Book Brief: The Back Pain Conspiracy

The Back Pain ConspiracyThe Back Pain Conspiracy: How to Watch Your Back and Lose the Pain
by Gillian Hubble
Genre of this Book: Non-Fiction, Health and Fitness/Pain Management
Word count: ~ 57,500

There is more to the back pain epidemic than you think…

Are you considering drugs, procedures, or even major surgery for your back pain? If you value your future back health, don’t do anything until you have read this book. Author Gillian Hubble exposes secrets that have been buried in the medical literature for decades.

For the first time, get an evidence-based look at back pain causes and the effectiveness of 21 of the most popular conventional and alternative back pain treatments. What works? What doesn’t? Told from the perspective of a back pain survivor and healthcare professional, The Back Pain Conspiracy unearths the startling facts behind the mythology, so you can understand your pain and how to lose it.

You Will Learn:

• Why you have back pain, and why it won’t go away

• How to identify back pain myths and misconceptions

• What the most—and least—effective back pain treatments are

• When to pursue which types of treatment

• Where to look for long-term back pain relief

This book is available from Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes & Noble. Continue reading “Book Brief: The Back Pain Conspiracy”

Time for the Flash Fiction Vote!

Pish ClockIt’s Wednesday already. That can only mean it’s time once again to make your choice for the flash fiction challenge.

Remember, the winning entries will all be included in the next edition of the IU Flash Fiction Anthology.

Check out this week’s entries here. Make your decision, then use those share buttons at the bottom of the post to spread the word.

Voting polls close Thursday at 5 PM Pacific time.

Which author wrote your favorite flash fiction entry this week?

  • AV Carden (44%, 20 Votes)
  • Jon Jefferson (22%, 10 Votes)
  • M.P. Witwer (22%, 10 Votes)
  • Michael Seese (9%, 4 Votes)
  • Matoska Chikala (2%, 1 Votes)

Total Voters: 45

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NOTE: Entrants whose submissions exceed the 250 word limit are eliminated from the poll.

The Productivity of Youth

“Ah, to be young again,” people say. I have to chuckle when I hear that. No thanks. The years have made me a better writer, and being old now gives me an excuse for being grumpy.

I thought I was doing pretty well until the other day when I uncovered my baby book in a box in the attic. I’d been looking for some research materials for an action-adventure novel I’m percolating in my head. Instead, I found this ancient archive of my childhood.

Brooks' Early Edition Books
K. S. Brooks’ Early Works

As I gingerly moved it out of the box, some papers fell from it. These weren’t just ANY papers. They were all cut the same size, and bound together with a plastic-coated twist-tie. They were BOOKS. On them, my mother had written lightly in pencil “5 years old.”

Not only were they books, they were books I’d made – by hand. I’d illustrated them, and they rhymed. How in hell had I managed such a thing at five years of age? Granted, there were spelling errors, but those should have been caught by my editor. And for crying out loud, I was FIVE. Continue reading “The Productivity of Youth”

Foreword, March!

shakespeareForeword, preface, prologue. We’ve all seen one or the other of these at the front of a book, and many people think they are the same thing. They’re certainly very similar, but there are definite distinctions between them. Do you know what they are?

A foreword is a short introductory statement, especially when written by someone other than the author. It’s not unusual to see the writer of the foreword lauding the author of the main work, or telling a bit about how the work came about or how it came to his/her attention. Note that the definition describes it as a short introductory statement. Usually a foreword is a few paragraphs and less than a page.

The opposite of a foreword is an afterword: a concluding section or commentary or a closing statement.

A preface, conversely, is a preliminary statement by the book’s author or editor, usually setting down its purpose and scope, expressing acknowledgement of assistance from others, etc. Very often we will see an acknowledgment page used for this purpose instead.

A prologue is described as a preliminary discourse, an introductory part of a poem, novel or play. It can be an introductory speech calling attention to the theme of a play, as Shakespeare often did. In Romeo and Juliet, the prologue is as follows: Continue reading “Foreword, March!”