What’s causing my headache?
Cassandra DenHartog PTA, LMT
 
That’s an age-old question which has many answers.
First of all, what are headaches? Usually, we associate this term with pain in the head, but did you know there are many kinds? Whether you’re having pain in the front, back, or all over can make a difference.
Where is your pain located?
Forehead and around eyes- Usually is a sign of eye strain. This is common with people doing a lot of computer work or in constant brightness changes. Solution? First make sure you are not expressing stress and worry with your facial muscles. Massage, using upward strokes around forehead and eye brows, can help. You can get muscle knots around your eyebrows, which can result in pain around the eyes and forehead. If massage doesn’t help, try having an eye exam. You may not be focusing correctly. Glasses, or a correction in your glasses prescription, could help with this.
 
Back of the head at base of skull- Headaches located here are usually due to stress and tension. The upper trapezoid muscles, the muscles at the tops of your shoulders, come up and attach in the back of the head. When these muscles are overworked, they constantly pull on the back of the head irritating the tendons. It’s like tendonitis of the skull. This causes pain that starts at the back of the head near the base of the skull that can wrap all the way around. Solution? When you feel this headache type start coming on, use ice on the back of the head. This decreases inflammation and helps prevent the pain from spreading. If this does not help or the headache is already too bad, try shoulder massage. Start at the tops of the shoulders and massage up to the back of the head. Remember to give extra love to the base of the skull. Self-stretches can also help prevent these type of headaches. The best stretches: pulling your nose to your armpit, and pulling your ear to your shoulder.
 
Side of the head- These headaches are typically caused by the temporalis muscles; the muscles of the temples. They can also be caused by eye strain, or emotions causing excess use of facial muscles. Solution? Take your pointer finger and begin to rub on your temples. If you are feeling soreness or tenderness in this area, this is most likely part of the problem.
 
Pain coming from the jaw up into the head- This usually comes from the masseter muscles or muscles around the jaw. This can be a common trait for people with TMJ problems, or people who chew a lot of gum, or have a tendency to clench their jaw. Solution? Massaging the masseter muscle can be very beneficial. You do this by opening your jaw wide and following your teeth back until you feel the muscular structure of the masseter muscle where your jaws comes together. Relax your jaw and, with mouth closed, massage this muscle up and down. This muscle should feel very tight but soften when massaged. Also, try avoiding aggravating activities such as gum chewing.
 
Pain all over the head- If there was no specific spot where the headache started, it could have more of a chemical and a muscular cause. First thing to check is if you’re hydrated. Remember the average human needs at least a half-gallon of water a day to stay adequately hydrated. Also, consider if you’re are going through a hormone change. Hormones can be behind frequent headaches with no other apparent cause. If this is suspected, you should consult your doctor. Hormone imbalances are hard to self-correct, but not impossible. If a doctor isn’t for you, look at eating a lean diet. Remove anything that causes an inflammatory reaction; this means cutting back on gluten, decreasing or totally removing red meats from your diet, and eliminating all sugars. Decreasing inflammation in your body can help with hormonal balances.
 
Pain in ears and into head- This most often feels like an earache. Often it is due to plugged Eustachian tubes, or what people call plugged ears. Often this is hard to get rid of. Solution? Start by taking several hot steamy showers. Sometimes this is enough to relieve this pressure. If not, you may want to consult a doctor. If you are experiencing dizziness, a feeling of the room spinning with movement, or a feeling of being drunk, you could be experiencing vertigo. This I something you should consult your doctor about, as this usually can quickly be relieved.
 
Pain in head and neck with head down- This occurs when you are looking down or at a computer screen a lot. In this age, it’s what people call “texter’s neck,” which is caused by the increased strain of holding the head at a forward position for a prolonged time. This can be relieved by adjusting how you look at screens, books, etc. and raising things up to eye level so the head is square atop the shoulders.
 

