Webcam video of The Sword Princess.

I decided to do a webcam video of the first half of Chapter One of The Sword Princess: Cathene's Journey for those who were asking for a snippet. It is the only part that I will do even though you don't get to meet the main character - Cathene at all.


Cathene is not your typical everyday young woman. For the last seven years, she has been a slave to the woman who raised her after her father vanished in the middle of the night. Little did she know that the sword she found in her pasture will bring change to her life and to her identity.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mdT6cLvb00

I also did a Q & A of the story itself as well.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgH2MakKyJY

I hope you enjoy both videos concerning my current work in progress. I need to get back to writing so off I go.

Beth

Facebook does nothing to help people who are being harassed.

By another user beyond telling them to block that user. Excuse me? Blocking that user will not help at all. The blocked user will make a new account and use that to continue their harassment of that person.
I have a friend who does artwork and posts them on Facebook. One of her artwork is of a nonsexual nude and it was removed because some jerk was offended or was stalking her waiting for her to post something that they could report. She now has to censor her light nude artwork which makes it look like it is a lot more naked than she originally posted. So people might assume it is far more naked than she intended it to be, they'll report the photo and she won't be able to show Facebook staffers the uncensored version to show how nude it really is because they won't ask to see the uncensored version, they'll go off on the report and delete the photo itself without giving the accused the chance to defend their artwork.
Which really sucks as their reporting methods are not like that of other sites, which allows you to give more information on the report, so they can get into a deeper investigation concerning the report. What they have up is pathetic to say the least. Like they don't really want to do an investigation on the report that they get, they will either come back with this which I tend to get the most of when I report a profile that usually would be of a fake Facebook employee claiming to be their Online Lottery Agent: Thanks for your report - you did the right thing by letting us know about this. After reviewing the profile you reported, we've decided to follow up with the account owner directly. When we think a profile may be fake or pretending to be someone else, we ask them to confirm their identity. If we see something on a profile that goes against the Facebook Community Standards, we will remove it. We appreciate your help in keeping Facebook safe and welcoming for everyone.
You would think that they would remove the fake account since it is making people assume that there is an Online Lottery that Facebook holds but doesn't make it public but a private lottery. But if you are not aware of the scams that are out there, you will be scammed by that as the agent would tell you that you need to pay this amount in fee to get your lottery winnings, you never should pay any money to get your winnings. The first time I did a report like that, the profiles of both people in question were removed. Now after that, Facebook either ignored the fact that the profiles that I report are scammers posing as employees of Facebook. Yes, that is true, they allowed the profiles to remain up and yes, I know that is factual as I go to another account that I have access to, to double check the account of the scammer and they're still up, as the scammer blocks me from seeing their page. Also, if I get any friend requests from military men and they're not who they are as I would ask them questions which would make them state that is the wrong rank for me as that is another branch of the military's rank.
But back to the main topic, Facebook will only tell you to block someone if they're harassing you. They will not remove the harasser from Facebook, even if you reported them over and over again. They also make it very hard to give more information on the harasser, by not giving you a box that allows you to give more information concerning the report.
Facebook is good at some things but not so in other places. Their staffers either don't want to really investigate a report, they'll send a canned letter in response and not do a thing about it. Even if it is two kids hanging by their necks from a rope, they will not remove the person who posted the original photo or remove the photo itself. Claims it is not in violation of our Community Standards. Excuse me? Two children being shown hung like meat is not in violation of your Community Standards is unbelievable stupid! Any website that has a report button on users' page and they get a report about that user, they have a box for additional information to give the staffers, but not Facebook, they act like the weak report of what is given is enough to deal with it. If you really want a good re pore with your customers or members, you need to be able to give a good, in-depth report on a rule violator, to assist the staff with the report as they might not need to do much in researching the rule violator as the reporting person has given them enough information to look up and find the information needed to either remove the violator for the rule violation if it is one too many or let them remain but mainly inform them not to violate another rule or find themselves suspended from the site for a week or two. But Facebook doesn't do anything on harassers, just telling the one who is being harassed to block the person. Harassers being blocked like that will not just go away, they'll create another handle to return to continue with their harassment of the person. One day, Facebook will be faced with a lawsuit from people who are being harassed by other people and they've been informed about the harassment only to be told to block the person and yet it continues and Facebook does squat about it, even after being informed about it.
It will happen one day and when it does, Facebook will have to have a better way of handling reports from people who are being harassed by fellow Facebook members.

