Cybersecurity Tips During the Pandemic

Recently, I attended a Risk/Security conference for the day gig. I always get excited over the new technologies and possibilities, but the warnings and dangers always make me want to hide under my desk. (And I turned into fan girl when Neil deGrasse Tyson presented one of the keynote speeches.) Here’s what I learned about cybersecurity and working during the pandemic:

• The pandemic has taught us that we need to be flexible and ready to change. Everyone has had to adapt to new ways of doing things.

• Because users are not always working in their traditional offices, they expect applications, systems, and websites to work on different devices. If they don’t they often go elsewhere. (This means that your website/blog needs to be mobile friendly.)

• Hacks, phishing campaigns, and ransomware attacks have increased with everyone working at home and connecting remotely. You need to be alert and careful.

• Do NOT click on anything (e.g. links, email addresses, attachments, pictures, recipes, games, surveys) that you don’t know where it came from. If it looks fishy, delete it.

• Data is extremely valuable to hackers.

• Nomoreransom.org is a valuable resource if you experience a ransomware attack. Help and good advice are available. It also has some deencryption tools. (Ransomware is when someone installs malware on your device. It becomes active and encrypts your files. You’ll receive a request for payment in order to return your data. Often, this malware also steals copies your data.)

• Human error or human behavior (clicking on things) causes 90% of the cyber attacks.

• As a consumer/user, make thoughtful decisions and know how to avoid security risks.

• Email is one of the top ways that hackers get access to you.

• Make sure that you back up your files regularly. Your data is important.

• Use a SPAM filter to get rid of unwanted email.

• Make sure that you have anti-virus software on your computer and that it is current.

• Stay current with your patches and updates. These include updates and security fixes for vulnerabilities. There are regular patches for your operating system, and often, software you use will have updates.

• In 2020, there’s been a 71% increase in malware on mobile devices.

#ThisorThatThursday Interview with Debbie DeLouise

I’d like to welcome author and librarian, Debbie DeLouise, to the blog today for #ThisorThatThursday.

Favorite thing to do when you have free time: Read, exercise (walk/run), play with my cats

The thing you’ll always move to the bottom of your to do list: Cleaning

Things you need when you’re in your writing cave: Quiet

Things that distract you from writing: Social Media and emails

Hardest thing about being a writer: Rejections

Easiest thing about being a writer: Ideas

Favorite snacks: Popcorn cakes,

Things that make you want to gag: Injured or abused animals.

Favorite smell: lilacs

Something that makes you hold your nose: the litter box

Something you wanted to be when you were a kid: A writer

Something you do that you never dreamed you’d do: Be able to jog and run

Last best thing you ate: A brownie

Last thing you regret eating: A brownie

Things you always put in your books: pets

Things you never put in your books: explicit sex

Things to say to an author: I loved your book and am writing a review of it.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I don’t buy books, but I’d love to read yours. When are you putting it up for free?

Favorite places you’ve been: Chicago, St. Louis, Cape May.

Places you never want to go to again: Disney World’s Outdoor Camp Barbecue (got stomach poisoning after)

About Debbie:

Debbie De Louise is a reference librarian at a public library and the author of cozy and traditional mysteries. Her latest release, No Gravestone Unturned, is the 5th book of her Cobble Cove cozy mystery series. She lives on Long Island with her husband, daughter, and three cats.  

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/Deblibrarian

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2750133.Debbie_De_Louise

Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/2bIHdaQ
All Author: https://allauthor.com/author/debbiedelouise/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debbie_writer/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiedelouise/

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Debbie’s Character’s Chat Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/748912598599469/

Website/Blog/Newsletter Sign-Up: https://debbiedelouise.com

Sneaky the Library Cat’s blog: https://Sneakylibrarycat.wordpress.com

What Scooby-Doo Taught Me About Mysteries (and Life)

My love for mysteries started with 70s Saturday morning cartoons like “Scooby-Doo,” “The Funky Phantom,” “Speed Buggy,” and “Josie and the Pussycats.” Overly sweetened cereal, Pop-Tarts, and Saturday morning cartoons were a weekly ritual, and I learned a lot about the mystery genre and life from them. (The Cartoon Network or cable wasn’t around then. Cartoons rarely aired any time except on Saturday mornings, so it was a weekly ritual.)

1. Kids like me could be crime or problem-solvers. In all of the episodes, the gang figured it out and brought the villain to justice (before the adults did).

2. Use what you have available to you. Your wits and creativity go a long way in sleuthing.

3. Keep your eyes open and look for clues. Many times, they’re in plain sight.

4. These kids had the freedom (and a van) to travel to different places. (My mother would have never let me ride around in a van with a bunch of teens solving crimes.) They were so cool.