The modern change in doing book launches online has brought with it a new term, takeover. So, what’s a takeover? A takeover usually happens when someone asks other authors to takeover a time slot on an online book launch. Slots are usually one-hour long. The point of a takeover is to bring in more authors and in turn increase awareness of the event.
So, what do you do for an hour? It seems like a long time, but you only need around 6-10 posts! That’s easy right? As authors, we post more than that just having fun on Facebook. Here is a step by step suggestion on what to post:
 

1. Start with an introduction to yourself, with an author picture to catch interest. Tell your audience who you are, what you write, and a little fun fact about yourself. Be interesting and engaging. Ask a question to your audience, like “who here reads romance?”.
2. Get funny. Share a funny or catching image to try and engage readers.
3. Have you ever won any awards not related to your books? Maybe a poetry award. A life reading competition? Post this here. If not, post about your experience. How many years have you been writing?
4. Next introduce your book. Use visuals if you can. Use your hook line to draw readers in. If you’re giving away a prize, mention it now. Tell them to keep following to find out how to win!
5. Do you have reviews yet? Awards? Post them now. If you can, take a screen shot of your reviews or create a catching visual image. Do a separate post for each. If you won this 2017 book award, this best book award, and a best cover award, post about each one on its own. Try not to do more than 3; people lose interest fast. The same thing goes for reviews. If you have a lot, pick up to three of the best (don’t spend more than 5 posts on this).
6. Do a special post on your book including the sale link and price. Make sure you mention any sales your having. (If you’re giving away a prize now is a good time to get people going. Tell them to like the post and share the event page for a chance to win.)
7. OK, now it’s cool visual time! Post something catchy either about your book or about writing. Try making it a question: “How would you rate my book cover? On a scale from steamy – hot, how would you rate my main character? (Wait for people to enter to win. This is where you stall for time.)
8. More funny! Get visual. A book promo pic. A funny meme. (stall for more time)
9. Announce the winners!!! If you’re giving out a prize, announce the winner now. If not skip this step.
10. Give a big thank you to the people letting you take the spot. Share a link if you can. Encourage people to stay for the next takeover.
11. Bow out. Thank everyone for their time.

 
That’s it! It’s that easy! Most often, if you follow this process, you’ll have more than enough for an hour.
 

   Here you are with this amazing character named Joe… Well that’s how it usually starts. Authors sometimes take for granted the power of a name. Look at the big names such as Harry Potter, Jesse Stone, Jack Reacher, and James Bond.  Each name not only fits the character, it’s also catchy and memorable. This is what every author should strive for.
   Choosing a name is not as easy as picking something that sounds good, it needs to have meaning (like why would their parents choose that name), needs to make sense in the location (Someone in Russia most likely won’t have a Chinese name), and needs to unique, (different than the names of other popular book characters). This makes the task a little daunting and has led to many authors having an awkward amount of baby name books on their shelves. Luckily, there are many online sites which help with name creation.
 
For names that need significant meaning or certain origin we recommend  Behind The Name. This website has extensive information on names, origins, meanings, and even popularity depending on year. 

The next is a fun UK website Name Generator. This website has a plethora of options including Character Names, Pirate Names, Hero Names, and Villain Names. 

Another great option, especially for fantasy writers, is Fantasy Name Generator. This is commonly used for gaming groups and has over 100 categories for names for fantasy characters including Aliens, Elves, Dwarfs, and many more. 

The last great website Fake Name Generator, also generates demographics including things like address, phone number, favorite color, and vehicle they drive. 

