Writing...Just because!

During a recent trip to the fruit, vegetable, plant and animal souk in Doha, Qatar, the memory of a workshop I took with Jo Parfitt on adding SPICE to your writing came flooding back.  Readers don’t have the benefit of experiencing the situation in person, standing next to you, so it’s our responsibility as writers to put all the senses to work when bringing a reader along with us in our story (whether fiction, non-fiction, narrative, memoir or even business writing). Come with me to Doha… As we entered the first section of the sprawling warehouse, I was assaulted by foreign smells that at first made me wrinkle my nose and wave my hand over my face.  Then I reminded myself of the durian fruit I had eaten in Malaysia that smelled like poo and dirty socks but once past the olfactory sense, tasted sweet and had a smooth and silky texture.  So, I paused, closed my eyes, and inhaled deeply.  I realized that there wasn’t just one smell.  I took another deep breath a...

Well, this is the weekend of the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature and I spent the day there yesterday with my friend, and fellow blogger, Katie Foster .  We were enthralled.  Both of us bought several books (just couldn’t help ourselves) and waited with great anticipation to meet author, Greg Mortenson face-to-face (of Three Cups of Tea fame) for his talk, “Moving Mountains.”  As we were standing in line waiting to enter the conference room where he would be speaking, we kept seeing people go to the front of the line with “Festival Friend” badges on.  “I’m a Festival Friend,” Katie piped up.  Hmmm…how did we get one of those elusive bits of plastic? “I’ll hold our place in line, you go check it out!” I offered magnanimously. Five minutes later Katie came back, grinning from ear to ear, holding our “back stage passes.”  We headed to the front of the line, were ushered in like VIPs and grabbed our front row seats.  The very humble, unassumi...

This month’s review is another business book but this time, hones in on marketing online.    Inbound Marketing-Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is an easy read and packed with practical information and tips on how to start and effectively manage your online inbound marketing efforts.  Initially, I felt it was for beginners but I opened my mind and found there were loads of nuggets even for the seasoned online marketer.  It’s so important to occasionally step back and remember why you started a blog to begin with.  Or, to realize that even if your LinkedIn profile is at 100% (as mine is) that’s just the beginning.  Getting Found in Social Media In the chapter “Getting Found in Social Media,” there’s a section on LinkedIn that focuses on setting up a group.  I follow tons of groups, get involved in the meatier discussions and start them myself but I never reall...