A few days ago, I downloaded Create Your Writer Platform by Chuck Sambuchino. I paid $9.99 for it as a Kindle book, by the way.

The “about the author” snippet on Amazon provides this information about Sambuchino.

Chuck Sambuchino is an editor for Writer’s Digest Books and edits the Guide to Literary Agents. He is the author of books such as Formatting and Submitting Your Manuscript, 3rd Edition, and How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack.

About five years or so ago, I had the opportunity to hear Sambuchino speak at a writers conference and also visited with him for a few minutes.

It’s funny how things have changed in publishing in those short last five years.

Or maybe not.

For the most part advice about the world of publishing that was on the cutting edge of the industry five years ago is about as timely now as financial advice from planters in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the days before July 4, 1863.  For those of you who haven’t studied the American Civil War, I would tell you that the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 was the event that put the nail in coffin of the Confederacy.  Before that day, Mississippi was one of the richest states in the world.  After it, it became one of the poorest.

I do not mean to say Sambuchino’s book is dated.  It isn’t. But in it he treads with a foot in each world, the world of traditional publishing and the world outside it.

Chuck Sambuchino

Sambuchino makes it clear from the get-go that the best way to have a strong author platform is simple.

Be famous.

Okay, I missed out on that one.

For the rest of us who are unknown writers, he provides a road map for author brand building.  In the final section of the book, he includes interviews with a number of authors that detail how each of them approached brand building.

The thing that really struck me, however, was not the famous versus non-famous problem, or the traditional publishing versus Indie books enigma.

What stuck out as I read the book was the other great divide that confronts authors who seek to build their brands.

Non-fiction versus fiction.

That’s the kicker.

Sambuchino devotes most of his time to information directed at authors of non-fiction.  This is not surprising for several reasons.  Non-fiction books make up a huge share of the print market and are the bread and butter of traditional publishing.

However, the last statistics I saw about eBooks indicated that about eighty percent of that market is fiction.

And therein lies the rub.

When you get right down to it one of the biggest unsolved problems in the new world of digital publishing is that no one yet knows the best way to build an author platform that will help authors of fiction sell books.

My guess is that Chuck Sambuchino would probably tell you the same thing.

I recommend Sambuchino’s book for writers who want to learn about brand building.  They will find useful information and some nuggets, for sure.  But if they are novelists they will also come away from the book still scratching their heads about the best way to proceed in these new waters.

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Downtown street in Henderson.

It’s time to say goodbye. The day always comes, especially for writers.

At about nine thirty-four last night, I typed in the final period at the end of the final sentence of another novel.

Deadline News, for better or worse, is in the books.

I never dread the moment until it happens.

It’s like a life is ending.

Characters I’ve lived with day and night for weeks on end are packing up and leaving the comfortable little recesses of my mind, a place where they had taken up permanent residence until I kicked them out last night.

Some have places to go.

I’m sure of it.

Others I worry about.

Cooper Bridges has another newspaper to publish. He still has his eye on the pretty young lady who sells train tickets at the railroad terminal. His daughter is trapped in the most awkward stage of all. She is suddenly realizing she may be a girl but has decided it’s more fun to wear overalls and be a boy.

The Sheriff runs Henderson on his own terms. He makes the rules. He breaks the rules. But he keeps peace and order in a town that’s on the threshold of being a lot more rowdy than it’s ever been.

A gusher of oil on Daisy Bradford’s farm has touched the sky.

Doc didn’t ask for it. But he has a second chance at life. He’s never sure it’ worth the trouble. Then again, he’s not sure it isn’t either.

The honorable Jefferson Wright, esquire, is the only man in town who knows for sure that he has steady work. If two men live within the same vicinity, the odds are real good that one will need an attorney before the week’s out. For a fee, Jefferson will find someone guilty or innocent. It doesn’t matter to him.

Herb Smooley is serving up bacon and eggs, cooked in last week’s grease, along with coffee to wash the food down, and it usually needs washing down. Willie Tolliver will still do anything for a bottle of whiskey if he can remember what it was he had to do when or if he wakes up. And Maizie Thompson has an establishment filled with girls looking for husbands and husbands looking for girls. In Maizie’s, the twain meets a lot.

But whatever they’re doing, they’re all doing it without me this morning.

I guess, in reality, they didn’t pack up and move away.

I did.

I’m the one who wrote The End.

So I hugged the ladies of Henderson.

I kissed the children.

And I shook the men’s hands.

