I enjoyed The Shimmer very much and this fast-paced mystery’s intricacies. Thanks to the presence of comprehensively developed characters, the lights shine in more ways than one for the reader and from many perspectives. There’s Brent Loft, a small station TV reporter who sees the slaughter not as a tragedy but as his ticket to the big networks; the secretive and callous Colonel Raleigh who protects his long forgotten research base and its workings at any cost; and the Rostov townsfolk with tales of the lights that span decades.

No matter which one of Morrell’s characters you are reading about at any given moment, the light’s power over its uninformed witnesses grows and matures in your mind just as they do. Some smaller character roles are played in The Shimmer but none are insignificant, each weaving another thread in the mysterious lights’ history and their wide reaching effects. This attention to detail, a hallmark of David Morrell’s writing,  adds a three-dimensional vividness and depth to the lights that slimmer descriptions could never have achieved.

David Morrell has hit the New York Times bestseller list more times than I’ve had hot dinners and his success is well deserved. Incredible as it sounds, Morrell’s first novel, First Blood, was published way back in 1972. Many of my generation will remember this as the thriller that introduced us to John Rambo, the movie of which starred Sylvester Stallone.  Morrell’s skills as a master craftsman of mystery and thrillers certainly haven’t diminished over time. With excellent characterization, an unusual plot line and a believable setting that’s based loosely on real life happenings in a real small Texas town, Morrell has created in The Shimmer a thriller that’s intense, thought provoking and exciting all at once.

I don’t want to give too much away. Suffice to say that The Shimmer makes you wonder upon completion of this book how those lights would have affected you and that thought doesn’t fade easily from your mind.

With eighteen million copies of his books in print and in twenty six languages, David Morrell reigns supreme as a thriller writer extraordinaire. The Shimmer is a cracking good read and Morrell is quite simply a phenomenally good writer. I guarantee you that The Shimmer’s suspense laden pages will grab you by the throat and not let go until the very end. You won’t be disappointed in this glittering prize of a thriller. Don’t miss it!

Visit David Morrell’s website here.

Myth: Once you hand over your manuscript, your book will be on bookstore shelves right away. Patience is essential when working with a traditional publisher. It takes most major publishers about a year to complete your book and put it into distribution. With the amount of red tape they have going on, the process takes much longer than most realize. Just don’t expect to see your book on shelves within a few months, as this is highly unlikely unless your book is rushed to market under special circumstances.

Myth: Your book will be produced exactly as written. Each publisher has different editorial processes, guidelines and goals. Your developmental editor may want to rework sections of your book or ask you to add or even remove content. Though you will be involved in the editing process and asked to turn it all around quickly, you may or may not like the proposed changes and you may or may not have a voice in the ultimate outcome. Some book deals end up getting cancelled during the editing process when the author and publisher fail to agree on changes.

Myth: You will have input on the cover design. Cover design is an area where you will probably have little input. The publisher will design something and may send it to you for review, but requests for changes are not likely to be met. This is a point in the process when you may have to accept that your work is no longer exclusively yours.

Myth: Your book must be finished before you pitch it to a publisher. This is actually true for fiction books—publishers want to see the whole story before a deal is made. But nonfiction books are an exception. During the pitch process, most publishers want to see an outline and two or three sample chapters. If they like your work and offer you a book deal, you can actually negotiate the remaining time needed to complete your manuscript.

Myth: Big Press = Big Marketing. Don’t expect much marketing at all since most publishers don’t have big marketing budgets. The bulk of responsibility almost always falls on the author. You might appear in the publisher’s catalog, in a press release, and may get featured at a trade show, but don’t count on them landing you an appearance alongside Matt Lauer. Those efforts are reserved for established, big-name authors. Smaller publishers may actually work a little harder to assist with marketing since they have more riding on the success of each title, but as a rule, authors should set expectations very low.

Myth: Once you land a book deal, your author career is set for life. Just because you sign a deal with a publisher, there are no guarantees that they will want your next book, even though your contract will likely stipulate that they get first right of refusal on your next book. Your first book must perform exceptionally well before the next book will be considered for publication.

Keep in mind that you may not want to publish another book with that same publisher. There are many reasons why you might want to move on—creative differences, other publishers that are a better fit for your genre of writing, or you may decide to pursue self-publishing opportunities. This can be a catch-22 as you must give your current publisher the chance to evaluate your next book idea before you can be released from your contract. (Hint: if you want out, pick an idea you know they won’t want!)

Myth: Authors make tons of money. The vast majority of authors will tell you that there is not a lot of money to be found in a traditional book deal. Sure you get an advance check, which on average comes in around $5,000 to $10,000, unless you are a celebrity. Then you have to earn that back before you will see another dime.

Perhaps most surprising is what authors earn in royalties from book sales. You can expect to make around $1 to $2 per book sold and with numbers like this, you’ve got to sell a lot of books to generate a substantial royalty check. To make matters worse, most publishers only pay authors twice per year, so don’t expect to see your monthly income increase because of your book. Some authors create other revenue opportunities around their books from things like speaking (which can command $2,000 to $10,000 fees), consulting and related information products.

Myth: You can purchase your own books at cost. As surprising as this may seem, your contract with a publisher will probably allow you to buy your own books at just 40% to 50% off of the cover price. So if you have a book that sells for $20, you will be lucky to buy your copies for $10 each. Since the publisher’s cost is likely far less than $10, they are still generating a significant profit from your orders. This is a point that can be negotiated so remember to ask for a deeper discount when you receive your contract offer!

Myth: If you self-publish, you kill your chances of landing a book deal. If you self-publish a book and achieve some success by selling 1,000 copies or more, you can actually improve your chances of landing a traditional book deal. Publishers want authors to come to the table with a ready made “platform.” This means that they want to know that you have an audience. Selling a significant number of books proves that you have that audience and raises your appeal. Just ask Christopher Paolini, the teenage boy who wrote and self-published “Eragon,” or Richard Paul Evans who wrote “The Christmas Box.” Their self-publishing success stories landed them multi-million dollar book deals.

I know several authors who have been approached by major presses, which can demonstrate an interesting shift in power. In one case, an author who publishes instructional books for a specific trade quickly turned down a rather substantial offer. He simply makes too much money on his books to give his margin away. He also didn’t want to give up control since he has built his own distribution channels so that his books are devoured by his target market. The publisher didn’t relent and instead returned with an even bigger offer. He turned that one down too.

There is still much to celebrate about receiving an offer for a book deal with a traditional publisher. The added credibility can bring plenty of opportunities with the media, speaking, consulting and much more. But it is important to know what you’re getting into before you venture forward so that you can navigate the waters like a pro.

About The Author

Stephanie Chandler is an author of several books including “The Author’s Guide to Building an Online Platform” and “From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur: Make Money with Books, eBooks and Information Products.” She is also the host of http://NonfictionWritersConference.com , the only virtual writers’ conference for nonfiction authors. For author and speaker details visit http://StephanieChandler.com

1) Beauty is not just a physical experience, but a psychological one as well. We all tend to think of beauty as a skin-deep issue, all about how we physically look. But research tells us that perception of what is deemed attractive and unattractive is much more complicated. Why do you think some beautiful women say, “I’ve never thought I was pretty”? Yes, even beauties like Uma Thurman and Michelle Pfeiffer have drawn attention to what they consider flaws. Similarly, there are women who may not be your typical image of beauty, yet when you ask them they say they are quite confident in their looks. Serena Williams never tries to cover up her unconventionally muscular physique: in fact, she flaunts it and somehow it makes her more appealing. What makes people feel attractive goes well beyond our physical self. It runs deep, much deeper than the eye can see.

2) Although we can’t stop the physical changes of aging, we can change our experience of aging. No one, not any doctor, dermatologist or surgeon can stop physical changes of aging. There may be ways to look better, take care of your skin and bodies that put things temporarily on hold, at least on the surface. We’re all for that! We’re also for ways we can experience — and even enjoy — our changing looks. If we take care of ourselves, it makes us feel better and we smile more. When we smile, we look more attractive. The sooner we go through an interior process, (we offer six steps in our book) the better you will feel inside and out.

3) While aging is inevitable and irreversible, self-image is not. Self-image can be fluid and timeless. Self-image is not an actual still picture of oneself. It is an internal experience, how we see ourselves from within, over time throughout our lives. It’s flexible and malleable. And if we understand that self image is changeable, then that is what we try to help women conquer. Not age itself. That’s a battle we can’t win.

4) Beauty is in the “I” of the beholder. If we become our own internal “eye,” we can take control over how we see ourselves, rather than give it over to other people to determine if we’re attractive or not. Our six steps serve to change the internal lens through which we see, not only ourselves, but others as well. The result? Women will be less self critical and less critical of each other.

5) Chronological age does not have to define you. You can define yourself at your chronological age. A particular age has little to do with how old you feel. You can define how you want to be 40, 50 and onward. We also don’t have to let magazine images define what is beautiful. Some women in their 20’s feel old. Some women in their 60’s feel young.

6) Put your beauty in your identity, not your identity in your beauty. Your identity is made up of many aspects of yourself. How you look is just one of them. As you get older, more aspects of yourself can make up your identity; for example, your experiences in life, your accomplishments and your relationships. If you hold onto youthful beauty as a narrow definition of yourself, you’re especially unlikely to enjoy your looks as you age. You leave out so many other ways to feel good about yourself.

7) Take an honest look at who you are, not what you look like. Mirrors tell only a little of what we really look like. Gaze again and go beyond, past your reflection and see who you are as a person. Think of what you see as only the image of yourself, that informs the world of your physical self. But who you are is more than what they see.

8.) Rob beauty of its power over you. Take back that power and you will feel more beautiful. Our culture has given beauty power over women. We are told who and what is beautiful. We know that youth is beautiful. Most people see babies as beautiful. But grandmothers can be beautiful as well. Some of the most beautiful women in the world are those who smile, engage and appear happy at any age. If you take back the power of what makes you feel attractive, you will become more attractive to yourself and others.

