Kathleen Smith's Blog, page 26

Brooklyn Raised / Livin’ Upstate

Two years ago my husband approached me with an idea for a new book. He thought it would be a good idea for me to write another memoir. This new memoir would be about what it was like for me growing up in Brooklyn, New York. It sounded like a good idea so I agreed.

So over the past two years I slowly put together my thoughts and memories from when I was growing up. I do have many fond memories. At the same time my husband and I came up with other ideas that would be good to put in my new book. Like sharing what it was first like for me moving and living in Upstate New York and raising a family.

At the end of these two years my mom became sick and passed away. This led to me writing more and having more to put into my new book. I have to say when I wrote about my mom for this book, it wasn’t easy for me. I did some crying because of how much I miss her. Over all I like the way my new book turned out.  I am hoping my new book will make people laugh and maybe even cry a little.

My new book is called ” Brooklyn Raised / Livin’ Upstate”. I put my new book in three parts to make it easier for my reader to understand. Part 1 is called “Growing Up In Brooklyn. Part 2 is called ” Living in the Country” and Part 3 is called “Good – Bye Mom” .

Right now my book is available on the Kindle. I am hoping by the middle of the week it will be available on Paperback. My husband will be working on getting my book in the ibook store and the Nook. It all takes time. For now I hope you will enjoy reading my book on the Kindle.

Brooklyn Raised / Livin’ Upstate

Looking At Old Photo’s

Recently I’ve been looking at old photo’s. I love doing this. It brings back so many memories. I find when I’m looking at our old photo’s I hear myself saying “Oh I remember that!” or I will start to “aw” a lot.

Some of our old photo’s have made me laugh. Some of them have put me close to tears. The ones from when I was little, at my grandparents house, have been precious for me to look at. Then there are the photo’s of me when I was a baby. Those I haven’t seen in YEARS! I tend to forget how I looked as baby. Then I look at me now, ha how I’ve changed!

Then there are the pictures of my family, my husband, our kids and all that we have done together. We have managed to capture so many precious memories over the years thanks to all the pictures we have taken. From the pictures my dad took when I was a baby to all the pictures my husband and I have taken over the years, we have some great memories.

I am truly thankful for all these photo’s that we have taken and I am truly thankful for all the precious memories we have made as a family

 

No Blog Today, Editing New Book

  

Waiting For the Doctor

Going to a doctor’s appointment can be time consuming. At least my family and I find this to be true. 

We alway do our best to either get to the Doctor’s office on time or early. It usually doesn’t take that long for one of the receptionist to take our information and such. After that we usually only wait a few minutes for the Nurse to call us in. After that is the usual, taking of the blood pressure, the temperature and all that stuff. 

As the Nurse is walking out of the room she tells us the Doctor will be with us in just a few minutes. What really happens is this waiting game. They say it will be a few minutes,but it never is. 

We always wait anywhere from 20 – 45 minutes for the Doctor. It’s gotten to the point for our family that we take bets to see how long we really will have to wait for the Doctor. I’m usually right. Go figure, huh. 

I really don’t understand this. I don’t get why we have to wait so long for the Doctor to get to our exam room. I do find it annoying. All that waiting and the actually visit with the Doctor takes about 5 minutes. 

Can someone please tell me what’s up with that? 

Does anyone else have this problem with their Doctor’s office? 

  

Kindle, Nook, iPad or Paperback

Reading books……….

In days past when people wanted to read a book, they would go to a book store like Barnes and Noble. They would buy their book there.  If not there then they would go to Borders. If not a big book store then maybe they would find a small book store run by a family. After buying the book people would bring it home and read it.

These days book reading is very different. These days if people want to buy a paperback copy of a book they usually go through Amazon.

These days most people like to use the Kindle or the Nook for book reading. Other people like to use iBooks. It is certainly a different world now that people can read books on these devises. For the most part it makes it much faster to buy a book and be able to read it right away. There are still some people who would rather read a paperback book then use one of these devises. There may not be as many of these people out there anymore, but they are still there.

