Sally Ember's Blog, page 132

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuTswm...

I love this! I wish ALL beings could have info wherever they want and need it. In #THISCHANGESEVERYTHING and all Volumes of #THESPANNERSSERIES, they do.

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Published on January 02, 2014 08:09

Opps for Guest Blogging/Posting

Authors/Writers and others are often looking for ways to become more visible, become associated with “better” (and more well-known) bloggers, and reach a new audience. Guest blogging/posting is a great way to do this. Here are some opportunities and ways to find opps that I’ve come across. Check them out! [FYI: I am not endorsing, merely curating others' content, here.]

First, be careful! Your writing, including all comments and blogs you post, comprises a key part of your professional/ personal brand. Anything online is public and stays around forever. Make your visible, online presence the one you want to have. Protect it, use it well, be intentional!

Belinda Summers provides some warnings: “5 Things to Consider Before Guest Blogging.” Belinda “works as a Business Development Consultant for CallboxInc. She helps businesses improve and maximize their marketing campaigns by providing expert advice on lead generation and appointment setting. She provides tips and trainings on telemarketing, email, social media, and other marketing strategies.”

The Word is looking for guest posters/bloggers (400 wds) on the topic of writing. Andre Cruz is the owner of this site.

Ways to find guest blogging opps are laid out well by Rae Hoffman, “(AKA “Sugarrae”) is a veteran in the affiliate marketing space and the CEO of PushFire, a digital marketing agency that provides SEO and PPC management services.”

Mackenzie Fogelsen has “5 Steps to finding the right guest blogging opps,” given with examples and details, a different approach (largely good for nonfiction writers, but easily adapted for fiction authors) from Rae’s to finding guest blogging opps. “Mack is the Founder, CEO, and full-on Evangelist for Mack Web Solutions. She is a Moz Fan and honored to be an Associate. Mack is a firm and passionate believer in user experience and the building of community.”

On my site, since it’s only a few months old, I’ve been the only blogger (although I reblog and link to others’ content regularly). I’ve now finished my first quarter of having my own blog and am ready to open it up to guest bloggers.

Become a follower so you don’t miss the announcement! http://www.sallyember.com

That’s more than enough to get you started! Blog away!

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Published on December 30, 2013 04:01

iBooks, nook, Smashwords and other opps for gifting

Still hoping to use ebook gift cards, give ebooks as gifts, get some more good reads for your own new device (nook or Apple brand compatible)? See below for opportunities!

Of course, I’m wanting you to include This Changes Everything, Volume I of The Spanners Series by me (Sally Ember, Ed.D.), in your gifting/reading plans! Buy links to TCE are below the link in this blog post for the gifting, so come back here or remember the title when you go cruising for ebooks in the sci-fi/ romance/ paranormal/ multiverse/ utopian great fiction sections!

If you start to follow my blog and/or already are a follower, leave a comment with your email address (or send it to me privately after following), I’ll send you a coupon for a FREE download of my ebook from Smashwords, which has all formats of ebooks available right there.

Click below to get to Her Ladyship’s Quest site for a chance to win a $15 nook gift card and an explanation of the iBooks’ gift card process, now available for the first time!

Thanks for being an ebook reader and supporter of indie and ebook authors! Happy New Year!

Her Ladyship’s Quest giveaways and info

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Published on December 29, 2013 04:01

Twitter This and Twitter That: Tips, Tricks, and Basics to Get You Off the Ground and Running

Reblogged from Anmarea Writes:

Twitter. It's reminds me of the Tardis. Only because it's so little on the outside and so HUGE on the inside. And, depending on who's managing the thing, there might be a mad doctor at the helm. Ah, Twitter. It's like a little home away from home.

People don't like Twitter. "It's too hard to say what I want under 140 characters!" They say.

“The Bluestocking Review” gives 3 stars to “This Changes Everything”

This Changes Everything, Volume I, The Spanners Series, has arrived! TCE has received its first “negative” review by someone who did not allow me to read it first and with whom I have no other relationship.

Since some of you aren’t on Facebook (where it is posted), I’ve copied it here in its entirety, mistakes and all.

I do appreciate whenever anyone takes the time to read and review a book of mine, so: Since thanks, Amanda Blankfield-Koseff. Best to you.

Book Review – This Changes Everything

December 24, 2013 at 5:32am

by Sally Ember (Smashwords) ISBN: 9781310232428

Dr Clara Branon is visited by alien holograms one night. Although this is not shocking to her because she has been visited by extra-terrestrials since childhood, this is the first time the beings communicate with her. They call her by her full name and inform her that she is to be their chief communication officer between Earth and the MWC (Many Worlds Collective).

Clara has to appoint a media contact to help her disseminate the information for the next few decades. At the same time, she has to explain to her son and other family members what she has undertaken to do. The book mixes world history and sociology together with extra-terrestrial occurrences. It uses comic relief and shows Clara to be a really eccentric person through the story.

Ember has structured the book into chapters, and chapter interludes. It becomes unclear whether this is a work of fiction or non-fiction at times due to the structure and academic style used in the interludes. There is only a loose plot and no villain as yet, which can make a reader lose interest. Ember has appendices where she lays out the ideas for a series of ten of these books under the banner of The Spanner Series.

You may like this book if you enjoy humorous Sci-Fi such as The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Amanda Blankfield-Koseff

2/5 HERE but she gives it 3 stars on Amazon Reviews!

