9/11 Nine Years and yet Just yesterday

I remember that day. I was in my car listening to the Country Western Channel having just dropped my daughter off at work. I had driven to a local Five and Ten store after that because I would be starting a new teaching assignment on the 24th and had a lot to do to prepare myself.

I'm a Special Ed teacher. I have a Master Degree in Special Education and a Teacher of the Handicapped License. I had almost finished up my Bachelor's Degree earning a dual degree in Psychology and Sociology when I'd found myself substitute teaching in a classroom run by my mentor Bill Riches.

Bill taught children with Down Syndrome and in learning from him I found my calling, so back to school I went, determined to be the caring, brilliant teacher Bill showed me I could possibly become

Bill had been in a car accident the week before September 11th...a bad one. The school brought in a substitute teacher, but Bill was not coming back and by law they can only keep a sub for three weeks. I was their choice and Bill's to step in and become his replacement.

I remember feeling happy trawling and sad through the construction paper, glue and safety scissors. I was on top of the world about having my classroom and saddened I got it from my friend's tragedy. Till, with Bill's tacit approval, I could not imagine how my world could be more perfect. I'd be filling the shoes of the man I so admired.

I paid for my purchases, left the store, climbed back into my car, turned the key and heard the two morning show hosts talking weird stuff about a plane just flying into the World Trade Center in New York. I waited for the punch line certain it was a joke. Those two told some of the most outrageous stories. I waited. No punchline came. I waited some more. They repeated it. I got pissed. Okay, let's hear the punchline. By now I am home, and not the least happy with them for telling a sick joke and not getting to the punchline.

Up into my apartment I trudge, unloaded my things, flipped on the TV and had the air literally knocked out of my lungs as they showed the second plane fly into the Towers. Unsteadily, I sink to the hassock, my body beginning to tremble, my eyes wide, my mouth gaping, my hands shaking. What the hell? This can NOT be happening?

I am frozen, unable to move, my eyes beginning to fill. I can't take it in. People begin jumping from the upper levels of the Towers choosing that death to the incinerating death speeding their way.

My thoughts turn to my children. My daughter is safe, but my son worked just this side of the river. Was he safe? No one could tell how far from Ground Zero the destruction had spread.

With fingers cold with fear, I punched in my Son's cell phone number and nothing...no signal, no ring, no voice mail. Oh Dear God! NO!

Glued to the set I watch hell unfold before my eyes. Tears that I was not even aware I was crying were streaming down my face, and I wasn't even sure whom I was crying for...my son whom I would not reach until the next day, or the multitude of ravaged faces, covered in ash frantically looking for their owned loved ones in that mayhem?

I was a zombie when I had to drive to pick my daughter back up, but when I looked upon her approaching face, my eyes shut very tightly and I sent up a prayer of thanks to My God for sparing this beautiful child who is the very air that fills my lungs and an equally heartfelt one for all those who would not be embracing their beloved heartbeat's core when the dust settled long after this night turned into history's nightmare.

My son it seems had been safely on this side of the bridge, but rather than heading safely south, he crossed the bridge and forged his way into the devastation determined to help all that he could. I did not hear from him until 6:15 P.M. the following night when he could finally get a signal on his cell phone to call me. Once more I felt my knees wobble and had to thrust myself down onto that same hassock that had born my stunned body the day before.

Nine years have now passed...yet not a single emotion has been forgotten...and I still tear up and mourn our Country's loss of innocence, and the nightmarish vision of seeing those desperate souls leaping to their death as the Towers burned around them.

9/11
FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS

Amateur Psychologists

Recently, due to a certain firestorm that has swept up and somehow brought us into its concentric winds, my daughter and I have been the dubious recipients of some amateur psychologists...so I decided, what the hey, lets see what I'd find if I did a Google Image search of AMATEUR PSYCHOLOGIST...and boy, oh boy was it ever enlightening... For instance take a gander at picture number ONE...

