Frustration with on-line article writing / Thoughts on Books

I thought I'd try my hand at posting some articles on line.  I looked around and people said that Triond was a good site.  I joined it and I am not pleased.  I submitted 2 articles yesterday and they declined it.  They said the content was already published on line.  OK...that may be so as I quoted someone else's article.  Although I gave them credit, it was not allowed.  They want only original content.  OK...I thought, fair enough.  So I posted 2 more articles that were 100% original content.  They came back automatically saying it was duplicate content that was elsewhere on the web.  So I searched the site to see if I was doing anything wrong.  I found that there is a certain way to submit etc.  So, I did everything right and guess what?  It still was declined.  I give up.  People say HubPages is better.  I will give them a try.  I'm not all about making money, although it is nice, I want to write articles to help people.  But Triond frustrated me to no end.  I wasn't the only one with this problem.  On the help/support page, every other post was the same thing...articles declined over and over and over.  So it seems to me, Triond doesn't know their butt from their elbow. 

The fall semester has ended.  I start the Spring semester on the 22nd.  I am looking forward to the new semester.  18 weeks of the same class can be tiring.  One of my classes is called The Art of Storytelling.  It will be the same teacher I had for The Short Story.  I found The Short Story class very interesting.  I'm not a short story reader, although I do read them, but I usually read a collection by the same author.  This class introduced me to authors I never read and stories I didn't know existed.  I enjoyed it.

I finally finished 11/22/63 by Stephen King.  I started this book in November 2011.  It took me so long because everything got in the way, mainly school and other books.  I enjoyed the beginning and the end, I found the middle to be extraneous for the most part. There were some important parts that moved the story along, but I grew bored.  The ending was classic King and I wished more of the book was like that.  I understand he was trying to do something different, but I think he needs to stick to horror.  I have read other non-horror books by him, and they were just OK.  It is a shame he is put into that box but if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Here is the sad part. I've read 3 other Stephen King books before finishing this.  And he is my favorite author.  I'm giving this book 3.5 stars.

I recently finished The Leftovers by Tom Perrota.  It was a NYT notable book for 2011, and I read somewhere, they are going to make it into a TV Show or mini series or something.  My question is WHY?  It has an interesting premise.  Something akin to The Rapture occurs and this story examines what happens to the people who are left behind.  Some families are left to pick up the pieces of their lives as fathers, sisters and children just vanish one day.  Some deal with the
grief in ordinary ways, some in not so ordinary ways.  A cult like fraction starts up called "The Watchers". There job is to WATCH those who are left behind.  They are like the 'moral compass'.  It all sounds very intriguing, but the book didn't come off as such.  I give this book 3 stars.