Vivienne Diane Neal's Blog, page 79

ABC's for Dating a Single Mom

With Mother's Day approaching, we thought this article was timely.

Happy Mother's Day to all.


http://www.topdatingsites.com/blog/2011/abcs-for-dating-a-single-mom/


Submitted by Donna Cullen

Vook - An Established Leader In Publishing Content For Tablets, Smartphones And E-Readers Builds On Its Momentum For 2011

Vook is the leading mixed-media digital publisher that lights up the world's content and connects people around stories and ideas they love. A Vook unites words, videos, pictures and interactivity into new media experiences that allow users to engage with content the way they want. Vook publishes titles in a variety of genres, including lifestyle, business, entertainment, cooking, fiction and sports, working with authors such as Seth Godin, Deepak Chopra, Anne Rice, Gary Vaynerchuk, Slash of Guns N'Roses and Karen Armstrong. Vook partners with industry leaders including Simon and Schuster, Penguin Group, Harvard Business Press, Harper Collins and Hachette Filipacchi. Vook is based in Alameda, CA with offices in New York.
Called a Vook, Vook pioneered a digital mixed-media publishing form - that combines video, text, images and social sharing into a single, integrated experience. Vooks are specially created for tablets, smart phones and e-readers.
In 2010, Vook established itself as the leader in enhanced digital publishing by helping publishers, authors, and media companies re-create, distribute, and monetize their existing content in a new form. "We are very enthusiastic about Vook," said Richard Harroch, Managing Director at VantagePoint Venture Partners, in San Bruno, California. "The opportunity is big in digital publishing and the Vook team is a leader in this new world."
The company has formed strategic relationships with many of the leading book publishers and literary agents, and published Vooks with bestselling authors, including Deepak Chopra, Seth Godin, Tom Peters, Stephen Covey and Anne Rice. Recently, the company released JFK: 50 Days, a bestselling Vook for the iPad that features content created in partnership with Perseus Books and NBC Universal.
Vook has also launched its own digital e-book imprint, which will deliver as many as 500 'how to' and educational titles to the market in 2011. Vook was recently profiled in The New York Times Magazine, which described the company's products as "fantastic."
Given their passion for dating, Vook recently released a new videobook called Meet the Man of Your Dreams.
For more information about Vook, visit Vook. To publish a Vook, please visit publish.vook.com.
Media Inquiries for this Release:Jesse OdellLaunchSquadjesse@launchsquad.com415-378-8333
To Publish a Vook:
Matthew Cavnarmatthew@vook.com718-916-0953

An Interview with Geraldine Solon, Author of Love Letters

Geraldine SolonWe are pleased to welcome Geraldine Solon, Author of Love Letters. She was gracious enough to stop by on her virtual book tour, grant us an interview and share some of her food for thoughts when it comes to writing a novel.

Thank you so much for allowing our readers to get a peek inside of your world as a prolific author. Could you please give us a blurb about your book? Bridal shop manager Chloe Rogers will soon marry Richard Foster—so she thinks—until suddenly, she bumps into her childhood sweetheart, Josh Goldman, whom she hasn't seen in thirteen years. The sparks between Chloe and Josh fly, but Richard provides safety, financial security. Should she follow her heart or her head? The answer comes in a surprise twist. While cleaning her attic, she stumbles upon love letters written to her estranged mother forty years ago from a man she loved. When Chloe secretly brings them together again and sees how much time they've lost, she is challenged not to make the same mistake her mother made. Will Chloe opt for security or will she risk her heart and marry her true love?

What approach do you use when developing your characters? I create character sketches before I begin my novel. This allows me to differentiate my characters from each other. I want my readers to have a strong image of my characters and to be able to relate to them. I create characters that are flawed, realistic and have clear goals. Giving them a distinct voice and unique personality counts a lot.

Have you ever had writer's block, and if so, how did you overcome it.? I take long walks. It helps me clear my mind. Since I write two to three novels at a time, I take a break from one of them and focus on the other one when I have writer's block. It gives me the excitement to write another story and avoids redundancy on the current one.

When you sit down to start writing a book, what do you do? I write and let the words flow smoothly. It can be between 4,000-10,000 words. I only edit it after the first draft. I get the creative juices pouring and it's during this moment where I forget all rules about writing.

Are you planning to write any more books in the near future? Yes, my next book Chocolicious is going through the submission process. The story is about love, loss hope and redemption. I've provided the summary below.

A week after Blair Nightingale's husband, Larry, dies, she learns she's about to lose everything she owns due to a mistake Larry made. In an instant, Blair's life is transformed from rich, Silicon Valley trophy wife to poor, widowed single mom. Her only goal now is to provide for her daughter. As Blair begins to pick up the pieces, George- Larry's best friend and the man she truly resents—seems to always be around. When Blair is overwhelmed by all the challenges she faces, she seeks comfort in baking rich, filled, three-layered cupcakes that her grandmother once taught her, and Blair's life is changed forever.

