Tag: authors

Your Words Matter. Online Literary Magazine…

Your Words Matter- Your Words Have Power

Dr. Ralph Hogges

YOUR WORDS MATTER – WORDS HAVE POWER

Words can create the Power of Faith and Hope.

Words can create the Power of Love and Compassion.

Words can create the Power of Unity and Cooperation. 

Words can create the Power of Truth, Honesty and Fairness.

Words can create the Power of Freedom, Justice and Equality.

Embracing our Literary Voices,

The Enduring Power, Creative Joy,

And Beauty of Words,

We Unleash Our Infinite

Power of Imagination and Creativity.

— Ralph Hogges

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Access the work of Literary Artist in the November, 2021 issue here

GreenLight’s Trunk Or Treat Candy Squeals…

Try New Things

Try new things. That’s what I did. I tried something new. Never did a trunk or treat before. I’m not an artist unlike my daughter. I’m a creator of written work–books, poems, short stories, and an encourager through daily Motivational Quotes on instagram. But my desire to participate in the Calvary’s annual Trunk or Treat event caused me weeks of agony. As I prayed I needed help. I searched the net. The ideas gleaned were generic based on movie characters, celebrity look-alikes and such. As I agonized, I shared my concept with a friend who is a creator of art…of things unique. She joined me in the vision and it emerged into something concrete.

How I Did It

My vision was to share from my book GreenLight: When God Says Go. It’s from a series of writings and I wanted to bring it to life. I got boxes and art supplies from Michaels. Bought tap lights from Amazon to portray all green traffic lights. Painted them with green art paint. Cut holes in the boxes and glued the tap lights into the holes.

I learnt that it was important to make sure your trunk matches the trunk host so I duplicated the above and cut additional holes into the box for my arms. I added my name to a piece of art board and glued it onto a head band to wear as the name of a street, green wig in tow. Remember, I am not an artist but I was pleased with my creation and the kids seemed delighted by the tap lights. I got many kiddie ‘asks’ to tap the lights as I wore them while the adults looked on intrigued. Pictures always tell a story, so here are a few.

How did you spend your time trick or treating? Do share. We would love to hear!

Cheers!

Show Up. That’s All He Did.…

It’s through curiosity and looking at opportunities in new ways that we’ve always mapped our path. ~Michael Dell

Steve Harvey

Opportunity comes when we are ready for it. Comedian and entertainer Steve Harvey share his story about his writing jokes for a colleague for sometime in exchange for $10. One day the guy didn’t show and he was encouraged to go check out the venue himself. Curiosity got the better of him and he did. He subsequently put his name in the bag for a future show but was called on when another contestant didn’t show. Suffice it to say he won and the rest is history.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs showed up to classes out of curiosity after he was fired from the company he started. His curiosity led to one of the greatest innovations of all times. The iPhone which global users compete daily with its competitor, the android.

Les Brown

I also think of Les Brown who was yearning for an opportunity in radio though he didn’t have training or experience. One day the host didn’t show because he was sick or something and he was invited to fill in with just music on the radio. Les Brown proceeded to be the talk show host. And the rest is history.

Opportunity. It’s Your Turn

What opportunity do you need to show up to? Are you ready for it? What desire(s) do you have? Make sure you are ready because you never know when the opportunity will arise. If you are not prepared then you may miss it.

Always Show up is my mantra. Do it today. Is there any personal story that you can share of an opportunity gleaned just by being there? On the other hand, is there an opportunity you missed because you did not show up? Do share. We would love to hear.

Cheers!

Sell More Books This Holiday. Here’s How…

Writers write. Readers read. Together they are one.

The holiday season brings many opportunities for authors. Families, co-workers, friends, networkers and even the Grinch shop for the perfect Gifts for book-lovers. From fiction, non fiction, Poetry, Sci-fi and sweet holiday romance for those hallmark enthusiasts who dream not only of movies but to curl up in the warmth of Christmas bliss. Their goal? To get lost in the world of the ideal relationship.

