MARY ANDERSON CALLING

Article writing

2009-10-08T06:19:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of article writing of late - trying to get traffic to my site. Really good fun and, I hope, useful to readers. I have challenged myself to submit 10 articles by the end of the month. This is really tanking it for me so I hope I can do it.

The difficult part of article writing is deciding on an angle for each piece. It has to be fairly specific and be about something people might genuinely be interested in. I think I will brainstorm a bit and see if I can come up with some connected topics that might help parents. It should not be too difficult as pre-school education and pre-school educational books are big enough topics with some contentious issues.

I use EzineArticles most of the time. Their submission process is straightforward and they are reliable and efficient. They also give great tips to make article writing easier for their clients.

Better get on with it. Wish me luck.

MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

2009-05-06T05:25:00.000-07:00

I have just written a piece about Multiple Intelligences for EzineArticles. MI is about the different ways people demonstrate intelligence, via verbal, visual, logical, kinaesthetic, musical, interpersonal or intrapersonal preferences. While researching this, I came across a couple of blogs where the writers are rather scathing about MI as it applies to educating children. They make some valid points about the difficulties of measuring it, how it may encourage children to misbehave on the premise that they can't learn other than through visual/logical/interpersonal etc means.

I still think MI has some validity and this is based on unscientific observation. I am a verbal/linguistic and visual person. That's the way I learn. I have observed learning biases in children I have helped over the years and consequently I structure lessons in such a way that all the children have an opportunity to grasp the learning material via their particular preference. This makes planning more taxing but the lessons flow better and the children are more engaged for longer periods of time. I take the point that success might be due to repetition of the material to accommodate as many learning style as possible but I'd rather do it this way than take the chance that someone will get left behind.

Squeeze Pages

2009-05-05T12:26:00.000-07:00

I am a fan of Mark Widawer. This internet marketing expert gives away great information that is simple to understand and implement. When I started my internet marketing adventure, one of the first things I encountered was the term 'squeeze page'. If you want to know what that is, follow the link for a step-by-step explanation that will clarify everything you want to know about squeeze pages. What is a Squeeze Page? Free Video

I've got to look like Beyonce by mid May!

2009-04-29T16:29:00.001-07:00

I am going to a wedding in the US in May and that means hours of vigorous exercise and platefuls of lettuce until after D-day or W-day. I have enlisted the help of my lovely Personal Trainer daughter. This I did with great trepidation. As I said in one of my earlier blogs, said lovely daughter morphs into Attila the Hun at the sight of dumbells or an exercise bike.

I began on Tuesday (Monday was getting-up-the-courage-day). Lovely daughter identified several parts of my anatomy that needed toning, reducing and generally discouraging from their southward journey. What seemed like hours of heaving, sweating, puffing and blowing passed very, very slowly. No amounts of pleas beginning with "But I'm your mother!" made any difference. The torture progressed until lovely daughter was satisfied.

Next, my kitchen drawers were examined. All mixed nuts, Jaffa cakes, lemon sponge cakes and chocolate bars were blithely tossed into the bin. My fridge got similar treatment. Sausages were apparently on the prohibited list as were the packets of cheddar cheese and butter as well as the strawberry trifle which was to be my 'Well done' prize for making it through the exercise session. It seems my diet now consists of fruit, vegetables, chicken and fish and none of it is to be fried.

I have just measured myself and I have not lost one inch. However, I am not one to give up easily. I have decided to persevere until I lose those pounds. But, I have to say, Dawn French is looking more and more like my role model every minute.

Law of attraction for kids

2009-04-28T03:14:00.000-07:00

I have read a number of books and looked at a few videos - including The Secret - around the subject of the law of attraction. Basically, the trick is to decide exactly what you want from life and train your mind to have focussed, positive thoughts around achieving your wishes. By taking active steps towards attaining your clearly envisioned goals, you can make your life what you want it to be. Imagination, positive thinking, hard work and expectation are the keys. If you expect your life to be a certain way, you will probably meet your own expectations because you have not envisioned it any other way. Imagine it is possible and you can make it happen.

