Orrin Jason Bradford's Blog, page 15

Spiral of Fulfillment: Amazon Bestseller List #2 & #3

I’m pleased to announce that my book Spiral of Fulfillment: Living an Inspired Life of Service, Simplicity & Spiritual Serenity is now #2 on Amazon’s Bestseller list for Spiritual Self Help and #3 in Personal Growth & Inspirational.

This has occurred on the third day of a five-day Amazon Giveaway promotional during which time potential readers downloaded 377 copies. Getting the book on these ‘bestseller’ list is the name of the game according to Tom Corson-Knowles so I would say the promotion has been a roaring success.

Of course, giving away copies of books is one thing — converting that into selling books…well, the experiment continues. At least several hundred new people now have a copy of one of my books in their Kindle or app and hopefully some of them will also open it and read it.

Stay tuned — the experiment continues.

2 Purposeful Book Promo Starts Tomorrow – March 8

I’m taking a couple minutes to chronicle the launch of a major (at least for me) book promotion that starts on Saturday, March 8th.  Here’s the details that will start appearing tomorrow:

My book Spiral of Fulfillment: Living an Inspired Life of Service, Simplicity & Spiritual Serenity is now FREE on Amazon.com! Grab your copy here:  http://www.amzn.com/B005G0JKBE  .

If you live in the UK you can download it for free on the UK website here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009ABMG9I

You do NOT need a Kindle to read these books! You can still read them on ANY computer, smartphone or tablet using Amazon’s free software available here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=sv_kstore_3?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

 While you’re at it, pick up a copy of Life On Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life for a deep discount during it’s Kindle Countdown special days (Regularly $9.99 Countdown starts today at only 99 cents & increases by a dollar each day.) Grab your copy here:  http://www.amzn.com/B009ABMG9I . If you’re in the UK go here:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009ABMG9I

 And here’s the biggest deal of all:  Win one of 100 Life On Purpose Courses — a $149 value: These special editions have full instructions on how to win one of 100 Life On Purpose Courses, so be sure to open the book and register early.

 Accolades for Spiral of Fulfillment include “…a must read — a remarkably authentic approach to unearthing the power and purpose of who we really are,” and “…a smash hit for living a fulfilled life on purpose containing the key secrets – service, simplicity and spiritual serenity.”

 Life On Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life was the award winning finalist in the Self-Help: Motivational division of the Best Books Awards sponsored by USA News.

Start living a more purposeful life today! Grab your free and deeply discounted copies today (only available until March 12th).

 And you can also learn more about the promo via YouTube as well as sharing this video link:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhmKyqeObxI

Okay, that’s the details that will be shared in various ways. The free book will be shared on about 12-20 free book sites either that we reached this past week or will be contacted on the day of the kickoff.  The info will also be shared via several Facebook groups that are set up for free promotion.  I will endeavor to get a ‘head count’ of the numbers we’re likely to reach in these ways. The info is also going out to about 6,000 followers of the Purposeful Pondering Ezine.

It’s my plan to share the progress of results here so other writers can learn from this promotional experiment. I’m sure I’m going to learn a lot in the process.  Thanks also to Tom Corson-Knowles and his How To Become a Bestselling Author on Amazon Kindle that’s available through Udemy. More on Udemy and his course in a future vlog. Watch this space!

 

Life On Purpose March Book Specials

Subscribe ->Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhmKyqeObxI

Brad Swift co-founder of LOPI here. Quick Heads up about a special opportunity to pick up two great books on how to live a purposeful and meaningful life. We’re calling the promotion – CLARITY OF PURPOSE: Don’t leave home without it.

Mark you calendar and let your friends know about March 8th. That’s when we’ll be launching a 2 book campaign to instill more purpose and passion in the world.

Spiral of Fulfillment: Living a Life of Service, Simplicity and Spiritual Serenity will be available for download on Amazon as a FREE Kindle Book.

Life On Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life that has sold for $9.99 or more will go on sale for 99 cents as part of a Kindle Countdown. It’s the book that was an award winning finalist in the Self-Help: Motivational division of the Best Books Awards sponsored by USA News. It also has maintained a 5 star review status on Amazon since being published.

