I Will Be at Science Fiction Yard Sale Saturday, May 25th in Virginia Beach, Virginia

I will be selling and signing copies of my books written by me  both as Pamela K. Kinney and my pseudonym, Sapphire Phelan Saturday May 25, 2013, at the  Science Fiction Yard Sale, 4844 Linshaw Lane Virginia Beach, Virginia. It is FREE to the public--from 9:00 a.m to 3:00 p.m. For more information: 757-499-2359. (Rain-date is June 1st, but if that happens, I will not be at this). I will also be selling used books and other yard sale stuff, besides my own books. My books regular price--yard sale stuff yard sale prices. 

 

Supernatural Friday: It's a Bird, a Plane, No, It's a. . .UFO?

UFOs—the term UFO meaning unidentified flying object–refers to a suspected alien spacecraft. Though the definition can be name for any unexplained aerial phenomena. UFO sightings have been reported throughout recorded history and in various parts of the world. This has raised questions about life on other planets, and about whether extraterrestrials have visited Earth. A major subject of interest, they have become the inspiration behind numerous films and books–following the development of rocketry after World War II. 



Though it is said since the 1940s there have been sightings, some documented, some not, there is no doubt that since man first walked the earth such objects have been seen in the skies. There have been suspicions that some text in the Bible and many mythologies could be referring to UFOs or even alien contact. The modern history of UFOs, though, perhaps begins in 1947 with an Idaho businessman and pilot named Kenneth Arnold. As he flew near Mount Rainier in the state of Washington, Arnold spotted a formation of nine silvery crescent-shaped objects flying in tight formation. Later on, he figured that they were forty to fifty feet wide, with their speed hitting at a fantastic 1,200 miles per hour, more than twice as fast as any known aircraft of that time. He described the movements to a reporter as "like pie plates skipping over the water." The reporter coined the term "flying saucers" the next day, and the label stuck.

After that, UFO sightings in our skies exploded. On June 26, four witnesses saw a "huge silver globe" moving along the rim of the Grand Canyon. Not long after that, about two days, an Air Force pilot reported a sighting of six discs over Lake Meade, Nevada. Reports came rushing in from places like Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, Louisiana, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island in far-north Canada. rom 1952 on, UFO sightings piled up for months. Most came from airline and military pilots. An Air Force report declassified in 1985 describes radar sightings involving up to twelve unidentified "targets" at a time near Washington National Airport. At a large peacetime press conference, the Air Force attributed the radar activity to "temperature inversions,” but local meteorologists said it was not. What do you think? 

The most infamous story has to do with Roswell, New Mexico, and the crash landing of one of these UFOs. On July 2, 1947, a farmer, Mac Brazel, heard a loud crash during a thunderstorm. The next day, when he was out riding with his neighbors to check on his sheep, he found debris scattered in the field. The debris on the field mostly consisted of I-beams and parchment-like, paper-thin pieces of metal material. The material was very light in weight, colored dull gray, and most of the pieces were six to seven inches in length. Some pieces that were even thinner than paper could not be broken in half, cut, or burned. Mac picked up several pieces of the stuff and went back to his ranch. 

The next day, he reported it to the local sheriff, who in turn, contacted Roswell Army Air Field. Not long after, Major Jesse Marcel and others from the 509^th Bomb group arrived and went to the field with Brazel. Marcel gathered up some of the debris, even stopping at his home on the way to the base, to drop some pieces off.  On July 8, 1947, a press release went out that the wreckage of a crashed disk had been recovered. This was issued by the Commander of the 509th Bomb Group at Roswell, Colonel William Blanchard. At 11:00 a.m. Walter Haut, public relations officer, finished the press release he'd been ordered to write, and gave copies of the release to the two radio stations and both of the newspapers. By 2:26 p.m., the story was announced on the AP Wire: "The Army Air Forces here today announced a flying disk had been found." Calls began to pour into the base from all over the world. It was not long after that began happening that the flying saucer turned into a balloon. That is when details became murky. 

Supposedly, the air base is sealed off, Brazel got taken into custody, and military police close some roads. The same day, it is said that a second crash site was discovered two and half miles southeast of the first. Barney Barnett and 4 archaeologists had stumbled onto the new site only a few minutes before the military got there. At the site they pretended they had found a "pretty good sized metallic dull gray object" and four small alien bodies. The bodies were about four to five feet tall, had large pear shaped heads, small bodies, and skinny arms and legs. They had two large eyes, no ears and no hair, with leathery, pinkish-gray skin. The aliens wore one-piece grey suits. The civilians were escorted out of the area and MPs carried loaded wreckage onto a C-54 from the First Transport Unit. Then it was taken back to base. It was after that that the now famous photo of Marcel with the weather balloon came to light and the story of his discovery not being a spacecraft was told. There have been books written about this and a senator even had the case reopened for investigation. 

