Live to Love on the Edge Blog

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Tuesday Tip – Autumn Gardens and Lots of Contests!

In the Public Domain and Courtesy of WikipediaIt was in the thirties this morning, which means Autumn has firmly grabbed hold in New York. That also means that the annuals will start to die back, leaving only the hardier of the late blooming perennials to offer color in the garden, unless you are going to add some chrysanthemums and flowering kale to prolong life in your October garden.

I love the bold colors of chrysanthemums, but hate the smell of their leaves and sometimes the flowers. This also could explain why the flowers are used to make pyrethrines, a form of natural pesticide.

In Asia, however, the flowers are used as a medicinal tea and the leaves are steamed or boiled and eaten as greens.

Did you also know that in many parts of the world, chrysanthemums are symbolic of death and only used for funerals or on graves? Many years ago a dear neighbor brought over a huge bouquet of purple chrysanthemums to welcome our new Italian au pair and she flinched at the sight of the flowers! The moment was quickly smoothed over with an explanation that in America the flowers do not have that signficance.

You can click here to read more about chrysanthemums! I’m going to hit the stores in the next week or so and pick up a few hardy ones to plant in the yard for some October color.

Speaking of October, it’s a paranormal writer’s favorite month! Spooky things and vampires abound and to celebrate them, as well as my upcoming December release, SOLDIER’S SECRET CHILD, I’ve got two great contests going! Just follow the links below to check out the prizes and enter.

Contest at Writerspace: http://www.writerspace.com/contests/caridadpineiro.html


To celebrate every vamp writer’s favorite holiday, Halloween, as well as Caridad’s upcoming releases, SOLDIER’S SECRET CHILD (December 2008, Silhouette Romantic Suspense), HONOR CALLS (Nocturne Bite, February 2009) and FURY CALLS (Nocturne, March 2009), Caridad is having a spectacular October paranormal contest! Enter here for a chance to win a prize package which includes a CALLING T-shirt as well as Vampire Vaccine Candy, Vampire Bat Plush Box with candy, Vampire squeeze water tube, Ellora’s Caveman Calendar, Christine Feehan‘s DARK HUNGER graphic novel and signed cover flat, HELL’S BELLES by Jackie Kessler, EVERLASTING BAD BOYS anthology, THE HOST hardcover by Stephanie Meyer, PLAYING WITH FIRE by Gena Showalter as well as autographed copies of DANGER CALLS, DEATH CALLS and BLOOD CALLS by Caridad Piñeiro.

Contest at Fresh Fiction:
http://freshfiction.com/contest.php?id=1351

Win copies of MORE THAN A MISSION, SECRET AGENT REUNION, DANGER CALLS, TEMPTATION CALLS, DEATH CALLS, FRIDAY NIGHT CHICAS, a CALLING T-shirt as well as a $25 American Express Gift Card to help you with those everyday needs or a special gift!

Join USA TODAY and NY TIMES Bestseller Caridad Pineiro in her celebration of her upcoming releases – SOLDIER’S SECRET CHILD in December 2008 and FURY CALLS, the next book in THE CALLING Vampire Series in March 2009. Enjoy her sexy romantic suspense and the unique paranormal romantic suspense of THE CALLING Vampire Novels.

Pre-Order SOLDIER’S SECRET CHILD and FURY CALLS

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Guilty Pleasures Monday – Carter Oosterhouse

Carter Oosterhouse - the Bad Boy Carpenter of HGTVDon’t you just love men with a power tool? LOL! That’s why this week’s Guilty Pleasure is HGTV’s Bad Boy carpenter Carter Oosterhouse.

I first noticed him when he was the carpenter on TLC’s Trading Spaces, but now Carter has the show CARTER CAN on HGTV and DIY. You can also catch him at a number of home shows and he also behind CARTER’S KIDS, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating and promoting awareness of fitness and self-esteem for America’s youth.

Carter seems like an all around nice guy! Hope you enjoyed today’s Guilty Pleasure. Here’s some more of Carter on his DIY show!

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Building an Internet Presence

pc.jpgUnlike the baseball diamond in the midst of the isolated corn field in FIELD OF DREAMS, just building a website doesn’t guarantee that anyone will come visit. In order for people to know that you are out there on the Internet, there are a number of steps you can take to increase awareness of your website and improve how you are listed in search engine results.

The first step you can take actually happens even before you get your website up and running. When you are designing your website, make sure that you include metatags in your site’s header and web pages.

What is a metatag? A metatag is information inserted in the header (“head”) portion of your website. The header portion of your website is not visible to viewers on your site, but is read by search engine spiders as they comb the Internet for information to include in their search engine results. You can place your title, site description, and keyword metatags in your header to improve how a search engine will list your website in the search.

For example, the keywords to include in your header metatags could be as follows: “caridad, piñeiro, romance, author, romance author, blog, free read, silhouette, harlequin, pocket books, vampire, novel, fiction, author, south beach, chicas, the calling, romantic suspense, paranormal.”

There are no limits to the number of keywords you can place in your metatags, and you should attempt to make a comprehensive list of words that are applicable to the content of your website. The search engine spiders will note these metatags and next time someone searches on one of those keywords, your website should show up if you’ve been spidered.

Also keep in mind that the keywords you use should also be repeated in the content of your web pages. It will improve your relevance in search engine results if your keywords appear often. An excellent article on how to use Metatags can be found at SearchEngineWatch.com (http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2167931).

Once you’ve got your metatags in place, you need to make sure that the search engine spiders visit your site so that you will be included in their search engine results.

