Sorry that this is a little late. I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather lately.

I recently ran across an article on the website Raw Story that I thought you might find interesting. The article written by Arturo Garcia was on the discovery of a shipwreck at the bottom of Lake Michigan. (You can find the article here http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/treasure-hunters-say-they-found-holy-grail-of-great-lakes-shipwrecks-in-michigan/) One of the greatest mysteries of the great lakes appears to have been solved. Le Griffin, the first ship to sail the waters of the great lakes, a ship that disappeared 335 years ago on Lake Michigan may have finally been found. A pair of treasure seekers, Kevin Dykstra and Frederick Monroe, discovered the wreck back in 2011 purely by accident. At the time they were looking for a late 19th century treasure of Confederate gold bullion. That treasure as far as they will say still eludes them.
Le Griffin was built by French explorer Robert de La Salle as part of his quest to discover the Northwest Passage and was lost in a storm while returning to Green Bay with a load of furs. La Salle planned to use the money raised from those furs to further his expedition search for the Northwest passage.

In truth it is no surprise that Le Griffin was discovered by accident. Most discoveries don’t happen with someone saying, “Eureka I found it.” Most discoveries actually begin with someone saying, “Hmm, that’s odd.” I don’t know if those word where uttered in this particular moment, but Dykstra did say during an interview done by local TV reporters, “We were literally in the water for a couple of hours when we got a hit on sonar.
Now it is up to maritime archeologists to confirm the wreck as Le Griffon. From my own research into my first novel, A Love Beyond Time, the identification will be a long and meticulous process.

Let me know what you think of this article and what you think of my take on it. 

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I know that I’m not the only one that procrastinates in their writing. I’ve seen several other authors blog on this very subject. Even though writing is something I love to do I often find myself saying I can do it later. Especially if I’m in one of those moments where the writing is not going well. The only problem is that later never comes. I’ve realized that I have to treat writing as not just something I love to do, but as the job that it really is. 
I know that there are several solutions to the problem. The one that I’ve settled on is to create a schedule for when I write. Now comes the hardest part, actually sticking to it. 
I work most days so the time that I do have is limited to evenings. On the days that I work I have scheduled three hours that I will write. On the days that I don’t work I’ve scheduled an additional three hours. In addition I’ve set aside on day a week to work on my blog posts. I only post two blogs a month, but I often find myself working on my blog on the very day that it is to post. No surprise to myself this is one of those days.
I am giving myself a little bit of leeway in the schedule. I’m giving myself two days a month that I can slack off. I’m also taking the holidays off as well. I’m talking real holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas not some of those ridiculous holidays that you hear about. If I took those off, I wouldn’t get any writing in. There is practically one for every day of the year.
Now I think it’s your turn to tell me what solution you’ve come up with to get over your writing procrastination. And here’s the real kicker. Have they worked?

Not long ago a fellow author brought an article from a few years ago to my attention. The article was from the New York Times and was titled Author, 17, Says It’s ‘Mixing,’ Not plagiarism. It was written by Nicholas Kulish. The author that was at the center of the piece had recently published her first novel. It was met with rave reviews until it was discovered that she had plagiarized from another published author. She went as far as copying an entire page of another novel with virtually no changes. This author had the audacity to call what she had done “mixing,” comparing herself with a DJ.

In my personal opinion as an author, there is no comparison. D.J.’s are an accepted part of the music industry. The primary purpose of a DJ is to give artists exposure to the listening public. Artists actively seek out D.J.’s to get their music played by them. The simple act of having an artist’s music played by some D.J.’s can make their career.

Plagiarism on the other hand is not done out in the public eye. It is done in the dark of the night. It is not celebrated or hailed it is vilified as the theft that it truly is. If this “mixing” of hers is something that she is proud of then why did she hide the truth about it until someone exposed her. If it is truly part of her style then she should have been open and up front about it. When someone gets caught with their hand in the cookie jar, they often try to weasel their way out of it. As far as I’m, concerned plagiarism is plagiarism. Her line about there not being any originality is complete and utter crap. True writers may draw ideas from others that have come before them, but when it comes down to writing their own work they create it from their own heart and minds.

