a productive pen

Lately I have become aware of a lot of buzz around the word, ‘authentic.’ In a world populated by so much that is false and not what it appears to be, we long for the ability to trust that some things can be real and true. Ensuring that someone is who they say they are can be difficult at best especially online because the Internet allows people to hide behind aliases and self-created public identities.  Therefore, it can be challenging to really know who you are dealing with when you interact with people online.

Authenticity can be perceived and it will help your message to rise above the clutter and noise in the marketplace of ideas. Say you’ll join me as I move toward truly being who I am and expressing my authentic self with the world.

Have you heard of the guy from Canada who took a red paper clip and in 14 trades ended up with a house? Well, I want to share with you a similar scheme to teach average, every day people to make $100,000 starting with absolutely nothing. You have heard the expression, “it takes money to make money,” but in this case I was thrilled to learn that you can actually begin with nothing and leverage your way to making large amounts of money.

This is one of those things that sounds absolutely crazy, but its true and its exciting and although I am doing it myself I can barely contain my excitement at being part of this outrageous experiment. Come and see what I am talking about.

Here are some cool resources that writers might find useful that I thought I’d share that I’ve been collecting for the past few weeks. The first two I learned about on Stephen Pierce’s DT Alpha Talk Back podcast. It’s one of my fave new personal development/online business podcasts. Go take a look at serph.com, where they promise to “track buzz in real time.” It’s a good place to find out who’s talking about what online. Another cool place to check out is surchur.com. This is a social media meta search that returns links to videos, pictures, news, blog posts on current topics online.
One final thing I’d like to share is a link to a fabulous freelance writing newsletter that I have subscribed to for ages. It’s called “Writing Etc.” by Beth Ann Erickson. Through that newsletter I joined her private writer’s group called the Creative Mindset community. Last night we had a conference call with the group which was just amazing. It was a group of other freelancers talking about what we do, sharing ideas and resources and just supporting each other. Here’s a link to a site with lots of cool resources for online writers that Joyce, a member of our group shared: “50 Awesome Open Source Resources for Online Writers.”

Writing is such a solitary endeavor, so it’s nice to have a master mind group to bounce ideas off of and learn from.

I’ve been writing and trying to keep up with deadlines and keep my clients happy while I cook up some other projects on the side burner. School is drawing to a close for my young ones. Thing Two is wrapping up fourth grade and will be starting at a new school next year, and Thing Three will be transitioning from Kindergarten to first grade and she will also be moving to a new school. So, we have many changes in store in our lives coming up. But change is the essence of life, and that is the only way to move forward.

Keep on writing.

Trying to balance a moonlighting writing gig alongside a regular 9-5, raising three children alone and trying to squeeze in a social life has been kicking my butt lately. I have a distinct vision of the kind of lifestyle I would like to have, but the present moment is so far removed from that vision I’m not sure how I will ever get there.
Writing is my passion and I love it, but by the time I get home from work, wrangle the girls homework assignments whilst preparing dinner and trying to keep the house in some semblance of order, serve and eat dinner, and then clean up afterwards this mamma is thoroughly exhausted. After I have gotten them into the bed and I crack open the laptop in a vain attempt to get some writing done it’s not long before my forehead begins to hit the keyboard. I’m really feeling this quote by Joseph Conrad:

“You must squeeze out of yourself every sensation, every thought, every image, — mercilessly, without reserve and without remorse: you must search the darkest corners of your heart, the most remote recesses of your brain, — you must search them for the image, for the glamour, for the right expression. And you must do it sincerely, at any cost: you must do it so that at the end of your day’s work you should feel exhausted, emptied of every sensation and every thought, with a blank mind and an aching heart, with the notion that there is nothing, — nothing left in you.” — Joseph Conrad

This quote virtually crackles with my exact feelings about the writing process. I love the fact that its like opening a vein and I do it sincerely–when I can. So, I persevere, trying to keep up with the small amount of work that I have and wondering how I will be able to make that big leap to writing full time.

I found Qassia and I’m trying it out and seeing how effective it is. It’s basically another directory which is free to join where you can create backlinks for your blog and generate Adsense income. Qassia gives you credit for adding ‘intel,’ which is basically short snippets of info that will be useful to someone. You can also get credit for rating the intel that other users submit. For each new bit of intel that you add, you get a backlink for your blog. It’s pretty easy and seems promising, so I’m going to test it out. You will basically be getting paid to promote your site. How nifty is that? If you want to give it a try, sign up through my profile page.

I’ve been struggling with finding a balance between getting writing projects completed and keeping this blog fresh. I enjoy blogging, but until it begins to generate some revenue for me, it’s challenging to put a lot of time into it. Then, I guess if I put more time into it maybe it would generate more cash. Hmmm.

Anyway, I was blog surfing on the weekend and I came across the term ’speed blogging.’ I found Lorelle’s Wordpress blog post on the topic, and it made a lot of sense to me.

