Best advice to a self employed person. 02/03/2012
 A it takes 3 things to be a long-term success. A skill, talent, or item worth marketing, public relations ability and good business sense. What is the point in being the best self employed motor mechanic in the trade if no one knows about you? We all know examples of the person with the brilliant PR ability who has sold a product that does not exist. My best advice to a self employed person is to develop the product, the public relations ability and the business sense all at the same time and work these equally. Then there is the millionaires who amass then loose huge fortunes because they had business sense to make the money but they failed to put that money into real tangible and salable assets, or a product you could market and the 'money' simply existed somewhere in cyberspace and could as easily be whisked away with a change in the market where as a paid for block of units on solid paid for land would have continued to increasing in value. Each are as important as the other. With only one of these three skills, you will never make it at all. With two of these skills you can make it for a short time but will flop eventually. All three skills are required to succeed, so work all those skills. This is especially important for people working in the creative field like artists and authors. Are you working at developing your skill or talent, PR and Business skills? Add Comment Made a Million on Amazon Kindle 01/31/2012
Even knowing this is a one in a million story, I think it's really exciting -- it shows the power of the new outlets and networks that are forming. What a thrilling time to be in the writing/publishing business. No one wanted to publish Amanda Hocking's novels, so she put them online. For a long while, she'd sell one or two books a day. Then, in June, it exploded. She's now part of an elite literary club: authors who have sold 1 million books on the Amazon Kindle. Self-Published Author's $2 Million Cinderella Story : NPR www.npr.org True Life 01/31/2012
 A friend suggests today something I have heard stated before. "Based on a True Story" is a very inept description, and what is a true story anyhow? The most demeaning label you can put on any work of art -- movie, novel, etc. -- is "based on a true story." In the first place, there are no "true stories"; all stories are fiction. Stories do not exist in the external world. Story is the form that human consciousness imposes on experience. And any given experience can be the seed of infinite stories. I was thinking in terms of there being many truths.Our lives are what we think they are, what others think they are and the question is, what are they actually. We all know people who are optimists and have a great live surrounded by events that would break a lesser person and others who think life not worth living surrounded by wealth and health. What is the true story of their lives? The fact that they live is possibly the only true fact much of the remained is subjective to interpretation by whoever tells the story. - thus I find it interesting, neither agreeing or disagreeing. Fabulous Action Plan for the Artist Author. 01/30/2012
   My Novel Dreaming Billabong is back from the proof readers and is ready for submission to a literary agent or publisher and it is time to make the new twelve month goals which will see either the sequel written or a stand alone novel. Now I am about to launch an ART SALE Kathy Shell Artist/Author 12 Months and beyond, action plan. FEB:, I list art for sale free shipping in Australia and internationally at cost. Also Pitching my novel to publishers and agents - ongoing until success. MARCH: I continue to sell any remaining unsold items but no new listings. APRIL:Easter: Wind up - Sales CLOSED - Planning new Novel & Travels MAY till January 2013 Write new Novel FEB 2013 - Possible Second chance offer art sale -IF, I do another. I had a great morning in the painting studio with the rep from Pack and Send who will be getting costings to me fairly soon of the shipping of my large Moorcroft Vase, Art Easel Kits, Metal detector, Framed ad unframed original Oils and watercolour paintings, Wholesale quantities of scrapbooking papers and prints. I will be focusing the next fortnight equally dividing my time between pitching my novel and getting these 'out there' where people can see them on line.  Thinks it's time to down the editing and go and see how busy the lap and hydrotherapy pools are at this time of day. Then, with my body warmed up - I hope to get a little bit of active jobs done when I get home. So open up the pool fence tampa I am heading out to town and to the Auqamoves Gym to go for a swim. Then I plan a fantastic evening back working in my novel and reading John Grisham's 'The Painted House. Sounds like a good plan to me, and I am feeling HEAPS better than before I headed out to join the gym yesterday. Yukky thing to say - to some I'm sure, but the swimming helped me with my coughing (I have mind CF) last night and have a lot more oxygen in my system today and feel heaps 'n heaps better than I've felt in weeks. Swimming is marvelous for lung issues. Pea and Bone Soup 01/22/2012
