EJ Thornton is an Author, Publisher, Speaker, Consultant/Coach and Instructor. She tries to make the world a better place by producing books with the same intention! Her latest book, "Secrets to Creating Passive Income" is dedicated to everyone who wants to achieve financial independence, because there IS enough to go around!
If you want to know what a FORESITE website is, it is the website for your book before your book is a book. Then once your book is released, it becomes a virtual bookshelf. All to help the web traffic find you in the niche that you are servicing.
Currently I have 9 articles out on my column. Anyone thinking of writing a book needs to read these articles and send them on to other friends who need to read them.
The publishing business is changing rapidly and there are so many avenues to get your work "published" where it creates royalty income for the author. There used to be only two typical ways to publish - either commercially publish your work through a publisher who paid royalties or to self-publish at great personal expense and risk. Print-on-Demand changed all that and introduced a third way to publish.
The Internet then introduced 'e-publishing.' E-publishing came in a lot of different forms as well - such as pdfs, webpages, or devices like the new Amazon Kindle. After Print-on-Demand introduced the world to the digital press and smaller print runs became financially feasible for the self-published author, the world of publishing transformed into a nebulous beast where any number of combinations of 'publishing' could work to advance a project.
Ultimately, no matter how the work gets published, it comes back to how the author is going to get paid for their work. My work on Great Angel Books is a prime example of one of the many ways an author can get paid for their work.
Our company introduced the world to Partner Publishing ™ and now we are going to see if another form of digital publishing is a feasible option for getting your book to the reader. On the Internet, content is king and some of the richest content is found on the pages of books. What if someone was to emulate a 'kindle' of sorts, without the customer having to buy the device.
The concept of a 'loss leader' in the retail stores has often been profitable for the major chain stores... get the customer in and give them a really good deal on one item and 'while they're there,' the customer hopefully buys something else that makes up for the loss on the advertised item.
With the advent of a perceived harsh economy, many people are turning to writing books to add additional stream(s) of revenue. So, we thought it the opportune time to see if a new form of e-publishing would work out.
It is our intent to share the knowledge of the book with people who want to publish their own book and also to show off our new book called "Advanced Book Marketing."
It is also our intent to give this as a gift to these authors and in return, hope that the ways we've monetized the site pays off as well as or better than traditional publishing. We will determine if this is a great way to advertise the new book.
We'll keep you posted if this experiment turns out to be a new, fast, lucrative way to reach your readers.
Update: we have been making money through google adsense with this free book experiment. It has also increased sales for the hard copy book. So, it makes sense to give something away, you do get it back in return. Here's to all of your book projects. Check out the rest of the free books at Books To Believe In: Free Books
Why do most people think most people Angel On Board was written by a man?
Angel On Board is written from a male perspective. I had to create an ambiguous pen name so you couldn't tell if I was a man or a woman - basically so the reader wouldn't pre-judge the book based on the gender of the author.
I decided to challenge myself and see if I could write a book completely in the affirmative. So, I took out all negative words like 'not' and 'no.' For instance, I changed occurrences of "Don't worry." to "Relax." I changed the book in about 2000 places... for a 288 page book, that was an extensive rewrite, but I really do love the new results and so do my readers. It was fun to do, and I'm glad I did it.
What did you learn by doing this?
I learned so much about the English language - especially how we talk to one another. I found out the word 'not' can be eliminated without very much effort. It is superfluous in many cases. The questions, "Don't you want to do that?" and "Do you want to do that?" are exactly the same except for the intent behind them. "Don't you want to do that?" is a leading question with an expected result. You have to work against the question to answer it other than with the asker's expected response. "Do you want to do that?" is a genuine question. It feels better to ask, it feels amazingly better to answer and it feels better to read.
By all reviews over the past few years, Angel On Board was well received. It even was credited with great healing. What possessed you to change something already so successful?
I just challenged myself. I practice spirituality in the Science of Mind church and they teach affirmative prayer. Writing these prayers means speaking completely in the affirmative and expressing things in terms of what you want instead of what you don't want. I decided to see if I could apply that to my writing. I did the first chapter and I could instantly see the positive change it made to the book. I shared it with a couple of people and they agreed that it was a change for the better, so I did it to the rest of the book.
I've raised three children, and now am raising two grandchildren and
I've had to teach each one how to set the table. Inevitably, they would
get it backwards, until one marvelous day, when I realized that if they
really did know "Right" and "Left" they could remember which side of
the plate the fork went on.
Count the Letters of all the words involved.
There are five words involved when teaching children where to place silverware...
Name - then spell - the Silverware and the sides of the plate.
They are right, left, knife, fork and spoon.
3
of those words have 5 letters each - and it just so happens, that those
letters all work together. The knife and spoon go on the right side of
the plate.
2 of the words have 4 letters - and lo and behold, the fork goes on the left side of the plate.
Your child should be at least first grade to remember how to set silverware this way
Any child who can spell small words,
and has been taught right and left remember this rule every night. They
can set the table perfectly and share this with their friends... (You
can share it with other moms and dads too).
But because it is so easy, it can be taught to anyone.
there are relatively few titles in its proprietory format. Right now, I have a healthy percentage of the Kindle books out there on Amazon.com - a full magnitude of difference. I'm a big fish in a relatively small pond.
But the best part of this - is that it is completely passive income. Kindle will pay you 35% of your book's face value (typically 50% of your hardbound book) and just wire you money every month. There is no fulfillment or anything... It's
beautiful.
