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RUBY FRIDAY: The july Birth Stone

7/28/2017

In keeping with the birthstone for July, I had to write about rubies. The heroine in my romantic suspense series is named Harriet Ruby, so I couldn't pass up the connection. Harriet's last name was originally Rubinetto, which means faucet in Italian. It was changed by an immigration officer who must have thought no one should be named after a plumbing fixture.

WHEN IS A SAPPHIRE NOT A SAPPHIRE?
Answer: When it's a ruby.
Huh?
That's because both rubies and sapphires are created from corundum (aluminum oxide plus various traces iron and sometimes small bits of chromium and titanium). Mineral Corundum creates two distinct gemstones: Rubies and Sapphires. The only difference is color.

While sapphires come in many beautiful colors, only red corundum with a certain saturation of color is considered a Ruby. Otherwise, it is classified as a pink sapphire. Until the 1800s, gemologists didn't understand that rubies and sapphires come from the same mineral.

Corundum is a tough mineral second only to diamonds in hardness. Although it is found in many places throughout the world, including the US, rubies have become hard to find and stones over three carats are quite rare. Most rubies today, even expensive ones, have been treated in some manner. Heat treatment is the most common.

All natural rubies have imperfections in color and inclusions of rutile needles known as silk because of their thread-like pattern. Gemologists use these, which are found in all natural rubies, to identify them from synthetics, substitutes, and treated stones.
Below - Photos of rutile patterns in rubies

WHAT ARE RUBIES USED FOR?

Jewelry, jewelry, jewelry! Yes, yes, yes!
Ruby is one of the oldest gemstones known to man. Representing passion and power, rubies been around for thousands of years and worn by Kings, Queens, royalty, and priests throughout history. In addition to their great beauty, their hardness and durability make them particularly ideal for jewelry.

Industrial Uses
Corundum and very low grade rubies have industrial uses because of the hardness. It's mainly used as an abrasive known as emery (like in emery boards).

The mineral also has refractive properties. Because I can't explain something I don't understand, I'll simply point out that the refractive properties of corundum were used by Theodore Maiman in 1960 to made the first successful laser.

Medicinal Uses
Clearly, the use of ruby and most other gemstones for medicinal purposes falls into the folklore category. However, leading gemologist and gem expert George Frederick Kunz's book The Curious Lore of Precious Stones, published in 1913, reflects his belief that there was a great deal to be learned by studying the ways such stones were used by different cultures at different times. The roots of folklore stems sometimes from some intrinsic quality of the mineral, sometimes from the symbolic significance of the gem.
● Ruby works with the flow of blood as an aid to circulation. It aids the cleansing and removal of infection or germs in the blood. "Ruby is helpful for blood-related health issues, such as anemia, menstrual issues, and poor circulation." http://www.beadage.net/gemstones/gemstonesT_Z.shtml
● "Gemstone meanings are derived based upon how the vibration level of a specific stone affects our bodies, minds, and soul. Gemstone Healing is real and allows us to take advantage of this natural magic (energy) as we bring the energy we need into our lives."
http://gemstone-dictionary.com/

SOME WORLD FAMOUS RUBIES

● The Sunrise Ruby
The most expensive colored gemstone in the world, "The Sunrise Ruby," the cushion-cut stone of almost 26 carats set between two shield-shaped diamonds of almost three carats each brought $30.3 million at Sotheby’s Geneva in May, 2015, breaking the world auction record for the gem." (May 23, 2015 2:42 pm, By Danielle Arnet The Smart Collector)

● The Rosser-Reeves Star Ruby
The Rosser-Reeves is the finest and largest 138.7 carat star ruby placed at Smithsonian Institution Washington D.C. This brilliant stone was found in a Sri Lankan mine. Named after Mr. Rosser Reeves who donated it, this stone is clear (almost translucent) with a six rayed star. In 1966 it was insured for $150,000.