For me as a reader I prefer reading paperback books. I like having the book in my hands and being able to flip through the pages of my book. When a book I want to read is only available on the Kindle, I give in and I read it on my iPad. Sometimes I will get the book on my iPad just to help a fellow author out.

For me as an author I’m always grateful for whatever way my readers want to read my book. Kindle, Nook, iBook or Paperback. I’m really good with my book being read any of those ways. Now since my book has been published and since I made a revised edition, I’ve noticed different things.

When I first published my book, my sales were pretty even through out the board. After awhile I noticed a couple of different changes. Paperback sales don’t happen as much. At one point I was getting more Nook sales then I was Kindle sales. Then I was getting more Kindle sales then I was Nook sales. Now I get more iBook sales. Watching my book sales and seeing where I am getting them the most makes me wonder.

What do readers prefer to use the most when reading. Do they like using the Kindle? Do they like using the Nook?  Do they like using iBooks? What do YOU prefer to use when reading?

This is where I get to tell you about my book. My book is considered a memoir. My book is about how I managed to get through 3 miscarriages. I share how my marriage became stronger because of my miscarriages. I share how my relationship with God became stronger because of my miscarriages. When my readers, read my book they find that it’s like sitting down and having a conversation with me. I’m thankful to know that my book has been able to help women get through their own miscarriages in the U.S. , UK, Ireland, SA and Australia. The title of my book is — Miscarriages My Story.  My book can be found on all of the devices I talked about in this blog and on Paperback.

Kindle: http://bit.ly/mamstory

Nook: http://bit.ly/nookstory

IBook: http://bit.ly/storyib

Paperback: Miscarriages My Story

Kindle UK: UK edition

My book is also available in Ireland, SA, Australia and other countries.

I can do ALL things through……..

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 

This Bibe verse has gotten me through many,many different things from when I was a teenager till this present day. 

When I was a teenager this verse got me through many days of school. It helped me to get through all the difficulties I had with learning. It helped me get through all the times I was put down in school. It helped me with all the homework I had to get through. I would read this verse and tell myself I can do this with Christ’s help. I did get through it all to an extent. I know it was only because of God that I did. 

After I got married I continued to rely on this verse. It helped me when I decided to go back to school and get my High School diploma.  It helped me when I went through my miscarriages. Now I know that might sound strange, but I was an emotion wreck after my miscarriages. And I had to remind myself of that verse often so I could get through my miscarriages without falling apart. 

When my mom was sick and dying I needed to be strong for my dad. That verse was a reminder that through Christ I could be strong for my dad and get through my mom’s passing. I didn’t have a choice, and I knew that. I did what I had to do. 

When I decided to write a book and eventually become a blogger and do my own PR, I once again needed to look to that verse. That one Bible verse Philippians 4:13 can and is very powerful. It’s a HUGE reminder for me, that whatever I think I can’t do, I CAN. 

  

Home Movies

My blog post for this week was originally going to be about voice mail. You see I thought I had an old voice message on my phone from my mom. I thought this message was from over a year ago. I didn’t play it mainly because as much as I wanted to hear her voice again, I didn’t want to cry. Tonight I finally decided to listen to it. When I went into my old voice message with my mom’s name on them I sadly found out they weren’t my mom. They were all voice messages from my dad using my mom’s cell phone number. This made me sad. I so much wanted to hear my mom’s voice.

My husband quickly came to my rescue! He went on his laptop and started looking through all of our old videos. His thought was if he could find an old video of my mom that would be even better then hearing her voice mail. Guess what? He found one! It isn’t a long video, but it’s enough. This one little video allows me to see and hear my mom again. Surprisingly I didn’t cry. I was to happy to see this little video of my mom to cry. It made me happy. I honestly think the voice mail would have made me cry, but getting to see and hear her that was more of a blessing.