Goodbye, I told them.

They nodded.

I’ll miss you, I said.

The Sheriff shrugged and bit the end off a two-bit cigar.

“We’ll be back,” he said.

It may have been a threat.

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During the mid to late eighties, I took a break from the practice of pharmacy and sold life insurance for New York Life Insurance Company in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We used computers every day and our trainer noticed that I had an affinity for them. I even took a night class at L.S.U. in basic programming.  He stopped by my office one day with a floppy disk in his hand and ask if I would like to try a new program. Our company had been offered the opportunity to test a new venture co-sponsored by IBM and Sears.  It was called Prodigy. They also supplied a dial up modem.

FCEtier, author and artist

I agreed and so entered the world of e-mail and online adventures including shopping. Bulletin boards where you could post comments and join in discussions were the precursor to chat rooms, all of which evolved into FaceBook and numerous other sites known now as social media. Thirty years of dabbling with e-mail and numerous sites of personal interest, such as football officiating sites, has brought me to a point where I can now share some of my experiences.  Not as an expert, not by any means. But simply as someone who has tried a lot of different networking tools and knows enough about them to be dangerous.

In March of 2007 my wife and I rented a booth in a local consignment shop and my photography began to sell. I was no longer an amateur. At about that same time, I became interested in and active on FaceBook. It seemed like a natural for making contacts. Selling any product is a numbers game and it’s always a good bet to rely on big numbers, especially when you’re counting available prospects. Also, every group on FaceBook is a nest of people with something in common. If one buys, you’re in like Flint.

Then I was invited to a cocktail party. You’ve been to those haven’t you? You carry a drink around, visit small groups of people for a brief visit, and move to another area of the party venue. Keep moving, keep talking, and meet new people. Everyone is a prospect. Everyone knows someone else who could very well be a prospect.  The cocktail party was Twitter.

For six years now, I’ve been joining groups, meeting people, and building a network. In 2007, it never occurred to me that I might one day become a published author. Now, when I get a new connection on Twitter, I send them a thank you note and tell them right up front, “I use Twitter to promo my photog and novels.” Then I give them a link where they can see my work.

There’s a problem with a lot of social media outlets — especially FaceBook and Twitter.  The effectiveness of a single contact is very short lived. You have to continue to revisit those groups and social gatherings to have any impact.

Until I found out about StumbleUpon. SU is a different kind of social media venture. The link to your blog/article/web site or whatever you’re promoting has a much longer life on StumbleUpon.com. The site’s main purpose is to find people interested in your link and put it in front of them. Visitors to the SU site simply click the “Stumble” button and bam! They get a fresh batch of sites for their chosen categories.

Suppose you sell purple and gold polka dot widgets.

You post a link to your site and pick the obviously significant tag words.

Now, when a visitor to the SU site who likes purple, clicks the “Stumble” button, you link has a good chance of landing on their computer screen in front of them. Same thing with,  gold, polka dots, and widgets. Get the picture? Apply the same logic to boomer lit, thrillers, murder, or your favorite genre of reading material. The chances of your link getting more exposure increases with popularity. The more visitors who click the “Thumbs UP” button on your page, the more likely it is that still more readers will see your material.

Ready to put StumbleUpon to work for you?

Herewith is the first in a series of articles in which I divulge my experiences and help you learn how to use StumbleUpon.

The first step is easy and the most important.

You have to sign up. Not signing up is like praying to win the lottery without purchasing a ticket.

Visit, www.stumbleupon.com. The opening page offers several ways to join. If you are already on FaceBook or Twitter, you can join via those sites. It is also easy to join SU directly, which is my choice. For online security, I like separate passwords for each site. I’ve had my identity stolen once and that was enough.

Sign up.

Select a screen name and a password.

Notice in the attached screen print of my home page, to the right is a button labeled, “Add Interest.” I put a red “2″ pointing to it. A few of my interests that are visible on this shot include, travel, arts, literature, military, and American football.

Start there. Add a few interests.

Now, click on either of the red “Stumble” buttons. I labeled one of them with the number “1″ and you’ll find the other at the top between two little thumbs pointing up and down.

While you’re waiting on the second article in this series of blogs on how I use StumbleUpon, take some time and get acquainted with the home page. Experiment navigating the site. Click on a few of the articles and while you’re there, give them a thumbs up vote.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments section and look up my profile on SU if you like. Here’s my link: http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/FCEtier/likes

Till next time, “Thumbs UP!”

