Tag: misery

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#Freebie and Character Interview: The Sweet Taste of Murder

>>>Pick up Top-100 Cozy Mystery The Sweet Taste of Murder FREE TODAY!<<<

The only thing worse than a used car salesman showing up on your doorstep is finding one dead.

Cover
After a scandalous divorce, Elise returns from the big city to her southern home town only to trip over the body of the town playboy. He leaves behind a heap of trouble that includes missing money, missing pets, and mourning lovers, and the suspects just keep piling up.
Caught in her own drama, Elise is quick to wash her hands of it, until her best friend, Lavina, winds up as the number one suspect.
Can Elise clear her friend’s name without ending up as the next one dead? Or are her friendship blinders keeping her from seeing the truth?

Today’s character guest is the protagonist of The Sweet Taste of Murder, Elise.

Q: Elise, thanks for stopping by Island Confidential to give us the inside story on The Sweet Taste of Murder. Which character is your favorite (besides yourself, of course)?  

A: Lavina is totally who I want to be. She’s been my best friend since grade school and has always been there for me. I love her confidence in trying new things and pushing herself past her limits. And she’s pretty fearless! The only thing I don’t like is she’s terrible at giving beauty advice. Just because she is a fashionista doesn’t mean we all are!

Q: Which character don’t you get along with so well?

A: Well, the killer of course! hehe

Q: Who plays you in the movie version?

A: I’d love Mila Kunis to play me!

Mila Kunis

Q: Tell us something about yourself that readers might not already know.

A: I actually wasn’t too much of a dog person before, or I didn’t know I was until I started the dog walking business.

Q: What do you really think of your author, CeeCee James?

A: She’s pretty good. Needs way too much coffee and chocolate to get going though. I like her running shoes.

About the author:

Author photo
CeeCee James is a wife, mom of four rambunctious kids and pet mom to two mini-dashchunds. She’s always loved to read and always had her nose in a book– getting her into trouble at school when she’d sneak it in her text books.Writing has been a life long passion. Her first works were published in middle school and she won several short story and poetry competitions through out her life. She loves writing about love, humanity’s struggles and the celebration of life. Sometimes there is beauty even in messy times. For her, writing is about taking time to savor those moments.

CeeCee’s blog 

CeeCee’s Amazon Author Page

CeeCee on Facebook

A perfect summer read! Get The Sweet Taste of Murder here

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Spotlight and #Giveaway: Bring Your Own Baker by D.E. Haggerty

>>>Enter to win a print copy of Never Trust a Skinny Cupcake Baker (Death by Cupcake Book 1) <<< 
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Bring Your Own Baker
by D.E. Haggerty

BYOBCV

Bring Your Own Baker (Death by Cupcake Book 2)
Cozy Mystery
Self Published
Print Length: 166 pages
Publication Date: June 20, 2016
ASIN: B01FJVGWXI
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Synopsis

Anna just wants to earn enough money on the side to buy into the bakery, Callie’s Cakes, where she works together with her best nerd pal, Callie. The last thing she expects to see when she walks into Arthur’s apartment to do some moonlighting is a blood bath. Callie’s ready to jump into the investigation of Arthur’s murder, and she’s bringing another bakery worker, Kristie, into their hijinks whether Kristie wants to or not. But things aren’t as they seem. There are gang affiliations, illegal gambling dens, and ladies of the night to wade through. Will Anna and Callie discover who murdered Arthur, or will Callie’s detective boyfriend and Anna’s self-appointed protector put a stop to such aspirations?

Come join us at Callie’s Cakes, where murder investigations are on the menu, but make sure to bring your own baker, because Anna’s a bit preoccupied at the moment.

Warning: This is NOT your mom’s cozy mystery. Bring Your Own Baker may be a ‘clean’ read, but if gangs, illegal gambling, and pimps make you turn your nose up at your e-reader, you might want to skip this one. Although you’ll be missing some sizzling chemistry between Anna and her protector. Not to mention a whole bunch of witty dialogue.

DENA
 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

I grew up reading everything I could get my hands on from my mom’s Harlequin romances to Nancy Drew to Little Women. When I wasn’t flipping pages in a library book, I was penning horrendous poems, writing songs no one should ever sing, or drafting stories which have thankfully been destroyed. College and a stint in the U.S. Army came along, robbing me of free time to write and read, although I did manage every once in a while to sneak a book into my rucksack between rolled up socks, MRIs, t-shirts, and cold weather gear. A few years into my legal career, I was exhausted, fed up, and just plain done. I quit my job and sat down to write a manuscript, which I promptly hid in the attic after returning to the law. Another job change, this time from lawyer to B&B owner and I was again fed up and ready to scream I quit, which is incredibly difficult when you own the business. Thus, I shut the B&B during the week and in the off-season and started writing. Several books later I find myself in Istanbul writing full-time.