9) Become less afraid of aging and you will look more beautiful. When you see a face that is scared, you would hardly call it beautiful. There is nothing pretty about fear. Women need to accept that aging happens and that becoming more courageous about all aspects of our lives will enhance them . . . and us.

10) Beauty matters to all women, but to those who age beautifully, it matters neither too much nor too little. We all know that a core aspect of our identities is our appearance. No doubt our looks matter. But women who allow beauty to matter, but keep it in balance with all other aspects of their lives, can enjoy their looks at any age.

Bottom line: Dealing with your looks as they inevitably change is a psychological process as well as a physical challenge. Master the first and the second will come with much more joy. When it comes to your face, your body and your aging process, be smart, be thoughtful and you’ll be more beautiful.

© 2010 Vivian Diller Ph.D. with Jill Muir-Sukenick Ph.D., edited by Michele Willens, authors of Face It: What Women Really Feel as Their Looks Change


FACE IT: What Women Really Feel As Their Looks Change by Vivian Diller, Ph.D, with Jill Muir-Sukenick, Ph.D. and edited by Michele Willens, is a psychological guide to help women deal with the emotions brought on by their changing appearances. As models turned psychotherapists, Diller and Sukenick have had the opportunity to examine the world of beauty from two very different vantage points. This unique perspective helped them develop a six-step program that begins with recognizing “uh-oh” moments that reveal the reality of changing looks, goes on to identify the masks used to cover deeper issues, defines the role beauty plays in a woman’s life, and ends with bidding adieu to old definitions of beauty so women can enjoy their appearance — at any age!

For more information on the book, authors, and events, please visit http://www.faceitthebook.com or visit our fan page on Facebook.

We are currently in the innovation age as demonstrated by the fact that humankind’s knowledge is doubling every ten years, and probably more so in technology.  America can thrive in an age like this. Why? Let me give you ten good reasons.

America is a nation of immigrants who came here for a better life for the most part. Therefore they have the genes to initiate changes in business, education, computers, the Internet and practically all the fields of human endeavor that require reason.

America has a wonderful system of secondary education which can hatch ideas of all sorts from biochemistry to ecological science to anthropology. You name it and somewhere in the country there is a secondary school or schools that can make you proud.

Social entrepreneurs are a new area catching on as demonstrated by Nicholas Kristof’s wonderful article, “The Age of Ambition.” Kristof writes about how the young people who are engaging in start-up enterprises like Teach America are revolutionizing whole industries, not just teaching people to fish.  He calls this phenomenon “the 21st-century answer to the student protesters of the 1960s.” He writes about colleges who are now offering classes in social entrepreneurship.  It is my ambition that Soldiers of Love, which will receive half my royalties from How to Achieve a Heaven on Earth, will become a leading charity within the age of ambition.

While I hesitate to point to our government as a leader in innovation, our democracy does have a resilience and ability to change without violating our basic formula of capitalism tempered with democracy.

We are in tough economic times but we have the ability to innovate, worker by worker, company by company, and ultimately even within local, state and federal government. Thus, I believe we will prosper in this age of new ideas. If times were really good, we would not have to change careers or search for new jobs or endeavors. In my own case, I am much happier and fulfilled as a self-employed author, investor and philanthropist than the later part of my career as a certified public accountant with the government. During my 29-year career as a CPA in public accounting, private accounting and government accounting I lost my job a number of times and had to come up fighting for another job, at times within bad economic surroundings. Now I am in a life fulfilling career that only became my calling a few years ago. I am now 64. Life is a pursuit that requires continual growth, especially in the Innovation Age.

Wisdom is something that can be gained through reacting to negative life experiences in a positive manner. There are two essays in the book related to wisdom, “The Centrality of Wisdom” and “We Urgently Need an Academic Revolution.” These explain the nature of wisdom and how it can and should be taught.  Wisdom is the combination of knowledge, values, problem solving, imagination and resilience that can make a real difference in how one approaches adversity in times such as this.

While it might not come to mind right away, we are all made up of mind, body and spirit and it is important to change and innovate in all these areas over time as situations evolve slowly or overnight such as a job loss. Healthy diet and exercise are to a great degree within our own control. In almost everything we do, self discipline is a given for the optimum result. That’s a tough call when you loose your job, your spouse, anything or anybody that’s important to you. But we must cope regardless of the challenge. Story after story in this book tells of successes such as “With Sobriety Anything is Possible” by Todd Crandell who went from a thirteen year struggle with drugs and alcohol to founding a nonprofit foundation to cure or prevent addiction through a lifestyle of fitness and health.

We can even innovate in sex. Stella Resnick writes about how ” . . . lack of sex in marriage is a reliable measure of whether or not the relationship will last.” She says the lack of desire among both men and women in sex is the most important sexual problem in America. This is where couples can innovate on their own and improve their lives whether they are employed or not. It may be more difficult, or it may provide a diversion from the other difficult circumstances faced.

We can innovate with expanding our horizons in racial attitudes, both emotional and intellectual bias. Just look at Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech abstract dated August 16, 1967 (”Where Do We Go From Here?”) and you will be amazed how far America has traveled along the road to racial harmony. We have elected an African American president. But we must continue to innovate, and I’m speaking about racial attitudes in all directions from all sources.

We can innovate in our own personal fiscal habits. This means such things as knowing what you own and financial literacy in general. I prepare a brief net worth statement practically every day. Perhaps that’s obsessive, but my father, who was a superb investor, followed his stock, AFLAC, and a few other much smaller holdings on a daily basis. I find this distressing at times and sometimes I outsmart myself. But investing is a growing, lifelong pursuit which I would encourage in so many people who are not in poverty and have sufficient monetary assets (generally 4 to 6 months of expenses) and have maximized there tax deferred (401(k) or IRA) plans. I must explain that I am an independent investor, not a trader.

Follow your dreams, but don’t quit your day job until you can really plan a prudent way to navigate your way to fulfillment of your next niche, a niche that will probably evolve in fits and starts over time.


Copyright © 2010 John E. Wade II, Editor of How to Achieve Heaven on Earth: 101 insightful essays from the world’s greatest thinkers, leaders and writers

John E. Wade II, Editor of How to Achieve Heaven on Earth: 101 insightful essays from the world’s greatest thinkers, leaders and writers, is an author, investor, philanthropist, and founder of the nonprofit organization Soldiers of Love. An active member of his church and civic organizations in his area, Wade holds an M.A. from the University of Georgia and has worked in a range of fields. His extensive travels, including visits to China, India, Egypt, Israel, Syria, Jordan, and Brazil, inspired him to collect the essays in this work. Wade lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.

For more information, please visit www.HeavenOnEarth.org.

Celebrity love triangles seem as common as our very longing to be loved. I’ve worked in television news for twenty-five years and have never seen so widespread a herd of big-name libidos running wild. Perhaps it’s just more chic now to cover the naked truth of people we wish never to see naked. It is, certainly, magnetic. Viewers and readers pile in.

Yet for all its infotainment, this wide-screen cheat-fest, soaked in hurt and weeping contrition, has a way of attaching despair to us. It makes some good, romping fidelity feel cold, lame, and doomed — or, at least, un-cool. Cheating, or being cheated upon, may begin to feel inevitable. I wonder how many people in devoted relationships secretly fear themselves left out. Even the most sympathetic witnesses to the heartbreak of a scandalized relationship may honestly feel they’re missing the fun. A real and lasting love can appear as likely as the NBC Nightly News with Conan O’Brien.

But what if we discovered a radical kind of love? A genre of it so seismic, it can rumble bodies and souls off to a mostly undiscovered Eden — a place where longings and lasting relationships make fine steamy love, mingling differing forms of it we never thought possible. Temptation, desire, and ripe fidelity get along mighty well.

In She-Rain, I allow some young people to grow old in showing us a way there. They live as young hearts longing for one another and, ultimately, they long for the very best for each other. Their lust is as common as hunger, strong as sunlight, sprung from the adoration we’ve all known. Some good science shows run-amok romantic love grows from brain chemistry akin to obsessive compulsive disorder. Pedro Calderon de la Barca believed love that is not madness is not love. Frank, Mary Lizbeth, and Sophia — as they made their way through my imagination — feel this madness as an irresistible agony.

But in that sweet madness, they turn a love triangle into a constellation of stunning hope. Their natural human longing transforms their hearts on a tide of forgiveness and a daring to believe they can grow a three-way beauty where hell-raising malice normally scorches the ground. These Faulknerian hearts in conflict reveal just how far we all can go toward happiness on our feet of clay.

I believe hearts are like minds. They tend to lie fallow, their best parts unexplored, rarely used for their greatest good. Readers of She-Rain discover three survivors of crunching hard times who venture far into what the heart can hold. There to find that we human creatures — so prone to slay ourselves with yearning, envy and revenge — hold enormous capacity for, I’ll dare label it, sensual fidelity, and even greater than this.

I have chosen to tell a scandalous Southern tale. A love story like no other. In it, all are flawed, love at times seems the most malignant insanity, and people practically sun themselves in tragedies of the early 20th Century — many of which still make news today. Yet in She-Rain, three people clear themselves a way to love that seems impossible. They prove that disgrace, in the face of temptation, is not inevitable. Living imperfect lives of defiance, two women in love with the same man create a wonder of the least expected. In this fiction, I believe we see a truth about ourselves.  We catch sight of what’s possible. Mary Elizabeth and Sophia, women ahead of their time, show the way.

That defiance in She-Rain draws from my boyhood reality. Growing up in the home of an alcoholic father who kept the air charged with the threat of violence, I saw love as an act of miserable sacrifice. Sociologists might have presumed such a boy would devolve into a man on the same path — sentencing the women in my life to the same abuses. The opposite occurred. By the great virtue of strong women who raised me — helped by a World War I veteran who showed me the power of living as a gentle man — I became a celebrator of women, rejecting the fundamentalism that too often sentences women and children to death in the name of family. I abandoned a father who was hell-bent on destroying himself, and that act generated an accountability that saw him hit bottom and bounce, beautifully. He became sober and forgiven — a man whose memory my mother and I love and honor deeply to this day. She-Rain is dedicated, in parts, to the love of them.