I thought I’d give you what I personally believe is okay to copy and what is not okay to copy. Ideas and concepts are okay to copy as long as you put your own personal take on them. What I mean is that you need to add in your own personal flair and truly make it your own. If you do this right then no one will ever realize that you are copying someone else. You will have taken their concept or idea and made it into something truly unique and all your own. 

An example of writers failing to truly make a concept or idea their own is the recent string of made for TV science fiction movies. These movies are knock offs of big budget Hollywood movies. Examples would be, ‘The Day the Earth Stopped.’ The title alone tells you that it’s a knock off of the recent remake of, ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still.’ Another is the movie, ‘American Warships.’ This movie was forced to change its name because the original title, ‘American Battleships,’ was too close to the big budget movie ‘Battleship.’ I could give several other examples, but you probably already get my point.

Words use and phrases are also okay to copy. How many times have you heard the phrase like ‘To be or not to be’ used as direct quotes or paraphrased in movies or books. This phrases and others like it are instantly recognized as coming from writers of the past such as William Shakespeare. Using these phrases is not a bad thing. We as writers are paying homage to those that have gone before. But, even paying homage has a time and a place, too much and you fall off the edge onto a slippery slope. Any kind of homage has to have a context in the text that you are writing, not simply because you can.

What I believe is not okay is the outright copying of whole sentences, pages, chapters and even whole novels. These kinds of acts can get a writer into serious trouble. It can even destroy your career. A writer that is know to plagiarize will gain a reputation for doing just that and once a reputation has been forged in the mind of the reading public. It is there forever. My advice is choose wisely the path that you take. Plagiarizing might seem like the easy path in the beginning, but in the long road it will lead you to ruin. But, that is just my personal opinion. 

I originally intended to do something different for this blog, but as I went to save the blog the site crashed and everything was lost. 

Here I go.

Now lets move on.

In my last blog I asked if you were a reader? I shared with you that I'm a reader as well. This time I'd like to ask if you have that one story that you could get lost in over and over? It may be the one that began your whole love of reading. Or it may be a story that you came across by chance and fell in love with it. 
For me it has to be J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit. Years ago I was given a box set of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. I've read all of the books, but the one I come back to time and again is The Hobbit. I can't quite place my finger on exactly why I love that book. All I really know is that I do. Seeing the story line played out on the silver screen is a treat for me, but I think even after the movie sits on my shelf I will still crack open the pages of the novel and once again go on an adventure with Bilbo Baggins.
If you have a book that you can get lost in over and over let me know what it is. If you know why you love it then let me know that as well. I'm truly curious to hear what you truly love to read.

In this blog I had originally intended to share some real ghost stories that others had shared with me, but I didn't get any responses. So, I decided to write on another topic instead.
I've seen the picture below a few times on various social media. Every time that I see it I'm saddened by what it says. 

Have we as a people lost something by losing the joy of reading. I don't know how many times I hear this from people, "I'm not a reader."
I can honestly say that I am a reader and it's not because I'm a writer. I enjoyed reading long before I ever thought about being a writer. For as long as I can remember I've loved to read. I was and still am fascinated by the worlds found within the pages of a book. As a child I would get lost in the writings of C.S. Lewis. Middle-earth was a real place in my imagination long before it ever graced the screen. As I grew older I found heroes like Jack Ryan and John Clark and I fell in love alongside the characters of Nicholas Sparks.
These days I ride atop dragons with Eragon, sit strapped in on the command deck alongside Honor Harrington and live the life of the immortal PICA named Merlyn Athrawes on the planet Safehold.
I ask you this, are you a reader? Have you felt the joy of losing yourself within the pages of a story? If you have then share it with others. Don't let these statistics stand.

About this time last year I told you a true ghost story. My brother had told me it years ago. If you missed it the first time, here it is. 

