May 22, 2009
Title: Unscrambled Eggs
Author: Nadia Brown
Publisher: Publish America LLP
Publisher’s Address: P.O. Box 151 Frederick, MD 21705 (301) 695-1707
ISBN number: 1413781691
Price: $14.95
Publisher phone number and/or website address (if any):
http://www.publishamerica.com
Unscrambled Eggs
By Nadia Brown
Review by Aaron Paul Lazar
Author of the LeGarde Mystery Series
Unscrambled Eggs is a lyrical album of profound poetry. It glistens with quiet reflection entangled with sentiments of abandonment. Forlorn, lost, adrift on a sea of real emotions – Nadia Brown speaks with words not often combined. Take, for example, the following stanza from “Deprived.”
My Crayola lips
plum of eyes, cello of body
are sick with need.
Crayola lips. Cello body. Sick with need. In thirteen short words we sense the image of a woman painfully alone and uncomfortable in her body. In the last stanza, we are assured of this stinging vision.
A rousing verse,
a mangled rose, a sigh of jazz
all sings your absence
Nadia Brown’s imagery is strong and unexpected. The combinations of words are surprising, refreshing. These are not common poems. The tang of gritty despondency permeates the pages, in spite of the artistic composition. There is no pretense here. No false polish, cute rhyming schemes, nor purposeful cadence. In such an environment, only the imagery stands alone, spilling honest visions on the page.
Among the sixty verses lies another favorite, “There Were No Bells.”
She said there were no bells,
only her clam hands
and fretful feet rattled in the eve.
The sirens would not go off
nor did her knees faint
from the tie-dye of bliss
She felt no quakes,
no bumble bees,
no panic sharks reeling
in the pint of her belly.
Not once did her shoelace hair
curl like ringlets
not once did she hear bells.
Uncommon pairings, curious verbs, and a splash of liberating spirit develop as the poetry travels through time. As Ms. Brown works through emotions of despair, a stronger woman evolves. The work sings of survival while painting distinctive images of the world.
Examine these vivid phrases from “Fishing for Salmon.”
a laundry of birds gather
in a fold like sheep
like a fistful of jellybeans in a bottle
and:
there is some wind
flossing back and forth between homes
This unpretentious yet moving collection of poetry will earn a place of honor on your bookshelf. Don’t be surprised if you are drawn to reread it over and over again.
Aaron Paul Lazar is the author of the LeGarde Mystery Series. Double Forte’ is an absorbing tale of love, intrigue, and murder. Upstaged, number two, is available through his website http://www.legardemysteries.com or http://www.Amazon.com, etc. Lush and delicious, it’ll leave readers breathless! Contact Aaron at gusandcamille@yahoo.com
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May 7, 2009
Whether you are selling a book or a product, testimonials and endorsements are a necessary and vital part of your marketing plan. Whether you need one endorsement to accent a particular feature of your book or product, or whether you need several endorsements to create credibility – you do NEED them.
Endorsements and testimonials (which we will call endorsements for the sake of simplicity) create the push that prospective customers need in order to become buyers. Endorsements provide credibility to your claims about the quality of your product and they affirm your expertise and product knowledge. Even if you are not professionally trained in your area of expertise, endorsements from professionals or well known individuals in your field indicate that you can provide value to the buyer. The simple fact that you have created your product gives you expert status: after all, you could not have produced your product without extensive research, commitment and passion. You become the expert.
The purpose of endorsements is to thoroughly impress your customers, causing them to believe that their lives just will not be complete without your product. Make them short and powerful, and don’t be afraid of a little humor. People need to feel good about purchasing your product.
The time to request endorsements is before your product hits the market. You want the opportunity to add endorsements to your media kit and news releases, and you want to print them on your product and in your advertisements.
Send requests for endorsements, along with a sample of your product, well before the product is available for sale. Aim for the stars when requesting endorsements – ask people who are recognizable in your field and who are as well known and widely known as possible.
