Thursday, May 10, 2018
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Setting Goals and Achieving Them...
Off The Grid - by Rita Karnopp ~
Living in the woods, surrounded by nature, is a fantasy of those
living within the unethical confines of society. But when you’re seventeen, even thinking
about walking through the woods conjures up ghastly visions.
Taylar must forgive her
father’s intentional betrayal of bringing her family to live in the remote Bob
Marshall Wilderness in Montana. Hundreds
of miles from civilization, she must put aside her fears and do her part to
help her family survive the challenges of dense wilderness, mountain lions,
bear, rattlesnakes, and the worst animal of all – man.
Will their father realize that their neighbors aren’t what they appear
to be . . . before it’s too late? Will
her almost sixteen-year-old sister, Brook, who loves hunting and nature, have
what it takes to guide them out of the untamed wilderness and back to
civilization? I'm often asked how I work full-time and write several books a year ... and my quick response is ... I set goals.
I firmly believe if you set a goal ... you can achieve anything. Some days it's a struggle and others ... not so bad ... even good. But the feeling you get from reaching that goal is beyond rewarding.
Here are three simple steps on setting goals and achieving them. Setting a goal is important – in every aspect of your life. Personally and professionally. For most of us, creating a goal brings about a positive change. The bottom line is when you write down a goal, you’re creating a challenge for yourself. There are three things you need to remember when setting goals.
First, you must write It Down - Once you’ve written that goal on a piece of paper … you’ve made a commitment. Put that goal somewhere you’ll look at it often, or pass by several times a day. Like your refrigerator or on your computer. It’s important to remember … write your goal in the positive. For instance, don’t write, “I need to lose twenty pounds.” Instead write, “I'm excited to lose twenty pounds by July 1st, 2018. Now you have a defined goal and a deadline date. Keep in mind – a goal should be written in a short, easy sentence.
Second, break down your goal … so it’s manageable. Maybe you’ve set a goal to lose twenty pounds. Saying I’m going to lose twenty pounds not only sounds horrifying … the reality is it’s going to be a difficult thing to accomplish. That's why you need to break your goal down into its different parts, because smaller goals are easier to handle. Losing twenty pounds seems overwhelming, but losing a pound a month for ten months is doable.
The third part of setting goals is to read your goal at least once … even twice a day.
Let’s face it, we get busy and your goals can sometimes be a nuisance … or you just don’t feel like striving toward that goal. Unacceptable. You’ve written down your goal and you’ve posted them where you know you’ll see them often. Your fridge, bathroom mirror, or on your computer. Now it’s time to reinforce that goal. Read your goal with enthusiasm, out loud, and with commitment.
This one sentence reminder can help you reach those goals … and it will change your life. I have proof … I’m forty-two pounds lighter and I just finished my 19th book, Secrets of Echo Cave (releasing in September 2018). Without goal setting … I doubt I’d have achieved any of it.
I would say writing is my passion . . . I see a story in just about every situation. I love Native American history and all the lessons it has to offer.
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Does Explicit Sex Sell Books? by June Gadsby
Explicit
sex – yes or no. Does it sell books? This is the question that’s been bugging
me for years. And my husband has been begging me ever since we met to put more
sex in my stories. In a bookshop he picked up a copy of Jackie Collins’
“Hollywood Wives” and told the shopkeeper: “My wife could write like this!”
“You lucky man!” was the shopkeeper’s response. My husband bought the book –
the only one I’ve ever known him to buy, read it at great speed and remarked
that I could do better than that. Me? I’ve shied away from writing sex in my
novels or reading sexy books all my life.
But
let’s face it. Books that contain sex – especially the explicit kind and plenty
of it – sell, and the author becomes famous. The reading public seem to love
it. From Lady Chatterley’s Lover to 50 Shades of Grey, people get as passionate
as the characters in the books. And they buy. You hear of a book that hasn’t
hit the marketplace yet, but word is out that the sex content is pretty hot, so
it becomes an immediate best-seller before anybody has read it.
Admittedly,
one or two of my books contain gentle, inoffensive sexual or sensuous scenes,
but I’ve never been comfortable with the explicit side of sex. At my age it may
be too late to change, but having taken some time out from writing and just
about everything else that was my normal life, thanks to some health problems,
my brain has been working on the new planned novel, “Forbidden”. Well, the
title just cries out for explicit sex of one kind or another and while I worked
out the story in my head because I couldn’t sit at the computer, little pockets
of explicit sex wove their way into the jungle of words that will one day soon
flow from my brain to my fingers and then to the keyboard and screen.
Suddenly,
I want to be up there with the sexy writers who give more readers than I have
what they want. Dare I do it? Why not? It’s not, after all, ‘forbidden’.
JUNE
GADSBY.
Monday, May 7, 2018
Looking for Love with Terri Richards
Love is ON the Air
What
woman hasn’t called, texted, or met with a friend to discuss how a date went or
how a relationship is or isn’t progressing? From the time we are still in grade
school, when we ask “Do you think he likes you? What did he say to you?” it
seems we are programmed to love hearing about love.
Maybe
that’s why there’ve been countless movies, books, and TV shows with a
relationship at their center. However, in 2002, reality TV took romance to a
whole other level with its show The Bachelor.
ABC actually passed on the idea when it was first presented to them, but when
the creators said they thought they could get a proposal at the end, ABC
decided to take a chance. It worked out well for the network. Twenty-two seasons
later, the show has become one of television’s biggest successes. It averages
eight million viewers in the US, and there are variations in eighteen countries
that include the Middle East, South America, Australia and Russia. The US also
has The Bachelorette, Bachelor in
Paradise, and The Bachelor Winter
Games.
Bachelor
Nation, as it now likes to call itself, has spawned fantasy leagues, drinking
games, and viewing parties. In just one US season, The Bachelor garnered more than 22 million dollars in advertising
revenue. And it seems that there is not a day that goes by in which some
current or former Bachelor contestant is featured in articles on the Internet.
Yet, ironically, only two of the twenty-one US Bachelor pairs are still
together. The Bachelorette has a
little better statistics with 6 of the 13 still a couple. By this time, it’s
clear, that for most, the perfect romance will sour soon after the final
credits. So why do we still watch in such huge numbers?
Some
have speculated it’s because of our innate interest in dating stories. We like
to hear about, read about, and talk about romance that is unfolding. Even if
we’re not sure what we’re seeing on the show is completely real, it feels as if
we get to tag along on fantasy dates and watch developing relationships filled
with both romantic promise and tearful frustration.
Some
say The Bachelor franchise is so
popular because men talk about their feelings and emotions on the show. In real
life, it’s often hard to get men to do that, so women are fascinated to hear
the show’s hunks let themselves be vulnerable and express their emotions
freely.
Knowing
how popular the whole franchise is now, I wondered what it might have been like
to first imagine such a reality show and then pitch it to get it on the air.
Though my new novel, Looking for Love,
is in no way related to The Bachelor,
it was a lot of fun to create characters who were a part of a crazy journey
into reality TV romance. It was interesting to envision no real budget or
developed plan for what would happen once the show got the okay. In the end, I
think Looking for Love shows readers
that romance is and is not what we expect it to be.
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