I'm in Yahell

Just a quick note to anyone who is trying to get in touch with me, I'm in Yahell. It's a lonely place, I'm telling you. I can read what you've sent me, but can't respond. I'm thinking it's a virus and my son is coming over tonight to see what he can do.

If anyone has bought one of my e-books, it might be a day or two before they can be sent. I'm so sorry for this inconvenience, but I'm hoping you might check out this blog to see what's going on. Hopefully, I'll be up and running tomorrow.

Dorothy

Have You Found Your Twin Soul?

I had an interesting email come in this morning from a young man who found himself in an awkward position. He was about to get married, but lo and behold, someone stepped into his life and the connection was so strong, he just had to write to me and ask what I thought about it.

I get questions all the time from those seeking answers to their perplexing soul mate questions, but the ones that really intrigue me are the ones that have had their twin souls enter their life, only they didn't know it.

I love explaining what the twin soul relationship is all about because I feel that this third group of soul mates (karmic and companion being the other two) is so interesting. There is so much more involved in this relationship than any other relationship out there.

A couple days I had a woman who I syndicate my articles to ask me about twin souls. And these are only two examples. There are millions of people out there that are looking for their twin soul, yet they have yet to find them (or so they think) and they want to know the secret.

The secret is held in my book, How to Find and Keep Your Soul Mate (I know, shameless plug), but I will say this much: everyone has a twin soul, just like everyone has karmic and companion soul mates, but they all come into your life on a different level.

The first thing you will notice is that spiritual connection. If the spiritual connection is not present (and you will know it), then it's not your twin soul. And, in a lot of cases I have seen, you will already be in a committed relationship when he/she enters your life. Makes for a complicated situation, don't you think?

Can we be in love with two people at the same time? Sure, we can. We're only human. But, the thing is, both persons are in your life for separate reasons. You will find that one person fulfills a need you have, while the other fills another.

I was in a committed relationship when I met my twin soul. Yes, I felt that spiritual connection, but never acted upon it or acknowledged it because I was with someone else. In time, the connection surfaced to a point where it was time to face up to what was happening. I didn't want to hurt my "companion" soul mate, but I couldn't ignore what was to be my twin soul, either.

In time, I knew that it was meant for me to say with my companion soul mate and I let my twin soul go. He ended up dying of a broken heart two weeks later.

Not all twin soul relationships happen that tragically, but it's an example of how strong the pull is. Hurting of the heart is one of the most painful hurts one can ever experience, as we all have been through it and know.

But, the point is, you can love more than one person at one time, just on different levels. I'm curious, have you met your twin soul when you were already in a relationship and you chose to stay in your relationship? Or did you find the strength to forgo your present relationship and be with your twin soul?

If so, please leave a comment or email me personally at thewriterslife@yahoo.com. I am conducting interviews for a book I am writing on the subject. Thank you!

Will That Be Non-Smoking?

A friend of mine from my online writing group asked the members if they had heard of a certain publisher as she was interested in sending a manuscript to them. As she had not heard anything about them, negative or otherwise, I thought I would help her out and go see what I could dig up.

I found their submission guidelines and the second paragraph goes like this...

Please be aware that **** ******* is a smoke-free environment. Manuscripts that arrive smelling like cigarette smoke may not receive the completely positive reception that they deserve.

O...kay. Well, this was a first. I've heard of restaurants and any public place in the entire county going by this rule, but publishers?

I mean, how can they tell you are a smoker? Is it actually all over everything, including paper? If when you stuff that paper in a box or whatever and send it off to a publisher and they open it, is smoke the first thing they smell or think of? Is this possible?

My aunt was an avid smoker. She would send me letters now and then and not once did I smell cigarette smoke. Now, if someone were to go outside, take a puff and come back in, sure you could smell it, but can someone actually smell it on paper?

When I was young and would send letters to my sweet-heart, I'd spray a bit of perfume on them and, yes, the recipient would smell it first thing when opening, but smoke?

I say this is ridiculous and it can't happen. What I ought to do is write a letter to myself, blow smoke on it and send it to myself to see if this is possible. I really don't think so.