Jem and The Holograms Live Action Movie review.

I will state this, right off the bat. I am a big fan of the cartoon Jem and The Holograms that was on the air from 1985 to 1988. The cartoon starred a young adult by the name of Jerrica Benton, her sister Kimber, their adopted sisters Aja and Shana, who run Starlight House for orphan girls, which gets help from Starlight Music till Jerrica and Kimber's dad Emmett suddenly dies and his co-partner of the Starlight Music Eric Raymond took over the music company that Emmett got for his wife Jacqui, who was a talented singer who ended up dying in a plane crash before her husband Emmett died. Jerrica becomes Jem via a hologram done by a computer that her father Emmett created and from there, 'Jem' helps get Starlight Music under Jerrica's full control after ousting Eric Raymond from the company.

Now the Live Action movie that was done in 2015, Jem and The Hologram. The premise of that movie is a small-town girl Jerrica lives an unexceptional life till a video that she did launches her into a new life which starts to threaten her connection with her sister and foster sisters. Can she overcome it and become a great singer?

The Director Jon M. Cho filtered into this movie which I thought was stupid, videos from other people on YouTube, pulling away from the storyline itself. Even in the middle of one of the songs, you are yanked from the scene to a video from YouTube. Beyond that, the mere fact that he doesn't rewrite the five first episodes which reveals everything from The Misfits to how Jerrica becomes Jem. He basically recreates the origins of Jerrica/Jem and everyone else connected to the original cartoon beyond the names. There isn't any Starlight girls. Even Synergy was changed. Rio was even changed from who he was to being the son of Erica Raymond and not the long time boyfriend of Jerrica and the true owner of Starlight Music. Maybe that is why the whole movie bombed. He diverted from the original and made his own movie or that they used a different script writer than bring the original writers of the cartoon to write the script, they might have made the script 100% better and maybe that would get more fans to come and bring their kids back to another showing of it but the die hard fans of Jem spread the word to make the movie bomb as it didn't go with what everyone wanted to see the original characters on the big screen redoing the beginning of the cartoon series or at least something close to it and no one really wanted to see it with all the other way better movies that was released at that time.

I do believe that the songs that they did for this movie is the only good thing from the movie itself. Some of the make up that they did for the characters was really good like this one. Some of the make up for Jem and the other Holograms was good and something that they would do. I do like that Jem had flatter hair than before in the cartoon series.

The songs that they sing like Youngblood, the way I was, hit me up, I'm still here and We got heart.
Youngblood
The way I was.
Hit Me Up.
We got heart.
I'm still here.

Now, the original songs that came from the cartoon never made it into the live action movie, which would be great to hear them in the movie but I guess Hasbro couldn't let them go or something about copyright concerning them is why they had to do new songs. But out of everything, the songs that they did is the only good thing that came from this Live Action movie version of Jem and The Holograms and the thing is I liked the songs even if they were very original and they did sound like what Jem and The Holograms would sing.
And only in the middle of the ending credits do you finally see the Misfits, which leads you into believing that we might get another movie but sadly, I doubt that will happen as this movie bombed in the theatres and by how it looks it ain't a DVD hit either.

I would recommend reading fanfiction based on Jem and The Holograms cartoon as some of the stories there are better than what we got on the big screen like for example - Jem and The Holograms the real movie. (log in required to read.)
But the reason why the movie failed is because it didn't live up to what everyone wanted to see. We wanted to see Jem/Jerrica, Aja, Kimber, Shana, the Starlight girls, Rio, the Misfits and the rest of the characters, not characters who had their names but wasn't the same.

Anyways, thank you for reading this and tell me what you think.

Losing your mother before Mother's Day.

To those children and adults who have lost their mothers the day before Mother's Day, that is the hardest death you will contend with. No one wants to lose their mothers. Especially not before the day that celebrates our beloved Mothers - the mothers who wiped our tears from our faces when we were sad, shared our joys, our triumphs, our losses. She, our beloved mother never taught us how to cope with losing her.

We were able to cope with the losses of everything else but not her. She who birthed us, never taught us how to live without her. We always depended on her for everything from advice on relationships to helping us raise our children, but she never taught us how to handle losing her.

