The Voice

I'm late writing my blog today because I was helping a friend close to my heart move some necessities into his apartment.

It's that crazy July 1st moving week here and it's total chaos everywhere.

It's not easy to focus when the weather is beautiful too.

I'm off to Old Montreal later to wander and soak up the ambiance. I can't wait.

Life has gotten in the way of my work schedule and I am simply letting it. I figure I've spent lots of time working recently and now it's time to enjoy my summer and play.

I know myself well--when I need to get cracking I will.

Life isn't always fun, but when it is you've gotta throw yourself into it wholeheartedly.

That's my plan.

I wish you all a wonderful, beautiful Montreal summer day!

A demain.

Open Forum

Good morning to you all.

The air in Montreal feels like pea soup.

It's thick and warm and vaguely green (oddly enough) and it feels as if it's on the cusp of crying.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Maybe we're in store for one of those interminably humid summer days that causes you to move slowly and drink plenty of beer.

I'm ready. I can handle it. Jazz, humidity and beer--what else is there is life...oh, and love, of course.

The Journey

I can't believe it's Thursday already. I always love journey day!

My journey has been circuitous at times but is now sailing on a clean line.

I am starting to see the future moving towards me and I like it.

I am on a sailboat looking across the bow, the open world expanse before my eyes.

Today is query writing day so that is where my head is. Ideas tumbling together to form an angle, an idea that will encourage a reader to read.

That's a wonderful challenge.

'How can I get this person to read my article?' I think to myself.

The Mechanics

Good morning to you all.

At my business meeting this morning a group of us were discussing how to lose a client.

Anyone who has ever worked freelance knows that not all clients are created equal. There are some clients that are simply not worth working with.

A number of us made different comments (based on our personal experiences) and I thought I'd share a few of the most thoughtful ones with you.

• Always be professional and diplomatic when ending a relationship with a client. (In other words, do not make the situation personal and inflammatory. Remember word gets around and if your conduct is of the two-year-old tantrum variety people will find out about it!)
  
• Writing a concise and clear letter informing the client of the termination is a very professional way to approach a client. (This gives your ex-client the time and distance necessary to really think through your termination. Note: Having someone else read your letter before you send it is always a good way to avoid any emotional words that may have slipped in.)
• Have a clear concept of how you want to run your business and what your limitations are. (If you already have a business model that you follow new clients won't be able to push you around. They may try but you can then firmly say how you choose to work, and how you don't.)
• Make sure that you are upfront and very clear about how you charge and what your fee will be for the project. (If you don't do this clients will complain that they were not informed about your fee and often not pay you what you feel you deserve.)
• You will receive what you give as far as consideration and respect are concerned. (This is not true from all your clients of course, but the vast majority of them will be attracted to you for the qualities you project.)
  
• Last but absolutely not least, don't take any business relationship personally. ( This seems to be the hardest point for most people, but one I think is essential. There is a reason why it's called business after all.)

I hope you find these points useful.

I have noticed as my business has matured that I tend to attract clients that I can work with very well. I am faced with less and less high-maintenance clients and I can also see potential problem clients much more quickly than I used to.

These abilities have likely come from experience and having a very clear model about how I want to work and how I absolutely don't.

The Writer's Weekly

Happy St-Jean Baptiste Day everyone!

It is a holiday here in Quebec so I am not going to write my usual blog.

I feel too relaxed to really think about writers in the media. Anyway, there's no paper today to give me an idea so...I will write about freedom.

Freedom comes from within.

When you allow yourself to be exactly who you truly are you are setting yourself free.

This is something I have recently put into practice and the experiences I have had since freeing myself are huge.

I now understand why great minds throughout history have discussed inner freedom.

I think many of us have been in situations where we felt cloistered--a relationship that demanded sacrifice rather than giving unconditional acceptance, for example.

The question I asked myself was this: If I have to be someone else, act like someone I am not to live this life then am I really living at all?

The answer of course is: No.

I chose to live my life and no one else's. Why?

Because there's a reason why I am who I am and I want to know what that reason is.

Don't you?

The Voice

Good morning to you all.

It's Monday once again and I feel energized this week. I have had two or three weeks of thinking and deciding, but now I've made some decisions and I'm ready for action.