This will catch on pretty fast - so it is a small window of opportunity to get the material here. You don't need an ISBN.
So, if you have an e-book you'd like to put out in front of the amazon.com customer community - it is perfect.
I'll stop gushing... But I believe this is a great opportunity. If you're self published, you owe it to yourself to put your book out there.
ALOHA: TO LOVE, IS TO BE HAPPY WITH. In Huna, this idea encompasses the power of blessing, and the practice of true acceptance. The more you can remove judgment from your thinking, the more love will flow in your life. By making this a daily practice and by blessing everyone and everything that represents what you want, you can fulfill your heart's desires. Love is the greatest power! This we know. The more we share this power, the more we become attuned to its divine nature--what the Hawaiians call ALOHA. The loving use of this limitless energy is the key to having everything that's worth having in this world, and it is the reason we are here on Earth.
I was reading a book where this statement was emphasized: "Bless what you would like to appear in your life. If you see a rich person, and you want wealth, bless both that person and their wealth. If you want a loving relationship and you see a happy couple, bless them and their relationship..."
I went to sleep last night just thinking about all the things I wanted in life and who I knew had them and blessed them. I had a brilliant night's sleep with beautiful dreams. It was such a relaxing exercise to just bless them in their successes, without dwelling on 'How they did it' and trying to analyze anything further.
This is a brilliant and ancient philosophy. I just wanted to share it with you.
When I was removing the word 'NOT' from the 2000 some places I'd used it in Angel On Board, I found hundreds of places where it was just an extra word. Whether you used it or left it out was irrelevant to the meaning of the sentence, but it did change how the sentence was received.
Case in Point: The question:
1. "Isn't that going to cause you a problem?" vs. 2. "Is that going to cause you a problem?"
Question 1 is a leading question. The asker of that question knows the answer they expect the questionee to give. It is a manipulation and it felt harsh to read - or frankly, to write.
Question 2 is a genuine question. The asker of that question allows the person being questioned to actually answer it the way they need to. When writing and when explaining this point to people, it feels good to actually ask a question to which a sincere answer can be given.
I was able to eliminate literally hundreds of "not's" out of the book this way. It was easy. The book felt better to read after I did. The conversations felt more open and the characters responded more freely than before. The storyline actually improved with this change alone.
This epiphany really led me to believe that the word "not" is unnecessary in the English language.
I hope you enjoy reading the new, better feeling version of Angel On Board,
I wondered how hard it would be to take all the negative words (or negative languaging) out of my novel Angel On Board.
I’ve been studying the spiritual masters and most disciplines agree that The Universe (God/Spirit/Christ/Higher Power) or whatever label you choose to put on your expression of the supreme being only works for good and the absence of that good is what creates the negative situations in our lives.
So, to say, “I do not want this result.” Translates in the mind of God to “I do want this result.” And as you ask, it is given, so the result is yours.
What I think is really happening is that God communicates with us all and we communicate back most effectively with images, pictures, visions. This is truly the universal language. We use words to conjure up the pictures that actually communicate with supreme being.
I will do separate blogs on some of the reasons I think this – such base words as rejection and safety have so many differing meanings to differing people and even to ourselves, that using words alone to communicate is tough. When we use negative communication, we have to draw the picture, then negate it. But if the picture is what communicates, then the communication will be of the situation, we haven’t replaced it with what we really want.
My problem with negative words stems back to my career as a computer programmer. Computer code was really easy to write using negative logic. So, for the most part, as a strategy for what I wanted, I had to filter out all the negative conditions by naming them specifically. It was the quickest way to do my job, but in retrospect, it was not the best.
I also am dyslexic – which means I think in pictures and before the advent of the international “no” symbol, when ‘no’ finally became a picture, I never saw it in my reading. So I’d always create the image of what was being written about in my head, then skip the word ‘not’ and totally mis-read the book.
Dyslexia, simply put, is visual thinking – most people think verbally – until recently. (The Gift of Dyslexia - by Ronald Davis) There’s a whole new generation of people who have more visual stimulation early in life, and their brains are developing visually before verbally – and people are labeling them ‘dyslexic’ like that is some kind of problem. It is very literally a huge advantage, because a visual mind can think much faster than a verbal mind.
So, using this definition, I claim that God is dyslexic. That’s a good thing, because no matter what language we speak, we can communicate effectively using visualizations, images and pictures.
Back to my book, what I wanted to do was to write every sentence in the affirmative. I changed all the ‘Don’t worry’ sentences to ‘Relax’ – which actually is a stronger statement. I took out all the no, not, didn’t, wasn’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t, etc. words by rephrasing the sentences they were in.
I learned many amazing things about English language as I did. That’s why I created this blog. First to create awareness of the use of negative languaging, Second to share these epiphanies when I experienced them, Thirdly to challenge everyone to start speaking in the affirmative more often – especially when praying – so that what was communicated to your higher power was more effective.
I hope you enjoy...
And as with all of things I say, you’ll agree with some, disagree with others, so I hope that you can ‘take what you like – and leave the rest.’
EJ – author of Angel On Board, the most positive book on the planet
Many times, the people around us make judgments about our memory. Men are often accused of being forgetful about “important” facts such as anniversary dates, what their wife or girlfriend wore on their first date or maybe, forgetting to stop by the store on the way home. In addition, the judgments about us get worse as we grow older. An active mind and an active body are the best ways to combat the effects of age on memory.
