And had a full draft in two months

When I finally decided to tackle a new book project and a new genre, I knew I had to find a strategy that get me started and force me to dive in deep.

What helped was signing up for the ever popular, as National Novel Writing Month for November or as it’s known as NaNoWriMo, where the goal is to write 50,000 words for the month of November. …

Gun shots rang out around 6pm in Kruger National Park in South Africa.

Knowing it came from poachers, the park rangers tried to follow the sound, but in an area about 19,485 square kilometers (7,523 sq. mi) and extends 360 kilometers (220 mi) from north to south and 65 kilometers (40 mi) from east to west, tracking was difficult. The Rangers thought they had located the sound, but after losing track, the rangers called on Air Shepherd to launch drones to try and spot the poachers.

Air Shepherd was created out of a partnership with UAV&Drone Solutions and the Lindbergh…

San Francisco Literary Scene: “A place of escape, refuge, and salvation from the rest of America”

“It’s the dream city at the edge of the continent, an exotic jumble of cultures, a fogbound oasis offering freedom and escape for people hoping to shed the past and begin anew.” San Francisco Chronicle THE LITERARY SCENE / San Francisco, Writers’ Heaven April 14, 1996.

· Writers come to San Francisco in part because of the romance of the City by the Bay, or as the famed San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen dubbed it, “Baghdad by the Bay.”

· Writers come for…

There has been much hand wringing these past several years about finding unbiased news sources. Trying to find that kind of reporting is available. You just have to know where to look, which is why I’m providing this list.

In addition to the big newspapers, there are many other sources to find excellent, well researched stories.

Bias alert here: While I was actively working at news agencies, I did not observe my colleagues slanting a story to suit their bias. In fact, more than once, during an investigation, there were surprises we did not expect while in working a story…

Regina, my mother’s mother, was not very nice. I have no warm, fuzzy memories of her. In fact, she was just downright mean. Regina was 5’ 2“ with dark brown hair and deep blue eyes. She was the second eldest daughter, one of eight siblings.

She would say bad things to me about my father and accuse him of forcing my mother to work. My mother’s two sisters married well, as they say. My Mom married for love and while my father wasn’t wealthy, he was the most loving father anyone could have. …

The Declaration of Independence of the United States was ratified on July 4, 1776. It begins with this phrase: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

Many of the men who signed that statement were themselves slave owners. This contradiction between actuality and aspirations may be ascribed to hypocrisy, to a societally ingrained belief that dark-skinned Africans were less human, or to a simple reflection of the reality of that era. …

Have you ever wanted to search for something but didn’t want anyone to know?

You don’t have to answer that.

Are you curious about people and places, but sometimes want to keep your search secret? Whether you are just randomly doing research on a topic, you are a journalist or just curious, there are options you can use to keep your search query from inquiring eyes.

If you are just doing an aimless search, want to find something on the Deep Web or are seriously checking out a dirty secret, there are options you can use to keep your “address”…

For years, the term “multitasking” was the thing to do. Do more than one job at a time, and do them all very well.

That’s what the experts told us and how we would get ahead.

Experts define it this way:

· Performing two or more tasks simultaneously

· Switching back and forth from one thing to another

· Performing a number of tasks in rapid succession

Those who could perform multiple projects at the same time were considered superior compared to those who had to focus on only one task at a time.

Science measured the quality of the…