I recently read an article about the value of hugs – lower blood pressure, stress relief, emotional comfort and more.  Although I’ve looked for it again, I cannot find that specific article, but merely Googling a phrase related to the benefits of hugging will bring up hundreds of them.

An Irish folk singer, Ben Sands, wrote a song called “We All Need a Hug” that included this verse:

“Ah we all need a hug in the morning, and one at the end of the day.
And many as possible squeezed in between to keep life’s troubles at bay.
No matter where ever you ramble, our problems be great or be small.
It is my believe that for instant relief, a hug is the best cure of all.”

Virginia Satie, an American psychotherapist, is credited with determining an “RDA” for hugs, saying humans need “four per day for survival…

Chris Well

Guest post

Technology makes it easier than ever to shout out your message to the world. But these tools are available to everyone—and everyone’s using them. How can you be heard above the noise?

Publicity helps you rise above the noise. When you connect with influencers and let them spread your message, they reach more people than you can alone. With the right email—to the right person—you can get booked as a guest or for an interview.

Over my years working in the media, I’ve seen many do this wrong. Below are 13 tips to help you avoid some of their mistakes…

http://buildyourbrandacademy.com/blog/343409/13-quick-tips-about-publicity

Hello everyone and welcome to How To Wednesday-Saturday.

This post is later than usual due to my book Ethereal Lives being released last Wednesday. I’m afraid everything has been pushed to the back burner in the excitement, but I’m back now with a How To on editing. How to edit your editor’s edits.

Manuscript with lots of edits.

So, you send your book to your editor and after a great deal of waiting and thumb twiddling, it is finally returned to you, usually, looking something like this:

And, most often accompanied by this:

Editor’s Letter.

Here you have a manuscript with endless comments and corrections and a letter from your editor, usually broken down into segments, listing everything that is wrong with your work. It can be very daunting and leave you wanting to cry as you try to figure out how to fix everything. I know when I…

The inspiration for this list comes from the memory of having to return to the day job after a long weekend like we are having now. It seems the wounds are just beginning to heal and it is time to go back to battle only to be reopened again. This list has been developed so that the temptation to stay home on Tuesday is successfully avoided.

Top Ten Excuses Not to Use For Skipping Work

10 If you want to skip work, do not tell the boss your dog ate your driver’s license. If you do,  at best your boss will wonder why you can’t take public transportation. At worst, your boss will send a car only to discover that you are still in your pajamas. (What made you think the boss was going to be working and allow you to stay home huh, Bunky?)

9 If you want to skip…

Source: How to Start Your Story to Hook Your Readers – The Fictorians

by Katie McCoach

As an author, your relationship with your editor, your book cover designer, your agent, and your publishing house are all extremely important to your success. I believe in good and bad energy—what you put out, you get back in return.

Day to day, I work my tail off to be my clients’ favorite editor. If I can be in their list of best editors they’ve ever worked with, my relationship with them, and other clients in turn, will be more fulfilling.

Compassion is…

Compassion in life is a beautiful thing. But exactly what is compassion? I’ve always thought of compassion as love in action. After writing the poem COMPASSION, I searched Google to find a definition. The synonyms fit perfectly into my preconceived notion for the poem because they not only included love and mercy, each synonym requires action (stirring) on our part to metamorphose the ideaof compassion into the realty of compassion.

May compassion reign in our hearts and hands.

~ Bette A. Stevens

Google Search:

noun: compassion; plural noun: compassions

sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.

“the victims should be treated with compassion”