People can perceive you in a different light, if they believe that you have superior mental powers. Conversely those same people will perceive you quite negatively if you forget their names or birthdays. In short, having a good memory is an essential asset when getting along with others.
* * *
There is a simple trick to employ to convince others that you have a “superior” memory or even a photographic memory. It’s called the “Days of the Week” Dates technique.
Announce to everyone that you can tell them what day of the week any given date falls on, during the current calendar year. Then ask them to test you. It’s quite easy actually. All it takes is remembering a short sequence of numbers.
The human brain cannot memorize large chunks of information, but it can quite readily digest smaller chunks in groups of 4 to 7. Ever wonder why your Social Security number is broken up into three small chunks of numbers rather than one continuous stream? It’s the same thing with phone numbers. Memorizing a ten digit number seems daunting, but most of us can remember a phone number.
And now, on to the technique:
For the current year, pick the digit that represents the first Sunday of January.
Write that number down.
Repeat for each month of the year, in order. This will give you a 12 digit number.
Remember to break the 12 digit number into 4 chunks of three numbers.
Memorize the sequence.
Imagine not only remembering your friend's birthday but the day of the week it is on!
Let’s take the year 2004 as an example of the technique. The following numbers represent the date of the first Sunday in the given month:
Month Date of First Sunday
January 4 February 1 March 7
April 4 May 2 June 6
July 4 August 1 September 5
October 3 November 7 December 5
The number to memorize for the calendar year 2004 is: 417-426-415-375
Using the technique is straightforward, after you have the number sequence above memorized. Add or subtract days based on what day of the week they ask you about. A week is 7 days long, so simply add 7 to get the dates of all the Sundays, until you get within a few days of the target date.
Now, let’s say that someone says to you: “Okay, what day of the week does Oct 22nd fall on in 2004?”
October is the 10th month of the year. So, we count on our fingers (or in our head) to find which digit of the 12 digit number is the 10th one. “3” should be the answer. Next, knowing that there are 7 days in a week, we know that Sundays in October fall on the 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, and 31st. We’ve simply “added 7” to our memorized first Sunday date (3) to come up with the dates for every Sunday in the month.
So now we know we want the “22nd” – well that’s two days before the 24th – which means that the 22nd of October, 2004, should fall on a Friday. A quick check of the calendar and viola! October 22nd really does fall on Friday!
If you really want to blow their minds, memorize last year’s “number” and next year’s “number.”
When using this cute trick, it’s important not to give away your secret. Throughout history, famous magicians never gave away their secrets. People don’t like to be fooled and will consider you “smarter” if you seem to be able to instantaneously produce the information. So keep this trick a secret!
To insure no one gives you a phony date, employ the following poem to remember how many days are in each month:
Thirty days have September,April, June, and November.All the rest have thirty-one, except for February –that’s the Weird One! Don’t forget about leap year!
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For several days now, I had planned to finish up the last few edits on my latest book: Revenue Beyond Billable Hours. But I was working so hard on other people's projects, I couldn't get back to my own. That's okay, that's why I do what I do. However, I do like working on my own creations too.
I got to it late last night (yes Saturday night) - and early today and finally finished it up, and now it is ready to launch!
I thought I'd have a great sense of completion... And I do, a little. But as soon as I moved the book over to its finished 'file' on the computer, the next book started pounding inside of me - instantaneously!!! Actually I already have about 4 other books underway, now I've got a 5th.
I counsel my authors to keep writing and to embrace it while they're in the creative flow. I need to remember my own advice - before I become the person who says, "Take my advice, I'm not using it!"
Writing is fun, so is blogging. I'm glad to have a place to share my thoughts and accomplishments with so many wonderful kindred spirits!
Dog hair loss - being a diet problem... WHEAT - who knew??!?!?
I'm reviving a post from a couple of weeks ago with my experience (or rather my dog's experience) regarding diet and hair loss. I have an American Eskimo Spitz named Lady (for those that can't picture that - picture a snow fox), all white fur and sharp features on the face.
She sheds like crazy twice a year, and that is why I am a Sticky Sheets fan!!! They work great and I wish they'd been invented 10 years ago (like when my dog was born...).
Lady kept losing the hair on her haunches and she had bald spots several times a year. When I went to the IBI forum, I sat next to a woman starting up a vet clinic. So, I asked her about Lady's problem.
She asked me if I fed her grocery store food or if I went to Pet Smart and got the vet quality food. I admitted to getting the grocery store variety. She then told me to look at the ingredients and if WHEAT was one of the top 3, then I was probably looking at food allergy. WHEAT in dog food is a very common filler food and it is one of the thing many dogs are allergic to. She was right, there was even a picture of WHEAT on the label. I changed her food and her haunches filled in and she's been a shedding problem only twice a year again.
And, believe me, THEN I go through the Sticky Sheets!!!
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Great things found in books II - Watch out - you're probably eating poison.
excerp from "Health and the Domino Effect" by Sharon Price, Ph.D, CN
Aspartame Toxicity
And if you’re thinking of replacing refined sugar with Aspartame, don’t! Aspartame is known by very familiar trade names and it is a potentially deadly poison. Eighty-five percent of all complaints registered with the FDA concern aspartame’s adverse reactions, including seventy-three different symptoms and five deaths. Among the symptoms reported are dizziness, memory loss, headaches, blurred vision, insomnia, fatigue, ringing in ears, nausea, heart palpitations, sugar cravings, and muscle and joint pain. Aspartame depletes nutrients in the body, specifically chromium, and will cause sugar cravings.
