Do You Blog Every Day?

It has come to my attention (through reading books on the subject, etc.) that the blogs with the largest readership are the blogs with continuous new content. I've added sidebars with changing info on this and my other web pages (including the ones I manage), but still, the idea of having to write something every day just seems wrong.

It takes blogging out of the realm of the fun and jams it firmly into the domain of work. It turns it into a daily column. Not a work of art, but a work of necessity. And this (most often) without pay, a volunteer position.

How many of us have something interesting to say every single day? And, if we do, how many of us have the chutzpah to post it online, where anybody in the world can read it? If I stopped to think about how many page hits I get, would it make me blog more or less? And does it really matter?

Today's blog is only interesting if you're a blogger, I think. Tomorrow's blog: well, that should be something completely different!

And the winner is~~~

Cheryl, who posted at another blog.

Remember to check the blog post again for more links to Misty's life coaching information, and thank you for entering!

Interview with Misty Taggart ~~~ WIN a Life Coaching Package!

Here's a great opportunity for you to win a $75-value Life Coaching package from Hollywood Screenwriter Misty Taggart. Just put a comment here on the blog or e-mail me at hope _ chastain @ yahoo . com (no spaces) by June 14th, and I'll forward your name on to Misty for the drawing!

Hollywood Screenwriter Takes On Real Life

"I thought my life was over."

Hollywood's Dirty Little Secret

by Misty Taggart

I was living my dream. To be a Hollywood writer was everything I had wanted since I was a very young child. There was never a time in my life when I didn't know absolutely what I wanted to do. And there I was, a member of the WGA, a working Hollywood screenwriter. It was glorious. My life was so exciting! Each day was an adventure full of running to studios, pitching stories, writing and rewriting. Location shoots and lunching with Hollywood insiders.

I was so very fortunate to meet William Hanna of Hanna/Barbera fame. He told me he liked my "drive" ... my passion. It reminded him of his own. Bill quickly became my mentor and very good friend. He believed in me and my talent so much that it was this famous and very generous man who made it possible for me to be one of the first women to ever write for animation. Until then, it had been a closed boys club ... and yet, there I was writing dog dialogue for Scooby Doo in my own office at Hanna/Barbera Productions! How incredible it was to be sitting in the many recording sessions with all the big name voice-over talent.

I was so proud as I watched my talented husband, Joe, appearing on Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and Three's Company. Our friends were all in the business. We were surrounded by lights, cameras and action, all the things I had dreamed of and worked so hard to attain. It was an exciting time in my life. The strange thing was, I thought it would go on forever.

But under all the glamour and the fun, if you are in this industry very long you will find Hollywood's dirty little secret. What is that? Well ... Hollywood will not allow you to grow older! They simply won't allow it! They don't say it ... but it is made very clear. Opportunities to pitch stories stop coming your way. Meetings are difficult, if not impossible to get. It is heartbreaking and irreversible. You are on your way out! It is as though the "Hollywood Powers-That-Be" believe a human brain stops working, in any cognitive fashion, when you near the BIG 50! (A testimony to that thinking can be had by simply watching current TV.) I laugh when I think that just perhaps their skewed thinking has come back to bite them in the behind!

When it was clear that my life as a Hollywood Screenwriter was over, I was truly devastated. I felt my whole life finished. Depression and fears set in--stealing any joy I had left. Hollywood had done a good job on me. I bought all of the lies. And those lies almost killed me.

I was convinced my dream had been stolen. I was too old to ever have other dreams or to truly enjoy my life ever again. Going on living that way, wasn't an option.

But I was so very wrong! God simply had new dreams for me in this season of my life. But I didn't come to this discovery easily. It's taken time and the willingness to work with my own Life Coach. No, she didn't do it for me, but she listened to me ... gave me new ways to look at my life. Things I hadn't thought about in my devastated, crisis state. She asked the hard questions and I found answers. It was an amazing process.

Could it be that I was getting excited about life again? Together, my coach and I made a PLAN OF ACTION that fit me perfectly. I began slowly but surely to move toward a new dream.

My life coach shared her knowledge, giving me many incredible and solid life tools to deal head on with my depression and feelings of worthlessness. My faith became stronger and I was empowered to see the possibilities God was offering to me. And, with her encouragement, I had the desire to reach out and grab them! Wasn't this what Bill Hanna had loved about me? My drive! My enthusiasm? I realized I was the only one who had given up on me. God had done His part, as always .. now it took action on my part.

Would I give up on the rest of my life, brokenhearted over the past? Or would I find new vistas to conquer? I had a choice to make and I chose LIFE! I chose TODAY and all of my tomorrows. I looked at my life and all of the many trials and victories. I longed to share that with other women. To let them know they could achieve their dreams. It all became so clear! I began the study necessary for me to become a Certified Christian Life Coach. With my faithful readers, like you, at Ordinary Woman/Extraordinary God, who had been with me for so long, I began my practice.