Please click the book cover to read more about FCEtier’s novel on Amazon. 

The post How I learned to stop worrying and love Social Media. The Authors Collection. appeared first on Venture Galleries.

Standard board cover of the British version of the game.

In 1941 some bright Brits devised a plan with Monopoly sets to help POWS escape German prisons.

Sneaking escape routes on paper to POWs didn’t work.  Paper had too many flaws: made noise unfolding and folding.  Creases eradicated markings.   Paper was too thick and not durable when wet.

The need was not only to provide escape routes, but to designate the location of “safe houses.”

Only one manufacturer in Great Britian had perfected the art of printing on silk.  When John Waddington, Ltd.  was asked to print escape routes and safe house locations on silk,  this manufacturer was happy to do anything to help the war effort.  Waddington was also licensed to make Monopoly games and could, through the International Red Cross, dispatch these games in CARE packages to POWs.

Under the heaviest secrecy imaginable a group of trusted workers made tiny silk maps that would fit inside Monopoly playing pieces.

During World War II, dice in Monopoly was replaced with a spinner because of a lack of materials.

But British workers’ cleverness did not stop here.   A tiny magnetic compass was placed in a playing piece.   A two piece metal file that could easily be screwed together was put in another playing piece.   High-denominations of German, French, and Italian currency were hidden within piles of Monopoly money.

In order to identify the marked games, air crews could determine these by a tiny red dot which appeared as a printing mistake in the corner of the Free Parking square.

Approximately 35,000 Allied POWS made successful escapes.   About one-third of these were helped to make their escapes through the rigged Monopoly sets.

Everyone who escaped successfully or played any part in the manufacturing of the rigged Monopoly sets or was part of a “special” flight crew were sworn to secrecy just in case the British might need to use the Monopoly plan in the future.

In 2007 the Monopoly plan was declassified.  In a public ceremony survivors were honored.

Isn’t there an old remark – “Leave it to the Brits”?  If so, it is most appropriate here.

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Dr. O. C. (Mike) Taylor

 Folks were commonly born into poverty in the 1930s. For some, it was abject–daily bread was never guaranteed, and families were continually on the move in survival mode.

Dr. O. C. (Mike) Taylor, born to migrant farm workers, was subjected to life’s most jagged edges after his birth in 1932. One of eight children and one of just three who survived early childhood years, he was a nomadic tag-along, accustomed to living in tents and at least once under a tree.

Fun-loving and frisky—yet fearlessly taking life by the throat—he was in schools from hither to yon before his folks found work at the Itasca Cotton Gin. It was there–where Itascans cheer for the Wampus Cats—that the family settled in.  Taylor was there for grades 7-12, and that’s where his oft-repeated stories of adventures–and misadventures–were birthed.

*****

   His life was celebrated the other day at the United Presbyterian Church in Cleburne after the 81-year-old was felled by a stroke. It was a standing room only memorial service for this self-made man who was Texas’ youngest school superintendent at age 32. He was known for his unfailing humor, unbounded optimism and mischievous spirit.

Colleagues marveled at his uncanny ability to recognize potential in educators to place them where they could best serve. Credentials could be dealt with later. This was underscored by eulogist Riney Jordan, who was named “teacher of the year” during his initial year in education as a fifth-grade teacher at Grapevine ISD.

Taylor, early in his 11-year tenure as Grapevine superintendent, shocked Jordan one day with this edict: “Come Monday, you’re going to be principal of your school.” Jordan whined about lacking qualifications. Taylor, just short of fist-pounding, repeated the decision. Message received. Another time, Jordan delivered neatly paper-clipped teacher evaluations to Taylor’s office. Taylor scowled, “Next time, staple ‘em in the upper left corner at an angle so the pages can be easily flipped.” Clearly beyond eccentric at times, he enjoyed keeping colleagues guessing which times.

******

   Patty, his wife of 27 years, says he lived life “his way.” She also thinks he completed most of his “want to’s.”

Dr. Taylor didn’t look for fights, but didn’t avoid them, either. Without his fierce determination, he’d have been a poor fit to guide a small school into metropolitan status mere years later with the world’s largest airport opening in GISD’s backyard.

He served there for 11 years before taking on racially torn Beaumont ISD for 13 years. There, he brushed off several threats made on his life.

*****

   He held on tight, smiling through much, negotiating when possible and using an iron fist when he must. They named buildings for him in both districts. He joked that the letters in his name on the Grapevine/Colleyville school were “a little small.” (A few years later, a board member at what is now G/C ISD, said his first mission was to get bigger letters!)

