Love (to Rewrite) This One

 I had the opporutnity to watch The Greatest Showman the other day and loved one song in it. I gnerally don't dig on muscials for the screen. If I'm going to watch a musical, then put it on a stage I say. It's so much better (always) on stage than on screen. On screen, musicals always seem so fake. I love the realness of the stage.

Regardless, I had the chance to watch this movie and BOOM! Rewrite the stars hit me like a ton of bricks. Two competeing stanzas hit me and I dno't know which I like more. First there is:

No one can rewrite the stars

How can you say you'll be mine?

Writing on Capitalism and Adult Educaiton

In the early 1980's my grandfather, an unsurpassed entrepreneur who was ahead of his time,  reconditioned several RV's to support about 7-10 computers and desks. He drove these "mobile learning centers" to manufacturing and refinery areas, areas with high concentrations of working folks, with the idea of setting up shop for workers to continue their education's using his RV's before work, during lunch breaks, and after work. Sadly, the project didn't live beyond a couple of years and was never as successful as he wished.

Now, at my organization, we have several trailers that are outfitted with computers that we can take to refineries to help the workers get their safety training. They are used about as successfully as my grandfather's mobile learning centers. Although this doesn't say much about our ability to learn from past mistakes, it does say something about the willingness for capitalist to look for ways to provide access to people who want and need continuing education. Now, I'm working with phone apps, and tablet learning to try and make our training more accessible to those who want it and need it.



Capitalism has found ways to solve problems in unique and profitable ways. One great thing about innovators in a capitalist system is that the system rewards those ideas that work. If there is a demand and there is a profit to be made, a capitalist system will support it. Even now, at my organization, we 1)provide discounts to workers who want to improve their careers through training, 2) look for ways to drive down costs so more companies can take part in the training and 3) look for funding opportunities to help defray the cost of work. And we are a non-profit organization (although there is more to be said about that designation in future posts I'm sure).



Writing about Adult Education, Ross-Gordon, Rose and Kasworm state "from its earliest organizational efforts, ACE leaders desired the field to be viewed as a public good of noble value, apart from commercialization, unethical practices, and personal aggrandizement" (2017, p. 110). Although these sound like high-minded ideals, the "free from commercialization" is a sticking point for me. The profit motive, commercialization, and capitalist free market help keep new ideas bubbling up, keep bad products from delaying the entry of the good, and allow for innovation.



Ross-Gordon, J.M., Rose, A.D., & Kasworm, C.E (2017). Foundations of adult and continuing education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Experience in Leadership Training

I was intrigued when I read a recent post wherein they stated that "experiences sometimes even hinder adult learning, in the idea of grappling with cognitive dissonance."

We run into this often. We have a class on leadership during which we ask our trainees to use and talk about their experiences. I wrote some more about this in a positive light. With that response in mind, this response will highlight some of the negatives.



One of the negative outcomes of our asking these trainees to discuss their experiences is that those experiences can have a limiting factor on their ability to absorb, discuss, and adopt new tools and techniques. I think specifically of some of the older, more experienced trainees who have a host of experience and stories to tell. Some of those stories have biased these trainees against some of the tools and techniques that we might introduce. In this case, it goes beyond "cognitive dissonance" but instead is a negative prejudice against the training.



Although I'm overall a proponent of using experiences we do run into these instances and have yet to find a model by which we can easily overcome them. Subjectively speaking, I find that our more inexperienced trainees get more out of the leadership training than the more experienced ones. Finding a way to create a template that allows our more experienced trainees can benefit to the same degree as the less experienced is a constant challenge.

When They Stop Making Me Feel So Good . . . I'll Stop Posting These Reviews

For some reason my book has had a spate of reviews (see here) lately and thankfully a spate of great ones. I got another two last night and I love what they've said.

"It's always good to find a book by an author who shows real talent through their writing" and "I felt enthralled by this book by the amazing narrator voice and realistic portrayals of danger" are two phrases that any author would love to hear. 

The only thing that would be better? Well, if someone yells at your book. "I actually screamed at my book a few times. It was nail-biting suspense from beginning to end!"

Can't think of a better way to wake up! 