For years, there have been the Air Force Project Blue Book, crop circles, close encounter stories, alien abductions and more, all starting from the first sighting of a flying saucer.  Due to the Condon Report (named for Edward U. Condon, the physicist who headed the investigation), Project Blue Book was dismantled in 1969. You can read more on it in a physicist's article at "Dr. Thornton's Review

of the "Condon Report.  On Project Blue Book, supposedly there is an archive at Project Blue Book Archive Online. 

Next week's Supernatural Friday, I'll be blogging about alien abduction and cattle mutilations.

Supernatural Friday: Mothers, Er Monsters Don’t Exist!

Mothers, Er Monsters Don’t Exist!

By

Pamela K. Kinney

Mother said that monsters didn’t exist

That they came from fast food or scary movies.

She lied!

And kept lying when the monster came that night

He instructed Mother to change and attack,

To rip Father’s throat out and tear out his heart.

His eyes pleading as he screamed,

“Don’t kill me—I love you!”

Before yelling at me,

“Run! Don’t let the monsters catch you!”

But I didn’t run,

Why would I?

Then the monster held out its clawed paw to me,

And I took it, asking, “Can we play?”

She called me her dear child, the promised one,

“I’ll teach you all I know, how to do what I do,”

She said, “Just as the one before me taught me.”

And so among the fires and slaughter we went,

I skipped beside Momma, only stopping

To play catch with bodiless heads.

When we left that place near to morning

What remained of the township right behind us

Inhuman sheep leaving for desolate pastures. 

7 QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER BEFORE YOU PIN ON PINTEREST

 

Welcome author Karen Leland as she stops here on her blog tour about considering seven questions before pinning on Pinterest.

Excerpted from the new book

Entrepreneur Magazine’s Ultimate Guide to Pinterest For Business

The right boards, beautifully named, won’t do you much good if they aren’t housing winning pins. And let’s face it: the pics (and videos) you post are what will make or break your Pinterest reputation and determine how far you can go.

Not all pins are created equal. Just posting any old photo or video won’t get visitors to follow your boards or find out more about you. In general, you want answer these 7 questions before you pin.

1. Is it Appropriate?

Be sure to think before you pin anything that might violate another’s privacy or your own. A good rule of thumb: If you wouldn’t want the image or information to appear on the front page of The New York Times, then it doesn’t belong on Pinterest.

2. Is it Interesting, Cute, Unique, Beautiful, and/or Funny?

The only thing a visitor to your Pinterest account may use to determine whether they want to stay is their first glance at the pictures you post.

Anyone who has ever read a Match.com profile knows that certain attributes are highly desirable in a potential date. The same goes for Pinterest pins. Pins that are interesting, funny, cute, beautiful, or unique stand a better chance of getting repinned and asked out on a second date.

If visitors aren’t intrigued enough by the image to go further, they may never get to your bio, click through to your website, or even read the description of the pin.

3. Is It on Brand, Message, and Target?

A high-end cosmetic dentist’s Pinterest boards probably won’t feature photos of cute little bunnies lying in the sun—but a veterinarian’s site just might.

Whatever images you end up pinning, they won’t move your marketing forward if they aren’t congruent with your brand and on message and on target for your audience. Likewise, spending your efforts posting things that help craft an accurate and powerful picture of who you are as a business and brand makes viewers want to further engage with you.

For example: GoGirl Finance (http://pinterest.com/ gogirlfinance/) has a board called “Personal Finance,” which offers a host of “how-to” pins on how to handle your money, including one on “5 Ways to Help (or Hurt) Your Credit Score.”

4. Does it move and/or inspire? Check out the “Happiness” board pin from Passion and Positivity (http://pinterest.com/positiveiquotes/), which focuses on aspirational messages and images.

5. Does it show us how to do something better, faster, cheaper, etc?

Fitness Magazine (http://pinterest.com/fitnessmagsa/) has a whole board titled “Work Those Abs,” with pins showing ways to get tight and toned.