What advice would you give to an aspiring author?
Keep Reading – Reading adds to your vocabulary and helps you identify your own style and voice as a writer. It also broadens your mind and gives you ideas. A good writer has to be an avid reader.Write as much as you can – I believe in the saying "Practice makes perfect." The more you write, the better you become. Writing is like a garden that needs to be nurtured for it to grow beautifully. Network with other writers – Writing can be a solitary experience and it's vital to meet people who share the same passion as you do. Joining writer's groups and attending events like Writer's Conferences, retreats and workshops is a learning experience and good investment to your writing. Build a brand – At this day and age, it's essential to build an online presence even before you've completed your book. Joining social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Red Room are good avenues to promote yourself to the public. Maintaining a website and blog will allow you to interact with lots of people.Never give up – There will be rejections but you have to keep moving forward. Before I got published, I started each day researching, learning and getting involved with other writers—anything that could bring me closer to getting published was my goal. Even best sellers, like Stephen King have faced similar rejections but they chose to keep going. Hard work, inspiration and perseverance are the keys to success. Where can our readers obtain Love Letters? Love Letters is available in both Ebook and paperback formats and can be purchased at the following sites:

www.amazon.com
www.barnesandnoble.com
www.solsticepublishing.com
www.smashwords.com


How can our readers get in touch with you?

http://www.geraldinesolon.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Geraldine-Solon/181823348524179
http://twitter.com/GeraldineSolon/


Thank you Geraldine, and best wishes in your endeavors.

Searching for Romance

 Divine MillsI am 37 year old, single  Christian female with brown-black hair and hazel eyes, is seeking a partner, age 30 plus, who is very sincere, caring, understanding, compassionate and honest to share her life with. She is interested in hearing from men worldwide. Please, she is not interested in hearing from prison inmates. Her interests are reading, movies, traveling, cooking, swimming and walking. Contact Ms. Divine Mills, PO Box EF 238, Effia, Takoradi W/R, Ghana.

Betterfly.com Launches: Says 'No' to Companies, 'Yes' to Betterists

Betterfly is the first website of its kind to exclude companies, focusing on people instead, and that gives it a strategic advantage, says founder Joshua Schwadron. "When searching for someone to teach you Spanish, give you a massage or improve your yoga technique, it's more important to know who the best person is, rather than knowing just the name of a language school, spa or yoga studio," Schwadron says. "Imagine if eHarmony.com told you that your future wife worked at Citigroup, but left it up to you to figure out who she is. Now what?"


Betterfly is a site that connects service providers with people who want to learn, look, and feel better. It provides a lot of utility for people who teach or offer a service, everything from dating coaches to dance teachers to beauty stylists.

Users might be interested in finding a dating coach, particularly one that specializes in online dating. Because the site has over 1,000+ services, there are so many options, and is a great place to set up date night. Who doesn't want to learn from a cooking teacher on how to make a romantic meal for two? Or maybe salsa dancing!


Since learning, looking and feeling better often involves finding the right people to help, Betterfly sets out to make that process easier and more efficient for its users and enables users to compare apples to apples, people to people. Users can refine their search based on more than 20 factors such as availability, friends' recommendations, verified reviews and value. "We're thrilled with the power and utility of our search. Most of those features are in place now, and we plan to release the rest when we begin our late-summer campaign to reach out to those on the other side of the equation: the people who want to be better," Schwadron says.


The current campaign is Betterfly's way of recognizing that the site needs Betterists™ to sign up and offer services before potential clients can harness the full power of its search tools. A Betterist is a person on Betterfly who offers a service to help someone learn, look or feel better. "There was no one word to refer to teachers, tutors, coaches, trainers, stylists and all the people who help others be better, so we created our own," Schwadron says. There is no approval process or cost to become a Betterist. "We don't want only experts or seasoned professionals on our site, because many of our users aren't looking for only the best — they're looking for the best for them. For example, a 9th grader who struggles with geometry doesn't need to work with a professional mathematician. Her perfect Betterist may be a classmate who got an A+ and charges only $10 an hour."


While conducting research for the site, Schwadron and his team found that two groups of Betterists each face a unique set of challenges that Betterfly can help solve. The first group, made up of people who work for companies, feels powerless to help themselves and their companies bring in business; they rely solely on their companies for new clients. The other group, people who are self-employed, continually tries to promote and re-promote their services across numerous websites, each supposed to serve a different purpose. Betterfly's free platform is built to give all types of Betterists the tools they need to brand and promote themselves quickly and efficiently, all in one place.