If you haven't read and reviewed Vapor Trail (see here) and want to. I would love to send whoever writes to me a free copy in exchange for that review. Go ahead and email me using the contact form below to get in touch with me!

Not Just Knowledgeable but Compelling to Read as Well

 I waded into Rex Bonds Shredded Secrets: 7 Cutting Edge Nutrition Secrets You Need Even If You Are Over 50 with some degree of trepidation, but I was happy to see that not only was it well written, deep, and well organized, but is in line with what I've read so many times over the years.

I have a deep history of diets both with and without success. As child I was over weight. I have been working out in gyms since 4th grade. my first fun run was in 5th grade. In high school I was able to lose 80 lbs in one year by diet alone. When I got too skinny, protein and supplements helped me get into shape enough to be an athlete in college. Years in the Army as a SpecOps warrior also helped me learn how to workout, lift weights, and diet. For years after my time in the military I worked out with a Navy Seal PT bootcamp and helped others workout and counseled them on how to stay in shape. I've bulked up, slimmed down, run, jogged, lifted, and cross fitted all through the years. Now that I'm approaching 50, I was drawn to this book due to the tag line " . . . even over 50."

Unlike many fad diet books I've read over the years, Shredded Secrets is down to earth, solid, firm, and terrific advice. It's not easy, it's not fast, it's not even guaranteed for everyone, . . . getting shredded. But as someone who may never achieve it but always tries, I can say that if I followed all the advice in this book, as diligently as Rex Bonds advocates, I would be successful. 

A great book for anyone taking dieting seriously. 

Fearful of the Present and Terrified of the Future

While reading Hallenbeck's letters from 1955 in which he asked several colleagues for their working definitions of Adult Education I was taken by the difference in tone and tenor of each answer from 1955 as it felt so much more like there was "building" going on, whereas now I feel we take a lot of systems for granted. We are fine-tuning so much that has been given us, rather than creating from whole cloth.

Regardless, I gravitated toward Schwertman as well. The focus on experience drew me in. This is what I like most about Adult Education is our ability to use our experiences and build on experiences to become something more and to add to the education of others through the use of our experience as examples for them. I highlighted that same quote as you, "adult education is the constant expansion of experience in desirable directions," (p. 141) but also highlighted this passage from the Minich definition about how adult education must be diverse, "adult education should still represent a partnership among these groups and agencies in the community which have a genuine concern for the education of adults" (p. 140). In a past life as a Director of Career Development, I worked with a community college that wanted to provide associates degrees to our workers for having finished our training and experience over the course of two years. This was a blend of both Schwertman's experience and Minich's partnerships.



Honorable mention for highlights in this article I feel must go to Frank for the passage where he states, "As Otto Rank once said, "We cling to the past not because we are in love with the past but because we are fearful of the present"; and, it might be added we are terrified of the future. If we are to recover from the seemingly widespread demoralization and growing failure of nerve, adult education has the great office of helping people gain confidence in themselves, to renew their courage and their faith in human potentialities, in order that as a people we can overcome our many resistances to change and replace our anxiety with hopefulness toward the future" (p. 145). I read this several times and liked what it had to say more with each reading.



Hallenbeck, et al. (1955). What is adult education? Adult Education, (5) 3, 131-145.

A Couple More from the North

Why do I love these (see here, and here for more) so much? I don't think a long preamble is really necessary anymore. For context go back and read the others, but needless to say these are pretty good ones too.

This one comes from Suits and Shorts

Then sometimes you just need to hear from a friend but you don't want to reach out. 

Leadership as Adult Education

I believe that management and leadership training are forms of adult education. To demonstrate why I feel this I will point out a series of classes that we provide at our organization. I've discuss our LEAD series before but basically our LEAD series are classes designed to help leaders develop within our industry. There are three classes that currently make up our LEAD series; Foundational Leadership, Insightful Leadership and Speaking as a Leader.