We also have a couple of home videos on little mini VHS cassettes that we found. We are hoping there will be something of my mom on those videos. I really hope so. Those particular ones might make me cry. Something tells me I won’t. Something tells me I will be to happy to be able to see and hear my mom on those as well. So no voice mail to hear was ok. Getting to see and hear my mom again was a priceless blessing.

http://kathleensmith.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/IMG_0116.m4v

Communion, Matzah & Me

Our Church along with many other Church’s partake in communion. Each Church has their own way of taking communion as well. Some Church’s take it every Sunday. Some Church’s only take it once a month. Our Church likes to partake in communion twice a month. Basically every other Sunday. I also know that the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11:26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come. During this time of communion the congregation is quiet. This gives us all a chance to pray silently and to remember what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Then we get to the point where the matzah, which is what our Church uses to represent Jesus Body, gets passed around. After that we pass around the grape juice which is what our Church uses to represent Jesus blood. As this is all being done everybody is still quiet and remembering Jesus and his sacrifice for us.

I have one slight problem after all this. It’s not what your thinking! (okay honestly I don’t know what your thinking) When we are done with communion my first thought is now I want to go to the store so I can get more matzah. You see I like matzah bread. I like it with butter spread over it or grape jelly. It tastes so good to me. Now I know I shouldn’t be thinking this right after communion, but I can’t help myself. Then when Church is over and our family gets to our car. I tell my husband I want more matzah. He always smiles and laughs at me. Yeah, I smile back.

I’m My Own PR

For the last couple of years I have been doing my own promoting. Otherwise known as self-promoting. At first I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. You see four years ago my husband helped me self-publish my book. After that I asked him what’s next. He told me I had to promote it. I asked him how. He had no idea. He told me I needed to figure that out on my own.

That’s just what I did. I slowly learned how to use Twitter and Facebook to get the word out about my book. I ordered promo cards for my book that I handed out everywhere I could and I got a pendant to wear. As time went by new social media websites were becoming available for people to promote their books. I slowly learned how to use all of them as well. Now I use every social media outlet that I can to promote my book. I even started my own blog called HeyYou  (which is this ) in hopes of helping my book get noticed as well. I am not sure if that is happening, but it has helped me to become a better writer and has helped me to get my feelings out about a variety of different subjects.

You can now find me on Twitter  G+   Pinterest  and Linkedin . Along with these sites I also have Facebook pages for my blog and my books. OH and lets not forget my Amazon Author’s Page ! Now that I have become very good at promoting books I also like to do this for others. After I’m done reading a book if I really liked it I will share it everywhere I can. I always hope this helps the author. Even if it’s a little bit.  At times people will also ask me for advice on getting their own books published and promoted. This has led me to start my own PR business 140PR . I don’t like to think highly of myself, but I started thinking if people are going to keep asking me for help then why not start my own business. I’m good at what I do. I’m good at promoting books. So I figured why not take that step, start my own business and see what happens. Maybe nothing will happen. Maybe something will. Who knows. I figure there is only one way to find out.

 

140PR

For the past year or two now people have been asking me for help with getting their books published. They want to know the best way to go about doing it. Or they want to know good ways to promote their books after they do get published. I’ve always been as helpful as I can. Then I tease my husband that I should be getting paid for all this help. Then there are times when my husband is working on a new app or a new project that someone is paying him to do. He asks me for advice. He wants to know how this or that looks. He wants to know if anything should be changed. Colors, designs, whatever. I then tell him what I think. Again I tease my husband I should be getting paid for this.

Last week my husband told me he told some people about the advice I had given him about something they were all working on. They took my advice. This time I told my husband that’s it I want to get paid for that one. He was completely fine with that. That night we decided to start our own PR service! I know that might sound crazy to some people, but the way I figure it is if I’m going to keep helping people, why not get paid. I mean I’m good at what I do so why not!

So Our new service is called 140PR . We are willing to help people promote their books on twitter and other social websites. Many people want to promote there books, but they don’t have the time. We can do it for them. We do reserve the rights to say no though depending on the topic of the book. My husband and I are both on twitter as well as our new business now. So if you would like to follow him he is @andsmi. My twitter handle is @srkbear and our new business is @my140pr . If you would like to know how we came up with that name all you have to do is ask. So if you are looking for someone to help you get your book promoted on Twitter why not give us try.

Please take a quick minute and fill out our form at http://140pr.com and we will send you some free suggestions of what to tweet to promote your product.