I recently read a little book about the law of attraction. I was quite taken with it because it was written in a way that might appeal to children. I began to think about how the law of attraction could advance the lives of children in a positive way. It must be a good thing to encourage children to have a positive mind set, to develop a clear vision of what they would like their future to be and think about how they can achieve it. If they can start training their minds from an early age to imagine clearly, to focus on achieving their goals and to live with an expectation that life will deliver what they want, children could have a brighter future than if they aimlessly wandered through life, allowing random events to negatively affect their journey.

Take a look. Click on http://tinyurl.com/c4pypo .

MAKING MONEY

2009-04-03T14:20:00.000-07:00

I have decided to take another step in my quest to master internet marketing by dipping a toe in the affiliate marketing waters.

I decided to cut my teeth using a product aimed at people who are new to internet marketing. This turnkey product was designed by Ewen Chia, one of the biggest names in affiliate marketing and one of the people I consider to be serious about giving a decent return for your money. No hype, no fancy footwork, just down to earth advice and products that work.

Ewen Chia's Autopilot Profits is a product that shows you how to make money on the internet without having to spend hours a day on it. It is clear, easy to follow and produces a surprise at the end that makes it a really tempting proposition if you are looking for ways to make a bit more money in these troubled times.

Check out my new website - www.timetomakemoremoney.com

Ezine Articles

2009-04-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

I have been spending a bit of time writing articles for EzineArticles.com about a variety of topics to do with young children's learning activities. The titles are:

- How to select books for young children
- How to encourage children to read
- Tips for parents - how to find time to teach young children
- Pre-school learning - strategies to make learning fun

It has been a lot of fun. There are two more in the pipeline and I plan to write more in the coming months.

I love the discipline of writing articles. Thinking of a topic to write about was not as hard as it seemed at first. My passion for education, especially where it concerns young children, gave me lots to choose from. The difficulty was selecting one question to answer that might help readers interested in that area.

For each article, I began with a working title, just to focus my thoughts on the topic I wanted to cover. Writing the article itself was challenging in that the content needed to be concise, interesting with a natural flow yet convey all the information I wanted to put across. It took time to order my words so that there was a logical beginning, middle and end and reworking my first draft required a bit of ruthlessness and willingness to cut out anything that was not absolutely to the point. When I got to the end I went back to the title and spent time deciding on words that would convey exactly what the article was about so that readers searching through the many articles available would not have to waste time reading the first paragraph or so to find out if the piece contained information they were looking for.

All in all, this is something I find very absorbing and entertaining. I just need to find enough time in my schedule to sit down and write on a regular basis. Not easy when you are managing a business, organising a wedding, travelling, attending several seminars and running a home. Still, it keeps me off the streets and, to my husband's delight, out of the shops!

Artlcles can be viewed on www.ezinearticles.com. Just click on the Expert Author logo in the side panel and search for Mary L Anderson.

PROCRASTINATION IS A VERY LONG WORD

2009-01-05T12:57:00.000-08:00

Do you know, I think I deserve a PhD in Procrastination. I have never met anyone so determined to do everything else except the thing I am supposed to be doing!

I set myself the target of revamping my filing system to put some order into the mountain of paper littering my office. I found all the sorting and categorising quite therapeutic - for about five minutes. I came across a report I had downloaded on web design and of course I just had to find the email it came with so that I could follow the hyperlinks to further free reports that I had evidently missed the first time round. While I was looking for that email I came across another email with an audio attachment from someone talking about converting websites hits into actual sales. So I listened to that audio for about an hour before I remembered the teetering piles of paper around me.

This is a really bad habit of mine so I have added it to my growing list of New Year resolutions. I must remember to write out I MUST NOT PROCRASTINATE a hundred times otherwise I will drift off in another direction and forget to keep focussed. Which reminds me ................

