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Monthly Archives: July 2016

Gardening Tips–Making Delectable Desserts and Planning a Fall Garden

July 29, 2016
Gardening Tips
1 Comment

Today is my son Jonathan Robiinson’s birthday. If you know Jonathan be sure to wish him a happy birthday! Happy Birthday, Jon!

Easy Apple Bread Pudding

I have been noticing how big the apples have been getting on the trees! Everywhere I look here in Pennsylvania, I see old apple trees and it reminds me that its time to make Easy Apple Bread Pudding. Here’s a link to my recipe. http://hubpages.com/food/Apple-Bread-Puddling

Here’s a photo of some Apple Bread Pudding that I made in cupcake papers. This way we can have this delicious dessert anytime!

 

 

Easy Raspberry Chocolate Pie

Here’s another dessert that I love to make. I especially like to make it on hot days when it is too hot to cook. Check out my recipe for Easy Raspberry Chocolate Pie

If your family likes cream pie , your family will love this! Get the recipe here http://hubpages.com/food/Super-Simple-Creamy-Lime-Pie

So Delectible, it is hard to believe that it is this easy!

Growing Summer Squash All Summer Long

Remember last week when I mentioned that summer squash becomes over abundant during the summer months? Some years, however, summer squash fizzles out after high temperatures. If this happens to you, you don’t necessarily have to call it quits with summer squash. if you have at least 50 dys until the next expected frost, you can grow another crop. Read about this in the article Growing Summer Squash all Summer Long http://hubpages.com/living/Summer-Squash-Grown-All-Summer-Long

 

Now is also the time to start thinking about starting a fall garden. Here’s a video that can give you some details on what grows in the fall and how to do it.

That’s all for this week! Have a great weekend! If you enjoyed it, please share on Facebook and Twitter!

IMG_8330 final copy

As Author Cygnet Brown, Donna Brown  has  published  several nonfiction books including Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener, Using Diatomaceous Earth around the House and Yard, and Help from Kelp.

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga,  Book IV of the Locket Saga: Sailing Under the Black Flag is also on sale now!

.For more information about Cygnet Brown and buy her books, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com

Is Your Marketing Plan a Train Wreck Like Mine?

July 28, 2016
The Marketing Focus
2 Comments

train wreck

I have to confess that I have not been marketing as I had planned. I have gotten off track and am already not meeting the objectives that I set for myself at the beginning of the month.

My main marketing objectives that I have actually focused on this week have had to do more with introducing my latest book Sailing under the Black Flag to those people who already enjoy The Locket Saga series. In addition, I have been using my marketing time toward finding gainful employment—which I am calling my means of positive cash flow. My goal is to get a first shift job (or second with the weekends off will work as well) so that I can spend my weekends and some week nights attending events.

Discover Where the Train Jumped the Track

So, it isn’t that I have not been doing anything in marketing. It is just that I have not been following the plan that I set out to do in the first place. This doesn’t necessarily mean that I have failed either. It simply means that I need to re-evaluate.  Therefore, I have to reassess my plan and decide to do something a little differently. The main problem for me in the system that I was trying to do was that I had too many little projects that were too much alike that also didn’t seem to bring any results. Therefore, I need to adjust my plans so that I not only am not getting bored with what I am doing, but also so that I can actually get better results with those activities.

Adjusting Tactics

So rather than doing one activity all afternoon long, I have chosen instead to focus on that one activity for just 25 minutes of nonstop focus. I will use what is known as the Pomodoro technique. I will divide my marketing time into 30 minute segments using 25 minutes for actually working on the project with 5 minutes between each session. Each session will focus on a single activity whether it’s sending emails, phoning, commenting on posts, reading, or creating interviews.