Foundational Leadership focuses on basic leadership skills. We have noticed that first time crew leaders and supervisors are not necessarily promoted because of their skills at leading, but rather for their ability to complete projects.  Do they have any true leadership skills? Do they know how to lead and motivate and inspire their crews? We created this class to give first time leaders in our industry tools and techniques they can use immediately on the job including employee retention techniques, change management, conflict management, and situational leadership. Insightful Leadership is the next step up in leadership development from Foundational Leadership. It focuses on personality identification, understanding different personalities of the leader and within the team, being able to identify the type of personality, and how best to work with that team member successfully.  Speaking as a Leader helps field leaders present themselves to their teams, to their management, and their clients. What is the point of giving leaders the tools and techniques to lead if they can't use them with their teams, clients, and bosses well? This class is perfect for helping new or mature field and office leaders overcome their fears of speaking and presentations.



All of these classes are taught more in a Developmental Perspective rather than a Transmission Perspective as so many of our other classes are. Our primary offering are CBT's for safety training and Instructor Led classes for skills development. All of these are lecture style classes where the trainee is a passive participant, absorbing information. These LEAD classes are led by a facilitator who has been in the industry for many years, knows what the new leaders are dealing with, and can help them understand the best way through the challenges. Secondly, we facilitate, we don't teach. We allow the participants to understand and grow and develop rather than just tell them what they need to know.



In terms of this being true "adult education" I look specifically at one of Malcolm Knowles' 4 Principles of Andragogy where he states; "adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance and impact to their job or personal life" (Pappas, 2013). We provide these LEAD classes using stories, experiences, and exercises derived directly from the facilitators lives' and from experiences within the industry. We endeavor to make the training directly relevant. When I look around at all of the training we provide, it's point of need rather than developmental. LEAD provides us the ability to help direct and grow our trainees and provide them a career path in leadership.



Pappas, C. (2013). The Adult Learning Theory - Andragogy - of Malcolm Knowles. eLearning Industry. https://elearningindustry.com/the-adult-learning-theory-andragogy-of-malcolm-knowles

More of the Same, and I Couldn't Be More Excited

I'm sure many who read this blog regularly get tired of these types of posts (see here and here), but I can't get enough of em, especially this most recent one. 

This first one is particularly noteworthy, as any review might be that is titled, "Unbelievably Beautiful."

The only other review that I might have enjoyed more is this one (here) that I got for On the Edge. Anytime you read a reviewer write "any reader would feel like the characters are real people" then the author has had a really good day. 

This second one is nice as well. Also five stars. "Plenty of twists and turns kept me engaged right to the end of the story." Again, I can't get enough of these awesome positive reviews. 

More with Micah

 As a part of my budgeting presentation (see here) I included a micro-learning spaced reinforcement exercise (see here, here and here for ore on that learning technique). But I had the chance to discuss this with Micah in another in my series of conversations with Micah (see more here and here).

It’s a fun tool. It’s not ideal in that it’s only text. The last micro-learning tool I used we were able to develop in Articulate Rise. That gave it a far sleeker look.

Text alone isn’t the best and is very limiting in terms of transfer of learning. The best model would be a hybrid model that delivers to the trainee via text or via micro-learning app so that they are reinforcing between the two. Haven't quite figured out how to make that happen yet, but it’s still early. Something will come up.

At work we use it to augment and reinforce learning objectives for our eLearning, our instructor-led classes and our virtual classes. It's just one more thing that helps get the message across and sticks in the learner's mind. We use "Mobile Coach" to create them. We hope to have our own system built and set up to use soon. 

At the moment, the most effective way we use the tool, is in using it to gauge how well our Virtual Reality training is doing (see here). We test the learner directly after the training then again a week later to determine if their memory after virtual is more resilient than the memory after traditional training. 

Great to be able to provide a tool to augment even the most simple presentations that I have. 

Another From the North

 I've had several lines that I've been quoting lately from Miss Great White North on Twitter (see here).

This one comes from Love n Chill, and is a fun one!

I knew I was yours by the way you held my hand . . . and a fistful of my hair.

How awesome and telling is that line!

Elizabeth, Betsy 

Evershade, evershades, ever shade, ever shades, shades of Betsy

A Strategy for Nonprofit Organizations to Deal with Ethical Challenges

As a Vice President of Learning and Innovation for a nonprofit training organization, I work with departmental directors to produce programs and develop courses for industrial safety and skills. The organization I work for is a nonprofit training delivery resource for workers in the petrochemical and oil and gas refining industry. We provide training development and delivery services for refinery "owners" and contractor "members." Although not experts in the specific techniques and skills, we bill ourselves as experts in training delivery. As with many nonprofit organizations (NPO), ethical concerns and perceptions of ethical challenges should be anticipated during our program and course development.

