Marilyn's Musings

I’ve never liked February much. More snow, ice, and cold. This year with record-breaking winter weather, I bet a lot of readers are eager to forget winter. How about curling up with a thriller – Ignore the Pain ? Besides being exciting this book gives you a chance to do some armchair traveling to Bolivia, possibly a place you’ve never considered. Let’s start with a fast-paced plot. In Ignore the Pain , Sara Almquist couldn’t say no when invited to be the epidemiologist on a public health mission to assess children’s health in Bolivia. Soon someone from her past is chasing her through the Witches’ Market and churches of La Paz. Unfortunately, she can’t decide whether to trust any of her new colleagues, especially the unsavory Xave Zack, as she learns more about coca production and the god Tio of the silver mines of Potosí than she ever wanted to know. The let’s add the excitement of an exotic location. What do you like to do when you travel? See historical sites, sho...

Authors wear at least three hats – writer, publicist, and business executive. Instead of investing time and money in another seminar on how to manage your time more effectively, consider reading Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight . Don’t shake your head no, keep reading! Set priorities In Chapter One of Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight , Linda Almquist receives this advice on setting priorities when she begins a new job . “There are three types of problems. A few problems are like wine; those situations improve if you delay decisions and let them age. Most problems are like waste paper. You can ignore them because they don’t matter. Unfortunately like waste paper, they tend to be messy when they pile up. And some problems are like manure. You must identify them quickly before they stink.” Most of us are so swamped by our “waste paper” problems, that we ignore the “manure problems.” For example, I dribble away my time agonizing over the position of pictures in...