More ways to find me

I'm writing more than just this blog.  As a matter of fact, you've probably read something I've written and not even known it was from me; as a freelance writer, I spend a lot of time ghostwriting web content for others.

Now, though, it's time to branch out.  Here are some ways to find more from me:

• Examiner.com:  Have you checked out my column over on Examiner.com?  I'm writing every weekday about consumer issues, how-tos, taste and product tests and just general tips for ways to enjoy life better, less expensively and with less stress.  Examiner.com is a great website containing everything from hard-hitting news to celebrity and entertainment and everything in between.  Subscribe at the link above and never miss a day of ways to make your life better.
• Grandma Adventures:  The first book in my "Grandma Adventures" series, called "Grandma's Alphabet" is available on Amazon.com in both e-book and paperback formats.  The Grandma Adventures website is now running a serialized version of my new "tweens" book, "Tracking the Elephant in the Room."  Every week, I'm posting the next chapter of the story of twins, Aggie and Abby MacEwan, as they solve the mystery of the missing Kalahari Elephant.
• Business books and seminars:  I now have five business books available on Amazon.com, the latest of which is "Texts and Email Are Ruining My Life!"  And I'll be coming to a city or company near you during 2016, with Lunch & Learns about things like email management, time management and how to provide feedback to your team without conflict.  For more information about having me speak to your company, email me at laurie@right-scribe.com and we'll get you all the information!

I'll continue to post here when something new comes up as well as my usual thoughts about what's going on in the world, so thank you for following me on this adventure!  I appreciate it more than you know.

New book available on Amazon.com!

The latest book in my "Grandma Adventures" series is now available on Amazon!  Called "Grandma's Alphabet," the book is designed to encourage communications between adults and children, especially older adults and grandparents.  For those without grandparents, it helps foster love for older ones by showing they can be fun, silly and full of laughter.

"Grandma Adventures" is a book series with three sections:

• Early childhood:  Books will include alphabet, colors, animals, numbers and other primary learning tools for little ones.
• Childhood:  Grandma Laurie will take older children on adventures by letting imagination turn a backyard into a safari, a kitchen into a restaurant and a bedroom into a scavenger hunt.
• Pre-teens:  Follow the adventures of Aggie and Abby MacEwan, twins with a special knack for solving mysteries.  Written similar to the Nancy Drew Mysteries, these books will encourage reading for fun.

Join in the fun!  First, go to Grandma Adventures page for serialization of my new pre-teen book, "Tracking the Elephant in the Room," then go to Amazon and order a copy of one of my books, ranging from business books to children's books.

Thank you so much for your support!

"Texts and Emails Are Ruining My Life!!!" Latest book is live!

Are you addicted to texts and email?  Does your family complain that you're spending more time looking at your phone than talking with them?  Do you take your phone into the bathroom so you can quickly reply to texts and email?

There are solutions to ridding yourself from these problems and they're addressed in my latest book:  "Texts and Emails Are Ruining My Life!"

One of the biggest problems with texting and emails is the fact that they are one-dimensional.  When you send a text or an email, the recipient can't see your face or body language, which can cause an issue if your language is misunderstood.  Sending what you think is funny may be offensive to someone else, especially if they can't hear your voice in their heads and know what you mean.

For example, a business man went to China for the first time, on business.  He had communicated with his Chinese counterparts by email to set up their meeting but had never spoken to them or met them in person.  He texted those he was supposed to meet and asked where they were to meet; he couched the language as a joke, one he and his friends would have understood and laughed.  Unfortunately, those he texted didn't get the joke and thought he was making fun of them.  Needless to say, the joke ultimately was on the American business man - he lost the account.

Could he have avoided the problem?  Certainly.  There are three questions to ask before sending a text:  Is it necessary?  Is it simple and understandable?  Can it be done better on the phone or in person?

Other topics covered include how to tell if you're addicted, text and email truths, getting yourself rebalanced and keeping up once you get there.

Get your copy of "Texts and Emails Are Ruining My Life!" at Amazon.com !!

Writing For My Life - New Book Announcements!

I haven't posted in a while, not because I have nothing to say, but because I have too much to say.  As a freelance writer, I spend most of my days writing for other people - putting their ideas and dreams into readable form.  And when you write for others, sometimes, your own thoughts get lost.

When my most recent contract ended, I was at a loss - what was I going to write today?  I had to look for more work, but while I was between gigs, I decided I would write - just write.  The result?  Two new books.

My best friend teases me all the time, that she's the brawn and I'm the brains of the operation.  She's a retired firefighter, now living in New York, working on a large volunteer construction project; I'm so proud of her.  I wish I had the talent or the health to be able to do what she does.  I can't lift, walk, stand or do anything that requires any physical strength.  I wouldn't have the first idea about driving a forklift, something at which she excels.  So I'm consigned to sit and write.

Julie laughed when I told her I was going to write a book while between jobs.  "I don't know anyone else who would just sit down and decide to write a book while trying to find work."  We're quite a pair.

Anyway, the result of this period of forced non-working is that I've written my second children's book, which will ultimately be part of a childrens' book series called, "The Grandma Adventures."  This book is "Grandma's Alphabet," a simple alphabet book for toddlers, designed to be read with an adult and encourages conversation.  My beta readers love it and I've started a Publishizer campaign to help raise money to have it professionally illustrated.  No one wants to see what my drawings might be.