@Amands5

https://www.facebook.com/notes/the-bluestocking-review/book-review-this-changes-everything/597463646994087

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Published on December 27, 2013 07:15

#Judgmental and Proud of It: Employing #Discernment and #Sagacity

I have had the great, good fortune to become well-educated. Some of it was due to sheer luck: family of origin, excellent school system, native intelligence. The rest came from my own motivation, curiosity, dedication, discipline and hard work. Along the way, many people have been jealous, intimidated, angry or otherwise negative toward me due to their own insecurities, competitiveness and failures. Their favorite epithet to fling at me is judgmental (although they usually spell it incorrectly).

My usual response is to agree with them in one way or another and not to be offended, which usually infuriates them further. Yes, I am judgmental.

I am actually quite discerning. I consider the facts, my own beliefs, experience and values. Then, I make a decision as to the worthiness of someone or something. I do not apologize for forming an opinion. It is my right and actually, my duty, to do so.

Not to form an opinion demonstrates a lack of conviction which can indicate one is lazy, ignorant or dishonest. EVERYONE forms opinions, whether we express them or not.

Having judgment to the point of discernment is both a matter of survival and a condition of maturity. It is important to every aspect of our adult lives that we make informed choices. Otherwise, we are undisciplined, disempowered, sheepish followers with no self-driven understandings of our decisions.

When adolescents fail to learn to make good decisions, we all mourn the horrible consequences of their ill-informed actions (or inactions). Why do we encourage teens to learn to choose and then spend decades castigating adults for being too choosy?

Recently, I got into a disagreement with someone on a website about the way she was administering her “page,” or “event.” She had invited me to participate. I read the rules she had set up, her own guidelines, and then joined. But her rules weren’t being followed. I objected. I pointed out the ways that these rules were being broken, told her I was uncomfortable participating as long as these others were being allowed to continue, and asked her to boot the rule-breakers.

Her response to me was to call me judgmental. She claimed that I was being judgmental by saying that I didn’t want to allow these others to stay on this site. She then threw down the “it’s my site and I’ll do what I want” gauntlet, and continued to refuse to do her admin job. I left the event.

I also warned others against participating by explaining the distressing lack of enforcement she was providing considering the invaders’ tactics. The threats they presented were significant. I believe it would have been irresponsible for me not to speak up about the situation since I knew first-hand what participation could cost new participants, and not everyone would be as alert as I had been to the subtleties of these threats. Newcomers would risk harm to their professional reputations, possible tangential criminal involvement, and, at the very least, they’d be wasting their time.

Some thanked me. Others were silent. Some wondered: Was I being appropriate? Was I not nice?

I know some nice people. They are naturally kind, sweet, easy to get along with, agreeable. I envy and yearn to be more like them, but nice doesn’t come into my personality so easily. When I was younger, I often got labeled cute (mostly because I’m quite short), but not usually nice.

I’m fun, funny, generous (to a fault), honest, reliable, hard-working, loyal and trustworthy (also to a fault) and extremely well-organized. But, nice? Not the first adjective people use to describe me. I’m not mean, either.

But when a person is known for being nice, everyone says that about them first. When a person is known for being smart or excellent at other professional components, as I am, nice does not come first in a string of descriptive words. Picky often does. So do strong, quick, intimidating and brilliant.

What about when some people’s “niceness” turns to malleable, when their spines bend in every direction, metaphorically? I do not trust them. They sway with every strong force around them, having no core of their own. Just as being too choosy has a downside (being intolerant comes to mind), so does being too nice. Was this site administrator being too nice or just unable to be strong enough to enforce rules?

What does it mean to be wise in one’s judgments, to show discernment, to exhibit sagacity? We elect and hire people to sit in judgment for us, literally as judges, and in many other roles in which evaluation is necessary or required. We accept or rebel against their opinions, but we don’t tell them not to form them, do we?

Book reviewers are in another category of people to whom we turn for judgment. Readers rely on reviewers to help us make decisions about what to read and to help us understand better why we like or dislike a book. Authors rely on reviewers to represent our work honestly and fairly to readers.

Reviewers are supposed to employ discernment as well as sagacity, drawing on experience, wide-ranging knowledge, professional awareness of trends and their own preferences. Then, we expect them to express these opinions as objectively as possible. We certainly don’t want them not to form opinions. They must be judgmental to do their jobs.

As an author, I appreciate strong, clear, opinionated reviewers and long for those types of reviews for my work. Give me negative or positive reviews, I am grateful to you for being willing to state your opinions, give your reasons, stand by them: I applaud professional reviewers!

So, the next time you feel moved to label someone judgmental, ask yourself these questions and consider these next steps:

1) are YOU being judgmental right now, and not in a good way, but in an intolerant way? If so, back off until you understand your own feelings and thoughts better. Then, try expressing those with more clarity and focus as well as respect.

2) are you merely disagreeing with this person and trying to shut down the argument by calling names or flinging negative labels? That’s lazy discourse. Get a better vocabulary and stay in the discussion, with integrity, or don’t argue at all.

3) are you actually hiding a more personal agenda (e.g., you dislike this person, you feel guilty for whatever it is they’re calling you out about, you actually agree with them, you are ashamed of your failings, they remind you of your mother or father or some other person who evaluated you unfairly in the past, etc.)? Try to figure out what your internal voice is actually saying and then decide if this is the person you even want to say this to or not. Determine further action after that.

Meanwhile, don’t be ashamed of or try to hide your opinions or judgments. Be honest, but use discernment and sagacity: be kind, be careful, be respectful.

Next, have some courage! Don’t back down if you really believe what you’re saying or writing. Just express it better. Then, when people call you judgmental, say, “Thank you for noticing.”

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Published on December 26, 2013 04:01

“The Bluestocking Review” pans “This Changes Everything”