At the beginning of each session I will set my timer for 25 minutes and begin that activity and do that activity for the entire 25 minutes. Then at the end of the session during the last 5 minutes, I will note exactly what I did, how far I got, and how much time I invested into that aspect of marketing. The current areas of marketing that I am working on are contacting booksellers, finding reviewers, getting my books in libraries, touching base with authors (particularly other Indie authors) in the historical (particularly American) fiction so that I can interview them (as well as review their books) for my blog, as well as contacting and getting appointments to participate on podcasts and radio. I will still use the templates that I made earlier this month, but rather than spending all day doing a single activity that leaves me bored to tears, I will do just 25 minutes of that activity and then go onto the next area of marketing.

For more about the Pomodoro technique and discover how you can utilize this technique, check out their website at http://pomodorotechnique.com/

IMG_8330 final copy

As Author Cygnet Brown, Donna Brown  has  published  several nonfiction books including Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener, Using Diatomaceous Earth around the House and Yard, and Help from Kelp.

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga,  Book IV of the Locket Saga: Sailing Under the Black Flag is also on sale now!

.For more information about Cygnet Brown and buy her books, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com .

 

When God Delays Our Dreams

July 27, 2016
Perspective
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joseph and his brothers

During our first week of this series, we learned that bad things happened to Adam because of his own sin. His own sin separated him from God. If you haven’t yet read this, read When God Seems to Turn His Head, Adam’s Story https://1authorcygnetbrown.wordpress.com/2016/07/06/when-god-seems-to-turn-away-adams-story/ The next week, we learned from Noah’s experience that sometimes God’s wrath is what causes bad things to happen to us.  However, his wrath never comes before he patiently allows us to repent. Check out when God Seems to Turn his Head-Noah. https://1authorcygnetbrown.wordpress.com/2016/07/13/when-god-seems-to-turn-his-head-noah/ Last week from Abraham, we learned that bad things sometimes happen to us because we don’t wait on God’s timing. We try to help God by doing things ourselves and having Ishmaels around to remind us of our impatience. If yyou haven’t read it yet read last week’s post here.. What Happens When We Try to Help God with his Plans https://1authorcygnetbrown.wordpress.com/2016/07/13/when-god-seems-to-turn-his-head-noah/

In other cases, bad things happen to us because of what people do. Joseph had a promise from God. He was his father’s favorite son from his favorite wife. Joseph was a dreamer who had several visions that his family would bow to him. He made certain that everyone knew about his dream. This made everyone angry with him including his father. His brothers became so jealous of him that they sold him into slavery. Joseph was a good honest man. His master, Potiphar put him in a place of authority in his home. Potiphar’s wife wanted to sleep with Joseph, but Joseph respected his master too much and refused. Potiphar’s wife was so angry with his refusal that she lied to her husband and accused Joseph of making a pass at her.

Potiphar sent Joseph to prison. The king’s butler and baker went to prison and they had dreams. Joseph correctly interpreted their dreams. One was punished with death while the other returned to his position in the king’s house. He forgot about Joseph’s interpretation of his dream until the king started having dreams and he told the king about how Joseph could interpret dreams. When Joseph interpreted the king’s dream, the king made Joseph his number two man. There were seven years of prosperity just as Joseph had said. Then during the seven predicted years of drought and famine, Joseph’s family came back into the picture because they needed the king’s grain to survive. When Joseph’s brothers discovered that Joseph was still alive, they were frightened. Rather than being vindictive, Joseph told them that what they had meant for evil, God made for good. He told his brothers, “What you have meant for evil, God has destined for the good.

 

In Romans 8:28 it says, “All things work to the good of those who love the Lord who are called according to his purpose.”

Joseph realized that God had a purpose for his life. He knew that no matter what happened to him God would live up to his promises because Joseph knew God had a plan for his life and all that he was going through had something to do with that plan. Learn God’s purpose for your life by asking God to reveal that purpose to you and do it. Remember, that as long as you are still breathing, your purpose is not yet fulfilled on this earth. Have faith in the fact that God always has reasons for delaying his promises. Trust him. He has everything under control.

(Scripture reference: Genesis 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)

IMG_8330 final copy

As Author Cygnet Brown, Donna Brown  has  published  several nonfiction books including Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener, Using Diatomaceous Earth around the House and Yard, and Help from Kelp.