I lost my mother to cancer on May 12, 2012. I, freely admit, that I am a momma's girl. I loved and adored my mother. I never expected to lose her to cancer the day before Mother's Day. The pain that I felt losing her the day before Mother's Day was overwhelmingly hard. I was among family members on Mother's Day, but I wanted not to be there to celebrate Mother's Day as my mother was no longer there and everyone was smiling and happy, but for me. I was miserable. My heart ached with heartache that no child should ever bare in their lifetime.

Every Hallmark Mother's Day card commercial or seeing a happy scene with a mother of any kind to hearing a song that speaks of loss or love, pains my heart even more as the days, weeks and months and years gone by. I can barely handle listening to Oh Holy Night as that was my mother's favorite Christmas carol. Once, I was able to handle hearing it, but now, I actually had to leave the holiday bag line because of my heartache when I heard Oh Holy Night being played and then the line started to get really fast and I got backed up and started to lose control over my emotions.

I told no one on the line that I was hurting emotionally during that moment, I lied to everyone about my tears that I was crying because of the song, it was mainly because the song is . . . was my mother's favorite Christmas song. But the thing is, every time May 12th comes around, my heartache grows bigger each year as I get older, the more I need my mother by my side and I don't have her because she's gone.

People say you only have one mother. I say, treasure your mother, for one day, she might not be there anymore to give you helpful advice about love, relationships, how to handle your children or just to talk about your day. I wish that I had my mom right now as I have so much to ask of her that I never really was able to ask her before.

But losing your mother the day before Mother's Day, and celebrating that day, is never easy as your heart is crying in pain. No matter how your heart is grieving, as long as you remember the love that your mother gave you will be enough to start the healing process but the ache will remain when the sun rises.

eBook authors are authors too!

An eBook author Elizabeth York had posted a status message on her Facebook page about 18 hours ago, which highlights the need for Amazon to make all eBook purchases nonrefundable.
This is the status message that she posted:
Wow! I am completely speechless. I had seen one of the books purchased were returned and then I noticed more... Didn't think anything of it until I got a email. I don't even know how to reply.
"Ms. York, I wanted to tell you that your books are above par and you should be proud. I was able to read them all, but sadly I returned them all because they range from $0.99 to $2.99 and that is just too much for me to spend on a ebook. Can you please make all your books in the future free so that I do not have to return it?"
Sadly, we do not know who this reader is, so we can call them out on their blatant disrespect for eBook authors and report them to Amazon.com for abusing the return system. But they may state that they were able to refund the money to the buyer as they were unhappy with their purchase. Excuse me, Amazon.com, but don't you have a non refundable policy on applications like computer systems and the stuff like that? And yet, you don't have it for the eBooks that you sell on your site?
It is time for Amazon.com to start closing that refund length for eBooks from 7 days to 1 day since it would make the 'reader' really intended on buying the eBook. Seven days is way too long and it leads to abuse which people are doing and the authors are getting shafted by it.
Amazon has their frequent returner algorithm to prevent pirates from stealing books but they tend to overlook that if you put a time limit of being able to return the eBooks, the readers will have to decide if they want to keep the book or return it. But they would have known what the eBook is about by the preview chapter, they have no real reason not to keep the eBook.
The price that Elizabeth York priced her eBooks at is really good and fair price for an eBook.
The readers must understand that we, authors, may make writing look easy but the thing is, it can take years for a single book to be finished or as long as a month or two to be done. We work hard at writing and then there is the process of editing and finding the perfect cover and fonts for our books and then figure which format to put our books into - hard cover, soft cover, eBook format or audio format and then, we chose the price of either $0.99 to $19.99 for hard cover books.
Please do not treat us, eBook Authors, as we're not worth the money you spend on buying our books and tell us to give you our books free of charge, would you like to go to your job and your boss tell you to work overtime for the next two weeks and at the end of those two weeks and you look at your paycheck to find nothing in there, that is what you do to the authors when you return a book, we don't get a paycheck for our hard work. Every book you buy from us, a child is getting her school supplies bought for the new school year or keeping food on the table or the lights and the roof over their heads. So please think about where the money will be going towards before you think to return the eBook.
If you support authors of any style of book formats from soft cover, hard cover, audio books and eBooks, please sign this petition to help close the refund gap at Amazon.com - Stop the return thefts of eBooks.

Where is the child physiologist, who claimed it was hurtful?