Keep in mind that granting endorsements is also of great benefit to the persons providing them, so don’t be afraid to ask. Free publicity is always a bonus. When you implement your marketing plan, the persons providing your endorsements will piggy-back on your media and advertising campaign. To learn more about how to obtain free media reviews and how to obtain media attention: Click Here
People must hear the name of your product at least seven times before it becomes familiar enough for them to develop trust and a need to buy. The same is true for the person lending their name to create your credibility – they also need to be in people’s faces every day. Have you noticed how often you see the name of Mark Victor Hansen, author of the Chicken Soup book series? He endorses many products and in so doing he has become a household name.
It is acceptable to provide endorsers with the list of names of other persons from whom you are requesting endorsements. Often the endorsers will be pleased to be included in good company. Conversely, they may be flattered to be included in the list of celebrities.
Be very respectful of the time of the people that you are approaching for endorsements. Value their hectic schedules and understand that you are not their utmost priority. Busy people may not have time to thoroughly investigate your product or service, or read your book from cover to cover, so do the work for them. Send them a few versions of endorsements that you would like, allowing them to merely choose one and do some minor editing. Pre-writing the endorsements greatly increases your chances of success and it allows you to emphasize the points you want to make in order to impress your potential buyers.
Write endorsements that are specific to your product and that are relevant to the expertise of the endorser. Don’t ask an author of gardening books to endorse your novel, your widget or your health food product. Keep the endorsements relevant and exciting. Writing “This is a great product” just won’t do. Your endorsements must make buyers feel good or solve a problem for them. For instance, if you are selling a healthy lifestyle book, avoid writing “I loved this book”. So what? Instead, create solutions for your customers. Try something like: “This book gives you all you need to tighten your sagging bottom and make your heart happy without fad diets and expensive gym memberships”.
Keep endorsements short and relevant, with one to three sentences being sufficient. Buyers don’t want to read an essay about your product – you have only a few seconds of their time to attract their attention and relay your message. Hit them fast and hit them good!
As your product gains in popularity, you will receive unsolicited endorsements from happy customers. Be sure to keep a file of them for future reference and for future inclusion in your marketing campaign. Marketing must continue forever, if you want to increase sales, and there is no better way to increase those sales than by the recommendations of satisfied buyers.
Endorsements are part of your sales team. Placed on your product or book cover, they create the justification and urgency that buyers need to part with their money. Go get them!
Copyright 2004 Ink Tree Ltd.
Ink Tree Ltd. helps authors publish, market and sell books. We have all the tools you need to succeed in book publishing. Let us help you make your book a success. http://www.inktreemarketing.com
About the Author
Ink Tree Ltd. is a book marketing firm that helps writers publish, market and sell books. Learn everything you need to guide you from Idea to Book… to Success – the fast, easy, simple waywww.inktreemarketing.com
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May 6, 2009
Many people who get started in article marketing will never be able to reap the full benefits of this highly effective form of marketing because they will give up too early. They will write one or two, or maybe even three articles and nothing will happen. They will receive one or two visits to there websites, but definitely no sales made. So they end up giving up saying that it’s a waste of time. This is so very far from the truth.
Article marketing is one of the most effective ways to drive targeted traffic to a website when done in bulk. In fact, if they would have stuck with it a little bit longer they would start to hit a point where a steady stream of visitors would be popping onto their website on a daily basis. So here’s an article marketing tip that will hopefully get you up and writing.
There is only one way to make article marketing work for you and your business and that is to WORK article marketing. You need to be committed and dedicated and continue to write and type until your fingers are about ready to fall off and your brain is toast. Unless you have an unlimited income source and can afford to hire someone to write for you, doing it yourself is the only way it’s going to happen.
It’s important that you set a goal for yourself as to how many articles you will write and give yourself a deadline. Your articles do not have to be perfect. They just need to informative and decent. We’re not writing a bestseller or anything we’re just sharing some of our thoughts and experiences. Give yourself a number and work your butt off everyday to meet that goal. Over time your writing will get better and you will write faster.