Each Betterist can create a free, highly customizable page that Schwadron says is "like a mini-website that can be made in minutes." Betterists can promote their qualifications, services, locations, special offers and payment policies, upload resources like instructional videos and lesson plans and even create their own blogs. Their pages display verified reviews from clients and have a real-time booking system to easily promote their availability and latest discounts. The availability calendar helps Betterists manage existing clients and attract new ones. Potential clients can even search by available time for a lesson or appointment in the same way that people can search Opentable.com for a dinner reservation at a particular time, without having a restaurant in mind.


Furthermore, Betterfly is unique because all reviews are verified. Only those people whom Betterists have verified as clients can write reviews. Once verified, the client may review anonymously or under his or her own name. "Many sites are plagued by false reviews and character assassinations. On Betterfly, every review you read is from a client the Betterist has personally verified, even the anonymous ones," Schwadron explains.


Betterfly has already attracted a wide range of Betterists who joined during the site's testing phase. Betterists include Christy McIntosh, an actress who has appeared in Law & Order: SVU and who offers acting lessons; Svetlana Vinogradova, a hair stylist who works for the Jean-Claude Biguine Salon in NYC and offers men's haircuts; Simon Boyar, a world-renowned marimba player who gives lessons between gigs; and Joanne Summer, a grandmother of eight who offers healthy home-cooking lessons on the weekends.


Founded in 2009 by Joshua Schwadron, 28, Beterfly is based in New York, NY. For more information, visit http://betterfly.com.

How to Date a Girl That Is Out of Your League

Following is a link that we would like to share with our readers.

http://www.topdatingsites.com/blog/2010/how-to-date-a-girl-that-is-out-of-your-league/  


Enjoy!

Submitted by Donna Cullen

Announcing the Launch of Fresh Goddess™ - A New Online Magazine for Women

A New Online Magazine for Women

Fresh Goddess™ is an online magazine featuring inspirational, informative and intriguing content for women of all backgrounds. Fresh Goddess™ offers women a dose of self-love merged with urban Zen flavor. Founder and editor, DuEwa Frazier created Fresh Goddess™ to inspire women to get ahead, shine bright and live with balance and inner clarity. Fresh Goddess™ addresses issues and perspectives related to health and wellness, spirit, life purpose, dating, relationships, beauty, style and more.

Frazier has experience creating online content for women. She previously wrote inspirational and self-help articles as a contributing writer for both MysisterMyself.com and MahoganyButterfly.com. Her popular column, "Fly Butterfly," featured inspirational essays and was published at MahoganyButterfly.com. Freshgoddess.com is among several of Frazier's online ventures including her internet radio show Rhymes, Views & News Talk Radio and official website DuEwaWorld.com.

An entrepreneur at heart, Frazier is no stranger to launching creative and successful businesses. She founded Lit Noire Publishing, a creative arts and publishing organization in 2002 with the release of her first book of poetry Shedding Light From My Journeys. Frazier has since published and edited several publications including the NAACP Image Award nominated anthology, Check the Rhyme. As a writer, her poetry, essays, editorials and arts profiles have been featured in Essence, Poetry Ink, Drumvoices Revue, Poetry In Performance, Reverie, Kweli, Allhiphop.com, DaveyD.com, Mosaic and many others.

Fresh Goddess™ readers can subscribe to the website, leave comments and follow the site via social networking. Visit Fresh Goddess and connect through social media at Twitter: @freshgoddess and Facebook: Fresh Goddess™ " Like " page.

Steps to Better Health and an Out of This World Sex life. :)

March is National Nutrition Month, a time to evaluate your food selections and eating habits. Here are a few recommendations to help you maintain a healthier lifestyle and maybe add more spice in the bedroom.
Phone calls have fewer calories than snacks, unless you eat and talk at the same time. Try to eat more nutritious snacks such as dry fruits, nuts and seeds.Eat in moderation.Go natural. Consume more whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables.When it comes to dessert, desert the table and limit your consumption of refined sugars.Go easy on alcoholic beverages. Get high on water.Check to see if your number is up by having your blood cholesterol tested. A desirable number is under 200.Become a private investigator and make it your business to examine food labels.Walk! Add more spice to your life. Use herbs and spices in place of salt.Expose yourself to the natural sunlight. This is one way to get your Vitamin D. About 15 minutes will do it.Limit your fat intake to fewer than 30% of your total calories for the day.Make meat a side dish and not the main course.Keep a tight rein on fry foods. Bake, boil, broil, poach or steam.These guidelines are just that, guidelines. There is no need to deny yourself when it comes to certain foods, unless you are on a restricted diet or under a health professional's care. Remember, we are talking about eating naughty foods in moderation not eliminating these foods from your life forever. Enjoy!

