The Light around the Corner

Sending your work out into the world is an adventure–no matter the path.

E-publishing is a widening path these days, but that doesn’t make it easy.

Friend and colleague, Niamh Clune, launched her book a few weeks back, and due to technical difficulties, has had to launch the book again. Many lessons learned, including–Amazon isn’t as easy to deal with as it leads one to believe.

But when you’re putting your work out into the world and asking people to take part in it, you have to keep the faith. Things go wrong, you could take it as a sign that it isn’t meant to be. You could see it as a sign that you must really want what you say you want, that you must persevere.

I’ve seen women and men come to a speed practice, and never come back. Maybe the realized skating as fast as a person can wasn’t for them. Maybe they let the fear of the corner get the better of them.

Why do we say that anyway? Get the better of someone. Seems to me if you get what is better, they should come out shining, right?

Ah, language.

So, Niamh has worked hard and seen her efforts reach the light. See where it shines.

Find her book at Amazon.

Thank you. And keep writing. Don’t let those corners get you.

You want my name where?

I can’t keep up with all the blogs I want to read, but lo, I have found another one to interest me. Author Anne R. Allen suggests in this blog post that a blog should have the author’s name in its title.

This is a small detail.

And not every bit of blogging advice is right for everyone.

I do not call my blog Marta’s blog. That just sounds wrong.

But maybe my thinking is wrong.

I love my name. I’ve never been able to come up with a pen name or, when I took language classes and some teachers would ask me to, a name in another language. But do I want it up there at the top of this blog?

Should I?

Go read all her rules. I’ve violated several of them other than picking a bad name. What about you?

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P.S. After reading the first comment on this post, I got to thinking about a website I visited recently and a brand personality test I found there. Have you heard of Sally Hogshead? I hadn’t until I happened across a video interview with her online, which snag my curiosity and I went to her site. Her insights about marketing and branding are interesting, and I took her Fscore personality test.

A summary of my results:
Your primary fascination is MYSTIQUE. (Nicely done, you.) Even without realizing it, you’re already instinctively applying this trigger when trying to persuade others. Your secondary trigger is ALARM, and your dormant trigger (the one you’re least likely to apply in your personality and behavior) is LUST.

There’s not much mystique in my name!

Anyway, if you take the test, let me know.