From what I have gleaned, speed blogging is simply adding many quick blog entries throughout the day. Phil Whitehouse describes speed blogging as a post that’s 20 words or less, and written without spell checking and may or may not contain an image.

Speed blogging is not appropriate for every blog, or every topic, but it might be a way to crank out some fresh posts on a regular basis.

Happy New Year greetings to all of my readers. Today while in the process of doing some research I came across a wonderful freelance writing blog that caught my eye, so I’m sharing it here. I found her site because it wa featured on the Women on Writing web site.

Yuwanda Black writes the Inkwell Editorial blog which is just chock full of resources designed to help freelance writers increase their income.

Her site includes a blog, lots of success stories about freelance writers who have found success, resources for freelancing abroad, the best and worst jobs and a selection of career and business development ebooks.

Keep on writing.

Personal development has been a part of my life for the better part of my adulthood. I have noticed, however that sometimes I will buy a book with the greatest intentions of reading it and assimilating all of the good ideas that it contains, but after a few chapters I may set it aside and then life takes over and I don’t get to finish reading it. I know that consistency is an important element in assimilating new practices into my life, and I often wished that there was a way that I could gain exposure to content and ideas about personal growth, health and fitness and spiritual principals on a daily basis. Well, let me tell you that I have found just the thing.

While browsing through itunes a few months ago I discovered a podcast called the Morning Coach. It began with JB Glossinger doing a 15 minute daily morning podcast on personal development, finance, health and spirituality. Now JB has added Don Sheldon who podcasts on the weekends and Paul Letterman who talks about health. It’s a great podcast with useful content that will have an impact on your life. You will get lots of great tips and ideas, feel the positive energy and motivation to continue to consistently take action towards your goals.

So, if a daily dose of postive vibes and practical knowledge sounds good to you, check out the morning coach and subscribe to the podcast. The web site also has lots of useful content, and you can meet and interact with other listeners in the forums.

First, as I write this I will say that I am not a Catholic. I was raised in a Protestant, Christian home and my family attended an A.M.E. church. I did attend Catholic school as a young girl until the time when my parents took my siblings and me out of school so that my mom could home-school us. As a young, inquisitive child I was very observant about faith and religion and I wondered why for instance if there was only one God, why were there so many churches, and so many different kinds of churches. I observed that we read the Bible in our church, but when I looked at the Bibles in my Catholic school they were quite different. Why, when my Bible said that it was a sin to worship graven images, was there statues all over the sanctuary at St. Raphael’s Church and none in the sanctuary of St. Paul A.M.E. church where I grew up. To top it all off, one of my teachers, who was a nun made the mistake of pitying me because I was going to burn in hell because I was not a Catholic. (It didn’t help that we were the only Black children in this Irish Catholic School in Massachusetts in the late 70’s) This thought worried me to no end until I brought it up to my mother. She marched herself down to my school and read the riot act to Sister Christopher. I was mortified with embarrassment as I saw my mother threatening the poor nun that if she ever said anything of the sort again to me that she would make sure that she was not allowed to teach at this school again.

While I’ve had my issues with the Catholic Church, I admired the nuns and the priests who took vows to give up a normal life and to dedicate themselves to the service of Jesus. Later in life when I learned about the sexual abuse of children by priests this really shocked my sensibilities. I am not sure when I became aware of the life of Mother Teresa, and her work with the poorest of the poor in India, but from the first time I learned about who she was and the Missionaries of Charity, I have loved and admired her from afar. I thought fondly of this little woman as embodying all of the virtues that I aspired to, but failed to attain. I came across one of her quotations and I have used it in the signature file for my personal email because I feel that it captures what I admire most about her, which is her insatiable capacity for unconditional love: “I have learned the paradox that if I love until it hurts there is no more hurt only more love.”

When her personal writings were released earlier this year in the form of the book, “Come Be My Light” I began to read about the life of this great woman and became inspired anew. This book contains some of her personal letters and writings and it sheds light on her spiritual journey. The book also covers the secret years of desolation when she felt separated from God. I have not yet finished reading this book, but already it has inspired my heart to find ways to act on my faith and to find ways in my life to, “bring joy to the suffering heart of Jesus,” as she spent her life doing.

Often times I look on my life and I wonder if I am squandering the gifts that God has blessed me with. Am I giving my utmost for His highest? I don’t think so. At this time of year we often begin to reflect inward and take an assessment of what has been accomplished over the course of the year and then begin to plan for what we will do in the new year ahead. Since we are given our lives one moment at a time, I hope to do a better job of making the most of every moment and to live in a way that would please God. I will never live a life such as that of Saint Teresa, but her selfless sacrifice, her love of the poor and her ability to bring joy to the suffering heart of Jesus will continue to inspire me for as long as I am on this earth to be a better woman, mother, sister, daughter, aunt, niece, friend, wife and lover of Jesus in all of His disguises.