Eventually you will hit a point where you won’t be able to stop the flood of people coming to your website. Setting goals is one of the best article marketing tips that I can give. No one will make it work except you. So get to work!
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May 2, 2009
Did you know that it is possible to write an online article and submit it to an online article submission web site it under 10 minutes? How do I know this, well because I have about 1000 articles online that I did in 10 minutes or less. However when you read them you may notice a few mistakes here and there and that is not good because if you have to many mistakes it makes you look stupid or like you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Most people write online articles and submit them to online article search submission sites so that other people will read them and perhaps read the by-line at the bottom of the article and click into the writers web site. Go ahead and click my by-line now; see what I mean, it works. This helps the writer who may be selling something on an Internet web site or their consulting business. Don’t worry I am not trying to sell you anything. This is a very basic 11-minute “How to” article.
So, now we know it is it possible to write a 10 minute article and put it onto an online article submission site and start getting click thrus to your business to help you generate more traffic for your web site. However, it is much better to spend 15 minutes and reread over the article you wrote a couple times in fix any blatant errors in spelling or any errors in sentence structure or perhaps using the wrong word inappropriately or out of word of place. See what I mean? Write some articles and think about what I have said. Consider all this in 2006.
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May 2, 2009
The main purpose of a dissertation proposal is to prove each of the following:
* the problem is significant enough to warrant investigation;
* the method one plans to use is suitable and feasible;
* the results are likely to be fruitful and will make an original contribution.
The dissertation proposal will provide a general idea of what the dissertation writer is proposing to research, but it does not have to be a final, binding commitment. It can serve as a starting point for discussions with the writer’s supervisor about topic, methodology, and mechanics of research.
While the structure of a standard proposal is not set in stone, a typical proposal includes the following:
* aims and objectives
* significance
* review of previous research in the area and justification for further research
* proposed methods
* expected outcomes and their importance
* requirements for equipment, materials, field trips, and funding (if applicable)
* approximate time by which each stage will be completed
The length of the writer’s dissertation proposal can range from 3-4 pages to 30-40 pages, depending on the requirements of a particular department in a particular university.
Connie Michaels is a freelance writer of example dissertation documents for EssayTown.com. She has written dozens of how-to articles in the area of dissertation writing.
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April 27, 2009
Before you can get your fantasy world to come alive in your readers mind you have to first get it to come alive in your own mind. It has to be tangible and real. And you have to see it before you can expect your reader to see it. So how do you do this? I have three suggested methods for bringing your vision of a world to life.
Draw maps of your world
If you read a lot of epic fantasy chances are you have looked at the maps that come with many of these books. They are a wonderful addition to the writing. They bring a visual reality to the world contained in the novel and they are not an afterthought to the novel. They are a valuable part of the novel reading experience.
Maps are not just for the reader though. They can serve a very useful function to you as a writer. Chances are good that your main character or main characters have to travel around the world you have created. Where are the rivers? How far apart are the cities and towns? What are the main features of the landscape? Are there mountains? How long would it take your character to walk from one place in the world to another place in the world. A good map can help you answer all these questions.
Too often maps are almost an afterthought. The story is written and then the map is drawn to fit the story. You should turn this approach on it’s head and draw the maps early in the writing process.
A map or even a series of maps can ground your story in a sense of reality. It can also spur new ideas in the story. The visual layout of a map can bring out new ideas. Does the map feel like it is missing something. Does it feel natural for a lake to be at the base of a mountain? Draw it in and see if it brings a new chapter to your story. Are there two rivers that meet? What should be at this meeting point? Is there a city? Maybe there is a dark forest. Maybe these new terrain features will play a role in your story.
Maps are something that a reader often refers to. A map is a bonus in a novel and whenever there is a map in a novel that I am reading the map pages are deeply dog-eared. It brings a different part of the readers brain into the story. Don’t neglect maps and don’t save them as an afterthought. Use them to their fullest potential. Even if you don’t have much skill with drawing, your map may be good enough to actually use in the final print version. It is the roughest maps that look like they are hand-drawn that are the best accompaniment to a fantasy story.
