Month: May 2013

A Room With A View

I am writing in the rain. My computer is exactly eighteen inches from my office window.

Outside, the trellis is heavy with climbing jasmine and trained plumbago. The soft sounds of the falling rain are echoed in the movement of the leaves they pelt.

I am warm and dry, yet somehow a part of the dripping scene in front of me. This landscape has been my food for the day, a rich diet of wet leaves, green vistas, and periwinkle blue flowers.

Writers need to be nourished. We are, after all, artists. To create we must refuel our tanks. To “find our art” as Pablo Picasso famously said, we must be able to draw in, process, and send out a piece of ourselves.

How one does this is entirely dependent on the personality of the individual. We writers are a unique lot — and what refreshes one will exhaust another. I have listed some of my favorite ways to keep the words I am looking for flowing freely. Continue reading “A Room With A View”

Featured Author: Barbara Miller

Barbara Miller, author, motivational speaker, and certified master life coach, is the founder of Barbara & Company International; Inc. Barbara is currently studying Health and Wellness at Ashford University. Her studies also include three years at Kendall College of Art and Design, two years at the International Dermal Institute, and master life coaching certification through American University of NLP. Barbara worked as a professional model, medical esthetician and skin care specialist for several years. She is now a full time writer and public speaker. Barbara inspires women through her books, coaching, lectures, and blog, to access their power, inner beauty and spirit, to take charge of their lives and make a difference. Through her book, You Lost Your Marriage Not Your Life,” Barbara shares her own personal journey through divorce, financial loss and despair, then provides examples to encourage the reader to let go of all self-defeating inner dialog and replace it with peace and joy. The staggering statistics tell us one half of all first marriages are predicted to end in divorce. Second and third marriages have even more sobering statistics and the majority of these will fail. The question is why and what can we do to change these numbers? The author’s gentle and encouraging, yet straight forward approach, teaches that when healing comes to our thoughts, it comes to our life.

Barbara’s just released book, Dancing in Rhythm with the Universe, 10 Steps to Choreographing Your Best Life, is a guide to develop strategies for success in relationships and life. You will learn to walk right through inner fears and fall into perfect alignment with the dance of the Universe.

Barbara’s main goal is to empower women to lead their best life yet by overcoming negative thoughts and habits carried over from childhood. Barbara believes that we have the power within to live life as a winner and not as a victim. She embraces laughter as one of life’s key ingredients to help us through some of our greatest challenges and struggles. Barbara teaches that we all deserve healthy loving relationships and to live our life in happiness and joy, and in order to receive the joy of the future, we must learn to abandon the pain of the past. This, she says, is attainable and can be accomplished by creating balance in our lives mentally, physically, social-emotionally and spiritually.

Barbara resides in Naples, Florida with her husband David. You may contact her at: www.barbaraandcompany.com or www.princessdiaryblog.

Continue reading “Featured Author: Barbara Miller”

Book Description Epic Fail

One of the neat things about Indies Unlimited is that we get to become acquainted with the books of a whole lot of authors.

Not all those books make it onto the site. Sometimes this is because the subject matter is outside our wheelhouse. Other times, it is related to problems with the book. K.S. Brooks wrote a piece that covers a lot of the mistakes we see.

I don’t want to rehash her entire article, but I do want to focus on book descriptions. When I vet books, this is about as far as I ever have to go. Occasionally, I will read the preview of a book only because I can’t believe the book itself could possibly be as bad as the description. In many instances, the book is WAY better than the book description.

That’s too bad, because you really can’t expect a prospective buyer to take that extra step. Writing book descriptions is hard for authors. Kat wrote an article on how to write a book description. That article is chock full of good advice. Read it. Learn it. Live it.

I tend to organize information into categories. Here are a few of the error categories I have found in looking at book descriptions: Continue reading “Book Description Epic Fail”

The Automated Reciprocator

How many times a day do people ask you for advice on how to write or publish or market a book? It can get frustrating and become a time-suck. Can you imagine if you were a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant, or a mechanic? You’d never be giving your time away for free, would you?

Well, here at the Indies Unlimited Laboratories, we’ve come up with the perfect invention for you: the amazing Automated Reciprocator!

This machine is so brilliant, so intuitive, and so easy to use, you’ll wish we invented it years ago – but only after you got published, right?

The directions for use are simple. Before you put it into service, however, you need to make a list of the things you need, or the things you’re willing to barter for. The Automated Reciprocator can’t help you get your due until you perform this initial step. Not sure what you need/want? Here’s a list of most commonly requested items: Continue reading “The Automated Reciprocator”