It's interesting how I go through periods of calm (sometimes it almost feels like stagnation) creatively speaking. I have ideas but they won't come out in any concrete form. Then suddenly my brain has thought them through for long enough and they spill out at an alarming rate.

That's where I am now.

I like to set myself goals so that the calm never lasts indefinitely. I had already decided and told one of my mentors that I'd have work ready by the end of this week. That forces my head to set deadlines of its own and have the thinking done at the right time so that the ideas can spill out at the right time as well.

It took me years of refining my writing process to come up with this time management system that works for me. Everyone has to create their own system I realize. Some people leave it to the last minute and find that the pressure stimulates their creativity. Other people are the slow and steady type that work a bit every day no matter what. I know there are certain days when new ideas just won't flow. I have learned not to fight it (though it can still cause a bit of frustration) and I do other things that have got to be done anyway, such as book keeping, working on current contracts, researching the job market, networking and so on.

And if I can't focus on any of those things either I clean my house.

So now my brain feels as if it's on fire. I always feel a bit restless and edgier when I am in this state, but I always get a lot done too so it's all good.

This is when I say to myself (thanks to Wayne Gretzky): You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.

A demain.

Open Forum

Good morning one and all.

I love my Fridays. There's something about this day of the week that brings good things to mind. Maybe it's the upcoming weekend, maybe it's going out for lunch and casual day at work, I'm really not sure. All I know is that people laugh a lot more on Fridays--I'm sure of it.

There's a relaxed feeling in the air and it's hard to miss if you pay attention. Also you've got a week of work behind you to feel proud of so it's OK to give yourself a little on a Friday. An extra coffee break, lunch out or maybe a 5 a 7 at the local pub after work--why not you earned it.

It's the day where my mind is lying in a hammock stretching out thinking of possibilities. Ahhh, wonderful!

I wish you all a spectacular weekend.

The Journey

Good morning one and all, it's journey day!

I don't know why I chose Thursday to be the day I talk about my journey (as a writer and a person), but it is always the perfect day for this blog. I have never had any problem finding lots to say and, of course, today is no exception.

I realize more than ever that for me becoming a successful writer had to include giving up my fear. That was a crucial step in my writing journey. Without that step I would not have been able to benefit from the query writing course that I took or believe that I would get published.

I used to see getting published as an uphill battle. I knew I wanted it but it felt as if there were barriers in my way. The barriers were my own (as I have written before) and the road is not uphill, it's a wide open field instead.

It's wonderful how little choices can make revolutionary changes in your life.

It took me years of hard personal work to release my fears and it has taken me years of hard work to become the writer that I am as well. These journeys have been running parallel to each other, but I am thrilled to say they are finally merging.

I have been learning that all aspects of my life are really one. If you disrespect or neglect one aspect you are actually harming all others.

This is a very freeing concept to me. I have decided to be here, be present and completely myself across all aspects of my life. My professional, personal, parental, and so on are all getting all of me at the necessary times. This is why my journeys are merging.

I was compartmentalizing them before because some of them had to sit on a shelf for a while. As the last few years have unfolded I have been able to, one by one, take the shelved aspects and give them the attention they needed.

The shelf is now empty and I am whole again. But not only whole, but without fear as well.

I have no doubt that that means I will end up being, creating, loving and living exactly the way I am supposed to.

I will leave you with this quote by Ambrose Redmoon: Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.

The Mechanics

Good morning to you all. It's mechanics day!

Today it's all about direct and indirect questions.

'Are you going to the game?' is a direct question and because it is direct it requires a question mark.

'I asked him if he was going to the game. ' is an indirect question and doesn't require a question mark.

These two examples are pretty straightforward I realize but it isn't always that simple, for example: Why should allegations that go unchallenged in America be subject of legal action in Britain, asks Roy Greenslade.

This above example doesn't require a question mark. Why not? It is a novel example of an indirect question. If we rewrote it like this 'Roy Greensdale asks why should allegations that go unchallenged in America be the subject of legal action in Britain,' you can see that is is not direct at all.

Here is another example that really illustrates the direct versus indirect idea: Roy Greensdale asks, 'Why should allegations that go unchallenged in America be subject of legal action in Britain?' (Notice the slight punctuation difference between this sentence and the one above.)

Should there be a question mark at the end of his 'question?' No. The sentence should end with a period or be rewritten to include a direct question.