To smack or punish your child is at now?

Where is this child physiologist, who proclaimed on TV the dangers of damaging your child's ego by spanking them and is he or she happy with the end result of his or her smackdown on punishing your child when they misbehave?

I bet that person has changed their tune to promoting spanks and punishing children when they misbehave as that person caused the era of non punished, misbehaving children, who now, in their young adult years feel entitled to get whatever they want because they were not taught how to respect their elders.

And it is all this child physiologist's fault for promoting the era of not wanting to spank or punish your child for misbehaving because it could damage their egos! Well, fuck you asshole! You just created an era of young adults who has no respect for anyone because they were not taught how to behave in public cause you claimed it hurt their egos if they were punished or smacked!



That is so very much true, the lack of punishing the children has led to a generation of young adults who think if they cry or whine long enough, they will get what they want from people, give me everything that I want for free. I expect that once they become parents themselves and their children start misbehaving like they did growing up. I can see them doing what their parents didn't do with them - punish their child when they do bad or misbehave, so they know how to be a respectable young adult when they get older and not someone like them.

Hopefully, that will happen with the next generation of children.
But that child physiologist, probably doesn't even really believe that their comments back in the 90's had created this generation of I want this or I cry entitled young adults at all. Unfortunately, he or she did.

Holiday becomes a thieves' joy.

A friend of mine posted on facebook a post about two strange things happened to him at his mother's house. A man wearing an Army jacket who looked creepy, no teeth and had a look of being freshly out of Meth look sneaking around his mother's car and a nice looking lady showing up at the door.
The first one acted surprised by my friend appearing swiftly at his mother's running car and asked, "Is this where TT and Bones live?"
My friend told him no. The guy left the drive way and went down the street. He turned off the car as he was getting the frost off the windows.
No more than a few hours later, a nice looking lady shows up at the door and asks, "Is this Emily's house?"
My friend said no and the lady walked away.
He thinks nothing odd about the two strange visits he got this day.
I told him to call the cops and give them the descriptions of both people. They're looking for easy targets to rob.
He thinks that the lady was legitimate, but he's not 100% sure. He thinks he should on the guy but neither of them did anything wrong.
I told him take it from a former caser (I was just like that woman would go up to houses asking if Sally was there and when the lady or man of the house would say no, even though how brief a look I got inside the house or around the house, I would mark the house a yes perfect to rob or no skip it), they were casing your mom's place and who knows they might have decided that your mom's place is a perfect place to rob. Call them even with the holiday season, people are looking for easy targets like your mom's house.
Be on the safe side, and call the cops and report it. Go ask your mom's neighbors if they got approached by someone asking if this was so and so's house or approached their vehicle. If they all say yes, tell them all to report suspicious activity done by these two people. Who knows, you might be able to get them to catch these two before they break in and rob someone of their valuables or their own lives in their homes.

Needless to state, my friend did neither.

But the facts are clear, the guy wearing the Army jacket was going to probably steal my friend's mother's car, which my friend prevented by running out when he did, the woman coming to the door, well, my friend is not sure if she was casing his mother's home or not, so he thinks nothing odd about that.

With the holidays fast approaching in another 19 days, thieves are casing people's homes to see which one is ripe for the harvest of their belongings and if the homeowner is there, the homeowner might be killed during the robbery. Whenever someone approaches your home and you don't know them and you see them coming. Go out immediately but look like you're heading out with your cell phone out, don't wait till they come to the door to answer it. Approaching them and without alerting them to anything wrong, try to snap pictures of the person. They may ask if this house belongs to Emily or someone else and when you say no, they would turn and walk away. Follow them to the street and if they get into a vehicle, snap pictures of the vehicle too. Go back inside and use your landline to call the police to report someone strange visiting your home and you fear it may be a person casing your home to rob from it.
Go to your neighbors and ask them if they saw anyone come to their door asking if this was so and so's home and when the homeowner says no, the person walks away. Tell them to call the police and report it to them as the person is possibly casing the neighborhood seeking an easy house to break in and rob.
Also, when you take out your trash after Christmas, leave the big ticket items in your garage and wait till the trash man to come if possible and take it out to them personally, so the thieves don't write down your address as having a new big screen TV or some big ticket item that they would want to steal.
Be aware of strangers showing up at your door around the Holidays.
Keep safe.