Saturday, June 30, 2012

Mission: Impossible: Teach Copy Writing in Eight Minutes

I have been tasked with presenting an eight-minute mini-course on copy writing at the end of July during a networking meeting. Whatever possessed me to say yes?  It's sheer lunacy!

I'm going over a manuscript I wrote several months ago to see what I can pull out of it to use as a quick "tips and tricks" kind of lesson. Naturally, the idea is to show expertise in eight minutes so that people will be interested in hiring me (or referring me to others they know who need a great copywriter). But I have another reason for agreeing to be a featured speaker, too.

Michael McCoy (NuSkin and Empower Network Associate)and I have already been talking about offering a paid writing session re: social media and the Empower Network, so this eight minute intro will segue nicely if we can come up with a date and time not long after the eight-minute session to announce on the 31st. At that time I can actually roll out the entire 24 page document and use it to teach the class... but for right now, I just need to choose some quick talking points. Eight minutes goes by very, very fast...

In Other News....

We're just eight days away from the debut of SETTLE FOR BEST: SATISFY THE WINNER YOU WERE BORN TO BE, my seventh book. My publisher, bless her heart, has been racing against the clock to get the manuscript numbered as a PDF file so we can upload it for the final time. Today she got it to happen but some of the chapters start on the left-hand side of the pages, which is a no-no... so she's back to the drawing board...

When I got the initial galley proofs I noticed that the back cover photo looked yellowed with age and blurry, something the original photo isn't. I asked for some tweaking to see if we could fix that and, if not, if we can swap out the photo for one that doesn't misbehave. But my publisher loves the photo that's on there now (see it below) so we're trying to do what we can to keep it... Pray for success!


On July 16 I'll be able to announce something else that's happening in my life right now, even as I write this, but I have to keep it under my hat until then. I'll be taking pictures of all that's happening right along so you can re-live it vicariously "after the fact" on the 16th ...so stay tuned!

My new "goaties" are doing fine. They used to live in a small pen, so they arrived extremely rotund. After just four weeks they've slimmed down noticeably ; Curly (who we estimate is about eleven) can run real fast now and no longer acts as arthritic (stiff-legged in the rear) as he did. The exercise he gets in the larger pasture seems to be doing him a world of good.

Laverne now has three goats to boss around, so Shirley has some leisure time that she hasn't enjoyed before. She's also pretty bossy with the smaller boys--but the boys don't seem to mind all that much--they follow along like puppies wherever Laverne and Shirley go and just make sure they MOVE OUT whenever either of the "boss ladies" give them the bum's rush.

Our hens are about two months away from laying their first eggs, we estimate. They're practically pets, too: we let them out of their hen pen and they follow us around like imprinted ducklings... It's pretty funny.  We have three Rhode Island Reds and three Black Sex Links (a cross between a Rhode Island Red and something else...)

What else? I'm delighted that the Affordable Care Act was upheld by the Supreme Court. Hallelujah!  I pray that this bodes well for President Obama's re-election in November... We're pulling out of the rut as a nation. We're aren't out yet,  but we're getting there. Obama is headed in the right direction and is picking up speed. 

I say let's actually follow the leader for once and see what he can do for us in the next four years without being hamstrung by naysayers.  I hope the Tea Party-hamstrung GOP is soundly defeated in November so they wake up and smell the coffee and we can get on the same page in D.C. for the first time in decades to get something done for the American people.  The present quagmire is totally unacceptable.

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