● The Liberty Bell Ruby
This is the largest mined ruby in the world. I've included it because in 2011 it was stolen in a gem heist from a jewelry store in Delaware. At that time, the four-pound stone had been appraised at $2 million. Most of the articles predicted it would never be seen again. Instead, it was recovered in 2014 (more or less a fluke) and four men were arrested. Later newspaper articles about the recovery refer to it as being worth $4 million.

● The De Long Star Ruby
It is a 100 carat oval cabochon displayed at American Museum of Natural History New York. Martin Ehrmann sold this piece of beauty to Edith Haggin De Long for $21,400.

● The Edwards Ruby
Named after Major General Sir Herbert Benjamin it was 167 carat Burmese ruby donated by John Ruskin in 1887 to British Museum of Natural History.

VARIOUS MEANINGS OF THE RUBY
Over the centuries, various cultures have contributed to the legends and folklore of gems. Because rubies are among the oldest known gems, the stone has a rich heritage of meanings and has inspired philosophers and mystics to attribute unusual powers to rubies. A few of the folklore "meanings" and "uses" include:

     ● The most powerful gem in the universe, and it is associated with many astral signs.
     ● A strong healer for the heart and blood.
     ● To bring about a positive and courageous state of mind.
     ● To bring enlightenment to humanity.
     ● To encourage passion for life.
     ● To provide a powerful shield during controversy.
     ● A shield that sends out protective energies to surround you at all times.
     ● To provide a protection from misfortune and bad health.
     ● To open the heart and promote love.
     ● A symbol of friendship and love, when given as a gift.
     ● A symbol of vitality and royalty.
     ● To bring contentment and peace.
     ● To bring success in business & good fortune in money matters, if you dream of a ruby.
     ● A ward against bad dreams, when placed under a pillow.
     ● A stimulant to nurturing emotions and economic stability.
     ● To shield from psychic attacks.
     ● To amplify energy.
     ● To give the courage to be best potential that a person has.

The list goes on and on, and I won't bore you with it. It's Mythology. Today, owning ruby jewelry it's undoubtedly a status symbol.

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU IF SOMEONE GAVE YOU A RUBY?
Originally posted on RB4U blogsite
Resources
http://www.gemstoneeducation.com/Rubies.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby
https://crystal-cure.com/ruby-gem.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Bell_Ruby
http://gemstone-dictionary.com/
http://famousdiamonds.tripod.com/mandalayruby.html
http://meanings.crystalsandjewelry.com/crystals-r
http://www.jewelinfo4u.com/World_Famous_Rubies.aspx
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/01/09/irreplaceable-2-million-ruby-stolen-in-wilmington-jewelry-heist/
http://www.beadage.net/gemstones/gemstonesT_Z.shtml
http://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/spring-2014-gemnews-tucson-rutilated-quartz
http://www.ruby-sapphire.com/the-silk-road-rutile-in-corundum.htm
http://www.gemselect.com/other-info/gemstone-meanings.php
http://tucson.com/lifestyles/the-sunrise-ruby-sale-breaks-world-auction-record/article_56881674-5de9-59dd-a571-9cae46811a62.html

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an Italian-American Love Story

7/21/2017

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Everyone Has A Story
Everyone has a story, and for many people that story is a romance … although not all of them have happy endings in real life. That's one of the wonderful aspects of the romance novels. You can become anyone, go anywhere, and experience every emotion, without leaving home and without risk. And you experience the joy of H.E.A.

My Story: How I Met My Husband
After graduating from UC Berkeley in 1963 with a degree in architecture, I went to Rome to study at the University of Rome. I arrived via London, where I'd spent a week with a friend from Berkeley. On July 26, my first day in Rome and at the Fountain of Love in Piazza Esedra (also called Piazza Della Republica), I met the man I married and am still married to after more than fifty years.

The Fountain of Love in Piazza Esedra The Day We Met: July 26, 1963

I’d just arrived by train that afternoon from London, and had eaten nothing all day. Once I found a place to stay for a few days, I went looking for an American Bar that I remembered from my first time in Rome. I was dying for a hamburger after a week in England.

