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Back Steps to improve self-esteem
In this factsheet
Feeling down about yourself is one of the many characteristics of low self-esteem. Learning about its causes, and taking practical steps to build your self-esteem, can help to overcome your negative thoughts. But if you feel like nothing’s working, there is also professional support available.

This might help if:
You have low self-esteem
You’d like to learn how to build self-esteem
You’d like to know the causes of low self-esteem
Signs of low self-esteem
It’s totally normal for people to feel down about themselves from time to time, but when these feelings start to hang around all the time it’s usually an indication of low self-esteem. If you have low self-esteem it…

I never realize that the things I say can actually affect other people. One of my struggles is prudence, the realization that what I say can actually affect people. But, it does. The words that I say actually affect other people. I generally don’t realize it until it’s too late. I seem to think I have a pretty good read on people, and this comes into play when I realize what I just said actually affected the person negatively. As in my previous post, I struggle with pride: so I’m not gonna change. In fact, why should I change it’s the other person who needs to change! Yeah, right….. That doesn’t work. Sometimes you are the problem. Sometimes you are called to change yourself, actually scratch that, you are always called to change yourself. (pride and imprudence, not a good combination to have)

The reason I write this specific…

1st
Don’t let someone become a priority in your life, when you are just an option in their life. Relationships work best when they are balanced…

2nd
Never explain yourself to anyone. Because the person who likes you doesn’t need it and the person who doesn’t like you won’t believe it…

3rd
When you keep saying you are busy, then you are never free. When you keep saying you have no time, then you will never have time. When you keep saying that you will do it tomorrow, then your tomorrow will never come…

4th
When we wake up in the morning, we have two simple choices. Go back to sleep and dream, or wake up and chase those dreams.
Choice is yours…

5th
We make them cry who care for us. We cry for those who never care for us. And we care for those who will never cry…

Today April the 29th six years ago I went under the knife for a liver resection to take out a 22 centimeter cancerous tumor along with 80% of my liver.

That day even though my heart was at peace for myself, I was scared and hurting deep for my two babies that at that point I thought would have to grow up without their mother like I did. That thought was painful. And of course my husband, my groom, my best friend would have to live a long Life without me.

There I was on that little bed, all set to meet my maker; really, I thought that was going to be my day. In fact, my doctor didn’t think I would make it through and if I did, he believed I would need a liver transplant.  Well, after an 11 hour surgery procedure, I woke up the Intensive Care…

by Destine Williams

Hey everybody! It’s Meditative Monday which means that it’s time for tea, coffee, thoughts, and me sounding more like a fortune cookie than usual.

Over the weekend, I had time to celebrate with friends and family, but also I’ve had time to reflect on becoming an author and now I think I can actually translate the feelings into some valuable things that I learned on writing.

Colonial America, in the United States, covers the history of European settlements, starting at the beginning of colonization and continuing until the incorporation of the United States. In the late 16^th century, England, France, Spain and the Netherlands launched the major colonization programs in the eastern part of North America. Early on, small attempts would often disappear, such as the Lost Colony of Roanoke from England. The death rate was very high among the first arrivals all over North America. Nevertheless, the successful colonies were established over several decades.

European settlers came from a variety of social and religious groups as well. There were few aristocrats that permanently settled, but a number of adventurers, soldiers, farmers and tradesmen arrived. Diversity became an American characteristic, as settlers came to a new continent. Including the Dutch of New Netherland, the Swedes and Finns of New Sweden, the English Quakers of Pennsylvania…

I’m here to help stop the madness. You know the one. The insanity that accompanies the “fun” of writing a book blurb. Attacking is more like it . . . I could stab it upside the head if it had one. But alas. Don’t let my bitterness get to you. In fact, use it to rise above me . . . with my own help, ironically. So let’s just get straight to it:

What on earth is a book blurb and why do you need one?

A book blurb is an important tool in convincing your readers to buy your book. Essentially, it’s a sales pitch. And you want it to be KILLER.

A reader will browse the shelves (or Kindle), and will find themselves intrigued by that amazing book cover of yours. Yay! You caught their attention. But you need more than that. You need to make…

Writing dialogue is messy. Am I right?

It has so many rules, it makes me wish I’d gone with my original plan in life. I’d intended to become an all-in-one supermodel-psychologist/part-time medical researcher. What? I thought I wanted to save people, discover things, and change the world wearing a tiara and killer heels. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I just wanted to sit on my couch drinking coffee and writing all day while wearing no pants.

Plus, apparently my status as a supermodel got cut short (no pun intended) by my lack of height. And love of cake. Also, had I continued studying psychology, I’d have been forced to stop listening to the voices in my head . . . and that was SO not cool. The thing was . . . I didn’t know how to properly punctuate any of my internal…

Things I’ve learned since publishing my first book and this list isn’t all inclusive. 

1. Some vanity publishers and small presses don’t have your best interests at heart. Hence my first costly mistake and I mean thousands of dollars.

2. Most charge for editing, other packages, etc that many first time authors don’t have the money for. Yes – I paid them and in return I received unsalable books. Boxes of them. A lot of boxes.

3. Once burned (like I was) you may feel like giving up. Don’t do that! 

4. My first book, a memoir, When Angels Fly, is under revision number five, and from five different professional editors. With each successive editor I became more depressed as each one kept finding errors. This fifth time is the last one, the final edit, and my editor is a wonderful actress, voice coach, and screenwriter who lives in NYC, and she is…

Originally posted as the Dun Writin’—Now Whut? series on this blog, EDITING 101 is a weekly refresher series for some of you and brand new for others.

Courtesy ofAdirondack Editing

Using the five senses

I love it when an author decides to use the senses in writing their descriptions. It’s so rarely done, it seems, that it keeps the story fresh and exciting for me. Let’s talk about some ways to incorporate each of them into your descriptions—without going overboard, of course! Nobody wants a blow-by-blow listing of everything your main character smelled in a day, especially if he’s a homicide detective in the morgue!

When using any of the senses in writing description, you want to remember “Show, don’t tell” to get the most effectiveness out of it.

• Taste

Your first cup of coffee in the morning—does anything taste better? Or, on the other hand, it can be your biggest…