On this grey, damp and drizzly Monday, a day that many people in the UK would consider to be a typical November one, contenders for a vase were few and far between and the result really is a collection of oddments: Astrantia ‘Bowl of Beauty’, the last of its kind for this year, buds of Rosa ‘Harlow Carr’, unlikely to progress further on the bush itself because of the dampness, flowering stems of seed-sown grass Pennisetum villosum, brought into the greenhouse for winter protection, a surviving bedding fuchsia similarly protected, and obligingly useful bronzey-red new foliage of Pittosporum ‘Obsessed’.

Tucked into another little Caithness Glass vase (not a ubiquitous pink version but a more unusual one somewhere betwixt white and amber), the blooms are a mere echo of warmer months but as perennials also harbour the promise of returning joys to come. As a collection of random oddments…

There is always that time of the month when you ask yourself: “where did all my money go? I just got paid few weeks ago.” The fastest way to find an answer to that is taking all the receipts laying around in your house add them up, read some of your messages and look at some of your recent pictures to get a clear understanding of where your money went. Most of financially independent people when asked how they did it, the most common answer is living below their means, spend less than what you earn.

7+ tips to start living

below your means

1. Master money

Is money your master or your servant? Control money don’t let money control you. The first step is to understand the relationship you have with money, how do you see it? are you comfortable talking about money? ( See related post about the…

Alex Hurst

As you know, I’ve self-published some of my books, and published traditionally others. When I posted a (somewhat cheeky) infographic about Self-publishing vs. Traditional Publishing, my friend Alex Hurst pointed out that there’s lot more to be gained from following the traditional path than suggested by the post.

After she had made a few great arguments in the comments, I asked her to write up a guest post on the subject, as she had obviously put a lot of thought into the subject. She came up with the great post below. Enjoy!

3 Reasons to Go Traditional

These days, self-publishing is all the rage, and with the prominence of DIY publishers like Amazon, Smashwords, and Draft-2-Digital, it’s not hard to see why. Authors can take full control of the creative process, editing only what they want to, choosing (or making) a cover they feel presents their book faithfully, and distributing to whatever…

This is a guest post by Linda Cartwright. Linda is an educator and a writer on the verge of coming out as an independent author after years of freelancing and ghost-writing. Her darkest secret is that writing is only her second favorite thing to do… after reading. You can follow Linda on Twitter.

In preparation for her own book launch, Linda has been studying self-publishing basics. She’s sharing here what she’s discovered so far, from choosing the right publishing platform to creating a killer book cover.

Self-Publishing Basics

We shall come from a presumption that your book is great. You thought of a good story, you were tenacious enough to write it, this baby is ready to see the world. We are not talking about writing a book worth reading, we are talking about how to self-publish it in a way that people will want to read it.

Also, since…

This is a guest post by Linda Cartwright. You may remember her from her recent post, Self-Publishing Basics. Linda is an author and a freelance writer with a background in education. She lives in Seattle, teaches creative writing classes online and supports e-learning initiatives. Her darkest secret is that writing is only her second favorite thing to do… after reading. You can follow Linda on Twitter.

Linda has been studying self-publishing basics. She’s sharing here what she’s discovered so far.

Why Your Book Isn’t Selling

You were excited with the idea, you wrote with passion, you edited meticulously, you worked and worked, you published… and nothing. Your book isn’t selling.

If anything can dampen creative spirit – that’s the thing. We all depend on feedback and appreciation just to keep going. This situation is even more frustrating for self-publishing authors who invest their time and money into the endeavor…

US President Barack Obama presenting Angelou with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 2011 (Wikipedia)

In 1961 Maya Angelou met South African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make; and she and her son Guy moved with him to Cairo, where she became the editor of “The Arab Observer”.
When her relationship with Make ended, she went with her son to Accra, where she worked as an editor and a freelance writer, and taught at the University of Ghana’s School of Music and Drama. She was active in the African-American expatriate community and became close with human rights activist and black nationalist leader Malcolm X.

On her return to the U.S., in 1964, she helped Malcolm X build a new civil rights organization, the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which disbanded after his assassination the following year. Devastated and adrift, she joined her brother in Hawaii, where she resumed her singing career, but soon she…