtual or electronic visits than the traditional go into the office and do a face to face with a doctor. Hospitals and insurance companies are pushing patients to do more “portal” electronic visits than in-house.
The marketplace now has dozens of devices that can do your vitals (blood pressure, temperature, oxygen intake, heart rate, and so on) and then download the information to your doctor’s workplace.
Surgeries that once required large incisions now are done with small incisions and tiny, less invasive surgical tools. Robots are assisting surgeons with complicated procedures, replacing the once-needed second surgeon in the operating room.
Technology has dramatically impacted my own industry, book publishing, over the last twenty years. When I wrote my first novel, Star Scout Rising, e-books were a tiny “niche” market. I tried to get a mainstream publisher for that novel, but no takers, and ended up with a small publisher in Alaska. I think we sold twenty books total, which I once figured out had me making less than a dollar an hour for the time I put into the effort. Oh well.
Since then of course, e-books sell far, far, more copies than traditional soft or hard copy and audible books are becoming ever more popular. Technology has undoubtedly turned publishing on its head.
Has it been a good thing? I think so, at least for me as I now have fourteen books out there and am getting close to publishing number fifteen. Truth is, if not for e-books, I seriously doubt if I could lay claim to being a “published author.”
However, my view is that technology can be the proverbial two-edged sword. For example, the same technology that allows my sweetheart and I to talk to and Skype or FaceTime with children and grandchildren hundreds and thousands of miles away is the same technology that leads to addictive pornography.
The same technology that gives me the opportunity to post blogs on Facebook is the same technology that’s used by electronic bullies to savage young people to the extent that they commit suicide.
The technology that gives us the ability to shoot down incoming missiles is the same technology that improves a nation’s ability to launch ever more sophisticated and destructive weapons.
Technology can be wonderful and marvelous, it’s just too bad that we always seem to find ways to use it in its most evil forms instead of for the betterment of our lives.
February 4, 2019
The Good Ol' Days
Every day I get an email from an outfit called “Quotable Quotes” that shares quotes from various people from all over the world and throughout time. For example, there was one from the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates that was like his Hippocratic oath, but which could readily apply to our Congressmen today: "Whenever a doctor cannot do good, he must be kept from doing harm." (Substitute Congressmen for doctor).
Another from the American writer Kurt Vonnegut that had me laughing: "True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."
Another from American comedian Mitch Hedberg: "Is a hippopotamus a hippopotamus or just a really cool Opotamus?"
But it was this one from the Roman poet Ovid that got me to thinking: “Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.”
He’s right in that there is a tendency among people to sometimes wish for the “good ol’ days” because of nostalgia or reminiscing about a time in their life that was enjoyable, or perhaps when they were particularly happy.
I suppose it is different for each of us whether we would want to go back to the yesteryears of our life at some point and why. Maybe it’s because we feel that our economic circumstances or that our family life was better back then. Perhaps we had prestige or fame, or our health was much improved, or that special someone in our life was still with us.
Or, maybe these are the best years of your life, filled with happiness, love, a sense of purpose and you have no desire to dwell on the past.
Me, at this point in my life, I do not wish for the “good ol’ days.” But what I do wish for and strive for is to make each day that I have a “good” day so that when my time comes, I will have regrets, yes, but hopefully as few as I can make them.
May each of your days be the best that you can make them so that you’ll never become heartsick for the “good ol’ days” but rather look forward to the “good ol’ now days.”
Another from the American writer Kurt Vonnegut that had me laughing: "True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."
Another from American comedian Mitch Hedberg: "Is a hippopotamus a hippopotamus or just a really cool Opotamus?"
But it was this one from the Roman poet Ovid that got me to thinking: “Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.”
He’s right in that there is a tendency among people to sometimes wish for the “good ol’ days” because of nostalgia or reminiscing about a time in their life that was enjoyable, or perhaps when they were particularly happy.
I suppose it is different for each of us whether we would want to go back to the yesteryears of our life at some point and why. Maybe it’s because we feel that our economic circumstances or that our family life was better back then. Perhaps we had prestige or fame, or our health was much improved, or that special someone in our life was still with us.