Marketers go crazy to capture the holiday magic for those on the naughty or nice list. So why shouldn’t authors…well author-preneurs participate? It’s become a common trend for non-traditional publishers to want to optimize the sweet fruits of their labor. They want to see their hard work nicely wrapped under the Christmas tree or at minimum, stuffed into Christmas stockings.

So how can authors prepare? I was chatting with a group of self published and traditionally published authors who long to boost their holiday sales. Why have the books gathering dust on Amazon’s platform or even yours? It seems the practice is to write it, publish it, and forget it, with the hopes that writing and publishing the book will attract sales. Not so. It does not work that way. Not for any type of author. The point is, after your book is published… unfortunately that’s when the hard work begins. You have to make the world know that it exists. So here are a few simple tips to help get you started. Don’t be overwhelmed. Choose one, two or a few and prepare for the most wonderful time of the year.

Create That Holiday Plan

  • Create a plan for the holidays. I am a firm believer in the saying if you are not planning you’re just practicing.
  • Evaluate where you are now and where you would like to be at the end of the holiday period. For example, you could include factors like doubling or tripling your year-to-date sales. If you are an experienced author with several books, take a loo at your past holiday sales. Project an increase in sales over past years.
  • Plan to up your Marketing and Promotional strategy. Sometimes just a little effort goes a long way from doing nothing at all.
  • Update your book covers. Make it festive (easier if you’re self-published) but whatever you do, make sure your cover looks professional.

Your Holiday Author Platform

  • Become more visible
  • Get your website holiday ready
  • Update your Amazon Author Central profile
  • Get more amazon reviews
  • Make your book covers more festive
  • Update your book description
  • Update your author bio. It’s a good idea to edit and review often on your amazon page. You would be surprised when you look back you seem to be looking at a stranger who essentially is a person you hardly recognize. Think of this like a resume. Update frequently.
  • Get a professional photo done and spread it across the different media networks

Build That Strategic Audience

  • Set up or expand your mailing list
  • Write blog posts
  • Create a newsletter… if that’s on your agenda
  • Find and connect with your audience. Engage, engage, engage them
  • Offer free holiday shipping

You may also like From Books To Bucks

Get Social

  • Update your Social Media Profile
  • Do a holiday-themed hash tag search
  • Dig a little deep and find out who your followers are
  • Create images of your books in holiday settings on instagram
  • Create your own 12-Days of Christmas

Show. Don’t Tell

  • Increase your book reviews. Aim for 25 which means you have to go after many in order to get this done. You will receive promises but usually only lower percentage will come through
  • Create gift bags and other swags for giveaways
  • Create holiday videos. Already doing that? Do some more
  • Have a series? Make the first book FREE
  • Prep your own 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways

Holiday Party Connect. Collaborate.

  • Collaborate with other authors in Holiday Book Events
  • Participate in Holiday Book Guide
    • Gifts for the Poetry Lover
    • Gifts for the Sci-fi lover
    • Gifts for the child reader enthusiasts
  • Invite your fans to an “ask the author” virtual Holiday party on social media
  • Get involved in local festivities (holiday markets, local fairs etc.)
  • Contact local independent bookstores

Hope these few tips will help get you underway. There are tons more but these few will get you started. Don’t get overwhelmed. Choose one, two or a few and Sell More Books this Holiday!

Cheers!

What Are The Requirements To Be A Writer? 25 Authors Share…

What does it take to be a writer? That was the question asked in a writers’ forum. Some think it’s rather scary to become a writer. They believe they can’t do it. But isn’t that the case with many new feats that we decide to embark on? The unknown is scary. But I always encourage you to step out afraid, scared, trembling… but do it anyway. Here I share basically verbatim responses as Professional Writers dived in assiduously with their opinions.