Don’t miss out downloading your own copies and letting your friends know about this as well. And remember, you don’t need to own a KINDLE to read these books as a Kindle edition. FREE Kindle Apps available at:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=sv_kstore_3?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

WIN 1 OF 100 LIFE ON PURPOSE ONLINE COURSES

And be sure to check at the front of these special editions books for info on how you can win one of 100 FREE Admissions into the Life On Purpose Course (regular $149 tuition)

SPECIAL promo runs from March 8 – 12. Here are the links you need to grab your copy of the books:

This Book Spiral of Fulfillment: Living a Life of Service, Simplicity and Spiritual Serenity: http://www.amzn.com/B005G0JKB

Life On Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life: http://www.amzn.com/B009ABMG9I

4 Benefits for Writers & Other Creators on Patreon

Subscribe ->Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5_0-H4GrHw

Patreon enables fans/patrons to give ongoing support to their favorite creators. If you are a writer, author or other creative person, Patreon could be the most important piece of your social media network.

As a writer for the past 25 years, I know how lonely and challenging it can be for many of us ‘creative sorts.’ Could you not benefit from one or more of these:

1) Additional Support, both financial & otherwise.

2) Help in focusing your writing or other creative goal.

3) Support in being more accountable for what you’re creating.

4) Your own R&D team.

Now, I’m not a owner or stock holder in Patreon. I’m just one of many other creators who sees the possibility it can provide to writers, authors and creators.

The content that I’m producing falls into two categories:

1) New pages of visionary writing of fiction and nonfiction, and

2) Blog posts and videos that inspire, encourage and support other writers to reach for their dreams with persistence and determination.

If you become one of my patrons (http://www.patreon/wbradfordswift

) you’ll be helping me fulfill on those goals.

Blog Posting by Email

I recently discovered an awesome new WordPress plugin. More than that. It’s like a plugin on steroids since it’s really a pack of plugins are in one and all created by those smart guys that created WordPress itself.

It’s called Jetpack and if you haven’t heard of it, you really need to check it out. I’ll be reviewing and showcasing it in depth later, but don’t wait, Google it now and take a look.

I’m even using one of Jetpack’s many features to post this via my gmail. How awesome is that?

W. Bradford Swift Visionary Author






828 697-9239
coachbrad21

www.wbradfordswift.com

Get a signature like this: Click here!

In Celebration of Valentine’s Day: Sneaking Up On Commitment

I know no better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than to share how I met my Valentine almost twenty-five years ago and how we snuck up on commitment. (This true story also appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Married Life!: 101 Inspirational Stories about Fun, Family, and Wedded Bliss )

Happy Valentine’s Day my lovely Ann.

“Your task is not to seek for love, but to find the barriers in yourself that you have built against it.” ~ A Course In Miracles ~

On our honeymoon in 1990

Forever can be a long time. For many people, the idea of committing to something or someone for forever can be so right-in-your-face intimidating, it’s often easier to just avoid it at all cost. Such commitments can bring up a huge block of fear as we remember all our other failed attempts to stay committed. This was certainly the case when Ann and I first met.

Ann and I met in the hallway prior to a workshop entitled More Money. The workshop’s homework assignment was to list 100 things we wanted to do, be or have. I listened as Ann shared with another participant two items on her list: a committed relationship and a romantic relationship. As a way to enter into the conversation (in my own smart-ass style), I asked her why those were  two separate items? Didn’t it make more sense to combine them into one — a committed and romantic relationship?

I then made sure I sat next to her in class since being in a committed relationship was on my list as well, and I found her to be cute and very engaging. A few weeks later, after going out on three or four dates, I informed her I was ready for a committed, romantic relationship and asked if she was ready as well.

I still remember the shocked look on Ann’s face as she backed away from me saying, “Whoa, whoa, whoa — not so fast! If I was any good at committed relationships I’d still be married to my first husband.”

Well, I could understand her point-of-view. I’d been through not one, but two divorces of my own and had a long list of other failed attempts at committed relationships. Thinking fast on my feet, I made a counter offer.

“Would you be willing to go for a 24-hour committed relationship?”  At first, she thought I was just joking so I repeated, “Let’s go for a 24-hour committed relationship. Surely we can make it for 24-hours, right?”