Or, maybe these are the best years of your life, filled with happiness, love, a sense of purpose and you have no desire to dwell on the past.
Me, at this point in my life, I do not wish for the “good ol’ days.” But what I do wish for and strive for is to make each day that I have a “good” day so that when my time comes, I will have regrets, yes, but hopefully as few as I can make them.
May each of your days be the best that you can make them so that you’ll never become heartsick for the “good ol’ days” but rather look forward to the “good ol’ now days.”
January 18, 2019
The Dragon Who Wore Itsy Bitsy Teeny Tiny Dragon Wings.
I’m editing the first draft of my newest fantasy novel which is tentatively titled: The Dragon Who Wore Itsy Bitsy Teeny Tiny Dragon Wings.
Not really, but maybe the title for a future novel?
I don’t have a title yet, several working ideas that I’ll flesh out as I work my way through the draft. The series title is The Dragon Ring. This is a sequel series to my The Legend of Hooper’s Dragon fantasy series and takes place on Erdron some thirty or so years in the future after the Last Battle in the Great War.
This time around the point-of-view is that of a young dragon, Wind Storm, whose wings don’t work, he can’t spit dragon fire, and his older brother is constantly tying Wind Storm’s tail in knots and hanging him from a tree, just like a possum.
Unlike Hooper’s where my world creation centered around humans, this time, I’m expanding about a bit on the dragon’s world as told through the eyes and adventures of Wind Storm and his merry band of other assorted dragons.
Yes, there will be humans, after all, what’s a dragon without a human, or is it what’s a human without a dragon? Anyway, there will be humans with their stories, an assortment of good and bad, creatures, both great and small, some good, some not so good, and those that are really evil.
Adventures await and I hope to have the novel published on Amazon sometime around mid-February or so.
Thanks to all who read my stories and may all that you read bring you awe and uplifting thoughts.
Not really, but maybe the title for a future novel?
I don’t have a title yet, several working ideas that I’ll flesh out as I work my way through the draft. The series title is The Dragon Ring. This is a sequel series to my The Legend of Hooper’s Dragon fantasy series and takes place on Erdron some thirty or so years in the future after the Last Battle in the Great War.
This time around the point-of-view is that of a young dragon, Wind Storm, whose wings don’t work, he can’t spit dragon fire, and his older brother is constantly tying Wind Storm’s tail in knots and hanging him from a tree, just like a possum.
Unlike Hooper’s where my world creation centered around humans, this time, I’m expanding about a bit on the dragon’s world as told through the eyes and adventures of Wind Storm and his merry band of other assorted dragons.
Yes, there will be humans, after all, what’s a dragon without a human, or is it what’s a human without a dragon? Anyway, there will be humans with their stories, an assortment of good and bad, creatures, both great and small, some good, some not so good, and those that are really evil.
Adventures await and I hope to have the novel published on Amazon sometime around mid-February or so.
Thanks to all who read my stories and may all that you read bring you awe and uplifting thoughts.
January 16, 2019
The holiday season has come to an end, or has it?
The holiday season has come to an end, or has it? For my sweetheart, Pam, the real holidays are just beginning and last for almost eight months of the year. You see, I’m a college football fanatic. Not just a fan, but a real fanatic.
I love college football. As far as I’m concerned it is far and away the second-best game in the land, or the world for that matter. And yes, I know that soccer, to some people, is the world’s sport. I can watch soccer, especially when my children played the game, and now my grandchildren, however, for me, it’s not the world’s best sport. Sorry, soccer fans.
The number one sport for me? Pickleball, a new sport that I recently started playing since moving to St. George, Utah. A great game for young old people like me. Keeps you active and moving, improves the eye-hand coordination, increases the mental processes, and frankly, is just a lot of fun to play.
But back to college football. I love the energy, the fast pace, the intricacies, the competition, and the game’s rivalries.
No, I don’t watch professional football. I don’t find the same level of excitement or enthusiasm in the games. To me, professional football is a tiresome business venture dressed up as a sport. But, that’s just my opinion.
