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FAPAcon 2021 is coming July 30-31

The Florida Authors and Publishers Association will be hosting their annual conference for authors and publishers, FAPAcon2021, on July 30 and 32 at the Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace, located near Disney Springs.

Scrabble Letters

These Words Were Invented by Mistake

English is notorious for adopting words from other languages, leading to plenty of mistranslations or miscommunications. Rather than acknowledging the mistake, English speakers tend to double down and embrace the it, creating new words all on their own. Below are nine such words that were invented by mistake.

Diary 1999: An Eye-Opening Medical Memoir

In 1999 Dr. Renée Richards kept a detailed diary of her personal and professional life. An internationally renowned eye surgeon and teacher, her specialty was strabismus, a condition where the eyes do not properly align.

It was an eventful year. Medical practice was changing to managed care and she adapted. The hospital she had helped build was for sale and she tried to save it. Strabismus was still a vast and mysterious condition, so she worked harder at solving it.

Abacus

What Are Mass Nouns?

A noun isn’t always a simple thing — it’s not just people, places, and things. There are proper nouns, common nouns, concrete nouns, and abstract nouns. Add to that, there are also mass nouns and count nouns.

Michael Appelbaum’s Wildlife Adventures

The year 2020 has affected everyone in some way that you probably never planned. For me it was the year I could finally share my passion without losing friends or boring everyone at the party. Let me explain…I am totally passionate about the wildlife and tribes of Africa. It’s been part of my life since childhood. You see, I’ve spent the last 40 years setting up, organizing and leading people on photo safaris to most of the big game countries in Africa.

8 parts of speech

Do You Know All 8 Parts of Speech?

Grade-school grammar lessons drill the parts of speech into students’ brains, but once you’re out of the classroom it can be hard to remember all the details. You may be a skilled public speaker but not know the difference between a subordinating conjunction and a reflexive pronoun.

The Early Adventures of Homer Plow & Oliver Shagnasty

A rollicking, fast moving tale of a family separated by a big bump
on a rain-soaked country road.

Two-year-old Oscar Ferguson bounces out of the back of the old family truck in backwoods Appalachia and is found by Amelia and Oliver Shagnasty, who raise him as their own son.

Oscar’s brother, Randolph, is adopted from an orphanage and raised by the Plow family. Years later the two meet and become best friends at Harvard Law School. Each is searching for family—not knowing that they are standing side by side.

Chalk on Sidewalk

Innovative Marketing Ideas

COVID-19 has affected our businesses in profound was. Because of it we, as business owners (yes, even authors are business owners), have to put on our thinking caps and come up with innovative ideas to market our wares. Let me spark your creative juices with some ideas I have found very effective.

The Blinking Game

The Blinking Game: An African American Woman Experiences India
As a kid growing up in rural Illinois I learned a lot from our cow Lucy. When I wanted to get her attention, I would flail my arms in front of her face, point and direct her to “eat that grass over there!” Lucy would just look toward me and continue her business of chewing her cud.

Surviving Kent State

Kent State Revisited – Dealing with Emotional Trauma

Tomorrow is the fifty-first anniversary of the May 4, 1970 shootings at Kent State. Each spring I’m reminded of this sad event and the heartache it caused so many. It is a central topic in my book, Surviving: A Kent State Memoir. But many events like this haunt those who witnessed them—the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the many wars the U.S. has fought, 9/11. There are also individual traumas that many of us have endured.

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