Now, I want YOU all to experience the POSSIBILITIES for your lives! Don't give up! The definition of life is CHANGE. Helping other women walk through transitions using what I had been through myself became my passion ... My life is once again filled with excitement and I get up each day with true joy. I look forward to the day.

God had not taken dreams away, but given me new ones.This is why I'm so passionate about Life Coaching. I've been where you are! Let's do this together.
Don't you want a Life Coach who has been in those stuck and dark places ... a coach who knows how it feels to be frozen in place by fear and hopelessness? Give it a 4-week try! You will be amazed at what you will accomplish.
See: http://www.ordinarywoman.com/TASTEYOURNEWLIFE.html For more about Misty's Life Coaching, go to:
http://www.possibilitiesbootcamp.com/

GRAND PRIZE DRAWING!

Misty is making this new 1-month Life Coaching experience available to you for free, if you are the grand prize winner of this blog tour drawing. Did I say free? I meant to say FREE! $75 value. Great opportunity. Don't miss out! Leave your comment here to be entered in this great contest.

And for those of you who don't win, here's another freebie for you:
INTRODUCTING MONDAYS WITH MISTY!Start your week off with inspiration & a coaching tip of the week!

Listen as Misty gives 2 - Live 10-min Laser Coaching Sessions. Each Monday! 10am (Pacific) - 11am (MNT) - Noon (Central) - 1pm (Eastern) To join us on this Free call or to receive a Free Laser Session with Misty on the call CLICK HERE to SEND an Email!
You will receive a return email with the Dial-In number and Access Code! MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
INTERESTED IN MORE INFORMATION ABOUT MISTY? CONTACT HER PUBLICIST, KATHY CARLTON WILLIS, TO ARRANGE AN INTERVIEW OR SPECIAL EVENT.

The Hope Chest: 100,000 Book Challenge for Literacy!

The Hope Chest: 100,000 Book Challenge for Literacy!: Terra Garden

100,000 Book Challenge for Literacy!

Love books? Love a challenge? Love a good cause? Have I got a cause for you! Harlequin Enterprises is teaming with The National Center for Family Literacy to donate up to 100,000 books!

The rules are easy. Just sign up for a community ID (it's free!) at eHarlequin.com and start blogging about the books you read. For those of you who'd rather listen to a book than strain your eyes (or for those who need it), even e-books and books on tape/CD/DVD count. Every book you blog about will count toward the community total. Our aim is 100,000 books this year, since we completely blew away our goal of 10,000 books last year! Every book blogged will equal one book that Harlequin Enterprises will donate to NCFL!

When you blog about a book, don't think of it like one of those old book reports from school. You don't have to do a blow-by-blow description of the plot. Just say a few things you liked about it, mention the names of the main characters, and why you recommend (or don't recommend!) the book. The idea is to make people want to read the book, so please don't give away the ending!

One more thing: since this is promoted by Harlequin Enterprises, they ask that at least 50% of the books you read and blog be one of their lines. However, they have plenty of lines from which to choose, including Worldwide Mysteries, for those of you who wouldn't be caught dead reading a romance!

So, please, come join us, and help stamp out illiteracy! Remember, this is a free challenge. Thanks!

They Believe in Me!!!

I didn't know for certain whether I would qualify for the Romance Writers of America's PRO program, but friends encouraged me to try. Since I had been asked for a synopsis and five chapters, apparently it counted, because this came in the mail this week! I'm so excited! This is one of the nicest things that has happened to me as a writer lately!

Sometimes it can be hard to persevere in the face of rejections, power outages, computer programs that eat our words and misfile our files, people who don't understand us, time constraints, distractions, other things that "have to be done right this minute!", etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum... It's all too easy to get discouraged, to forget why we do this in the first place. When that happens, we have to remind ourselves: we are WRITERS. Writers write. No matter how hard it gets, somehow, there will always be a story out there waiting for us to tell it.

When you feel as though you've written the last paragraph you can possibly ever write, stop and rest a while. Then start again. You are Writer. Write.

I know I will. Thank you, RWA, for your confidence in me!

Stormy Weather

If you're a writer who depends on electricity and especially on a computer of some sort, what do you do when the weather gets impossible, as it has been lately in the midsection of the US? Do you

• Risk life, limb and hard drive by typing during thunderstorms?
  
• Write in longhand?
  
• Use an old-fashioned manual typewriter (which, incidentally, is usually made of metal and could also conceivably draw lightning)?
  
• Decide that since it's storming, you should do something else, like curl up with a good book?
  

I've been facing that a lot lately. Spring has arrived, and with it, masses of unsettled weather. So far, I've still managed to work on a manuscript, but only when it isn't storming. When it is, I've

• Taken notes in longhand on a future novel
  
• Sorted laundry
  
• Gone through a lot of my To Be Read pile
  
• Cleaned out drawers and sorted clothes
  

I could go on, but I hear thunder....