As a nonprofit that acts as a training provider between the refinery owners and the contracting members, public trust is paramount to our mission and business model. Without the trust of both sides, the owners, and the members, we would not continue to exist. This makes dealing with ethical issues quickly, effectively, and in a manner that is deemed correct by the members and owners a paramount concern for the future health not just of our organization but the safety and health of the employees in the industry. Additionally, "trust is essential to NPOs because, for the most part, they are engaged in delivery of public or quasi-public goods yet without the oversight and built-in accountability mechanisms usually required in government" (Frederickson and Ghere, 2013, p. 267). Having an effective, internal strategy for addressing ethical concerns must be a focus for continued success of our organization. As Kearns writes "in the absence of clear, analytical framework for identifying (and even forecasting) accountability issues and controversies, nonprofit professionals are hindered in their efforts to respond effectively to stakeholder expectations and mandates" (Kearns, 1994, p. 186). As our organization occupies this space between two companies and is organized as a nonprofit organization, it is vital that a strategy for dealing with ethical issues is created and followed when developing programs to maintain that public trust that is so key to their existence.

There are several ethical issues that could come up in the creation of programs that we develop. One of the first revolves around the confusion our members have over the cost and pricing of our products. A second ethical challenge that could come up is that we develop and produce training courses and programs primarily in English even though over 25% of our trainee's speak English as a second language. By investigating just one of these and creating a strategy for dealing with it, that strategy can be applied to the other potential ethical issues to help ensure that our organization acts ethically no matter the ethical dilemma. 

The primary issue is the ethical concern regarding the perceived pricing model we follow when creating programs for our members and owners. The pricing model that allows us to remain in business is to develop training courses for members for free and charge the members for that service with each employee that comes to their eLearning lab for training delivery. Program design and delivery to include eLearning, follow on reinforcement training, hands-on training, follow up training, career development, all starts with that initial course and its delivery via this model. We are the owner and distributor of the material for the contractor member and refinery owner, but we also create the training hand-in-hand and for the specific use of the members and owners. Instead of charging companies at the beginning, during the development of the product, we charge members on each delivery instance. In some cases, we will provide volume discounts for large contractors that will lower the price for delivery of each training instance. This discounting is not well publicized and could cause our members to believe that we are fixing prices or providing preferential treatment, although this is a model that is followed throughout the safety council community. As Kearns states in Frederickson and Ghere (2013), nonprofit organizations "must develop revenue strategies as a part of their annual business plan to ensure that they will have resources sufficient to support their mission," (p. 267). Our organization is facing headwinds in this business in the form of private organizations willing to provide similar training for free to increase their customer base and open the door for them to sell other opportunities. 

To counter this threat, our organisation applies levels of security and integrity to the delivery process that these competitors cannot. When learners show up for training by registering at our front desk, they must present a valid picture ID that is checked against the picture we have on file for that learner. Before entering the eLearning lab, learners are again asked to provide their registration forms and proof of ID. Finally, throughout their training and just prior to getting their certificates of completion the learner's picture is constantly compared and checked by our roving learning proctors. If at any time these proctors detect a person has covertly infiltrated the training for someone else, they terminate that training instance and ask the suspected impostor to re-register and restart the process of ID check-in or to leave. Our organization successfully hinders approximately one impostor a week using this method of ID checking. This level of integrity is our greatest asset to their training delivery product and the competitive advantage they hold over other organizations who cannot offer this level of service. 

Many contractors are confused about the nonprofit status of the organizations, and the pricing models used, especially if they do not qualify for a volume discount. The uptick in competition could lead to members being focused more and more on pricing which could lead to perceived ethical challenges and undermine public trust. For many in this industry, nonprofit translates to "cheap" or "free." As Kearns writes in Frederickson and Ghere (2013) "when seeking income or other essential resources, NPOs must "sell" or legitimize themselves in the eyes of the public, usually in competition with other NPOs that are vying for the same finite resources" (p. 267). Since there is the challenge that many members could tend to believe that our organization is fixing prices and maintaining high price points at the expense of the contractor members, and as public trust is so critical to our survival, the ethical challenge that our organization faces is continuing to price their programs at a level where they can remain in business, continue to deliver training with the same level of integrity, and compete with competitors who price similar training for significantly less while not losing the trust of their members. The perception of unethical dealings could remain over our business due to these challenges. In what ways can our organization's leaders ensure that they aren’t price-gouging their members while pricing their product at a point where they can remain in business? 