Yet I owe the novel’s most radical love to another powerful woman, my wife Jill, a muse who inspired both women in the love triangle. She remains the young idealist I fell nearly instantly in love with in 1985. I tried to marry her so fast I nearly spooked her father into moving her away. Yet a few years into the writing of She-Rain, before the triangle occurred to me, I found an utterly new woman emerging in her. Out of her original strength — a survivor of some hard domestic times herself — a stronger woman came. Rather than aging, she’s become a constant re-creation of herself, one of stunning beauty and grace I try to deserve. In She-Rain, she inspired the wisdom of measuring ourselves not by where we come from or how often we fall, but by the legacy of what we can become, how well we can matter to someone else. She deserves the plural title loves of my life.

Which brings me to the title of She-Rain; it derives from an Appalachian folklore term for a scrap of fog that breaks from a cloud to drift on the mountain treetops. It takes on the delicate look of lace, surrendered to the wind, and that surrender reminds us of a higher order to which we can yield. Hard times, most certainly in relationships, are inevitable. Yet we are not doomed to a hard fall. Through the clash of body and soul, above the warring of our inner good and evil, we can soar.

In the novel, I chose to put this first on display in a simple act of love between two desperately poor children. Out of their terrible times, one of them poor to the point of hunger, they respect and serve one another — creating a form of love so radical it defies words. As it evolves into young adulthood, that love grows more familiar to what we know as the longings behind every sex scandal ever known. Yet a young man, soon to find himself in love with two women at once, respects himself enough to harbor a sacrosanct kind of respect for them. He becomes man enough to allow both women to improve him. This love triangle helps yank him from the swamp of ignorance and violence into which he was born, and sets him on a path to a greatness no one sees coming.

This young man, Frank Locke, Junior, your narrator in She-Rain, lives a lifetime in one of the ironic truths of sacrificial young love: It refuses to grow old and weary as we do. The feel of it sweetens with age, improves us, even as we stumble and fall and crave forgiveness, often failing to live up to its high ideal. I won’t spoil the story by letting you know which woman he shares the majority of his life with, or the full impact both women have on the man he becomes. Though I leave you with a few of his words, written from his teenage memory of one of those women he adores. In this passage of She-Rain lives the yearning that can scandalize a man, alongside the devotion that can fortify him. In this, a young man coming of age in a terrible time celebrates his early joy of a fine woman’s love, letting the music of her own fill all rooms of his then-broken heart.

“Seeing her braced me to the bone, yet moved a sweet pain through to the marrow ­– as if we had been apart years instead of days. The dark curls in a tide around her face, skin colored in shades of creek sand, deep with summer and the force of a seventeen-year-old heart. Her eyes shone wet and bright as a long mountain view after rain — at once delicate and strong, refusing to grant sorrow or malice a bed of its own. Even in that cemetery, in the hardness of the time, every line that formed her, everything she was, begged for a fingertip. She was, to me, perfect satisfaction. A near-­holy place of rest.”

© 2010 Michael Cogdill, author of She-Rain: A Story of Hope

Michael Cogdill is blessed as one of the most honored television storytellers in America. His cache of awards includes 24 Emmys and the National Edward R. Murrow for a broad range of achievement, from live reporting to long-form storytelling. His television credits as a journalist include CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, and The Today Show, and Michael’s interview history crosses a wide horizon: The Reverend Billy Graham, Dr. Mehmet Oz of Oprah fame, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Abby Hoffman, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator John McCain, Howard K. Smith, James Brown, Keith Lockhart of the Boston Pops and many other newsmakers. His coverage credits include Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United States.

Michael spent ten years writing She-Rain, letting it evolve into a world of fiction drawn from his upbringing in Western North Carolina but reaching far beyond. His other writing credits are Cracker the Crab and the Sideways Afternoon – a children’s motivational book, and a self-help volume, Raise the Haze. Michael makes his home in South Carolina with his wife, Jill (a publishing entrepreneur), and their second-generation golden retriever, Maggie. He’s currently working on his second novel.

For more information, please visit http://she-rain.blogspot.com.

Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution to spend more time with an elderly person who is isolated-perhaps a grandparent or elderly aunt who may not have a whole lot to say but appreciates having a friendly visitor?  Of course, many people do make well meaning resolutions and then discover that it’s not so easy to keep them. Spending time with a loved one who has Alzheimer’s disease is even more challenging because the person may not seem to remember who you are or understand what you are saying.

All people- and I mean ALL- need human contact- a touch, a smile or a song that is there just for them. I discovered this during the eight years my mother’s mind gradually deteriorated over the course of Alzheimer’s disease. Fortunately, even when she was no longer able to speak- her face lit up when she saw me and up until a week before her death she puckered her lips to indicate that I should bring my cheek over for her to kiss. She was still communicating her feelings-even though she was no longer eating!

Perhaps you have a loved one or close friend in your life with memory impairment and avoid visiting because you think that it won’t matter to him or her. Maybe you feel uncomfortable because you don’t know what to do with a person who does not speak.  In addition, just being in an assisted living facility, nursing home or some other institutional setting is scary. Here are 5 suggestions to help you overcome your reservations or fears:

1. Find a comfortable room to meet in.
If the person lives at home-help her out of bed in order to sit in a different room. The change of scenery will be stimulating. Try to sit by a window in order to view the movement of birds or car traffic. If the person lives in a facility- try to have your visit out of the bedroom, perhaps a room with interesting decorations. It will be a nice break for some one who spends a lot of time in bed. Avoid being around a television which will make it difficult for the person to focus on you.

2. Bring along some entertainment
During the early stages Alzheimer’s my mother loved to look at large photographs of animals and children. I scanned old family photos and used them to make an illustrated story of my mother’s life. She enjoyed many hours reading the story of her life to me and when she was alone.

3. Sing songs either with or to your loved one
Many people with memory loss can sing even when they have forgotten how to engage in a conversation.  My mother and I sang the songs from the World War II period that were popular during her youth. When she could no longer sing, I sang them alone or invited other residents to join me.

4. Involve other residents
During the later stages of the disease my mother was unable to speak and spent most of her time with her eyes closed. It was more stimulating for me and my mom when I found other residents or visitors who joined us in a group to sing, read poetry or just chat.

5. Communicate with touch
My mom enjoyed having her shoulders massaged and lotion rubbed on her hands and face. She enjoyed sitting and holding my hand while I sang or spoke to her about anything that popped into my mind. This was a time for me to forget about my chores and work obligations and just be in the present.

As an occupational therapist and daughter who has experienced care giving, I wrote a book to share how I adapted the environment and designed activities that my mother could enjoy during all stages of Alzheimer’s disease. I discovered that the key to enjoying a visit with a loved one is finding the “just right” activity that you can both enjoy. Hopefully, this information will help you keep a New Year’s resolution to visit an elderly person. You both might find it a fun and rewarding experience.

Barbara A Smith, M.S., OTR/L has worked with children and adults with developmental disabilities for over 30 years. She currently works in a hippotherapy setting where she uses the horse as therapy tools to help children with developmental disabilities. Ms. Smith is the author of The Recycling Occupational Therapist (Pro-Ed, Inc.) –a guide for designing and fabricating therapeutic activities for individuals with developmental disabilities and Still Giving Kisses: A Guide to Helping and Enjoying the Alzheimer’s Victim You love ( available at Lulu.com). Her new book- From Rattles to Writing- A Parent’s Guide to Hand Skills (Therapro, Inc.) is due out early 2010. Learn more about developmental disabilities and Barbara Smith’s work by visiting: BarbaraSmithOccupationalTherapist.com.

Meditation is now the IN thing. Cross-legged yogis and Buddhist monks can be seen in advertisements for everything from computers and credit cards to herbal teas, major newspapers and magazines carry stories on the benefits of meditation with tips from famous film stars, and no self-respecting bookshop is without a how-to-meditate section.

It is only in the last few decades that the general population has begun to realize how valuable the practice of meditation really is, regardless of spiritual or religious interests. Yet meditation has been the main focus of spiritual practice for thousands of years. You do not have to be a hippie or on a spiritual quest to meditate: we have taught everyone from housewives to athletes and musicians, and therapists to CEOs, in town halls, high school gymnasiums, corporate boardrooms, and on our own TV series in London.

However, if meditation is so available and as well known as it seems to be, why is it not already an integral part of everyone’s lives? If health reports are saying how good it is as a way to cope with stress, why do we ignore it or find excuses not to do it? And why do we think of something as a waste of time when all the research tells us it is of such immense value?

Mahatma Gandhi famously said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” In other words, change has to start within ourselves; we cannot expect the world to change if we do not. If we want to have more love in our lives, we must become more loving; if we genuinely want to end terrorism and to bring real and peaceful change to the world, then we must start by ending the war within ourselves.

This brings us to the importance of contemplation and meditation. Without such a practice of self-reflection, we are subject to our ego’s every whim, and we have no way of putting a brake on its demands. Meditation, on the other hand, gives us the space to see ourselves clearly and objectively, a place from which we can witness our own behavior and reduce the ego’s influence. We get to know the madness of our monkey mind and until it loses its hold. Only then do we have a genuine opportunity to change.

Through the practice of meditation we find that the more positive aspects of ourselves are enhanced while the more self-centered aspects begin to naturally fade away. As the need to be constantly engaged in the details of our own story loses its relevance, so the ego releases its grip and becomes less demanding. This does not mean that we become just like a doormat and let people walk all over us. Rather, we become more confident, are able to communicate more openly and honestly, and to love more unconditionally.

