I would love some help. We started a conversation but I must have missed your last email. Just email me at bozisawriterscat@yahoo.com (my tyler email is being funky) and we can pick up the thread.

I have to say your offer is stellar and so are you!

I am easy to work with so no worries there. I will throw out ideas so you get a sense of things but will bow to your artistic sense and skills. Right now it’s ljtyler.com with little else. In fact the blog I have (http://www.thepointofthequill.com) looked more like a website than my website! until I messed around with it and took out the logo, changed themes, etc. Will go back when there is time.

Thank you so very much.

Follow up to above post
Here are fifty sites similar to Google Groups. The first page sounds great: http://www.similarsitesearch.com/alternatives-to/googlegroups.com

Anyone familiar with weebly? Think they would have more of a robust system than wix, say, for free alternatives.

Let me know if any sound of interest to you and I will dig further.

I am posting the viral book video in the forums for anyone interested.

Ann:
I believe that plugin is buddy press and there are two specific web themes that play well with it.

Also, I think the Google Community, with private and public settings, is a great idea underlying what you said that it will broadcast the group’s presence for anyone else interested.

Hope that helps!

I commend you on all of your work, James and everyone else. I don’t know, as I was gone, if this is an off-shoot of another collaboration effort suggested a week ago or if it is already set in stone. Please let me know. If set in stone,

I would love to help on the ancillary side. Anything that you need, beta reader, marketing and social automation tools. Shout and I’ll search it out. Just need to know where this started and if the group is closed already.
Wow, talk about working fast.

“Nevermind” the above, Up to speed, No sleep, no coffee,,,ya’ know.

James, I floated your way with a great marketing video for children that I also will share with Sunny. It went viral but is not appropriate for this thread. Just keep an eye out for it, ok?
Great job to all project planners.

I loved this story, Ebony.

You laid down the setting wih the tools of her craft:

Fabric. Lots and lots of fabric. Her home was a warehouse for spools of thread and braids of yarn, piles of wool and heaps of silk. Buttons, stick pins, and frilly ribbons were strewn across her dresser. Measuring sticks and measuring tapes of various lengths lay splayed across the floor. She was a seamstress, but people called her a miracle worker. Her sewing machine produced clothing that was nothing less than art — priceless art

It reminded me a great deal of “The Things They Carried”. I think items can help in setting, and you did this very well.

Still on the first paragraph, you also tied in the entire story, a lost art in tody’s writing, with the last line quoted above. That’s the storyteller’s art. You’ve got it!

Your characterization throughout the story is fantastic. Just an example:

The seamstress watched them like an owl — silent and wise — watches the night. “Your daughter will be okay. She is okay. She will always be loved because she is love. She is all of this that you feel right now and much more.”

The only thing I can find to help the story more from a reader’s perspective, is that some readers may wish to have some facial features defined to round out the character (how she walked, etc.) of this woman when Amanda and her mother come to visit her. This is only if you wish to use her story in a larger setting (which I highly encourage).

I think the fire brought us from third person into a closer “knit” setting. Combined with the items she worked with and how they affected the people she interacted with, the setting was intimate.

As a stand-alone piece, I felt just fine picturing her with what you gave us here; ie, with her acts of love, mending fabrics and relationships. I have no trouble picturing her.

Fantastic story and I look forward to more!

Mirel,

I am so glad to make a connection to you. You reflect back to m the reasons for writing and sharing: “Because it makes me happy and I believe” that’s what I was born to do. I love how one sentence you open up to us and another you reflect your reader. It’s like a mirror you turn on yourself and then flip over to show your reader something about them. That’s what stories are for and you have it down!

So great to meet you and I look forward to further talks as well as connecting on Skywriters!

Lee

P.S. I’m a Joe Bunting groupie, too!

That’s a hard one for me as well, Stephanie. I have no problem connecting and interviewing people. I just read a book by an author and have emailed her to set up a time for our interview on my blog.
I’ve talked to Ebony in this course to share blog posts.
But I don’t know about “calling” someone a writer behind me. That’s tough.
Thanks for the shout-out on this. I agree.

I was just thinking that something to bring us all together on the edges of the course would be a great idea. Great job, Sunny! I would love to participate in any upcoming chats!

You bring us into some incredibly different viewpoints in life. That is the power of story and you do a fine job. In the midst of dialogue, with incredible characters, you come to truths in life that stay with me:

Pride and laziness can kill a soul. Maybe that’s why yuppies hate street kids and street kids hate yuppies. Both suffer from the same disease, but dress it up differently. We do our best to hide it, make it look pretty, but when we can see the same disease in someone else, we get scared

Your writing is powerful. The dialogue sets the tone, setting, characterization…all with a few lines. That is gold.

Thanks for this. I really enjoyed it and loved the truths I fell over as I read it!

Ditto! I got sick from the shots, Ebony. Let me catch up on the course and then we’ll continue our convo in next few days. Thanks!

Sunny, let me know if you need anything. Anything at all!

Hi James!

I love that idea! We can collaborate together throughout the entire production to publication. We would need to find a good developmental editor, preferably someone who has worked with anthologies and understands the structure of each piece to the whole.

I only have concerned on timing when you mention before this course is through. I have been given a gift to work with Jon Morrow, which is intense and have several other projects in the works. I would want to give it my full attention. I know of a lot of tools for collaboration that are free that would help greatly in bringing us all closer to the 10 meter mark. 😉

What a fantastic idea, James!

Angie,

I thought you sounded very natural and authoritative; relaxed and wanting to help your readers understand the points (re: only seconds to make an impression). Nothing detracted from your subject. I would have loved to seen your lovely face. 🙂

Does my first exercise count for being totally vulnerable? I didn’t even proofread it. Wrote it in evernote, of all places. It was “now or never” and except for a few edits, when I transferred it over to Word, I just did it.

Margie, there is a hangout that Book Marketing Tools is putting on Tuesday 1pm Eastern. One of the panelists, Tim Grahl, talks about exactly what you did, selling your book with your book. I can’t wait to head over and take a look at your piece. Sales of your book are comment enough, aren’t they? ;p

Great job everyone.

Hi Kate,

I haven’t been able to get over to say “hi” but I wanted to let you know that you are not alone. I am glad your friend made it through, in no small part I’m sure, thanks to you. What a very good friend you are to her.
I lost my mom at the end of October and it still affects me. There was a time where I thought I could write the truth of things, and then, nothing. “Just keep your head up” as they say. I was surprised that it affected the writing kernel, as I call it, so much.
So let’s agree to be awesome butt-kickers for each other, o.k.?

My best to you,
Lee