5. If you don’t know or understand something, ask questions.

6. If you’re clever, alert, and situationally aware, you can gather information and put the puzzle pieces together.

7. Don’t ever stop exploring or learning. We all need to be lifelong learners.

8. Everybody needs a pal or best friend (or a few). They are our sounding boards and support. We all need someone to go into a spooky old house, cave, or dungeon with.

9. Even if something is scary, you can face it. Shag and Scoob were not the bravest creatures, but they always mustered their gumption to trudge on.

10. Do the right thing. Stand up for the underdog and seek truth.

#ThisorThatThursday Interview with Mary Helen Sheriff

I’d like to welcome author, Mary Helen Sheriff to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday! (We found out after we met that we went to the same high school in Virginia Beach.)

Favorite foods: Popcorn and wine

Things that make you want to gag:  scented hand sanitizer and candles

Something you wish you could do: Sing. 

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Rehab a sprained ankle.

Last best thing you ate: The La Parisienne sandwich at Greenbriar Café and Coffeehouse (ham, brie, raspberry jam, aioli, arugula). It’s normally on a baguette, but I had on a croissant--yummy!

Last thing you regret eating:  Chick-Fil-A sandwich and fries

The last thing you ordered online: Mailing labels to make book plates that I can mail to people who can’t come to book signings.

The last thing you regret buying: I bought a custom coffee table and side table from a furniture maker on Etsy. They cost several hundred dollars, and my family told me the tables looked like they’d been built by raccoons.  

Favorite places you’ve been: Greece and Hawaii
Places you never want to go to again: Burlington Coat Factory bathroom (I’ll spare you the details.)

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Skydiving.
Something you chickened out from doing: A bubble run with my husband.

About Mary Helen:

Mary Helen Sheriff spent fourteen years in classrooms teaching elementary school, middle school, college, and professionals. During that time, she also had the pleasure of dabbling in writing for children, teenagers, and adults in a variety of forms including fiction, poetry, blogs, and nonfiction. She spent several summers immersed in an MFA program in children's literature at Hollins University. Currently, she lives and writes in Richmond, Virginia, with her two kids, two cats, and husband.

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What It Takes - Tips for the Writing Journey

I borrowed this meme from the fabulous Judy Penz Sheluk. This is great advice for anyone on his or her writing journey. Usually what keeps someone from succeeding with writing goals is not the lack of creativity or ideas. It’s the determination and grit to put in the time to hone your craft and learn about the industry.

I looked up some synonyms for hard-working:

• Diligent

• Persistent

• Industrious

• Enduring

• Relentless

Writing is work. If you want to be published, you will have to wear many hats and put in the blood, sweat, time, and tears. Each milestone in the writing journey brings new tasks and challenges. You need to find what works for you and your career. You need to carve out your writing time and guard it fiercely.

Build your author platform. Even if you’re fortunate to be traditionally published, you will still be expected to maintain a social media presence on a variety of sites and have a website and email list. It takes time to interact with your readers and build your following.

If you are querying agents or publishers, it takes time to research a good fit for your book and to prepare the needed documents to submit. Make sure you follow all instructions. The shotgun approach isn’t effective. You need to do your homework and find out who specializes in your type of book.

Prior to your publication date, you’ll have several rounds of edits and proofreads. Any missed deadlines or delays will affect the publication date. You need to make sure you check content, cover, and formatting. I found incorrect headers and footers in one anthology draft. In another anthology, part of a story was missing. Always read your proofs.

Pub day is exciting and lots of fun, but there are marketing tasks that need to be done before, during and after the celebration. Planning helps here. Decide where you’re going to spend your promotion time and money.

It is exhilarating to hold that book in your hand (Finally!) What an accomplishment and a lot of work. It’s a matter of balance. The writers I know who have deadlines and a routine are the most productive and most successful.

#ThisorThatThursday Interview with Barbara Monajem

I’d like to welcome author, Barbara Monajem, to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

A few of your favorite things: Books, books, books.

Things you need to throw out: Ditto. I got rid of some but so far can’t bring myself to cull any more.

Things you need for your writing sessions: My computer. It doesn’t matter where I am. I used to be able to write on paper, too, but my handwriting has deteriorated steadily and is now almost illegible.

Things that hamper your writing: Not having any idea what will happen in the next scene. Having a great idea about the next scene but not having time to write it.

Things you love about writing: I’m a pantser, so I just start writing and see what happens. It’s a thrill when the story comes together despite my complete lack of planning.

