Marvel's Next Female Superhero

  All my devices are hopelessly outdated. I like working on Windows 7, for example. I even bought a backup refurbished laptop with that system just in case this one hit the skids. But I was just scolded by Microsoft: "No longer going to be supporting this. Upgrade, or else." My expensive iPad is "too old" for the OS system to update to the current one. As a result, programs are no longer working. There's not a thing wrong with it, other than Apple loves to make these things obsolete as quickly as possible. I lost Skype credits because Skype won't work anymore on it, either. Nor my Kindle app. Instagram is only allowing three of my library photos to upload. And I won't even embarrass … [Read more...]

  Reading The Secret Spice Cafe Book Series? Below is a fun chart that illustrates who each character is in relation to the others. If you click on it, it 'should' enlarge, but if not, and you'd like your own full-size printable diagram for easy reference, email publicist@patriciaVdavis.com  and we'll send you your own, free copy. Happy Reading!      … [Read more...]

We use the idiomatic expression "sacred cow," and sometimes don't know what it means. It comes from a literal sacred cow or sacred bull, which is an actual cow or bull that's treated with unprecedented respect. In certain religions, a cow is considered so holy that it must never be harmed. What this means is that in some instances, people who adhere to this belief will starve to death rather than kill a sacred cow to eat its meat. Imagine believing in the sanctity of a cow so much, that you're willing to die for it. Imagine readily allowing your own children to starve to death rather than killing and eating a sacred cow. Photos abound of starving men, women, and children, their bones … [Read more...]

  You’ll rarely hear me complain about the publishing industry on social media platforms. Don’t get me wrong—my family and fellow writers hear plenty, but that’s private. I figure, if I don’t want to hear you complain about work, you don’t want to hear me. It’s like author Tim Chizmar said, “You’re the one who wanted to come to the party. Don’t gripe about the hors d’oeuvres.” But I’m breaking my no-complaint rule today, because I think book lovers should be aware of something that’s taking place in the writing world right now, that isn’t just a plate of lousy hors d’oeuvres, to use Tim’s metaphor, but a plate of dog droppings that many authors are being handed. And this ‘plate’ is … [Read more...]

I was just thinking about how many grown people I know who are still being emotionally manipulated by their parents. Not only young adults, either—I know people with more than half their lives over who are still having their strings pulled and their buttons pushed by the people who brought them into this world. I’m not talking abusive parents, I mean parents who love their children, but who expect certain behavior from these adult children. They don’t demand the behavior— they blackmail the behavior out of their kids. And by blackmail I mean they hold the love their children feel for them hostage to their demands. There’s an unsaid subtext of demand in every invitation, every request: "If … [Read more...]

There was a time when I lived a very unhappy life, that, for a number of reasons I knew I'd be stuck living for a while. I know this is true for many of us. We're stuck, not because we're afraid to make a change, but because there are factors that don't allow us to make a change right away. When I was in this situation, the easiest thing would have been to be miserable every day--marking off one unhappy day after another until I could, for lack of a better word, "escape." I refused to do that. I refused to let my unhappy situation drain every bit of joy from my existence. So, instead, I concentrated on short moments and small things, all scattered throughout my days that gave me tiny … [Read more...]

Learning and passing on what I’ve learned to others has been one of my passions since I can remember.  I believe the more I know, the better my decisions will be, and as a result, the better my life will be. I have proof that this is so, because I started out in life with a tribe of people who lived in fear mostly because they were uniformed. Because they were uninformed, they relied on others to tell them what to think and do—a friend, a family member, a spouse, a doctor, a dentist, a politician, a priest, a radio show host, a newspaper—always knew more than they did. That was the tribe’s assumption. Whether the friend, family member or spouse knew any more about the subject at hand than … [Read more...]