My husband grew up on Pea and Ham Bone Soup that his mother made. Personally I didn't like it. The ham bone was always too smokey or salted for my taste but I must admit it sure flavoured up a soup. My mum and I always made a beef thigh bone soup and we would ave added a swead to the recepie below and a lot of celery rather than those peas. The thing with soup is you don't really need a cook book, you look in the fridge and use whatever takes your fancy. I never added cream to the soup but I love a generous dollop of sour yogurt in the centre of the soup added just before serving. How do you like your soup? A friend shared her version on facebook - here it is. 1980 version of The Mennonite Cookbook. Then I'll share my differences. This is a good versatile recipe that allows for so much flexibility. Have fun with it! The ingredients & directions are in both Metric & Imperial.Yield: 5 L/qt. Serves: 10 or more Ingredients 1 - 1 1/2 kg/2-3 pounds soup bone 3 L/qts. cold water 15-25 ml/1-2 Tbps. salt 1 medium onion 1 medium head cabbage 4 medium carrots 3 medium parsnips 2 medium potatoes 125 ml/1/2 c pot barley 2 bay leaves 4 small chilli peppers large bunch dill large bunch parsley 1 can (284 ml/10 oz) peas 1 L/qt. cut tomatoes 1 conatiner (284 ml/10 oz) heavy cream Directions Place soup bone & water in 6 L/6 qt. pot. Bring to boil and simmer two hours. Add salt. Slice onion and cabbage. Grate carrots and parsnips. Peel and cube potatoes. Add fresh vegetables, pot barley and herbs. Let simmer for one hour. Add peas, tomatoes and heavy cream. Bring to boil and serve. Here's What I Did: I did not use cabbage, parsnip, or chilli peppers. I used whole peppercorns, & I used several more bay leaves, although I don't know how many. Instead of canned peas, I used frozen peas. I also used 3 potatoes instead of 2, & I didn't peel them. Mom told me that it'd be more like borscht if I'd used the cabbage, & I'm going to try that next time. She also said that if you don't want to use a bone, you can use prepared broth, but it might not be the same. I'm going to stick with the bones myself. I didn't grate the carrots - I peeled & sliced them, & I used fresh parsley & dill, & I just ripped up the parsley into various sizes. Instead of fresh tomatoes, I used canned, but either one works. I used whipping cream since that was the heaviest cream I could find, & I used a bit more of that than the recipe asks for. I followed the directions, & after the second boil, I let the soup simmer for hours to let it cook up even more. Balancing Activity and creativity. 01/21/2012
I have drawn the winner of the Rooster cartoon art fridge magnet competition. How is your creative and active balance day going? I have another two chapters back form my proof reader Linda :-). You won't see me for a few hours. I got five chapter synopses completed this morning, out of the 23 I need to do. Had a great interruption from daughter, grandchildren and dogs. :-) and we shared some garden produce. The bread delivery to the needy has been done and I'll fit some blogging in this evening around my little paid writing jobs. You Can't Scare Me I Have Children 01/19/2012
 I have One of these Kathy Shell artist Cartoon fridge magnets to give away FREE. (including postage or shipping cost. I'll choose a winner tomorrow night. I have never done a lot of cartooning, oh a little on and off over 50 years and lol, I've even taught it, I just never had the time to do a lot of it. I was mostly a fine artist who wrote non-fiction until I broke loose and began writing novels. This was an early attempt at a cartoon Fridge magnet. If you would like to win this fridge magnet for FREE then leave a comment in this blog post in the next 24 hours and I will select a winner tomorrow night, email you for your address and as long as I receive your details to send it to within a few days, it will be in the mail to the winner by this time next week. Have FUN and give it a try. The magnet is business card size. I have drawn the winner of the Rooster cartoon art fridge magnet competition. Melita is the winner. Thank you for entering Shelley and Melita. 
A nice grouping of 10 easy to do paid writing jobs in my work basket today is very much appreciated especially after working until 3 am last night sending out feelers for paid travel writing work to assist the winter holiday budgeting along. Freelancing (writing, art, anything) is a bit of a gamble at times but If you plug away consistently, it does happen. Stick with it, when they have work they will remember those who have kept up the promoting even when there wasn't work. Painting and sculpting was not compatible with my carer role. The writing assisted me over the grief I initially felt at putting aside my first career and it has been a lot of hard work changing career's at this end of life but this one 'works' with the carer job :-) and I'm loving it if not always the long hours involved. Cartoon Writing and Illustration. 01/16/2012
 Earlier this year I purchased some poetry writing books and books on comedy poetry writing and cleared a couple of tables to begin writing and illustrating children's books. I am one step closer today. It always concerned me doing caricatures about people without their express permission the way political cartoonists frequently do as some of those drawings are down right defamatory. I would not want to have to consult raleigh nc lawyers over my art work. I am planning a trip from Northern Victoria though the Goulburn Valley and the Dandenong Ranges to visit my family in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne and to attend a Cartoon Writers seminar that I have just won. This should be a great way of combining my artist skill with my novelist and travel writer professions. Writing and illustrating a children's story book that tackles some of the aspects of learning difficulties, has been a plan of mine for a while though my Australian novel has rather taken over from this, in importance this year. This will be a good break from writing and planning the pitch to publishers of my completed novel. Thank you Writers Victoria. I just won a place in this seminar and I am TRILLED. Organizing the trip to the big city and my notebooks, now :-). I had best go pack out bags, leave tomorrow, home on Thursday. Need to be a big girl and learn how to catch a train from the outer suburbs into a city I usually avoid like the plague...lol...'country girl here.' :-). Will be staying over nights with our daughter in the suburbs and Reg can stay with her while I take off for the day.. :-) WOW! Haven't done anything like this in a couple of decades. summer-school-cartoon-writing  |
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