I have been in a dilemma as to what to blog about lately, hence the blog-sluggishness of my blog. (I hope that term isn't trademarked, Kitty.) I want to write something worth reading every time, but it is tough to try to be so profound so frequently!!! So, I've turned to my books for inspiration. I have learned so much by working with "The League of Extraordinary Authors" and I want to share some of that with you now.
I'll start light, as this is my new favorite poem and has been ever since it came across my desk. It is from singer/songwriter Terry Prince and it compliments his book called "Stop Watering the Weeds"- http://www.bookstobelievein.com/StopWateringtheWeeds.php.
Your life is the garden.
Your thoughts are the seeds.
If your life isn't awesome,
you've been watering the weeds!
My thanks to Terry to remind us what to focus on!
Take care and there will be many more blogs soon to come!!!
EJ
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you gotta ask yourself why you installed that button there in the first place!
I was at a class the other night and that is what the instructor asked us. It got an immediate laugh and then it moved into the low rumbles as many of us realized that our buttons are our own and we installed them where we did.
HUNA: The ALOHA principle: Bless what you would like in your life
Huna is a Hawaiian philosophy of living
ALOHA: TO LOVE, IS TO BE HAPPY WITH. In Huna, this idea encompasses the power of blessing, and the practice of true acceptance. The more you can remove judgment from your thinking, the more love will flow in your life. By making this a daily practice and by blessing everyone and everything that represents what you want, you can fulfill your heart's desires. Love is the greatest power! This we know. The more we share this power, the more we become attuned to its divine nature--what the Hawaiians call ALOHA. The loving use of this limitless energy is the key to having everything that's worth having in this world, and it is the reason we are here on Earth.
I was reading a book where this statement was emphasized: "Bless what you would like to appear in your life. If you see a rich person, and you want wealth, bless both that person and their wealth. If you want a loving relationship and you see a happy couple, bless them and their relationship..."
I went to sleep last night just thinking about all the things I wanted in life and who I knew had them and blessed them. I had a brilliant night's sleep with beautiful dreams. It was such a relaxing exercise to just bless them in their successes, without dwelling on 'How they did it' and trying to analyze anything further.
This is a brilliant and ancient philosophy. I just wanted to share it with you.
Enjoy,
EJ
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American Pet Owners 199 million man-hours next year alone!
According to industry statistics, over 200 million hours are spent a year cleaning up pet hair. A Castle Rock man's invention could reduce that number by an incredibly significant amount. Wen Boley, CEO of StickySheets just released his product to market and StickySheets will make that reduced number a reality.
Invented while struggling through a painfully long experience using a lint brush and a vacuum to clean up a used car literally covered in the previous owner's dog' hair, Boley kept chanting to himself, 'There's got to be a better way.'In the hours that he worked on the car, he came up with the idea for StickySheets, a large sheet of adhesive plastic that one could tuck in and around all the curves of a car seat and just rip off to remove dirt, lint and embedded pet hair in one easy stroke.With just a few of these, he could have turned a job that took hours into something that would have taken less than ten minutes. That was just the car, he only dared to imagine the potential inside the house!
Boley envisioned this product just last December and since then has patented the product, raised the capital to manufacture and advertise it, enhanced it for safety and ease of use and released it just in time for those beloved pets to shed their summer coats to make way for their winter fur. Boley says, "We knew we had a hit, when all we would do is talk about the product and people would whip out their credit cards and try to buy some on the spot!"
When asked what he hopes Americans will do with all their new-found free time, Boley says, "I hope they have fun and use this opportunity to follow their dreams." To find out more or to purchase this great new product, please phone 1-88-88-STICKY,visit www.StickySheets.comor contact wen@StickySheets.com.
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I just got my biggest break so far for publicity - a 5 hour live radio show in the Denver demographic - 7-12 at night with a very popular DJ!!! I'm so psyched - I'm having a problem sitting still!!!
But the point I want to make is the origin of that break through was a see-me card from the last forum I attended at IBI!
I sold an Angel On Board book (www.AngelOnBoard.com) to someone who asked for more information. That person loved the book so much, she bought 20 more. Which inspired a press release, so I created one.
That press release was sent to this radio station, who asked for a copy of the book. I followed up 2 weeks later to be sure the right person received the book. They had and asked me to follow up 3-4 down the road because they are just inundated with books.
Well, the very next day, this same person (who asked me to follow up in 3-4 weeks) called me, very excited. She'd been reading the book, was relating to it immediately and wanted to do a show as soon as possible - so, I'll be on the air one week later!!!
I don't think any of this would have happened if I hadn't followed up with her about the book. That made it fresh in her memory. If I hadn't followed up with that "see-me" card - none of this would have happened!
You just never know how wonderful one little seed may grow. . . Follow up with every lead!!!
Enjoy,
EJ
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If you are going to try and commercially publish, then please don't hinge your self-esteem on the rejection letters that will surely come. Every one is a step forward to the one who will publish your book.
The only way to get rid of the rejection letters is to take your destiny into your own hands and decide to publish the book at your expense. It is a bold move, but many self-published books get picked up later, once its market has been proven.
Please do not ask the publisher, "Why?"
Writers, of course, want to know why their book 'doesn't fit' with the publishing house, especially if they have done their homework and gone to great lengths to find a publishing house where their work 'should fit.'
But editors, when they reject, have been trained not to say the reason. Editors do not want to engage in a discussion about the reason that the book has been rejected, because the author will either argue their point (which doesn't win you any favor either) or offer to 'fix it.' Neither of which the editor is interested in. If the editor thought your book could be 'fixed' to fit their criteria, it wouldn't have been rejected.
