It’s hard to ignore when a Twitter user tweets about the latest edition of “[Your expert topic] Daily” and mentions you in the tweet because one of your tweets appears in the latest edition. While every Twitter user loves a mention, these feel phony. A Twitter paper — often automatically generated using a service like … Read more
Twitter chats entrenched me in conversations without losing track of the topic and reading everyone’s lips like a tennis match gone wrong. I understood every single person in the chat. I turned into the listener I’ve always wanted to be: focused and catching every word. At the peak of my joining Twitter chats, I spent … Read more
Ah, Monday can’t catch a break. Celebricat Garfield hates Mondays and lets us know how he feels about them every chance he gets. (“Garfield Monday” has over two million results in Google search.) Change Monday’s name and the new name would have the same problem. Remember Shakespeare’s ol’ rose by another name would smell as … Read more
As expected with the start of a new year, publications flood the market with articles on goal setting, planning, reviewing. As a person who likes to think medium (as opposed to big), I struggle with figuring out what I need to do to ensure a more successful year. Many successful people create loads of products, … Read more
As a writer, one of my goals for this year was to use more stories and real-life examples in articles. The challenging part was coming up with a story or example that tied in with the rest of the article. One of the pros at this is Michael Katz of Blue Penguin Development and I’ve … Read more
As a kid … I’ve been on both sides of the special needs parenting relationship. Well, I don’t think I was a special needs kid, but I do have a unique challenge because I’ve been deaf since birth. My parents always told my teachers to treat me like any other kid with one exception: make … Read more
Candace Leigh Coulombe is the author of Second Grace: stories of fresh starts, second chances, and also running away and Mercy Seat: a novella of love, loss, redemption, and hagiography. Second Grace won the Compilations/Anthologies category of the 2010 Beach Book Festival and an Honorable Mention in the 2010 San Francisco Book Festival, and an … Read more
I smiled when I read Daphne Gray-Grant’s October 5 issue of Power Writing. (I recommend the newsletter especially for writers.) She wrote, “Finally, one important P.S. I’m no longer a member of a book club because I dislike being told what to read — especially when there’s a deadline. If a book club works for … Read more
OK, whoever thought of the term “small talk” must be one of those master communicators. For many of us, small talk is a big and stressful undertaking. I admit it. I have a few boring, overused questions (Where are you from? What do you do?) in my small talk arsenal. I do have a couple … Read more