VS Grenier ~ Award-Winning Author, Speaker & Podcaster

~World of Ink Tour Schedule for J.D. Holiday~   December 1st  The Product Review Place http://productreviewplace.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=0lnk96wyqr6ya December 2nd Book Marketing Network http://thebookmarketingnetwork.com/profiles/blog/list?user=VSGrenier&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_url December 3rd The Writing Mama http://thewritingmama.blogspot.com December 4th VBT-Writers On The Move http://vbt-writersonthemove.blogspot.com/ December 5th Utah Children's Writer Blog http://utahchildrenswriters.blogspot.com/ December 6th RRRadio-Stories for Children with hosts: VS Grenier, D.M. Cunningham, Tiffany Strelitz Haber and Beth Navarro. Live Radio Interview at 11am MST (10am PST, Noon Central and 1pm EST) http://www.blogtalkradio.com/rrradio Call in number (646) 595-4478 December 7th KidsRead Blog http://kidsreads.wordpress.com/ December 8th Stories for Children Magazine FG Interview http://storiesforchildrenmagazine.org/pastfeaturedguests.asp

by Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ (mailto:shery@writesparks.com) There are many ways you can generate ideas you can use for your stories, articles  and other creative pieces. Start with the three ways given below: 1. Put Your 5 Senses to Work A simple but effective way to generate fresh ideas from a single concept, idea or  object is to describe or illustrate it using the 5 senses -- sight, smell, touch,  taste, sound. For you to do: Generate 5 specific images or concrete examples (one example for  each sense) for the following: - vindication (what's the smell of vindication? how does it taste? how does it  sound? what does it look like? how does it feel?) - hesitation - celebration 2. Take Advantage of Your Conflicts Conflict is a part of life. It's also a source of creativity. You only need to  look at yourself and examine your experiences to come up with ideas based on  conflicts. For you to do: What's stopping you from doing something? Who is in the w

Kevin McNamee is a writer and poet living in Yonkers, NY.   He primarily writes for the children’s market.  He has several children’s picture books published including If I Could Be Anything , The Sister Exchange , Lightning Strikes and The Soggy Town of Hilltop .  These books are available at Guardian Angel Publishing , Amazon.com , Barnes and Noble or ask your local bookstore.  Look for other titles coming soon by Kevin including Lightning Strikes, What Is That Thing, My Brother, the Frog, and more. When Kevin isn’t writing, he spends his time playing hide and seek, at the insistence of his five year old daughter, and at his day job, at the insistence of his wife.  When time permits, Kevin also enjoys fossil hunting, home-brewing beer, and gardening.  He is currently engaged in an epic battle against roving gangs of crazed squirrels who are digging up everything in sight.  Kevin notes that the squirrels are winning. To find out more about Kevin, please visit his website at http:

Developing effective time management strategies is critical to anyone who wants to get the most out of their efforts to increase productivity. Generally speaking that would pretty much be everybody! Who out there does not feel the time crunch every day presents to us as our 'to do' list continues to grow without the benefit of additional time to manage it? It seems obvious that since time can not be 'fabricated out of thin air' we must therefore learn to better manage what we already got. Here are 3 time management techniques anyone can apply immediately to squeeze the most out of their efforts leading to an increase in personal productivity. Self-Imposed Deadlines By placing a time limit on your work this serves to increase the 'pressure' on you which 'encourages' more focus on your part. We all know that when the pressure is on we tend to concentrate more on the source of the pressure itself. With a higher level of concentration we are able to in

ATTENTION AUTHORS & ILLUSTRATORS: The SFC review team at Stories for Children Magazine and the Families Matter blog is very interested in reviewing your book. Our magazine site posts book reviews monthly and lists all reviewed books in our SFC Bookstore. We will also email you the book review for use with your book promotion and marketing. All books reviewed by the SFC review team at Stories for Children Magazine and Families Matter blog will be donated to a local children's library or charity so more children can enjoy your work. If you are interested in Stories for Children Magazine's Book Review/Donation program, please visit http://storiesforchildrenmagazine.org/BookReviews.aspx   for more information. Please put "BOOK REVIEW/DONATION PROGRAM" in the subject line when contacting one of our many SFC Reviewers. They will send you mailing instructions and requests for anything other information needed. This is a great way to get your books "out th

Katie Hines has been writing snippets here and there as long as she can remember. When in 8 th grade, she wrote a short story called, “Underworld.” Then, in high school, she wrote several poems that were published in an anthology. Marriage and raising two children contributed to putting away writing for a few years, but she came back to it while in her 40s. Since that time, she has been a contributing feature writer and columnist for a local newspaper, has written several features articles for another area newspaper, and wrote religious and humor articles for an online Catholic ezine. Since the release of “Guardian,” in January 2010, Hines is currently working on another fantasy novel as well as a couple of chapter books, and is extending “My Name is Bib” into a full young adult novel. VS: Katie, it is so great to have you here today to chat about your love of writing. Now you’ve been writing for a very long time. However, you didn’t get serious about your writing until you decid

  What's the back story on the big story for "No Justice"?   by Darcia Helle   Some time ago, I served on a jury for the murder trial of a man accused of raping and murdering his girlfriend. While I had known that our justice system had flaws, this was a close-up view of those injustices behind our justice system. We, the jury, were not allowed to hear anything about the plaintiff’s past. His life was a locked box. The victim, however, had no such privacy. The defense attorney gleefully flaunted the victim’s past, including her sexual history from as far back as her teen years. I will never forget the look of anguish on her parents’ faces. The defense did a great job of spinning the tale and making the victim out to be less than virtuous. After a week of this, when we were sent to deliberate, only two of the 12 jurors initially voted for murder one. I was one of them. The other 10 wanted involuntary manslaughter, citing her behavior and his cocaine use as “excuses”.

Why Self Publish? - A Good Story Is A Good Story – Tuesday November 16, at 12 Noon –CST- Host Marsha Cook – Listen in while you have lunch. This weeks show is about the controversial subject - traditional publishing verses self publishing. Writing is a business and time is money. Special guest Robert Raymond, author of Entrepreneurs Guide to the Universe. Virginia Grenier will be joining Marsha Cook as well as Denise Spooner for a lively discussion. This show is as always informative and entertaining. The great discussions that come from a show like this are the conversations that can make a difference. Callers are always welcome and the chat room is always open with help from Denise Spooner. Please call in and tell us what you think. Phone -656-595-4478 - Call the same number to listen in - LINK TO SHOW -There is a podcast after live show - http://www.blogtalkradio.com/rrradio/2010/11/16/a-good-story-is-a-good-story-with-host-marsha-casp

Managing time efficiently when marketing on the internet is arguably the single biggest contributing factor for business success online. In addition to the myriad of responsibilities associated with an online business the internet also presents entrepreneurs with an ongoing atmosphere of change. This change in turn leads to new policies and techniques that need to be learned and addressed. When running a business these changes and challenges require the establishment and use of certain time management strategies. Of course the strategy you adopt needs to best fit your particular skills and preferences but some type of approach does need to be put in place. Here are 3 time management strategies that you can choose from to help you efficiently tackle the different challenges that may face you on a daily basis. These strategies mainly address the best times to 'schedule' any routine, difficult or unfamiliar tasks or challenges as they arise. Tackle New Challenges Immediatel