Make 3d scenes and dioramas for your world
I am a diorama maker. I love creating little scenes with wizards, barbarians and all sorts of evil creatures. When I wrote my first novel I took on the ambitious project of creating a tabletop diorama for one particular area of the world I had created. It was a project that covered a custom built table that was seven feet long and four feet wide and it took a lot of time to build but the reward for this project was also big. Having an actual layout of a scene in the novel allowed me to breathe life into the novel. I could now see the terrain and the characters as they moved over it. I could envision the weather and the plant life. It made it much easier for me to draws pictures in my reader’s minds. You don’t have to do a project as ambitious as the one I did, you could just do a small scene but this type of world building in a visual sense will add a sense of depth to your writing.
Create a video game that you can walk around in
This sounds like a lot of work, and a couple of years ago this was not an option for a hobbyist; but today the technology and tools are here that allow you to actually create some pretty amazing worlds in just a few hours. There are plenty of free resources that allow you to make indoor and outdoor worlds without spending a penny. You just need to invest some time. The technology has developed to the point where it is almost plug and play. Let me give you an example. You can sketch out in a world building tool a city. You can make it a certain size, place terrain and buildings in it then add all sorts of pre-made extras. In a weekend you can have a small and complete world that you can actually use a pre made character to walk around in your world.
There are two distinct benefits to putting the effort into doing this. First of all you can build a pseudo realistic rendition of an area of your story and this can help you to visualize it better. And visualizing it better means you will describe it to your reader better. But secondly, and even more importantly, the process of creating this world in a medium other than pencil and paper will take your imagination and creativity to new levels. As you are building your world you will see it in a new way. This will bring you new ideas, ideas that you would have never thought of with just a word processor.
I have worked with several different software suites for creating worlds and one of the new ones is the Kaneva game platform. I haven’t used it yet but it looks very appealing and very user friendly. If you use this platform to make a world you can even invite other people to come and explore it with you. Wouldn’t that be something? You can tell them it is the world that your novel takes place in.
Epic fantasy and fantasy writing is, by its very nature, a creative art form. But too often we as writers in the genre tend to focus too much on either the physical action or the social interaction in the story. You must never forget that your story takes place in a world you created. And this world is the ground to which your whole story is tethered. It must be solid as stone and be clearly envisioned by you. And it must be clearly and vividly expressed to your reader. Building a physical representation of your created world brings it to a new level and helps you convey its sense of reality to your reader.
Will Kalif is the author of two epic fantasy novels and is currently working on his third. You can check out his novels, his blog, and his podcast. or see his fantasy dioramas and get good advice on how to make your own video game worlds at his website:
http://www.stormthecastle.com creativity with attitude
You can also check out his site devoted to epic fantasy at:
http://www.epic-fantasy.com
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April 24, 2009
Question: I started an online talk radio show. I have the equipment set up and my guests lined up. But, how do I get listeners? I feel like I’m talking to myself.
Signed, Talking to Myself
Dear Talking to Myself,
First of all, Congratulations! What a big step you took to start a show. You’ve got the equipment ready, the interviews lined up and are ready to roll. I’m assuming you’ve already spent money on equipment so you don’t want to spend more on advertising. What’s a frugal online radio host to do?
Lucky for you, there are many ways to get traffic to your online radio show. One of my favorites is writing and sharing articles. If you’re unfamiliar with this method of traffic generation, it’s actually quite simple. In fact, it’s working right now. You’re reading an article that I’ve written and shared – and you can see at the bottom of the article, my author bio, where I get to share a little bit about me.
If it’s working for me, it can work for you, too. All you need to do is to find some topics, write effective articles with an author bio that works, and submit it to everyone who wants it. And repeat, repeat, repeat.
Not only will you get traffic to your website, but you’ll get more people inquiring about being guests on your show. And, if you sell advertising on your radio show, you’ll get exposure to more potential advertisers as well. Article sharing is definitely a great way to get your name out into the cyber-world.