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga,  Book IV of the Locket Saga: Sailing Under the Black Flag is also on sale now!

.For more information about Cygnet Brown and buy her books, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com

 

What I Do After I Publish a Book

July 26, 2016
The Productive Writer, Uncategorized
2 Comments

blue skies

When the sun sets on one project, it rises on others.

Working on Final Edits of yet another Tome of the Locket Saga

Now that Sailing under the Black Flag is out and available for general purchase and I have the templates that I need to do my marketing projects, I can again focus on moving onto other projects. The writing process doesn’t end when a book is launched. The process just continues on with more writing projects. One of those projects is Book V of the Locket Saga: In the Shadow of the Millpond. I finished the second draft of this book last summer and am currently working on my final editing process.

When doing this final editing process, I work from macro-issues such as story continuity down to micro-issues such as getting rid of passive language, and ensuring that I am using the right punctuation and spelling.

I learned that by editing in this order, getting the story line right, and then fixing more detailed problems like getting the right word or punctuation, I am not editing material that I will eventually edit out anyway. This is a time saving devise that often gets overlooked in fiction writing, but this can literally save days of work over the course of the editing process.

Starting New Research to Keep the Series Going

In addition to working on this final editing process, I am starting research for Book VII of the Locket Saga which has the current working title of Two Rivers about two cousins who in 1803 take different rivers. Andrew Mayford takes the Mississippi southward to Natchez, and Isaac Thorton takes the Missouri westward with the Lewis and Clark expedition. Not only will they be going in different directions physically, but the paths they take will take them in different directions philosophically as well.

Thinking about another Garden-Based Book Project

Another project that I was talking to my brother about today was the idea of sustainable gardening. This concept goes deeper than organic gardening and even deeper than permaculture in that the focus isn’t just on the plant life, or the domesticated animals that are brought to help sustain the humans living on an acreage, but focuses on the life cycles of every organism including micro-organisms. The idea is based on the premise that the earth is not just an inert pile of pulverized rocks that will function with chemicals pumped into it but is a living breathing organism in its own right.

The idea includes the idea that human beings don’t have to destroy the earth in order to sustain himself, but can work with nature, recycling all of his wastes back into the soil and benefiting all creatures in a symbiotic relationship.

IMG_8330 final copy

As Author Cygnet Brown, Donna Brown  has  published  several nonfiction books including Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener, Using Diatomaceous Earth around the House and Yard, and Help from Kelp.

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga,  Book IV of the Locket Saga: Sailing Under the Black Flag is also on sale now!

.For more information about Cygnet Brown and buy her books, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com .

 

 

What to do with All that Garden Produce!

July 22, 2016
Gardening Tips
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Thanks, everyone who has already wished me a happy birthday today! Not only is July the month that I was born, but it is also the month when nature’s bounty from the garden is in full swing. Alas, my pressure canner is currently several states away, but that doesn’t prevent me from writing about the process!

I believe that if I plant it, I should eat it and that’s why I believe that it is important for me to eat every vegetable in my garden. Here is an article I wrote: Using Every Summer Vegetable in My Vegetable Garden and the strategy I use to make it happen.

You’ve happily worked in your garden. First you worked the soil and got it ready for planting, then you planted, watered, weeded, mulched, fertilized, and sometimes had to fight the elements to get your garden to produce. Now you are seeing the first of the fruits of your labor. You pick it you bring it in. Now, what do you do with it? Check out My Strategies here    http://hubpages.com/living/Making-Full-Use-of-the-Vegetable-Garden

 

Another article I wrote was about how to use all that zucchini that floods home gardens. Need I say more except that it is called: Easy Tips for Using All that Extra Zucchini. Check out the article Here  http://hubpages.com/living/What-To-Do-With-All-That-Extra-Zucchini

Jokes are made about how prolific zucchini is in the garden. Don't be the butt of a cruel joke and learn how to use zucchini in many different ways.

Last but not least here is two video I found online about this same subject.

 

 

Happy Gardening!

