The Treasures of Luxor

I found this photo of a statue in Luxor Temple at Wikimedia Commons. It was taken by Hajor.

I am researching Luxor in Egypt. This time it’s not just to write about it. In about six weeks time we’ll be there. I can’t wait. But it’s supposed to be a treat for my hubby for his birthday. I’m hoping that on the day itself I can arrange a trip to the Valley of the Kings, the one place left that he really wants to see. Anyway, I want to find out as much as I can before we go. We won’t miss out on any of the treasures of Luxor if I can help it.

I’ll be taking lots of photos of my own while we are there. And no doubt I shall be writing about it when we get back.

More Awards

A couple of weeks ago I received this wonderful triple award from Geri’s World. Thank you Geri; I am really honoured that you thought of me.

The rules for the awards, if they are accepted (I hope I haven’t chosen anyone who doesn’t accept awards) are:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 10 blogs ( if you haven't got 10 on your list, it really doesn't matter)which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!

3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

Since one of these awards is about sisterhood, I’d like to pass them on to the following sisters.

1. Joanne at Poetic Shutterbug, who writes beautiful poems inspired by amazing photos, and is generous with comments.

2. Yolander at Adventures in Freelancing, a very brave freelancer who has recently set up a new website as a resource for writers – Freelance Writerville.

3. Reverend Maitri who lives to serve animals and people in need. She set up The Maitri Ministry blog recently after she was ordained, and it deserves our support.

4. Catherine at Sharp Words, who is kind enough every so often to give links to stuff she likes on the internet, and made me very happy by picking one of my articles.

5. Katy at Trapped in the Office, who shares her blog with partner, Ryan. They’ve been having a difficult moving home experience recently and I hope this will cheer them.

6. Rebecca at Writers Roundabout, who is so generous to other writers, and offered to pay me to guest blog several times.

7. Kim at Healthnut Wannabee Mom, who passes on so much that we all need to know.

8. Jude at Mature Not Senile for all her ‘down to earth’ and ‘say it like it is’ posts that often make me chuckle.

9. Susan Gregg, who always has lovely and loving messages to impart.

10. Stacey at Behind the Bit because she writes a wonderful blog about horses, and although they are no longer a focus in my life, I am still fascinated and in love with these gorgeous creatures.

If you don’t already know them, do take a moment to check out their posts. They are all well worth a visit.

Canal Walk

Yesterday we went for a canal walk and saw lots of moored narrow boats and one on the move.

I took a picture of some oil on the water, and later played about with the colour on Phtoshop Elements.

After our walk we thought we'd have hot drinks to warm up, and guess what our little one wanted.

Day with a Grandchild

My grandaughter, aged five, has been here since 11.30 am. It's now nearly nine and I've just got her to bed. I still have my kitchen to clean up and I can hardly keep my eyes open. Hubby's gone off to bed too, since he was up as usual at 4.30 this morning.

Before he went upstairs, he noticed I looked tired and asked why. He doesn't know what we've packed in while he was sitting around in his taxi waiting for a fare. Here's the list.

Tomato soup for lunch and leave the kitchen in a mess.

Drive to Shaftesbury to spend some Xmas money she had left. Visit a couple of charity shops and W H Smith. End up with 2 reading books and a colouring book. Also went to Boots for some child's toothpaste as directed by her mother, who is taking the weekend off to live it up with a friend in Bristol.

Head back to the car but check out Gold Hill on the way. (It's famous, very steep and cobbled, and has appeared in a UK TV ad for Hovis bread.) Decide we have to walk down to the bottom, she careering down the centre and me stepping gingerly at the side next to a handrail.

Go along the bottom road to a zig zag path back up to where the car is parked. It just happens to be next to a swing park, so we detoured there before climbing.

Drive home and get her scooter out of the car. Visit local shop to buy more milk. I walk, she scoots.

She entertains herself while I clear up the kitchen. Then we get out my chocolate brownie cake mix and make it up together.

While it is baking, we put on The Wizard of Oz DVD she has brought. I go and clear up the kitchen again, while she watches, at the same time as playing a game on her Nitendo DS and doing some colouring in the book we bought.

I come back in and sit down for two minutes before the cooker timer pings and I get up again. Cake removed from oven and left to cool for 5 minutes. I sit for that period. Get up and cut the cake into 16 squares and put it onto a cooling grill. Put the tin to soak and sit down. she goes to see if it's cool enough. It is, get up and find plates and eat one each.

Look at the clock and find it's time to cook her supper. Get that on the go and do some more kitchen cleaning up.

Eat with her and put up a meal for hubby. Clean up again.

Get out one of the reading books we bought. It's called Penny, The Pony Fairy. We sit together on the couch and she decides to read to me. She's improved no end in the last month, but it still takes for ever to get through a page. She reaches the word "whole", says "hoolee" and dissolves into giggles. That sets me off. Now she finds the silliest way to say any word she doesn't recognise and we are in stitches. After a while we get into trouble from hubby for making so much noise while he's trying to concentrate on soemthing else. It's hard but we manage to cool it and I take over the reading. I stop at the end of chapter 1, insisting she gets ready for bed.

I've just tidied the lounge, but there are still pots and pans to clean in the kitchen. Will the day never end? And how on earth did I manage to bring up two of my own?