En route to his Grapevine interview, he told his wife that in the future, he would be “Mike” Taylor, not O. C. or—heaven forbid—Orace Cleveland. This was but one of his personal decrees that held up.

One trustee asked about his church preference. “We attend the Presbyterian Church,” Mike said, noting zero response. “But my wife is Methodist.” Still no response. “But we’re thinking of joining the Baptists.” After a long pause, he added, “If I get the job, we’ll attend the church of your choice.

*****

   With two degrees from Texas Wesleyan and a doctorate from North Texas, Taylor surrounded himself with competent colleagues, a dozen destined to become superintendents.

In retirement, he traveled the world, skied the Matterhorn, golfed and read.

Failing eyesight in recent years interrupted much.

*****

   Officiant at the service was Rev. Kenny Rigoulot, the Taylors’ minister who himself attended G/CISD schools.

Taylor died in contentment that his grandson, Chase, finished college a few days earlier. He was likewise proud of Baleigh, a junior in high school and her mother, Holley Hancock, now principal of a Beaumont elementary school. At age 17, she was hired as a BISD school receptionist.

Stories of this educational and community icon will be shared by colleagues for many years. There will be many smiles.

Dr. Newbury is a speaker in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Speaking inquiries/comments to: newbury@speakerdoc.com. Phone: 817-447-3872. Twitter: @donnewbury Web site: www.speakerdoc.com.

Please click the book cover to read more about the book on Amazon.

The post A Champion for the Children. Thoughts from The Idle American. appeared first on Venture Galleries.

Murder A Capella is a tightly crafted cozy murder mystery, a fun book with a big twist at the end.

Set in exotic, historic San Antonio, Texas, during the International Convention of the Sweet Adelines, the story chronicles a double homicide at the Alamo, the seat of Texas Independence.

The main character, Tina Overton, a contestant at the convention and also a police officer with the Fort worth police department, witnesses the murders and volunteers to assist the San Antonio PD in its investigation.  That investigation leads her to drill deep into the inner workings of the international organization.

James R. Callan co-wrote the book with his daughter, Diane Bailey, who joined the women’s musical group Sweet Adelines in the 1990s and competed at her first international competition in San Antonio. The inside track Bailey’s personal knowledge of the world of such competitions provides  gives an authentic base for the novel’s plot.  The book is filled with references, direct and oblique, to the world of music and of close harmony singing in particular.

One reviewer on Amazon stated his review like this: Wow, What a refreshing tale. A great story,and one that is a good read for any age group. Young adults as well as “old timers” like myself. I have been a mystery reader all my life and usually can figure them out, but this one fooled even me with an interesting twist at the very end. Give us more to enjoy from this author.

I agree.

I highly recommend Murder A Capella for mystery and thriller fans.

The post Cacophony al fresco, a review of Jim Callan’s Murder A Cappella appeared first on Venture Galleries.

The Author: Beca Lewis

The Story: Think Differently: And Change Your Life For The Better

Does your life keep going on the same way, sometimes getting a little better, but not really fulfilling your dreams?

Or, perhaps in spite of all your best efforts, life is getting harder. To change your life, you try many ideas about how to fix it. Some work for a brief time, others don’t work at all.

We all know that perception is reality. 

This means that in order for life to change for the better, permanently, our perception has to expand into a different way of thinking.

We know that in order to change our life, we must think differently.

Good shifts happen, because we shift our behavior and habits. However, that isn’t enough, because we can only change within, and what, we currently perceive of as reality.

How To Think About God, As God Thinks About You 

The only lasting solution is to shift our perception of reality. We must let go of our human way of thinking, and move into the Divine, infinite way, of thinking.

The Daily Shift, transforms us out of our small view thinking, and into the infinite viewpoint of God. God is the thinker; we are Its thoughts.

With this spiritual awakening, we begin to think differently, and our experience of life shifts to more abundance, ease, and grace.
By reading these spiritual inspirations just a few minutes each day, this book will change your life.

The Daily Shift’s, inspirational messages will help you think differently about 16 different subjects; like wealth, money, love, and relationships.

You will learn how to listen, use silence to your benefit, and think about God in a brand new light, dissolving problems, and inspiring each moment of your day.

The truths found in this book will set you free. Its daily inspirations will help make your life changes delightful, easy, profitable, and immediate.

There is no reason to wait for the good that is already present. The time is now!