...is this picture suggesting amateur psychologists have blocks IN their heads or are just plain BLOCKHEADED? Either way I don't think it is a really GOOD thing, and probably not something I would want to have on my résumé should I ever think about taking up a career of actually having people think I might know what the Hades I am talking about...but then I don't profess to give out psychological advice without the education and/or approved certification to back it...cause I think that would be sorta BLOCKHEADED! Especially given the state of today's litigious society, don't you? But moving on. My next Google image really had me scratching my firing graying cells...that's brain matter, by the way...

a tool chest...a BIG tool chest. I must admit this had me pondering its significance when you place it within the context of AMATEUR PSYCHOLOGIST. There is, of course the shovel, which could suggest the unschooled speaker is just shoveling the...well you know what...or trying to drill into the firing synapses of what makes a person's emotions fluctuate...and I gotta tell you if this is what your amateur psychologist suggest don't walk...RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN...or it could be that the amateur has spent too much time thinking the head he's supposed to hammer isn't the one on the end of the nail but the one protruding from his/her own shoulders...which could explain why that person might think they were qualified to give therapeutic advice, but FYI...you're not. Then I came to this one, which I must admit felt a little closer to an explanation...what do you think...

...talking to aliens? Spend enough time doing that and I'm sure you could convince yourself you were Mahatma Ghandi, Mother Theresa and Sigmund Freud all wrapped into one entity. I guess those alien mind control beams are really something...can't say I know this from first hand experience, but since Google claims this as a verifiable image of an Amateur Psychologist, who am I to buck what I see in black and white...after all proof is in the seeing right?...And yet couldn't it all boil down to someone just wanting to take on the persona of the last Google Image of and Amateur Psychologist?

Just a little devil doing little devil things?

Two Sides To Every Issue

I've been told by someone trying to rationally rip me a new one from the other side that there are more than two sides to every issue. I suppose if you have a geometric object then she could be right...and I suppose, I can admit she IS partially right.... just not the way she expected. This firestorm that my daughter and I have found ourselves drawn into should have been a really bad thing...except we have found ourselves getting to know some really spectacular people thanks to it's flames flashing out willy-nilly into some of the strangest places from the other side.

There are people we might not have gotten to know had a certain publisher with an irrational temper not lost it on September 1, 2010 in one of her own loops that we don't bother with. Even some of their wonderful mothers. Rose you're a delight and your new grandbaby a July 4th treat. So for that, thank you other side.

I have a very dear friend who is a best selling author...you know...from the really BIG list...the one that gets written about in the New York Times...and gets movie deals and, you know makes the real waves...and real controversy because he writes from his heart after tons and tons of brain frying research about things that stir up people in places of all kinds of power...(I'm reading his new book...a blockbuster.) I asked him about why he chooses to write about topics that set off such firestorms...and he said..."if I don't do what in right inside my heart, what good is anything?"

And you know what? He's right. His topics take on the big powers, and he takes them on unafraid because he has the courage of his conviction. Can I do less simply because I am just starting up that literay totem pole?

So, let me ask any and all...

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET AN "F" RATING FROM THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU?

And why would a company encourage receiving such a rating by failing to do one simple thing...respond to a request for information? That's all that was needed by this publisher? Doesn't seem like a lot, does it?

It's a mystery to me, yet that is exactly what happened when the publisher my daughter was recently, and lamentably with, was served with notice by the BBB that a complaint had been filed against them for Contract Dispute.

Let me backtrack.

I was primarily motivated to go a digging by someone who commented on the DEAR AUTHOR posting concerning the firestorm about the internal implosion that seems to be swirling within this publisher's company on September 2, 2010. It's really easy to check these things out now-a-days thanks to the Internet, and anyone can do it.

"AMUSED" claims legal knowledge as may or may not be the case, and suggested that the likes of Piers Anthony, a rather well respected voice in today's literary world, and rightly so, may not be omniscient in his evaluation and/or rating of my daughter's former publisher. Having a dual Bachelors degree in Psychology/Sociology, I can certainly agree with the supposition that human beings, being the creatures powered by emotions that we are, such a conclusion could well be valid.

That said, however, and having an analytical mind...just ask ALL my professors...I decided to see if the Better Business Bureau, (BBB) had anything on my daughter's histrionic former publisher. Having spent two years living just outside the Beltway, and interacting with many honorable people that genuinely make every effort throughout the course of their investigations to be impartial, and balanced implements of justice, I figured the BBB would not be influenced by the histrionics's of either publisher, author, editor, or cover artist. After all, the BBB has a long standing history of investigating complaints...some genuine...some nothing more than disgruntled tit-for-tat nonsense filings.

Into the BBB site I go.