NEW YEAR, NEW RESOLUTIONS

2009-01-02T16:33:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe it is the 2nd of January, 2009. I haven't finished dealing with the 1st yet! New Year's Day went badly wrong and I have only just finished serving New Year's Day dinner a day late! It looks as though this year is going to behave like last year. 2008 came and went with warp speed. And I have to confess that when I opened the 2008 Resolutions letter that I wrote on 31 December 2007, I found I had only achieved about 25% of my goals. I am not going to beat myself up about it though. I will just try for a higher percentage this year.

So, what are my goals for 2009?

Resolution1: I must add five story books for young children to my catalogue. Two are ready to print as soon as I can mine all the pennies rattling around the innards of my sofa, and three just need tarting up a bit and they'll be ready to go - as soon as I investigate my sisters' sofas.

Resolution 2: do something about my would-be novel for 9 - 12 year old children that has been quietly doing the rounds of publishers. I have not been the most vigilant parent though. The poor book has been left pretty much to its own devices. I really, really must do better.

Resolution 3: I must learn how to design and code a website. It is the only way I am going to be able to update, amend, improve, add to or in any way tinker with my site without a king's ransom at my disposal (sofas again) or Job's patience with web folk who move at the pace of frozen treacle!

I wonder if I should stop at three resolutions..... If I leave out the world peace and the lose 2 stones in weight bits I might have a fighting chance of 100% success. I just need to make sure I invite wealthy friends for drinks on a frequent basis (it's the only explanation for the fortune I am convinced is hiding in the sofa) and get my 15 year old niece to give me web lessons for a weekly fee of large, dangly earrings and sponsored shopping trips to Primark. Sorted!

Happy New Year!

INTERNET MARKETING IN FISHNETS!

2008-11-24T12:30:00.000-08:00

Internet marketing! Who knew it would be so involved and tricky! My website is up and running and I am using the analogy of a small shop in a tiny street half a mile from the High Street. How do I let people know that my shop exists and how do I entice them away from the High Street?

Having just about gotten over my fear of breaking the internet if I press a button on my keyboard, I have delved into the world of internet marketing wholeheartedly. I am signed up to countless newletters, mailing lists and clubs. I have read reams of paper about how to do pay-per-click, write articles, conduct an online interview, load up a video etc, etc, etc. I have some missive or other about every aspect of internet marketing. My problem now is how to put all the pieces together. And I was beginning to suffer from email overload so I have started a ruthless pruning exercise to get my inbox down to manageable proportions.

One of the most difficult things to do in the world of internet marketing is to write good copy. It is certainly a fine art but hopefully one I can master some day. Good practice, they say, makes perfect. I have tried to sound exciting without seeming hysterical and knowledgeable without being school-marmish. Not enough people have seen me frantically waving on the corner of my road though. Maybe the online equivalent of fishnet tights and a garter? Hmmm!

GET MATCH FIT!

2008-09-29T05:17:00.000-07:00

I know! It has been ages. I have been mega busy trying to get my website fully functional and having very limited success. In my next life I will come back as a webmaster who actually cares about my customers. I am bound to be successful! I am sure I am not the only person who has to rely on the 'professionals' to sort out websites only to find that as soon as money is handed over the enthusiastic, helpful and seemingly knowledgeable techie disappears for weeks on end and then can only allocate 2 minutes per day to your job.

While I have been waiting for some action in the website department, I have been working on an article on learning styles. I thought I would get down on paper all I knew about the subject and then look at what I had come up with. Now I have not had to do any fast typing for some time and I found that my fingers and forearms tired very quickly indeed. This was quite a surprise to me. My top speed back in the day was 83 wpm and I did not even think about how my fingers were feeling. I decided to give myself a three minute speed typing test. OK, so I have not had to type in earnest for a couple of years but really - 59 wpm!! I spent the next half hour furiously typing and timing myself. By the end of 15 minutes my speed had increased to 61 wpm but my forearms were aching. I realised I would have to practise hard to get those long underused muscles back in shape. I will not rest until I hit at least 70 wpm. Not that I need to - my current activity of writing very short stories for children does not require competition typing speeds - but it is a matter of pride.