So, anyway, this publisher thinks that this is going to deter smokers from sending anything to them? So what if the writer spritzes Fabreeze on the paper and the mailing envelope or box? Would that work?

As if we don't have enough to worry about...ack....wonder if Stephen King smokes. Would this publisher turn him away because his latest work reeks of smoke?

It's crazy...I'm telling you...it's just crazy....

The Further Adventures of Max, The Bed-Pissing Dog

You know, sometimes while I'm sitting here creating the most wonderful masterpieces (yeah, right), the most craziest thoughts just hit me in the head. This time, the thoughts were on Max, my bed-pissing dog.

Now, Max is really a beautiful dog really. He has papers and is registered with the AKC. We paid a lot of money for Max and you would think that with this beautiful specimen of a dog, a dog so beautiful he could have won awards for being so beautiful, that he'd had one lick of sense in his big brown head. He doesn't.

Max is the most stupidous dog I have ever seen in my entire life. Okay, I know there's no such word as stupidous but I think I have given you an idea of my opinion on him.

On another note, I love clean sheets. Nothing makes me sleep better than a nice set of clean sheets. Especially sheets that have been painstakenly washed, hung out to dry in the fresh air, taken in when they've dried and put in the dryer for just a couple minutes to make sure any of nature's little buggy-wuggies haven't hopped aboard, and spread out on my king-size bed which makes me gasp for breath every time I do it. It's a process. I go to these lengths so that I can crawl into bed and go, "Ahhhh."

Nothing....absolutely nothing...pisses me off more than to crawl into my freshly-made bed with the fresh-air-dried sheets and to feel a wet spot underneath me, saturating my shirt, only a few hours after Max had marked his territory before!

I mean, what the hell?????

Max just happens to be a bed-pissing dog and he's good at it.

I don't give him credit, but maybe I ought to look at it from his point of view.

He goes to the trouble of marking his territory and what do I do but get rid of the evidence? You know he must be shaking his head when he sees me heading to the washer with an armful of bed sheets only to think "What a dumb human. Now I'm going to have to go back and do it again."

We've tried everything. The fact we have two female dogs in the house, non-neutered, probably is the reason or he's just the most stupidous dog I've ever had. Probably both.

But, in reality, I believe that the ones that are three nuggets short of a Happy Meal are us adults. Any NORMAL person would have thrown the dog out or cut his balls off. But, nooooo....we put up with him because he's our dog-child. Is this a case of bad parenthood? Should we rub his nose in it like we did our children? LOL, don't worry, I didn't, but noooooo....we just get up and change the sheets. Oh, we'll say, "Bad Max!" but for all we know, he might think we're saying, "Good job, Max! I can't wait to see you do it again when I least expect it!"

So, I figure there's a little communication gap here.

We can't throw him out because he's a house dog and we can't cut off his balls because Cassie, his female counterpart, would disown us for depriving her of the children she never had.

Between a rock and a hard place.

I have no idea why I'm even talking about this, but as I'm writing, a little furry body just disappeared in the bedroom....OMG...MAX!!!!!

What Kind of a Writer Are You?

I am trying to get to all my blogging friends and my first stop was Kathy Holmes and I just had to take a break and see just what kind of writer I was...here are the results:

You Should Be a Film Writer

You don't just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind. You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life. Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling. And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

I'm not sure about this one. I used to write plays for the neighborhood kids, but that was so yesterday...I would have no idea how to write a real one today. I give those guys credit and they don't have to worry about me trying to get in on it...lol.

But then I went back and read the text...okay, all of that makes sense. I just loooove dialogue. I love reading it and I love writing it. My characters do come to life when I have them speak. So, okay, I guess it's on the mark then. What kind of writer are you?

SOULMATEQUEEN.COM

Okay, I'm back and am just so darn excited because I have a brand new website to announce!

THE SOUL MATE QUEEN HAS ARRIVED!

Gear up for an exciting new website that is going to put new meaning in the word "soul mates." I'm going all out for this one, folks, so please, check me out at www.soulmatequeen.com!
I'm going to rock your world!