All I had to do...and this is so incredible...was type my daughter's former publisher's PHONE NUMBER and low and behold, like Moses parting the Red Sea for the escaping Israelites, and there it was, a definitive "F" grade.

Whatever was BBB's reasoning?

Naturally I wanted to know more, and since I didn't stop during my college years at just an AA, AS and a BA, you've GOT to know I'm in love with seeking knowledge, I scrolled down

The "F" was awarded because the Publisher failed to respond to notice of a complaint that was filed for CONTRACT DISPUTE.

The PUBLISHER CHOSE not to respond and earned her very own "F". Uhm...may I just ask an obvious question WHY? My Dad would've said that was like taking a gun and shooting yourself in the foot, and Dad was a business owner...successful, so he'd know...or "Cutting your nose off to spite your face." Not a pretty metaphor, but accurate.

Back on theme...To "AMUSED" Piers Anthony, Predators and Editors, Writer Beware, AND BBB, are they ALL wrong, especially since the last one's negative is by the choice of my daughter's former publisher? Coincidence that all of them give this Publisher negative reviews?

You the general public be the judge.

Like my best selling friend, I am only following what I feel in my heart is right, and going where the research takes me, also where any one of those of you reading this posting can go and find the very same information.

Firestorm? Yes. Truth? 100% Coincidence? Seems doubtful.

Contracts and what they mean

There has been some speculations...don't you just love how I can throw that word in here since it is the general theme of my blog...that I have done my daughter a disservice by stepping in and taking her health issues seriously enough to execute my Power Of Attorney over her Medical and Social Security Allotment issues during recent firestorms.

Contracts are SUPPOSED to be the foundation of the relationship between the publisher and author, the publisher and editor, the publisher and cover artist, publisher and distributor, etc., etc., etc....yet there are publishers who do not follow the letter of their own contracts but expect every one else to.

I believe STRONGLY in the limits and powers defined in contracts. I used to work in the wire transfer branch of a major bank at one point in my life; adhering to the letter of the monetary contracts, right down to the fine print, was the difference between keeping companies like Campbell Soup and Ocean Spray, among others, content with having our bank as their financial representatives or not.

On February 24, 2003 I was issued Limited Power of Attorney over my daughter's medical and Social Security Allotments. I am bound UNDER the law, TO step in, and I am monitored to make certain I do so. Had I NOT executed my POA, I would have been in contempt of a binding LEGAL contract and subject to prosecution and potential imprisonment. I have been bound by the POA longer than any publishing contract executed in either August or December 2009.

However, at no time was that my concern. My concern has been, and always will be what is in my daughter's best interest...but, to those who open their mouths and speak of things they have no knowledge of, you are spreading an ignorance, that could cost someone else in the future their lives, or their freedom. Most irresponsible. Some of us HAVE no choice about being responsible, but the rest of you should at least make sure your information is valid before you put it out there and risk misguiding someone else. Ignorance should NOT be perpetuated because you didn't take the time to verify what you decide to put out in such a public forum.

What's in a Contract?

How important is it for a publisher to make sure they put the ACCURATE information in the contracts they have between themselves and the Author?...Given what is below, for Red Rose Publishing...not very.

This is the ONLY contract Kat Holmes has EVER received from Red Rose Publishing for her Gods At Work Series. Please note this is for WORKING UNDER COVERS…even though Ms’ Felter sent it as WORKING UNDER COVER…and I, Lin Holmes write as L.J. Holmes, have NEVER written for Red Rose Publishing and have NEVER written under my daughter KATHRYN RYDBOM’S pen name KAT HOLMES. Also nowhere does it mention Book two in the series HEART OF THE QUEEN, and the ROFR does NOT give an auto contract to Red Rose Publishing and Ms. Felter despite what she told both Kat Holmes and Kat's editor Ms. RO when they questioned the rush to edits for a non-contracted manuscript.



This is from the actual e-mail sent to Kat Holmes from Ms. Felter with the following listed attachments. This e-mail and all the attachments are available to back up what is reproduced here.


• AuthorInfo-Sheet.rtf
• CA form.rtf
• KatHolmes_Working Under Cover_NewContract.rtf

--- On Sat, 12/5/09, Red Rose Publishing Submissions wrote:

From: Red Rose Publishing Submissions
Subject: Your contract for Working Under Cover
To: mykitty130@yahoo.com
Date: Saturday, December 5, 2009, 12:10 PM
Here you go.

