An Attitude of Gratitude!

 

By: Marcia King-Gamble

www.lovemarcia.com

I manifest abundance by being grateful for what I already have

MJ Brown

 When I hear the word abundance I think of excess. Excessive spending, more food than one could possibly eat, gifts that I don’t want and possibly wouldn’t use. Literally, it means to have much more than you need. Yet holidays are associated with that A word. No wonder so many dread them.

It's the over the top expectations.

Imagine that poor mother with four kids working a minimum wage job. Imagine the expectation as the holidays approach and the disappointment on those four faces when mom provides only what she can afford. Imagine how that mom feels.

I love holidays but somewhere along the way holidays  went on steroids and galloped way out of control. They've become costly and have lost their true meaning.  There are many ways to celebrate holidays that do not include debt and excessive shows of opulence, Is it that important to keep up with the neighbors and their elaborate  lawn decorations?

Shouldn’t Holidays be about giving grateful thanks and appreciating making it through another year?  Yes, I know, I’m beginning to sound like the grinch that stole the holidays.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a nicely decorated table and a well-prepared meal, but do we need four entrees, especially if all of those entrees aren’t eaten and a good portion makes the trash? Do we need five desserts that everyone takes a bite of but never finish?

At Christmas, do we need more than one gift? Could the money be better spent feeding the poor? Could we not give back by working in a soup kitchen, visiting an orphanage, donating food or clothing to the homeless, adopting a poor family or teaching an underprivileged child how to read?

Is it possible to spread the abundance of good cheer and seasonal generosity over the year? Maybe if we cut back a bit on being over the top, we could replace the material things with kindly actions. Maybe this abundance of loving actions can take the place of material things.

As the year draws to a close, maybe we should rethink how we do abundance and make it more about acts of service and about giving from the heart.

My Holiday novella, Kwanzaa ‘Pon a Time  is all about forgiveness, It's available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  I hope you enjoy it. 

https://amzn.to/3BSRGsC

Happy Thanksgiving all!

About Marcia King-Gamble

USA Bestselling romance writer, Marcia King-Gamble originally hails from a sunny Caribbean island where the sky and ocean are the same mesmerizing shade of blue. This former travel industry executive has spent most of life in the United States. A National Bestselling author, Marcia has penned over 34 books and 8 novellas. She has contributed to Michael Fiore’s DigitalRomanceInc and served as a moderator on the now defunct eHarmony advice boards.  Having witnessed the bad, the ugly, and the not so good in relationships, she still prefers to write about happily ever after. Caring for her animal family keeps her grounded and sane.

Visit Marcia at www.lovemarcia.com or “friend” her on Facebook: http://bit.ly/1MlnrIS

Be sure to join her newsletter mailing list.

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Charity Can Find a Home in Fiction

By Courtney Pierce

One of my goals in life is to create a charitable trust that supports what is personally important to me―funded through book sales. We all want a legacy, and while my books will live on after I’m gone, there’s more I can do to maximize their impact on the world. Authors are in a unique position to communicate their personal wants and wishes by infusing their stories with an inspiration to help others. Like-minded readers will connect and spread the word. Plus, benevolence feels good.

In my books, charity takes shape in the humorous way my characters react to problems. They do the right thing for the wrong reasons, or they’ll do the wrong thing for the right reasons. Their choices create tension and moral dilemmas that force characters to push their limits. The result sparks a predicament. In the first book of my current trilogy, The Executrix, about three middle-age sisters, my characters sneak a standard poodle into a hospital by disguising it as a therapy dog. Of course, the nurses believe the ruse and send the dog on patient rounds. Humorous and poignant chaos ensues. Over three books, the importance of therapy dogs and their service becomes a major subplot, a touchpoint of emotion for my characters. Animals show what they can’t voice.

The addition of a benevolent plot device or personality trait promotes empathy for flawed characters. Even villains fall flat without a redeeming quality. When a fleeing bank robber stops to throw change into a homeless man’s collection cup, readers will see a new dimension to the character. He or she becomes 3-D and real. Readers make an emotional investment to see what happens next.

And then there’s using a charity plot device as a marketing strategy in the process of selling books. This is where I aim to go in my writing. Supporting a cause, either through a direct donation or cooperative marketing arrangement, provides a targeted strategy for promotion, event creation, and publicity. Now I’m cooking with gas.

