Have you stopped making new friends?

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By Denise Turney

It takes courage to really “grow up”. To grow up,  you must take on new responsibilities, start eating the fruit of your decisions. It’s how you learn and evolve.

Depending on decisions you’ve made thus far, it may also mean taking care of and guiding your children. That’s not all. By the time you reach your mid-30s, there’s a chance that you’ve taken on a mortgage, not to mention having health insurance premiums, household expenses and an auto loan to pay for. ge to really “grow up”. To grow up,  you must take on new responsibilities, start eating the fruit of your decisions. It’s how you learn and evolve.

No matter how old you get, you need good friends

Life fills up fast after you become an adult, and not always with responsibilities that you want. To meet those responsibilities, you might find yourself dealing with stress and anxiety. Work a typical middle or senior management job and you might have the added burden of finding time to catch up with family, not to mention friends.

If you’re not careful, years could pass before you realize that you haven’t made a single new friend since high school or college. After a decade or more of living this way, greeting someone new might feel as awkward as going out on a date for the first time in 10 years.

What won’t change is your hunger for friendships, the kind you write or call home about. Humans are social creatures. We love to connect with each other, engage in rich conversation, to simply be in the presence of people we trust, people we know love us. It’s these types of relationships that make facing challenges in this world easier. It’s also friendships that make personal achievements and celebrations worthwhile.

As one woman shares with Redbook when discussing her desire for rich, female friendships, “I miss that female connection.” She continues “Just being with my family doesn’t make me feel 100-percent complete.”

If you’re nervous about making new friends, start small. Say hello to the first person who steps on the elevator at work or the doctor’s office with you. Keep doing this until you start to feel comfortable striking up conversations with people you haven’t met before.

Join networking groups. For example, if you are passionate about arts and crafts, you could join an arts group and get together with other art lovers once a week to chat about your latest projects and to share laughs. You could also meet your next best friend while posting to a social media network or while responding to someone who leaves a comment at your blog.

The important thing is to get out there. Start letting new people discover the wonder that is you. Be open to starting and developing new friendships. You’ll be glad you did. It’s what keeps Love Pour Over Me’s Raymond Clarke going, even during the hardest times in his life.

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Getting ready to move to a big city the right way

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By Denise Turney
Moving to a big city can be intimidating, especially if you’ve never lived away from home and you grew up in a small town. The pace of big city life is faster.

On the other hand, small towns generally don’t attract as many big name entertainers, sporting events, corporations that pay competitive wages, retail stores and more. Small towns also generally aren’t on the cutting edge of fashion, finances and technology the way that larger towns are. It’s easy to get bored living in a small town.

Big city living brings big changes

However, it’s not all glitter and gold when you move to a big city. Traffic is congested on a daily basis. People living in the city may not be as patient as the people who lived in your neighborhood back home. If you already have furniture, that’s good. That one thing can save you hundreds of dollars, more if you bought your furniture from a store where you cut a special deal with the store’s owner.

Rent an apartment in a big city and don’t be surprised to pay $900 or more a month. This could be culture shock, especially if you come from a town where the average rent is $600 or less a month. For example, MSN Money reports that, “Living in a studio downtown with electricity, gas for the apartment, Internet, cable and a train card, I was already at $2,500 every month.”

Groceries and clothes are also higher in big cities. Move to a big city that has limited parking, and you should expect to spend $100 or more a month for private parking. That means you’ll pay to park your car in an apartment or private garage when you’re at home. It also means that you’ll have to pay to park when you go to work unless your employer covers those costs for you.

What you probably won’t have to deal with is boredom, especially if you make friends easily and have an outgoing personality. That doesn’t mean you’re chatty or talk all the time. It means you’re someone who enjoys communicating with other people. In a big city, you can take your love for communicating with people to check out live plays, go to major sporting competitions and use your natural talents to perform before live audiences at city parks and other public venues.

Talk to people who are already living in the city you’re contemplating moving to. Ask them about the ups and downs of living in the city. Be sure to ask about local taxes, street parking and rents and mortgages. You can learn about crime rates online or by reading through newspapers in the city you’re thinking about moving to.

Do your homework before you start packing, even if you’re feeling desperate for a change like Raymond Clarke is in Love Pour Over Me.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in my new book, Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com, or any other online or offline bookseller and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! Consider Love.