The fact is, I watch a lot of college football on television during the season and absolutely love the bowl games. I watch every game and I enjoy every game. But not my poor sweetie. She suffers through the season and doubly suffers through the bowl games. She can’t wait for them to end and the holiday from football to begin.
That she tolerates my addiction with just the occasional comment (or two, or three) is just one of the many reasons why I love her so much. She puts up with a lot being married to me and having a college football fanatic as a husband is not an easy life.
You see, she’s the complete opposite. She hates football. I mean she—really—hates—football. She sees absolutely no sense in the game and as the saying goes, “endures to the very end,” of the college football season and prays, literally, for the bowl games to quickly end.
I guess that’s one of the definitions of true love, you accept your loved one’s faults and failings and still love the person and . . . endure.
I love college football. As far as I’m concerned it is far and away the second-best game in the land, or the world for that matter. And yes, I know that soccer, to some people, is the world’s sport. I can watch soccer, especially when my children played the game, and now my grandchildren, however, for me, it’s not the world’s best sport. Sorry, soccer fans.
The number one sport for me? Pickleball, a new sport that I recently started playing since moving to St. George, Utah. A great game for young old people like me. Keeps you active and moving, improves the eye-hand coordination, increases the mental processes, and frankly, is just a lot of fun to play.
But back to college football. I love the energy, the fast pace, the intricacies, the competition, and the game’s rivalries.
No, I don’t watch professional football. I don’t find the same level of excitement or enthusiasm in the games. To me, professional football is a tiresome business venture dressed up as a sport. But, that’s just my opinion.
The fact is, I watch a lot of college football on television during the season and absolutely love the bowl games. I watch every game and I enjoy every game. But not my poor sweetie. She suffers through the season and doubly suffers through the bowl games. She can’t wait for them to end and the holiday from football to begin.
That she tolerates my addiction with just the occasional comment (or two, or three) is just one of the many reasons why I love her so much. She puts up with a lot being married to me and having a college football fanatic as a husband is not an easy life.
You see, she’s the complete opposite. She hates football. I mean she—really—hates—football. She sees absolutely no sense in the game and as the saying goes, “endures to the very end,” of the college football season and prays, literally, for the bowl games to quickly end.
I guess that’s one of the definitions of true love, you accept your loved one’s faults and failings and still love the person and . . . endure.
MY CONFESSION
I have a deep, dark secret that I’m finally ready to admit to the world. It’s hard to acknowledge, even painful in this day and age to disclose, but the truth is: I—AM—A—READER!
There, I’ve said it, gotten it off my chest and my conscience is free and clear. No longer in this day of hyper-electronic zombies will I have to hide my pain nor cower in fear of being found out.
Sometimes, I think I was born a reader. I can see myself all curled up in the womb and enjoying a good book and coming out kicking and crying at being disturbed in the middle of a good passage by birth.
Seriously, though I can’t remember my parents ever reading to me, yet I’ve been a reader since a fairly young age. I can still remember the first book I checked out of the school library: Robert Heinlein’s Farmer in the Sky. I couldn’t put it down and after that, I became the kid under the blanket at 3 a.m. with flashlight in hand and poring over my latest, greatest find from the library.
I was a voracious reader, my nose always stuck in a book. My grandson, Isaac, is like that too—though I think even more so. I mean, I took breaks to eat. Isaac eats but if he gets his way, he’ll have food in one hand, and a book in the other. I sincerely hope he never loses his love of reading though I fear that today’s generation, I call them the “thumb kids” because of their fixation on electronics, will jettison reading for more time thumbing their way through texts, tweets, e-games and such.
I read a lot of different “stuff.” Fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, historical, Popular Science, Discovery, National Geographic, Reader’s Digest, blogs of various sorts, news articles, and the scriptures among other things. I even read Handyman though my wife would deny I’ve ever touched said tome according to most of my do-it-yourself fiascos. Hmm, come to think of it, fiasco is probably too forgiving a term for the devil’s work I’ve accomplished, or not, as the case may be.
That said, the other day my son Ryan and were talking about healthy habits. He, along with his brother Stephen, run a company called Habit Technologies whose motto is: Success Starts With What You Do.
