Table of Contents

Interview With Brenda Novak

A Lust for Color

Goal Setting - Get it in Writing

The Procrastinator’s Guide to New Years Resolutions

Think Big, Start Small

Happiness

In the land of Cinderellas, I am a pumpkin

Writing

Get it Written

Promotional Pointers

Branding for Writers

Most Literate cities

Movies

It was 1984...

Letters To The Editor

On Plagiarism

Food

Whadya mean there's no Chocolate on this diet?

Fiction:

Kellyn's Sacrifice

From Samhain Publishing

January eBook and Print releases

Editors

J.C. Wilder, Managing Editor

Anne Cain

Ciar Cullen

Lauren Dane

Gia Dawn

Carolan Ivey

Lorelei James

Isabo Kelly

J.L. Langley

TJ Michaels

Ashleigh Raine

Beth Williamson

Letter From The Editor

    Welcome to 2008! Set your goals, dream big, and work hard. A clear and simple plan for success. This month’s Samhellion will help you do just that.

   Check out Branding for Writers by Sharon Cullen, Toni Meilleur’s guide to healthy weight loss, Goal Setting by Christyne Butler and Shiloh Walker’s Get it Written.

    Lauren Dane offers up some tried and true Promotional Pointers, while Isabo Kelly has advice on how to put it all off until later in her Procrastinator’s Guide to Resolutions. 

Coming June 2008

Interview with Brenda Novak

Pam Champagne

   Happy New Year, Brenda.  I’m amazed at all you accomplish with your busy life.  I know you must have your hands full with five children, which leads me to my first question.

   How do you schedule your writing and promoting around your family life? 

   It’s a constant juggle. I remember trying to type with a babe in arms. LOL.  Fortunately, my children are getting a little older and that makes working while parenting much easier. I pretty much stick to the kids’ school schedules (work while they’re in school). When I travel for speaking engagements and conferences, it can get tough on my husband, but my mother-in-law generally helps him out.

   What inspired you to write your first book?

   I caught my daycare providing drugging my children with cough syrup while I worked as a loan officer. After that I couldn’t trust anyone with the care of my children and quit my job to stay home with them—but needed to find some way to help out financially. I was reading a good book and thought, “Hey, maybe I can do this!” LOL

(More, More!) 

A Lust For Color

Carolan Ivey

Hi, Juli! Welcome to the Samhellion and thank you for agreeing to submit to interrogation…er, be interviewed. Please tell us a little about yourself.

   Ooh, interrogation. You'll never make me talk, copper! I mean... ahem. Let's see - I'm 43, married, and the mother of a teenage daughter—pretty indistinguishable from most suburban women my age. Only with more tattoos and a much weirder music collection.

(Thank you sir, May I Have Another?)

Goal Setting – Get It In Writing!

Christyne Butler

   I’ve been told the most important thing about goal setting is getting it down on paper. Take that pen, colored marker, crayon, blood—okay, maybe not that one—a piece of paper and write it down. Don’t use pencil; it tends to fade over time. With all the constant folding, unfolding, refolding, crunching into a tight ball, smoothing back out again you’ll be putting this paper through you will need a substance that can hold up to all that pressure.

(My goal is to read MORE!)  

The Procrastinator’s Guide to New Years Resolutions

Isabo Kelly

   It’s that time again when we all start thinking about the upcoming year. Some of you might even want to make some goals, or resolutions, to help you achieve your dreams in 2008. This is an excellent idea. Goals give us targets and motivation. And we all need a little motivation from time to time.

   But, don’t get ahead of yourself. Resolutions are important. You shouldn’t just set them willy-nilly. You have to give them thought, consideration, respect.

   First and foremost, you’ll have to write your resolutions down on paper. This is a fundamental step. If the goals aren’t on paper, well they just aren’t real, are they? But you can’t use any old paper. You need really good paper, high-quality stuff that will take the ink. It may take some time to find the right paper. Don’t rush the process. If you use just any old paper, you’ll end up putting a cup of coffee on your yearly goals and forgetting about them. You don’t want that! So you need the perfect paper.

(More, More!)

Think Big! Start Small!

Toni L Meilleur

   The holidays have passed and as usual they leave behind a turbulent wake of bills, guilt—and extra weight. First instinct, of course, is to get those pounds off as fast as possible. This hurried type of thinking leads to crash diets, large, unhealthy weight loss goals, and time conflicts. It's a cocktail for disaster. The end result is often more water and muscle loss than actual fat—and that actual fat will still be there.

(I'm so bloated!)

Happiness

Ann Warner

   "Smile.  You'll feel better if you do."

   Chances are most of us heard this conventional Mom wisdom as children, and we've probably repeated it to our own kids.  But, does it work, or is it just one of those trite phrases we trot out without thinking?

   Scientists to the rescue.  Scientists, of course, are those among us who focus on the important questions--the who, what, why, where, when and how of the universe, although in spite of this, scientific investigation can have its lighter side.  Take for example the study of "The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers".  The disconcerting, disintegrating dungarees were discovered to be a direct result of the inauspicious merger of ragwort herbicide and cotton (reference available on request).

(Bring on the smiles!)

In The Land of Cinderellas, I am a Pumpkin

Kerri Augusto

   I recently attended a meeting at another area college where professors utilize teaching assistants.  During the meeting, one of the hosts turned to her student assistant and said, “Why don’t you clean the coffee pot and make us a fresh pot? I’m really busy right now and I could use a boost.”  Coming from a “do-it-yourself” environment, my jaw nearly fell to the floor.  Beside me, my colleague reinforced my reaction with a jab in the ribs and a whispered, “Hey!  I want to be a princess too!”

(Where is my coach!)

Get it Right Get it Write Get it Written

Shiloh Walker

“I always wanted to write  a book.”

I think nearly every writer has heard this line.  Probably all writers have heard this line.  Often.

It’s one I heard frequently and my general response is… “Why don’t you?”

“I’ve got this great idea, but I don’t know where to start…”

“I’ve got this great idea, but I don’t think I can write it…”

Great ideas are wonderful.  Speaking from personal experience, I love it when I have an idea come at me like lightening.  Even if it’s one that seems too hard to put into words, I love it.  Those lightening strikes are the moments the writer in me lives for.

(More words?)

Promotional Pointers – Your Website

Lauren Dane

Buy your domain. It’s not very expensive but it’s one of the best outlays of money you’ll make. Don’t make readers guess how to find you. www.yourauthorname.com or www.yourauthorname.net  if you’ve got a very common name and .com is taken. It’s also important to remember domain squatters make a pretty penny off people by scouring the internet for new businesses and buy the domain and then sell it back to you at ridiculously inflated prices.

(Help!)

BRANDING FOR WRITERS

Sharon Cullen

    The first time I had heard about branding for writers was a few years ago, and I must admit, I just didn’t understand it. Why brand yourself? Why narrow yourself down to a few choice words when your work is so much bigger? Of course I was a newbie then, and so what did I know?

    George Jones, president and CEO of Borders Group, said it best in an interview with shelf-awareness.com.  “I learned the power of brands, building brands and consistently offering brands.  Harry Potter, Batman and Superman were so much more than just movies. We can apply elements of that here.  Of course, customers won't buy books by publisher, but ‘authors are a brand,’” he said, citing John Grisham, Carl Hiaasen and James Patterson.

(Brand me!)