Sandra L. Rostirolla's Blog, page 2

Hi all,

I'm being interviewed today, Thurs May 30th, 5pm (PST) on Thorne & Cross: Haunted Nights LIVE!

I'll be talking about my writing journey, the genesis of my YA/Fantasy, CECILIA, and how I over came story pitfalls and the dreaded writer's block.

Here's the link to listen in:
Haunted Nights LIVE! - Sandra L Rostirolla

I am running a promo to give away 25 free Audible audio books of CECILIA. All you have to do is repost this offer on Instagram or Twitter and tag me "@SLRostirolla" or repost on Facebook and tag "CeciliaTheNovel".

Those who already have the audio book and want to share anyway, just let me know that you're sharing for love only.

Currently, this is for US only.

I only have limited Promo Codes to give out, so folks need to jump on this quickly.

Hi All,

GABfest was fantastic. Along with meeting some brilliant writers, I met new fans and got to see some awesome South Dakota sights: Deadwood, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse and the unexpected Wonderland Cave.

Rapid City is delightful and one of the cleanest cities I've seen in the US. The Firehouse Restaurant was #1 for food and the Alex Johnson Hotel is very much recommended. Apparently, one of the rooms on the eighth floor is haunted.

For photos: Cecilia The Novel

Writers with recently published, I highly recommend submitting to the Literary Classics. The peeps that run this award really do care.

Keep writing everyone!

I will be attending the GABfest to pick up my two awards for CECILIA. I will also be doing a reading and book signing.

Great American Book Festival
Saturday, May 11, 2019
Main Street Square
Rapid City, South Dakota

Come join me!

For More Information including Event Schedules Visit GABfest

I'm excited to announce that CECILIA is a finalist for the Wishing Shelf Book Awards. Hosted in the UK, this Award is decided by the intended audience for the selected books: Children & Young Adults.

The books were read and judged by children in 8 UK primary and secondary schools, the adult books by 2 Reading Groups, 1 in London and 1 in Stockholm. The books were marked according to EDITING, THEME, STYLE, COVER and, in the case of many of the children’s books, ILLUSTRATIONS.

The WINNERS will be announced on April 1st, 2019.

While curled up in bed fighting the flu, I came across Ashley Carman’s TheVerge.com article: Comedians are coming for one of Instagram’s biggest joke aggregators. The tagline: #fuckfuckjerry is spreading piqued my interest. I had recently binged the Hulu and Netflix Fyre Festival docos and was familiar with Fuck Jerry Media and their not-so-savory involvement in the elite music festival fiasco.

So, what exactly is the #FuckFuckJerry movement all about? In order to understand #FuckFuckJerry, one needs to understand FuckJerry. The @FuckJerry Instagram Account is primarily an aggregator; meaning, they source material rather than creating their own original content, and it’s the nature of their ‘sourcing’ that is fundamental to #FuckFuckJerry.

The easiest way to explain the controversy is to use this comparison. Imagine that instead of sending out a call for entries, America's Funniest Videos (AFV) scoured the web and found already published funny videos, broadcast them for all to watch, stopped offering Bobble-Heads, T-shirts, flights, accommodation and prizes for winning videos, while continuing to make money on advertising revenue. Under this new model, AFF would be slapped with multiple copyright infringement lawsuits.

Instapages like FuckJerry may seem innocent enough—a place to go for a bit of laugh. But the truth is, they are money making machines. The whole point of Copyright law is to protect the artist from unscrupulous business folk. #GramPirates like FuckJerry use Memes, Tweets and Videos created by others to build a following then sell advertising without remunerating the copyright owners. In some cases, they have permission to use the content, but historically, their model has been more of a pirate’s approach: take now and only ask questions later if someone comes after me.

Since the start of the #FuckFuckJerry movement, which is only about 2-3 days ago, FuckJerry’s following has dropped from 14.3 million follows to 14.1, and the company seems to be taking note. In a follow up article on TheVerge.com by Nick Statt: Fuckjerry founder apologizes for stealing jokes and pledges to get creator permission, Nick writes, “Elliot Tebele, founder of marketing firm Jerry Media and creator of the popular Fuckjerry Instagram account, said today that his company will no longer post content without being able to identify its creator and without that creator’s express and advance consent.”

In short, Fuckjerry is lowering its Skull and Cross Bones, but only to half-mast. They’re still making money and not compensating the creators.

I am not opposed to giving art away for free. I’ve done several promotions for my YA/Fantasy, Cecilia that have involved giveaways. What I am opposed to, is giving art away to a company that is making a profit off of my work.

The only way to squash #GramPirates is to say, "no". If sites like @FuckJerry want to stay in business, force them to figure out a payment model. I applaud Comedy Central for saying #FuckFuckJerry and pulling their ad dollars from the site

I support #FuckFuckJerry and I hope you will too.

Hi All,

I'm super excited to announce that CECILIA has won two Literary Classics Awards:

- GOLD for Best Adventure
- SILVER for Best Fantasy

May 9th - 12th, 2019, I'll be attending a writers’ conference, awards ceremony, formal gala, and will be hosting a book signing in conjunction with the Great American Book Festival.

Anyone in the Rapid City, SD area, come along and say hi!

Cecilia

Hi All,

The audiobook for CECILIA is currently underway. We expect the release sometime early November. The auditioning process was difficult - so many talented narrators out there.