You’re a Masterpiece

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By Denise Turney

Even if you don’t realize it now, you’re a masterpiece. You’re one of a kind. The fact that you have a unique set of fingerprints is only one indicator that you’re absolutely distinct. No one can take your place. No one can be you . . . ever.

Life experiences you’ve had might have convinced you that you’re only one of many, a mass produced being. But, you’re not. Depending on specific experiences you had as a child, teen or/and adult, you also might think that your worth is below that of other people or below that of people you admire. Nothing could be further from the truth.

You’ve probably seen people who reminded you of someone else, perhaps yourself. All about you, it’s possible that you’ve seen or experienced things that are propelling you to think that you’re a limited being whose value and existence end (absolutely shut off) at the end of your physical experience. That’s something that might happen each time you look at life through the ego’s eyes.

But, are you ever so much more than you’ve ever imagined. You’re a wonderful masterpiece.

The sooner you get this truth down into your being, the sooner your life will start to change. After all, your behavior is directly impacted by your repetitive thoughts (also referred to as beliefs). Start believing, not just verbally repeating, the truth about yourself, until you reach your core, the part of you where truth resides.  You’ll feel this truth echoed back to you, and what a joy!

But, first you have to start at the beginning. Start accepting the truth (something that never changes) that you’re a masterpiece. Look or watch for changes in your life.  They should appear, as, again, your beliefs impact your behavior. Your beliefs also impact experiences that show up in your life. For example, as humans, we don’t see what we don’t believe at either the conscious or subconscious level. Start believing the truth about yourself (so you can start seeing evidence of it) — you’re remarkable, an absolute masterpiece!

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com, or any other online or offline bookseller and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! Consider Love.

What every writer needs to be successful

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By Denise Turney

ben franklin quote

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You’re right to think that being a new writer’s tough. It’s kind of like being a new high school or college graduate who’s trying to land her first job. Similar to employers, editors and publishers often won’t hire you unless you have the training (or education) and the experience to complete their writing needs. Talk about a Catch-22.

It’s tough, but you have to start somewhere. The good news is that the Internet has made it easier to not only research writing styles and techniques, it has also made it easier to search for writing jobs. However, if you’re just starting out, you’re going to have to start building a writing portfolio.

Editors and publishers will review your portfolio as your writing career advances, taking note of specific types of assignments (i.e. copywriting, technical writing, medical writing) you’ve completed. They’ll also look at the types of clients you’ve written for (i.e. universities, magazines, newspapers, B2B websites).

To start building your writing portfolio, set aside time each day to look for writing jobs. If you decide to take on a few non-paying gigs, make sure you don’t make working for free a habit. After all, there’s no limit to the numbers of clients who’ll let you research, write and edit content for them for free. Hint – these clients will generally tell you that they’ll give you writing exposure and maybe even be nice enough to include your byline with your work (gee, thanks!). Don’t get sucked down this tunnel.

Other steps you can take to start building your writing portfolio include:

  • Applying for junior writer jobs (especially jobs at reputable firms, jobs that provide sufficient training to help you get up-to-speed)
  • Staying open to taking on a variety of writing assignments (this step alone could open you up to dozens of writing gigs)
  • Enrolling in online or offline courses (there are plenty of free writing courses) to develop your technical writing, medical writing, copywriting, novel writing, editing, etc. skills
  • Creating writing job alerts at websites like Indeed, CareerBuilder and Monster
  • Visiting job boards like Morning Coffee, Freelance Writing Jobs, Blogging Pro, Journalism Jobs, Online Writing Jobs, Media Bistro, Mandy, etc. every day
  • Keeping a spreadsheet to list each writing job you apply for, including specific jobs you gain
  • Storing copies of writing assignments you’ve completed on your computer or a removable disks, so you can easily use these past assignments as writing samples when applying for new jobs (If clients ask you to create brand new writing samples for this, be careful. Some people use writing samples to build a database of free content.)
  • Designing an effective cover letter
  • Adding training, certifications, etc. data to build out your writer resume
  • Reaching out to businesses, asking if you can write content for them
  • Checking company career boards for jobs you could apply for
  • Following up on jobs you’ve already applied for
  • Building your confidence, especially if you notice that you’re only applying for no-paying or low-paying jobs

At first glance, landing paying writing gigs might look darn near impossible. Commit to your goal of being a published writer. Start taking effective steps to build a respectable portfolio, a portfolio editors and publishers can’t possible ignore.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com, or any other online or offline bookseller and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! Consider Love.

