Key Business Partners, LLC

One of the reasons I enjoy my business so much is I am able to read such wonderful works of art by working with the authors and writers.

My client, Karen Pierce Gonzalez has written a charming ebook about Family Folktales. You may ask, what are they? Well, her book explains them simply and easily. They are stories based on real events however don’t have to be strictly remember to all the details.

Karen’s ebook, Family Folktales, What are yours? took me just about a half hour to read. While reading this ebook, memories started surfacing from when my mom was alive (she passed away when I was 7 years old) and those special times we would spend together.

I was inspired and intrigued by Karen’s claim that I could write a folktales in as little as 15 minutes.

Well, here is the testament to her claim. It took me about 17 minutes and the rewards are so wonderful and fulfilling to have down in writing a memory I can share with my daughter. This memory can be cherished over and over again each time I or anyone else reads about my special “Mommy and Me Time”.
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My Mommy and Me Memory

The house was calm with no crazy noises, screams or arguments between my brother and sister. The TV was on and my mom turned to me as I was sitting on the coach next to me and whispered, “Ok, go get the hair brush and mirror from the bathroom.”

I rushed down the hall , grinning from ear to ear, entering the bathroom to retrieve a light pink glossy hairbrush with matching hand mirror. Each “tool” was tucked in a special place in the bathroom cabinet just for these late night special times with my mom. For a girl of only six years old, to be able to stay up later than my older siblings to spend alone time with my mom was indeed a treat.

I retrieved my special two tools and then stepped up onto the back of the couch. Normally, this action was not allowed however, during this time my sitting up on the back of the couch was accepted. I took a few minutes to prepare myself to find just the right spot for the upcoming delightful task at hand. I would grab the brush and take a sturdy grip on the handle. I began to brush her hair, starting from the left side at the top of her head and making long strokes with the brush. I continued brushing taking care of each stroke. At times, I would come across a spot where the brush stuck making me stop. My mom would turn slightly and look up at me and say, “just give it a little tug, it will be alright.”

And it was like she knew just what to say. I enjoyed taking my time going through the motion of pulling the brush through her brown hair making it softer with each stroke.
When I got done, I would lift up the mirror and hand it to her. She would take it and look into it to see the job I just completed. Each time, she would say, “Oh, thanks for making mommy beautiful again!” I would smile and she would give me a kiss on my cheek.

This was time was special for me because it was our time to be together. Whenever she spoke, her voice was gentle and soothing.
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This is so wonderful to have this special time down on paper and I wouldn’t have probably thought to do it had it not been for Karen’s ebook. By reading her book, it reminded me how important it is to write these memories down. You can add a picture with your story and place it in a special book to give to your loved ones. Next time you go on vacation and there are special moments you capture in pictures, perhaps take 15 (or 17 minutes) to write down those memories associated with the pictures. Create even more long lasting memories.

If you would like to purchase this ebook for yourself, please stop by the Folkheart Press Shop.

Have you ever heard of Blog Carnivals? Perhaps you have heard of them but never taking the time OR found the time how to post your blog posts. Or maybe you didn’t understand how posting to a blog carnival can help you in the promotion or marketing of your book, event or products.

Blog Carnivals—what are they? Well, put simply, they are a list of blog posts under the umbrella of a specific topic or subject.

Blog Carnivals can be used as another method of marketing and promoting your work (books or writing). It allows a way for your showcase your expertise to be seen by new readers and audiences. Yo

You have the opportunity to showcase your blog posts on another site that will be targeted to your subject
of expertise.

How do you get started?

Go to Blog Carnival home page. Tip –> be sure to type in http://www.blogcarnival.com NOT http://www.blogcarnivals.com.

You will first see listed on the home page dome of the most recent blog carnivals (left side) and most popular blog carnivals (right side). You can also see some of the NEW blog carnival (listed in red).

On the left upper hand side you will see the register (sign up link). It is free and only takes about 3 minutes.