6. Does it educate, enlighten, or entertain? Dr. Mehmet Oz, (http://pinterest.com/ doctoroz/) of Oprah fame, has a strong presence on Pinterest, with over 100,000 followers. His “Oz Lists” board offers educational information on healthy foods such as the “100 Foods Dr. Oz Wants in Your Grocery Cart” pin.

7. Does it tell a Story, with Feeling?

A picture is worth a thousand words. Photos that evoke a strong emotion, tell a story, or communicate a clear message make great pins. One way to evaluate whether your image has the right stuff is to think of a single word that expresses the idea, meaning, story, or message you want to convey. Then take that word and find images that match.

Keep in mind that even pins that meet these criteria are subject to size limitations. While Pinterest doesn’t limit the vertical size of the image you can post, it only allows for a horizontal width of 600 pixels. Anything wider will be resized. However, it’s best to avoid a long vertical that requires visitors to scroll down to view the entire image. Instead, keep your vertical size to under 5,000 pixels. On the other side of the coin, images that are too small (under 250 pixels wide or deep) end up looking teeny-tiny and don’t catch the eye.

Karen Leland is the bestselling author of 8 business books including the recently released Entrepreneur Magazine’s Ultimate Guide to Pinterest For Business, which can be purchased at http://bit.ly/Amazonbook. She is the president of Sterling Marketing Group, where she works with small businesses and Fortune 500 on building stronger personal and team brands. She writes the Modern Marketing Blog at www.karenleland.com. 

A blurb about the book and the author:

Pinterest is a social bookmarking site that allows users to create a visual, online pinboard with images they love organized around topics of their choice by category. It’s the fastest growing social media site in history, the third-largest network after Facebook and Twitter and has over 25 million members and 10 million unique visitors a month. 

The most recent studies indicate that nearly 20 percent of women using the Internet are on Pinterest, 72 percent of Pinterest users are female, and 66 percent of those are age 35 or older, and the average amount of time visitors spend surfing the Pinterest site is an hour.

Karen Leland, author of the new book “Entrepreneur Magazine’s Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business,” has created a comprehensive and easy-to-use guide to hitting the road running and quickly making Pinterest into a valuable source of prospects, promotion and profits. 

“Great business brands are about telling compelling, congruent stories, and Pinterest is at its core about storytelling in pictures,” says Leland. “Pinterest has tapped into this visceral lover of visuals, and no small business, entrepreneur or corporation can afford to miss the boat on bringing what they offer beyond words and into images.”

About Ultimate Pinterest Guide for Business:

“The Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business” is designed to help businesses use Pinterest to its maximum potential. The book provides both beginning users and seasoned veterans with the ability to find their specific area of interest “at a glance.” It uses step-by-step how-to, sidebars, examples, case studies, expert interviews and tip sheets to show how, from setup to strategy, to use Pinterest for promotional, branding and marketing objectives. 

The book explores the ins and outs of signing up and getting started on Pinterest and how to create boards that get noticed, drive traffic and convert fans into customers. Special chapters are devoted to creating a strong community and enthusiastic following through high-engagement activities, contests, social media outreach and smart pinning strategies.

In addition the book outlines specific marketing applications to small businesses, from architecture firms to theater companies.

About Karen Leland:

Karen Leland is the best-selling author of nine business books and the President of Sterling Marketing Group, where she works with entrepreneurs, small businesses and Fortune 500 companies around the globe on building stronger personal and business brands. Her clients have included AT&T, American Express, Marriott Hotels, Apple Computer and Johnson & Johnson, among others.  

She is a regular speaker for business groups and has spoken for the Young Presidents’ Organization, American Management Association and Direct Marketing Association, among others. Karen is a frequent guest of the media and has been interviewed on “The Today Show,” CNN, CNBC and “Oprah.”

She writes a regular branding and marketing column for Entrepreneur.com and has been published in Woman’s Day, Self, The Los Angeles Times and others. Her latest book is “Entrepreneur Magazine’s Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business.”

Supernatural Friday: Weird Facts

Sometimes some facts are useful knowledge. But then again, there are facts that might be considered strange and true, but not useful at all. Like the state of Alaska is 429 times larger than the state of Rhode Island is.  But Rhode Island has a significantly larger population than Alaska does. Or Montana has three times as many cows as it does people. Would any of this be useful to you? And yet, weird as it may seem, someone might find this information interesting.

Do we really need to know that the United States has 845 motor vehicles for every 1,000 people?  Or that Japan only has 593 for every 1,000 people and Germany only has 540 for every 1,000 people? All that means is a lot of smog to me. 