Get The Daily Shift, and experience Life as it is, infinitely abundant for you.

About the Author: Beca’s intention in everything she writes and teaches is to share the unbreakable principle that what you perceive to be reality magnifies, and to reveal the secret of the marriage of personal spirituality and practicality!

Her system helps each of us shift out of old beliefs and stuck situations and into the life that becomes the stuff of our dreams.

She teaches us that nothing changes until we do, and then it will change in the direction we have chosen. This makes it imperative to uncover and shift our personal perception so we can consciously choose wisely. Beca’s spiritually based Shift System® makes change a joy

It enables each of us to keep all that is currently good in our life, while expanding what is possible, and to break free from the prison of limited perceptions, habits, and paradigms.

The Book: Becomes God’s Silent Prophet

The Author: Rick Mallery

The Story: In BECOMES GOD’S SILENT PROPHET, the man wakes up to find things are slightly different than they were in Mallery’s previous book: BECOMES THE HAPPY MAN. Those differences inspire the man to take a journey to find God.

What is God? Why is the idea of God universal to the human experience while the particular expressions of God are so diverse in human culture? What does the distinction between a universal and a diverse God mean for a person’s belief in God? How does that belief change the way a person relates to other people? These are the questions for which the man seeks answers.

As in BECOMES THE HAPPY MAN, the man as a young man and the man as a boy also make appearances.

The young man contemplates his experiences in the gathering of believers for the celebration of the supreme being, and he also learns to relate to one of the girls who lives and works in the house where the old woman lived before she died.

The boy falls asleep and finds himself on a spaceship with an important task as dictated by someone claiming to be God. His arrival on a distant planet, and the completion of his task bring a surprise that not even the boy as a man could have anticipated.

About the Author: Rick Mallery lives in the Pacific Northwest with his daughter but no cats.

He writes novels that challenge himself and his readers to think, feel, and experience life in a new way. Rick takes to heart the following quote from Diogenes: “The choirmaster pitches the note higher than the choir can manage. So do I.” And yet he does so for himself first.

Rick delights in challenging himself–to twist and tease and surprise and disturb the ordinary–and then sharing that experience with others. He claims this is because he is an oldest child, and he takes his role as a benevolent big brother seriously. Who are we to disagree?

The post Authors Showcase features thought-provoking books by Beca Lewis and Rick Mallery. appeared first on Venture Galleries.

Colin Falconer

Days when you said to yourself: why am I doing this job, when it’s not what I really love?

Times when you have looked at your life and wondered: why am I in this relationship when it’s not what I truly dreamed of?

It’s easy to get buried in the details of life.

We have so many small deadlines to meet that we sometimes forget the Big Deadline; you know – the one we all have but don’t ever talk about.

I sometimes think those little deadlines are there only so we don’t have to think about the Big Deadline.

But it’s there. Waiting for us.

They're not that different from you,
are they? ... Did they wait until it 
was too late to make from their lives 
even one iota of what they were 
capable? Because, you see gentlemen,
these boys are now fertilizing 
daffodils. But if you listen real 
close, you can hear them whisper 
their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. 
Listen, you hear it? ... Carpe, 
carpe diem, seize the day boys, 
make your lives extraordinary! 
- JACK KEATING, DEAD POET'S SOCIETY

I think about this in the quiet moments. In my life, it has provided context.

It’s a frightening thing, to live as if we had only a limited time to live – so most of us live as if we have forever.

But we don’t.

“As you grow older, you’ll find the only things you regret 
are the things you didn’t do.” 
ZACHARY SCOTT

It’s truly exhilarating to see someone follow their heart, take that leap of faith. How many people put their heart on the line for love or risk everything – everything – for a long-held dream?

But when it’s us letting go … it’s terrifying, isn’t it?

Our minds tell us to pull back, urge us to caution.

But as Dicky Fox said in Jerry Maguire: If your heart is empty, then your head really doesn’t matter.

Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, 
day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways.  
~STEPHEN VINCENT BENET

It was pointed out to me recently that my latest novels are all about characters who step outside of everything they know to pursue something – or someone – they love.

They risk everything and don’t look back, no matter what it costs.

I don’t know why I picked up this cause to champion in my novels. When I write I hope of course to keep a reader turning pages; I want to move, to entertain. I certainly don’t think about changing the world.

But … if something I write might inspire someone to follow their heart over their head, I’ll take that.