 
Author Links:
Website: http://www.dehaggerty.com
Blog: http://www.dehaggerty.wordpress.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dehaggerty
Twitter: https://twitter.com/denaehaggerty
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DEHaggerty/posts
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/denahaggerty/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7210211.D_E_Haggerty
 
Buy links:
Amazon | Smashwords | Barnes and Noble | Kobo
 

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You’ve seen the meme. Here are some actual college administrator titles



By now you’ve likely seen the viral “University Title Generator” meme that parodies the culture of academic bureaucracy by listing made-up administrative titles such as “deputy vice president of the committee on community climate,” “principal deputy dean of the committee on learning affairs,” and “temporary lead deputy chancellor of facilities compliance of the task force on alumni service.”
At least, we’re pretty sure they’re made up.
But these aren’t. These actual administrative job titles have appeared over the last few months in academic help-wanted listings.
The number of administrators at American universities and colleges has more than doubled in the last 25 years, vastly outpacing the increase in enrollment. Read here about the perks that go to university administrators nationwide, and here about a backlash against administrator benefits at Massachusetts public colleges and universities, and the legislative investigation that has resulted.
University officials say their administrative payrolls have grown in response to parent expectations and government regulations, among other reasons.
Here are some examples of the jobs they’re filling.
Assistant director of affinity group leadership (University of Denver)
Constituent relationship management program manager (University of Massachusetts, Boston)
Educational talent search academic advisor (Harris Stowe State University)
Early career readiness and student employment program coordinator (University of Arizona)
Coordinator of community standards (Governors State University)
Academic success consultant (Creighton Medical School)
Academic success coordinator for peer-led instruction (Framingham State University)
Senior associate director for student engagement (Eastern Kentucky University)
Student involvement coordinator (North Carolina State University)
Senior associate director of student engagement (Columbia University)
Manager of employee communication and engagement (Seminole State College)
Assistant director of admission student volunteers (University of Pennsylvania)
Associate director of student conduct and community standards (University of Tennessee at Knoxville)
Director of institutional effectiveness (Wabash College)
Customer relationship management coordinator (University of Cincinnati)

Student journals and competitions coordinator (University of Colorado)
Student philanthropy manager (University of California, Berkeley)
Associate director of young alumni engagement (Kenyon College)
Assistant director for athletic event and guest services (Miami University)
Senior user experience analyst (University of Maryland University College)
Vice president for planning, analytics, and decision support (New York Institute of Technology)
Director of campus relations (University of Maryland)
Office concierge (University of Maryland University College)
 
from The Hechinger Report http://bit.ly/1TTjwqC

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Today on College Misery: This is why my syllabus is seventeen pages long

Join me over at Higher Education’s Premier Online Publication. Or simply read on:

SCENE 1: Second Week of the Semester

Student-AthleteAthlete-Student:I have to miss class because my team is traveling to the mainland for two weeks. I know the syllabus says no makeups, but I don’t have a choice about going on the trip. Can I make up the in class quizzes?

Professor B. (that’s me!), Unknowingly Stepping Onto the Slippery Slope: Sure! Because you have to travel as a condition of your athletic scholarship, just write a short reflection paper on the week’s topic and get it to me when you come back.

SCENE 2: Third Week of the Semester

Scammy Sammy: I heard you can make up the in-class quizzes. I had to miss last Wednesday for a very important family funeral event.

Professor B.: Well, OK, I guess you can make the quiz up by writing a short reflection paper.

Scammy Sammy: When is it due?

Professor B.: Just get it to me by the last day of class.

SCENE 3: End of the same semester, the day after final grades are submitted

Email from Scammy Sammy to me:

Professor,
Please expect my makeups this evening or tomorrow morning. I just finished finals and now wrapping extraneous assignments up. [That’s right. “Extraneous” assignments.]

Email from me to Scammy Sammy:

I already submitted the final grades. These were supposed to be in by the last day of class.

Email from Scammy Sammy to me, the following day:

I’m so sorry, I thought you meant the end of finals week. Thank you for being so understanding!
[Attached to Scammy Sammy’s email: FIVE makeup essays, rather defeating the purpose of requiring students to attend and participate in the class exercises and discussions.]

And because I had allowed this unwritten loophole, I took Scammy Sammy’s makeup essays. Scammy Sammy’s grade went from a C to a C-plus.