This all made me think about how tiring it must be for little children trying to do things that requires fine motor skills, such as picking up small objects, colouring in pictures without going outside the outlines or indeed attempting to write letters and numbers for the first time. It all takes practice over time to develop the muscles and hand-eye co-ordination. As adults we take all this for granted but the little ones, trying to flex their muscles, need time to develop the strength and co-ordination to accomplish such tasks. Gentle, short and playful activities must be the way for them to get match fit and ready to tackle 1, 2, 3 and A, B, C!

Can't find the dumb-bells just now but I am drawing up a fitness programme for fingers that should do the trick.

IS YOUR FIVE YEAR OLD INTO SHAKESPEARE?

2008-09-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

I have recently read an exchange of views on the vexed issue of age guidance (see http://www.thebookseller.com/age-guidance for some great comments). In true Libran fashion I have been see-sawing for a while but have finally decided that there must be lots of people out there who need a bit of a steer on such issues as what sort of material might be appreciated by their 11 year old computer mad niece or whether 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' would go down well with their two year old grandchild.

If someone knows the abilities and tastes of the person they are buying for, they will more than likely choose whatever they feel would be appreciated. However, not everyone is in that position and having to spend time reading the backs of lots of novels and flicking through the contents to assess its suitability might well result in the purchase of a mobile phone holder instead. If it makes it easier for books to find their way into more hands, I am all for it.

Of course, this has nothing to do with the fact that my own books have age guidances stars on them!

GARDENING AND GARDENSPEAK

2008-06-13T14:53:00.000-07:00

I have been spending a lot of time in my garden lately. Last year my husband and I began a project to redesign and replant the whole area. We had a number of established shrubs and trees so I knew this meant very close supervision on my part. My other half is still learning 'gardenspeak' and has not quite mastered the translation. A while ago I found to my alarm that 'prune' in English translates to 'raze to the ground' in his gardenspeak. I discovered this when I asked my dearly beloved to prune an attractive but overgrown shrub that stood in our front garden. An hour later I came out to find...well, nothing! No shrub, just a wide open space! After that I learned to recognise the gleeful expression on his face whenever borders needed to be tidied. I now know the quivering of the shears in his hot little hands does not bode well for my lavatera or mahonia!

Anyway, last year we extended the patio and reshaped the main flower bed. This year we tackled the lawns - two interlocking tear shapes dreamed up by Beloved - and the path around them. The only fly in the ointment is the latest mistranslation in Beloved's garden vocabulary. 'Plant sensitively' = 'buy the entire stock of every garden centre within a five mile radius and plant haphazardly in one's own backyard'. We now have every variety of plant known to man shoehorned into every available space and the result is a riot of colour and a major war going on as the plants battle for light, air and often, soil. Beloved has been banned from all garden centres but has twice been caught sneaking down the side entrance with a couple of flowerpots concealed about his person.

We had a forest of trees at the bottom of the garden - an oak, a beech, two ashes, several straggly trees of dubious parentage and two very large leylandii. Last year we hired tree surgeon Kevan Watt (www.qualitytreecare.co.uk) to cut down and thin out the trees. Naturally Beloved had his hand up for the job and equally naturally I said 'NO!'

The first thing was dealing with the leylandii. They had to go because they were blocking out the other trees. The tree surgeons then removed the mongrel trees and carefully pruned the others. Beloved and I sat on the patio with cups of tea and a plate of Danish pastry to watch the performance. And it really was like a performance. Carefully chosen boughs were chain-sawed, lowered to the ground, hauled off to the front of the house and put through a grinder. The speed, precision and elegance of the whole operation was amazing. In no time we were left with four beautifully shaped trees and a garden cleared and cleaned to a standard it had never seen before, certainly not since we took over ownership. I love watching people who know what they are doing, doing what they know and those guys really, really knew what they were doing.

The next phase comes next year when we have to do something about the area under the trees and that includes a semi-submerged air raid shelter and a family of foxes that might not take kindly to getting their eviction notice. The area needs to be completely cleared so maybe they will decamp at the first sight of Beloved happily indulging his craving for hacking down everything within his reach.