The café (I can't recall the name anymore) wasn't far from my rooming house near the train station, located on Via Nazionale, which intersected with Piazza Della Republica. However, there were, and still are, at least five streets traversing that piazza. I planned sit down by the fountain in the center of the piazza to figure it out.

In those day (long before air conditioning), during the hot summer afternoons, the Italians sat around the rims of the fountains seeking cool relief from the heat in the light fountain spray. The only cool place around. And, of course, it was packed with photographers taking pictures of tourists.

Love At First Sight: Well, Maybe.
When I got there and waited for a break in the traffic to cross the street, I noticed, sitting on the rim of the fountain, a good looking man who made me think of the Italian actor, Marcello Mastroianni.

Pretty cool. I didn't delude myself that it was the actor, but the man looked a lot like him. That was good enough. I skipped across the street, dodging cars and motor scooters in my three inch spiked heels, and sat down next to him.

After a while, he started talking to me (Heh! Heh! Heh!), but I don't remember how we communicated. He spoke a little English, I spoke a few words in Italian from one semester of the language at Berkeley. Despite the communication problem, I learned he was a Guardia of the Pubblica Sicurezza, a state policeman, who worked in the passport office.

Guardia di Pubblica Securezza Luciano is the one goofing off Main Police Station in Rome

And when he invited me to dinner, I accepted. Oh, yeah. We found other ways to communicate, as young people usually do. Things got very friendly on the steps of the Palazzo Della Civitá, but it was dark by then—thank goodness— and we were up a million steps from street level, under the arcade. Palazzo Della Civitá

Under other circumstances, I probably would have slapped his face (that's my story and I'm sticking with it) and left, but I had no Italian money and didn’t know where I was or how to get to my hotel. Well, I was young, inexperienced, and not the brightest bulb on the tree.

When he returned me to my pensione late that night, we made a date for the next afternoon. A date I almost missed because I had to register for Italian classes at a language school. I met two other American girls who wanted to share a room, and the time slipped away. I had to run all the way from the bus to the rooming house to catch him before he left.

H.E.A.
After that, I was smitten. A couple of months later, I had to look up the word fidanzata in my Italian-English dictionary to find out I was engaged. In December we got married in a civil ceremony at City Hall (the Campidoglio).

But that's just the beginning of the saga. I'll save the rest for another time.

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TIME MANAGEMENT FOR AUTHORS

7/14/2017

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FEELING OVERWHELMED?
Most writers experience, at times, the feeling of being overwhelmed. Sometimes I feel like I'm running on a railroad track, and the train behind me is getting closer and closer. Now, even more so with the growing pressure to have a presence on the social media. One class I took advised writers to do a hundred tweets a day to five hundred people.

I don't know. I don't have a hundred things to tweet about in a day, much less interesting things.

MANAGE YOUR TIME
Wisdom and experience suggest that many writers could do a better job of managing their time, particularly during those high-intensity weeks or months when everything seems to come crashing down. Well, duh! That's a no brainer.
.
There are lots of blogs and books about how to do just that. Writers have advice and tips for others and personal experiences to share. And, if you've been part of corporate America at one point in time, you've probably either read books or taken courses on time management.

Yes. Time management is a good thing. It's a skill we all should practice. Taking one class isn't enough. You need a refresher course about every six months to regroup and get back on track.

It's worth doing and there are lots of things writers can learn, particularly from each other, about what works and what doesn't, such as using a kitchen timer and limiting your time on social media. Listen when your friends want to share their ideas.

WHERE DID WE MISS THE BOAT?
In our efforts to do it all, it's possible to lose our way.

Point One: The Vital Few vs. The Trivial Many
Controlling the time you spend on your different activities isn't enough. Sure, you have to do it, but you need to apply the Pareto Principle (the Golden Rule of Time Management) in the process.

"Which is?" she asked.

Without going into all the gory details of its history, the Pareto Principle states that "20 percent of a person's effort generates 80 percent of the results."