Of course this was my fault. I implemented an informal makeup policy that wasn’t written down anywhere. But I learned my lesson.

What’s the big deal, one might ask? Is it the end of the world if one pushy student gets a probably-undeserved half-grade bump? No, it’s not.

However.

Once word of Scammy Sammy’s gambit gets around, next semester will be Scammy Sammy to the nth degree. It is not unreasonable to anticipate an entire semester of dead classrooms, culminating in an eleventh-hour avalanche of makeup assignments.

So, new on the syllabus for fall:

An elaborate, scammer-resistant makeup policy, yet to be formulated, that somehow manages to be fair to everyone, including those whose obligations to the university require travel. 

No makeups, no exceptions, and if you don’t like it, go pick another major.

 

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THE MUSUBI MURDER August 2015 Amazon / B&N /Powell’s /Audible / iTunes

 

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Study: Fat Cat Professors Not Responsible for Rising Tuition, May Not Actually Exist

Between 78 and 79 percent of the tuition hikes at public universities — which averaged $3,628 per student at research universities and $2,463 per student at nonresearch colleges — was due to declining state appropriations, between 5 and 6 percent was due to increased administrative spending, and another 6 percent was due to construction costs.

Report says administrative bloat, construction booms not largely responsible for tuition increases | InsideHigherEd.

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THE MUSUBI MURDER August 2015 Amazon / B&N /Powell’s /Audible / iTunes

 

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BPS Research Digest: 10 hellish psychology studies you’ll be glad not to have participated in

BPS Research Digest: 10 hellish psychology studies you’ll be glad not to have participated in.

And in case you’re wondering why  Zimbardo and Milgram aren’t on that list, BPS has them here:

The 10 most controversial psychology studies ever published

 Frankie Bow’s first novel, THE MUSUBI MURDER , is available at Audible.com, Amazon.com, andiTunes.

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People prefer a healthy-looking leader to an intelligent-looking one.

“Health was an influential cue across all scenarios, while intelligence only had an effect in half of the presented scenarios. “

Well, at least intelligence wasn’t a negative predictor (The study was done in the Netherlands; I wonder how the same experiment might turn out in the US).

And yes, apparently there is a way to manipulate “intelligent-looking.”

“[H]igh and low apparent intelligence prototypes were created as described in Moore et al. (2011). Briefly, these prototypes were created by regressing ratings of attractiveness, masculinity, health, and perceived age against ratings of perceived intelligence. The faces with the largest positive and negative residuals (i.e., those who were rated as looking much more or less intelligent than predicted by their age, attractiveness, masculinity, and health) were “averaged” using Psychomorph software to create composite high and low perceived intelligence faces…”

Faces manipulated for apparent intelligence and health

Also, if you can figure out a way to make yourself look taller, that helps too.

Frontiers | A face for all seasons: Searching for context-specific leadership traits and discovering a general preference for perceived health | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

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All persons and events are really, really fictional I swear: Self-Published Novelist Defamed In-Laws in €53k Payout Case | The Independent Publishing Magazine

Self-Published Novelist Defamed In-Laws in €53k Payout Case | The Independent Publishing Magazine.

“Brígida was portrayed as a loose woman who was unfaithful to her husband, António. It was said that Floro had done his son out of his money, visited prostitutes, had extra-marital affairs and died of Aids. His wife, Inocência, was described as an ambitious, extravagant, tight-fisted, mean, avaricious and calculating woman who abandoned him on his death bed and had an affair with Floro’s brother.

Aurora was portrayed as a coarse-looking woman with bad breath. Rogério, an agent of the secret police under Salazar’s regime, was described as having had about a hundred political opponents imprisoned. His daughter, Beatriz, was portrayed as a debauched and licentious woman and a bad mother.

Imaculada was depicted as a woman of loose morals who would stop at nothing to get rich, including killing her father (Floro).”

Well, thank goodness that’s all taken care of. I’m sure that after learning about this, people will forget all about the book, and not try to find it or buy it or anything.

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You can go to jail for grade-fixing.

I have to admit, I derived an unseemly amount of satisfaction from this story.

He was the kind of school administrator some college students might have considered themselves lucky to encounter, someone who was willing to raise grades issued by professors when the students’ marks fell short of graduation requirements…Mr. Koutsoutis, 56, who was director of executive programs at the college’s Zicklin School of Business, appeared in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to 21 felony forgery charges and 10 misdemeanor charges of falsifying business records.

He received no money or favors for making the changes, according to court papers. When Justice Larry Stephen asked him to explain his motivation, Mr. Koutsoutis quietly said that he just wanted to give the students their best chances to succeed.