I am a writer.  I just love words.  If a picture is worth a thousand words just think of all the writing I can do.

With my new passion comes a desire to learn.  I have a lot to say, and I need to understand how to take those pictures so that I can say it.

Our local college campus offers a six week course for the beginner in the basics of photography.  It’s time now to learn how to use my camera.  I’ve only had it for a year.

Learning requires that someone teach me.  I’m not sure how easy that will be, but I am giving it a shot.  My DSLR (Nikon D700) and I head off to class once a week where we are getting to know one another.

I’ve only been to two classes and already I am amazed at how much I don’t know.  Actually, that’s a little intimidating.  But I am determined to learn.  Of course, it helps that I am loving it!

Image via CrunchBase

As you can see, I have not posted much lately.  That’s not because I don’t have anything to say.  It’s not because I don’t know how to say it.  It’s because I have been trying to learn how to get Google Analytics to work on WordPress.

I’m having a heck of a time.  And for anyone who has the knowledge and the intellect to have figured this out – AND would like to share that – I’m happy to learn.  However, I need step by step instructions because I am technically challenged.

I do have an excuse.  I’m busy   I’m sure you’ve not heard that one before.

I know that everyone is just a busy or more so than I.

Where can I go to learn how to get Google to analyse this blog?  Not the Google site itself, I’ve been there and have run around in circles trying to get it to work.

If you have taken the time to read this post I sincerely thank you for your time.  If you know of anyone who has easy to understand – step by step instructions to share  I would be sincerely thankful as well.

Did you FINALLY get someone to publish it?

Did you think they would market it for you?  How soon before you realized you had to do the marketing?  I’ll bet you didn’t realize when you wrote your novel that was just the beginning . . .

If you write it will they buy?  Not unless they know you wrote it.  No one knows you, so how are you going to sell this awesome work of art.  Being published does not mean you will sell your books.  Putting your title in Amazon does not mean people will see it.  If you are really lucky, someone somewhere who has a huge internet following will buy it, read it and give it a great review.  That might generate a few sales.

No, you have to market yourself.  Build your brand, build a website, get in the grove with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google + and who knows how many more.

You have to spend some time in building relationships with other successful authors, bloggers, book reviewers.

You should consider a virtual book tour.  They also take up much time, but you need to ask  yourself the question – do you want your book to sell?

If you are an author and have finally been published, I want to share with you one author’s opinion of the virtual book tour.  She shares her successes and trials honestly.

If you have finally been published, this is a good read with some great tips about getting yourself out there on a virtual book tour.

Related articles

• Virtual Blog Tours: The Good, Bad. . .and Ugly (blthompson.wordpress.com)

Ontario is a land of lakes.  Big ones, itsy bitsy teeny ones and everything in between.  You can find fishing, boating, water skiing, hiking, canoeing, kaiaking, sailing, white water rafting, ice fishing, snow mobile and ATV trails all in and around our thousands of lakes, rivers, brooks and streams.   For those of us who live here, we often forget to appreciate our good fortune.

Last summer we drove a few hours to get to Ganaraska where we then took a tour of the 1000 Islands.  This was a summer visit and I have wondered since what spectacular views the autumn would offer.  I do expect I will return to take this 3 hour tour again in the near future.

We also visited the Muskoka‘s and sampled two of their day cruises.  One with a meal, another without.  Both were spectacular and well worth the time.

Then of course, there is the Trent Waterways and they also offer very scenic boat tours.  You can read about them over at HubPages.

If you have a story about the lakes, rivers, streams and creeks of Ontario, please feel free to share!

Cruising in the Muskoka's

http://www.ontariotravel.net/TCISSegmentsWeb/main.portal?language=EN

Image via Wikipedia

It’s there, right in front of you.  The perfect shot for a totally awesome photo.  The early bird with a worm, a brilliant rainbow shimmering through the sky, your father’s tears of joy or the morning dew on the perfect spider web.  Only you don’t have your camera!  If you are lucky it’s close and you reach for it, prepare the camera for the shot, and click.  Nothing!  It doesn’t take the shot!

Another missed opportunity.  You have this wonderful camera that you paid a small fortune for because for a few brief months, you held this wild notion that you could become the next Art Wolf  or Frans Lanting

It’s time to take some classes.  You can read all you want but experience and knowledge is required.

I have encountered many such missed opportunities recently.  It’s time for me to go to school!

Related articles

• Making A Living with Nature Photography – Teaching – Part 4 (pixiq.com)
• Street Photography for the Novice (digital-photography-school.com)

So, because I have been reading and searching many different areas, I would like to share with you a blog I came across recently. This lady provides her own insights into writing for the web and offers some good solid opportunities.

If you are interested in writing for an income, I suggest you might like to read her blog – just click here to see it, or copy and paste this address into your address bar. http://writefortheweb.today.com/

Related articles

• Outlines Help You Write Better, Faster (journalistics.com)
• Secrets of the Writer’s Journey (mjtwrites.wordpress.com)

Image via Wikipedia

Making a living is important.  It keeps food on the table, a roof over our heads and allows for a bit of freedom with how we spend our free time.