In this way meditation enables us to change. From being self-centered, we become other-centered, concerned about the welfare of all equally, rather than being focused on just ourselves. We become more acutely aware of how we affect the planet, how we treat each other and our world, and seek to become a positive presence rather than a passive or negative one. As we find our own peace, we want to actively help others to also be at peace. When we find our peace there is one less person suffering!

We were in India in 1986 when we first met the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and political leader of Tibet, and probably the world’s most famous meditator. We were waiting for our meeting in a room that led off a balcony at his residence, beyond which rose the Himalayas resplendent in the morning sunshine. Ed wandered outside to enjoy the view. He saw a monk further along the balcony waving for us to come. We presumed this monk would bring us to our meeting. But as we came closer, we realized that this simple and unpretentious man was the Dalai Lama himself. We immediately began to prostrate, as this is the respected way of greeting such a revered teacher. But the Dalai Lama took our hands and made us stand, saying, “No, no. We are all equal here.” It was easy to think, “Oh sure! You are the great Dalai Lama, spiritual leader to millions, and we are just mere mortals. How can we possibly be equal?” But over the following months, we both experienced the true equality he was referring to — the equality of our shared humanness and, simultaneously, our shared heart.

A Compassionate Revolution

A revolution is a re-evolution, where we take a higher step in the evolution of consciousness; it is also a revolving, a turning around of ourselves in response to an inner calling. To be the change and make a real difference in the world means we need a revolution — a compassionate revolution. This is the turning of our energy from being focused on self-centeredness, self-survival, and closed-heartedness to concern for others, generosity, and open-heartedness. If we genuinely want to end war, inequality, and abuse, then we have to practice ahimsa and kindness toward all equally, for there will never be peace in the world if we are not at peace within ourselves.

To activate a compassionate revolution is to enter into an exploration of all aspects of our humanness so that we can live sanely in a world that often looks insane, riddled with affliction and conflict. So much hurt and denial, abuse and disrespect, so many atrocities have taken place in the name of religion and politics, or through greed and selfishness, so many misunderstandings between families, races, and countries.

As the Tibetan teacher Mingyur Rinpoche says, “Who makes problems? We humans. And who is the controller of the human? The mind. And how to control the human mind? Through meditation. If you can control the pilot, then the pilot can control the plane.”

Meditation can do this because it brings us to a place of clear and caring responsiveness. It is that rare activity that can ease suffering while also giving us the awareness and spiritual intelligence to move beyond the self-centeredness and self-destruction that cause suffering. It removes the obstacles in our mind that prevent us from seeing things as they really are, freeing us to become kinder and more compassionate. In other words, it awakens our full human potential. And, as we are transformed, so the world will also transform.

©2009 Ed and Deb Shapiro, authors of Be the Change: How Meditation Can Transform You and the World


Ed and Deb Shapiro, authors of Be the Change: How Meditation Can Transform You and the World, are the award-winning authors of fifteen books on meditation, personal development, and social action. They are featured bloggers for the HuffingtonPost.com and for Care2.com, teach meditation workshops worldwide, work as corporate coaches and consultants, and are the creators and writers of the daily Chill Our inspirational text messages on Sprint cell phones. The Shapiros’ books include Your Body Speaks Your Mind, winner of the 2007 Visionary Book Award;Voices From the Heart with contributors such as President Gorbachev, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Bishop Tutu; and Meditation: The Four-Step Course to Calmness and Clarity. Ed, from New York, trained in India with Paramahamsa Satyananda, with Sri Swami Satchidananda, and with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Deb, from London, trained with Tai Situ Rinpoche. The Shapiros have taught meditation and personal development for more than twenty-five years. They currently reside in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information please visit www.EdandDebShapiro.com.

GEN Y’S TOP FIVE LIST FOR HOW WE THINK AND ACT AT WORK

1. No expectation of lifetime employment

Gen Y is the only generation in the modern workforce that has never expected to work for one employer our entire career. In practice this means that Gen Y expects to change employers throughout our lives, because it would be abnormal for us to stay with one company. This doesn’t mean Gen Y won’t or can’t stay with one employer, just that we see nothing wrong with switching employers if a job or company no longer fits us (or our sleep schedule).

Though we may not expect to be with a company for 20 years, we are willing to work extremely long hours for an employer if we feel a genuine connection to the company or its mission. At one online education company I visited, the Gen Y employees were working seven days a week, and some were taking showers in the office building in order to meet deadlines. One of the Gen Y employees told me, “That’s just what you do when your company is counting on you.”

2. A feeling of entitlement along with big expectations

The biggest complaint I get from employers of all ages — including Gen Yers who manage other Gen Yers — is that many in Gen Y feel entitled. We show up to work and act as if our boss owes us something for our presence. I know how off-putting Gen Y’s attitude can be, but before we condemn my generation as a bunch of spoiled brats (something that I find personally offensive and plan to tell my mom about) we should consider for a moment that entitlement is 100 percent a learned behavior. You are not born entitled. You have to be raised that way.

This might hit a bit close to home if your twentysomething child is still on your car insurance and carries one of your credit cards for emergency use only, which could mean a sale on cherry-flavored Pop-Tarts® at Target. In fact, many of us in Gen Y were told, “As long as you’re in college, we’ll help you out.” Seven majors and one study abroad semester later, we’re graduating with 196 credit hours and an Associate Degree — and courageously entering adulthood by returning home.

3. A hunger for instant gratification and tangible outcomes

Gen Y has come of age with almost instantaneous access to just about everything and everyone — from instant meals to instant messages. This constant immediacy has taught us to have little patience, short attention spans, and to seek ongoing progress in every aspect of our life. We hate waiting in lines at the grocery store (Can you say self checkout?) and don’t want to show our work on math problems, especially if you already told us our answer is correct. We will even walk into a fast food restaurant, see a line at the counter, and leave to go somewhere else.

However, rather than brand us as the “instant everything” generation, my research shows we are simply outcome-driven. This observation changes the conversation, because it shows we are not about having everything now, we simply don’t see — and therefore we do not appreciate — the steps involved in creating the outcomes we want. We literally do not connect the dots or consider our plans in terms of policies and procedures — that’s an older generation’s way of approaching work. Instead, all we want to know is what you want us to do. Then get out of our way so we can get it done. In the workplace, this makes us extremely project-oriented rather than job-description focused.

4. A new relationship with technology and communication

Since Gen Y grew up during the Internet boom and mobile communication revolution, technology has become an extension of ourselves. However, older generations have a big misconception when it comes to Gen Y and technology. Older generations think that Gen Y is tech savvy. This is 100 percent not true. Gen Y is not tech savvy, we are tech dependent. Important difference. We don’t know how technology works. We just know we can’t live without it.

5. A need for ongoing feedback

When it comes to employing Gen Y, if your company only gives annual reviews, then you can change the name. Call them exit interviews, because Gen Y won’t be there. We need feedback on a much more regular schedule, ideally twice a month, but don’t confuse frequency with a major time investment. We don’t want an in-depth 360-degree performance review, complete with personality assessment. Just a five-second check-in that says you notice we exist. All we need is for you to pause outside our cubicle and say, “Jordan, I saw how you helped Mrs. Booker solve the billing problem. Good job.” That’s it. Nothing more.

As a member of Gen Y, I admit that all five of these characteristics do not initially appear as workplace strengths. However, I have seen time and again how employers have made every one of these Gen Y characteristics into a workplace advantage when Gen Y is managed correctly.

The key is to start with an understanding of our mindset, find a common ground with your company’s goals, and build on it. In fact, the breakthrough moment for many of my clients who employ Gen Y is realizing that what their Gen Y employees want in order to put forth their best effort is often less expensive and easier to give than their current employment practices. Now that is something you will want us to text our friends about — but not until our lunch break.

©2009 Jason Ryan Dorsey, author of Y-Size Your Business: How Gen Y Employees Can Save You Money and Grow Your Business

Jason Ryan Dorsey, author of Y-Size Your Business: How Gen Y Employees Can Save You Money and Grow Your Business is an award-winning entrepreneur and an acclaimed keynote speaker often referred to as “The Gen Y Guy”®. He has been featured as a Generation Y expert on 60 Minutes, 20/20, the Today show, and The View, as well as in Fortune magazine.

For more information about the book, please visit www.JasonDorsey.com.

Thanks to reader Josh B for this great question posted on my comments. This is something I have been struggling with myself so it seemed a good time to discuss it. I’d love to hear how others do it too. Obviously travel writers write about places they have been, fantasy/sci-fic authors write about imaginary places, but what about fiction authors setting books in real world geography?

Also, what about when you have been there, but you didn’t keep very good notes?

Here are some ideas:

* Use your book as an excuse for a trip! This is my favorite tip and the one I intend to use when budget allows. Perhaps not practical for everyone but probably the best one. Philippa Ballantine took a trip to England to research the wonderful ‘Chasing the Bard’ podcast novel, and the research definitely added depth and detail.

* Guidebooks, online travel sites and other books/websites. You can of course research the old fashioned way with books at the library or online at many of the travel sites around. I have a scene in Venice for my novel and although I have been there, I still found myself on the travel websites looking for historical information I missed as well as names of churches. The detail is important. My favorite travel site would be LonelyPlanet.com. You can also go to individual location sites e.g. pick a hotel in London and go to their webpage. Descriptions and photos there will tell you a lot, and combined with Google Earth and Street View, you don’t have to physically be there.

* Surf Flickr and Travel blogs. The travel sites online with give you official information but personal travel blogs and Flickr photos from places will give you story behind those locations. Obviously you can’t plagiarize but you can write about photos you find and incorporate aspects into your story. Here’s a search I did on St Marks Venice New Year – look at all the concrete details I could incorporate into my writing.

* Google Earth. You can download Google Earth and then travel from your computer. If you haven’t tried it yet, it is truly amazing. With satellite pictures of most of the world, you can zoom into sites and see related pictures other people have posted. Brilliant for getting the lay of the land and adding detail you might not have noticed otherwise. You can even add sunlight and shadows based on the time of day so you can see where your villain could hide to perform nefarious deeds!