IMG_8330 final copy

As Author Cygnet Brown, Donna Brown  has  published  several nonfiction books including Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener, Using Diatomaceous Earth around the House and Yard, and Help from Kelp.

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga,  Book IV of the Locket Saga: Sailing Under the Black Flag is also on sale now!

.For more information about Cygnet Brown and buy her books, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com .

Book Marketing Gear Up

July 21, 2016
The Marketing Focus
2 Comments

Poor Results from Email Campaign

IAs I said in previous posts, I have made reaching out the book buyers my focus. By this weekend I intend to have the first introductory email out to booksellers and will begin locating and connecting with reviewers. In addition, I will begin sending a second email to the booksellers concerning the Locket Saga, particularly now that the fourth book in the series is now available for sale and wholesale pricing for the book. Just because my marketing focus will move on, does not mean that I should stop working to get more booksellers to buy and sell my books. The process is really quite boring right now, because I have received no feedback as of yet. I guess the lack of feedback indicates that is that the emails are not working.

Getting Ready to Launch Sailing Under the Black Flag

I have been selling quite a few Sailing under the Black Flag to friends and family despite the online price increase. I am making plans to do an online launch. More on this in a later post.

I have been thinking about attending more events over the course of the next several months. Now that I am east of the Mississippi, I am closer to more people. I am even looking for another source of positive cash flow (read that to mean I am looking for a job).

IMG_8330 final copy

As Author Cygnet Brown, Donna Brown  has  published  several nonfiction books including Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener, Using Diatomaceous Earth around the House and Yard, and Help from Kelp.

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga,  Book IV of the Locket Saga: Sailing Under the Black Flag is also on sale now!

.For more information about Cygnet Brown and buy her books, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com .

 

 

When Things Don’t Work as You Planned.

July 21, 2016
Uncategorized
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By this weekend  intend to have all of the emails sent out to the booksellers. I didn’t realize how long it would take me to send out an email to over 800 recipients. As I am writing this, I still have not had any responses from any of the booksellers. There are so many variables as to why no one is opening my emails. My best guess is that the email that I wrote was not compelling enough to get any responses. Perhaps the headline was not compelling enough for anyone to open them. I may have to contact these booksellers via phone if I want further contact via email.

What Happens When We Try to Help God Do What He Plans

July 20, 2016
God's Gifts to Us
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(Scripture reference: Genesis chapters 16,17, 21, Hebrews 11:8-13)

Abrahams family

Abram and his wife Sari were childless. Abraham thought that he would have to leave everything he had to his servant, but God told him that he would have a son. Abram waited several years and still they had no child. God even changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sara’s name to Sarah.

Then Abraham and Sarah thought that they would help God along by having Sarah’s servant Hagar carry Abraham’s child. Sarah despised Hagar and her son born of Abraham. This son Ishmael was not God’s promised son for Abraham and Sarah.

We need to realize that God is always faithful to deliver his promises. A lot of the problems that people face in the Middle East today have everything to do with Abraham and Sarah’s impatience for God to move. Their child finally did come and they named him Isaac. God followed through just as he promised.

There are times in our own lives when we also are faced God delaying his promises to us. We believe that God told us one thing, but when it didn’t immediately occur, we start to doubt. Other times we think that there is something that we need to do to make it happen and we step out ahead of God’s provision.  We think that perhaps we really didn’t hear from God like we thought or we decide to “help God” make this promise come true. When we do this, like the situation with Abraham, it always turns out to be a disaster.

IMG_8330 final copy

As Author Cygnet Brown, Donna Brown  has  published  several nonfiction books including Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener, Using Diatomaceous Earth around the House and Yard, and Help from Kelp.

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga,  Book IV of the Locket Saga: Sailing Under the Black Flag is also on sale now!

.For more information about Cygnet Brown and buy her books, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com .

