Everywhere I turn there are economists, political thinkers, ex-military generals all warning about the coming of World War III or some other impending doom. These don’t seem to be people who are just trying to get internet attention, which makes me worry a little.
As an American, I can’t even envision what a war on our soil would look like. And whether we have to worry about an outside invasion, or the invasion of fighting age men who have already arrived, many of us — especially woman — may need to baton down the hatches.
Which raises the issues, what does one need to baton down the hatches?
EMERGENCY WATER SUPPLY:
There are rain water supply systems that can be installed alongside your house that cost thousands of dollars and for those of you who have the means, this may be something you want to consider. This would be done by an expert whose whole business is installing these and it would come with all the labor included. I don’t have any idea of what something like this would cost, but I do know it’s an option.
A second choice is a garden rain barrel system. Now, this doesn’t have to be in a garden, but it has to be somewhere in the open where it can catch rainwater. It can be next to your house or even on a balcony or a cement yard as long as it is able to catch the rain.
This would be too big for a single woman living alone to handle, in my humble opinion. I’ll cover a system for us next!
THE BUCKET SYSTEM:
In any true emergency, after several days, people will begin to get desperate. They may begin to roam around looking for these easy-to-spot water barrels with the intention to take them or even take a supply of water for themselves from them.
By using small buckets with a “mosquito netting shower cap” on top, this may be a more stealth way to collect water in not only emergency times, but times of danger.
These buckets can be hidden behind bushes or even placed outside while you are able to watch them a bit. They won’t look as inviting as the more professional systems above — at least that’s my opinion.
These are also more female-friendly as you can more easily move these buckets. A 53 gallon system would be impossible for most females to move without the aid of a husband or other male. It may even be hard for any male to move on his own.
If you get the food grade buckets, you can also put some food in them and you may even feel more comfortable collecting water to drink in them too. These are easy to pick up in any home store and they can be a life saver in times of emergency.
Besides the buckets and mosquito netting, you will also need to pick up 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch elastic that you can tie around the top to hold the mosquito netting in place. They sell this in fabric and craft stores, but the home stores may have a reasonable replacement for this.
FOOD SUPPLIES:
I’ve lived through enough hurricanes to know that when the electricity and internet is out, people tend to eat snacks more than anything. However, if the electricity is off for any extended time, you will need to have a stash of food in case there are any emergencies that require you to stay home.
Below is a list of food combinations that will create a “complete protein”. In my next posting, I’ll cover the basics of canning meat, but if you don’t have canned meat, you can create complete proteins by combining the following foods:
Rice & Beans – Individually, rice and beans lack certain essential amino acids, the building blocks of protein. Rice is low in lysine but high in methionine. Beans are high in lysine but low in methionine.
When eaten together, they complement each other. Rice provides the lysine beans lack, and beans provide the methionine rice lacks.
This combination creates a protein source with all nine essential amino acids, making it a “complete protein.
Below are other combinations that work together in the same way:
- Brown rice with peanuts or almonds.
- Whole-wheat crackers with sunflower seeds
- Quinoa with pumpkin seeds
- Corn and Beans: A classic combo in many cultures, like corn tortillas with beans or succotash (corn and lima beans)
- Peanuts and Whole-Wheat Bread: A peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat bread is a complete protein source
- Soy products: Tofu, tempeh, edamame, and miso are all excellent sources of complete plant-based protein.
- Certain whole grains: Quinoa, buckwheat, and amaranth are all considered complete protein sources on their own.
- Seeds: Hemp seeds, chia seeds, and nutritional yeast are all good sources of complete protein
- Eggs: Scrambled eggs with chopped red potatoes or a potato omelet would create a complete protein dish
- Oatmeal with nuts and seeds
- Oatmeal and milk or yogurt
- Oatmeal with Almond milk and sliced banana
- Oatmeal with a scoop of protein powder and a fruit
LET’S HOPE THIS WILL ALL BE UNNECESSARY:
In mid-June of 2024, Russia moved a fleet of warships into the waters off Cuba. The alleged purpose of these warships is to conduct military exercises in the Caribbean Sea. This move by Russia was seen by some as a show of force amid heightened tensions between Russia and the West due to the war in Ukraine. PBS News.
These warships reportedly included:
- A frigate (Dictionary: “any of various types of modern naval vessels ranging in size from a destroyer escort to a cruiser, frequently armed with guided missiles and used for aircraft carrier escort duty, shore bombardment, and miscellaneous combat functions.”)
- A nuclear-powered submarine
- An oil tanker
- A rescue tug AP News
Let’s hope this is only saber-rattling of some kind and that it will be resolved in some peaceful way. I live in Florida, and the craziness is getting a little too close for me. It’s time to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
I’ve always found that infographics can give you an instant bird’s eye view of any information, system, or strategy that makes understanding the information so much easier.
The last few times I was wrestling with learning something, I “took notes” and then organized them into an infographic or two. What I found was that the process was easier than I thought.
Once you are done, you know the material much better. And with an infographic now in your hands, it’s easy enough to pass it on. People love to have easy-to-understand information or directions at their fingertips!
I've started watching several British Midsomer Murder Mysteries during the last two weeks while I proofread my latest novel, Where is Lucia. I love the British mysteries as they are famous for having several suspects in the story, all of whom seem guilty. And the real murderer is always a shocking surprise.