Heightening awareness of our books in a crowded marketplace is the most challenging step for an author. In the creation phase the words flow freely, but once finished we must climb out the storm cellar to rebuild the barn. Even with a framework of social media, bookstores, and online distribution outlets in place, positioning a new work is difficult without an emotional connection. If the themes in my books can resonate with a specific community, I’m able to raise the stakes.

The writing mantra of “show, don’t tell” can apply to sending the message of charity. My strategy is to show generosity in my characters and incorporate a charitable angle into my plots. Fiction just might turn into something real.

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Milwaukie, Oregon. She writes for baby boomers. Her novels are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. Courtney has studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, Courtney is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, She Writes, and Sisters in Crime. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal. 

Check out all of Courtney's books at:

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com

The Dushane Sisters are back with Courtney's latest release of Indigo Lake. More laughs, more tears...and more trouble. Protecting Mom's reputation might get the sisters killed―or give one of them the story she's been dying to live.

New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."

Colorful characters come alive in Courtney's latest trilogy about the Dushane sisters. Beginning with The Executrix, three middle-age sisters find a manuscript for a murder mystery in their mother's safe after her death. Mom’s book gives them a whole new view of their mother and their future. Is it fiction . . . or truth? 

Get out the popcorn as the Dushane Sisters Trilogy comes to scrumptious conclusion with Indigo Legacy. Due out in early 2017. Stay tuned!

The Surprising Perks of Being a Doormat

By Robin Weaver

Your critique partner asks for a “quick edit,” of her manuscript even when she knows you’re packing for a class reunion; a mechanic gives you an estimate you know is two-times higher than he’d charge any man; your first-born expects you to drop everything and just listen, then cancels on your celebratory lunch at the last minute; a friend makes a snarky remark about the “girls’ day” you spent hours planning… BTW, these are just examples and none of these things happened to me. I’d never list the actual things that prompted this blog because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Geez, guess I really am a doormat.

Even so, as women, and writers, it seems everyone wants a piece of us. All the time! We give, and give some more, then, when we need something—and usually it’s something really small—the entire world seems to disappear. Is it any wonder we feel like doormats?

Which prompted me to (what else?) google doormats. During this research I happened upon the book Give and Take, by Adam Grant. According to Mr. Grant people differ in their preferences for reciprocity and he places people into three categories: givers, takers and matchers.

The definition of givers and takers is pretty obvious, but to recap, Adam Grant says “takers are people who, when they walk into an interaction with another person, are trying to get as much as possible from that person and contribute as little as they can in return.”

Givers are at the other end of the spectrum and according to Grant, “It’s not about donating money or volunteering necessarily, but looking to help others by making an introduction, giving advice, providing mentoring or sharing knowledge, without any strings attached. These givers actually prefer to be on the contributing end of an interaction.”

As with good and evil, most of us are not always givers nor are we complete takers. For example, by whining about being a doormat, I become less giving and more taking. Thus individuals are a mix, but most people are predominantly one or the other.

There are, however, people who strive to be fifty percent giver and fifty percent taker. Grant defines this group as the matchers. To quote the Give and Take  author, “A matcher is somebody who tries to maintain an even balance of give and take. If I help you, I expect you to help me in return. [They] keep score of exchanges, so that everything is fair and really just.”

You are saying, “All right, already. What does any of this have to do with doormats?” And I did promise you a perk, didn’t I?

IMHO, both givers and takers can feel like doormats, and justifiably so. Sometimes, it seems the entire world is absorbed in a big ole pool of self-interest. Doesn’t it seem like the takers get more and more while the rest of us get…well, stepped on?

Not necessarily. Adam Grant’s research yielded some surprising results. When he analyzed a wide range of industries, he found the three styles exist everywhere. As you might expect, the givers are overrepresented at the bottom of most “success” chains. Putting other people first, they often put themselves at risk for burning out or being exploited by takers.*

“Well, duh,” you’re saying. “That no perk.”

And you’d be correct. But there is surprising good news. According to Grant: “Givers are overrepresented at the top as well as the bottom of most success metrics.”

 

So if you’re (mostly) a giver (aka doormat), take heart. The law of averages indicate that if you don’t burn out, you'll get the success you deserve.  So, keep helping other authors with craft, keep critiquing, continue to judge those contests, but mostly, keep feeling good about your generosity.

For the rest of you, get with the program. 

*A quote by Adam Grant