Characteristics Of Good Writers

  1. Patience and determination
  2. Perseverance, self-awareness, optimism, logic, self analysis, the ability to listen to expert input, communication skills, your own writing voice, attention to detail
  3. A willingness to learn the skills you don’t have and 50 percent sanity and 50 percent raging eccentricity
  4. “What kind of writer? What do you write? But let’s say FICTION. First of all endurance. You’ll write a lot of ‘crap’. I am not sorry to say. It’s just that the first few years of your writing will. General advice aside, you’ll have to work hard by writing, reading, getting the “feel” for a storyline and characters. And get a touch of the flow. You’ll begin to understand what makes a character, drives a character, what characters fear and desire. And most important what they need. You begin to feel the pulse of the story and where it goes on too thin/long and where things could be expanded on. You begin to understand archetypes too. It is a long path. But at some point you “feel” the story is right. My suggestion is to read a lot and watch good movies. Movies with well done stories and characters. Classic movies. I watched Lord of the Rings many times, it heavily uses archetypes and characters with strengths, desires, and flaws. And yes I read the book many times too! You could read Dracula, watch The Godfather and so on. The classics is where many of the deep archetypes lay”.
  5. Imagination
  6. Words. Words written down. Words woven into a great story.
  7. Write. Simply write
  8. First, ‘butt’ in the chair, pen in hand
  9. Desire, persistence, and the willingness to learn the craft – that’s all.
  10. Passion for writing
  11. Read, read and read. Then you write
  12. Commitment, imagination, and a touch of insanity
  13. Tell a complete story. Beginning, middle and end. It’s shocking how many people can’t do this.
  14. A touch of talent and a ton of hard work.
  15. Keep on learning each day and move forward and up.
  16. Thick skin
  17. Lots of practice.
  18. A good writer just needs something important to say
  19. Faith
  20. Learn to Finishing things.
  21. Keep a journal
  22. Time
  23. Just be yourself. Lots of people grow up feeling like the main character of a crazy adventure novel. At least that’s how writing came easy to me. Know that revision and editing is essential. Don’t see it as too daunting and make sure you save your work. Develop that habit.
  24. Mindset and practicing are the most important basic requirements to become a writer. The other crucial steps are the ability to experiment and research. You need to have the ability to think from different POVs and develop a strong ability of imagination by reading a lot. Building up a proper balance between your fingers and mind is important and that may only be achieved by writing on a regular basis.
  25. To be a good writer, you have to have something to say. Writer’s block is a sign you don’t have a message. I keep a diary of daily observations and what they mean to me. Good writers have an uncanny sense of the motivation of others, and they can capture the human condition in words that repeat their/our thoughts. My diary is often the storeroom for those words. I learned long ago that eloquent words come from eloquent thoughts. You have to write them down in the moment or lose them forever. The rest is ‘craft’ (the tools of the trade, so to speak). There are so many writers, so caught up in craft, they struggle with content continually.

So there you have it, authors giving their feedback to newbies and/or those who aspire to start something new. Just do it!

Cheers!

You may also like Write. Just Write

Photo by Djordje Petrovic on Pexels.com

Don’t Self-Reject…

Don’t do it. Don’t self-reject. Just don’t do it.

Think about the last time an opportunity showed up. It may have been a job, a relationship, a personal move. It was too good to be true. So you hesitated. Did your hesitation alter the end result? Did you go after it eventually or did you make your fear cause you to freeze?

It’s sad but so often we self-reject. Often we talk ourselves out of doing something we are well qualified for. Most common on the job-front. We move to a new area. Start the job hunt then when something big comes up. We feel less than qualified. We look at the requirements then decide that we won’t apply because we don’t fit one or more of the requirements. Or that company is too big, they would never hire me. We do the usual self talk. Focus on the negative and talk ourselves out of it. Ditch the negatives.

Going after something or someone we deem important. But what if they see me in a different light? What if they think that I’m not good enough? What if they say no? Ditch the negative self-talk. What if they say yes? Send the email.

Ditch The Negative Self-Talk

Life would be much easier if we focus on the positive. Ditch the self-pity. Ditch those negative self-talk. Go after your dream job, relationship, house, car, vacation. Plan it. Ink it. Do it.

Don’t know where to start, let’s connect.

Cheers!

Error In A Published Work? 3 Things To Do…

Finding A Book Error

Your book is published, yea!

It’s an outstanding achievement especially for a first time author. Be proud of yourself. But then patrons buy your book and later a reader finds an error or worse–two. It may be his/her interpretation but an error none-the-less. You feel sad. Down. Disappointed in yourself. How could that happen? But before you throw in the ‘author’ towel, here are 3 simple things to do.