I chose a murder mystery that I had already seen. I knew how it ended and I was then able to focus only my author mind on watching for clues, subtext and foreshadowing while I watched the show.
This show opened with the camera walking through a common middle-income family home. A radio was playing a call in show. The woman speaking was referring to her kids being downstairs and probably laughing at her for calling the show. The announcer had the usual fake enthusiastic voice talking with her.
The next scene shows Det. Barnaby and Sgt. Troy show up and discuss what they see. Troy draws a conclusion that it has to be suicide. Det. Barnaby is not so sure. He wonders why the guy didn't just go outside and shoot himself; why the elaborate fish-wire setup.
Next we find out that Martin Roth was receiving psychological treatment at a local psych hospital that was run by his old pal, Dr. Jane Moore. Jane runs the institution and is widowed now. Her husband died on a climbing expedition a few months earlier. She is now taking care of her three step children, two of whom witnessed their father's death, but they all appear to be a happy family.
Dr. Moore has a party to celebrate her hospital being open for a year. Barnaby brings his wife and Toby comes with Barnaby's daughter, I think her name is Cilly. This is where the young resident says he would do anything for the doctor and the two daughters are standing next to him. They roll their eyes at him and the younger one giggles at him. They think he's a fool.
Now, in the next scene, the chemist is on the phone and he's whispering to someone that a little something has come in the mail and maybe you'd like to come and see me sometime. You hear his baby in the background which makes him seem even more sleezy.
The cops find Dean in the hospital and he's very guarded and uncooperative -- also still pretty weird too. And they asked him where he was last night when the resident was killed and he claims he has an alibi. He was in the wing of the hospital and there are 4 people who saw him. It was lights out at 9:30 and he claims he was in bed.
Then in the next scene, with no explanation to the viewer, you see a woman taking clothing off of a clothesline, an innocent domestic scene. She has her children in the yard with her. After she leaves, someone off camera comes up and cuts the clothesline at both ends and takes the rope away. No explanation.
They go tot he party but this one is set up like a little town bizarre or carnival. Gordon and his band are all dressed up in their uniforms and they are playing music at the affair.
The two cops go to visit the rope guy and when they arrive, he is walking out of his business. He tells them he was about to come and see them. He shows them that he has been cleaned out. Every rope he owned is gone. All of it. He only left to get something to eat, he couldn't have been gone fore more than an hour or so.
In the next scene, a white van pulls up and the school kids get off. Dr. Moore's kids are on the bus. They are then taken into custody and separated for questioning. Barnaby starts with the older sister.
The next scene is when the younger girl comes in for questioning. She asks where her mother is. There is a guardian there for her but not her mother. At first she just looks nervous.
Each writer or author will have slightly different goals. My blog post will speak directly to website bloggers and/or to fiction authors. However, if you publish low-content books or children’s books — or even coloring books, all of these techniques will be relevant to you because they are about basic marketing. Just change up whatever technique is mentioned and make it more fitting to whatever type of marketing you need to do.
START COLLECTING EMAILS: Collecting emails to send to people about your book or books. I would recommend MailerLite as they are the least expensive but professional platform for a beginner. Everyone starts with a free account. They allow you to collect a couple of hundred emails before they want to get paid. And then they charge you per hundred or so. So your expenses keep steady with your marketing results.
GOODREADS: Establish a presence on GoodReads.com where the most avid and voracious readers hang out. Sign up for an account with them and you will get a chance to upload your book cover. It can be a little confusing at
I personally am too shy (and too old) to go this route, but if you happen to be a bit younger or extroverted, this can create a HUGE BUZZ. Local people become fans, they tell people they know you, they buy paperbacks and hardcovers — and many want you to sign them! So don’t underestimate the life of the buzz you can create by talking about your book in front of a few people at the local library.
LOW-BID AMAZON AD STRATEGY: And the last step for absolute beginners is to learn strategies for low-bid strategies (going for the low-hanging fruit) using Amazon Ads. This is where you bit .12 cents a click. You won’t rocket to the top of the best seller list, but this is a great strategy to begin to crawl your way out of oblivion. I’ll have a dedicated blog post about how to set up a low-bit strategy.
I personally don’t like social media — the whole thing. However, I also don’t really like marketing either! But in today’s world, if you want to self publish, you need to market your books or blog and there are lots of ways to market even if you are shy or introverted, like I am.
First: It’s only a plan of action if you do something about it all. So be sure to open your social media accounts in the next days if you haven’t established them already.
I use a four-part plot structure, so I break my character arc into four sections. This allows me to keep up with the character development and also don’t resolve the inner conflict too early.
Once you have a perpetrator and the cast of necessary characters, then it’s time to answer the following questions:
Before you exert too much energy fleshing out any character or story details, be sure to check to make sure you can design a three-prong storyline out of this budding storyline. One prong will be a red herring storyline, someone who may look guilty, but is exonerated in the middle or end of the story. The second prong is a second suspect or a wrong suspect who will look guilty for a large segment of the storyline. And the final prong will be for the real culprit. In order to have a story that works, you will need a believable crime that can meld these three prongs into one suspenseful story.
As you use this worksheet and these techniques, a crime skeleton will emerge. Some attempts at this will go flat in the early stages for any number of reasons. But some storylines will begin to almost shape themselves.
Pulp Fiction become popular during the depression of the 1920s and 1930s. Publishers at the time used a very cheap “pulp” paper in order to produce these short stories and magazines that cost about a quarter. Yes, twenty-five cents!