No matter the nature of the work you're talking about, 20 percent of the work (the first 10 percent and the last 10 percent) consume 80 percent of your time and resources. According to F. Hohn Reh:
     "The value of the Pareto Principle for a manager is that it reminds you to focus on the 20
     percent that matters. Of the things you do during your day, only 20 percent really matter.
    Those 20 percent produce 80 percent of your results. Identify and focus on those things.
    When the fire drills of the day begin to sap your time, remind yourself of the 20 percent
    you need to focus on. If something in the schedule has to slip, if something isn't going to
    get done, make sure it's not part of that 20 percent." [Pareto's Principle - The 80-20 Rule By
     F. John Reh] http://management.about.com/cs/generalmanagement/a/Pareto081202.htm

Thus, writers, like everyone, should shift their focus to those activities that produce results rather than on activities which do not.

Point Two: Urgent vs. Important
To apply the Pareto Principle, writers must learn the difference between urgent and important activities.

A good share of the 80% of your work that doesn't produce results falls into the "urgent" category. And if you don't think about it, and if you don't set goals and priorities, it's easy to fall into the trap of responding to tasks that may be urgent, but not important.
▪ Important activities have an outcome that leads to the achievement of your goals.
▪ Urgent activities demand immediate attention, and are often associated with the achievement of someone else's goals. We concentrate on these because they are the "squeaky wheels that get the grease." They demand attention because the consequences of not dealing with them are immediate.

And we tend to set aside the important tasks until later “when I have time.”

Right. And that “time” never comes. Those back-burner items never seem to get done. Here are three examples of "The Urgent":
     ▪ Pressing or burning imperatives that must be completed
       immediately.
     ▪ Critical or vital tasks that someone else insists be
       performed without delay.
     ▪ Unrelenting and persistent routine demands on your time.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn't address the Urgent. But instead of dropping what you’re doing, ask yourself the following and then decide if you are going to stop working on the important activity for the urgent one.
     ▪ Is it a priority? Will it produce a longer time, important result?
     ▪ Does the task need to be done right at this moment, or is there something else on
       your list that should come first?
     • Could someone else do it?
     ▪ Is it going to take your focus off of more important tasks with long-term results?
   ▪ Does the task need immediate attention, though it has only small and short-term
       results?
     ▪ If left undone, is the problem likely to grow into something important as well as urgent? What are the consequences of not doing it right now?

Point Three: Effective vs. Efficient
Many writers often don't have a clear understanding of the difference between working efficiently and working effectively.

We all should strive to use our time both effectively and efficiently; there's a difference and we need to be aware of it.
     ▪ Effective (adj.) Adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or expected result. Being effective is all about doing the right things (to produce the results, achieve the goals, etc.)
    ▪ Efficient (adj.) Performing or functioning in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort. Being efficient is all about doing things in the right/correct manner.

Tim Ferris, in his 2007 bestseller The 4-Hour Work Week suggests we learn to focus our attention on the 20% of our activities that contribute to 80% of the results. Gee, that sounds familiar.

Point Four: Overcome Procrastination
Procrastination is a time stealer that can be eliminated. People tend to procrastinate for two reasons.
     ▪ The task is considered to be unpleasant. To overcome a reluctance to engage in less pleasant tasks, tackle the difficult ones first and get them over with. Otherwise, you will fret about it and not do anything and it still needs to be done.
     ▪ The entire task looks overwhelming. So much so that a person doesn’t know where to begin. Break the task down into smaller tasks based on sequence and priority, and tackle them one at a time.

Point Five: Doing the Right Things
How do we figure out what "the right things" are? Well, they are those activities that produce the results we want.

There's rub. You have to know what results you want. Not enough writers take the time to really understand what they want out of writing or what results they want to produce.

I know, I know. Every writer wants to be on the New York Times best seller list. We all want to sell millions of copies of our books and earn a seven figure salary. We want it all...and most of us probably can't have it all. And ... it isn't all about what we want, or think we want?