Write Quality Books

Write quality books. I can’t stress that enough. Those of you who have worked with me know that is most important. It makes the difference in the success of your product. Quality means, professionally done book cover, formatting, editing and more

Edit. Edit. Edit Some More

Of prime importance is the editing. Nothing is more distasteful than a product that wherever you read, you find errors. That being said, in professionally published books… be it traditional or self-published, you may find errors. That’s the reason reviewing your work with an editor is so important. These days errors are found even in the media. But the great thing now with the media is that it’s mainly online in many cases. Often in their haste to get the news out, they falter. But with online, errors can easily be edited and republished fast. In a printed book, this can also be done so get in touch with your publisher for immediate correction. If self-published, correct the manuscript and republish.

There Will Always Be Haters

Accept the fact. Know that you will always have haters and especially in Poetry, it’s your interpretation, your craft. If the errors are not spelling, then some will still complain because you write as you ‘see’ things.

So in summary, keep your head up. Do something about the complaint. Validate it and if its a fact, correct it. Then move on to writing and publishing your next book. Remember, life is filled with ups and downs. But it’s what you do about it that counts.

Need to write your book? Let’s connect.

Cheers!

Note this discussion does not go in-depth into writing and correcting errors. It is written as a simple recommendation to uplift and rebuild the new author’s inner drive to continue his/her craft.

Authors Share 13 Ways To Rid Writer’s Block…

Overcoming writer’s block isn’t always easy, but it helps to keep a pen and paper at the ready for when inspiration strikes.

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Many complain of experiencing writer’s block. It refers that time when writers attempt to write and nothing comes. Some complain that it last days, weeks, months. Others say it may even last years. The question came up in an authors’ forum. Here I share 13 tips recommended.

  1. Take a day off from writing
  2. Work on two different books at the same time. If you have trouble with one, move to the other. It helps with the creative process
  3. If you don’t know what you’re going to write there’s no point in sitting down. What you can do is think during the day what the next few pages are going to be like (when writing fiction). So when you sit you know exactly what’s coming
  4. One writer suggested that you leave the last sentence unfinished so you know what you are going to write when you next start writing.
  5. If you have lost direction, print your book so far and re-read it. By reading the previous chapters (preferably in one sitting) it provides a run-up to the bit you are actually stuck with. Then you are able to put down your reading and start writing with a renewed sense of direction.
  6. Read, watch a movie, play a game. Get your head back.
  7. Give yourself permission to write badly. Tell yourself the story. Take a break and write something completely different. Read a lot.
  8. It’s not a block but an opportunity. Time to edit and then later, see it with fresh eyes
  9. Write, write, write…even if it’s not good or what you want. You can always cut it later or edit it into what you do want.
  10. Disconnect and do something completely different.
  11. Talk about the story’s events.
  12. Take a walk.
  13. Just keep writing. Don’t get discouraged. If one thing doesn’t work, try another.

Any thoughts missing that you would like to add? Do share. We would love to hear! By the way, if you are still dreaming of writing that book and don’t know where to start, let’s connect.

Cheers!

What’s Going On In Your Life That Feels Like A Giant?

Relatable, encouraging, inspiring are words that describes the book “My Safe Place is With You.

Amazon Reviews

Are you discouraged and feel like giving up? What is going on in your life that feels like a giant? Is it a career decision? A conflict on the job? Your health? A conflict at home? When you think about your future, does it look bleak? If so, be confident that it does not have to be.

In My Safe Place, Dr. Shelly Cameron talks about what to do when life’s tragedies hit, when you feel stuck, confused, and your life spirals out of control, where do you turn? How do you handle it? Where is your Refuge?

In this book you will find:

  • Inspirational Short Stories and Exhortations to Uplift you
  • Prayers and Encouragement for Difficult Journeys
  • Guidance to Identify God’s Purpose and Leading when you are Confused
  • What to do when Enemies Strike
  • What to do when Waiting on God

If you or a friend feel like giving up and do not know where to turn, then this book is for you.

