The Plan Wasn't the Point
A Marketing Tip
What I’m Reading
From the Research File
Pun of the Day
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I had a plan once.
A good one, on paper.
Color-coded, deadlines, full 20 page strategy report, and all. And for months I stuck with it out of sheer stubbornness. Not because it was working, but because I’d already told people about it.
That’s the trap, isn’t it?
We don’t abandon a bad plan because we’re afraid of what quitting says about us.
Somewhere along the way we decided that changing course means giving up. It doesn’t. It means you’re paying attention.
Here’s what I know to be true: the plan isn’t the point. The direction is. Let it go, adjust, and keep walking. That’s not failure, that’s just Tuesday for anyone actually building something worth building.
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Good things come in threes.
A stool needs three legs to stand.
The triangle’s the strongest shape there is.
We think in threes without even trying: past, present, future. Beginning, middle, end. Even Goldilocks tested three bowls, not two.
Here’s why that matters when writing sales copy.
Your reader needs a reason to believe you. Pile on ten reasons and they trust none of them. Give them three, and it feels complete. Not too much, not too little. Just enough to say, “okay, I’m convinced.”
Same with bullets. Three tight ones get read every time. Eleven get skimmed and forgotten.
It’s not a trick. It’s just how people are wired to say yes. Use it.
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The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver
I read this back when it first hit shelves. Matter of fact…I had a signed copy. That’s right. I met the author, Jeffery Deaver, in Indianapolis at a book store. I believe it was in 1999. Since then, I’ve read it a few times and eventually gave it to the local library to sell in their book sale.
Anyway, I fell in love with Deaver as an author with this book. I was hooked from page one.
This is a well done crime suspense thriller, plain and simple. What impressed me most was Lincoln Rhyme’s evidence analysis and process. The deduction, the intuition, all of it. Every clue got broken down piece by piece… trace evidence, soil samples, the tiny details most of us would walk right past.
I really loved the fact that this criminalist had a database of materials to compare evidence to. A database, in this case, that didn’t include the various knots used in different scenarios. No stupidity here. No characters making dumb decisions just to move the plot along. That matters more to me than people realize.
I also loved watching the relationship with Amelia develop. She’s not just along for the ride. Her abilities, her smarts, her own story all pull real weight in this book. That’s part of what makes the ending land the way it does. It’s a feel-good ending, and after everything these two go through, you’ve earned it right alongside them.
Now, I’ll be honest with you about one thing. For a good stretch of this book, I had some real disbelief about a serial killer purposely leaving clues for the police. Each set pointing to how and when he’d kill the next victim. It felt like a scavenger hunt. A little contrived, if I’m being picky.
But here’s my advice: don’t question the believability. Just go with it. Do I think this would happen in real life? Meh, hard to say. But it’s entertaining, and by the end, it made enough sense that I stopped fighting it.
One more thing worth knowing before you dive in… there are some gruesome scenes. Rats eating someone alive who’s tied up and cut open is one of them. A woman being steamed to death and the details of what her body looks like.
Then years later, I watched the movie. Denzel Washington as Rhyme, Angelina Jolie as Amelia. I believe they did it justice. Hollywood has a habit of flattening the procedure for the sake of pacing, but this one kept enough of that forensic backbone to feel true to the book.
So when the Book Club picked it as our read, I’ll admit I went in thinking I already knew this story cold.
I did not.
Rereading it this time, older and a little more patient myself, I caught things I’d skimmed right past the first go-round. The way Rhyme’s isolation shapes how he sees the world, the quiet tension between vulnerability and competence, the way trust gets built one small proof at a time between two people who have every reason not to trust anyone.
If you haven’t read it, or it’s been long enough that you’ve forgotten the details... this is a good one to pick back up.
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aka random bits of info you may or may not be able to use in your life
John Carpenter had barely $300,000 to make Halloween in 1978. That means there was no money for a custom mask.
So his production designer walked into a costume shop on Hollywood Boulevard and grabbed what was there: a clown mask and a Captain Kirk mask. Yes, William Shatner’s face, molded in plastic for a couple bucks.
The clown didn’t work.
But Kirk? Widen the eye holes, shave off the eyebrows and sideburns, spray the whole thing ghost white, and just like that, Captain James T. Kirk became The Shape … faceless, soulless, one of the most terrifying blank slates in horror history. Shatner didn’t even know for years. When someone finally showed him a photo, he said, “I recognized it as the death mask they had made for me.” And no, he’s never seen a dime of royalties for it. “No, no, no,” he told ComicBook.com. Just a shrug and a good sense of humor.
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I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was really just a play on words.
🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
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My wish for you today…
May you always wake up one minute before your alarm.
Charlene Burke
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