If you want to know what a FORESITE website is, it is the website for your book before your book is a book. Then once your book is released, it becomes a virtual bookshelf. All to help the web traffic find you in the niche that you are servicing.
Currently I have 9 articles out on my column. Anyone thinking of writing a book needs to read these articles and send them on to other friends who need to read them.
The publishing business is changing rapidly and there are so many avenues to get your work "published" where it creates royalty income for the author. There used to be only two typical ways to publish - either commercially publish your work through a publisher who paid royalties or to self-publish at great personal expense and risk. Print-on-Demand changed all that and introduced a third way to publish.
The Internet then introduced 'e-publishing.' E-publishing came in a lot of different forms as well - such as pdfs, webpages, or devices like the new Amazon Kindle. After Print-on-Demand introduced the world to the digital press and smaller print runs became financially feasible for the self-published author, the world of publishing transformed into a nebulous beast where any number of combinations of 'publishing' could work to advance a project.
Ultimately, no matter how the work gets published, it comes back to how the author is going to get paid for their work. My work on Great Angel Books is a prime example of one of the many ways an author can get paid for their work.
Our company introduced the world to Partner Publishing ™ and now we are going to see if another form of digital publishing is a feasible option for getting your book to the reader. On the Internet, content is king and some of the richest content is found on the pages of books. What if someone was to emulate a 'kindle' of sorts, without the customer having to buy the device.
The concept of a 'loss leader' in the retail stores has often been profitable for the major chain stores... get the customer in and give them a really good deal on one item and 'while they're there,' the customer hopefully buys something else that makes up for the loss on the advertised item.
With the advent of a perceived harsh economy, many people are turning to writing books to add additional stream(s) of revenue. So, we thought it the opportune time to see if a new form of e-publishing would work out.
It is our intent to share the knowledge of the book with people who want to publish their own book and also to show off our new book called "Advanced Book Marketing."
It is also our intent to give this as a gift to these authors and in return, hope that the ways we've monetized the site pays off as well as or better than traditional publishing. We will determine if this is a great way to advertise the new book.
We'll keep you posted if this experiment turns out to be a new, fast, lucrative way to reach your readers.
Update: we have been making money through google adsense with this free book experiment. It has also increased sales for the hard copy book. So, it makes sense to give something away, you do get it back in return. Here's to all of your book projects. Check out the rest of the free books at Books To Believe In: Free Books
Why do most people think most people Angel On Board was written by a man?
Angel On Board is written from a male perspective. I had to create an ambiguous pen name so you couldn't tell if I was a man or a woman - basically so the reader wouldn't pre-judge the book based on the gender of the author.
I decided to challenge myself and see if I could write a book completely in the affirmative. So, I took out all negative words like 'not' and 'no.' For instance, I changed occurrences of "Don't worry." to "Relax." I changed the book in about 2000 places... for a 288 page book, that was an extensive rewrite, but I really do love the new results and so do my readers. It was fun to do, and I'm glad I did it.
What did you learn by doing this?
I learned so much about the English language - especially how we talk to one another. I found out the word 'not' can be eliminated without very much effort. It is superfluous in many cases. The questions, "Don't you want to do that?" and "Do you want to do that?" are exactly the same except for the intent behind them. "Don't you want to do that?" is a leading question with an expected result. You have to work against the question to answer it other than with the asker's expected response. "Do you want to do that?" is a genuine question. It feels better to ask, it feels amazingly better to answer and it feels better to read.
By all reviews over the past few years, Angel On Board was well received. It even was credited with great healing. What possessed you to change something already so successful?
I just challenged myself. I practice spirituality in the Science of Mind church and they teach affirmative prayer. Writing these prayers means speaking completely in the affirmative and expressing things in terms of what you want instead of what you don't want. I decided to see if I could apply that to my writing. I did the first chapter and I could instantly see the positive change it made to the book. I shared it with a couple of people and they agreed that it was a change for the better, so I did it to the rest of the book.
I've raised three children, and now am raising two grandchildren and
I've had to teach each one how to set the table. Inevitably, they would
get it backwards, until one marvelous day, when I realized that if they
really did know "Right" and "Left" they could remember which side of
the plate the fork went on.
Count the Letters of all the words involved.
There are five words involved when teaching children where to place silverware...
Name - then spell - the Silverware and the sides of the plate.
They are right, left, knife, fork and spoon.
3
of those words have 5 letters each - and it just so happens, that those
letters all work together. The knife and spoon go on the right side of
the plate.
2 of the words have 4 letters - and lo and behold, the fork goes on the left side of the plate.
Your child should be at least first grade to remember how to set silverware this way
Any child who can spell small words,
and has been taught right and left remember this rule every night. They
can set the table perfectly and share this with their friends... (You
can share it with other moms and dads too).
But because it is so easy, it can be taught to anyone.
there are relatively few titles in its proprietory format. Right now, I have a healthy percentage of the Kindle books out there on Amazon.com - a full magnitude of difference. I'm a big fish in a relatively small pond.
But the best part of this - is that it is completely passive income. Kindle will pay you 35% of your book's face value (typically 50% of your hardbound book) and just wire you money every month. There is no fulfillment or anything... It's
beautiful.
This will catch on pretty fast - so it is a small window of opportunity to get the material here. You don't need an ISBN.
So, if you have an e-book you'd like to put out in front of the amazon.com customer community - it is perfect.