When a Historical Writer’s Research and Re-enactors Meet

July 19, 2016
The Productive Writer
3 Comments

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Saturday I went to an event called Waterford Heritage Days in Waterford, Pennsylvania. At this event they demonstrated the ways that the Indians and early settlers used to do things. Three blacksmiths were there as were groups of various re-enactor groups. One of those groups was the 8th Pennsylvania regiment of the American Revolution. What made this group particularly interesting to me was that I researched them and presented them in the third novel in the Locket Saga: A Coward’s Solace. I enjoyed talking with the re-enactors, especially one named Mark who was an older gentleman.

The (the original, not the re-enactors) 8th Pennsylvania Regiment was formed in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania and if you remember was at Valley Forge and went to Fort Pitt where the first American treaty with the Delaware (or Lenape). My main characters went with them to Fort Pitt.

We shared a lot of information back and forth. It was as though we were talking about old friends that we knew. I remember when we were talking about Ebenezer Denney. He said he had only read about Denney in a book that he had read. I furnished details about his life because I researched him for my most recent book-Sailing under the Black Flag. He didn’t know that as a young boy he had been at Fort Pitt and hand taken a message to Carlisle about Indians attacking. He also did not know that Denny had, for a short while, been a member of the crew of a privateer before joining the army. Mark told me that Denney had been the first mayor of Pittsburgh and I learned from someone else that Denney had been the one who laid out the streets for Waterford.

Denney had not been mentioned in A Coward’s Solace, and he had a cameo role in Sailing under the Black Flag, but you’ll see him again, I assure you in my next book: In the Shadow of the Millpond. If you didn’t know, Sailing Under the Black Flag just came out in paperback and on Kindle and, if you haven’t read A Coward’s Solace, what are you waiting for?

If you would like to learn more about the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment of the American Revoultion, check out their webpage at http://mtbumc.org/8thpa1776/index.html

Emails to Booksellers

A couple of weeks ago I bought a list of 800 plus independent booksellers around the US. This list included the name of the contact person, phone number, the email address, and state where the bookseller was located, but that was all. It didn’t mention any specifics so I would have to contact the book sellers to find out more information before I would be able to approach them about buying my books. In my first email, I will have to ask the process this bookseller uses to obtain books and I wanted to know how I might be able to help them sell my books.

So far the email I have sent out has not reaped any results, but I still have some more to send. If I still don’t get any results, I will try again.  IMG_8330 final copy

 

As Author Cygnet Brown, Donna Brown  has  published  several nonfiction books including Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener, Using Diatomaceous Earth around the House and Yard, and Help from Kelp.

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga,  Book IV of the Locket Saga: Sailing Under the Black Flag is also on sale now!

.For more information about Cygnet Brown and buy her books, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com .

Friday Gardening Tips-Home Preservation Methods

July 15, 2016
Gardening Tips
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Last week I mentioned in one of my articles about the hazards of depending on using the freezer as your only form of food preservation. Here is a pair of articles that I wrote about the advantages and disadvantages of the different ways you can use to preserve food.

Home Preservation Methods: Advantages and Disadvantages Part One

How do we know which method best for our situation?The truth is, there is no best method for every situation. In this article we will explore the practices of eating fresh out of the garden, root cellaring, and freezing what we’ve grown. In the next article, we will explore the practices of canning, pickling, drying, and smoking. READ MORE

https://delishably.com/food-industry/Home-Preservation-Methods-The-Advantages-and-Disadvantages

Home Preservation Methods,: Advantages and Disadvantages, Part Two

In our first article, we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of eating food fresh, root cellaring, and freezing. Even though those are good in many ways, there are disadvantages and many of those disadvantages can be alleviated by using a form of food preservation that can extend the use of our food harvests even longer. READ MORE

https://delishably.com/food-industry/homepreservationadvantagesanddisadvantagespt2

Path to Home Preservation

Why Do you want to preserve your own food? Here’s a video which examines exactly that.

IMG_8330 final copy

As Author Cygnet Brown, Donna Brown  has  published  several nonfiction books including: Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener, Using Diatomaceous Earth around the House and Yard, and Help from Kelp.

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga. The next book Book IV of the Locket Saga: Sailing Under the Black Flag will be out in the near future.

.For more information about Cygnet Brown and her books, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com .

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