The company focuses on helping people attain both personal and business success through implementation of daily habits that lead to a lifetime of achievement.
I asked Ryan if there were any benefits, mentally, or physically to the act of reading. He did some research and posted a blog to his company’s website. With his permission, I’m sharing his thoughts below. Here’s to a better life and a lifetime of satisfying, fulfilling reading.
If You Want a Better Life, Start Reading
by Ryan S. Darby, PhD.
Everything Else Seems So Urgent
It seems, especially during the holidays, that everything in our daily world chimes, pings, dings, or rings at us—urgently demanding our attention right then, right now, or else!
However, books make no such demands on us. They sit quietly, patiently waiting for our attention. And when we do pick them up, even if it’s only for a few moments, it’s magic. Books only give. They entertain and delight, inform and teach, help us to learn and grow, bring wonder and awe, invoke emotions that penetrate the soul.
Reading Benefits the Mind and Body
Reading books, especially those that tell stories, bring amazing qualities to mind, body, and spirit:
1. Reading increases your understanding and empathy of other people (source).
2. Reading keeps your mind young and free (source).
3. Reading significantly reduces your stress (source).
4. Reading may even help you live longer (source).
Simple Habits Have a Compound Effect
Amazingly enough, it doesn’t take much for those benefits to show up. One study showed that just 6 minutes of silently reading a book reduced reader’s stress levels by 68%.
Another study showed that as little as a half hour a day can add almost two more years to your life (source).
Important Things Don't Always Come with Electronic Alerts
Books won’t ever noisily cry out for our attention, demand that we read right then, or else!
No, they’ll sit patiently, waiting for us to sit down and let the magic happen.
The essential things in life don’t have electronic alerts to tell us that they are important. They just are.
There, I’ve said it, gotten it off my chest and my conscience is free and clear. No longer in this day of hyper-electronic zombies will I have to hide my pain nor cower in fear of being found out.
Sometimes, I think I was born a reader. I can see myself all curled up in the womb and enjoying a good book and coming out kicking and crying at being disturbed in the middle of a good passage by birth.
Seriously, though I can’t remember my parents ever reading to me, yet I’ve been a reader since a fairly young age. I can still remember the first book I checked out of the school library: Robert Heinlein’s Farmer in the Sky. I couldn’t put it down and after that, I became the kid under the blanket at 3 a.m. with flashlight in hand and poring over my latest, greatest find from the library.
I was a voracious reader, my nose always stuck in a book. My grandson, Isaac, is like that too—though I think even more so. I mean, I took breaks to eat. Isaac eats but if he gets his way, he’ll have food in one hand, and a book in the other. I sincerely hope he never loses his love of reading though I fear that today’s generation, I call them the “thumb kids” because of their fixation on electronics, will jettison reading for more time thumbing their way through texts, tweets, e-games and such.
I read a lot of different “stuff.” Fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, historical, Popular Science, Discovery, National Geographic, Reader’s Digest, blogs of various sorts, news articles, and the scriptures among other things. I even read Handyman though my wife would deny I’ve ever touched said tome according to most of my do-it-yourself fiascos. Hmm, come to think of it, fiasco is probably too forgiving a term for the devil’s work I’ve accomplished, or not, as the case may be.
That said, the other day my son Ryan and were talking about healthy habits. He, along with his brother Stephen, run a company called Habit Technologies whose motto is: Success Starts With What You Do.
The company focuses on helping people attain both personal and business success through implementation of daily habits that lead to a lifetime of achievement.
I asked Ryan if there were any benefits, mentally, or physically to the act of reading. He did some research and posted a blog to his company’s website. With his permission, I’m sharing his thoughts below. Here’s to a better life and a lifetime of satisfying, fulfilling reading.
If You Want a Better Life, Start Reading
by Ryan S. Darby, PhD.
Everything Else Seems So Urgent
It seems, especially during the holidays, that everything in our daily world chimes, pings, dings, or rings at us—urgently demanding our attention right then, right now, or else!
However, books make no such demands on us. They sit quietly, patiently waiting for our attention. And when we do pick them up, even if it’s only for a few moments, it’s magic. Books only give. They entertain and delight, inform and teach, help us to learn and grow, bring wonder and awe, invoke emotions that penetrate the soul.
