Author, Musician, Editor, Writing Coach
The famous line from the ’70s movie Love Story was Love means never having to say you’re sorry. I’m sorry, but what horse poo that was! A more appropriate line might be love means knowing when you need to say you’re sorry and having the cojones to do it. I realize that’s not as elegant sounding, but it rings a lot truer to me.
The strength of your body is your core: a group of muscles in the center of your body that keep you healthy and moving forward. Your campaign’s “core” is your inner circle: Your family, friends, colleagues/co-workers, and anyone else to whom you are close enough to ask them to help advocate for you and your campaign (in addition to contributing, of course!)
Here are some ways to engage your core, turning them into social media and marketing ambassadors:
Read MoreThe other dayI had a flashback to when I was about 13, all full of teen-girl hormones and unpredictable rages. I was on about some girl at school and her attitude and how she was mean to other girls and I really…My mom, making beef stew at the stove and a little hot and grumpy herself turned to me and said, “Really! Why don’t you just mind your own business?”
Soooo…You’ve launched your campaign and now have 30 days or more to reach your goal. How well you use social media and, most importantly, your email list, during the campaign will correlate directly to your results: The better you use your communication tools, the higher your contribution total will be.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind for fueling campaign interest (and contributions) through the campaign:
Read MoreWe can do this now. A video we make of a gesture can find and touch millions of hearts, as this video did when it was posted on Facebook six months ago. A man asks a choir to sing Bruno Mars’ hit song Just the Way You Are to his wife on their anniversary. His wife, as it happens, is chair-ridden from advanced multiple sclerosis. He does this because he wants, he needs, her to know how cherished she is, and he needs to do it in some undeniable, public way.
Read MoreHey, FreshVoicers…Happy New Year!
I’m excited about 2017, and I hope you are, too! Will this be the year you decide to start that book project? If it feels like the right time, then here are some professional nudges I’ve put together for you…
In Sheridan’s 18th Century play, The Rivals, a character named Mrs. Malaprop constantly used similar-sounding but incorrect words, often with humorous results: “I must crash a check”; “It’s my term to make them play,” and that sort of thing. Words misused in this way have become known as malapropisms after this hilarious character.
Eggcorn? Well it sounded like that…
Malapropisms, along with other kinds of misuses of words, like the recently-named eggcorns, mondegreens (mis-heard lyrics), mixed metaphors and the like are found everywhere–especially in the verbiage of politicians, celebrities, and the sports world. I don’t think this is because they’re more prone to it; they’re just more likely to have their utterances taped and re-broadcast for the world to see than are you or me. And, they’re often put on the spot and asked to respond to questions suddenly, or make their living talking a lot in public places. Read More
In 2002 or so, I wasn’t in the best place…physically, mentally, or spiritually. I was struggling with my life and music was my savior. I was actively writing songs for myself and for a friend’s band I played in called Jo’s Diner. One day, for whatever reason, I decided to make an EP (a short version of what used to be called an “LP”…a long-playing record, or album.) The EP was called Fragile Heart and it contained six songs, five of which were mine. A colleague I performed with graciously agreed to play sax on the little project, and we recorded it in another friend’s studio in Saskatoon…
I’ve been blessed to attend various support groups over the past two years, and have recorded many of the more meaningful comments and quotes that have been made by others in my pink notebook, along with my own thoughts, many of which have been shared (respecting anonymity, of course) with TPN readers over the past year. Read More
So this is Christmas, one of my favorite holiday songs goes, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun…It’s time to take inventory. But often we rush through the holidays, all action and no reflection.
The fall leading up to Christmas is the heaviest activity in the year for publishers and book printers; the rush to get what will hopefully be the gift book of the season out by early October is its own kind of tension. Having just completed one of those with an author and his book, I’m now taking a few deep breaths. Amid all the visitors, gifts, food and family, I’m feeling the need to make a little quiet space for my inventory.