Once you register, you can go on the home page and start searching for blog carnivals.

In order to see the variety of blog carnivals available, go to the link at the upper right hand side where it states blog carnival indexso you are able to see the list.

Once at the list page, you are able to sort the list by different categories such as business, hobbies, or writing. There are several thousand blog carnivals and you want to find those which will be a good fit for your target market so using the categories feature is a great place to start to narrow the search.

Next, once you are in a category list such as writers, you are going to want to look for those blog carnivals that are most recent and most active. One of them in this category is Just Write.

What makes a good blog carnival to be a part of:

Let’s use the Just Write blog carnival as the example here. The reasons why it would be a good blog carnival to participate in is 1) It has a great track record. You know this by looking at the “past posts” tab on this page. You can see right away this blog carnival has been around consistently for about 3 years.
2) On each blog carnival edition (here is the March 13th edition) you can see there are several people who are participating.

To submit an article (blog post) to a blog carnival:
You have found a blog carnival you wish to participate in for the next edition. For instance, let’s say you have picked, Just Write blog carnival. Once on this page, you would click on the orange “submit this carnival button” on the upper right hand side. You will see the submit form where you will place in the url of the page link for the post you want to submit. Then hit enter and then you would place in your name (sometimes this get populated on you put in the url). Enter your email address–> This allows you to receive the notifications of the blog carnival posting. Some carnivals have category areas and you will wish to place your posting in the most relative category.
You are ready to submit!

5 Tips to Success with Blog Carnivals

1) Use the search and categories feature at the top of the home page to save time.
2) Research the most recent and most popular blog carnivals.
3) Remember your target market when posting to the blog carnivals.
4) If there are categories in the specific blog carnival, take the time to place your posting in the appropriate area.
5) Once you receive notification of the blog carnival, be sure to go and become active by commenting on a few other participant blogs.

Looking for another place to share your work, get more connections and gain more support. I would like to recommend an organization called eWomen Network.

I would like to tell you a bit of my experience with them. My friend Zizah told me about this organization and said the ladies in the group were so supportive and really care about each other.

Now, I have to tell you I did have my reservations about joining a local network.

Other networks I had taken the time to check out were disappointed. Most of the people were too pushy and I didn’t wish to be placed in the situation where people were only there to sell me something. (Now, as we all know we are in business to receive business, HOWEVER, networking is all about BUILDING relationships not selling).

When I went to the first meeting for eWomen, it was held at a bank in Tampa with only 12 other women. This meeting was called a “Round Table”. At first, I saw the normal snacks laid out on a table and the infamous circle.

Beforehand, Zizah informed me (more like insisted) to bring business cards—-well, I am not one to start flashing my business cards as soon as I meet someone either. I really like to get to know the person first and then if they inquire, I give them a card. However, because she insisted, I placed about 10 in my purse…just in case.

I have to tell you….it was NOTHING like I expected. First of all, the way the introductions are done very collaboratively and people come to you asking for your business card, if they have someone they can introduce/refer you to OR they are interested in your services/products.

I ran out of business cards. Now, like I said before, I didn’t bring many to begin with, however, I was giving my cards out because the other ladies were genuinely interested in my services OR they knew someone else who could possibly use my services.

And here is the bonus….the next day I had five ladies calling me to find out about me, my services, my business and how they could help me!

For me, I was convinced and became a member because to me eWomen Network recognized the right way to do networking. Give first and you will receive back in time.

Sometimes sooner than you think. For me, I received my return on investment within 2 months of signing up as a member and continue to make lasting relationships, create joint ventures and gain new clients each month.

For more information about eWomen Network

If you are a member of eWomen Network, please come and comment to let us know what you like about the organization.
Also, it gives us a way to connect.

If you are on Twitter, you can find me at Teresa on Twitter

It has continued like this every month I have been a member

I have to tell you I truly love writing. You want to know why…because ideas can come from anything and lead to anywhere.