One piece of advice I will give to any would-be narrator, don't jeopardize what could've been a flawless read with a poor recording. I received about 25 auditions. Of those, close to two-thirds were dismissed due to extraneous background noise, be it traffic outside, mic hum or general artifact.

A classic standard known in the film industry is that an audience will put up with an imperfect visual image, but the second the sound goes funky, attendees will walk out. Audiobooks are 100% a sound medium, as such, there is no room for slightest evidence of substandard recording.

Happy reading everyone!

Hi All,

A week after embarking on my Vegan adventure, I experienced a sudden bout of dizziness and muscle pain. A brief Google search revealed a possible cause – Dairy Detox. I had no idea that such a thing existed. I’ve gone off coffee before and experience awful headaches for a couple of days during the detox process and I’m aware that when one cuts sugar out of their diet they can experience ‘die-off’ symptoms as the bad yeast literally dies, but I had no idea that dairy that dairy would have such an effect.

Apparently, dairy has proteins called casomorphins that act like opiates. They attach to the same brain receptors as heroin and other narcotics. Cheese, in particular, has a concentrated amount of these proteins. After reading several blogs, many vegetarians admit that their addiction is cheese is why they find the transition to veganism difficult.

I have been a cheese and milk lover my entire life. I have always been of the belief that a glass of milk is good for promoting strong bones. But is it? Most of what we hear about when it comes to the healthfulness of meat & dairy is fed to us directly by the meat & dairy industry or via non-profits and/Government organizations that sponsored by that industry. Just as with the Tobacco Industry proclaiming for years that nicotine wasn’t addictive or a carcinogen, the meat & dairy industry has no motivation to be 100% transparent about exactly what is in milk and how it affects the body.

Let’s face it, the purpose of milk is to take a calf and build it into a 400lb animal as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Why then, do humans need to be consuming such a powerful brew? Before we learned how to milk cows, did we really need dairy products in our diet? Different cultures discovered processes like fermentation & conversion of milk into cheese for the purpose of getting through a long, cold winter. We ate such products to survive. But now, these products are available 24/7. In present-day society, we have no need to go in a ‘survival mode' as we have everything we need at our fingertips.

Beyond the fact that we don’t really need to be consuming dairy (or meat for that matter) for our survival, the older I get, the harder it is for to justify the animal cruelty involved. I was under the impression that with milk, the cow had a calf, nursed the calf, then humans continued milking because if they didn’t, the cow would get illnesses such as mastitis. I’m sure somewhere deep down, I knew there was some kind of incorrect information here, but my love of milk prevented my doing further research. The fact about dairy cows is this: they are impregnated every year in order to stimulate the milk production. After birthing a calf, yes, of course, they must be milked, but only because the calf is taken away.

In short, the animal that truly needs the milk, the calf, suckles only for a couple of days then is removed from its mother & feed grain etc, just so that us humans, who aren’t in need of such nutrient-rich product can consume the milk. Does this make any logical sense at all?

After the years of indirect cruelty, I have added to the lives of animals, my day of dizziness and muscle aches is a small punishment. For those out there who choose to consume milk for health benefits, ask yourself this: What other product, that is also beneficial for you, is addictive? If it’s addictive, chances are, it’s not as good for you as you want to believe.

Happy eating & reading.

Hi All,

It has been a long time since my last blog. For the past two months, I was back in Sydney for a two-fold purpose: Mum had a total knee replacement and I came back to help, & I took the time to finish my second novel, "Making Friends With Monsters." Monsters, as I refer to this book, is not a follow up to "Cecilia". The sequel is coming, I promise. Monsters is a story that had to be told. I had no control over this one - the characters were simply busting to get out.

In any case, I arrived back in the US last Sunday to a brand new diet - I'm vegan. It wasn't a hard stretch and I probably would have done this earlier if not for my love of dairy - milk in particular. A few years back, I cut dairy out of my diet for about 18months and the only meat I ate was chicken & fish. Back then, I was the fittest and healthiest I'd been in years. I went to sleep easily & woke up feeling refreshed. I slipped off the 'no dairy' diet mainly because it's hard to be one way when your partner is another. In short, I married a Swiss guy and going cheese-less is as close to a Cardinal sin if there ever was one.

While I was back home, my Swiss hubby and his vegan German friend met up for coffee and they got chatting. A few documentaries later (namely "Forks Over Knives" & "Conspiracy") my Swiss hubby was ready to cut the dairy and the meat. So, for me, when asked if I was on board, it was pretty easy. I just went back to my old diet sans chicken & salmon.

In the one week that I've stopped ingesting animal products, I've lost weight - mainly that dreaded belly fat that never wants to leave - and I feel 100% better. I believe in a plant-based diet for two reasons: 1. It's better for you 2. It's better for the environment. The amount of energy and water consumption producing 1lb of beef is insane.

While I don't have any of my own children to worry about, I feel immensely concerned for the world my nieces & nephews will 'grow old' in. Health care is spiraling out of control and many of the chronic illnesses we face can be fixed by diet. I'm living proof. I had a condition that the doctors couldn't fix. Instead, they threw antibiotics and narcotics (Tramadol) at me. Finally, a diet of my own design consisting of no dairy, no sugar & minimal animal protein (chicken & salmon) got me back on the straight & narrow.

I can't change the world, but I can do my bit for my own health and, hopefully, have a tiny impact on the health of the world.