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - 
real life.  But there was always some obstacle in the way.  
Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, 
time still to be served, a debt to be paid.  Then life would begin.
At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.  
~FR. ALFRED D'SOUZA

It’s why I do what I do. I dream that one day someone will say: I read your book once and it changed everything for me. I believed in what you imagined so clearly it made me decide to live for the passion, and not for the math.

Some days it feels – to quote again from Jerry Maguire – like I am hanging on by a very thin thread.

But like Rod Tidwell said, I dig that about me.

And it’s what I dig about you too.

Please click the book cover to read more about Colin Falconer’s novels on Amazon.

The post Seize the Day. Don’t be afraid of risks. And follow your heart. The Authors Collection. appeared first on Venture Galleries.

Bert Carson

Russell Blake, a writer’s writer.  For twenty-three months, he’s been on a writing quest that has taken him to amazing heights in the business and his venture is burning brighter today than ever.

Not only is Russell a master of the art of writing, he has also mastered the connected-at-the-hip art of marketing what he writes.  But the best part, from my point of view, is that he is always willing to help another writer – I know.  I’ve gone outside, turned toward Mexico and called his name many times – he has not only answered every question (with answers that work) and shared his trade contacts, he even let me use one of his characters, Captain Romero Cruz, in my soon to be available book, Southern Investigation – Tucson.

May 7th Russell posted a blog that he called, How to sell loads of books.  I just added the 60th Comment to the post.

Here’s the opening passage:

Over the last week, because of my burst of posts on the Kindle Boards, I’ve gotten a number of PMs from authors asking for counsel on one matter or another, so I thought I would take the time to lay out my thoughts so that the info is available to everyone.  Obviously, this is intended for authors.  

Russell Blake

Readers, just skip over this, it’s all technical crap you won’t be that interested in, unless you’re a masochist.

This does not represent the only way to do things, but it’s my way, and is the synthesis of everything I’ve learned over the last 23 months of self-publishing:  finish on Russell’s site:

There may be better advice for independent writers out there in the ether, somewhere, but never in my voyages through the universe have I seen it, or even gotten a whiff of it.

Thank you my friend – you are a class act.

Please click the book cover to read more about Bert Carson’s novels on Amazon.

The post Here’s how to sell books from a man who has sold loads of books: Russell Blake. appeared first on Venture Galleries.

We have a problem in our house. I have been denying it for a long time. It started with my oldest son, spreading quickly to his younger brother. We have been living with an earlier version of the affection for many years, mutations have increased exponentially and now all of my family is affected, even my neighbors next door are now exhibiting symptoms. Click

I understand we are not alone. This condition has spread across the county and far across the world with many countries involved. We humans used to have control, now we just go along and give the appearance that all is well. Click. Click.

Click, also known as button pushing, is a condition that is controlling me, buttons everywhere, push here, push there, just one more push, click.

Society, getting more complex and complicated everyday has been bombarded, filtrated, and saturated with buttons to push.   Just like a pill to make you small or a pill to make you tall, now just push here, or if you prefer, just click. No more wishing for a magic wand, life can be changed instantly by one click, one push, go ahead push, click.

With just one click I have the power to make this page disappear.  With just one click I can tell my employer, I’m not coming into the office tomorrow. Just one click I can purchase a gift for myself that I’ve always wanted, another click someone will deliver the package to my home. Want to order tickets to next week’s performance, click. My popularity has been determined by the power of a click. Keep going I’m just one more click away from being successful, or two clicks off from being crazy.

It started years ago with electrical kitchen appliances then quickly expanded to TV remote controls. People were able to regulate, moderate, and contain the TV remote in the living room for a short period of time. Phones were held at bay by curly cords. Electrical Plugs restricted movement and placement of devices. Times started changing; a section of the living room modified to accommodate the computer, along with the keyboard, and the mouse.

The keystroke saving mouse, we used to joke about my pet. I used to have my mouse under control. He was attached to a cord and did not venture more than a few inches away. Then over the holidays, receiving a new signal he went wireless, with freedom to roam. I even found him sitting on my lap waiting for me to click his tiny backside, just a little click. He loves to be clicked, I love clicking him.

Keyboards are now being neglected and becoming dusty. Some school children have never used a keyboard, just click here, touch here, and push this button. Traditional schools are still giving instruction on keyboarding, many homes are without them. Soon instruction will stop; it’s just a matter of time. Who knows what will happen if the main button on their toy stopped working. Don’t worry just push the panic button.

Maybe we should just go back to our ABC’s ???

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