The second book came as the result of a conversation about my email management book, "Help!  My Email Is Ruling My Life!"  The book was originally intended to help new managers get a grip on their email, which explodes when one goes from being managed to managing.  Things have changed so much just since the book was originally written in 2012, to the point where everyone needs help not just with email, but also with texting.  What is the etiquette of texting?  How many texts in a row are too many?  So I decided it was time to refocus my original book and go with something fit for anyone, not just those in business.  The title is still being worked out and beta readers have given us some really great feedback.

We'll post more as we get closer to publication.  In the meantime, thank you so much for your support.  Can't wait for everyone to see what's next!

For The Love And Hate Of Clients

My cry-baby face

Everyone who runs their own business - whether as a solo-preneur/freelancer or with a few employees - knows the mix of joy and pain when dealing with clients.  Clients are the life blood of any business.  They keep us up nights trying to figure out how best to serve their interests.  We skip meals and put our lives on hold when we have a client deadline.  We give our all for our clients.  So why do they drive us crazy?

Well, first of all, some customers ARE crazy.  Yes, most are lovely people you become friends with but come on - admit it.  It's the elephant in the room - some are just bug-nutty.  One of the biggest debates I had with the host of the radio show I produced was customer vs business owner.  The host's view was that the customer is always right and there are no exceptions; my view was sometimes customers are just plain crazy.

The problem is we depend on our customers, crazy or not, for our livelihoods.   And I've got a doozy I'm dealing with right now.  They're my biggest customer; ditching them isn't an option right now.  So I'm writing this to avoid saying something to them I will regret later.

The client in question started out as a wonderful client and continued that way for months and months.  Then, they got struck by lightening or stop taking their meds.  Deadlines started randomly changing, moving up ten days, then moving back 20.  I started staying up late to meet their shortened deadlines, working weekends and late into the night, and then would be told, "Oh, yeah, we moved that deadline back.  Ooops, sorry - we forgot to tell you."

Part of the issue when we get these nightmare clients is that we second-guess ourselves. Is it something we've done?  Are we misunderstanding?  It all comes down to communications and most clients, unfortunately, aren't good communicators.

As a writer, I'm in the same position as any other freelancer - everyone thinks they can do  what you do.  Of course, if they really could, they would be doing it themselves instead of hiring you.  I had a potential client last week tell me he could write his content, because he had been a content creator for a short time, but he just didn't have the time.  Unfortunately, he couldn't communicate to me exactly what he wanted, so I couldn't write what he wanted.  At the same time, by reading his emails and looking at his website, I could tell exactly why he was no longer a writer - the misspellings, incomplete sentences and horrible grammar were enough to make me weep.

I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone half the time.  I get emails from some customers saying, "We hate this article.  It's awful," but when I read their comments within the article, they only want two sentences reworked and then they love it.

I finally figured out how to deal with the ever-shifting world of nightmare customers - just give them what they want, when they ask for it, and then move on.  In the meantime, if you see me in the corner, drooling and babbling, just give me a hot cup of tea, a great book and a Snickers; I'll be ok in an hour.

Let's Begin Again

Welcome!  This blog is just me, espousing nonsense and my own ideas.  What follows is some background and ground rules.  If you're up for it, thanks for stopping by and by all means, read on.

What you'll find here:  First, a warning - this blog is going to be completely random.  There will be plenty of consumer advice, some about food, lots about Doctor Who and my cats, as well as non-descript stuff about being a grandma and a writer.

The opinions expressed here are mine alone.  They're not up for debate (so don't try to debate me).  They're not open for lengthy discussions (no, I'm not afraid of discussion, I mostly don't care).  If you're here to find something to be mad at me about - go away; there will be plenty of other opportunities elsewhere.  If you're here to read, read on.  If you're here to support or are looking for support - welcome.  If you're here for entertainment, I hope to supply that.  Otherwise, you're in the wrong place.

A little about me:  I've had several blogs around the Internets over the years - Lonely Gourmet, Lonestar Consumer, Biz Bootcamp.  I've worked on them diligently for a while and then, after a few months or a few years (depending on the subject), I've turned my back on them.  Why?  Because I got busy.

When I first started seriously blogging back in 2006, I was working for another company.  It was a rather soul-crushing experience, on call 24/7 managing 4000 medical transcriptionists all over the world.  I needed a creative outlet to really make a difference in someone's life and I think I did, first with consumer advice under Lonestar Consumer, and later with my food blog, Lonely Gourmet.  The result?  Five books published that ended up being very popular in Russia and Eastern Europe.

So I start again, under somewhat different circumstances.  I'm now a "real" writer.  After writing and publishing my books, I felt somewhat better about calling myself a writer but now, I'm actually, really, truly, a writer.  What am I writing?  Mostly articles for print magazines, blog posts for other people's blogs, ghostwriting books about internet programming, editing other people's books and having an absolute blast.

Because I've been writing so much for other people, I figured I didn't need that creative outlet any more, but I was wrong.

Lately, I've been participating in a writers' group and the experience has been really awesome.  I realized I still didn't have a place I could write about anything, without purpose.  The food blog had to be about food.  The consumer blog had to be about consumer advice.  Now, it's time to have a blog about nothing - a Jerry Seinfeld-type blog.

All that being said -- let's get started!