WHY DO I WRITE?
We all know the answer to that. We write because we are compelled to write. Our DNA demands it. No choice. I think of it as a genetic defect all writers share.

However, we do make choices about what we write, how often, the genres we write in, how or if we publish, and so on. Just like our characters, those decisions are driven as much by what results we need as those we want.

When we create a character in a novel, we write down what the character is most afraid of, what he/she wants (goals), and what he/she needs (internal motivation). And as a writer, you know "wants" and "needs" are not necessarily the same thing. That works in novels because those motivations also drive real live human beings. Us.

Do you have a handle on what you need as a writer? Not what you want, but that subliminal inner need that compels you to write?

Can you articulate your need to write? If you can, you shouldn't have any trouble figuring out "the right things" to spend your time on.

MY 2 CENTS, FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH
● Know why you write
● Know the results you need and want from your writing
● Set goals and priorities
● Focus on those activities that produce the results
● Be aware of time management and don't leave it to chance
● Avoid Procrastimation
● Ask yourself constantly, "What is the best use of my time right now?" and
● PUT YOUR BUTT IN THE CHAIR AND WRITE

If you're not actually writing, then most of the other activities aren't going to matter anyway.
There! Now, that was easy. I feel so much better and relaxed.

Resources
http://www.procrastinationhelp.com/time-management/gurus.html
http://derekstockley.com.au/guru.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle
http://management.about.com/cs/generalmanagement/a/Pareto081202.htm
http://www.pinnicle.com/Articles/Pareto_Principle/pareto_principle.html
http://management.about.com/cs/generalmanagement/a/Pareto081202.htm

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New Release: All For A Fist Full of Ashes

7/7/2017

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Readers always want to know where authors get their story ideas. This is how my new release All For A Fistful Of Ashes, second novel in the Tour Director Extraordinaire series, came about.

The first book of the series, All For A Dead Man's Leg, was an experiment to see if I could write in first person and write humor. I'd never done either. The romantic suspense featured a young tour director finding out what life was all about and a Europol spy with a dark past. I loved the characters, and I loved the voice, but I never intended to write a series featuring Harriet Ruby and Will Talbot. So, needless to say, the second book wasn’t planned.

THE INSPIRATION
In early 2005, my Italian-American daughter-in-law and some members of her family decided to take a trip to Italy. She was taking her son, my grandson, so I decided to make the trip with another grandson who was about the same age.

After mass confusion, and a lot of family members wanting to go and then opting out, it ended up with thirteen Italian-Americans, including four teenagers, and my daughter-in-law's father, Vita Zaso, who grew up in Palermo.

Oh, man! Knowing the way Italians make group decisions, the trip was going to be a predictable disaster. So I decided I should at least get the material for a book out of it.

A group of Italian-Americans taking a tour of Italy was a natural setting for my heroine Harriet Ruby, Tour Guide Extraordinaire. And if Harriet was my heroine, I needed Will Talbot on the trip with a spy story for him to chase after. So I came up with a story idea based on some family history and wrote the first three chapters before the trip, in part so I knew what to look for. The working title was "The Italian Train Wreck" and, as you can imagine, that's what the trip turned out to be: A Train Wreck.

The characters in the book are fictitious, and not based on my relatives―a reviewer for Coffee Time Romance, wrote she didn't think there was a more obnoxious family on the planet than the Spinella/Mazza clan―but the trip provided many incidents that spiced up the novel and quite a few that didn't get into the book.

Part of our Italian-American family The four teenagers and Italian friends plus Vito Haley, Christian, Tyler, and Nick

Another ironic piece of the story behind the story is the brouhaha over the cremated ashes. A year after this book was written, Vito Zaso died. At his request, he was cremated. He also requested that his ashes with other family members in Palermo.