As Caffarella and Daffron (2013) write, "ethical frameworks are useful in initially thinking through ethical dilemmas when program planners are confronted with such dilemma's they also need strategies they can move through what can be, as noted earlier, messy and emotionally charged situations" (p. 43). Although Kearns (1994) proposes a framework for NPOs in his text that focuses on implicit and explicit external controls against reactive and proactive internal responses, a simpler strategy for dealing with any potential ethical challenges can be found in the text of Brockett and Hiemstra (2005) when they write “perhaps the best way to promote ethical practice is to work toward creating an open climate where potential ethical concerns are addressed upfront, in a non-confrontational way" (p. 6). This idea of letting sunlight into the decision-making process is an ideal way to allow members a level of trust that our organization is working to keep their member's employees safe without undermining our ability to make a profit. Secondly, providing an open climate in showing the integrity behind the system that we have produced for delivery, the layers of ID checks, will provide a differentiator to guard against the threat brought on by organizations trying to undercut their deliverable. Finally, a part of this strategy should be the application of the ethical problem against our mission statement. Applying the ethical challenge to the mission statement can act as a handrail for us to help guide our decision-making processes, even in terms of pricing. When this potential ethical issue that revolves around the member's perception of high pricing is applied against the mission statement, improving the quality and integrity of the workforce, both the integrity of the ID verification process as well and providing a higher quality product by hiring and employing better, more professional, program developers, would fall within the mission statement's strictures. 

 “Creating an open climate where potential ethical concerns are addressed upfront,” (Brockett & Hiemstra, 2005, p. 6) when applied to the other two ethical challenges introduced in the second paragraph of this paper yields positive results as well. By showing that creating training in Spanish for every course we make would necessarily increase the cost of the training development and delivery to our contractor members, those members would understand why we cannot provide translations across the board for all training. Additionally, by explaining that providing training in Spanish undermines the organization's mission of creating a safer workplace since so many of the safety signs, standards, procedures, and policies in refineries and other places of work are in English, the test of checking the ethical concern against the mission yields revelatory information to help guide the decision making process. 

We are working in a unique field that prizes highly skilled and safe labor resources and occupies a unique segment of the U.S.'s industrial safety training and learning community. With the advent of virtual reality (VR) to safely simulate real-world dangers in training, the introduction of training on demand through text alerts via cell phones, and the ability to stream all training to individuals where they are, rather than bringing them to a common place, NPOs are living through great times, but maintaining the public trust remains a key to their success. By applying the two simple two-step strategy proposed in this paper, opening up decision making to the company, the members, and all other concerned parties, and ensuring that all decisions follow our mission statement, we can ensure that they are doing what they can to keep the public trust they have earned over the past thirty years.  

References

Brockett, R. G., & Hiemstra, R. (2005). Promoting ethical practice in adult education. American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, 16(3-4), 4-6. https://doi.org/10.1177/104515950501600301

Caffarella, R. S., & Daffron, S. R. (2013). Planning Programs for Adult Learners; a Practical Guide. Jossey-Bass.

Frederickson, H. G., & Ghere, R. K. (2013) Ethics in Public Management. Routledge.  

Houston Area Safety Council. (2020). Vision and mission statement. https://www.hasc.com/about-hasc/vision-mission/

Kearns, K. (1994). The strategic management of accountability in nonprofit organizations: an analytical framework. Public Administration Review, 54(2), 185-192. https://doi.org/10.2307/976528 

More Lines From the North (maybe a line or two more than needed!)

 Ran into even more lines (see here) from my twitter friends. Just love em.

First from Mrs. Great White North there is this:

I used to look for you everywhere, in everything, but now I know you exist only in private moments

Too True

 Sometimes it just helps to feel these things. I’m glad that others feel them and can express them so well. Just more of the great lines/ever shade posts that I keep compiling . . . See the rest HERE!

