It is NOT a Sign of Weakness

So many of us are taught, whether on purpose or just through the examples of others, that to ask for help is a sign of weakness. 

IT'S NOT. 

Far from it, in fact. To ask for help is a sign of strength. It's acknowledging that you have a problem outside your realm of expertise, that you need a fresh set of eyes to determine what's wrong. Whether it's something simple like the color of a wall or a particular scene in a book, or something far more important like heartburn and cold sweats, to be able to admit you need help and ask for it shows what a strong person you are. 

What prompted this blog post? Wednesday morning, my 60-year-old father had a heart attack. He was at work at the time. Going into his boss's office, he closed the door and told her something was wrong. She listened to him describe how he felt and when he was done, she told him to get in the car and she'd take him to the hospital. 

When they arrived, he went through some tests and they realized he was still in the middle of the attack. They went to work immediately to prevent some of the damage the attack would have most likely caused. 

Because my father asked for help, not only were the doctors able to prevent some permanent heart damage, but they most likely saved his life. 

What did he feel that prompted his actions? There was a burning in his chest that he thought was strange. Sort of an intense heartburn, which he thought might have been brought on by what he'd eaten for breakfast. But when he considered that his hands were like ice and he'd broken out into a sweat, he knew it wasn't just heartburn. He didn't have the shakes or a dizzy spell. I don't think his arm went numb either; he never said it did. Bottom line, he wasn't feeling quite right and asked for help. 

Please, please, please, don't hesitate to ask for help when you feel unwell, or different, or odd. So many heart attack fatalities could probably be prevented if we could just accept that to ask for help is strength, not weakness or overreacting.

I know it's cliché but.....BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY.

New Facebook Contest

I can't seem to get enough of giving away books! I'm having another giveaway on my facebook page. This time, I'm giving away a signed copy of Unlocked and a pretty little charm bracelet. How do you enter? Suggest my facebook page to at least one friend. Head on over to my page for more details. You'll have scroll down a little bit on the page to find the pic of the bracelet.

http://www.facebook.com/jaimeygrantauthor

Happy reading, writing, and blogging!!!

Caption Contest Winners

I meant to post about this a week ago but better late than never, right? Remember that caption contest I mentioned a while back? There was a winner. Six, in fact. The pic they had to caption was this one:

"Eww...you mean dogs actually DRINK out of that contraption?"
~Jeff Caminsky, first winner

Crazy cute, right? Well, the captions posted made me chuckle. A lot.

The second winning caption was submitted by Heather Lynn Lyons: "{wink} Yeah Baby, uh huh, I'm too sexy for my fur...tooooo sexy FUR sure!"

Both of these winners won their choice of one of my paperback books. The next set of winners got their choice of eBooks.

1. "We are not amused." S.M. Carrière
2. "mmmmm....must have coffee" Jeff Lyons
3. "That last bit of catnip bit back!" MissMae Author
4. "Just one more "here kitty, kitty" and I'm gonna rip your eyes out!" Les Gill

To check out the other funny captions posted, head on over to my facebook page. Thank you to all who entered, those who tried hard to come up with a caption (I love you all too), and CONGRATULATIONS to those who won!!

~Photo Friday~ Rowr!

Stinkerbell, 3 days ago 

Yeah, I know. It's not Friday. It's Saturday. Oh well. :oP

NaNoWriMo Update

I'm sorry to say I am not doing well with NaNo at the moment. The first couple days went fine but then something happened that was too distracting for me to concentrate on a new novel. And when it comes right down to it, a new novel is not essential to my survival. Besides, I have 19 novels in various stages of completion, from 'middle of a rough draft' to 'in the final editing stages'. These should probably be seen to before a new novel is really started. That said, I will not push myself to "win" this year. I may go back to one of the books that's half done and attempt to complete that in the month. I'm not sure at this point. 

I have several projects in the works that will take up most of my time anyway. I've mentioned before that designing book covers has become something of a hobby. Well, I'm branching out a little beyond that now and offering my services should any indie authors out there be interested in the style of covers I design. Send an email to jaimeygrant{at}yahoo{dot}com with "Cover Art" in the subject line for any questions you may have on the subject of cover design. 

But perhaps you'd like to see what I can do first? To the left is the cover I made, just for fun, for the novel I was writing for NaNoWriMo. You can also check out this page on my site for other examples of my covers. I even explained what went into making the front cover for Deception.

I hope everyone who is doing NaNo is reaching their goals. Everyone else, I hope you are reaching yours too. Happy reading, writing, and blogging!