Years ago my brother served aboard the USS James K. Polk.  For those of you that don’t know the James K. Polk was a ballistic missile submarine of the United States Navy.  She was converted from a ballistic missile submarine to a slow attack submarine.  This conversion included the removal of her missiles and the adding of dry deck shelter to her deck.  To make a long story short all the changes made her into a platform to be used by US Navy SEALs.  If any of you've seen the movie Act of Valor the submarine in that movie is the USS Kamehameha. She also under went the same conversion. (I was wrong about this part. The submarine used in the movie was one of the Ohio class boats that had a similar conversion done to them.) Below are some pictures of the James K. Polk before and after the conversion. The James K. Polk was decommissioned in 1999 and the boat was scrapped, all except for the sail.  The sail is presently on display at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Today I would like to share with you a few marketing tips that I've picked up along the way. Marketing themselves and their work is one of the dreaded things for writers. I know this from personal experience in the struggle to bring in readers. 
The first tip I have for you is that posting ads in Facebook groups are a complete waste of your time and energy. If you find a group on Facebook that you can engage with people, by engage I mean carry on real meaningful conversations with them, by all means join the group and participate. The ad groups can have anywhere from a dozen to forty posts an hour. With that many postings if you post isn't seen in that first hour then it's never seen. I've done actual experiments on this. The first experiment I posted in eight-five groups on Facebook and got only four clicks on the link. I used the analytic from Google's link shortener to get the statistics. Those clicks came within the first hour of the post. I later conducted another experiment. This time I used a post that I'd never run before. I posted in over ninety groups and the result was three clicks on the link. Facebook can be used as a good social tool to interact with people, but does not work as a good advertising tool.
About a month back I was made aware of Thunderclap and HeadTalker. They’re crowd-speaking platforms that help people be heard by saying something together. How do they work? It's simple you setup the message you want to be sent out, choose when you want it sent out and then ask people to support your post. If you reach your supporter goal, Thunderclap and Head Talker will blast out a timed Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr (HeadTalker also includes Linkedin) post from all your supporters, creating a wave of attention. Thunderclap requires a minimum of one hundred supporters for your message to be posted, while HeadTalker only requires fifty supporters. Setting up either one is completely free. Both of them have packages that can be purchased to get more analytical information on your supporters and who clicked on the links, but those packages are optional. Supporting is also free. Both of them have links that can be embedded into your website, making it easier for your supporters to help your cause. HeadTalker gives you free social reaches when you create a campaign. Starting you off with the potential of reaching three hundred thousand people. 
I've done a Thunderclap post already and had about twelve hundred people visit my website after the message went out. On Monday I will have my first HeadTalker go out. During the course of working with them I've learned a few things. The link shorterner bitly is unreliable with HeadTalker. The link fails to connect to the HeadTalker site unless you click on it multiple times or stops working altogether. I haven't had any trouble with Google's shortener. On Facebook there is a group that offers reciprocal support of your Thunderclap or Head Talker as long as it is book related. Use the button below to go to the group page. 

I currently have a Thunderclap and a HeadTalker campaign running. Links to them can be found on my home page. If you are willing to support mine then I would be happy to support yours.

For this blog I would like to share with you the personal transformation that I’ve been undergoing for the last several months. Earlier this year I decided that I needed to change a few things in my life. I’d been hearing more and more about how bad sugar was for you. All of the things I had been reading said that it didn’t matter whether you were a diabetic or not too much sugar is bad.
I decided to adopt a new way of eating. I would avoid eating any foods that had more than three grams of sugar per serving. If at all possible I would try for 1 gram or less of sugar. The only exception I made to this rule was for whole fruit or vegetables.
The changes that have occurred within myself have been profound. I’ve lost nearly forty pounds. I find myself needing only 7 hours of sleep per night not my usual eight or more that I required before. One of the biggest changes that I discovered was after I gave blood last month. The blood drive I do is on a Tuesday and the following morning is the day we get a truck in that has to be hand unloaded. I came to expect that after I’d given blood I wouldn’t be at full strength. Last month was a big exception. I didn’t feel weak at all. 
I used to have a massive sweet tooth, but one event early on cured me of that. I tried some root beer after I’d been doing this diet for a couple weeks. I couldn’t even finish half of the 20 oz drink. It tasted absolutely horrendous and top it off it gave me a massive headache. Now when I look at sweet foods I see something that is totally disgusting. How did I eat that crap before.
I try to encourage others to follow my example and change their lifestyle. It’s worked for me and I know it would work for them.