Can we say excited? ;o)

Okay, Soul Mate Queen, calm down, I've got to explain to the nice folks out there what this is all about. Don't mind her...she's crazy, I'm telling you, but she's darn smart when it comes to soul mates.

SoulMateQueen.com is your one-stop relationship website that is going to give you the FACTS on what soul mates are all about. Free relationship articles, free relationship advice, PLUS a free e-book! There's even a convenient form for you to fill out if you want to tell the Soul Mate Queen about your soul mate experience. A book is in progress and she needs all the interviewees she can get. So, humor her, visit www.soulmatequeen.com and be prepared...you may find your soul mate closer than you think!

Our FREE E-book for Writers hit Google #1!!!

I have some fantastic news!!! My promotional strategies for my writing group's new free e-book, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Getting Published, is working!!!

This e-book was an experiment. I am writing a book on promoting e-books since I, myself, found it almost impossible to find ways to promote e-books, although I knew there must be a formula and I, indeed, have found the formula. And it works!!!

I told myself that when our book showed up on the first page of either Google or Yahoo under the search term, "Free e-books for writers," I would consider my strategy a success.

Tonight, it showed up in Google AND Yahoo under the FIRST listing!!!!

The link to Google is here and the link to Yahoo can be found here.

This is a moment to celebrate!

If I can do this with our free e-book, I can do this with other e-books!

If you still haven't received your copy of our free e-book, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Getting Published, click here. Because of my promotional strategy and the effectiveness of my formula, we have given out almost 300 free e-books since it was released on March 1 and orders are still coming in.

It's a wonderful little book full of true stories from authors and writers who are carving their way up the ladder to success. To them, I thank them for making this possible.

Plagiarism At WritingUp.com Continued...

Yesterday's post was concerning some of my work that had been stolen and posted at a writing site called WritingUp.com. Either the link I gave you has been taken down or the fact that you have to register (which I had to do in order to comment there) has made it impossible to see what work I have that was plagiarized, I'll post it here. After all, it's MY writing.

Someone named NewEra (he has been banned from the site, thank goodness) posted this...

What is a Karmic Soul Mate?

One of the most interesting things about life is that out of all the people
in the world, a few fortunate ones will touch our lives in a special way and
leave lasting impressions. One such person is your karmic soul mate.
While
other soul mates come into your life for intimate reasons, not so the karmic
soul mates; they are the ones who come into your life to teach you something
about yourself or help you with a particular task.
While there are usually no
sexual relations with this person, there is still that bond, that closeness, the
feeling that this person is pretty darn special. It may be a special friend,
co-worker or even a member of your family, but one thing is for sure, without
them your life would not be complete.
A karmic soul mate comes into your life
for you to teach them something or to learn something from them. A companion
soul mate comes into your life for intimacy and/or childbearing.
A karmic
soul mate comes into your life intermittently while a companion soul mate
relationship can go on for years.

That is a bit of what I learned about
karmik soul mate......
Feel free to visit, you know you're always welcome!NewEra

That is the exact same words from my column last month. Notice how he spelled karmic with a K at the end and didn't even attempt to change anything to look like his own words? Gimme a break.

I'm not sure what WriteUp.com is all about. Supposedly you can make money off of either people clicking on your article or something. Still foggy about it. Reminds me of Themestream years ago when you would do anything to get people to click on your article to make the proverbial two cents a click.

I found out that my article was being plagiarized by a Google Alert. I can't stress enough to put your articles, what have you, in their alert system so that you can see exactly where your articles are being published.

After I found out, I was livid, as you can imagine. Someone called his bluff, though. Whoever it was, I thank him/her, but am presuming it's a her. She wrote:

Submitted by Wabbit Huntur (2507) on Fri, 2006-02-03 11:04.
What do I think about Karmic Soul Mate?
I think it was written by Dorothy Thompson & you copied it from here: What is a Karmic-Soul-Mate?
But it's an ezine article so it's not theft?Read their usage TOS here and see for yourself.