Mary

ONE AND ONE

2008-05-24T15:37:00.000-07:00

Reading the newspaper again, I saw an article about children who were poor readers at the age of 6 becoming the best in their class after being given one-to-one tuition. It only took 30 hours over a 12 week period to bring the children's reading abilities up to that of their classmates and after a further two years, the former poor readers had overtaken them. Way to go! The programme is called Every Child a Reader and is backed by the government. Teachers operating the scheme use Reading Recovery techniques to help those children who have been identified as weak readers.

Imagine what might have become of these children if this intervention had not taken place. There obviously was not much wrong with the kids themselves. They may only have needed help to overcome particular learning blocks and after one-on-one time with the teachers they were able to perform very well.

And it is this same principle that underpins the Cayac Pre-School Learning System. The books are designed so that an adult can sit with a child and guide and encourage him or her through the learning activity. And of course that means ample opportunity for the adult to discuss the pictures with the child, encourage questions about the actions, compare things in the pictures with things in the child's environment and so on to encourage speech development.

Many of the educational books on the market aimed at young children dedicate perhaps 2, 3 or 4 pages to a particular learning activity. If a child has not mastered the skill by the end of the third or fourth page, they have no further opportunity to practise and that bit of knowledge remains incomplete. The Cayac Pre-School books provide 15 or more pages on a particular learning activity to help children of differing abilities get to grips with and understand new concepts and practise the skills being taught.

Even if a child does not need all the pages to learn the targetted skill, he or she may simply enjoy the activity and want to continue copying the shapes and colouring the pictures. I know older children who like to work through the books in quiet moments just for the fun of doing something well within their abilities.

I am all for anything that will help to ensure children get the chance to fulfill their potential. The plan is to roll this programme out across the country. This scheme could well be the key that will open the door to a brighter future for lots of kids.

Mary

SAD STATISTIC

2008-05-21T15:28:00.000-07:00

In her recent report Ofsted Chief Christine Gilbert said that 20% of pupils leave their primary schools without a solid foundation in reading, writing and arithmetic. That's 1 in 5 children! Such a sad statistic and it masks the hardship and deprivation those children must face in a modern world where knowledge is king. I can't imagine not immersing myself in a book, newspaper, magazine or the back of a cereal box on a daily basis. I can't survive without reading something!

Reading the report reinforced for me the necessity of making sure pre-school children are exposed to the skills and concepts they need to be able to learn to read, write and manipulate numbers when they begin primary school. That's the idea behind the Cayac Pre-school Series. If children could arrive at their Reception class already aware at least of what letters and numbers look like and some idea of what they do, how much easier their lives would be. I am sure all parents want to give their children a positive start to their education and if the emotion underpinning their learning is joy, excitement and curiosity, their progress is likely to be a lot smoother than if they are anxious and confused.

Cayac supports family learning and as their first teachers, mums and dads (and in many cases, grandparents and siblings) are best placed to give the little ones a helping hand. With good material and a few hints and tips, this should be a process enjoyed by all. Wouldn't it be great if we could all do something towards erasing that sad statistic and help drive an upturn in child literacy and numeracy?

Mary

MUD AND MARKETING

2008-05-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

I am back after a rather long leave of absence. 2008 is a 'could do better' year.

I have been writing poetry for kids as a wind-down exercise to calm my nerves after a day of trying to get to grips with the new accounting package. I had a stab at it in the first of my pre-school activity books - 'Can you help us please?'.

'It is time to go to sleep now.
I am tired as can be.
Can you come back soon please
To play with me?'

I enjoyed those simple rhymes so much I thought I would take the next step, i.e. writing more than 4 lines per poem!!

I remember being awarded a book of poems in primary school as a prize for being the best at Nature Studies*?!# I loved that book. I still recall a couple of lines from one poem - something like 'It was the rainbow gave thee birth, and gave thee all her glorious hues.....' I have no idea what the poem was called but the imagery fascinated me and really made me think about the power of words to paint a picture.

My efforts are nothing like as romantic. Struggling for half an hour to find a word that rhymes with 'mud' is no fun at all. I bet Raold Dahl didn't have that problem.