Making a living writing requires a lot of work.  You either have to have the credentials, the experience or both.  Both is obviously better.  But even with both, you must also market yourself, source the work, make out the invoices, follow up with those who don’t pay their invoices, and much more.  It’s not just a matter of wanting to write, or even knowing how to write.  So many other things factor into the part about “making a living” writing.

That’s probably why I haven’t made that leap.  Not enough confidence in my marketing ability to make it work for me.  I could outsource it, but again, I have not taken the necessary time to even learn how to do that.

Instead, I work full time, spend much of my free time developing my hobby with photography and when I’m not busy, I take a few moments to write.  The internet is great for that, and there are even some places that offer payment of sorts for the time I do find for writing.  I have my favourite(s), but I have also found this fabulous lens that shares so many more than I was aware of.

If you are interested in making money online with your writing, you might want to check out this article.  It’s a good resource – especially for newbies.  http://www.squidoo.com/FreelanceWriterWebsites

Related Articles

• How to Become a Successful Freelance Writer…a Step-by-step Guide (becomeapaidwriter.wordpress.com)
• Why Mom Didn’t Make it as a Blogger (problogger.net)

Image via Wikipedia

If you want to write a book – at least one that people will read, you will want to write it with passion.  Your chances of success, however you define it, are ever so much better when the author is passionate about what she is writing about.

Sex – those hot steamy sex scenes that everyone says “sells” a book.  Don’t care to write them.  No, I’m not a prude – I’m just not interested in selling it.

Violance has always been a problem too.  Reading about people hurting others – or even following stories about natural disaters where people are hurt, churns the stomach and kicks up an instint headach.  Can you imagine what writing about it would do?

Science fiction has its possibilities.  Personal freinds of mine would make great role models for some types of science fiction.  They might suspect that I have based a persona (quite often not in a favourable light) after their character and that could cause some unpleasant moments and a wee bit of tention in the relationship.

Politicis and religion require not only passion but a certain level of knowlege and the ability to argue your points.  To write about either of these subjects you need a very thick skin, since absolutley no one is going to agree with you 100%.  I’m not big on confrontation.

• Sex
• Violence
• Politics
• Religion

If I don’t want write about these, what is left that anyone will read?

I’m sure there is a niche out there that is perfect for me.  Still looking for it

Related Articles

• Here is an example of an author who writes with passion.
• Here are some of her tips for writers

My dream as a young girl was probably similar to hundreds of thousands of other little girls as they were growing up.

Find the love of my life – get married and have children.

Now that I have been there and done that, and have some time on my hands as our children find the love of their lives, I have had some time to revisit some interests and hobbies.  One such interest has slowly turned into a passion –  for pictures.

Technology moves fast, and I thought that I was keeping up pretty well because I needed to know most of those things for my day job – you know – the one that pays the bills!

Technology in photography has certainly advanced enough in the last decade or two that I quickly discovered I had some serious catching up to do.  I’m still in that catching up process when time permits.

Digital.  I am loving digital photography!  I can make as many mistakes as I need to during the learning curves, and just delete them.  I am thrilled about that.  There is a sense of freedom that gives you to just take the dang shot, and find out if you are any good at it.

I’m not by the way -good at it that is.  I am however determined to improve, because I am loving it.

In an attempt to learn more, do more and be better, I have been a journey of a different kind.  A journey to find the right digital SLR camera.  I hope my research was good enough, and the one I chose is a good fit.  So far so good.

Here is one shot that I have not deleted.  Remember, this is a work in progress.

Related Articles

• Choosing our DSLR Camera
  
• Learning How to Become a Photographer (brighthub.com)

Image via Wikipedia

Early in the year I spoke of how my writing is heading in a different direction, and I promised more later.  Well, now is later.  :)

I have spent over a year now pretending to know what I am doing, and writing a blog about writing.   Thankfully I have had a few guest blogs that have actually added some credibility.

I am actually like a fish out of water; flopping around, splashing, and  making all kinds of noise – but ultimately not getting anything accomplished.  It has often given me pause and I have asked myself many times, “WHAT are you doing?”

I surprised my family recently by answer their question; “How’s the novel coming?”

The surprise came when I answered them truthfully suggesting that perhaps it is time I stopped kidding myself.  I’m not sure I have a novel in me.  It’s not that I don’t think I can do it – I’m pretty sure I can.  It’s just that I have not found the something that will engage my interest for the entire time it takes to create a work of art.

I have spent some serious time contemplating what exactly I do want to write about.  I don’t want to do what others have already “done”.  I want to write about something that means something, but is not so heavy that no one will read it.  I have two thoughts, but am not certain about either yet.

So, I want to be considered a ‘writer’, but I don’t know what to write about.   I’m thinking that most likely there are many others out there just like me – hopefully you have worked through this road block.  I’d love to hear how.

Related Articles

• Top Ten Tips on Motivating Yourself to Write (brighthub.com)
• 6 word memiors pdf (slideshare.net)