SOrry about that

Take care and have a great day!

Wendi
Sincerely,
Red Rose Publishing Staff








12065 Woodhull Rd.
Forestport, NY 13338
Phone: 315-392-5590

This contract is entered into in good faith and signatures from all parties named herein indicate acceptance and agreement to the terms described herein. This contract shall be considered legal and binding in all countries. If there should be any legal dispute, the laws of the state of New York shall apply.

This publishing agreement is entered into and effective on the date signed by both parties, initialized between _Linda Holmes_ writing as __Kat Holmes herein called Author, and Red Rose™ Publishing herein called the Publisher, _Working Under Cover__herein called Work.

X. Ownership of Characters

A. Except as allowed under the sections of this agreement governing promotion of the Work, Author owns the characters and controls their use in sequels or series books, whether published by Publisher or another publisher. Publisher will have a non-exclusive right to use the title and all material, including characters in the Work, for the purpose of advertising, publishing and promoting the Work.

B. [ X ] (check if applicable) If the Author writes another Work that is a sequel to the Work covered in this agreement, using an identical theme and/or major characters from the contracted Work, Publisher retains a right of first refusal for the subsequent Work. If Publisher does not accept for publication this additional Work, the Author will be free to market rights for the new work without encumbrance.


XII. If Publisher Suspends Operations, Sales

A. If the Publisher suspends operations, other than a temporary suspension for technical difficulties, such as a loss of web server, all rights delineated in Section I shall immediately revert to the Author. If the Publisher's operations are ordered suspended by any governmental or police entity, or by Injunction or Restraining Order, all rights shall immediately revert to the Author. If the suspension is lifted and operations resume, Author and Publisher may agree in writing to continue this agreement under the same or revised terms.


Signed:
AUTHOR __ ____________________________ Date:__________
Print Name ___________
Pseudonym (if applicable) ____________
Address _______________
City, State, Postal Code, Country: _______________
Daytime telephone number:_____________
Evening telephone number :____________
Email address: ______________________
Social Security Number or Tax identification number _____________

PUBLISHER or Assigned: Wendi R. Felter
Date: December 5th, 2009
Red Rose™ Publishing
12065 Woodhull Rd
Forestport, NY 13338
315-392-5590

PARADE OF PRIDE FOR AUTHOR KAT HOLMES

Kat Holmes; author; this is YOUR Parade of Pride. Congratulations on your talent. It will rocket you to the stars and beyond.

Your Most Recently Released Cover, created by award winning Muse Publishing Cover Art Goddess Delilah K. Stephans is a fantastic teaser. How many can see the Artica Lights? Yes, you do see Awni, the Queen of Artica, but can you see the lights? And just how cold do you really think the Queen of the land of constant Winter is? Frozen Book One in Your new Artica Lights Series is due for release from Muse It Hot Publishing April 1, 2011.
Delilah K. Stephans, is going to win so many awards in the months and years to come, and this is yet another example of why. This cover is for Kat's very first contracted book with Muse it Hot Publishing, The Lighthouse, due out on January 1, 2011. A ghost, a lighthouse, and a beautiful young woman...oh Kat you have given us a spine tingling suspense, filled with romance and intrigue, and Delilah has captured every element, as usual, on your cover. KUDOS.

You have an amazing PARADE OF PRIDE Kat for someone whose first book was only JUST published on March 18, 2010.  (Three more covers unavailable due to contractural issues with former publisher can no longer be included in Kat's Parade of Pride.)Your talent will shine when your New Publisher MUSE IT HOT PUBLISHING releases THE LIGHTHOUSE, January 1, 2011 and FROZEN, the first in your Artica Lights Series, April 1st...and can I let your fans in on a secret? Please? Kat is working on ANOTHER series as we speak, and OH MY GOD! It is SOOOOO Good! Check Back because her Parade of Pride is only going to grow.
Well Done, Kat!

NDA's and Google

Today I am giving into my secret habit...which probably isn't all that much of a secret...at least isn't much of a secret if any one has bothered to check into my blogs PRE-author's contract back on March 29, 2010. Back before then I used to come into my LinsOwnBlog from time-to-time and Mouth Off on a semi-regular basis...but I realize I have not done much of that in a long time...okay, perhaps a LOONNNNGGG time is a BIT of an exaggeration, but it has been longer than ten minutes...and for me, that is downright good.

