Corporate Identity Expert, Hah!

When I worked full time as a Marketing Communications Specialist for an engineering firm in Pennsylvania, my boss was one of the brightest minds in corporate communications. Under his tutelage, and combining my education and work history, I became a corporate identity master. I could brand anything with ease using any and every tool you could imagine, and probably a bunch you’d never think of.

So why is it that I, a master brander and professional writer, am completely bamboozled when it comes to branding myself using social media platforms? Is it one of those cases where the artist can paint everything but an accurate self-portrait because she can’t see the beauty in herself?

No.

I can see myself for what I am, including the plethora of flaws.

I’m like the millions of other authors out there who don’t get the whole platform thing. But maybe I should say didn’t get the whole platform thing. I’m learning.

Thank you Kristen Lamb for your tireless efforts. I’ve recently read both her books, and I have to say I’m motivated to get out there in the ether and build a successful platform. And I believe it will work because of the strategies suggested in her books. Check out Are You There Blog? It’s Me, Writer, and We Are Not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media. Worth their weights in platinum.

Hilarious and true. Did you forget the mummy… the one who wrote for so long to meet his deadline and got so cold while doing so that he wrapped himself in sheets until they turned into scraps of linen and he looked like a preserved corpse when his friends came to find him? Sometimes I think I’m that mummy/mommy. Great article Kristen. Love the WANAtribe site, too. I’ll be looking for your book, We Are Not Alone… a friend read it and said it’s great. Thanks for your hard work.

Happy Father’s Day!

 Happy Father’s Day! Today is the day set aside to celebrate dads. It was first celebrated in Washington in 1910 in response to Mother’s Day, but it sort of fell into obscurity. It gained national recognition in the 1930s, with the Father’s Day Council being founded in 1938. After years of debate in the government and media, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued a proclamation honoring fathers on the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day in 1966. And here we are today, the third Sunday in June, 2012, honoring dads.

I don’t do it because of a response to Mother’s Day. I don’t do it because of the media hype. I don’t do it because of the presidential decree. I do it because I have a great dad. And so does my husband. And my husband is a wonderful father to our kids.

They deserve some recognition for that.

So today, instead of trying to check items off my honey-do list, I’m going to tell my husband how much I appreciate him just the way he is. And I’m going to tell all the other dads in my life the same.

I hope you all have a great father’s day, how ever you choose to spend it.

Happy Flag Day!

Today is Flag Day, or the commemoration of the day the United States adopted the use of the American Flag as a symbol for our nation. I am proud of my mostly Italian heritage, and I am proud of my Irish, Scottish, German and Dutch heritage as well, although I know very little about my father’s side of the family compared to my mother’s. But I am 100% American and proud of it, today and everyday. I appreciate the freedoms that I have and the soldiers who have fought and are fighting to give those freedoms to me (my niece being one of them). When I see the Stars and Stripes, I know what they represent, and I am grateful. I’m spending some time today thinking about our great nation, and contemplating where we’ve been and where we’re headed. I encourage you all to do the same… and to display a flag. Proudly.

Picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day_(United_States)

To Edit or Not to Edit, That is the Question

Of course you edit! What kind of ridiculous question is that?

I don’t mean ever, naturally. I mean as you write. I’ve heard this topic discussed a lot, and my friend Joy (joykeeney.wordpress.com) just blogged her way through her thoughts on the topic. What’s a writer to make of it all?

Here’s my two cents (and that’s about what it’s worth).

Most writers tell you not to edit as you go. They tell you to get the words on the page and revise later. They don’t want to break the creative process with the mundane chore of grammar, punctuation and the like. There is merit to that school of thought.

Some people, the edit-happy writers of the bunch, advocate editing as they write because it saves time later. Does it break creative flow? Possibly. Do you run the risk of losing the idea of the century? Yes, you do. So why risk it? Because if, in the course of editing, you discover a plot point error in chapter 2, it will save you weeks if not months of editing later.

Where do I fall? I tend to fix the little things I notice as I go, but mostly plow forward. Then I spend the beginning of each day reviewing the prior day’s work to fix the big things. It seems to be a happy medium, and it works for me. I’d recommend this technique to anyone.

Why do I think this post is only worth two cents? Because, while I think it’s great advice, writers seem to be creatures of habit and I don’t believe anything written here will change their ways on the matter. But writers are also dreamers, and I’m ever hopeful!

Keep writing, everybody. And editing!

Hard Work Pays Off

I posted earlier that you send your work off and you wait and you wait and you wait. Well, I waited.

And it paid off.

Two stories were accepted for publication today. “Code Blue” and “Dudley” are being published in an anthology later in the summer.

I’ll post details when I have them, but today, I celebrate.

But only for a little bit.

And then I’ll get back to work.

Rest in Peace

Noted science fiction author Ray Bradbury died yesterday at the age of 91. He was most famous for Fahrenheit 451, but he wrote books, stories and scripts that affected people around the world since his first short story sold in 1941. He will be missed.

Patience is a Virtue

So you’ve sent off your short story to a contest, or your query letter to an agent, or your manuscript to a publisher. And you wait. And you wait. And you wait.

It can be agonizing.

What’s a writer to do?

This is the age of instant gratification. If you need an answer immediately, go to a conference. There you can sit down with an agent or editor and have a face to face chat and find out immediately if you have what their agency is looking for. You may not like the answer you get, but at least you’ll get an answer. Immediately. If you don’t like the answer, don’t give up. Pitch to a different agent or editor. If you keep hearing “no” well, then maybe you should write something else.

If you’re willing to wait the two months for the competition, or the answer to the query or the manuscript submission, then there’s nothing you can do but wait the time out. And while you do, don’t twiddle your thumbs. Keep writing.

Someone may want to read a sequel.

Words for the Writer to Live By

One of my favorite quotes is:

So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.

Prolific, huh? Must have been said by one of the greats, like Fitzgerald, or Dickens, or Faulkner. Bronte, or Shakespeare, or Poe.

Nope.

Dr. Seuss.

In my mind, still one of the greats. He wrote for a different audience, but he still touched a lot of minds. And hearts. And that’s all writers really want to do – reach the minds and hearts of their readers. That’s all I really want to do.

And, like Dr. Seuss said, I should do it in as few words as possible so as not to make it difficult for my audience.

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