Successful novelists wear multiple hats

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By Denise Turney

For many novelists the days of only writing great stories is over. Not only do novelists work hard to get their manuscripts in front of literary agents and publishing house editors, they also have to market their novels to readers. It makes the process of creating spellbinding books harder and harder.

Challenges today’s fiction writers face

Let novelists work full-time from home and they might also write non-fiction content for business clients. Types of content they might develop include press releases, blog posts, product descriptions, white papers, case studies, radio and television ads and magazine articles. During slow book sale months, it’s not surprising to see novelists spend more time creating non-fiction content than they do working on a new novel chapter.

As Suzannah Freeman shares at Writer Unboxed, novelists also juggle families. Suzannah says, “But, just because I’m ‘staying-at-home’ doesn’t mean I don’t work. In addition to all my normal mommy duties, I run a blog and regularly write for other blogs, write short fiction (some published) and novels (not published yet), and dabble in freelancing.” Pat Rice shares at Novelists Inc., “Stop the Promo, I want to get off!”

Another novelist says, “And in this whirlwind of busy-ness, while I am damn thankful to have two fine, well-respected editors requesting me to write these two Amish series…I really wonder sometimes if I’ll just STOP one day.”

To keep pushing forward, creating page turners, and generate enough money to pay the bills, novelists can work part-time jobs. They could also work marketing jobs, something that gives them sharper skills to advance their writing careers. Selling ads on their websites or blogs and interviewing book industry specialists for a fee are other ways novelists can start generating enough money to keep the hawk away from the door without totally abandoning their artistic passions.

So they don’t get off track and stop writing novels altogether, novelists should develop a schedule and stick to it. For example, they could write on a new novel chapter early in the mornings, before they start tackling other work, or they could knock out novel writing at night. One day a weekend, novelists can write for three or more hours on a new book. If they stick to their schedule, they should be able to write a new novel once a year.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com, or any other online or offline bookseller and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! Consider Love.

Sources:

http://writerunboxed.com/2012/01/08/8-busy-moms-who-published-novels/

http://www.ninc.com/blog/index.php/archives/2-busy-2-write

Great Ohio athletes and coaches

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By Denise Turney
Ohio is one of the larger populated states in America. Known as the Buckeye State, Ohio is home to more than 11 million people. People born and/or raised in Ohio know that outside of Cleveland and Cincinnati, many cities in the state are small. Surprisingly, these small towns have produced some of the country’s and world’s greatest athletes.

Ohio is home to some of the world’s best athletes

Chief amongst Ohio’s great athletes, people who went to the top of their sport on a global scale, are Dayton’s Edwin Moses and Akron’s LeBron James. Edwin earned top honors in track and field for the 400 meter hurdles. He won gold medals in the 1976 and 1984 Olympics. Edwin also ran his way to a remarkable 107 consecutive finals. You’ll be hard pressed to find another athlete in any other sport who’s won more than 100 competitions in a row!

LeBron James started out with the Cleveland Cavaliers then went to play for the Miami
Heat. As an active athlete, LeBron James has won two NBA championships (both win the Miami Heat) so far. He has won four NBA MVP titles. Lebron James has also won an Olympic gold medal. The way he’s been playing, there are more to come: both for MVP titles and Olympic medals. LeBron’s star continues to rise. It remains to be seen how far this athletic phenom will go.

Jesse Owens was born on September 12, 1913 in Oakville, Alabama. However, Jesse Owens would later claim Ohio as his home. This track and field phenom’s nickname was the “Buckeye Bullet.” It was at the 1936 Olympics that Jesse Owens won an impressive four gold medals (100 meters, 200 meters, long jump and 4 by 100 meter relay). Carl Lewis is the only other men’s track and field athlete who has medaled in sprints and a field event.

Cleveland, Ohio native, Madeline Manning, won an Olympic gold medal in 1968. She is the first woman to break the two minute barrier in the 800 meters. Four years after winning the gold medal, Madeline returned to the 1972 Olympics and took home the silver medal.
Other great Ohio athletes include Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, another Ohioan who grew up in a small town. Born in Lima, Ohio, Ben Roethlisberger has led the Steelers to two Super Bowl Championships. He’s also led the Steelers to three AFC Championships and played in two NFL Pro Bowls.