So let the mouthing off begin...I decided since most of the symbolic pics I found for my topic come in twos, I should honor my verbosity with two icons to my mouthing -offery too. (Yes I KNOW I know that is NOT really a word, but this is MY blog, and MY mouthing off, so I am going to take some license here when it feels right, and that just feels right.) Above is my typical, well known symbol of "Mouthing Off". I have been using him for about two years now and find him very likable and descriptive, don't you?

Now this guy, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, this MOUTH, is wider and has more teeth, since my boy overhead doesn't seem to have any, and I thought this topic needed to be able to get some teeth chomping into it...as you will see momentarily, it was an excellant addition...And that brings me to the topic.

NDA's. I decided to do a GOOGLE search on the topic since some publishers, for reasons I have yet to fathom, have their authors sign NDAs. We'll get to that shortly. First, since I am an excellent researcher, I wanted to see what would pop up if I did a GOOGLE search if I typed in those three letters into the GOOGLE Search Engine. let's start with that. Would you believe there is a government agency with the alphabet soup acronym of NDA?

Yep, and it's the National Defense Academy. I'm not really sure what their function is, since I was only interested in their acronym, but looking at this picture, what do you think their function might be?

Does this help? Hey, it's a year younger than me! That means, depending on what month of the year it came into being, it is either fifty-seven years young, or a creaking fifty-eight. Either way, as an NDA, I don't think it would do much for the publishing world as it relates to authors...but then who knows what percolates in the minds of some publishers. Moving on...

...welcome to the National Data Agency of the United States of America, another NDA that rose to the top in my Google Search. Another OFFICIAL government entity with the same NDA acronym. Hmmmm, I'm beginning to see a theme here, and it looks pretty serious...don't you think?

OOOPS! Spoke too soon. Welcome to the National Dart Association, also known as NDA. Boy, this acronym DOES get around. So professional darters are NDA'ers. Does that mean some publishers want their authors to take up dart tossing? Could be an intriguing way of getting past writer's block, I suppose.

Might be even more fun though to take it up in NASSAU. I mean if I am going to get into darts, at least let me take it up where I get to play in a tropic land and drink Mai Tai's made by brawny guys in pirate shirts open to their navels...and NASSAU DARTS ASSOCATION does keep the NDA them alive and me heart-a-kicking, Matey.

But back to reality, sigh. NDA brought me to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION for DEAF People; (Blame Google because they brought me here...right letters slightly skewed)...again NDA. As a former Special Ed teacher I applaud anyone urging others to learn how to communicate with the deaf...so the publishers having their authors sign NDA's means they want their authors to join the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION for DEAF People...Right? Kudos are in store for them, right?

And they have signed them up at the NATIONAL DEAF ACADEMY...ah...now I get it...to accomplish this right?

They would not require their authors to join the NATIONAL DANCE ALLIANCE...or...

...the National Dance Academy...since not all authors are physically abled, would they?

Even though the idea of joining the National Demolition Association makes me laugh and I almost wish this was the right NDA, I cannot picture the likes of some of today's Best Selling Authors manning the controls on the wrecking ball, demolishing the old to make room for the new. I just don't think there is enough room for all the publishers to sign all their authors up to THIS NDA...unfortunately that brings me to the one I fear is the RIGHT one...the one APPLE tried for it's iPod manufacturing, but had to acknowledge didn't work...and I have to say...if a company as HUGE as Apple couldn't make NDA's work, why would small publishing companies think they could make them work, or that they were good things?

After I finished my research, I decided to test my supposition that this debacle was the true NDA. I did an impromptu survey and sent out a query to several publishers. Tell, me, I queried, your opinion of having your authors sign an NDA. The majority, I am pleased to say, responded that no such elephant was required, but some, sadly, do require this pachyderm.

I went into Predators and Editors and discovered that most of those that do are listed in Predators and Editors as NOT RECOMMENDED or STRONGLY NOT RECOMMENDED. That makes me wonder...WHY NDA, NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENTS are needed.?What trade secrets exist that THESE publishers keep their authors from sharing?

What comes to mind? BEWARE THE SECRETS YOU THE AUTHOR MUST KEEP. THEY ARE NEVER IN YOUR FAVOR!