And, the best part is that every article you send out is working for you for years to come. One article won’t likely get you a flood of traffic, but it’ll give you a ongoing drip. Fifteen articles will get you a trickle, and so on. So, get writing and get your message out there. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Nicole Dean doesn’t pay for advertising – ever. She uses Article Marketing to get free advertising on websites and in newsletters worldwide. You can use articles to get free traffic, too. Visit http://www.EasyArticleMarketing.com to find out how. If you’re interested in starting an online radio show, check out these reviews – http://www.showmomthemoney.com/productreviews/online-radio-show.htm
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April 24, 2009
Many people are not aware of the need of writing free articles and publishing them. I hope this article will answer many of your common questions about Article writing.
1. Why should one write articles and publish them for free?
If you are involved with any online business and have written at least a single article you will definitely know that Article writing is one of the best ways .to get traffic to your online business. Whatever is your business an appropriate article on that subject can do wonders for you.
By writing an article and publishing it in your favorite directories for free, it is true that you may not get immediate monetary benefit. But, in fact, you will earn a lot more in subsequent days and months, or even years, than a mere one time remuneration.
If your particular article is an easy and good piece of information with search engine optimization, it will be picked up by many ezine publishers and will be published for fresh contents in their website, to attract search engines and their members, which ultimately bring you more visitors to your site.
2. Is there any other benefit of writing for free?
Another important benefit of writing a free article is that you can achieve credibility by sharing your knowledge and expertise with others. After all, many people come to the internet for the purpose of gathering information. Most of the people trust the people who have achieved a good credibility and will be interested to do business with them.
3. Who can write articles?
Any one, who has a fair knowledge on any particular subject, can share his/her knowledge with others in the form of an article. If you have a flair of writing it will be an added bonus.
In case, you do not feel confident enough to write an article to show your expertise to the world, you can take the help of a ghost writer. A Google search will bring out a list of ghost writers, and you can choose any one according to your budget. They will write articles for you on payment according to your need and you can publish them with your name on it. That will also generate a lot of traffic to your online business.
4. How should one write an article?
You can write articles in simple words, short and informative, easy to understand and without confusing the reader. A key-word rich article will have wonderful results.
5. What type of information that can be written as an article?
The information gained through your personal experience recently or over the years will be the most helpful information that can be shared with your readers, so that the reader will be more pleased to learn about it. It is also a great web promotion tool for your online business.
Lakshme Menon is involved in Internet Marketing and recommends you to visit her website for more details. http://www.net4homeincome.com/
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April 18, 2009
English language is loaded with non-standard phrases, which rooted so deeply in its vocabulary that at times cannot be distinguished from the accepted Standard English terms. On the one hand, they jazz up the language of native speakers, making it very lively, natural, and authentic.
However, on the other hand, non-standard phrases make a pile of understanding hassles to English learners, who helplessly try to gain an understanding of all intricate words and phrases, invented by the language speakers impromptu.
This really stands for some reason, because the most difficult aspect of learning another language is not a great bulk of its vocabulary, but an extensive number of non-standard phrases. Non-standard phrases, used here to denote idiomatic expressions, which make up a considerable part of the lexicon of language users.
The best advice to the English learners is not to make many efforts, trying to remember tons of idioms at one sitting, but to learn the most common ones gradually and naturally through the learning material or lively communication with native speakers. Remember that it is much better to be accurate in the non-idiomatic English than inappropriate when using idioms.
It is a well-known fact that English is heavily idiomatic. The phenomenon of vast idiomatic basis of the English language is rather explanatory. First, English is a multicultural language, that’s why it comes under the influence of different languages and borrows new phraseological units extensively. Second, as new concepts are developed, new terms are needed for their indication, so instead of creating new words, we simply put together already existent words, which acquire new sense in combination.
Idiomatic expressions come across all over the place. Even a cursory scanning of the newspaper headlines and perfunctory watching of television shows or news broadcast clearly reveal the extent to which idiomatic language is a part of day-to-day life and communication. Being stripped of the non-standard phrases everyday language will lose its flavor and become pedestrian and dull.
