Investing in yourself is the best gift you can give to yourself. Here are 10 ways to invest in yourself.

1. Read books, educational podcasts and blogs. Reading expand your mind and have to power to bring you where you have never been, it can give you new dreams

2. Invest in your future. Take courses that speaks to you, go to seminars, workshops, start thinking thoroughly about your future the lifestyle you want. Pick a hobby you are passionate about that and master it.

3. Have many streams of income, with the forever changing economy, you cannot only rely o one source of income, you never know what will happen tomorrow. Having multiple source of income will help you sleep better at night.

4. Honor your intuition. Listen to your gut will allow you to make better decisions. Do you trust yourself enough to listen to your own advice…

Sometimes we in Australia wake up from untroubled dreams to news of awful events on the other side of the globe. So it is today with news of the anti-Seminitic massacre of worshippers in a synagogue in Pittsburg. There is no point in saying anything here about America and its obsession with guns, and even less point in saying anything about That Dreadful Man who fosters hate all around his country. Either America will deal with its evils or it won’t, and there is nothing any of us in The Rest of The World can do to change that, awful though it is.

But we can and should respond to anti-Semitic events like this by reminding ourselves that these atrocities begin in small ways, with words and actions that pass unremarked by people who fail to notice or who turn a blind eye.  By coincidence, I went yesterday to an…

As I wrote when I posted a Sensational Snippet from Kristina Olsson’s new novel Shell, I have fallen in love with this book so it’s not going to be easy to write an objective review.  I have mulled over the book for two days since I finished reading it, and I still feel a frisson of pleasure when I set eyes on it. It’s my Book of the Year, and it might even be the Book of the Decade, in the same way that Kim Scott’s That Deadman Dance turned out to be a Book of the Decade, for me.

For starters, it is beautifully published.  Designed by Christabella Designs to mark the first book published by Scribner Australia (an imprint of Simon and Schuster), the hardback edition has creamy pale-pink textured boards imprinted with the same glorious image as the dustcover—it’s a photograph called Red Storm Day by Jean-Pierre…

Greater Yellowlegs migrate between South and North America.

They are striking birds,

who stride across deep lagoons,

with their distinctive,

high-stepping strut.

Long legs,

enable them to hunt in deeper lagoons,

capturing the fish and insects they survive on.

Cheers to you from the stunning Yellowlegs at The Salton Sea~

Time’s Convert is a story from the World of All Souls. The story begins with book one of the trilogy ‘A Discovery of Witches’ So if you haven’t read the amazing All Souls Trilogy yet it’s probably best to read it first to avoid spoilers. There are spoilers in this review for that series too but not Time’s Convert. Time’s Convert follows on from the trilogy, it’s a “prequelly-sequel” 🙂

Time’s Convert tells us Marcus’ history, his life before he was a vampire and the circumstances of him becoming one. I loved learning more about Marcus and of course about the history of the time. It’s also the story of Phoebe’s tranformation, and for the first time we are given an insight into what it really means to become a vampire and what it’s like. Deb always has such a unique take on fantasy elements like magic and…

Pretty and I were unable to participate in tonight’s 2018 Pride Parade here in Columbia, South Carolina but we were there in spirit…

PRIDE – 2015

On the bottom row of this collage the handsome young man speaking with a microphone at the Pride Festival was my friend of many, many years Eddie Greenleaf. Sadly, two weeks ago today Pretty and I attended his funeral. We will miss Eddie’s smile and hugs but are very thankful for the memories we share of his commitment to his husband Michael and their ongoing contributions to the LGBTQ community in South Carolina over the past 30 years. Rest in peace, Eddie, and may those of us you left behind never rest until true equality for all becomes the new normal.

Stay tuned.