Sorry, no EC dropping for me today. I have to preserve my energy to take her to see the local Amdram panto tomorrow.

Wordless Wednesday - The Sea Again.

If I can't see it for real, I just have to have photos.

Meanwhile I am busy sorting out who will receive the awards I have to pass on in my next post. Don't forget to come back and find out who they are.

The EC Drop Police

This image is from Wikimedia Commons.

I didn’t get all my return EC drops done yesterday.. I’d been having a rare day of feeling unwell and in pain. (Think, hope, it’s just age and IBS and nothing more serious). I tried to soldier on, but when hubby said, “Don’t worry about cooking anything. If you don’t want to eat, I’ll get a takeaway”, I took myself off to bed. I felt chilled to the bone and wrapped myself up in rather more than my usual sleeveless jammy top and knickers, adding jammy trousers and a short summer dressing gown before burrowing under the duvet.

I slept a bit and woke a few times. Around 11 pm I woke again and found hubby beside me. I realised I was feeling warm and cosy and with pain considerably subsided, but with my body clock telling me I’ve had my seven hours and it’s time to be awake. Then I remembered my dream.

It was about soldier bloggers with rifles, except for one who had no weapon and was hiding behind a kindly one who was trying to shelter him from the others. They were gesticulating dangerously with the rifles and muttering about the one who was hiding. The muttering got louder and one of them shouted, “Come out and do your EC dropping, you lazy blighter”. It was very frightening.

So what would you have done? I went to the loo, got a drink of water and headed for the office to carry on dropping. I got through all my favourites before I felt sleepy again.

Now I’m thinking about one of those ‘what if’ scenarios. What if Entrecard has recruited drop police to find the people who haven’t finished their daily drops and send threatening messages into their dreams?

Constant Content

I have quite a lot of catching up to do today because I was out of the office for a while yesterday, and when I got back, to my shame, I was too tired even to read posts when I did my EC dropping. So far, I’m two thirds I into dropping and reading in my favourite blogs and have yet to get to my inbox to return yesterday’s drops from others.

I didn’t get started early because this morning there was a public request at Constant Content that seemed to have my name on it, so I set to and wrote for it immediately. Still I had promised one of my readers to explain a bit about that site, so here goes.

Constant Content is a site where authors showcase articles, and where webmasters and editors search and buy the work that they want. It is different from other article sites in that it has exacting standards and every piece submitted is carefully reviewed, so that only work that meets the standards is accepted. Every piece is also checked for plagiarism via Copyscape as well. Customers trust the quality and originality of the writing they are buying.

The site also has sections to showcase and sell photographs, illustrations and videos as well, though these are in their infancy and have not yet taken off properly. A few months ago the site changed ownership and is gradually been made over. All the changes so far have been welcomed by authors and customers alike.

When you register with the site, you are first of all encouraged to read the guidelines and the rest of the authors’ help section carefully and then browse through the forums, where newbies can ask questions and receive replies. The community of authors is always helpful and someone will try to respond quickly.

Before submitting your work, you need to get a handle on how to price and what licenses you can offer. They are one-off usage rights, unique rights and full rights. In the article submission form you’ll find a link to some guidelines for pricing each of the options. Of course, if your piece has been previously published, or you want to place it elsewhere as well, you can only offer it for usage. You provide a sample of the piece for display, which must be at least one third of the complete article. Most authors provide a lot more, however much they think will tempt someone to buy. You attach your document which is what is supplied to the customer after payment has been received. It must be in one of the site’s accepted formats, not for example docx.

Each author has a profile on the site listing all the articles they have showcased and giving statistics on their sales. Once you have sold a few pieces, your author name will be included in the long list of authors. A click on your name will take anyone to your profile.

The site has a section called Requested Content, which displays public requests from buyers seeking particular articles, as well as what they are prepared to pay for them. You have to be quick off the mark with a response as there is plenty of competition, and the customer may choose to buy quickly. But if it’s not chosen, your article will remain showcased so, unless you decide to withdraw it, someone else may find it and buy it. You can also submit pieces on subjects of your choice, that haven’t been requested, because other customers just search the site to find what they want.

Once you are established and buyers get to know your work, you may even get private requests and can expect higher rewards. Customers can request articles from specific authors, but they will still only buy if the work fits what they need.

Your quota of the sale is 65%, the other 35% going to Constant Content. There is also a system of payment of 5% for work by referred writers, which is take from the site’s part of the commission. Authors set their prices bearing in mind that they will only receive 65% of them, and many find that the system, which allows them to spend far more time writing, rather than marketing their work, easily makes up for the 35% of fees that they sacrifice.

If you are reasonably confident about your writing and your use of the English language, I recommend it. There’s nothing that beats waking up to news of yet another sale at Constant Content. The unexpected ones, of items that have been showcased some months earlier, are just as good as the ones that have been targeted to a public request and sell overnight.

Do contact me if you’d like to register through my referral link.


Painting of woman writing by artist, Gerard ter Borch d. J.

Painting of Saint Paul Writing His Epistles, thought to be by eiher Valentin de Boulogne or Nicolas Tournier

Both pics sourced at Wikimedia Commons