Reading Benefits the Mind and Body
Reading books, especially those that tell stories, bring amazing qualities to mind, body, and spirit:
1. Reading increases your understanding and empathy of other people (source).
2. Reading keeps your mind young and free (source).
3. Reading significantly reduces your stress (source).
4. Reading may even help you live longer (source).
Simple Habits Have a Compound Effect
Amazingly enough, it doesn’t take much for those benefits to show up. One study showed that just 6 minutes of silently reading a book reduced reader’s stress levels by 68%.
Another study showed that as little as a half hour a day can add almost two more years to your life (source).
Important Things Don't Always Come with Electronic Alerts
Books won’t ever noisily cry out for our attention, demand that we read right then, or else!
No, they’ll sit patiently, waiting for us to sit down and let the magic happen.
The essential things in life don’t have electronic alerts to tell us that they are important. They just are.
November 9, 2018
Dragons, Dragons Everywhere!
Dragons, dragons everywhere!
Someone once asked me where I came up with the idea of a golden dragon and dragons the colors of the rainbow.
I wish I could say that both were original thought, but alas, they’re not. In fact, both are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. Talk about being behind the times when it comes to originality, right?
So, when I had the idea of writing a story above dragons, I thought I’d do something along the lines of Elliot, the magical, friendly, sometimes visible, sometimes not, dragon in Walt Disney’s Pete’s Dragon.
My kids loved the movie, and at the dinner table with the grand kiddie-widdies, when we played the game, “Tell Me A Story” dragons were often a part of the storyline; usually a close second or third to pink ponies, fairies, or silver foxes (my granddaughters favorite subjects).
However, when my oldest grandson added his two-cents to the storyline, M1 Abram tanks would come along and turn the pink ponies into . . . well, I’ll let you use your imagination on what happened to the pink ponies.
I started sketching out some thoughts and then realized, if I’m going to write a story on dragons just what do I know about the beasts? Well, there was Elliot, of course, and Draco in Dragon Heart, and Mushu in Mulan, and Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon, and Smaug in The Hobbit and . . . Komodo Dragons.
There were others but as you can see, my knowledge of dragons was limited to movies and fantasy books, except for Komodo Dragons which are not fire-breathing, don’t have wings, and are really very large, overgrown iguana lizards for the most part.
I decided that I needed to do a little research, which is what most good authors do anyway so off I went into Google-land and found that dragons come in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and personalities.
Interesting enough, I also found that dragons, in some form, exist in pretty much every culture past and present. In fact, it would seem that very few cultures don’t have some type of serpentine type dragonish creature in their legends and lore.
Most of us in the U.S. are probably most familiar with the Asian type of dragon (think Mushu only much larger) or the European version (think Draco).
But what caught my attention was a short article on the Chinese legend of the “Rainbow Dragon.” The Chinese belief was that an entity known as the “Rainbow Dragon” would rise from the earth, fly across the sky, and bring the rainbow at the end of a storm.
The rainbow would then herald that the end of the tempest was near, and the Chinese saw the Rainbow Dragon as a kind being that brought peace and tranquility back to the land after the raging storm.
After I read that article, I started thinking, “Hmmm, a rainbow dragon . . . a rainbow dragon. What if I had dragons, each of which represented a color of the rainbow, with attributes that matched their hue? Such as green to represent power over the greenery, or red to represent blood spilled during war, or blue to represent the ability to fly the swiftest through the blue sky . . .” and so on.
That’s where the idea for the different types of dragons came from and of course, the more I thought about it, the more the idea of the dragons giving (sacrificing) their unique power to my protagonist to save the world from my evil protagonist (whomever that was going to be) came about.
As for Golden Wind, the golden dragon, my Google search led me to the Chinese Qing Dynasty where the emperor of that time used a golden dragon to represent his imperial authority and empire. So, I thought that if a golden dragon was good enough for an emperor, then a golden dragon, representing power and authority was good enough for me.
Oh by the way, my Google search for “golden dragons” also taught me one other thing. There are about a bazillion Chinese restaurants named “The Golden Dragon.”