  • Former Pittsburgh Steelers coach, Chuck Noll, is also from Ohio, namely Cleveland. Coach Chuck Noll guided the Pittsburgh Steelers to four Super Bowl Championships.
  • NFL analyst and former NFL wide receiver, Cris Carter, was born in Middleton, Ohio.
  • Archie Griffin, Ohio State University running back and winner of two Heisman trophies, was born in Columbus, Ohio.
  • Baseball great, Pete Rose, earned National League MVP in 1973. He went on to win a World Series two years later in 1975. Not only was Pete Rose born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he also played baseball for the Cincinnati Reds.
  • Mike Schmidt is another MLB great who’s from Ohio. Born in Dayton, Ohio, Mike was a phenom for the Philadelphia Phillies. He was a monster at third base!
  • John Havlicek, born in Lansing, Ohio, led the Boston Celtics to eight NBA titles. He was elected to the NBA all-star team an impressive 13 times.
  • Don Shula is another winning coach from Ohio. Born in Plainesville, Ohio, Don Shula led the Miami Dolphins to the winningest season in the NFL. He also won two Super Bowl Championships.

Bobby Knight and Woody Hayes are two other great coaches from Ohio. Home for Bobby is Orryville, Ohio. Woody Hayes was born in Clifton, Ohio. These cities are so small, many people have never heard of them. Yet, these men’s passion for basketball (Bobby Knight) and football (Woody Hayes) propelled them to the top. Bobby Knight got his recognition coaching at Indiana University (not to mention his postgame interviews), while Woody Hayes took the Ohio State Buckeyes to 238 wins and 10 championships.

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Sources:

Amazon.com – http://www.amazon.com/Love-Pour-Over-Me-ebook/dp/B007MC0Z2C

Barnes & Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-pour-over-me-denise-turney/1109600654

It’s not a woman’s job to teach a man to love

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By Denise Turney
It’s not a woman’s job to teach a man to love. Just reading the sentence alone might upset some. For years, women have been depicted as the saviors of men, the only people who could open men up to love. This belief caused (still causes) women to pay a heavy price.

For example, some women refuse to leave an abusive man, whether the man abuses her sexually, financially, psychologically or physically. Reasoning behind their refusal to leave may be that their presence helps the men in their lives to learn to love, to open up and accept love, to change and become a better person. Other women may feel that if they leave a man, the man won’t survive or will completely fall off the deep end.

But, if you look closely, you may see an air of arrogance, not to mention insanity, in that thought. To think someone couldn’t survive unless you allowed them to hurt you couldn’t be anything short of insanity. So, why do so many women do it?

Of course, many men don’t look to a woman to make them feel whole, complete, worthwhile. Not every man needs to juggle several women romantically or sexually to feel like he really is a man.

Howbeit, even loving men have lessons they can learn. But, women aren’t always the teachers.

To come to a place where we don’t believe we have to sacrifice anything in order for another person to get a life lesson . . . to wake up, would be a blessing. For some women, achieving this could take years of reconditioning, deprogramming old beliefs we’ve heard passed down through generations of women within and outside our families.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com, or any other online or offline bookseller and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! Consider Love.

Opening to love is a great awakening

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By Denise Turney
Love may never be fully defined. It’s outside the realm of human logic. Those who experience its impact, serving as conduits for love to flow through, generally say the most they can do is feel it. For some, that may come while creating a novel. For others, it might occur while jogging, hiking or white river rafting.

Our painful pasts

Most of us know when we’ve been touched by love. We feel joy, peace and care. We may also feel as if everything is okay. Worry, stress, anxiety and concern melt away in the face of love. Knowing this, it’s a marvel that we don’t pursue love more, every second of the day and night.

Painful past experiences may be a leading reason why more of us don’t pursue, open to love. To truly be open to love, we have to give and receive love. If we’ve been hurt in the past (i.e. relationship breakup, career dream failure or sidestep), we might become convinced that those setbacks will happen every time we go after something we think we lead us to love.

Awakening to a marvelous way of being

If we find success, we might even feel that we’re not worthy of constant (I’m talking never turning off) love. As Raymond Clarke learns in “Love Pour Over Me,” both of these situations are caused by a lack of forgiveness, also known as an unwillingness to release the past.