So we agreed.

The next day, 24 hours later, I called to congratulate her. She asked, “What for?”

“Congratulations for your first successful, committed relationship. Now, are you ready to try for another one? How about one for 48 hours? 48 hours isn’t that much longer than 24 hours, right?”  She agreed once again.

Sure enough, we made it through the 48-hour one and also a 72-hour committed relationship. As our confidence grew, we decided to take on a much longer stretch of time. We enrolled in a five day personal development retreat together. The entire trip would take 10 days, so we committed to staying together for the whole time.

Midway through the retreat we were sure we’d sabotaged our relationship. The program brought up all our ugly stuff — the stuff you really don’t want someone else to see, especially the person you’ve just started dating. While neither of us were thrilled revealing that side of ourselves, we hung in there, and by the end of the program we announced to the entire group that we were committing to a six month relationship.

After completing the six months, we made a second six month commitment. During the second six months, as we sat on the deck of a restaurant over-looking the San Francisco Bay Bridge sipping a mimosa, Ann proposed to me.

We’ve now been married for over 20 years. Some commitments are worth sneaking up on!

The End

Since selling his veterinary practice in the late 80’s, W, Bradford Swift has published hundreds of magazine articles in such publications as Unity Magazine, AARP , Body and Soul, Yoga Journal, and Science of Mind. He is also the author of Life On Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life — an award winning finalist in the Self-Help: Motivational division of the Best Books 2007 Awards sponsored by USA News, and From Spark to Flame: Fanning Your Passion & Ideas into Moneymaking Magazine Articles that Make a Difference.

Instructing Proofreaders

I don’t always use professional proofreaders…so shoot me. I’d say I work on a shoe string budget but I sold my shoestrings like week for more writing supplies. That being said, I have found that with a little guidance there are plenty of people who can fill in quite nicely and pick up most of those nasty typos, etc. So, once again I’ve taken the time to write out those instructions and offer them to you to use or ignore…your choice.

Start with a Trial Run

I took the time to prepare a trial run sample file that has several typos and other issues that I expect a proofreader to catch. I also have an ‘answer sheet’ so when I get the test sample back it’s easy for me to check to see how many errors were detected.

On this first test run, I ask the candidate to use the Microsoft Word Track Changes so I can see the changes that are made. My goal is to find a proofer so that, for the rest of the manuscript, I trust them enough to make the necessary corrections without using the Track Changes. This saves me time from having to go back and review and approve each change which can take almost as long as proofing.

 

The Guidelines

To help make the proofing run smoothly here is a list of what I ask the proofer to be on the lookout for:

Typos – any misspelled word. Of course, you can find some of these through doing a spell check with MS Word.
Wrong word used – these are those words that won’t show up with a spell check because it’s an actual word, just the wrong one.  Like ‘hear’ was used when it should have been ‘here,’ or ‘to’ was used when it should have been ‘too.’
Missing word – You know, those sentences that seem to be flowing along fine except suddenly word missing.  Did you catch that one….’suddenly there’s a word missing.’ Correct it by putting in the missing word. If you’re not sure what it should be just make a note of it. Include in the note the sentence for me to look at. That way I can simply insert most of the sentence in the ‘find’ function and go right to it.
Grammatical errors – like a question was ended with a period instead of a question mark, or missing commas, or misplaced commas, etc.
Italics for thoughts – In some of my fiction books I use italics to denote a character’s thoughts. This can be a bit tricky.  I save the italics for ‘inner dialogue’ where the character is talking to him or herself, so in most cases the sentences to italicize will be in the first person. If you find something that is in italics that shouldn’t be, correct it. If it should be and it isn’t correct those also. For example:

What if we miss them? Allan thought. What if what I saw turned out be a wild animal? But even as he thought it he knew better. It had to be what they were looking for. The real question was whether they’d find Pat before it was too late?

He slowed down as they neared the area. Better be a little quiet. No reason to give themselves away to Homlin if they could help it. As he slowed to a fast walk, Franklin caught up with him. They both turned off their flashlights and took the final thirty yards in the dark.