Until next time, may all you read fill you with wonder and awe.
published originally Nov 5, 2018
https://garyjdarby.wixsite.com/websit...
Someone once asked me where I came up with the idea of a golden dragon and dragons the colors of the rainbow.
I wish I could say that both were original thought, but alas, they’re not. In fact, both are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. Talk about being behind the times when it comes to originality, right?
So, when I had the idea of writing a story above dragons, I thought I’d do something along the lines of Elliot, the magical, friendly, sometimes visible, sometimes not, dragon in Walt Disney’s Pete’s Dragon.
My kids loved the movie, and at the dinner table with the grand kiddie-widdies, when we played the game, “Tell Me A Story” dragons were often a part of the storyline; usually a close second or third to pink ponies, fairies, or silver foxes (my granddaughters favorite subjects).
However, when my oldest grandson added his two-cents to the storyline, M1 Abram tanks would come along and turn the pink ponies into . . . well, I’ll let you use your imagination on what happened to the pink ponies.
I started sketching out some thoughts and then realized, if I’m going to write a story on dragons just what do I know about the beasts? Well, there was Elliot, of course, and Draco in Dragon Heart, and Mushu in Mulan, and Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon, and Smaug in The Hobbit and . . . Komodo Dragons.
There were others but as you can see, my knowledge of dragons was limited to movies and fantasy books, except for Komodo Dragons which are not fire-breathing, don’t have wings, and are really very large, overgrown iguana lizards for the most part.
I decided that I needed to do a little research, which is what most good authors do anyway so off I went into Google-land and found that dragons come in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and personalities.
Interesting enough, I also found that dragons, in some form, exist in pretty much every culture past and present. In fact, it would seem that very few cultures don’t have some type of serpentine type dragonish creature in their legends and lore.
Most of us in the U.S. are probably most familiar with the Asian type of dragon (think Mushu only much larger) or the European version (think Draco).
But what caught my attention was a short article on the Chinese legend of the “Rainbow Dragon.” The Chinese belief was that an entity known as the “Rainbow Dragon” would rise from the earth, fly across the sky, and bring the rainbow at the end of a storm.
The rainbow would then herald that the end of the tempest was near, and the Chinese saw the Rainbow Dragon as a kind being that brought peace and tranquility back to the land after the raging storm.
After I read that article, I started thinking, “Hmmm, a rainbow dragon . . . a rainbow dragon. What if I had dragons, each of which represented a color of the rainbow, with attributes that matched their hue? Such as green to represent power over the greenery, or red to represent blood spilled during war, or blue to represent the ability to fly the swiftest through the blue sky . . .” and so on.
That’s where the idea for the different types of dragons came from and of course, the more I thought about it, the more the idea of the dragons giving (sacrificing) their unique power to my protagonist to save the world from my evil protagonist (whomever that was going to be) came about.
As for Golden Wind, the golden dragon, my Google search led me to the Chinese Qing Dynasty where the emperor of that time used a golden dragon to represent his imperial authority and empire. So, I thought that if a golden dragon was good enough for an emperor, then a golden dragon, representing power and authority was good enough for me.
Oh by the way, my Google search for “golden dragons” also taught me one other thing. There are about a bazillion Chinese restaurants named “The Golden Dragon.”
Until next time, may all you read fill you with wonder and awe.
published originally Nov 5, 2018
https://garyjdarby.wixsite.com/websit...
Me and My Shadow
Have you ever opened a book only to meet yourself staring back from the very first pages?
I did and what’s more, it was my own book, If a Dragon Cries, the first book in my fantasy series, Hooper’s Dragons. I discovered a very interesting, and perhaps a bit disturbing aspect of my writing. In certain scenes, I wrote about . . . ME.
Sounds a little egotistical but actually it’s not. Because the scenes are very unflattering of my protagonist and I recognized there was a lot of me in him. Back in the Jurassic Age, or was it the Pleistocene Age—I get all those Ages mixed up—anyway, long, long ago, when I was a kid I didn’t have a particularly happy childhood.