Other maybe useless, but maybe not weird facts:

Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president to have been born in a hospital.

One survey found that 25 percent of all employees that have Internet access in the United States visit pornography websites while they are at work. (Really? I don't even want to know what they might be doing in their cubicles while looking at the sites!)

There are three towns in the United States that have the name "Santa Claus".

In Tokyo, a bicycle is faster than a car for most trips of less than 50 minutes!

There are 18 different animal shapes in the Animal Crackers cookie zoo!

The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache on a standard playing card!

There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos!

Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult!

Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia!

The two-foot long bird called a Kea that lives in New Zealand likes to eat the strips of rubber around car windows!

It's illegal to drink beer out of a bucket while you're sitting on a curb in St. Louis!

A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle, a group of geese in the air is a skein!

Clinophobia is the fear of beds!

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second!

The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog." uses every letter of the alphabet!

Cat urine glows under a black-light! (I wonder how someone determined this?)

Ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone!

Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie!

In Natoma, Kansas, it's illegal to throw knives at men wearing striped suits.

It was once against the law to have a pet dog in a city in Iceland!

Supernatural Friday: A Ghost By Any Other Name is a GHOST!

A Ghost By Any Other Name is a GHOST!

By

Pamela K. Kinney

(this poem is copyrighted, so just share the link please if want people to read it).

Slithering through the ether

A breath of cool breeze,

Or something else.

It haunts corners of deserted buildings

A lost soul, or demonic thing.

Sometimes, they are like radio,

Repeating endlessly over and over.

Other times, they communicate.

Move objects and appear to us.

Ghosts, specters, phantoms,

Orbs, apparitions, reverent,

Haunt, shade, shadow person,

So many descriptions, so many names.

Doesn’t matter;

Haunting is what they do!

Supernatural Friday: Not Messages, But Spirits in a Bottle

A lot of places these days, gardeners get a fake tree or even use a real one, and hang blue bottles or all different colored bottles from the tree. The belief in and use of spirit bottles can be traced back to 9th and 10th century Congo, where colorful bottles, traditionally cobalt blue, were placed on the ends of tree branches to catch the sunlight. The thought being an evil spirit would see the sunshine dazzling from the beautiful bottles and growing enamored, enter the bottle. Like a fly, the spirit becomes trapped within the bottle; too dazzled by the play of light. The spirit prefers to remain in its colorful prison, rather than trouble the world of the living, trapped for all eternity. This practice was taken to Europe and North America by African slaves of the 17th and 18th centuries. While Europeans adapted them into hollow glass spheres known as "witch balls" the practice of hanging bottles in trees became widespread in the Southern states of North America, where they continue to be used today as colorful garden ornaments. For a long times, the use of spirit bottles, even spells due to them, could be found among the African-American people. In the New World, the bottle-as-talisman took on different forms.

Like witch's bottles traced as far back to the 1600s, bottles began to be used in spellwork. Bottles of all colors, shapes and sizes were filled with herbs and other items of significance for the purpose of protection, repelling evil, or attracting luck. Eventually, the bottle spell became a fundamental element of Hoodoo magic.

Today, all sorts of people have these bottle trees in their yard. Usually in the United States, they could be seen in the country or along the bayous of Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama, though nowadays they are all over, not just these four states. And not just blue bottles, either!

Getting spirits into bottles and even jars actually exist in many places of the world. There are jars and bottles for housing the spirits of dead babies in Thailand and called Guman Thong. There’s the lamp holding the genie in Aladdin. The Djinn have also been captured in rings and bottles, too. There’s even “The Spirit in the Bottle,” a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm.

If you like to make your own bottle tree as I plan to this spring, here are some directions I’ve found:

Find a strong tree or stump with branches, like crepe myrtles and cedars trees that are traditionally used, but pretty much any kind of tree will work. Trim all of the foliage off and cut the branches down until you have as many bare branches as you have bottles. Then slid your bottles onto the branches.

A variation is to take a fallen branch and prune it the same fashion, making a portable tree. Plant it outside of your home, near the entrance, in the garden, or where you want it in your yard and slip the bottles onto the branches. A third way is find a large branch or stump, tying two bottles at a time with shoelaces over the branches so they hang from the tree.

And here's a tip: If you put a little oil on the bottle necks, the spirits will slip easily into the bottles and become trapped that much quicker. Give it a day, then return to your tree when there’s a wind blowing and if you listen closely, you might hear the moans of the trapped spirits in the bottles when the wind blows. Just pray they’re not calling out your name though. . .