This post in fact came from another post that I was in the middle of writing.

3 ways to become inspired when you can’t think of what to write next

1) Read something. This is a how this post was in fact created. I was in the middle of another post about Elizabeth Gilbert (yes, the author of Eat, Pray and Love) and I thought…”I could do a post about ways to create and write when you can’t find something to write.” Boom, here is a new post. Another way I find that helps is reading books, magazines, articles, blog posts. Read, read, read. For me, reading helps me write.

2) Block Interference. One element can creep in and stop us dead in our tracks. FEAR. Too many times we can allow it to control our actions. If you can just keep pushing through it and write even when you think the idea is a bad one…keep writing. While you are in the midst of writing you may find another path to take your writing.

3) Take a break. At times you can become so focused on the fact you can’t write, your energy gets drained. By taking a break and doing something else for a little while (perhaps taking a walk OR listening to music) a subject will come to mind to bring back your focus and enjoyment in writing. Changing your surroundings or environment can lead to new ideas and possibly your next written page.

4) Play a New Tape. This kind of goes along with #3 with an added kick. When you do get stuck and can’t think of where the next chapter is going to come in or how you want the book cover to look like, play a new tape. Take a few minutes and put yourself in the place where you feel you are confident with the ideas coming up for the book. When you stay focused on the negative or lack of something, you are not allowing for the positive or possibilities to be shown to you. By creating a new tape where you do know the subject of the next chapter or the layout of the book cover, ideas start surfacing.

5) Ask for help For writers (for anyone) this can be a challenge because you don’t want people to know you are struggling. You have to know though, there are many others who have gone through it at one time or another. So ask your questions to others and seek out the suggestions and ideas of others. Sometimes the idea may be simple, but will be the one thing you need to get back to writing.

Inspiration can come from so many places; music, conversations, pictures, drawings, poetry or reading. Don’t give up and keep going.

Do you have strategies or methods you use to jumpstart your writing when you have stopped or need more inspiration? Please join in the discussion and share with us your ideas, suggestions and opinions.

Today begins a new month of 2009. Even though I did not do it deliberately, today was the day I started writing. My first task was to write about a memory of my mom. I had made a time limit of just 15 minutes because I felt it would work for me.

I feel really good I started completing a beginning of a goal I made at the beginning of the year. Another thing I did that helped me get started writing, was I talked to friends about what I thought I was interested in writing about and they gave me ideas of how to get started. My bigger goal is to complete my first book by the end of 2009.

One of my friends, Karen Pierce Gonzalez, wrote a book called, Folktales: What are yours? and after I read it I realized all writing doesn’t have to be a novel. I mean, I knew that but when I thought about writing, I keep thinking about the whole process and not just taking it a step at a time.

Another lovely lady, Lynn Serafinn, wrote a book titled, Garden of the Soul. In reading her book, I was reminded about the creative process of writing and coming back to my self and knowing that if I want to write, I should write. Not to focus on the fear, but celebrate the possibilities. Remember the joy of writing and

One of the reasons I work with authors is because I get the opportunity to read their works and experience their writing style. I enjoy becoming familiar with their journey of writing and I truly enjoy it.

So I hope if you are a writer but haven’t accomplished all your goals you started out at the first of the year, you will realize it isn’t too late. Start a new and realize you can still complete your goals.

Here are a few thoughts:

**When setting goals, you may not start exactly when you first thing, but the important things is all about doing it and taking the time to do it. I have heard from other writers they choose other “requirements” for themselves to make the time for writing. Some of them will set a word count to hit each time they write, some will do all their writing 1 day in a week.

**Know that your initial goal may change as time passes.

**Keep moving forward. Stopping is one of the things that derails goals from being completed.

**If you need help, ask for it. Sometimes, it just helps when you allow others to give you suggestions

Now your turn–are there writing goals you haven’t finished or continued? Share them and we can help each other to complete them.