I didn’t expect to be surprised by motherhood. My little sister was born when I was almost 12. My baby brother followed 3 years later. I was an old pro at changing diapers and cooking dinner with a baby on my hip by the time the baby I was juggling was my own. I knew…
Dear Grandpa, There are two smells that are forever intertwined with my memories of you: fiberglass and butterscotch. You never have liked chocolate, a fact which Grandma and I were always unable to understand. But you loved your Butterscotch cookies and candies. And you were my most faithful “Cookies Express” customer, paying for dozens of…
Dear Grandma, Every spring a few weeks before your birthday, your wooded lawn starts filling with little blossoms we’ve always called “spring beauties”. When we were children, we’d gather the blooms with wild abandon. You’d help us wrap their delicate stems in a moistened paper towel covered with saran wrap to keep them fresh as…
A blogging group is simply a place where bloggers can reap the benefits of a multitude of counselors. Some take the form of support groups, others are focused on mentoring, while some are true mastermind groups. Whether you meet at your local coffee shop, hang out in a Google+ community, or most of your interaction…
The girls had been looking forward to it for weeks. And that’s only because I hadn’t told them sooner. With such exciting plans as these, I tried to keep it from them as long as possible. Because I knew the moment they found out all I’d hear was, “How many days until Anja’s wedding?” Not,…
Each January I read the posts about choosing one word for the year. And each year I think, how could I begin to sum up my hopes for the year in one word? How could I guess what my year will hold? But this year, I kept wondering–what if I were to choose a word this year?…
Whether it’s the coming of a new year, the first signs of spring, or the beginning of the school year, a change in season always makes me want to do some housecleaning—on my blog, that is. The rules of SEO are always changing, and I’m constantly learning more about content creation and optimization. So right…
For the past ten years, the publishing industry has been changing almost as fast as the world of social media. It’s gone from authors asking, “What is a blog?” to publishers demanding, “How big is your blogging platform?” back to authors asking, “Do I have to blog?” And as fast-paced as the industry is, the formula that worked last week or last year may not work tomorrow.
There are no hard and fast answers to the question “Should Authors Blog?” It varies for each author. Every author should be online. But not every author should blog.
There’s no better gift for a book lover than another book to read. But sometimes it’s hard to find something new and different to give to the avid reader. Whether you’re getting a head start on next year’s Christmas shopping, or have a birthday party to attend, hopefully this list will help you find the…
Farmers wives are privy to a lot of little-known secrets of the agricultural industry. We could tell you how much of a man’s self worth is wrapped up in the state of his fields and the color of his tractors (ours are green, except for the Ford that was my husband’s great grandfather’s). We could…
I think every woman should schedule a photoshoot once in a while. It’s too easy for us to believe the lies we tell ourselves about how we look. We take for granted that others are as critical as we are when we look in the mirror. We’ve forgotten how to see ourselves through the mirror…
Dear Weary Blogger, I see you there on the other side of the screen. You’re sitting there staring at a blinking cursor. And when no words come, you go back to checking your stats. You return to Facebook only to see that .0001% of your fan base even saw your last post. You don’t know…
The End.
The End.