* Google Maps Street View. Your protagonist is hiding out in a New York apartment block and you want to know what might be around that area. Go to Google Maps and check out street view, which is expanding all the time. You can see pictures of the houses, cars and people around when the photos were taken. You can write about details of architecture, what is down the street, how the streetlamps look giving you real detail.

* Interview someone who has been there. This can be a friend/family member or even someone you meet online. I am frequently asking people for interviews for my podcast. You can record an interview and then give them credit in your book. Those remembered details from a personal point of view may give you some brilliant writing.

*Make sure your geography is right if you set your book in the real world.

It drives me nuts when books and movies change real-world geography to suit the story. Their credibility is shattered and often I ditch the book/movie right away.

*Truth can be stretched but not physical distance if the setting is meant to be realistic. A very sad example of this is the latest Transformers movie (can’t believe I even watched it!). The heroes drive away from the pyramids at Giza and round the corner is Petra in Jordan. Both amazing settings but seriously. That’s annoying.


Joanna Penn is the author of 3 books, and blogger at http://www.TheCreativePenn.com:  Writing, Publishing Options, Internet Sales and Promotion…For Your Book. This article was originally published here, http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2010/02/11/how-to-write-about-a-real-location-if-you-havent-been-there/, on February 11 2010.

How does an Olympian prepare mentally for a once-in-a-lifetime event that can literally be over in seconds, but its results will last for the rest of his or her life? Surprisingly, in a very similar way as businessmen and women prepare for big projects.

Because of my background as the first American Olympic gold medal aerial skier, motivational speaker and author of a much-talked-about inspirational book, I was honored when the U.S. Olympic Committee engaged me to help train the current and upcoming athletes.

So what are the secrets of Olympic-caliber preparations? In highlighting a few of the most intense obstacles presented to the athletes at an Olympic Games, you’ll see that my recommendations for coping with their issues can easily be paralleled in the business world.

So if you want to be as competitive as the Apolo Anton Ohnos, Bode Millers, Lindsey Vonns and Shaun Whites of the world, get in the game and start your “training” now. Using a list of gold-medal-caliber tools to overcome your own adversities or challenges, you too may be ready to withstand the pressures of a once-in-a-lifetime event.

©2010 Nikki Stone, author of When Turtles Fly: Secrets of Successful People Who Know How To Stick Their Necks Out

At the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, Nikki Stone became America’s first-ever Olympic champion in the sport of aerial skiing. What made this performance so unbelievable was the fact that, less than two years earlier, a chronic spinal injury prevented her from standing, much less walking or skiing off a twelve-foot-tall snow jump that launches aerialists fifty feet into the air. She overcame the injury and went on to earn 35 World Cup medals, 11 World Cup titles, 4 national titles, 3 World Cup titles, a World Championship title, and membership in the Ski Hall of Fame. Nikki is also a magna cum laude graduate of Union College and a summa cum laude masters graduate of the University of Utah. Her aerial retirement is less than restful as she trains Olympic athletes and business professionals in speaking/media skills, coaches personal and professional development courses, hosts group skiing adventures, sits on five different charitable committees, and writes articles and columns for many magazines, newspapers, and websites. Nikki’s career focus is now on traveling around the world working as a sought-after motivational speaker, sharing her secrets to success by inspiring her business audiences to “Stick their necks out.” Every spare moment is spent with husband, Michael Spencer, and daughter, Zali, in Park City, Utah.

For more information, please visit www.WhenTurtlesFly.com.

Advertising for this event began last fall via the Hay House newsletter. This multi-city author tour was a paid event with two levels of tickets offered, seats up close to the front for $75 dollars and general seating at $40 per ticket.

The St. Louis event sold out: 2100 people purchased tickets to meet this author in a large hotel ballroom.

(Can you imagine that many people coming to see you?)

When we arrived, we were given a wristband, color coded by the level of ticket we’d purchased. No tickets were sold on site. There were some nice posters giving information about the event around the hotel.

Everything seemed very classy and well organized.

There was a book table set up displaying Sylvia’s books and books by Colette Baron-Reid, another Hay House author, who served as the opening speaker. CD’s of music or audio programs from the authors were also available. The book table was well staffed so that buyers could quickly and easily purchase items via check or credit card.

The event started promptly on time with a brief welcome from a Hay House representative explaining that Baron-Reid would speak for 45 minutes, followed by a short 15-minute break, and then Sylvia Browne would be on the stage for 2 hours. After that, both authors would be available to autograph copies of books, with a limit of one book signed per person. I was surprised that the authors would take time to sign autographs for such a large crowd.

The event ran precisely on schedule, ending exactly when promised. Even though the lines for autographs were huge, there was no hurry. The authors promised an autograph for everyone, no matter how long it took.

Both authors gave excellent presentations. They were funny, warm, and informal. Neither spoke from prepared remarks, they just told stories about their lives, took questions from the audience, and shared information from their books. Neither made you feel obligated to buy a book. Both were charming and seemed to relish sharing their information and meeting people.

In fact, at one point we were laughing so hard at Sylvia Brown’s jokes that I thought I was in a comedy club instead of a book signing. These well-trained authors made the event fun, informative, and inspirational. I left adoring both of them because they were so warm and genuine.

As we left, I noticed the book table was almost completely sold out, a successful day for Hay House and the authors.

What can you learn from this story?

- If you decide to do personal appearances to promote your book, be sure to be genuine, generous with your time and information, and let people see your warmth.
- Gather a team to help you run a well-organized event so that you are not stressed.
- Make the event fun and useful. Think of it more as a short seminar or lecture instead of a book signing.
When you give great content, you will sell many books and create life-long fans.
- Be yourself. Both authors were refreshingly human and were able to laugh at themselves. They seemed happy to meet people and interested in helping. They shared some of their struggles and triumphs but spent the majority of time giving information instead of talking about themselves.
- Start small so that you can build your confidence and create a system for the event. Begin in your hometown with a small group. Work your way up to larger groups and out of town travel as you grow in confidence.

Author Bio

Lynne Klippel is a publisher, author and book shepherd who specializes in helping authors write business building books.Want to create a successful book? Discover 8 book marketing blunders that you can avoid. Grab your free ecourse at http://www.BookMarketingBlitz.com

According to Nielsen, social media and blogs are now more popular than email. As marketers, this presents us with a great opportunity. Reader engagement is not only important in today’s market, it is essential. Although your web site is important, a savvy marketer knows that a page on Facebook is even more important for interacting with fans and potential readers. With Google and Bing now offering real time search results, the ease, power and speed of sharing information is changing before our eyes. Word of mouth has never been shared faster or more easily.  It is important to remember that social media is public communication, you probably should never share personal information, comments or thoughts you don’t want spread. But you can’t simply ignore what investors are calling a new Web Revolution.

By staying off of Twitter and Facebook as a marketer you are not only missing out on community building, but you are also unaware of the conversations taking place about you, your books, and your competition. Real time search results are changing the speed at which a conversation spreads online. It is more important than ever to manage brand and reputation on social media sites. Content is streaming live with or without your blessing.

Some fantastic sites that offer good information on Twitter conversations are Topsy which shows how many people retweeted you. For example, if you do a topsy search on my name you’d see that my HuffPost blog about Facebook was retweeted 118 times, others were not as popular. Sency allows you to search topics and conversations, and Dailyrt allows you to track what is important to people right now.

These tools can allow you to stay on top of messaging. For marketing and publicity people, it can give you fresh ideas and leads for more exposure. For editors, it may give you ideas for your next book project and for authors it can most certainly show you what’s important to your readers right now. Opinions are being shared online and in real time, and now through searches we can find them and notice trends and measure excitement.

Today if you do a search for Oprah on Google, the search results will include social media results, which means you can see what people said about Oprah a minute ago (see midway down). If that doesn’t inspire awe (and a little fear) in you, I would be amazed.

Conversations are happening online in real time and now these conversations are being tracked, measured and searched. By becoming part of the community and paying attention to the dialogue around you, I believe your marketing efforts will benefit greatly this year and in the years to come. Real Time Web is becoming the norm — there are tons of apps and programs coming that will make it easier for us to know what people are saying, where they are gathering, and what they are reading in real time.

© 2010 Fauzia Burke

Author Bio

Fauzia Burke is the Founder and President of FSB Associates, an Internet marketing firm specializing in creating online awareness for books and authors. For more information, please visit FSBAssociates.com.

Follow FSB Associates on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FSBAssociates

For additional entries in our book giveaway you can:

Please leave a separate comment for each thing you do. Those are all your entries and we don’t want anyone missing out because they Tweeted and forgot to tell us they had.

Every comment is allocated a number. Two lucky winners will be selected from the comments using random.org and each will receive a copy of Breakfast in Bed, mailed direct from the publisher.

IMPORTANT! Please leave a valid email address when you comment or we can’t contact you when you’ve won for your mailing address. You also need to respond to us notifying you of that within 48 hours. If you don’t, we’ll choose another winner.

The closing date for the giveaway will be in two weeks time at midnight on March 2 2010. The two lucky winners of the book will be announced after the draw on March 3 2010.

You can read more about Breakfast in Bed by Robin Kaye below.

Good luck! And don’t miss Robin’s exclusive Cuckleburr Times article too for insights on Writing Romantic Comedy: How to Judge What is and Isn’t Funny.

Breakfast in Bed by Robin Kaye—in stores now!

The third funny, sexy, contemporary romance from a fresh new voice in romance fiction.

Rich, the epitome of “anti-domestic,” can’t cook to save his life, and his idea of cleaning his apartment is to invite his mother over. But he’s ready to settle down, and he can’t stop thinking about the ex-girlfriend who got away. When he notices that his soon-to-be-married friends cooked and cleaned their way into their women’s hearts, he asks his friend Becca to help transform him into a nurturing man to win back his ex.

