Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Living Life: "Golden" by Jill Scott

You're never too old to dream. And most importantly, you are never too old to pursue your dreams. Unlike a wish or a hope, a dream is meant to be pursued.  Sometimes you run it down with dogged determination. Other times, you chip away gradually with each strike of your chisel bringing you one inch closer to your prize.  As you know, I am plugging away making a few of my dreams materialize.  Soon I will be a published author.....

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: Therese and I have signed a contract with a publisher for our Author Marketing 101 Guide & Journal. We've been blogging for a year and presenting on marketing for almost three years and talking about marketing for almost four years.  So to say that our publishing contract was a quick turn of events is a little misleading.  The AWESOME thing is that because of all this talking, presenting, and blogging, we were more than prepared with material when the contract came our way.  In fact, we were able to produce our first draft in less than two weeks.

Why so fast?  Well, we wanted to clear our minds and our plates for the Summer In Words Writing Conference produced by our dear friend Jessica Morrell. It was held at the Hallmark Inn Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast.  During this FABULOUS writer's retreat I:

  • Learned new ways to see simple objects and pack more punch into my sentences from Monica Drake
  • Gained new insights on titles, high concept writing, and how to flesh out my secondary characters from Jessica Morrell.
  • Laughed at the adventures, antics, and stories of Jonathan Evison. <BTW, it is VERY appropriate for him to depict his book covers as beer bottle labels on his website! LOL!>
  • Was inspired to learn new things about others and about myself by Kelly Williams Brown, who just returned to Oregon from New York after a Today Show interview.

With regards to making dreams come true....We met the ever wonderful Kari Luna who is busy telling everyone about her debut novel: The Theory of Everything.  Ms. Luna is such a plucky duck, she convinced MTV (yes that MTV) to plug her book trailer!!  (I mean really, how cool is that??)  It was a long, hard battle for Ms. Luna to get this book published and out the door.  It was particularly tough, because her YA story features a hallucinating heroine with a panda shaman named Walt.  I was able to buy an advanced copy and had the honor of being the recipient of Ms. Luna's first autograph!

The past few weeks have been completely and utterly AMAZING, but somehow I know that the best is yet to come....  :D

"Golden" by Jill Scott

I love Jill Scott and there has been many a time when this song has helped me through a rough patch or celebrate an accomplishment.  "Golden" speaks to the joy of celebrating your freedom to be and do whatever fulfills you as a person.  Smiling faces, warm sunshine, calming ocean waves, and the simple joy of waving to friends and family of all ages are all images Ms. Scott uses.  The soulful backup vocals herald the refrain, literally 'taking us to church' on how beautiful life can be if we believe in the possibilities and pursue our dreams.  Jill Scott is beautiful and "Golden" has become one of a handful of theme songs for me.

"I'm living my life like it's golden, Living my life like it's golden..."


Me with Kari Luna.  Strips are clearly the new hotness!  Buy her book , The Theory of Everything here or here or here,  available July 11th!