A lot of writers make these errors and I remember debating these exact issues when I worked with a group of editors in-house. Indirect questions aren't always obvious. In the indirect examples above someone else is speaking for Roy and that's what makes it indirect. I'll try to keep that in mind when these issues come up again--because I know they will.

Have a great day everyone!

A demain.

The Writer's Weekly

Good morning one and all. I have a question for all you writers out there.

Do you think that writing books feeds a writer's ego?

I was having a discussion with a friend of mine last night and he mentioned that J. K. Rowling published her first two books while remaining anonymous.

Is there something more noble about doing that?

Does that mean that she wrote the initial Harry Potter books because she knew she had books within her that needed to come out and then maybe later on turned more to wanting to capitalize on her commercial success (or please the public)?

I think this is a really good question. Why? Well, often people start out as unknowns. Dr. Phil of Oprah fame is a great example. I read his first book Life Strategies and I found it really clear and no-frills and his appearances on Oprah were pretty humble and straightforward at the beginning. But his books changed the more popular and well-known he became as did his TV persona and I felt, when I saw him on TV, that he'd almost become a caricature of himself. Not good.

I don't think that has happened with Rowling, but I don't really follow her that closely.

It seems to be a common trend that as people become known that they change into something else when faced with all the attention and fame. Not everyone loses themselves in the spotlight, but many people do.

I have noticed that people blog about hoping to write that book that brings them the million dollar deal and a trip to Oprah and I have wondered if they really believe that fame will make them better or larger somehow.

I am not sure that I would want to gauge my worth based on what the American population thinks of me and my work I can tell you that.

Writing is really hard. I know I'm stating the obvious here but I don't think it can be said too many times. Writing a book can take years and I find it hard to believe that anyone would do it, at least initially, to feed their ego. But if their first book really took off, yes I could see the ego coming into it.

For me, right now, I just have certain things I want and need to say. I don't care if I'm ever on Oprah or even if I get on a best-sellers list sometime. I just want to feel that I did my absolute best with whatever work I created. That my work came from knowing what my inner-purpose is and that my creative fuel originates in the universe. If that's the case I know I will be successful at whatever I do, successful under my own terms--not the 'success' that society may want to impose on me.

The Voice

Good morning one and all. It's Monday once again, wow, where did the weekend go?

This week I have got to put my writer's hat back on and get down to business. I had so many distractions and other business to attend to over the last couple weeks that I chose to let my creative juices take a vacation.

The juices did slack off but not entirely and I have some newspaper clippings in my folder that are the seeds of future ideas. The writer's hat may have not been on my head, but it was close by.

I have one query that is still out there and I am hoping it will come back with an assignment attached to it. If that happens the champagne will be flowing here I can tell you.

Anyway, I will get back to query writing this week and brainstorming some other ideas as well.

I really did succeed in giving up my fear last week. My universe did tilt and I have already seen obvious changes in my personal life. I am sure I will see it in my professional life as well.

I knew somehow that I would never really be successful as a writer (or person) until I let my fears lose their hold over me. That only makes sense and I want a well-rounded life. I don't want to be successful only as a writer and have my personal life fraught with conflict. That's not who I am.

I have been working from Tolle's words: Each person's life--each life form--represents a world, a unique way the universe experiences itself. When your form dissolves, a world comes to an end--one of countless worlds.

That means that we are all unique and the universe has chosen to express itself through our unique forms. This makes all humans equal and includes every life form as well. All life is important and has a place in the energy of our lives.

I love that idea because it means that we are all here for a reason and we are all expected to live out that reason, that purpose. I am definitely finding my purpose and it is so expanding.

Oddly enough Facebook has helped me expand my universe as well. Maybe the advents of technology aren't all as distancing as I once thought.

I wish you all a wonderful Monday.

A demain.

The Journey

Good morning one and all, it's journey day!

I won't be writing tomorrow so I will include Open Forum in my blog today.

I was mentioning the fact that Facebook found me yesterday and after checking it out some more my blog takes priority.

Facebook isn't really me. My profile looks rather wholesome and small compared to some people, but my eyes have been opened looking at some other people's profiles.