No one breaks up these days, they just start behaving like an asshole and the other person can't take it anymore. 

How Much Are You Forgetting?

I had the opportunity to speak to new leaders participating in our Foundational Leadership classes. In both cases, I referred them to this LinkedIn page to discuss their experiences, continue learning about leadership techniques, and stay connected with other trainees, other leaders, and our facilitators. 

One of the reasons for this LinkedIn page is to help overcome the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve. As Nikhil Sonnad writes in Quartz, "The forgetting curve is a mathematical formula that describes the rate at which something is forgotten after it is initially learned." 

Proposed by Hermann Ebbinghaus over 100 years ago, it suggests that memory does not fade in a straight line or leveling off, but rather as a curve shown in the image on this page. Memories begin to fade immediately, and they do so quickly. 

At HASC, we work to design and develop training to help overcome this forgetting curve. We identify learning objectives to help learners remember the most important material and reinforce those objectives through knowledge checks, quizzes, and tests. 

At HASC, we use a "scaffolding" technique to develop training. We build on the knowledge already learned and implanted in our trainee's memories. Lastly, we work to interact with learners once they have left our classrooms and labs through chatbots and micro-learning. All of these are designed to delay forgetting that occurs and reinforce the memory for the learner.

In creating these reinforcement mechanisms, or "retrieval practice" events, we work to move the learning from the learner's short-term and working memory into their long-term memory. 

By making those memories of the learning objectives more resilient and strengthening those neural pathways, we make our learner's memories of those learning objectives stronger. In our industry, critical information must be remembered when it is needed and without hesitation. Finding ways to make memories of training objectives stronger goes hand-in-hand with our mission of "building safe workplaces."

Undermining the forgetting curve by creating retrieval practice mechanisms, extends the memory and makes it stronger; this is what this LinkedIn page is designed to do.

By visiting our HASC Leadership LinkedIn page, discussing aspects of leadership with other leaders here, and asking questions and engaging, you will be undermining the forgetting curve and making better use of your training time and money.

Carpe Deann?

 This one (of these Great Lines see here) comes from Carpe Deann. It hit me cause I'm always it seems in the midst of a silent treatment. Deann must know how I feel.

Your silent treatment will turn into forever if you're not careful.

Ugh, I'd hate that, but I can see what she means!

Elizabeth, Betsy 

Evershade, evershades, ever shade, ever shades, shades of Betsy

Done with Teams

 I am very much NOT a team player. 

Lately, we had to get ready for a presentation as a team. As I mentioned in previous posts, I do them quite well now days. I don't even have to rehearse much, I come up with a mental plan and go from there. My team however did not have that type of faith in their abilities. They wanted to have 5 1 hour rehearsals for what will be a 20 minute presentation. Five, that was a TON of rehearsals. 

Still, this will be the LAST time I work in teams! 

Well, unless I'm forced. 

This has not been a fun team project. Our project is about building an a program for an existing company. It started out well. Two of us doing the Lion's share of the work, while the other kept us on track.  

If it was just me I think I would have Winged that Sucker. Some folks are not fine tuners by nature. That's not to say I can follow APA, I don't do that at all. I just don't like people who can't make a decision and go with it. Instead of fine tuning the paper, the paper became a dumping ground for our team's comments and problems all needing a solution. 

Worst of all, we had to be guided and have a long discussion about which APA style to use, 6 or 7. Seriously? Just pick one and go. This is something I have problems with at work as well. I'm very much a move quickly and deal with the problems later guy. Sometimes to my detriment. I don't work well with those who take forever to come up with a plan and execute. 

Our team should have had this entire project complete last week, instead it's still outstanding. Working alone I would have already turned this in and moved on. Plus,  thanks to having to work in teams I'm finding some super easy to spot problems that haven't been taken care of by the team. Using personal pronouns in the paper, tables and charts all look different, appendices for some information, not for others. The rhythm and flow of the paper is a mess. 

I get that not everyone works the same and it takes a village, but when it comes to projects like this I'd rather work alone than depend on others. 

