Monthly Archives: October 2014

New poem not spooky enough for Halloween

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My latest poetical composition does mention the creepy day coming up, but is not intended to scare. I hope you enjoy it!

LIFE AND SEASONS

Halloween approaches fast.

Sir Autumn has donned

His dazzling kilt—

His yellow mustache

Waves from the willow.

His balding cranium

Relinquishes its deadened tresses.

Soon a pallid blanket

Will envelop all that endures.

Fluffy clouds of mutation

Drift through the boughs.

While one is departing,

Another arrives.

Life and seasons

Nourish change.

10-29-14

For more of this kind of mild verse, get my upcoming book, I Walked My Dog This Morning. In the meantime, visit us at stclairpublications.com .

Pinterest Updates Give Fresh Inspiration

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We all need inspiration from time to time to keep our life experiences moving forward in a positive manner. Some of us are blessed to have a great spiritual family, some a great blood family, and some gain inspiration by the written word.

I have spent a bit of time lately on Pinterest doing updates which I hope will help our St. Clair Publications family and friends in this way. One thing I have done is pin some sayings on my “Great Thoughts” board in which I personally believe. This morning I have placed two of our latest releases there which both exemplify our philosophy of a healthy, positive life.

Go there and see the information about “Off the Back of the Rim: Uplifting Thoughts to Help You Rebound from the ‘Bricks’ of Life,” by enthusiastic Tennessee Tech Women’s basketball coach, Allison Clark, and “Tales from the Smoke House: The Christmas Book” a timely, full-color interior version of expert storyteller Franklin P. Smith‘s uplifting tales as told by old men around a pot-bellied stove in a rural South Georgia store. See: http://www.pinterest.com/stclairpublish/new-releases/

And just remember, life gives back a lot of what we put into it. Order a St. Clair Publications book today for yourself or for a loved one as a holiday gift of love.

My new motto–and you have my permission to quote me!

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One of my social media outlets is Pinterest, though I usually only go there occasionally because of my situations, obligations and physical conditions.

The other day I was re-pinning a post from another user on my GREAT THOUGHTS board and made a statement which was entirely my own, out of my heart. I have chosen to make it my new motto. The statement was: “Strive to be your best even at your lowest point.”

This year I have been on a roller-coaster ride from highs to lows and vice versa. I have truly reached some of my lowest points. The deaths of my son, my uncle, my cousin and a dear friend; multiple injuries resulting in surgery, and heavy dental procedures resulting in continuous pain–the last two not being over yet. And there have even been other great upsets.

Even at the lowest points I have chosen to retain faith in God and the gifts that have been granted to me which keep me going.

Sure, I have had moments when I was less than positive, but I have always picked myself up and taken another positive step.

So when life “gets your goat” (see my book Most Comprehensive Origins of Cliches, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions for this one), remember to drag out my personal motto: “Strive to be your best even at your lowest point.” And you may quote me on that!

 

Free Publishing of Your Book

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This post is for any St. Clair Publications author, present or future. One of my authors recently contacted me about needed changes to her book in order to comply with a contributors personal request. She asked me to remove her book from Amazon.com until the changes are made and resubmitted. I have complied with that request.

At any needed time I can remove any author’s book or books on a temporary basis. This is just one of a number of free services that St. Clair Publications provides for our valued authors.

Here are a few items an author should consider in choosing a publisher.

We provide free publication of accepted books. Remember, we do have a right to refuse publication based on content.

We provide author services if needed at very low cost. These include: proof reading and or editing; preparation of the manuscript for publication to required specs, cover design and preparation to specs, and some promotions. NO OTHER POD Publisher to my knowledge offers these services to their authors as low as we do. I challenge you to find one and let me know. If this can be proven, we will match any advertised prize on these services as long as I remain as President and COO.

We also pay a royalty which is the highest percentage of profit of any publisher I have found.

Check out our website at stclairpublications.com and/or contact me at stan@stclair.net.

 

Do you dwell on the past?

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I’m not saying that we shouldn’t think about our successes and failures or learn from past mistakes. I love the study of history, now more than ever. Genealogy and DNA have become hobbies through the years.

But those thoughts of going back to the “Good old days” are senseless. Things are not ever going to be the same, whether good or bad. We all need to focus on making our world a better place. That can start in the heart of each of us.

Today while letting my mind rest between tasks, I wrote the following poem:

THE FOCUS OF OUR LENS

I know that I cannot return to the past,

For it is but an elusive trail

Of botched memories:

A crape paper kite floating ever upward;

Its gingham tail with knotted bows

Flapping behind in the misty breeze

Of wanton dreams.

 

No, the past, as the future,

Is hardly as the camera of the mind envisions.

Both are better left alone for what they are.

 

We live in the uniqueness of the moment,

And that must be the focus of our lens.

10-9-14

It will appear in my next book of poetry, I Walked My Dog This Morning, due out next year.

Words with similar meanings often have much different connotations

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Have you ever noticed that words which have nearly the same meaning often take on different connotations in actual usage?

Take middle and center, for example.  Someone between the buyer and the seller who takes the price up for the consumer is the “middle man.” Someone getting between two people that causes tension is always in the middle of the problem.

On the other hand, a person can be the center of attention, or the center of one’s world, etc.

Center and middle are basically the same in meaning, but in most cases very different in their usage.

There are a number of other words like this. But word usage is a passion of mine as evidenced by my popular phrase and expression origin book, Most Comprehensive Origins of Cliches, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions selling every day on Amazon. Buyers say that the paperback version is really great! Get it today on Amazon or other online bookseller or better still, at the St. Clair Publications website, http://stclairpublications.com where PayPal payments are one of the safest ways to pay ever!

You can’t get there from here!

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Until our recent trip to the Newark airport town of Elizabeth, New Jersey, the nearest I had come to fulfilling the old saying, “You can’t get there from here” was at the tiny Pacific coastal fishing village of Yalapa, Mexico, where the only two options to get there are horses stomping through the rain forest and a water taxi from Puerto Vallarta. I shall never forget that great jaunt by water.

But after we got off of the New Jersey Turnpike and followed the directions that we had to get to Wyndham Gardens Hotel, where we were intending to stay, it would truly seem that finding it was impossible. After the directions didn’t work we stopped twice for directions, the last one even getting them from the Internet. Still we couldn’t find it. We ended up staying at the Newark Airport Hilton for the next two nights.

Even when my cousin was bringing me back from our trip into Manhattan, he directed his iPhone to take him there and it misdirected him to that hotel! I have no plans on a repeat of that venture, though I enjoyed the evening in Manhattan and the time at the hotel with Rhonda very much.

So the next time someone tells me jovially, “You can’t get there from here,” I won’t be laughing. I’ll be looking for another destination.

In the meantime, get a copy of my book, Most Comprehensive Origins of Cliches, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions online in either paperback or Kindle, and be looking for the first volume of Exploring Our Exciting World due out before Christmas.