Online Dating: 5 ways to benefit your search by Ivana

It cannot have escaped your attention that the well-trodden paths of conventional dating have been looking a little empty of late as thousands of people are taking the game online. For many it's liberating and enables the shyer   among us to take the time to construct a profile and build a relationship slowly and carefully. Here are a few tips on how to make the most of this wealth of opportunity:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30528709@N07/4650134181/

1. Decide on your objective
Whether you're looking for casual friendships that might become something more or you're in the market for marriage, there are services to suit your every need. So choose your dating website carefully, as deliberate selection will lead to more fruitful results.
2. A recent – and natural – photo is vital
Of course it's tempting to use that old photo of you from 10 years ago, or the more recent one that's been edited to within an inch of its life, but by having something simple and likeable from the beginning, you're putting yourself in far better stead to meet someone real. Of course you don't need to show what you look like first thing in the morning right off the bat, but something natural and expressive of your personality and interests will make you far more compelling.
3. It's quality not quantity
Don't be afraid to be a little specific in your profile. It's important to remember you're looking for someone who responds to you, not a superhero with your face. So maybe you don't have aspirations to donate your possessions to charity and go off to find yourself on top of a mountain, but finding someone who'll veg out on the sofa on a Sunday with you will be far more gratifying in the long run than admiring responses from people who don't match you. The same goes for the emails you send: don't hedge your bets by sending mass proposals to as many people as you can; find some who truly interest you and message them individually.
4. Easy does it
A little apprehensive of the pressure that a full-on dinner date might bring? Why not try easing yourself into it with a quick coffee Think of it as something of a pre-date: it will enable you to scope each other out, without the nerves that can sometimes overtake potentially awkward situations, and you can decide to take it further from there.
5. Don't lose heart!
It isn't about finding anyone – it's about finding someone special. If you've chosen your dating website carefully and been realistic, then you're in the same boat as very many others looking for the same kind of thing. So don't be disheartened if your search appears fruitless to begin with: you're not looking for a quick fix, but a long-term conclusion, which deserves some time and patience.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30528709@N07/4650134181/

Meet Marian L. Thomas, Author of My Father's Colors-The Drama-Filled Journey of Naya Monà Continues

Marian L. Thomas, reared in Chicago but lives with her biggest-supporter—her husband and their spoiled but playful dog, Winston in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her Bachelor's degree in Business Communication, graduating Magna Cum Laude. Marian writes with a box full of colors in her head. Using the analogy of a crayon box to describe the struggles and journeys of women, has become her literary trademark. Readers have been captivated by her emotional appeal and her flare for reality that continues to be weaved within the pages of her books. Her debut title, Color Me Jazzmyne, went on to become an Amazon Best-seller. Reaching #1 in the Rhythm & Blues category, #2 in Inner-Child and #7 in Performance/Voice for the amazing melodious tones developed through the voice of her main character, Naya Monà. Color Me Jazzmyne was also ranked as one of the "Top 100 Books" - 1st Qtr 2010 by the Sankofa Literary Society Review.
Marian welcomes the release of her second book, My Father's Colors-The Drama-Filled Journey of Naya Monà Continues on March 1, 2011. It is sure to be another best-seller for the author as it takes you on the journey of four individuals that lead to one destination filled with betrayal, lies and shocking secrets.
Synopsis:
Naya Monà is back on another emotional and drama-filled roller coaster as she finds herself fighting to find her voice, discover her father's past and search for her daughter. How do you find a daughter you never knew you gave birth to?
Then there's Chris - her husband. How far would one go for love? That is the question that Chris wastes no time answering. He will do whatever it takes to remove his wife's pain, even if it means being the one to cause her the most.
Let's not forget Misty. Fame and Fortune have been the determining factor for Misty ever sense her father passed away. How far will she go, this time, to achieve it?
Introducing, Carl Thompson. Carl has found the love of his life, only she doesn't know it. Green eyes and hazel brown hair fill his dreams for the future. Does he have enough love for the both of them?
Join best-selling author Marian L. Thomas as she takes you through the captivating pages of My Father's Colors. This book is guaranteed to make you laugh, cry and get caught in the drama-filled story of a woman's journey!
You're invited to get to know the author by visiting her website at: http://www.marianlthomas.com/, where readers can view book trailers, purchase her books through online retailers or get signed author copies. Or you can send her an email at info@marianlthomas.com 
The Pit Stop Schedule:
http://www.assistingauthors.comhttp://azpublishingservices.blogspot.com http://www.lorisreadingcorner.com http://hotgossiphotreviews.blogspot.com http://waterytart23.blogspot.com http://lisahaseltonsreviewsandinterviews.blogspot.com/http://rhodesreview.com http://cindy-vine.blogspot.com http://kristenhaskins.blogspot.com http://authorsbyauthors.blogspot.com http://louisewise.blogspot.com http://bkwalkerbooksetc.blogspot.com http://walkermuse.blogspot.com

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