Rich is the only guy who’s taken the time to know Becca for herself. She decides she’ll give him the makeover he’s asking for, though she’ll be damned if she’s going to turn him into a domestic god for another woman. She wants Rich for herself, but how can she convince him that her kitchen and her bedroom are the only domestic locales he desires?

Q: Please welcome David Bowman, owner and chief editor of Precise Edit and author of 300 Days of Better Writing, which was just released for Kindle readers. Thank you for agreeing to this interview with The Cuckleburr Times. Please give our readers an overview of 300 Days of Better Writing.

A: Thank you. I am very excited about 300 Days of Better Writing. In short, this e-book provides writers with 300 daily strategies for improving writing. The general concept behind this book is simple. If writers learn one new writing strategy every day, over time their writing will greatly improve; their writing will get better for each of 300 days. As a whole, 300 Days comprises our best strategies, advice, and instruction for writing well.

Q: What is your biggest hope for this book?

A: (Laughing) What does every author hope for? Lots of money from book sales and get on Oprah! Ok, I’m joking. Some books are for creating social changes or helping people live happy, healthy lives; others are for promoting services, and so forth. It’s not just money. Sure, I’d like to make income from this book. But we only make money if we are truly providing something of value, something people want. Let me be even more serious for a moment. This book is about communication, and I am passionate about communication. Communication is how people interact. It’s how people reach their goals. It’s how we grow as individuals and societies. Many people struggle with communicating, particularly in writing. So my biggest hope is that people will use these strategies and learn to communicate effectively.

Q: Many books are available to help people become better writers, though not so many for Kindle, at least not yet. What makes 300 Days of Better Writing different?

A: Yes, there are. I own some of those books, and I’ve read through many others. Some are good; others are not so good. This book is different in several ways.
1) Practical. This book addresses a comment from a writing student many, many years ago: “Just tell me what to do.” That’s what this book does. It provides 300 answers to the question “What can I do to make my writing better?”
2) Easy-to-grasp. This book takes big topics, such as paragraph structure, and breaks them down into individual strategies. For example, instead of telling writers, “Here’s everything you need to know about clear sentences,” it says, “Here’s one thing you can do right now to make your sentences better.” I will add that the book contains a topic index for those readers who wish to read many strategies on a specific topic.
3) Instructional, not “fluffy.” Many books include cute cartoons, or tell stories about the author, or discuss the history of writing styles, or talk about various writers. Those authors are trying to entertain instead of trying to teach. In respect for the reader, 300 Days of Better Writing stays focused on instruction. 300 Days of Better Writing contains over 70 thousand words of instruction, and that’s a lot of instruction on how to write well!
4) No English degree needed. Let me toss in one more difference. This book doesn’t expect readers to have English degrees and know a lot of grammar terms. If I needed a term to explain a strategy, I first explained the term. However, readers with English degrees will find this book valuable, too. Much of the content in 300 Days of Better Writing is not taught in English programs.

Q: How would you characterize this book? Is it for novelists and story writers, or is it for a more general audience?

A: I get this question often. Who should read this book? The simple answer is “everyone.” The purpose of writing is to communicate, regardless of the document or genre. This book is for all writers who wish to communicate well, whether they are writing a business letter, writing a novel, or writing a funding proposal. The issues addressed in the book are the same for all writers.

Q: I like how you characterize writing as communication. So often we forget that that’s what we’re really trying to do. What types of information will readers find in this book?

A: This book contains 3 types of information: 1) Writing well. These are editing strategies for communicating clearly, directly, and purposefully. This category contains the most strategies by far. For example, the book has 33 unique strategies on effective sentence structure and 33 strategies for using descriptions and modifiers. 2) Writing correctly. These are techniques for using correct grammar, punctuation, and usage. 3) Writing to accomplish a purpose. These are strategies for engaging readers, persuading them to believe you, and emphasizing your ideas. I have interspersed the various types of strategies. One strategy might be about punctuation, the next about choosing powerful subjects, and the next about tone.

Q: I see that you have several e-books available as PDFs at Hostile Editing (http://hostileediting.com), including Precise Edit Training Manual and Bang! Writing for Impact. Why did you decide to write this one, and why are you making it available for Kindle?

A: The answer to both questions is “market research.” Another way to say this is “paying attention to what readers want.” Subscribers to our “Writing Tips for a Year” service asked for a single document with the strategies. We had the content already, so why not? We modified the content from the subscription service and created this book. Why Kindle? We did what every writer should: we paid attention to what readers want. The PDF of 300 Days is nearly 200 8.5” x 11” pages when printed. That’s too much for most folks to print. They will use an electronic version, and this means PDF and Kindle. I did my market research. Are people buying instructional books for Kindle? Are writing titles already available? Is the Kindle market flooded with writing books? What price range is acceptable? And so forth. We decided to publish a Kindle version as a result of our research.

Q: How did you create the Kindle version?

A: The Kindle format is simplified HTML, like a web page. We did the conversion ourselves, and we learned a lot about the process. The instructions from Amazon are lousy, I mean really lousy. But we did some research, made a few mistakes, and we figured it out. Amazon will do an automatic conversion of PDF and Word documents, but this book relies on special formatting, italics, indents, etcetera, and I read that the automatic conversion isn’t accurate. The process took about two weeks, including figuring out the conversion and publishing process. Now that we know what we’re doing, though, the next one will be much faster.

Q: Do you have a website where readers can find out more about 300 Days of Better Writing? And can readers get a sample?

A: Sure. I recommend people head to Hostile Editing, which is the site for all of our writing resources. The URL is http://HostileEditing.com. Our free e-book, Your Writing Companion, contains a sample from each of our books. I have to edit that statement. The PDF version is free, but the Kindle version costs 99 cents. That’s the lowest price Amazon will sell books.

Q: Are you planning to write any more books about writing?

A: I keep saying “No more!” but then I write another one. Yes, I have at least one more book coming out. I’m preparing a short reference guide on commas and only commas. From my 19 plus years as an editor, I found that commas are the biggest problem people have with the mechanics of writing. As with the other books, we’ll do a PDF and Kindle version.

Q: I have to ask this. You run an editing company and, I suppose, do much of the editing work yourself, you teach university writing classes, you write grants, you write books and a blog on writing. You’re busy. How do you find the time?

A: The short answer? I work hard for long hours, and I take time to refresh my mind when needed. It’s a balance, but it’s not a chore. The long answer? I love what I do and find it very satisfying. When a client says, “Gosh, this is so much clearer!” or a book reader writes, “This book has really helped me write better!” I feel pretty good about all those long hours.

Q: Thank you for taking the time to discuss 300 Days of Better Writing. Do you have any last thoughts to share with our readers?

A: Just one point about the writing in general. Writing is about three things: passion, compassion, and technique. Passion is what you want to communicate, the content you want to express. Compassion is knowing what the reader needs and wants from you. What 300 Days to Better Writing does is help people learn the techniques to merge passion and compassion. It provides the techniques for communicating the content in a manner that meets the readers’ needs and accomplishes the writers’ goals.

KE: And that concludes our interview. I wish you success with your book and thanks again for joining us here at The Cuckleburr Times.

300 Days of Better Writing can be found in the Kindle Store at Amazon.com here.

Saving Ben is an intensive read that raises complex questions. It is well known that the stress of raising a special needs child can destroy a marriage, cracking the foundation of teamwork needed to navigate through the educational and health care system. So- what happens when Burns is forced to cope with a mentally ill wife, put a career-not to mention income- on the back burner and take on what is traditionally a woman’s role? Readers will learn how the author channels his denial and anger-that began with punching holes in the wall, yelling and drinking- into taking action.  Burns is a role mode for survivors.

Women readers may be asking-“Well, we do this all the time and it’s the men who get all the credit when they come along and do a decent job”. A point well taken! However, reading about the Ben Project interventions that have included: mind boosting supplements and vitamins, casein and wheat free diets, phototherapy, a Clonidine patch (usually used to treat hypertension), immunoglobulin infusions (used to treat immune deficiencies), chelation to remove toxic metals, Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) and sensory integration therapy-shows that Burns is no ordinary caregiver. He has stopped at nothing to save his son and this is a special story of love and persistence.

Today Ben is 22 years old and has aged out of the educational system. If Burns were to write a sequel-it might be titled “After the School Bus Stops Coming” because both he and his son are now coming to terms with losing the support and structure that lasted almost two decades. As an occupational therapist I am most interested in the next stage. Will Ben continue to develop skills at a day habilitation center or sheltered workshop? Can he make new social connections while living in a group home? Will lack of funding force a father to become permanent caregiver and is this a reasonable societal expectation?
“Saving Ben” is more than a well written and gripping story. It raises many important questions. Writing the book may have also saved the author’s mental health- as does his mission to make society examine the causes of autism and their connection to environmental degradation. I encourage Burns to keep writing, sharing, provoking and leading as his journey continues. Parents and all of us concerned with social issues will reap the benefits of his labors.


Barbara A Smith, M.S., OTR/L has worked with children and adults with developmental disabilities for over 30 years. She currently works in a hippotherapy setting where she uses the horse as therapy tools to help children with developmental disabilities. Ms. Smith is the author of The Recycling Occupational Therapist (Pro-Ed, Inc.) –a guide for designing and fabricating therapeutic activities for individuals with developmental disabilities and Still Giving Kisses: A Guide to Helping and Enjoying the Alzheimer’s Victim You love (Lulu.com). Her new book- From Rattles to Writing- A Parent’s Guide to Hand Skills (Therapro, Inc.) is due out early 2010. Learn more about developmental disabilities and Barbara Smith’s work by visiting: BarbaraSmithOccupationalTherapist.com.

Regardless of whether you decide to treat your spouse, loved one, or the entire family to these dishes, Valentine’s Day does need a little chocolate to top off the meal. And at my house, I’ll be serving my traditional chocolate crepes, served with a little fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Now THAT’S AMORE!