The only good news is that unlike our last class, we have no page count restrictions. Minimum . . .MINIMUM of 15! So we are already well over 25 pages and a dozen more of appendix! It's like a tax audit! We are overwhelming them with information! Hope it works!

A Bit of Vaingloriousness

It might be a bit too much self pride, but I love getting these reviews and posting them here (see here). They have two affects. First, they're fun to read. It's interesting to see how others view and process my writing. I didn't realize that my writing was detailed or that I was at all like Hemingway or Heller (see here). Secondly, it inspires me to write more. I know that this morning I should be getting homework done. I should be reading articles about what chemicals are produced by the amygdala via emotional responses to create more resilient long-term memories. Instead, I wrote about elephants in my eastern-Africa thriller novel. 

This first one is from a reader who read my book of short stories, Stories from the Day (see here). I love that chuckled. That's exactly what I was hoping for! 

This second review comes from someone who read On the Edge (see here). Like some of the other reviews she mentions characterization positively, which is awesome for a writer to hear, and the fact that she "devoured" the book. Several others have said the same things. One person wrote that they read my novel in just a few hours and that she couldn't put it down. 

Again, love getting them and reading them. These are two of the best, there were a couple of others that earned me 5 stars but weren't so detailed. Looking forward to more. 

Another Every Now and Then

Following in that same vein as yesterday, things that strike me as funny, there was this. 

In this case, I can say, I've personally verified that this is quite true!

Elizabeth, Betsy 

Evershade, evershades, ever shade, ever shades, shades of Betsy

Remarkable People and Connections

Lately, perhaps because I'm approaching 50, I've been thinking more and more about the numbers of remarkable people that we meet in our lives and the connections we build with them. 

There are those people who come and go and are hardly a blip in our lives. There are those people who stay in our lives and are great folks, wonderful to be around, but hardly "remarkable" and although we may have a connection with them due to work, school or family, we don't "make that soul touching connection."

Then there are those folks who connect with us on a different level. Those are the people I think about. 

What's ultimately sad, is that due to the nature and the brevity of our lives, so often these people, these rare people with whom we connect on that next, deeper, more emotional level, often flit away much too quickly. 

I'm sure I've brushed up against some truly remarkable people who have that ability to connect on a different level throughout my life, but for one reason or another we didn't make that connection. Maybe it wasn't the right time, perhaps we were friends of friends and our roads divided before that connection could be made, or the stars just didn't align. 

I'm also aware that that connection I'm speaking about occurs and has occurred in my life and then due to the transience of life is pulled apart and ripped away. Still our lives are ultimately better for it and the connection was worthwhile because of it. 

Looking back on the last 47 years or so it's amazing to me how rare that deeper connection occurs. Among all the myriads and millions of people we may meet, the recipe, the timing, and the opportunity so rarely meet up to create that moment for connection. Sad too. One of the more life fulfilling aspects of our time here on earth is the relationships we make, and those with these types of folks are so brief and fragile. 

I love the quote by Ward that "Opportunities are like sunrises - if you wait too long you miss them." The same can be said about these people with whom we connect. If you don't take advantage of them, of that time, of that connection, and that opportunity, you'll miss it and you'll miss the chance you may have to interact with them. 

Short Story about Bataan

I spend an inordinate amount of time driving and commuting for work. My office is about an hour away from my home. When I took a job about 12 years ago, it was in an area nearer to my house. Since the company merged with it's largest competitor, the office moved 30 miles to the east, away from my home. Now I'm stuck in an industry that's a significant distance from my home. This leaves alot of time for listening to music, podcasts and sports radio. 

At the moment I've been listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (see here). I started trying to listen to this a year or two ago and gave up. Apparently my barrier for entry is lower on my commute as I got into it and now I love em. 

The first one I listed to was called Supernova in the East. It's a terrific series on how and why Japan fought in WWII and why the war fleshed out the way it did. During one segment Dan discusses McArthur's pull out from Bataan and the troops that were trapped on the peninsula and the fighting that took place there. Although I've never fought in the jungle, we as a unit did a ton of training in jungle warfare and when Dan was discussing the rigor and hardships of fighting in the jungle it sure made me think about my time in Panama. 

