The Dirt on the Good and the Bad.

Every so often some group or other reports that certain things are good for you, then a few days later another group replies that the same item is bad for you.

While it’s been noted for some time that a pint or two of beer per day is medically good for you, last week it was reported…

Drinking alcohol every day cuts the risk of heart disease in men by more than a third, a major study suggests.

The Spanish research involving more than 15,500 men and 26,000 women found large quantities of alcohol could be even more beneficial for men.

Female drinkers did not benefit to the same extent, the study in Heart found.

Experts are critical, warning heavy drinking can increase the risk of other diseases, with alcohol responsible for 1.8 million deaths globally per year.

The study was conducted in Spain, a country with relatively high rates of alcohol consumption and low rates of coronary heart disease.

The research involved men and women aged between 29 and 69, who were asked to document their lifetime drinking habits and followed for 10 years.

Crucially the research team claim to have eliminated the "sick abstainers" risk by differentiating between those who had never drunk and those whom ill-health had forced to quit. This has been used in the past to explain fewer heart-related deaths among drinkers on the basis that those who are unhealthy to start with are less likely to drink.

If that comment upset you, or has left you in a bad mood. Don’t worry because according to an Australian psychology expert, being in a bad mood could also be good for you.

In contrast to those annoying happy types, miserable people are better at decision-making and less gullible, his experiments showed.

While cheerfulness fosters creativity, gloominess breeds attentiveness and careful thinking, Professor Joe Forgas told Australian Science Magazine.

'Eeyore days'

The University of New South Wales researcher says a grumpy person can cope with more demanding situations than a happy one because of the way the brain "promotes information processing strategies".

He asked volunteers to watch different films and dwell on positive or negative events in their life, designed to put them in either a good or bad mood.

Next he asked them to take part in a series of tasks, including judging the truth of urban myths and providing eyewitness accounts of events.

Those in a bad mood outperformed those who were jolly - they made fewer mistakes and were better communicators.

Professor Forgas said: "Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, co-operation and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world."

The study also found that sad people were better at stating their case through written arguments, which Forgas said showed that a "mildly negative mood may actually promote a more concrete, accommodative and ultimately more successful communication style".

His earlier work shows the weather has a similar impact on us - wet, dreary days sharpened memory, while bright sunny spells make people forgetful.


Finally something I’ve been saying for some time…

Dirt can be good for children, say scientists.Messy play should be encouraged, according to the hygiene hypothesis. Children should be allowed to get dirty, according to scientists who have found being too clean can impair the skin's ability to heal.

Normal bacteria living on the skin trigger a pathway that helps prevent inflammation when we get hurt, the US team discovered. The bugs dampen down overactive immune responses that can cause cuts and grazes to swell, they say.

Their work is published in the online edition of Nature Medicine Experts said the findings provided an explanation for the "hygiene hypothesis", which holds that exposure to germs during early childhood primes the body against allergies.

Many like myself believe our obsession with cleanliness is to blame for the recent boom in allergies in developed countries.


Barry



BARRY EVA (Storyheart)

Author of Young Adult Romance/Fiction book
"Across the Pond"

The art of selling books at a big event

I have over the last two weeks spent many hours at the Big E, the North England Fair that runs for four weeks in Springfield MA, as one of the CAPA (Connecticut Authors and Publishers) trying to sell their creations in the Connecticut building.

It is my first time at the event let alone selling my book, and I learned several lessons over the period.

If you do not know, "The Big E" is a huge event with upwards of 150,000 people a day vising the various building, stall, events over the four week period. While the top visitations are over the weekends, even the days I was there between 60-80,000 attended.

As normal at such large state fair, there are a wide range of places to visit and items to see, food stores of every shape and kind from the cheeseburgers in a doughnut, to bacon covered chocolate. From giant jacket potatoes to beer from each state in New England. You can ride an elephant, get a cartoon picture of you even purchase some Sham Wows. Basically anything and everything.

So, what did I learn?

There were four authors signing at the CAPA book store at any one time, each author had about two foot six of table space (see picture), with hundreds if not thousands of people passing you buy during the day. The Big E is an event for all ages and many family's with young children of all ages visit. This will mean that there is a market for young childrens books, being purchased by grandparents and parents.

It really helps if you have an author selling such books signing next to you.

I mentioned "passing by" this will happen unless something is done to attract this flowing traffic into your booth.

An eye catching cover, a prop etc anything to attract the attention.

I was at least able to do something to help stop the flow and bring the people into our area.

Using my voice and English accent I was able to almost act as a "fair ground barker", asking the public to "roll up, roll up etc..." actually it was more like. "All books by Connecticut authors, over 90 authors represented come inside, have a look around.".

I can't say it helped my book, but it certainly "I think" helped bring people into the booth and made sales for many of the other authros.

Have a hand out that gives your book details, how to contact you etc.

It might not bring sales, but several libraries, book stores, teachers etc visit and might pick you up to appear at a school or library. (We actually had two librarians there last Friday who spent over $400 on books)

Be willing to talk to people.

Have a chat, even if it's not about your book. As with salesmen, you get a few people around an others stop to see what's going on.
Just think of the "rubber necking" that goes on when there is a car accident.

Make sure people know what your book is about.

A lot of people take one look at a cover and think they know what the book is about. I learned very quickly people thought "Across the Pond" was about baseball, which is just a small part. So the second time I went I had a board with headline snippets that stated more that the book was for "all ages" etc.

While I did not sell a huge amount, I did sell some, also made several contacts and had fun.

To me the latter is the real thing. Writing is not my livelihood it is a hobby, and even with all the costs involved let's face it... it's still cheaper than playing golf.

So Tips:

Make Sure you are noticed.
Say hello to anybody who will listen.
Be willing to chat about your book and anything else.
Make sure you have literature to hand out even if people don't purchase your book.
It helps if you are able to take credit cards.
Enjoy yourself.

And finally, ware comfortable shoes, clothes and some throat sweets... Beleive me standing for 6-9 hrs takes it out of you.

PICTURES FROM THE BIG E






BARRY EVA (Storyheart)

Author of Young Adult Romance/Fiction book
"Across the Pond"

A Book and a Chat with "Sheila Roberts"

From owning a singing telegram company to playing in a band Sheila Roberts has lived a fascinating life. Previously she has written many different types of writing including Regency Romance under the name of Sheila Rabe.

In 2007 Sheila relaunched herself under the name of Sheila Roberts. Her first book "On Strike For Christmas" has become almost a cult holiday book, this was quickly followed by further hits with "Bikini Season" and "Love in Bloom" this has now been followed by a wonderful new book "Angel Lane".

From wanting to be on "Dancing with Stars" to the "vitamin C" advantages of chocolate, enjoy the fun of my show chatting to this lady. Full of interest laughter enjoyment.

There is a gap when we lost the line but keep listening we come back.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Across-the-Pond/2009/10/02/A-Book-and-a-Chat-with-Shelia-Roberts

or on my blog at

http://acrossthepond-storyheart.blogspot.com

So why not stop for thirty minutes and listen to this enjoyable thirty minutes of fun and laughter as I chat with Sheila Roberts on today's "A BOOK AND A CHAT"

Barry



Author of Young Adult Romance/Fiction book
"Across the Pond"