Study Shows Optimistic Cancer Sufferes Live Longer - Or Does It?

Treating the effect as the cause is waisting valuable time in finding a cure for cancer. A Study found that depressed people lived shorter lives when they had cancer. Apparently, depression per se, hope, optimism and anxiety were tested. Findings showed that those suffering from these "attributes" didn't live as long as "optimists" who were also cancer sufferers.

A great leap of faith was made to claim that mood sufferers did not seek second opinions on cancer. Note that this was not proven it was just surmised. Overall findings were that optimism did not lead to better survival in people with cancer. Well this is game. set and match. You can't have it both ways. Either being optimistic improves survival or it doesn't.

There is no doubt that psychological treatment would improves the well being of cancer patients, but let's not get ahead of ourselves and say cancer sufferers would live longer. A great deal of money is set aside for medical research. We have to be careful to ensure this money is well spent.

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It's Proposal Day with Author Marianne Stephens

It’s Proposal Day

Ah, love and romance. They meet. Fall in love. He proposes. Spring is coming and thoughts of single women now turn from “we’re just a couple” relationships to “I want it all”…that “Happily-Ever-After” ending of marriage.

Visions of a man getting down on one knee, lovingly looking up into the eyes of the woman he loves and asking her to marry him, fill the heads of little girls from childhood when we first play “Let’s Pretend” with a neighborhood boy. We want that fantasy wedding, white gown and veil, new life, our own family.

But first, you may have to kiss a lot of toads along the way. No one warns you that finding “Mr. Right” may take forever. And, the older you get, the younger a man wants his date/wife to be. Plus, the more set in your ways you become, just as a man does.

Where do you find that man who’ll propose? Night spots? Concerts? The Internet? Blind dates?

Some are lucky. They find the right man and seem to know it immediately. I remember meeting my husband and thinking “this is the kind of man I could take home to meet my mother”. A month after we met, we argued. Then, we “made up”.  We each said we loved the other. Then my husband said, “I guess we better go get a ring.” That was it. My proposal. Simple and to the point. No knee bending. We married six months later and are still married after almost 40 years.

Some aren’t so lucky. Their dates lead nowhere and they wallow through the muddy waters of the dating pool longer than desired. Are they being picky? Are the guys they date confirmed bachelors? Do women have a list of characteristics they want in a man that makes it impossible for anyone to live up to?  Do they keep dating the same type of “marriage phobic” men?

Do men actually go through the act of formally proposing? When one of my daughters got engaged, her husband proposed in front of the entire family…and got down on one knee. Very romantic. Sweet. Charming. They divorced two years later.

Proposals come in all types of encounters, acts, and conversations…and some are “surprise” proposals (like at a football game, live and on TV).  The knee bit is nice, but may not be what happens to everyone. Declaring love for each other and the realization that you want to spend the rest of your life with that loved one inspires a marriage proposal.

I think about my books, and I’ve never had my hero drop to a knee and propose. Declare his love and propose, yes. But I’ve never used the formal ritual. Does it take away something from the hero’s appeal? I don’t think so…not in my books or “real” life! In “Anything You Can Do”, my hero proposes in a special romantic way…you’ll have to read the book to find out how!

Has someone proposed to you? Have you proposed to someone? In these times, it’s not taboo for a woman to propose…just maybe out of the ordinary. What’s your story?

Visit http://www.mariannestephens.net (mainstream contemporary/paranormal romance books).

New ebook release, “Anything You Can Do”, is available at: http://www.breathlesspress.com.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=1518319389&ref=profile

Blogs: http://www.romancebooksrus.blogspot.com, http://www.sevensexyscribes.blogspot.com

Photo: Flickr: acjetter’s photostream

WRITERS WRITE... WRITING PARTNERS FEUD

THE CLICHÉ TOUCHÉ
By: Angelica Hart and Zi


Z: All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy. (Zi drank from his Big Dog mug, placed it on the desk, looked at it, looked at Angelica) Woof!
A: All's fair in love and war. Work can be war. Work. (She wagged that finger much like a dog did its tail... Zi would have preferred the wag of the tail... the dog's tail)
Z: So you are a proponent of all's well that ends well? (Avoiding the return to writing using diversion tactics of a great military mind he tried to engage her in conversation)
A: Attitude is determined by attitude. (Wicked eyes ripped from her desk to his, shredding dust moats)
Z: (Zi thought... poor little moats... mean Angelica... what bit her) So you want an arm and a leg? (Considering he felt she was bit by it-is-time-to-be-serious bug... and the bite had swollen enflamed ugly... so ugly Zi wanted to flee fearing a volcanic eruption of whipping and scolding... and get a witch doctor to exorcise her demons)
A: Oh, that's an oldie but goodie.
Z: And I guess that puts another nail in my coffin? (He gazed wistfully out the window and looked for the excuse to shoot hoops in the backyard) Dog is sneaking under the fence... gotta go!