What is especially interesting about idioms is that they can be defined in different ways, depending on the functions they fulfill. Idiom can be a figure of speech, which means that the words in idiomatic expressions are used figuratively, rather than with their literal meaning.
When we say that someone is in the soup, instinctively we feel that there is no real soup involved. We know that here the meaning of the word soup is figurative, and we guess from the context that someone who says it implies that a person is in trouble and has some serious problems.
Native speakers got so used to figurative language they speak that they don’t realize of how large a proportion of what they say and write is metaphorical. A great number of idioms which is used in everyday language are colloquial metaphor. Wikipedia offers very clear and to the point example to illustrate this statement: get lost! – which means go away or stop bothering me.
Idiomatic expressions are extremely common and are found in all kinds of English, both formal and particularly informal. After all, frequent occurrence of the idiomatic expressions in speech does not make them understandable for everybody. As the origin and history, standing behind them, remains enigmatic and obscure both for native speakers of the language and English learners.
The origin or also called etymology of idioms, which can be literally interpreted as tracing back to the roots of emergence of words and phrases in the language, is a vast field of unceasing debates of scholars and a fruitful ground for equivocal opinions and views of linguists.
Indeed, language users do not pay attention to the stylistic peculiarities of the phrases they use, and do not reflect much on the origin of the words they utilize on a daily basis. Indeed, usage of idiomatic expressions is par for the course for us, and we do not notice the beauty of the language we speak. English idiomatic language is a real diamond in the rough, which has enormous topical variety of forms and fascinating and surprising origins.
So be natural in your communication, keep your language simple and be sure to polish this rough diamond perfectly well.
Linda Correli is a staff writer of http://www.CustomResearchPapers.us/ and an author of the popular online tutorial for students “What Teachers Want: Master the Art of Essay Writing in 10 Days”, available at http://www.Go2Essay.com/ Visit Linda’s web log at http://custom-research-papers.blogspot.com/
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April 18, 2009
There is no doubt that Internet content providers from India have already had a huge impact on the online writing freelance market.
However the interesting thing is that most content providers from other parts of the world and mostly those based in the United States have simply chosen to ignore them. As Internet content providers based in India continue to win one online writing assignment after another, many are simply writing them off as low quality writers who hardly stand a chance in the competitive world market for content providers.
Actually this is the same mistake folks in other industries in The United States did to products coming in from China and to a lesser extent India and are today deeply regretting their folly because it is too late to do anything about it.
It is useful to study the advantages many an Internet content provider from India has over other competing content providers based in other parts of the world.
Internet content provider India Enjoys Much Lower Costs
One huge advantage that the Internet content provider from India brings to the table is the unbelievably low costs of living they seem to enjoy in India. The result is that they can charge low single-digit-dollar figures for each article they churn out and still end up not only paying their bills, but also greatly prospering. This is an advantage that cannot be ignored because one of the things the Internet has done is to open up business to the entire world meaning that geographical barriers have come crashing down. Customers are no longer limited to choosing a local service provider, they can actually select one from any part of the world if they can get a price advantage and still end up with acceptable quality.
This is why despite the language issues, it seems many webmasters and blog owners feel that the quality of Internet content provision they are getting from India is good enough. In fact many webmasters who can hardly write themselves find it very easy to make slight changes and corrections to the content they receive from India and end up with very acceptable quality to use on their sites. Others have even found Internet content providers from India who are able to produce quality content that has no American language or grammar issues in it.
One Does Not Require A Picasso for Internet content
I have met some perfectionist Internet content providers who are busy killing themselves and their businesses ensuring that every piece of writing they produce is a work of art. There is even one particular one who has painstakingly produced a sort of rigid template that writers should stick to for every article they write for him. He has ended up very frustrated and now firmly believes that he is one of the very few online writers on earth who can write decent copy.
Christopher Kyalo is a successful online entrepreneur and publisher. Read the rest of this article at his self publisher blog.
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