I'll stop gushing... But I believe this is a great opportunity. If you're self published, you owe it to yourself to put your book out there.
ALOHA: TO LOVE, IS TO BE HAPPY WITH. In Huna, this idea encompasses the power of blessing, and the practice of true acceptance. The more you can remove judgment from your thinking, the more love will flow in your life. By making this a daily practice and by blessing everyone and everything that represents what you want, you can fulfill your heart's desires. Love is the greatest power! This we know. The more we share this power, the more we become attuned to its divine nature--what the Hawaiians call ALOHA. The loving use of this limitless energy is the key to having everything that's worth having in this world, and it is the reason we are here on Earth.
I was reading a book where this statement was emphasized: "Bless what you would like to appear in your life. If you see a rich person, and you want wealth, bless both that person and their wealth. If you want a loving relationship and you see a happy couple, bless them and their relationship..."
I went to sleep last night just thinking about all the things I wanted in life and who I knew had them and blessed them. I had a brilliant night's sleep with beautiful dreams. It was such a relaxing exercise to just bless them in their successes, without dwelling on 'How they did it' and trying to analyze anything further.
This is a brilliant and ancient philosophy. I just wanted to share it with you.
When I was removing the word 'NOT' from the 2000 some places I'd used it in Angel On Board, I found hundreds of places where it was just an extra word. Whether you used it or left it out was irrelevant to the meaning of the sentence, but it did change how the sentence was received.
Case in Point: The question:
1. "Isn't that going to cause you a problem?" vs. 2. "Is that going to cause you a problem?"
Question 1 is a leading question. The asker of that question knows the answer they expect the questionee to give. It is a manipulation and it felt harsh to read - or frankly, to write.
Question 2 is a genuine question. The asker of that question allows the person being questioned to actually answer it the way they need to. When writing and when explaining this point to people, it feels good to actually ask a question to which a sincere answer can be given.
I was able to eliminate literally hundreds of "not's" out of the book this way. It was easy. The book felt better to read after I did. The conversations felt more open and the characters responded more freely than before. The storyline actually improved with this change alone.
This epiphany really led me to believe that the word "not" is unnecessary in the English language.
I hope you enjoy reading the new, better feeling version of Angel On Board,
I wondered how hard it would be to take all the negative words (or negative languaging) out of my novel Angel On Board.
I’ve been studying the spiritual masters and most disciplines agree that The Universe (God/Spirit/Christ/Higher Power) or whatever label you choose to put on your expression of the supreme being only works for good and the absence of that good is what creates the negative situations in our lives.
So, to say, “I do not want this result.” Translates in the mind of God to “I do want this result.” And as you ask, it is given, so the result is yours.
What I think is really happening is that God communicates with us all and we communicate back most effectively with images, pictures, visions. This is truly the universal language. We use words to conjure up the pictures that actually communicate with supreme being.
I will do separate blogs on some of the reasons I think this – such base words as rejection and safety have so many differing meanings to differing people and even to ourselves, that using words alone to communicate is tough. When we use negative communication, we have to draw the picture, then negate it. But if the picture is what communicates, then the communication will be of the situation, we haven’t replaced it with what we really want.
My problem with negative words stems back to my career as a computer programmer. Computer code was really easy to write using negative logic. So, for the most part, as a strategy for what I wanted, I had to filter out all the negative conditions by naming them specifically. It was the quickest way to do my job, but in retrospect, it was not the best.
I also am dyslexic – which means I think in pictures and before the advent of the international “no” symbol, when ‘no’ finally became a picture, I never saw it in my reading. So I’d always create the image of what was being written about in my head, then skip the word ‘not’ and totally mis-read the book.
Dyslexia, simply put, is visual thinking – most people think verbally – until recently. (The Gift of Dyslexia - by Ronald Davis) There’s a whole new generation of people who have more visual stimulation early in life, and their brains are developing visually before verbally – and people are labeling them ‘dyslexic’ like that is some kind of problem. It is very literally a huge advantage, because a visual mind can think much faster than a verbal mind.
So, using this definition, I claim that God is dyslexic. That’s a good thing, because no matter what language we speak, we can communicate effectively using visualizations, images and pictures.
Back to my book, what I wanted to do was to write every sentence in the affirmative. I changed all the ‘Don’t worry’ sentences to ‘Relax’ – which actually is a stronger statement. I took out all the no, not, didn’t, wasn’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t, etc. words by rephrasing the sentences they were in.
I learned many amazing things about English language as I did. That’s why I created this blog. First to create awareness of the use of negative languaging, Second to share these epiphanies when I experienced them, Thirdly to challenge everyone to start speaking in the affirmative more often – especially when praying – so that what was communicated to your higher power was more effective.
I hope you enjoy...
And as with all of things I say, you’ll agree with some, disagree with others, so I hope that you can ‘take what you like – and leave the rest.’
EJ – author of Angel On Board, the most positive book on the planet
Many times, the people around us make judgments about our memory. Men are often accused of being forgetful about “important” facts such as anniversary dates, what their wife or girlfriend wore on their first date or maybe, forgetting to stop by the store on the way home. In addition, the judgments about us get worse as we grow older. An active mind and an active body are the best ways to combat the effects of age on memory.
People can perceive you in a different light, if they believe that you have superior mental powers. Conversely those same people will perceive you quite negatively if you forget their names or birthdays. In short, having a good memory is an essential asset when getting along with others.
