Two turkeys, a robin, and a parakeet; publish your manuscript as an eBook free. http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=857ff712e9427d22ec86cbf01&id=2af26593bb&e=4c50267243
Roy Discusses Black Swans and Probabilities;
2012 Holiday eBooking Giveaway for Authors
http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=3387e058ee65fb96b8e6f081b&id=38443bbaeb&e=5a95120ab8
Well, this morning Alva tells me that last night she and about 20 friends sat on the floor to toast the New Year as the ball came down over Times Square. The result? Alva just bounced in today ready for work! On New Year’s Day, no less!
I sent her home. Told her to relax until Tuesday–but not before congratulating her on her success in her New Year’s Occupy Hope and Vote 2012 Project in which she successfully talked all of her friends to have a midnight ‘sit in’ (as she referred to it) to celebrate the fact they all not only are old enough to vote, but plan to use their vote in 2012!
According to Alva the Indie, about 18 of the 20 had already registered.
So I congratulated Alva and promised her that, yes, I would vote in 2012 (as if I haven’t always done so)! And then I sent her home for real.
Meantime, AlLVA Press has been just a flurry of activity! In the past week:
And all in all the beginning of the year has been all around rosy–what with Roberta’s son’s Gallery Ottaviani (galleryottaviani.com) after a really slow year, finally picking up; birthdays for Roberta‘s 84 and 88 year old aunts, Betty Hamel, the author/artist, and Marie Sicolo, singer/yodeler, being celebrated; Roberta‘s oldest and youngest two grandsons, ages 11 and 7, having stayed over for a couple of fun days, and a New Year’s dinner with the family planned for this evening, what more can one ask? Except to wish you all a Very Happy, Hopeful, and Healthy New Year 2012!
Roberta in Po-Town, Lookin’ up
Coming home today I passed Poughkeepsie’s Hulme Park. It was with a sinking feeling I noted the Occupy tents and tenants had vanished over night. Of Occupy Poughkeepsie left were only a few the signs with Occupy and one that asked, ‘Who are you protecting?’
Once home I decided to watch videos on the Occupy Poughkeepsie (and Oakland, CA) Movement at http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20111207/NEWS01/312070057/What-will-become-Occupy-Poughkeepsie- From them I learned that last night the tenants of the park had been evicted and any belongings left, including some tents, were confiscated. Also I learned that once evicted, Occupy had marched to the Sheriff’s Office to protest the sale of foreclosed homes in the area.
As for the videos, they featured a number of regular-talking people of a variety of ages and backgrounds from the Occupy Movement whom I rather liked. Each spoke to his or her main concern: Some were concerned about repaying student loans and finding jobs after college. A mother advocated for more support for the education of children. Some advocated for a jobs bill, blaming both sides of the isle and not the President because we had none.
A returning warrior sought to end war.
There were also those who asked for a tax on the rich.
As for Alva the Indie, she was no where to be seen. At last news, she had left Plattsburgh, NY, to join those gathered on Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. It was they who had picketed the US Chamber of Commerce asking if there was also an office to work for the 99%? Something Alva would definitely want to do.
As for me, I’ve been feeling rather at sea–on the one hand wanting Alva back and working in the office as we spearhead our publicity campaign for Jolt: a rural noir.
(As you well may know, Jolt: a rural noir is a 2011 Living Now Awards Medalist in Inspirational Fiction. You can find Jolt available at http://alvapressinc.com in traditional and Mobi (Kindle) and ePub (Nook) eBook formats.)
On the other hand, I’m with those at Freedom Plaza in many ways–especially in my concern for the environment which includes the outlier possibilities for nuclear meltdowns, nuclear accidents, and dirty bombs. That’s why I think it is so important that everyone reads Jolt: a rural noir: not only is it a great story wonderful characters, it’s an easy way to become informed on the emergency nuclear response and therefore–in a worse case scenario–simply stated–safer.
I suppose it’s raining in D.C. tonight. I can only hope that Alva has shelter. And as for Jolt: a rural noir, if you haven’t read it yet, you should do it real soon. Those that have have appreciated the depth of the research that went into it and the usefulness of the information provided by this passionate novel of post-apocalyptic survival.
Roberta in Po-Town, Feelin’ torn
Yup! Alva took her sleeping bag and went out to join the Occupy Movement and I’m all a dither.
Ever see ALVA when she is on a roll? Hair stands out straight all around her head. Her eyes get so big they look like headlights. And she moves so fast at times she’s a blur.
I tried, but I was able to keep her here in the office until yesterday. Then the Super Committee did it’s thing. She heard the news that was it! I watched as Alva threw cheese, oranges, and loaf of bread into a bag. Then she just stormed out. Yelled over her shoulder not to try to call her as she wasn’t taking her cell with her. Said she didn’t think they had chargers in the tents. Haven’t heard from her since.
Now tell me what I’m supposed to do. How am I suppose to feel grateful with ALVA out there who knows where ready to fight the world just because she thinks that the top 1% should talk to those she calls those meal-headed people in Congress. Alva believes the rich should explain that as they own a third of the country’s wealth they agree with the Occupy Movement: The tax structure simply is not fair! And she wants them to tell the tea-baggers–that’s what ALVA calls them–to just stop second-guessing them–the rich–the top 1%–and think about the poor!
That’s ALVA. And I just don’t what else to do except to make sure my voter registration is in order.
Roberta in Po-Town, Hoping for a saner Thanksgiving 2012
When Roberta M. Roy wrote her prize winning work of Inspirational Fiction, Jolt: a rural noir, it was with two views. The first was to confirm for the reader that there is life even after terrorism involving measures as extreme as arson, dirty bombs and a nuclear melt down. Oddly Roy did this in the post 9/ll era in an effort to calm the reader’s darkest fears for persons outside of the thirty mile radius of any real or possible nuclear power plant meltdown.
With Too Close, however, it is Roy’s intent treat the situation of survivors within the thirty mile radius. Two of the characters from Jolt: a rural noir emerge as the main ones in Too Close. One struggles with radiation sickness while the second suffers minimal Traumatic Brain Injury(mTBI). mTBI is an almost signature Iraq sequelae among returning military personnel who suffer it as the result of having experienced one or more than one IED explosions over the course of their deployments.
The question for ALVA, however, remains one of how to entice people to read about these topics. The approach ALVA encouraged Roy to take was to tell a memorable story. Borrowing from the tradition of Jane Austen with her Netherfield Park and the village of Lambton or William Faulkner with his Yoknapatawpha County and its just as imaginary Yoknapatawpha River, Roy set her stories in an imaginary part of the Northern USA. Whereas Austen references her settings to real places that only suggest a relative location, Faulkner and Roy include carefully drawn maps. For Faulkner it provided the terrain for five great novels. Roy’s plan is to write just two. Whether they will ever be judged great however, remains to be seen.
Roy’s novels, Jolt: a rural noir and its sequel, Too Close, are set several adjacent counties in the imaginary states of East Cordaban, West Cordaban, Mariana, and New Carlton. Jolt: a rural noir is the story of persons outside the thirty mile radius of the nuclear meltdown and terrorist dirty bombs. Too Close is the story of two of the characters from Jolt: a rural noir who were within the thirty mile radius of, as Roy calls it, The Event.
Jolt: a rural noir is available in book and eBook forms from http://alvapressinc.com while Too Close is yet in the writing phase and not anticipated to be released in this year.
Alva the Indie, Remembering
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