LINGUINE ALLA CARBONARA
From Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen, published by Alfred A. Knopf

Makes 6 servings

• Salt
• 6 ounces slab bacon, in one piece
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 large yellow onions, sliced ½-inch (about 3 cups)
• 1 ½ cups hot Chicken Stock or canned reduced-sodium chicken broth, or as needed
• 1 pound linguine
• 3 egg yolks
• Coarsely ground black pepper

Bring 6 quarts of salted water to the boil in an 8-quart pot over high heat.

Remove the rind, if necessary from the bacon. Cut the bacon into ¼ inch slices, then cut the slices crosswise into ¼ inch strips. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring, until the bacon is lightly browned, but still soft in the center, about 6 minutes.

The amount of fat in the skillet will vary depending on the bacon. If there is more than 3 to 4 tablespoons of fat in the pan, pour off the excess. If there is less than 3 to 4 tablespoons, add enough olive oil to measure that amount. Add the onions and cook until wilted, but still crunchy, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the stock, bring to a boil and adjust the heat to a lively simmer. Cook until the liquid is reduced by about half.

Meanwhile, stir the linguine into the boiling salted water. Return to a boil, stirring frequently. Cook the pasta, semi-covered, stirring occasionally, until done, about 8 minutes.

Ladle off about a cup of the pasta cooking water. If the skillet is large enough to accommodate the sauce and pasta, fish the pasta out of the boiling water with a large wire skimmer and drop it directly into sauce in the skillet. If not, drain the pasta, return it to the pot and pour in the sauce. Bring the sauce and pasta to a boil, stirring to coat the pasta with sauce. Check the seasoning, adding salt if necessary. If necessary, add as much chicken stock or pasta cooking water as needed to make enough sauce to generously coat the pasta. Remove the pan from the heat and add the egg yolks one at a time, tossing well after each. (A salad fork and spoon work well for this.) Add the grated cheese, then the black pepper, tossing well and serve immediately in warmed bowls.


CREPES WITH CHOCOLATE AND WALNUTS
Palacinke
From Lidia’s Italy, published by Alfred A. Knopf

Makes a dozen palacinke, serving 6 or more

For the palacinke:

• 2 eggs
• 2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon dark rum
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• ⅓ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups flour
• 8 tablespoons melted butter or more
• Finely grated zest of 2 lemons

For serving:

• 10 ounces excellent bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (12 ounces, or more, for extreme chocolate lovers)
• 1 ½ cups walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
• 1 cup heavy cream, chilled (plus sugar to taste)

Recommended equipment:

• A small ladle (⅓ cup volume or slightly larger)
• A 7-inch crepe pan or a non-stick skillet, 7-inches wide on the bottom

To make the palacinke batter, whisk together the eggs, water, rum, vanilla, sugar and salt in a large bowl, until well blended. Sift the flour on top, a bit at a time, whisking each addition until smooth. Drizzle in 4 tablespoons of the melted butter, whisking until the batter has slightly thickened, with the consistency of melted ice cream. Finally, whisk in the lemon zest. Put the remaining 4 tablespoons of melted butter in a small cup and keep it warm.

Break or chop the chocolate into small pieces and put them a bowl set in a pan of hot (not boiling) water. When the chocolate begins to melt, stir until completely smooth and keep it warm, in the water, off the heat.

Set the crepe pan or skillet over moderate-high heat until quite hot. Pour in a couple tablespoons of butter, quickly swirl it all over the pan bottom, then pour excess butter back into the cup, leaving the bottom lightly coated with sizzling butter. (If the butter doesn’t sizzle, heat the pan longer before adding the batter). Immediately ladle in a scant ⅓ cup of batter, tilt and swirl so it coats the bottom, and set the pan on the burner.

Lower the heat to medium and cook the palacinka for a little less than a minute, until the underside is lightly browned in a lacy pattern. Flip it over with a spatula and fry for a half minute or longer, until the second side is lightly browned, then remove it to a warm platter. Heat the empty pan briefly, then rapidly coat it with butter, fill it with batter and cook another palacinka. Repeat the sequence, stacking up the finished palacinke on the platter, until all the batter is used up.

Fill and serve the palacinke as soon as possible, while fresh and warm. Keep the platter in a warm spot and cover the stack with a tent of foil or a large bowl turned upside down. Whip the heavy cream, unsweetened or with sugar to taste, to soft peaks. Stir the melted chocolate and reheat it if necessary so it is smooth and warm.

Take one palacinka off the stack and place it with its lacy-patterned side down. Spoon a generous tablespoon (or more) warm chocolate in the center of the pancake and spread it over the palacinka, leaving an inch wide border uncoated. Scatter a spoonful of chopped walnuts on the chocolate layer then fold the round in half, hiding the fillings, and fold again into a plump quarter-round.

Fill and fold all the palacinke the same way. For each serving, place two rounds, overlapping, on a dessert plate, heap some cream on top, scatter some nuts on top of the cream and drizzle warm chocolate in streaks and squiggles over the palacinke and the plate.

© 2010 Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, authors of Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipes

Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, coauthor of Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipe, is the author of five previous books, four of them accompanied by nationally syndicated public television series. She is the owner of the New York City restaurant Felidia (among others), and she lectures on and demonstrates Italian cooking throughout the country. She lives on Long Island, and can be reached at her Web site, www.LidiasItaly.com

It has been widely reported that for the first time in history, women are less than a percentage point away from making up the majority of the national workforce. The economic downturn has hit men harder. They held nearly 80 percent of jobs that have been lost during what is now being called the “mancession.” What’s more, The New York Times recently reported that some of the highly educated, high powered women who “opted out” of corporations starting in the nineties to raise children and take care of ailing elders have returned to the work.

So what does this new female-dominated workplace mean for the corporate culture and the nature of work? Will we see a feminist Nirvana, filled with benevolent leaders? Will the new workplace be more kumbaya and less “off with their heads?”

Time for a reality check. While we should be thrilled about the new numbers, there are scant few women heading large companies and who have jobs at the top. (And really, there aren’t that many highly educated women who actually opted out of their careers in the first place!)

This year a record number of women are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies — but you still don’t need all of your fingers and toes to count them. (You don’t even need all of your fingers to count those running Fortune 100s.)

Few as they are, they’re doing fine at the top, thank you very much. During the economic storm of 2009, women leaders proved they can be as tough, decisive and competitive as men. USA Today reports that stocks of the 13 Fortune 500 companies run by women for all of 2009 were up an average of 50 percent. The biggest female winner was Mary Sammons, whose Rite Aid stock soared 387 percent!

So, yes, women can keep investors happy, but what about everybody else at the company? Does an estrogen heavy corporate culture emphasize relationship building over backstabbing and throat slashing? Has a surge in female leadership triggered new corporate policies that favor work life balance over the 24/7 grind? Is there less conflict, more “talking it through?” And have women brought in other women, so that the flood gates are open and unbelievably talented women are pouring into management positions?

Despite our hopes, the gender redistribution of our workforce and the small swell in female CEOs has not created a much needed seismic culture shift. The fantasy is much different than the day-to-day reality of managing a company, especially a super-sized one.

Many companies are barely weathering the storm. At Avon, for example, CEO Andrea Jung has had to figure out how to update a business model and modernize a brand that’s been around since 1886. And Indra Nooyi of Pepsi is keeping her company afloat even as there’s wide talk of a tax on soft drinks. While Avon and Pepsi were up 34 percent and 12 percent respectively for 2009, both Jung and Nooyi are having to make hard choices. There is little time to radically change their corporate cultures. They are putting out fires.

Many women don’t want to be seen as “soft” — and others simply aren’t. No one would call Carly Fiorina, the head of Hewlett Packard from 1999 to 2005, a wilting lily. According to her memoir, Tough Choices, she was sometimes referred to as Chainsaw Carly.

Neither is there a secession pipeline for women streaming into upper management positions. Last year at Xerox, CEO Anne Mulcahy handed the reins to Ursula Burns, the first African-American woman to head a Fortune 500 company. But that kind of thing is rare. Women continue to make less than men and are clustered in the lowest salaried jobs. Overall, we are also more likely than their male counterparts to be employed in lower paying industries like education and healthcare.

Now that there are more women in the workplace, in positions of leadership and even as CEOs, we can feel hopeful. But it’s important to keep it real and manage our expectations. While some women leaders may be able to redefine their roles, usher in a more authentic and transparent leadership style and emphasize work-life balance, changing entrenched corporate culture is not easy. Even when you change the leader, the stubborn culture can remain exactly the same.

And as the recession drags on, some things will become worse. With layoffs and restructuring, there are fewer people with more responsibilities working longer hours — in an already supercharged, high-tech, global, 24/7 environment. And these people will soon be mostly women.

We have to be careful. Men used to be the ones slumped over their desks, dead of heart attacks at 50. Will women become the new men? What are the consequences for women as we careen back and forth between the personal and professional? Studies show that women at every level still leave the office and work a “second shift” at home, caring for husbands and children (if they have them) and doing the lion’s share of the housework and looking after elder relatives. The downsides to women’s new workforce power are: Stress, pressure, exhaustion, burn out and heart attacks — exactly what used to kill hard-driving corporate men and sometimes still does.

And what of the men, the ones who have been hung out to dry during the downturn? How are they feeling about the new XY landscape? And what happens when the economy turns around? How and where will they re-enter the workplace? What will their attitude be?

I don’t have any answers. But remember that even as we celebrate the numbers of working women — and offer the 15 women who are heading Fortune 500 companies a group hug — there are many important questions we still need to ask.