Things you hate about writing: Hate is too strong a word, but I don’t like promotion much. This is partly because I’m introverted and partly because I haven’t figured out how to do it without losing writing time, which is already hard to find.

Things you never want to run out of: Food and water.

Things you wish you’d never bought: Yarn that I will never use, especially if the moths have gotten to it.

Words that describe you: Introverted.

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Ditto. Being introverted is inconvenient. I have learned to introduce myself to people at meetings and conferences, but I don’t think I’ll ever be comfortable doing so.

Favorite foods: Cheese, almost any kind. Raw oysters. Most kinds of fruit. Arugula. Chocolate. And many more…

Things that make you want to gag: Baked beans. They don’t make me gag anymore, but I found them disgusting when I was a kid. I remember eating at a friend’s house, and dinner proved to be a big plate of…baked beans! Aaaagh! I was way too shy to complain, so I mastered the urge to gag and swallowed every mouthful.

Favorite beverage: Tea, especially with a bit of rose or cardamom flavor.

Something that gives you a sour face: Lemon juice, but it’s a good kind of sour.

Something you wish you could do: Speak several languages fluently.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: I don’t regret learning anything!

The last thing you ordered online: One of my own books. By accident – I clicked the wrong button.

The last thing you regret buying: See above.

Things you always put in your books: Romance, although in mysteries it’s either secondary or a slowly building relationship over several stories.

Things you never put in your books: Graphic violence

Favorite things to do: Writing. Cooking. Walking.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Well, I hate making phone calls. I would eat bugs if they were prepared properly. However, I’ll take a pass on running through a fire. Phone calls are much easier, when in put in perspective.

Most embarrassing moment: We ate at Olive Garden, and I was so full that I undid the button on the waistband of my skirt. I forgot to button it up again, so when I stood up to go, my skirt fell down! But it was actually pretty funny rather than embarrassing.

Proudest moment: I don’t think much in terms of pride. Maybe when my first paperback was published, eons ago?? It was a children’s fantasy, and I was thrilled, although I didn’t write anything else for ages after that.

About Barbara:

USA Today bestselling author Barbara Monajem wrote her first story at eight years old about apple tree gnomes. She published a middle-grade fantasy when her children were young, then moved on to mystery, fantasy, and Regency romance for adults. She lives near Atlanta, Georgia with an ever-shifting population of relatives, friends, and feline strays.

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Lady Rosamund and the Poison Pen:

Lady Rosamund Phipps, daughter of an earl, has a secret. Well, more than one. Such as the fact that she purposely married a man who promised to leave her alone and stick to his mistress. And a secret only her family knows—the mortifying compulsion to check things over and over. Society condemns people like her to asylums. But when she discovers the dead body of a footman on the stairs, everything she’s tried to hide for years may be spilled out in broad daylight.

First the anonymous caricaturist, Corvus, implicates Lady Rosamund in a series of scandalous prints. Worse, though, are the poison pen letters that indicate someone knows the shameful secret of her compulsions. She cannot do detective work on her own without seeming odder than she already is, but she has no choice if she is to unmask both Corvus and the poison pen. Her sanity—and her life—are at stake.

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087BBLLNL/

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B087BBLLNL/

Amazon Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B087BBLLNL/

Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B087BBLLNL/

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lady-rosamund-and-the-poison-pen-barbara-monajem/1136829963

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/lady-rosamund-and-the-poison-pen

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/lady-rosamund-and-the-poison-pen/id1507264864

Lord Bellweather’s Lady:

How does a lady escape a fate worse than death? She runs away to the fairies...

When Augusta Furlough flees her vile brother to plead with the fairies to take her in, she’s rescued by a handsome stranger on a huge, dark charger, and whisked away to his home. Grateful but suspicious of his motives, she’s determined to leave and try the fairies once again.

Lord Bellweather, the half-human liaison with the fairies, spent most of his youth in their realm. Now he’s taking his place in the human world and must adapt to its peculiar customs. What better prospect for marriage than a delightful lady who understands human society and also believes in fairies?

But it’s not that simple, for Augusta is branded a madwoman, and Bellweather is also part hellhound, a ferocious otherworldly beast with which not even a desperate madwoman could fall in love.