Parents divorced when I was three or four, mom too poor to take care of me so I shuffled around to aunts, uncles, grandparents for a while, biological father kidnapped me and took me to Alaska and then back to Texas. My mom regained custody of me and remarried but we were lower, lower middle class on the economic rung.
Which meant that just before school started mom marched me to JC Penny’s where she would put on layaway (that word alone shows you how far back this goes) two pairs of blue jeans, three shirts, some underwear and socks and would sternly say, “That’s all you get, Gary, they have to last you the whole year.”
She meant it too. If I put a hole in one of my blue jeans—which was fairly often as I was one of those kids that climbed and fell out of trees, played on the school ground equipment and jumped off the swings scraping my knees almost every time, mom would iron on one of those blue-jean patches to cover the hole. Needless to say, by the time the school year ended my pants were more patches than actual material.
I was an only child, too. I had two younger brothers, but one died of congenital heart disease when he was seven months old. My other brother died when he was a few days old. I wish I had memories of them, but I don’t, which sometimes makes me a little sad.
An only child has its advantages and disadvantages. Let me tell you the most significant drawback: If something goes wrong in the house ALL the fingers point to you. There’s no one else to deflect your parent’s anger onto, you stand alone against those fingers.
Of course, usually, most of the time, almost always, you were at fault anyway, still it would have been nice to have someone else around, a brother or sister, where you could at least try and make the case that they were mixed up in the fiasco, too thereby spreading the punishment around a bit.
I was a latch-key kid. Both parents worked but didn’t make enough money to afford child care so from about eight years old (3rd grade as I remember) I had a key to the house and so after school and on Saturdays I had the house to myself. Didn’t have a lot of neighborhood friends but I had quite a few imaginary friends that went on some awesome living room adventures with me.
We had an old, tiny black and white T.V. set and for a kid the only thing on during the weekday afternoon was the Mickey Mouse club but that didn’t last long enough and that meant I had a lot of mischievous time on my hands until mom got home from work.
Saturdays were a bit better with cartoons and Sky King, and Rin Tin Tin, and Roy Rogers and western movies, but I still had enough time on my hands to get into trouble, and I usually did.
I was an ugly child. Still am, but that’s another story. I was fat, had a broken front tooth that earned me the nickname, “Snaggletooth” from the kids at school and then there were my ears. Ever seen the Walt Disney movie, “Dumbo?” I related to that little elephant because while my ears weren’t quite as big as his, still, I always thought that if I could just flap them, they were pretty close in size to lifting me off the ground.
Fat, ugly, and on top of that I was an angry kid, too. Not a destructive, angry kid, but I had a very short fuse. Still working on that issue, even after all these years. Got into a lot of fights at school and from grades 1-6, the principal and I were on a first-name basis. Well, at least he called me by my first name. It seemed as if I spent about as much time in his office as I did in the classroom.
So, when I started writing my Star Scout sci-fi novels, and in particular, my Hooper’s Dragons series, I didn’t realize it at the time but there’s a lot of “me” in my protagonists. I wish I could say it was the good part of “me” but unfortunately, most of it’s not.
However, one of the things I’ve realized about writing is that it can be very therapeutic. It sometimes, and does, bring out those deep, inner thoughts and feelings that we too often harbor for years, brings them out from the dark and into the light where we can really see them, and hopefully resolve to our benefit.
So, if you’re someone who’s struggling with an issue(s) try doing some writing, doesn’t necessarily have to be fiction, it could be diary entries, or a story about your life, or of an event that had a marked effect upon you. You don’t even have to show your work to anyone, unless you wanted to, of course.
It can be just for you, an expression of your deepest feelings to yourself, a cleansing mist of words to wash away old hurts and anger, a healing balm over the scars and wounds of life.
If it can work for me, I genuinely believe it can work for you.
--- published originally at ttps://garyjdarby.wixsite.com/website/home/d...
I did and what’s more, it was my own book, If a Dragon Cries, the first book in my fantasy series, Hooper’s Dragons. I discovered a very interesting, and perhaps a bit disturbing aspect of my writing. In certain scenes, I wrote about . . . ME.