I have been immersing myself in the business end of publishing. I have a brilliant new (human) printer who is absolutely meticulous about the work that leaves his workshop, which is great with me. I have a website designer who hopes to get the site up by the end of the month. I am on every internet marketing gurus mailing list and I have to say, although this is all fairly new to me, I find it absolutely fascinating. Tracy Repchuk, the Marketing Makeover Maestro wrote a book called 31 Days to Millionaire Marketing Miracles which gives a step by step guide to making money on the internet. Brilliant stuff and really clarifies a lot of the mysteries of the internet.

Must get back to the poetry though. 'Mud' will stick in my mind until I get that rhyme sorted out! Bud, cud, dud......

Mary

JANUARY'S SUCH A DOWNER, ISN'T IT?

2008-01-19T02:30:00.000-08:00

After all the mayhem of getting ready for Christmas, getting through Christmas and entering the New Year, January's such a downer. A seriously depleted bank account, dreary weather and several extra pounds to carry around, it always takes a huge effort to be optimistic about the coming months. Still, my pot of daffodils has started to bloom and that reminded me that spring is just around the corner and actually there are lots of great things to look forward to.

For one, I now have half my consignment of books with the rest to come in a couple of days. I have drawn up this huge chart of who I am going to approach and when. Just have to get up the courage to knock on that first door.

Writing is such an exposing thing. Everything in the books came out of my head and the hope is that children will like them and enjoy using them.

The books are aimed at parents of pre-school children who are looking for something to help their children prepare for entry into primary school. I have designed the books so that children with a range of abilities can find enough material to practice their skills and have a lot of fun at the same time. The idea is that the children will view using the books as a game - children learn so much better and faster when they are playing.

I worked in a pre-school, held on Saturdays, for 17 years and the one thing that struck me is how widely children of the same age differ in ability and development. One 4 year old would be able to follow a dotted line very accurately and draw, paint and use a pair of scissors well and another of the same age would struggle to hold a crayon properly. When I looked for books that would give all the children enough scope to practice a particular skill, I found that most books for pre-schoolers provided a couple of pages on following dotted lines, a couple of pages on matching shapes, a couple of pages on colours. This was fine for those who had arrived at the stage where their hand-eye co-ordination was fairly well developed and they were beginning to understand shapes, forms etc. However, those who were still on their journey to that point were left high and dry needing a little more practice than was offered, just at the point at which they were beginning to understand what they had to do.

That was when I began designing the learning material myself, gearing the work to address each child's specific needs. Hard work but hugely enjoyable.

When it came to writing and illustrating my books, I made sure there was enough scope for children of differing abilities to practice the targeted skill. A story runs through each book to make the learning process more interesting. I chose five characters - a bee called Boo, a spider called Seb, a kitten called Kubby, a mouse called Muti and a ladybird called Loki - to accompany the children through the books to help keep them interested and engaged. Hopefully this will also make it interesting for the parents who have to guide their preschoolers through the books!

Chin up! Spring's coming!

Mary

GOATS!

2007-12-18T09:41:00.001-08:00

It's no good! I can't cope with driving around for 45 minutes looking for a parking space or fighting my way through the crowds. I have decided that rather than cancel Christmas, everyone will be getting a goat. Actually I think that is a really good idea. Not only is it a solution to my shopping problems but I think my folks will actually like such a gift.

Not long ago I heard a lady on the TV saying what a naff gift these charity presents were. "Who the hell wants a bag of seeds for Christmas?" she cried. Well I would just love it. Not for myself of course but if it was sent on my behalf to someone who could really use it, I would be really, really pleased. To think that something so small can mean something so big.......

I always give money to people collecting for charity but that's not good enough. If I can find the time to watch a TV programme, I can find the time to write a cheque and send it off to the RNLI or Imperial Cancer Research. I think I will do that right now.

Mary

WHY ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE STILL IN THE SHOPS?