Character name wrong or reversed with another character– Yep, I’ve been known to do this once in a while, though thankfully not too often. If you come across a section where the wrong name is used, insert the right one then make a note of it for me to take a look just to be sure.
Just plan awkward or confusing – You may run across a sentence or even a paragraph that  seems so awkward as to trip you up or is confusing.  If so, simply make note of it, including the sentence or paragraph in the note, so I can easily find it and correct it.  You don’t need to correct it. That would be slipping into ‘editing mode.’

Interested in being a proofreader for me in the future? If so, zip me an email, telling me a little about yourself including what you enjoy reading, any proofreading experience you’ve had and what kind of ‘energy exchange’ you’d be looking for.

Organizing Your Point of Views with Scrivener Color Feature

If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time it’s probably not a surprise to learn that I’m a BIG, as in HUGE, fan of Scrivener writing software. As with any new software program there’s a bit of a learning curve though the folks at Literature and Latte who designed Scrivener has kept that curve quite shallow with some very simple to follow instructional videos and a 30-day trial period…plenty of time to get hooked and to wonder how you ever lived without it.

Okay, enough of a sales pitch. You can learn more about Scrivener here, including that it’s available for both the PC and Mac (for which it was originally designed.)

Today’s article is about a feature I learned to use that has helped me mightily in the organizing of my latest book, Babble, which is also the novel I wrote during NaNoWriMo 2013. (More about Babble can be found here.) In Babble I decided that the story needed more view points than my average work of fiction as well as a series of flashbacks. What I discovered is that I could keep these multiple viewpoints straight by colorizing the different scenes.

For example, the scenes in the the point-of-view (POV) of  Angie in current time are in yellow while the flashbacks are in orange. The scenes in Bobbie’s POV (her son) as he traverses his inner landscape is in red and Arnez, the Homeland Security agent POV’s scenes are in light blue.  As you can see in the larger image, I broke the various scenes into chapters folders that appear in green. For the most part, I did that when I started the revision process. I found during NaNoWriMo it was easier to focus the writing scene-by-scene.

Not worrying about chapter breaks in the first draft worked well for me. During this writing process I also learned from Mary Robinette Kowal of Writing Excuses that one of the ways to use chapter breaks is as a pacing tool. I interpret that to mean that if you want the pace to build momentum, use shorter chapters. If I understood that advice incorrectly, someone straighten me out. (Please…before I submit Babble to agents or self-publish it.)

Okay, It’s Your Turn

Scrivener is an amazingly powerful tool for writers. If you’ve used it and discovered something that has helped you be better organized and/or write better, why not share it here? Of course, you can also post your questions here, and I’ll do my best to answer them.

And if you’ve enjoyed this blog article or others here, your assignment is simple — share the blog with others.

 

 

NaNoWriMo 2013 Lessons Learned

I had a most successful NaNoWriMo this year. Not only did I surpass the 50,000 word count goal completing most of a rough draft of my book, Babble, but perhaps even more valuable were the many lessons learned from my participation including:

How to track character’s POVs using Scrivener’s color coding feature. (More detailed post forthcoming.)
Combining Outlining with Discovery Writing (More detailed post forthcoming.)
Use the Support Features on NaNoWriMo  to stay inspired.
Write Early and Often (and keep it a high priority)
Use October as R&D Month for the New Novel (More detailed post maybe forthcoming.)

 Staying Inspired

I’m a big believer in the power of inspiration to keep moving forward with a project and that you don’t need to wait for the Muse to show up on your doorstep. You can nudge the  inspirational Muse to find you, and NaNoWriMo’s web site offers a rich assortment of resources to help. I decided to use several of them this year as well as a few of my own to start each day inspired to be a writer. These resources included:

Regular email updates — Once you create an account on NaNoWriMo’s web site you’ll receive a steady stream of updates. Unlike so much of the emails that find their way into my inbox, NaNo’s messages were generally short, to the point and right on for what I needed at the time.
Inspirational articles and videos — I’d often wondered if any novels written during NaNo were ever published. By reading the blog articles and videos that are included in the emails, I learned that quite a few have been polished and published and not just by self-publishing authors. Very good news.
Google+ community — Yes, NaNoWriMo has an active community on Google+ where you can further connect with fellow insane writers attempting to write 50,000 words in 30 days.
Writing buddies – (I even did Google Hangout with a few of my buddies): Another feature on the NaNoWriMo web site is the ability to connect and become buddies with other writers. While I didn’t utilize this as fully as I could (and as I intend to in the future), I did add some people to my buddy list and even had a fun Google Hangout with some of them about midway through the month.