Sounds a little egotistical but actually it’s not. Because the scenes are very unflattering of my protagonist and I recognized there was a lot of me in him. Back in the Jurassic Age, or was it the Pleistocene Age—I get all those Ages mixed up—anyway, long, long ago, when I was a kid I didn’t have a particularly happy childhood.
Parents divorced when I was three or four, mom too poor to take care of me so I shuffled around to aunts, uncles, grandparents for a while, biological father kidnapped me and took me to Alaska and then back to Texas. My mom regained custody of me and remarried but we were lower, lower middle class on the economic rung.
Which meant that just before school started mom marched me to JC Penny’s where she would put on layaway (that word alone shows you how far back this goes) two pairs of blue jeans, three shirts, some underwear and socks and would sternly say, “That’s all you get, Gary, they have to last you the whole year.”
She meant it too. If I put a hole in one of my blue jeans—which was fairly often as I was one of those kids that climbed and fell out of trees, played on the school ground equipment and jumped off the swings scraping my knees almost every time, mom would iron on one of those blue-jean patches to cover the hole. Needless to say, by the time the school year ended my pants were more patches than actual material.
I was an only child, too. I had two younger brothers, but one died of congenital heart disease when he was seven months old. My other brother died when he was a few days old. I wish I had memories of them, but I don’t, which sometimes makes me a little sad.
An only child has its advantages and disadvantages. Let me tell you the most significant drawback: If something goes wrong in the house ALL the fingers point to you. There’s no one else to deflect your parent’s anger onto, you stand alone against those fingers.
Of course, usually, most of the time, almost always, you were at fault anyway, still it would have been nice to have someone else around, a brother or sister, where you could at least try and make the case that they were mixed up in the fiasco, too thereby spreading the punishment around a bit.
I was a latch-key kid. Both parents worked but didn’t make enough money to afford child care so from about eight years old (3rd grade as I remember) I had a key to the house and so after school and on Saturdays I had the house to myself. Didn’t have a lot of neighborhood friends but I had quite a few imaginary friends that went on some awesome living room adventures with me.
We had an old, tiny black and white T.V. set and for a kid the only thing on during the weekday afternoon was the Mickey Mouse club but that didn’t last long enough and that meant I had a lot of mischievous time on my hands until mom got home from work.
Saturdays were a bit better with cartoons and Sky King, and Rin Tin Tin, and Roy Rogers and western movies, but I still had enough time on my hands to get into trouble, and I usually did.
I was an ugly child. Still am, but that’s another story. I was fat, had a broken front tooth that earned me the nickname, “Snaggletooth” from the kids at school and then there were my ears. Ever seen the Walt Disney movie, “Dumbo?” I related to that little elephant because while my ears weren’t quite as big as his, still, I always thought that if I could just flap them, they were pretty close in size to lifting me off the ground.
Fat, ugly, and on top of that I was an angry kid, too. Not a destructive, angry kid, but I had a very short fuse. Still working on that issue, even after all these years. Got into a lot of fights at school and from grades 1-6, the principal and I were on a first-name basis. Well, at least he called me by my first name. It seemed as if I spent about as much time in his office as I did in the classroom.
So, when I started writing my Star Scout sci-fi novels, and in particular, my Hooper’s Dragons series, I didn’t realize it at the time but there’s a lot of “me” in my protagonists. I wish I could say it was the good part of “me” but unfortunately, most of it’s not.
However, one of the things I’ve realized about writing is that it can be very therapeutic. It sometimes, and does, bring out those deep, inner thoughts and feelings that we too often harbor for years, brings them out from the dark and into the light where we can really see them, and hopefully resolve to our benefit.
So, if you’re someone who’s struggling with an issue(s) try doing some writing, doesn’t necessarily have to be fiction, it could be diary entries, or a story about your life, or of an event that had a marked effect upon you. You don’t even have to show your work to anyone, unless you wanted to, of course.
It can be just for you, an expression of your deepest feelings to yourself, a cleansing mist of words to wash away old hurts and anger, a healing balm over the scars and wounds of life.
If it can work for me, I genuinely believe it can work for you.
--- published originally at ttps://garyjdarby.wixsite.com/website/home/d...