» reply

And so I replied:


Wabbit is right. This is
Submitted by thewriterslife (8) on Wed, 2006-03-08 00:27.
Wabbit is right. This is the author of the article. This is blatant plagiarism. I am a syndicated columnist. Every website that hosts my articles clearly understands that my name and bio must accompany my articles. This is outright theft and the administrator has been informed and if action is not taken to remove my article, my lawyer will see to it that things are taken care of.
Dorothy Thompson
» reply

Okay, I'm big and bad, but I was angry. Pissed.

Wabbit wrote back:

Submitted by Wabbit Huntur (2507) on Wed, 2006-03-08 00:37.
NewEra has been banned. When I find plagiarism I point it out. They usually play dumb but NewEra flat out lied. I don't know why any of the pages can still be seen. If you click the link at the top of the page for his blog, the page should come back empty.
How did you find this page?
I've taken it upon myself to police the site as well as one person can. I HATE plagiarism. I quickly typed up a rant about the very topic earlier today. I was so mad!
I'm sorry this has happened to you and can understand why you are upset. For what it's worth, it's against WritingUp policy to copy anything from anywhere & paste it here even if author is given credit.

So there you have it.

I am a syndicated columnist, which means my articles/columns appear all over the web and in places I'd never heard of. But, they are all credited to me, including my bio (I know because I have a google alert for all of them). The purpose in letting any website owner have it to post on their websites is a promotional tool to sell my services/books. But, sometimes it comes back and kicks you in the ass like it did me last night.

If you are a website owner, please adher to the instructions of copying someone else's work. Most do...but then, someone will come along and break all the rules. The owner of the article is put through needless stress and you're in a good position to be sued.

This is copied from Dictionary.com:

plagiarism
n 1: a piece of writing that has been copied from someone else and is presented as being your own work 2: the act of plagiarizing; taking someone's words or ideas as if they were your own

My advice? Don't do it.

Oh, and a heads up...Wabbit posted a link so you can see where your pages end up, too. It's called Copyscape. Here's the link: http://copyscape.com/ .

Plagiarism At WritingUp.com

I am outraged. Pissed beyond comprehension. Tonight, I had a Google Alert come in for one of my syndicated relationship columns. I put all my work in Google Alerts for this very reason.

Go to this link... http://www.writingup.com/node/24456#comment-70644

This guy has stolen my work! No reference as to who the rightful owner is, nothing! I contacted the administrator...this is an outrage!

And my articles aren't the only ones they've stolen. Everyone, if you send out articles, be sure you put them in Google Alerts. While you take pleasure that someone has "borrowed" your article, KEEPING THE BIO AND AUTHOR'S NAME INTACT, it will also come in handy to find out what kind of people there are out there that will steal your work and put their name on them. This is total total outrageous. If the administrator of WritingUp.com doesn't do something about this, I WILL.

A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to Getting Published is released!

I am soooo behind in blogging. I hope everyone whose blog I frequent will excuse me for not visiting, but I have finally put the finishing touches on my writing group's free e-book and we're now set up to give it away! All you have to do to receive the free e-book is go here and fill out the handy dandy form and I'll whip your free e-book out to you.

So much going on!

Received my second rejection today for my relationship book "Are You My Soul Mate?" from Kim Whalen. Sob...sob. It was only number two and I have a few more that have to get back to me. She cited that she doesn't represent this sort of thing (New Age)...didn't know that soul mates were new age...kind of thought it more in the line of relationships, but I guess it could be either. The first rejection came from Maya Rock at Author House. That was a bummer. A few more to go and then I'll start submitting to publishers myself.

On a lighter note, I will be handing out blog awards starting tomorrow. If you have a blog and would like to receive an award from my writing group, The Writersville Gang (www.writersville.homestead.com), leave a comment and I'll check out your site (the graphic is up above).

Not only will you get this cool spiffy award, but you will receive free promo in our newsletter that will go out on March 12. If you haven't signed up for our newsletter, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WritersvilleGangNewsletter/.

On the homefront, we're supposed to have temperatures in the seventies starting Thursday! Can we say global warming or a freak winter?