Writing Retreat. Alone Or With A Group?

As a writer you have to have the three D’s: drive, discipline and desire. If you’re missing any one of those three, you can have all the talent in the world, but it’s going to be really hard to get anything done.

Nora Roberts

An author at a Writers forum asked the question whether to attend a writing retreat alone or with a group. Intrigued I dived in. Here are top responses as authors chimed in with their preferences.

  1. A combination. Alone at first to get some writing done, then others can join after to chill
  2. Always with at least one person, Would never travel anywhere alone
  3. Either. Done it
  4. Alone
  5. I like both. But prefer to have a couple of other writers. That way there is someone to talk over plot points and such with.
  6. Would probably accomplish more alone, but a group is nice too
  7. I have done both. You can also go to the location (Tennessee Williams Writers Festival in New Orleans) with non writer friends who will go off sightseeing and leave you blissfully on your own to attend master classes, panel discussions and book signings. But bring your new writer friends with you to dinner so you have something satisfying and intelligent to talk about.
  8. Both could be fun
  9. Alone but towards the end I want to meet up with a friend for dinner
  10. Writing retreats are so fun with a friend, but the point as in writing is not to have fun, but to be productive. Learn, write, make a few new friends after hours but you are there to write.

I think point 10 sums it all up. Writing is indeed fun but the point of writing is to be productive. Personally, I believe writers write alone but after compile the pieces and celebrate together.

As a writer, what’s your preference? Do share. We would love to hear.

Cheers!

We Are The Caribbean

As we commemorate National Caribbean American Heritage Month, the tribute written by talented Poet Charmaine Allwood-Hanson sums up the history and cultural perspective. Be intrigued as you read.

Charmaine A.'s avatarI Speak. You Read.

WE ARE THE CARIBBEAN
COUNTRIES AND ISLANDS
CONNECTED BY THIS VAST BLUE SEA
PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT RACES
RELIGIONS AND CREEDS

WE ARE THE CARIBBEAN
A GREAT MELTING POT
BRED FROM SLAVES, COLONIZERS
MERCHANTS, INDENTURED LABORERS
AND INDIGENOUS TRIBES
CULTURALLY WE ARE SO DIVERSIFIED

WE SPEAK ENGLISH, FRENCH
SPANISH AND DUTCH
PATOIS AND CREOLE
OUR LANGUAGES EMBODY
THE NEW AND THE OLD

WE ARE THE CARIBBEAN
OVER 26 NATIONS STRONG
LET ME NAME A FEW
AS THE LIST IS LONG

WE ARE GUYANESE, BARBADIAN
BELIZEANS AND JAMAICANS
PANAMANIANS, HAITIANS AND GRENADIANS
CUBANS, DOMINICANS, AND ANGUILLANS
WE ARE THE NATIONS OF ST. VINCENT
MONTSERRAT AND MARTINIQUE
WE ARE COUNTRIES, SMALL AND LARGE ISLANDS
WHICH MAKES OUR REGION UNIQUE

WE HAVE MOUNTAINS, VOLCANOES AND TOURIST RESORTS
WATERFALLS, HEALING AND HEALTH SPAS
TOP NOTCH SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES
WE ARE KNOWN FOR OUR DIVERSITIES

WE HAVE MANY HISTORICAL SITES
WE TRADE TOBACCO, SUGAR AND BANANAS…

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Caution: Success and Stress

Dr. Shelly's avatarSuccess Strategies


We often dream of success…however, we define it. But to place a twist on attaining success, one wonders whether the good life is always good. Are the very things that so many individuals strive for, such as a high-paying and powerful job, a beautiful house, a wardrobe of nice clothes in desirable sizes, and a fancy education for children to prepare them for carrying on this way of life: Do these very things turn out to be more trouble than they are worth? In fact, it is believed that the psychological burdens associated with being a low-status individual (i.e., poor) grow lighter as people move up the social ladder, but that is true only to a certain extent. Once individuals achieve more success, the mental and physical health benefits associated with greater affluence fade away. As individuals near the top, life stress increases dramatically, and its toxic effects essentially cancel…

View original post 249 more words

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