      We all struggle with finding the perfect title for out novel. Most of the time we look for something that sounds catchy and makes sense. What most authors typically miss is doing significant research on their title before picking it.
     Why do research? Well, researching a title, keywords, and trends could be the difference between having a best-seller and a flop. A good example of this is books with the word ALPHA in them. There are so many books, that a casual shopper just entering the title will be flooded with results, and often those results will not even contain your book. Why? Because, if there are other books with a similar or the same title that have higher reviews and/or sales they will show up first.
      So, what should you do? After coming up with a title idea, search various sites such as Google, Amazon, and Goodreads. You want to make sure another book does not have the exact same title and look at how many books have similar titles. If possible, try to find a title that only closely matches ten or less books. Sometimes this is not possible, but it’s a good habit to get into.  
      Try a swing at Google too. If your book is about werewolves in Chicago type in a few key words and see what Google auto suggests. This will show you what are the trending phrases. Just typing werewolf net the results werewolf, werewolf cat, werewolf game, and werewolf syndrome. Typing Werewolf In nets the results Werewolf in London, Werewolf in Spanish, Werewolf in Paris, and Werewolf in French. Well Werewolf in London and Werewolf in Paris is already taken for book titles, but Werewolf in French is not. Also, Werewolf Syndrome has minimal book results. (Note from publication of this article this may have changed so use it only as an example.)
      All this information can help you launch your book with a bang and make it easily found by your readers. Using this method also makes it so you don’t use another popular title. Authors have been known to get hard feelings when they think someone if copying their title.
      Still a little hung up? You can also try online random book title generators. 

Random Novel Title Generator
​Random Story Title Generator
Book Title Generator​

​What Time?
 
                Well good question. Most people post when they want or when it’s convenient for them. In reality, they could be losing out on a lot of potential viewers. Every form of social media tends to have a ‘rush hour’ and also, mostly due to refresh rate, require a certain number of posts to really make sure you are noticed.
 
Best Times To Post
 
Pinterest: 7:00PM – 12:00AM
 
Facebook: 1:00PM – 4:00PM
 
Instagram: 5:00-6:00PM
 
Twitter: 12:00PM – 3:00PM
 
 
 
Worst Times To Post
 
Pinterest: 1:00-7:00 AM & 5:00-7:00PM
 
Facebook: 10:00PM-4:00AM
 
Instagram: 11:00PM-7:00AM
 
Twitter: 8:00PM-8:00AM
 
 
 
 
 
How Often Should I Post
 
Pinterest: 20-25 times a day
 
Facebook: 2-5 times a day
 
Instagram: 1-3 times a day
 
Twitter: 1-3 times a day
 
 
 
What Should I Post
 
 
 
Sunday: Focus on humor with Sunday Memes. If you’re religious offer some blessings or scripture quotes. Also try information on how to get ready for the work week.
 
Monday: Monday’s are rough so focus on motivation. Update your products and give people sometime to look forward too.
 
Tuesday: Engage your audience. Give out samples of your product. Make a poll.
 
Wednesday: Give back to your audience. Start a contest. Update you blog posts. Offer some Wednesday wisdom.
 
Thursday: Post some business promos. Post a selfie with your product. Launch a new promotion or remind your audience of one already going on.
 
Friday: Focus on fun day Friday. Post a picture of a family activity. Share a Friday meme. Add a new post to your blog.
 
Saturday: Let your audience get to know you. Post a Saturday selfie. Share a special offer for your business. Tell your audience why you do what you do.
 
 
 
What About Hashtags
 
 
 
Monday:
 
#Monday #MondayFunday #MondayMotivation #MotivationalMonday #MondayMorning #MondaySelfie
 
Tuesday:
 
#Tuesday #TipTuesday #TuneTuesday
 
Wednesday:
 
#Wednesdays #WisdomeWednesday #WellnessWednesday #HumpDay
 
Thursday:
 
#Thursdays #ThirstyThursday #CoffeeThuesday #ThursdayThoughts
 
Friday:
 
#Friday #FridayNight #FinallyFriday #FollowFriday
 
Saturday:
 
#Saturday #SocialSaturday #Caturday #SaturdaySwag
 
Sunday:
 
#Sunday #SelfieSunday #SelflessSunday #SundayBrunch #SundaySchool