Buy links:

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Lord-Bellweathers-Lady-Magical-Regency-ebook/dp/B08HSHKYBM

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lord-Bellweathers-Lady-Magical-Regency-ebook/dp/B08HSHKYBM

Amazon Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/Lord-Bellweathers-Lady-Magical-Regency-ebook/dp/B08HSHKYBM

Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/Lord-Bellweathers-Lady-Magical-Regency-ebook/dp/B08HSHKYBM

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/lord-bellweather-s-lady

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lord-bellweathers-lady-barbara-monajem/1137618360

#WriterWednesday Interview with Tina deBellegarde

I’d like to welcome author, Tina deBellegarde, to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

Hardest thing about being a writer: Self-promotion. It’s so hard to say to a world full of great writing, Look at me, I’m an author, read me!

Easiest thing about being a writer: When the story and the characters take over. It fascinates me every time and it’s my favorite part of writing. I feel like I’m channeling.

Words that describe you: energetic, optimistic, compulsive problem-solver

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Short, worrier, insomniac, chatterbox (while also being an introvert)

Favorite foods: Croissants, lemon ice-cream, gnocchi, pizza on the grill, fresh fruit of any kind

Things that make you want to gag: Peach fuzz. It’s making me pucker just writing it.

Favorite music or song: Bossa Nova – It relaxes me under any conditions. I cook to it, I write to it, I clean to it.

Music that drives you crazy: Harpsichord

Favorite beverage: Daytime: Coffee, coffee, coffee. Evening: Bourbon

Something that gives you a sour face: Kiwi, love them and yet…

Something you wish you could do: Sing. My sister has a beautiful voice. Me, not so much. I grew up in a household where my dad sang or whistled all the time. My parents often played music at dinner and my dad would stop his meal to take me, my mom or my sister for a twirl around the kitchen. I could dance, but I couldn’t sing.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: File taxes and decipher legal documents.

Things you’d walk a mile for: Lemon ice-cream. A ride in a hot air balloon.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Snakes

Things you always put in your books: Music always seems to make it into my stories.

Things you never put in your books: Sex

Things to say to an author: Stick with it.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: Do it my way.

Favorite things to do: Writing, cooking, baking, binging old films, sitting in front of a fireplace reading, sitting by the ocean reading, sitting under a tree reading…talking to my husband and son about books and films.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Public Speaking

Most embarrassing moment: Playing Betsy Ross in the school play next to my second grade crush Patrick Henry.

Proudest moment: Seeing my son Alessandro off to live in Japan the day after he graduated. I thought he was so courageous and adventurous to just pick up and do that. I was so sad, but I never shed a tear until the plane took off. Sad or not, I was so proud of him. Ten years later he is still there.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Take hot air balloon piloting lessons

Something you chickened out from doing: Karaoke. Did I mention I can’t sing?

The coolest person you’ve ever met: A serenading monk at the Daisen-In Zen Temple in Kyoto. When he learned I was from New York, he sang My Way for me.

The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: I once passed Mary Tyler Moore on the street walking her dog. She was so completely covered with a scarf, hat and huge dark glasses that I never noticed her. My friend, who was MTM’s neighbor, told me after the fact.

About Tina:

Tina deBellegarde lives in Catskill, New York with her husband Denis and their cat Shelby. Winter Witness is the first book in the Batavia-on-Hudson Mystery Series. Tina also writes short stories and flash fiction. When she isn’t writing, Tina is helping Denis tend their beehives, harvest shiitake mushrooms, and cultivate their vegetable garden. She travels to Japan regularly to visit her son Alessandro. Tina did her graduate studies in history. She is a former exporter, paralegal, teacher, and library clerk. Visit her website for more information and purchase links: www.tinadebellegarde.com

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Use Your Time Wisely - Tips for Writers

“Use your time wisely,” was the mantra of my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Wells. Make sure you use available time to work ahead and complete tasks. I can still hear her voice in my head. This applies to writers, too.

There is a lot of downtime or waiting time in the writing process. When you send queries to agents or publishers, you could wait weeks or months for the response (if there is one). If you’re traditionally published, there is also a lot of time between signing the contract and getting your box of books.

Use your time wisely. Write your next book. Many publishing contracts are for a series. If you’ve only written the first book, you will suddenly have a series of deadlines. There is also a lot of downtime after you send the manuscript to your editor and before you get proofs.

It took me close to five years from when I started my first Delanie novel until it was published. I’ve gotten faster over the years. I have a daily quota now when I’m writing a novel. I try to hit my word count during each writing session. It does make a difference. I wrote two novels, one novella, and three short stories last year. I also did revisions and edits to two other books.

Writers need to build their social media platforms when they start writing. Start a blog or podcast. Find ways to grow your email list. Build up followers on your sites. Agents and publishers do look at your sites to see how active you are on social media.

You need to balance your life and your writing time, but make sure you’re taking advantage of the downtime.