As a part of that segment Dan asks the listener to imagine themselves in a fox hole, in the middle of the night, with just your buddy in the fox hole with you, and the next fox hole out of visual reach and perhaps due to the forced silence you can't hear them either. All around you there are jungle noises and mixed in there, with the total blackness of the triple canopy jungle, are suspicious noises of Japanese soldiers getting through the defensive perimeter (something they routinely did) and killing soldiers in their fox holes silently. 

It's a terrific word picture and I was thinking of writing a short story about a guy who gets stuck in his fox hole alone and doesn't know what to do next. I've been that guy in the fox hole in the middle of the night not sure what to do. I've been that guy in the jungle all night. I can't add the combat experience, but I can add the stress, the fear, the uncertainty. 

It would be a fun short story to write. 

Now that I'm spending so much time working on papers for my PhD, I don't have the time to write my novels, perhaps short stories can be my milieu for a while. 

Short Story about Bataan

I spend an inordinate amount of time driving and commuting for work. My office is about an hour away from my home. When I took a job about 12 years ago, it was in an area nearer to my house. Since the company merged with it's largest competitor, the office moved 30 miles to the east, away from my home. Now I'm stuck in an industry that's a significant distance from my home. This leaves alot of time for listening to music, podcasts and sports radio. 

At the moment I've been listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (see here). I started trying to listen to this a year or two ago and gave up. Apparently my barrier for entry is lower on my commute as I got into it and now I love em. 

The first one I listed to was called Supernova in the East. It's a terrific series on how and why Japan fought in WWII and why the war fleshed out the way it did. During one segment Dan discusses McArthur's pull out from Bataan and the troops that were trapped on the peninsula and the fighting that took place there. Although I've never fought in the jungle, we as a unit did a ton of training in jungle warfare and when Dan was discussing the rigor and hardships of fighting in the jungle it sure made me think about my time in Panama. 

As a part of that segment Dan asks the listener to imagine themselves in a fox hole, in the middle of the night, with just your buddy in the fox hole with you, and the next fox hole out of visual reach and perhaps due to the forced silence you can't hear them either. All around you there are jungle noises and mixed in there, with the total blackness of the triple canopy jungle, are suspicious noises of Japanese soldiers getting through the defensive perimeter (something they routinely did) and killing soldiers in their fox holes silently. 

It's a terrific word picture and I was thinking of writing a short story about a guy who gets stuck in his fox hole alone and doesn't know what to do next. I've been that guy in the fox hole in the middle of the night not sure what to do. I've been that guy in the jungle all night. I can't add the combat experience, but I can add the stress, the fear, the uncertainty. 

It would be a fun short story to write. 

Now that I'm spending so much time working on papers for my PhD, I don't have the time to write my novels, perhaps short stories can be my milieu for a while. 

Every Now and Then . . .

Every now and then I run across a meme that hits me in just the right place and makes me laugh. What better place to put it than here so I can go back and laugh later. 

This one did that to me. I don't know why, I just thought it was the funniest thing I had seen!

Elizabeth, Betsy 

Evershade, evershades, ever shade, ever shades, shades of Betsy

Could Have Been . . .

Thinking through prose and thinking about things in past and things to come,  . . . this little nugget came to my thoughts:

You could have been the hero of my story, and would have been the reason for my wonder, life and love. 

What made me think of this? This little nugget from my Twitter friend:

"My lips could have been your wake up call."

Ah, what a wonderfully descriptive thought.

Elizabeth, Betsy 

Evershade, evershades, ever shade, ever shades, shades of Betsy

Another Great Review (and a less than stellar one)

 I love getting these reviews . . . well . . . some of them. 

I say, some, because of this first one I got. 

I guess my response to this review, if I was going to write to Ariana is:

Why did you decide to buy, read and review my book if you admit upfront that "you don't like action stories"?

There are many other reviewers who have said the exact opposite of what you said about there not being enough in the beginning to grab the reader's attention. Other reviewers have said "fast paced", "page turner", "wild ride" and "action from the get-go!" 

I kinda think this was a revenge post rather than an actual reader, but whatcha gonna do?

This second review is one that I would much rather focus on. Amazing detail! An engaging book! and the perfect length! I'll take all of those reviews happily!