* * *
There is a simple trick to employ to convince others that you have a “superior” memory or even a photographic memory. It’s called the “Days of the Week” Dates technique.
Announce to everyone that you can tell them what day of the week any given date falls on, during the current calendar year. Then ask them to test you. It’s quite easy actually. All it takes is remembering a short sequence of numbers.
The human brain cannot memorize large chunks of information, but it can quite readily digest smaller chunks in groups of 4 to 7. Ever wonder why your Social Security number is broken up into three small chunks of numbers rather than one continuous stream? It’s the same thing with phone numbers. Memorizing a ten digit number seems daunting, but most of us can remember a phone number.
And now, on to the technique:
For the current year, pick the digit that represents the first Sunday of January.
Write that number down.
Repeat for each month of the year, in order. This will give you a 12 digit number.
Remember to break the 12 digit number into 4 chunks of three numbers.
Memorize the sequence.
Imagine not only remembering your friend's birthday but the day of the week it is on!
Let’s take the year 2004 as an example of the technique. The following numbers represent the date of the first Sunday in the given month:
Month Date of First Sunday
January 4 February 1 March 7
April 4 May 2 June 6
July 4 August 1 September 5
October 3 November 7 December 5
The number to memorize for the calendar year 2004 is: 417-426-415-375
Using the technique is straightforward, after you have the number sequence above memorized. Add or subtract days based on what day of the week they ask you about. A week is 7 days long, so simply add 7 to get the dates of all the Sundays, until you get within a few days of the target date.
Now, let’s say that someone says to you: “Okay, what day of the week does Oct 22nd fall on in 2004?”
October is the 10th month of the year. So, we count on our fingers (or in our head) to find which digit of the 12 digit number is the 10th one. “3” should be the answer. Next, knowing that there are 7 days in a week, we know that Sundays in October fall on the 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, and 31st. We’ve simply “added 7” to our memorized first Sunday date (3) to come up with the dates for every Sunday in the month.
So now we know we want the “22nd” – well that’s two days before the 24th – which means that the 22nd of October, 2004, should fall on a Friday. A quick check of the calendar and viola! October 22nd really does fall on Friday!
If you really want to blow their minds, memorize last year’s “number” and next year’s “number.”
When using this cute trick, it’s important not to give away your secret. Throughout history, famous magicians never gave away their secrets. People don’t like to be fooled and will consider you “smarter” if you seem to be able to instantaneously produce the information. So keep this trick a secret!
To insure no one gives you a phony date, employ the following poem to remember how many days are in each month:
Thirty days have September,April, June, and November.All the rest have thirty-one, except for February –that’s the Weird One! Don’t forget about leap year!
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For several days now, I had planned to finish up the last few edits on my latest book: Revenue Beyond Billable Hours. But I was working so hard on other people's projects, I couldn't get back to my own. That's okay, that's why I do what I do. However, I do like working on my own creations too.
I got to it late last night (yes Saturday night) - and early today and finally finished it up, and now it is ready to launch!
I thought I'd have a great sense of completion... And I do, a little. But as soon as I moved the book over to its finished 'file' on the computer, the next book started pounding inside of me - instantaneously!!! Actually I already have about 4 other books underway, now I've got a 5th.
I counsel my authors to keep writing and to embrace it while they're in the creative flow. I need to remember my own advice - before I become the person who says, "Take my advice, I'm not using it!"
Writing is fun, so is blogging. I'm glad to have a place to share my thoughts and accomplishments with so many wonderful kindred spirits!
Dog hair loss - being a diet problem... WHEAT - who knew??!?!?
I'm reviving a post from a couple of weeks ago with my experience (or rather my dog's experience) regarding diet and hair loss. I have an American Eskimo Spitz named Lady (for those that can't picture that - picture a snow fox), all white fur and sharp features on the face.
She sheds like crazy twice a year, and that is why I am a Sticky Sheets fan!!! They work great and I wish they'd been invented 10 years ago (like when my dog was born...).
Lady kept losing the hair on her haunches and she had bald spots several times a year. When I went to the IBI forum, I sat next to a woman starting up a vet clinic. So, I asked her about Lady's problem.
She asked me if I fed her grocery store food or if I went to Pet Smart and got the vet quality food. I admitted to getting the grocery store variety. She then told me to look at the ingredients and if WHEAT was one of the top 3, then I was probably looking at food allergy. WHEAT in dog food is a very common filler food and it is one of the thing many dogs are allergic to. She was right, there was even a picture of WHEAT on the label. I changed her food and her haunches filled in and she's been a shedding problem only twice a year again.
And, believe me, THEN I go through the Sticky Sheets!!!
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Great things found in books II - Watch out - you're probably eating poison.
excerp from "Health and the Domino Effect" by Sharon Price, Ph.D, CN
Aspartame Toxicity
And if you’re thinking of replacing refined sugar with Aspartame, don’t! Aspartame is known by very familiar trade names and it is a potentially deadly poison. Eighty-five percent of all complaints registered with the FDA concern aspartame’s adverse reactions, including seventy-three different symptoms and five deaths. Among the symptoms reported are dizziness, memory loss, headaches, blurred vision, insomnia, fatigue, ringing in ears, nausea, heart palpitations, sugar cravings, and muscle and joint pain. Aspartame depletes nutrients in the body, specifically chromium, and will cause sugar cravings.