I also listened to several episodes of the Writing Excuses Podcast. These short, 15-minutes podcasts are a perfect way to start the day. I listened to them often either as I was preparing coffee or while walking my dogs.

Write Early and Often (and keep it a high priority)

Typically I play softball two days a week starting around 10 am, and I wanted to continue to play so I made it a point on those days to awaken early and get my 1,666  (50K divided by 30) or more words in before going to play. I kept the writing as one of my highest priorities knowing that I needed to maintain that level for only thirty days (though I knew I’d likely renew it for another thirty or more days when it was time to start the revision process.)

I also made sure my wife and friends knew that I was involved with NaNoWriMo and might be less available than usual. I’m lucky to be married to someone who’s as committed to my commitments as I am (and I’m committed to hers as well).

I also found it very helpful to take some time later in the day to outline the next several scenes so I was rarely at a loss as to what I would be writing the next day.

Use October as R&D Month for the New Novel

In previous years I let  NaNoWriMo sneak up on me so I really wasn’t prepared to give it my best shot. This year I started preparing for it by the first of October. Truth be told, I actually started earlier even though I didn’t know it at the time. Babble started out as a short story that didn’t seem to have an ending, at least not one that would fit into the confines of a short story, so it seemed like a natural for NaNoWriMo to expand the idea into a novel length project. I also was able to incorporate a good bit of the original story into the novel. (Now, we’ll have to see how much of that survives the revision process.)

I’ll probably write another post in the near future about the ‘pre-writing process.’

The great thing about theses NaNoWriMo lessons is that they can all be readily adopted for the other eleven months of the year, and then before you know it, November will be here again with a new NaNoWriMo and new lessons to learn.

Now It’s Your Turn

Did you participate in NaNo this year? What lessons did you glean from the experience? What are your plans for turning those NaNoWriMo words into a finished product? Which of these lessons I plan to elaborate on do you think I should write next:

How to track character’s POVs using Scrivener’s color coding feature. (More detailed post forthcoming.)
Combining Outlining with Discovery Writing (More detailed post forthcoming.)
Use October as R&D Month for the New Novel (More detailed post maybe forthcoming.)

Leave your comments and questions below.

Are You a Visionary Writer?

Download the Visionary Writer’s Manifesto and find out. Just click over there to the right ============>

 

Why Writing Excuses is a Favorite Resource

The internet is a cornucopia of useful and valuable resources for writers with many of them being free. One of my favorites is the Writing Excuses Podcast (Fifteen minutes long, because you’re in a hurry, and we’re not that smart.) Truth is, Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Taylor, Mary Robinette Kowal and their many guests are quite smart when it comes to writing.

They also know that other writers typically have ADD so fifteen minutes is about the longest we can hold our attention on any one thing. Their weekly podcast is into its eighth season so as you can imagine there’s hardly a subject they haven’t explored, and several more than once. While their focus tends to be on how to write speculative fiction (horror, SF, fantasy, etc.) I believe there’s a wealth of wisdom for writers of any kind of fiction.

Some of their recent topics have included:

Hard Social Science Fiction with Joel Shepherd
Long-Form Storytelling with Sam Logan
Roguishness with Scott Lynch
Editing with Aeryn Rudel

As you can tell from these topics, most of their podcasts these days include a special guest with some expertise in the subject of choice. Besides exploring these topics, they also have a ‘book of the week’ that includes a plug for downloading the book from Audible.com which is a way they help fund the show, and of course, they end each segment with a writing prompt so ‘you’re now out of excuses, go write.’

Besides the solid helpful tips and suggestions I find in just about every podcast, I find regular listening also inspires me to keep writing and honing my craft, so I thank you, Brandon, Dan, Howard, Mary and all your guests for the fine work not only as writers but for inspiring the rest of us to keep on keeping on.