How do you get noticed by the search engines? Once your website is up and running, you can take a number of steps to get noticed and listed in search engine results. The first step is to get yourself added on the various search engines. You can do this at the following links:
Google: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
Yahoo: https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit
MSN: http://search.msn.com.sg/docs/submit.aspx

You can also use a number of free or paid Search Engine submission programs to make sure the spiders will visit your site. You can do so at the following links:
AddPro: http://www.addpro.com/submit30.htm
SubmitShop:
http://www.submitshop.com/freesubmit/freesubmit.html

You may want to set up a separate email address for search engine submissions, as doing this will generate a number of emails from the various services. There are a number of other free search engine submission sites, but some ask that you place codes on your site in order to use their services. You may also pay for these submissions, but it can get quite costly and using
the manual and free services generally works to get your site submitted.

How often should you submit your website to the search engines? Some people say as often as every month, but too many submissions may get you banned from future submissions. I would recommend that you resubmit your website at least every six months.

Being listed in search engine results will help draw people to your website, but how else can you get people to visit?

The first and easiest way is to get listed on other similar sites. If you’re published, ask your publisher if they have a web page for you at their site and, if so, ask for a link to your personal web page.

Do a search on “romance novel links,” and you will get a long list of romance novel related sites. Visit the various sites and follow their procedures for getting listed on their links and list them on your links page.

Expand your presence on the Internet via social networking sites such as Myspace. Make sure your Myspace page has a link back to your main web page.

Do you have information to share with others, such as articles on writing? Visit Ezinearticles.com and similar sites to post your articles for others to find.

Finally, keep the content on your site fresh and interesting. It’s important not only to draw readers to your site the first time, but to develop a pattern of returning visitors. There is nothing worse than visiting a site where the last update is many months old.

Hope these tips gave you some ideas on what to do with your web presence!

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A Sad Guilty Pleasures Monday – Paul Newman

Paul Newman passed away on Saturday. He was 83. According to an AP News story, Newman “was nominated for Oscars 10 times, winning one regular award and two honorary ones, and had major roles in more than 50 motion pictures, including “Exodus,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Verdict,” “The Sting” and “Absence of Malice.””

One of my favorites of his was BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID. Then there was COOL HAND LUKE, THE VERDICT, THE STING, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. So many great movies and through it all, Mr. Newman nevers seems to have lost his head to the cult of celebrity. Everyone who knew him, respected him. His philanthropy has helped so many.

It is the end of an era and Mr. Newman will be sorely missed. Here’s one of the many tributes available on Youtube to Paul Newman on a sad Guilty Pleasures Monday.

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Fun Friday – Funny Signs

laugh.gifThese all come courtesy of the LA Times, which has an entire section devoted to funny street signs. You can click here to find more of them!



Bayfield, WI – Still Lost?

Warning Taiwan Scooterists

Alaska airstrip conundrum

no No NO !

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Thoughtful Thursday – Bailouts and Fiscal Responsibility

Photo Courtesy of Microsoft Clip ArtWatching what’s happening in the markets, I feel like I’m on the edge of a cliff, waiting to lose my grip (and my money). I think many Americans feel the same way.

So today’s Thoughtful Thursday is about this bailout everyone is discussing and my . . . upset with it.

I know we need to do something. But I want whatever is done to not heap yet more burdens on the large majority of Americans. You know, those people who get up every day, go to work, pay their taxes and pay their mortgages on time.

How do so many Americans do that? Fiscal responsibility. A strange idea to some, I know. That means you don’t spend more than you earn and you don’t borrow more than you can pay back.

When I got my first mortgage, I knew the bank would only lend me a certain amount of money based on my salary. The bank also knew that I intended to live in my home and maintain it.

The banks that are stable seem to have stuck to that principle. Homeowners are a good risk in general and when the system works, its good for both the banks and the homeowners. Banks make their money on the interest rates and homeowners build equity in their homes.

Somewhere along the line, some banks forgot this. They started giving loans well in excess of what people could afford to pay. They reduced their standards for credit. They allowed real estate speculators to buy beyond what they could which drove up housing prices, creating a bubble.

Well, at least that’s my take from what I’ve been reading lately.

So then what happened? People couldn’t pay their mortgages. Housing prices dropped and those properties which seemed like gold turned to lead and speculators walked away from the properties without paying their mortgages. Foreclosures skyrocketed, driving down home prices for all of us who have been faithfully paying our mortgages and obviously, threatening the existence of all these mortgage companies and our economy.

Fannie Mae. Freddie Mac. Did they use unsound practices in granting mortgages? If they did, who is responsible and why are you and I footing the bill?

Should we ask the CEO of Freddie Mac? In 2007, the Chairman of Freddie Mac got nearly 19.8 million dollars in compensation. You can click here to read more about it! Of course, nearly 14.3 million of that was in stock options, so maybe now it’s not worth 14.3 million. The article goes on to say “If Syron resigns or is fired with cause, he will owe the company $1.25 million. But if he is fired without cause, he will pocket $19.1 million.”

Do you think there’s cause? Do you think that many Americans have a right to be royally pissed about this bailout?

This inquiring mind wants to know what you think.

For me, I’d like to get the economy stable, restore the market’s balance and get home values stabilized. For many of us, our home is our nest egg. But I’d also like to know that this bailout isn’t going to reward CEOs, speculators and those who are found to have improperly received mortgages. Not to mention that I’d like to make sure that regulations are put in place to prevent this from happening again.

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