The afore was a cliché touché, both a debate over and with clichés. We constantly battle about their usage and have taken the position that if we notice them we change them. Now, having said that we do use clichés in dialog. People speak that way.

"Hey, babe, you are dressed to the nines." Using a twirling finger he asked for her to spin.
"This old thing." She smiled touched by his flattery, she knowing she spent hours choosing just for him.
"Fits like a glove." Ronald wanted to infest her with his thoughts of sensuality, they being spirited by that very tight dress.
"Makes me look flat as a pancake." She knew he was a man who loved a full décolleté and wore that piece of lingerie that pushed up and together, her gift to him.
"You are fine and dandy." As he said those words, somewhere deep within he hoped he had moved her closer to that place where her panties would spontaneously fall to her ankles.

A: That scene is total crap.
Z: Not enough passion? (His eyes turned hurt puppy-doggish)
A: Misused clichés. (She had the damn-the-torpedoes glare)
Z: How's the passion? (He pointed to one sentence)
A: Lost to the clichés. (There it was, the snap of the whip)
Z: Ouch! And I wanted to get Ronald a girlfriend with benefits. (Zi, a man's man, felt he failed his bud and returned to the keyboard to find those benefits for him)

The afore may show that just because a cliché is a part of people's dialog it may not work to facilitate the intention of the work.

But clichés can be fun.

Z: The final line you wrote read, knee-high to a grasshopper, do you really want to write that? (Zi had that holier than thou 'tude... no not whitewashed in meanness but caked with that I-know-something-you-don't-know tone)
A. Sure. (That sure was a volley back sure... we have all done those... she waiting for more information)
Z. Do you really want to write that? I’ll ask you once more, do you really want to write that, and I shall add, the cliché leaves the impression of one providing oral favors to an insect. Do you really want to use the expression?
A: Nooooooooooooooooo. (The white of her eyes appeared around her irises)
Z: Got to hurry and change it. (He typed using huge hand strokes) Now, we are using, having ants in their pants. (There are some grins that are more than sniggers and have taken smirk to a devilish place... Zi so grinned)
A: Naughty ants? (She laughed... though Angelica was mind picturing them doing the horizontal... oh my goodness she felt the need to stop being a mind voyeur and shook her head as if flinging the naughty asunder)
Z: Sounds like we are writing insect erotica. (This is where he'd tee-hee but Zi never tee-heed)
A: Everyone is busy as a bee. (Another volley of ill-begotten thoughts)
Z: Happy as a bug in the rug. (And Zi knew exactly what he meant by rug)
A: Ok... ok... cliché touché must end. (She raised her hands... no not in that way to indicate she had to go potty... though she did raise one finger... peecular?)
Z: Sounds like I opened a can of worms. (Worms... was that a metaphor... probably)
A: Enough! (What did Zi mean when he said can of... what this... no... not a party... ick!)
Z: The early bird gets the worm... and what does that duck do with it? (At this point Zi knew he was tormenting and loved that he could)
A: I don't want to know. (Though she knew what she wanted the duck to do and made up a poem)
Z: Think fall through the cracks... huh!! (Bounces his well embrowness)
A: Stop!
Z: Want me to deep-six the clichés?
A: Yes!
Z: Don't count your chickens before they are hatched.

We believe that our job is know when and when not to cliché. We hope we don't rock the boat but hit the ball out of the park.

The question is, do clichés have value?


We'd love to hear from anyone interested in what we do. Anyone who emails us at angelicahartandzi@yahoo.com and leaves an s-mail address, we will send you a gift and add you to any future mailings.


Angelica Hart and Zi
Killer Dolls ~ September 2009
Snake Dance ~ February 2010
Chasing Gravitas ~ July 2010
Champagne Books
angelicahartandzi.com

KILLER DOLLS and SNAKE DANCE IS AVAILABLE