© 2010 Ella L. J. Edmondson Bell, Ph.D, author of Career GPS: Strategies for Women Navigating the New Corporate Landscape

Ella LJ Edmondson Bell, Ph.D., author of the new book, Career GPS: Strategies for Women Navigating the New Corporate Landscape (Amistad), is the founder and president of ASCENT-Leading Multicultural Women to the Top, as well as an associate professor of business administration, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University. She is considered by industry and the academy to be one of the leading experts in the management of race, gender and class in the workplace. Her clients include: PepsiCo, American Express, Intel, Goldman Sachs, Booze Allen Hamilton, U.S. Department of Labor are among others. She has written several articles for Essence magazine and wrote the monthly “Working It” column. Frequently quoted by journalists, Dr. Bell has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Boston Globe, Black Enterprise, Newsweek, Working Mother, and Fast Company. Dr. Bell lives with her Jack Russell Terrier, Belle in Hanover, New Hampshire and Charlotte, North Carolina.

For more information, please visit www.CareerGPSthebook.com.

At all costs, I thought, I had to protect him from worry. For weeks, I’d known that my increasingly confident and ambitious demeanor had made Ben anxious. I knew he thought that I was becoming slightly manic, so I’d gotten into the habit of concealing things from him: I didn’t want his worry to restrain me from achieving my goals. Ben’s last boyfriend had had episodes of intense mania as well, so this only increased my desire to hide from him all signs of any behavior that he might wrongly interpret as manic.

For the moment, I could still wrestle my thoughts to a stand-still long enough to remind myself, every other minute, that it wasn’t life-or-death. If I missed the meeting with our counselor, Ben would be upset; very upset: but we’d get through it.

At the Renaissance Hotel on Highland, I tried to get a taxi, but the hotel staff ignored me. I became briefly and savagely furious with them until, once again, I managed to recall that my sense of urgency was self-imposed. But that thread of rational thought kept disappearing in the vastness; I couldn’t hold onto it for more than a few seconds at a time. Each time it slipped my grasp, my focus would return to the urgency of protecting Ben at all costs.

I wasn’t scared about myself, however, until I rounded the corner onto Hollywood Boulevard. And then I felt, just for a second, that it might be possible to drown in the deluge of my own thoughts.

I tried again to hail a cab. It was rush-hour; traffic barely moved, and all the cabs were full. I was, by now, almost panicking with the urgency of saving Ben. It had finally become impossible for me to have a rational perspective; I really was drowning.

I redoubled my pace, crossing through traffic to catch a cab in the other direction, anything. Once more I momentarily recalled the lack of real urgency, but only briefly, before crashing back, with increased violence, into a skewed sense that making the meeting with Ben and our couple’s counselor was life-or-death.

I steeled myself: ‘Calm down, there’s no rush.’ A second later, I looked at the time, and started to run. The clash of priorities began to feel like a pile driver in my head; then a constant thunder. I ripped my expensive watch – a sexy, masculine watch with a wide leather strap that Ben had given me – off my wrist, and threw it, along with my cell-phone, into a parking lot, hoping that if I could no longer tell the time, the raging confusion would cease. But it only got worse.

Dimly through the clattering chaos, I momentarily heard a shining clear note: instead of worrying about Ben, I should take care of myself. This was my own crisis now, not Ben’s: I was falling headlong into the void, and had to save myself. Moreover in saving myself, I’d save Ben too. If I lost my mind, Ben would shed far more than the few tears he’d cry at my missing our counseling appointment. It seems so obvious now; but that’s a symptom of mania: that you can get so consumed by something that it makes you blind to all other priorities. In this case I was so driven to protect Ben that I was quite literally driving myself insane.

That gleaming note I’d felt moments earlier disappeared again in the gathering murk; I felt my sanity slipping away; I knew I needed to medicate myself immediately, either with drugs or alcohol. I pitched into a Mexican restaurant.

‘I need a drink,’ I grated out to the petite hostess, who looked at me worriedly, taking in the contrast between my wannabe-superstar appearance – six-foot-six, hair spiked with blond highlights, dressed in a tight-fitting, black open-necked Miu-Miu shirt – and the desperation presumably written on my features.

‘You’ll have to wait for a table.’

‘You don’t understand, this is an emergency,’ I shouted.

She looked at me as if I were an alien, and then shrugged. I strode into the bar, grabbed a bottle of tequila, and walked out, ignoring the bartender’s flailing arms and angry shouts.

I was on Sunset Boulevard by now, just east of La Brea. I drank about a fifth of the bottle: it tasted foul. Vodka is my drink, I thought randomly. My mind was still falling into chaos; the alcohol wasn’t working.

I went into a 7-Eleven, where the cashier looked up at me, startled, seeing the open bottle of tequila in my hands, not exactly looking like a typical wino.

‘Call 911!’ I said, urgently.

The cashier barely even made eye-contact with me before switching back to his customer. I couldn’t understand why nobody could see my pain. I was running into intense alienation wherever I turned.

I shouted at him, ‘Call an ambulance, now!’

‘Get lost!’ he told me.

I was amazed that he didn’t seem the least bit scared of me. I slammed my fist onto the counter, and poured the bottle of tequila all over it.

‘Now will you call the police?’ I needed help, any kind of help. I knew I needed to be restrained and medicated.

A young gay customer yelled at the cashier, ‘Call 911!’ The kid led me outside.

‘Here, I’ll call them,’ he said, soothingly.

I tried to sit down, but I couldn’t keep still. He couldn’t get through to 911; he was on hold for ten agonizing minutes; I couldn’t wait. I crossed the street through moving traffic, and entered the strip-mall on the corner, which contained a Starbucks, nail salons, and some jewelry stores. I thought the police would come eventually, and I was concerned now that they’d think me dangerous, that bullets might fly.

The tequila was finally slowing down my thoughts. Somehow, I suddenly instinctively knew the worst of the crisis was passed; I’d saved myself. But there were still the consequences of my actions to deal with, and I was still far from being myself. I heard sirens, so I went into one of the salons to sit peaceably, my hands clearly visible so the police could see I wasn’t armed (although it’s not clear why I thought there was the possibility of a shoot-out). I was completely exhausted and intolerably thirsty. The tall Asian transsexual who was doing somebody’s nails, kept looking over at me, a half-smile alternating on her pretty face with curiosity. I prayed she wouldn’t say anything to me.

The police never came, so eventually I went outside. I still wanted to go to the emergency room, but maybe now I could do it without police involvement, I thought. I convinced a kindly Filipino security guard that I was having a medical crisis, and he lent me his cell-phone so that I could call 911.

He had, ironically, a blue-tooth headset, my first exposure to one despite my recent over-immersion in technology, and it took me a while to get it to work for me. But I couldn’t get through to 911 – I was kept on hold for even longer than the kid across the street had been. I knew Ben would be worried. It seemed impossible, but it had only been thirty minutes since I had left the Renaissance after failing to get a taxi there.

I finally gave up on getting through to 911, but I didn’t know who else to call. I didn’t want Ben to know what had happened – at least not yet. But Ben’s cell-phone number was the only number I knew by heart, and neither of my therapists had listed phone numbers, so finally I had no alternative but to call Ben. He was frantic. He’d been calling and calling, getting my voicemail. I told him my cell-phone was dead, and asked him not to ask me any questions; just come and pick me up.

At last I could let the tension breathe out of me. I thanked the security guard for the use of his phone and asked him if he could please find me some water. He looked at me dubiously, so I started to pull off my $300 belt to offer in exchange for a bottle of water. He relented and got me a bottle of water, declining the belt.

When Ben picked me up, I had to figure out how to explain to him everything that had happened that day (because, you see, this headlong rush through Hollywood was only the climax of an astonishing day.) I knew it wasn’t the right time to tell him anything about what had preceded his tearful call from our counselor’s office less than an hour earlier. Nonetheless, my mind was still racing, and there was the manic temptation to explain myself fully. I kept holding onto the fact that I couldn’t possibly tell him everything without scaring him; I had to simplify things. I kept saying to myself ‘breathe’, as a mantra to remind myself, through the haze of explanations yearning to be spoken, not to be driven to make Ben understand everything. I wrote ‘breathe’ on a scrap of paper as we drove home, because I didn’t trust myself. And once I got home, I wrote it out again, on more scraps of paper, so I’d see it everywhere.

Later that night, as I got ready to take a shower, I looked at the scrap of paper on the sink with the word ‘breathe’ written on it. I suddenly had the image of Ben finding it, picking it up, and thinking it was another indication that I was not entirely in my right mind. We had a decorative bowl in the living-room full of pebbles of green glass bought from Pottery Barn. So after my shower, I grabbed a few green pebbles, and left them in inconspicuous places replacing the pieces of paper. Now I knew that every time I’d see one of those pebbles, it would remind me of ‘breathe’, and I’d stop trying to put into words what was going on in my racing mind.

But would I still remember ‘breathe’ in the morning? I surreptitiously stuffed a pebble underneath the sheet on my side of the bed, knowing that whenever I woke up, the physical discomfort would reconnect me to ‘breathe’.

The next morning, things returned to a surprising degree of normality between us. We were both anxious about what had happened; but also eager to please each other. I felt sure that I’d never again let worry for Ben drive me to the edge of insanity. I also knew that it was going to take a lot of dialogue before he could fully understand what had happened the previous day. I had no idea there were even worse days to come; that the first, as yet undiagnosed, manic episode of my life hadn’t wrought, by any means, all the damage it held in store.

Keith Adams perennially wonders how an abnormally tall, working-class boy from the North Sea coast of England ended up in a house in Hollywood with two dogs, and his partner, a leading medical research scientist at UCLA. Although he writes for a living (computer code), he always hoped to do “real writing”, from experience. That opportunity came from being diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2006, after a serious brush with insanity. At one point, he seriously believed he would be a combination gay superstar / epochal intellectual / latter day Messiah. Quite obviously, he became none of those things, but he did survive the inevitable crash to tell the tale, thanks to the support of friends and family.

His book, “Broken Whole: a California tale of Craziness, Creativity and Chaos”, a raw but entertaining memoir of mania, is available in e-book form from Chipmunka Publishing (paperback due later in 2010). Read additional extracts, and more about the author, at his website.