2007-12-18T02:56:00.000-08:00

Just came back from shopping in Bromley! The place is heaving! I do not understand why people have left it so late to do their shopping. At this stage they should have bought all their presents, wrapped them up and stashed them safely under the Christmas tree leaving the way clear for me to do my late shopping in peace and quiet!

I feel almost as tired as after my stint as a 'body' during my daughter's fitness trainer exam. She passed but I still bear the scars from the event. It was the cross-trainer that nearly made the wheels come off. I hate the thing. I knew I was in trouble when my offspring blithely announced that we would be doing TEN MINUTES on the machine. At three minutes I began drafting in my head how I would announce that I was dying and had to come off. At five minutes dearest daughter says "Keep it up! We've only got five minutes to go." We, WE! I was the only one on the cross-trainer with arms and legs flailing in all directions, lungs bursting, eyes popping out of my head and envisaging the examiner's reaction when I collapsed off the back of the machine. Luckily for me she cut the exercise short and asked us to move on to the next piece of equipment. I managed to stay conscious and smiling but it was a huge effort.

Just spoke to the printers. The books are still not ready but I am hopeful I will get something by the end of the week. Problem seems to be that I drew the illustrations in Powerpoint using a mouse. Yes, I know it is unorthodox but when I started in January I intended to give my drawings to an illustrator to make a proper job of it. As it turned out, the illustrator felt my efforts were good enough. However, I have no patience and got tired of having to redraw the characters every time I wanted to change a leg or a whisker or a tail. I had (and still have) no idea of how to use a package like Illustrator so I trained myself to draw in Powerpoint using a mouse - that way it was easy to amend or recolour the drawings. The printer is not impressed though. Apparently the colours are difficult to maintain during the printing process as they are in RGB. I guess I will have to have a rethink for the next set of books.

I am off to Croydon now to buy some curtains. Christmas just isn't Christmas without new curtains. Hope the shopping centre will be reasonably quiet otherwise I might have to do my crazed shopper impression a few days early!

Mary

I THINK I WILL DO CHRISTMAS AFTER ALL

2007-12-17T09:23:00.000-08:00

I suddenly realised on Sunday that there is very little time to Christmas. I have been so busy with books, printers, guests, decorators and seminars that I have hardly given the holidays a thought. This is not unusual for me, you understand. Ever wondered who the crazed looking lady is who every year can be seen struggling with a security guard in Debenhams at 4.00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, pleading to be allowed just 5 more minutes? HELLO!!

Right! I have got to get on with my marketing plan. When I get the books from the printers I need to start hawking them around the streets of London. Not exactly in a suitcase but you know what I mean. This is besides a very sophisticated internet marketing plan I am hatching which involves squeeze pages (I love that term), search engine optimisation and viral marketing. I feel very proud that I know what these all mean! Now all I have to do is implement them and I will be sorted..... I must just go and lie down!

Mary

SIGNING IN AND NOTHING'S BURNING SO FAR!

2007-12-11T09:58:00.000-08:00

Well, here I am. Blogging! Another notch in my belt for 2007. This year has been a mammoth one for me. Writing and illustrating books, finding out that there is a parallel universe on the internet that I was unaware of , learning about internet marketing, putting together a website (not quite yet) and now blogging! This is mega for me. I was around when duplicating was done on a large, noisy machine which needed a lot of energetic winding of the handle to produce the copies!

Yesterday I sent the final, final proofs of my children's workbooks to the printers only (horrors!) to find one of the characters, a bee called Boo, had somehow lost his wings. What is it with these insects and animals! Someone is always missing a whisker or a tail! Anyway, very kind printer let me change the drawing. I will soon take delivery of a vast number of books.

I attended a conference last Saturday and showed the pre-launch copies. There was a little interest and I have had a few queries so hopefully Boo the bee, Loki the ladybird, Kubby the kitten, Muti the mouse and Seb the spider will find their way into some little hands soon.

Tomorrow I will be the guinea pig in my daughter's fitness coach exam. I am always happy to help except that beautiful, sweet-natured daughter morphs into Atilla the Hun at the mere sight of a cross-trainer or a rowing machine . Fingers crossed for me please!

Mary