Releasing people from the past is probably the majority of the work that psychologists do, as most, if not all pain, is rooted to a past event. To get and stay unblocked, forgiveness is absolutely necessary. There’s no way around it. All the singing, dancing, money giving and church going in the world won’t remove the need to forgive.

For Raymond, it’s a lesson that takes years to learn, but later is better than never.

What event from the past still has you? What’s holding you captive? Let love show you how to let it go. It’s time you awakened and advanced.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com, or any other online or offline bookseller and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! 

Why do some people succeed while others don’t?

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By Denise Turney

You probably started noticing it when you were in pre-school or kindergarten. Some people consistently outperform others, and this, without intending to. It just seems to happen. In fact, sometimes no amount of training appears able to help some people succeed.

Education or knowing how to do certain tasks plays a role. Repetition or doing a job until the subconscious mind takes over, making the work seem natural (as if you’d been doing the work all your life) also plays a role.

However, nothing may cause a person to succeed more than self-confidence. Martin Luther is quoted as saying that, “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.”

It takes self-confidence to think you can reach a goal. It takes self-confidence to try a new endeavor, apply for a job, go out on a date, make a new friend, write and publish a novel, etc. The list of things it takes self-confidence to pull off may be endless.

If you’ve struggled with self-confidence since you were a kid, consider setting a small, short-term goal for yourself. Write down resources (i.e. computer, transportation) necessary to achieve the goal. Also, write down the specific steps (i.e. filling out a job application, creating a sample CD, writing the outline for a research paper) you’re going to take to achieve the goal.

As you achieve more goals, you’re self-confidence will build. Trainers use this approach to build a boxer’s confidence, pairing new boxers with opponents they know the boxer can defeat. Before long, a boxer can build enough confidence to step inside the ring with a heavyweight.

By setting and fulfilling small, then larger goals, your self-confidence could also increase. To tell if your confidence is gaining strength, think about how often you try something new, how often you introduce yourself to someone you never met before, how many new experiences you allow into your life each day or week.

The more self-confident you are, the more risks you’ll take and the more enriching experiences you’ll enjoy. Taking on wise risks and leaping into more rewarding experiences could also find you succeeding more, surpassing your biggest goals. As Eleanor Roosevelt shared, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'”

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn how Love Pour Over Me‘s Raymond Clarke builds his confidence (especially his confidence to accept and receive love), hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com, or any other online or offline bookseller and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! Consider Love.

Readers Looking for Great Love Inspired Books

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By Denise Turney
True. The way readers get access to great stories has changed, more readers enjoying digital and audio books then they did a decade ago. What hasn’t changed is the fact that millions of children and adults love books. It’s this passion for entertaining, engrossing and emotionally charged books that find thousands and millions of readers regularly visiting literary websites like Good Reads, the African American Literary Book Club (AALBC), Rawsistaz, Amazon.com book discussions, The Red Room, Library Thing, Shelfari and Book Crossing.

For many people who love books, necessary elements of a great story include suspense, believable characters (even if those characters are placed center stage in a sci-fi novel), thought provoking dialogue and, of course, an intriguing plot. Readers, whether they appreciate and regularly buy love inspired books, mysteries, sci-fi novels, romance or westerns, want to care about characters in stories. They also want to fall in love with an author’s style, some readers preferring the work of authors whose writing flows akin to poetry.

However, perhaps it’s the way talented authors develop characters, dialogue, plot and story scenes that pull readers into the very heart of the stories they’re telling, until readers forget their own surroundings and challenges, that readers appreciate most. Before they know it, readers find themselves trying to figure out how to solve book characters’ problems, challenges that might mirror their own. As readers come up with solutions to challenges characters in books they enjoy face, they (without conscious awareness) gain solutions to their own real-life challenges.

It’s a benefit no one can put a price tag on. Redeeming love book stories change readers’ lives. And it might be because of that benefit that readers continue to seek out remarkable fictional stories. It might be why some readers can’t load their digital and wood bookcases with enough titles. What might be lesser known is that “the chance to change people’s lives in good ways” is a major reason why some authors sit down and create stories people love in the first place.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in my new book, Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com, or any other online or offline bookseller and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! Consider Love. 

Sources:

http://www.writersrelief.com/blog/2012/02/literary-love-stories/ (Writer’s Relief:  The One Thing All Great Love Stories Have In Common—And What It Means To Your Writing)

http://www.examiner.com/article/top-five-african-american-romance-novels (Examiner: Top 5 African American Romance Novels)