My daughter-in-law and her siblings went through all kinds of misery and discontent getting the ashes into Italy. To get permission, they had to have another death certificate issued with the address of the final location. They didn't have the address and went through a lot to get it. Ultimately, they didn't have to smuggle the ashes wrapped in cigars, but at one point it seemed like that might be the best shot. The incident validated my research, and I dedicated the book to Vito.

Of all the books I've written, this was the most fun.

Also, my oldest son has raised and bred green tree pythons and other constrictors since he was in middle school, so I have had somewhat "unwilling" experience with snakes. However, no one brought a snake on the real trip.

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
Part of this story is based loosely on my husband's maternal grandmother, Orsola Giannoni, born in Florence. She met a Sicilian sailor at a festival in Pisa and married him against her family's wishes. As a result, they disowned her and severed all contact.

In those days, Sicilians were considered lower than pond slime by northern Italians, and even today that is somewhat the case. My husband says his grandmother had red hair, blue eyes, and never spoke Sicilian in all the years she lived in Sicily because she thought it was such an ugly dialect.

She never heard from her family again.

During WWII, when the Americans were bombing Messina (Sicily), my husband, in his early teens, and his family left the city and lived in Bordonaro, a mountain town not too far away. Three families lived together in an old barn. Orsola, then an old woman, died during the heaviest part of the bombing.
WWII photo - bombing in Messina ▼

Because of the attack, there was no one to take her body away. The families that lived in the barn built a coffin out of the dining table, the only wood available, and used the casket as a table for several days. My mother-in-law used to tell the story of crying all through the meals and asking, "Mamma, do you want a glass of wine?" When the bombing stopped, government officials took away all the dead bodies
en mass -- many had been killed -- and the family never found out where Orsola was buried.

ABOUT ALL FOR A FIST FULL OF ASHES

OVERVIEW
In All For A Fist Full of Ashes, tour director Harriet Ruby and Europol spy and special operative, Will Talbot -- who've been seeing each other for a year since meeting in Morocco -- come together in Italy where their work assignments again overlap.

Harriet is conducting a custom tour for fourteen members of an Italian-American family from New Jersey. The family matriarch is on a quest to find the unknown location of her mother's grave so she can bury her brother's cremated ashes which have been smuggled into Italy wrapped as Cuban cigars. Will has one of the family members under surveillance as a suspect in an assassination conspiracy.

Charming the matriarch, Will coaxes an invitation from her to join the tour. The quirky family members, including the four unruly teenagers and a pet green tree python named Fluffy, sweep through Italy in search of relatives and a lost grave and leave chaos, hilarity, and danger in their wake.

Will and Harriet find traveling together for twenty-four hours a day threatens their budding relationship which is fraught trust issues. Harriet wants to be involved in everything, and Will won't – or can't -- tell her anything about his case. Harriet's intervention leads her to intuit the time, place and victim of the conspiracy. Unable to reach Will, she puts herself in danger to thwart the assassination.

BLURB
I’m Harriet Ruby: Tour Director Extraordinaire. At least, I thought I was worthy of that title.

My first mistake: Agreeing to conduct a private tour of Italy. Fourteen Italian-Americans from New Jersey? All family, for three weeks, with four teenagers? What was I thinking? Fate responds to my engraved invitation by placing one of the family members under surveillance as a suspect in an assassination plot. And who is assigned to the case? None other than my favorite drop-dead-gorgeous spy, Will Talbot.

My second mistake: Allowing Will to coax an invitation from the family matriarch to join the tour.

And that was just the beginning. The matriarch, searching for the unknown location of her mother's grave so she can bury her brother's cremated ashes (which have been smuggled into Italy wrapped in Cuban cigars), and her quirky family members sweep through Italy leaving chaos, hilarity, and danger in their wake.
□
This blog will be posted also on the Romance Books 4 Us [RB4U] Blog on July 10, 2017

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RUBY FRIDAY: The july Birth Stone

an Italian-American Love Story

TIME MANAGEMENT FOR AUTHORS

New Release: All For A Fist Full of Ashes

Author R. Ann Siracusa

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