I have been in a dilemma as to what to blog about lately, hence the blog-sluggishness of my blog. (I hope that term isn't trademarked, Kitty.) I want to write something worth reading every time, but it is tough to try to be so profound so frequently!!! So, I've turned to my books for inspiration. I have learned so much by working with "The League of Extraordinary Authors" and I want to share some of that with you now.
I'll start light, as this is my new favorite poem and has been ever since it came across my desk. It is from singer/songwriter Terry Prince and it compliments his book called "Stop Watering the Weeds"- http://www.bookstobelievein.com/StopWateringtheWeeds.php.
Your life is the garden.
Your thoughts are the seeds.
If your life isn't awesome,
you've been watering the weeds!
My thanks to Terry to remind us what to focus on!
Take care and there will be many more blogs soon to come!!!
EJ
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you gotta ask yourself why you installed that button there in the first place!
I was at a class the other night and that is what the instructor asked us. It got an immediate laugh and then it moved into the low rumbles as many of us realized that our buttons are our own and we installed them where we did.
HUNA: The ALOHA principle: Bless what you would like in your life
Huna is a Hawaiian philosophy of living
ALOHA: TO LOVE, IS TO BE HAPPY WITH. In Huna, this idea encompasses the power of blessing, and the practice of true acceptance. The more you can remove judgment from your thinking, the more love will flow in your life. By making this a daily practice and by blessing everyone and everything that represents what you want, you can fulfill your heart's desires. Love is the greatest power! This we know. The more we share this power, the more we become attuned to its divine nature--what the Hawaiians call ALOHA. The loving use of this limitless energy is the key to having everything that's worth having in this world, and it is the reason we are here on Earth.
I was reading a book where this statement was emphasized: "Bless what you would like to appear in your life. If you see a rich person, and you want wealth, bless both that person and their wealth. If you want a loving relationship and you see a happy couple, bless them and their relationship..."
I went to sleep last night just thinking about all the things I wanted in life and who I knew had them and blessed them. I had a brilliant night's sleep with beautiful dreams. It was such a relaxing exercise to just bless them in their successes, without dwelling on 'How they did it' and trying to analyze anything further.
This is a brilliant and ancient philosophy. I just wanted to share it with you.
Enjoy,
EJ
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American Pet Owners 199 million man-hours next year alone!
According to industry statistics, over 200 million hours are spent a year cleaning up pet hair. A Castle Rock man's invention could reduce that number by an incredibly significant amount. Wen Boley, CEO of StickySheets just released his product to market and StickySheets will make that reduced number a reality.
Invented while struggling through a painfully long experience using a lint brush and a vacuum to clean up a used car literally covered in the previous owner's dog' hair, Boley kept chanting to himself, 'There's got to be a better way.'In the hours that he worked on the car, he came up with the idea for StickySheets, a large sheet of adhesive plastic that one could tuck in and around all the curves of a car seat and just rip off to remove dirt, lint and embedded pet hair in one easy stroke.With just a few of these, he could have turned a job that took hours into something that would have taken less than ten minutes. That was just the car, he only dared to imagine the potential inside the house!
Boley envisioned this product just last December and since then has patented the product, raised the capital to manufacture and advertise it, enhanced it for safety and ease of use and released it just in time for those beloved pets to shed their summer coats to make way for their winter fur. Boley says, "We knew we had a hit, when all we would do is talk about the product and people would whip out their credit cards and try to buy some on the spot!"
When asked what he hopes Americans will do with all their new-found free time, Boley says, "I hope they have fun and use this opportunity to follow their dreams." To find out more or to purchase this great new product, please phone 1-88-88-STICKY,visit www.StickySheets.comor contact wen@StickySheets.com.
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I just got my biggest break so far for publicity - a 5 hour live radio show in the Denver demographic - 7-12 at night with a very popular DJ!!! I'm so psyched - I'm having a problem sitting still!!!
But the point I want to make is the origin of that break through was a see-me card from the last forum I attended at IBI!
I sold an Angel On Board book (www.AngelOnBoard.com) to someone who asked for more information. That person loved the book so much, she bought 20 more. Which inspired a press release, so I created one.
That press release was sent to this radio station, who asked for a copy of the book. I followed up 2 weeks later to be sure the right person received the book. They had and asked me to follow up 3-4 down the road because they are just inundated with books.
Well, the very next day, this same person (who asked me to follow up in 3-4 weeks) called me, very excited. She'd been reading the book, was relating to it immediately and wanted to do a show as soon as possible - so, I'll be on the air one week later!!!
I don't think any of this would have happened if I hadn't followed up with her about the book. That made it fresh in her memory. If I hadn't followed up with that "see-me" card - none of this would have happened!
You just never know how wonderful one little seed may grow. . . Follow up with every lead!!!
Enjoy,
EJ
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If you are going to try and commercially publish, then please don't hinge your self-esteem on the rejection letters that will surely come. Every one is a step forward to the one who will publish your book.
The only way to get rid of the rejection letters is to take your destiny into your own hands and decide to publish the book at your expense. It is a bold move, but many self-published books get picked up later, once its market has been proven.
Please do not ask the publisher, "Why?"
Writers, of course, want to know why their book 'doesn't fit' with the publishing house, especially if they have done their homework and gone to great lengths to find a publishing house where their work 'should fit.'
But editors, when they reject, have been trained not to say the reason. Editors do not want to engage in a discussion about the reason that the book has been rejected, because the author will either argue their point (which doesn't win you any favor either) or offer to 'fix it.' Neither of which the editor is interested in. If the editor thought your book could be 'fixed' to fit their criteria, it wouldn't have been rejected.