My cousin says she always looks up people on Facebook before hiring anyone and now I know why. One guy I know is a major player on Facebook. It didn't totally surprise me to see that, but I certainly wouldn't consider him for a 'serious' job based on his profile that's for sure. But he wasn't the only one like that I assure you. All my 'friends' on Facebook are normal people that use the site to keep in touch with people and to post their photos and videos and so on. But some people seem to make it into a competition to see who has the most 'friends.' I've never understood that clique-like behaviour. Just because you have more friends doesn't mean you're a better person. That's why I still see the site as being for teenagers. It's that mentality of more is better--you know that popularity thing that I guess some people never grow out of. I was never into that to begin with so...I look wholesome on Facebook. So be it.

I have had a wild week in other ways that don't include any web sites. I have made some serious promises to myself that I have kept and it has transformed my life. It is interesting how right Marcel Proust was when he said: The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. Of course to 'have new eyes' you must change from within the way you are perceiving the world. To change your perception you must change the way you see yourself. It all comes from within.

I have always been an avid reader of quality new age materials about spirituality and personal growth and I have read countless times the idea that change can only come from within. Since I was a child I have had sneak peeks into this idea but I really didn't completely get it until about 6 months ago.

My perception of the world is now totally different than it was even a month ago.

I do not look at myself the same way I used to at all. I have consciously focused my forgiveness, love and genuine friendship onto myself and in turn healed a lot of the issues I had been carrying around with me. Sometimes I wonder how I left the house with all the crap I had stowed away in all my pockets.

I now leave the house much lighter and the new eyes with which I see the world are real and unfettered.

I now see everyone and everything as being whole and real and important. The respect I have for my friends, my family, my animals, my work, nature, well, pretty much everything has skyrocketed.

I wish you all a wonderful day and a relaxing weekend!

A lundi!

The Mechanics

Today is yet another day that I will not be sticking to my title topic. Ah, such is life, again.

I have been found by Facebook.

At first I thought the whole thing was kinda juvenile but now I am beginning to like it. I can see how it would definitely appeal to teenagers. Making up a profile of yourself and adding photos and all that is fun. It reminded me a bit of starting this blog however I find blogging infinitely more satisfying.

On Facebook you aren't really saying that much about yourself and they put a huge focus on friends and networks. I can see how that side of it definitely appeals to the teenage crowd. I did find quite a few people I know on it though too and they are not teenagers. So, I am reevaluating my first impression of Facebook.

I guess for me to find it really satisfying I'd have to have a place on it to make comments regularly. I don't think it has that. Anyway, I'll keep experimenting.

The Writer's Weekly

Good morning everyone!

I find that my blogs are sticking less and less to the titles I created. Oh, well.

I have given up my fear. You know those nagging little voices in your head that say things to stop you, to scare you even. The dreaded 'what if' voices. Well, I've decided not to listen to them anymore.

This has been a long process--it definitely didn't happen over night. When something big goes wrong that 'what if' voice can really take over your head. It says to you, 'well, you failed at that so maybe you'll fail at this and this and this too.' So over time I have learned to pay less and less attention to that voice. And with renewed confidence comes more silence. The voice's volume steadily grows quieter until now I can barely hear it.

Choosing to give up that fear has really changed my life. Doors have opened where I thought they would be closed for sure. I mean I was convinced that they'd be closed! I was really, really wrong! Realizing that has suddenly opened my eyes.

I was looking at the world as if a barrier existed in front of my path. It's as if I felt I constantly had to climb over something or swerve around something to get to where I wanted to go.

In reality I think people had to constantly climb over something or swerve around something to get to me. And of course not too many people bothered to try, I mean why would they? I had set up so many road blocks that I was practically unattainable.

Well, the road blocks have fallen. I feel really light and strangely exposed but not in a scary way. I write differently, I talk differently, I ask for what I want without hesitation (remember no more 'what ifs') and I'm overwhelmed by the response I've gotten.

Honestly, if only I'd been able to do this sooner I would have gotten what I wanted all that time ago. But, I wasn't ready then and that's the real truth. The road blocks were up because I wasn't able to live completely honestly and fully, not then.

But I am now.

This required a lot of courage and hard work and soul searching (literally). And I am continuing on that journey. This is only the beginning, I am convinced of that.

The Voice

Good morning one and all and welcome to The Voice.

It's another steamy day in Montreal and I am seriously considering putting in my air conditioner. I always seem to leave it until it's practically too late and then I have to go searching around for some strong arms to help me do it. Ah, the life of a delicate female (well, not exactly delicate, but I'm not built like a rugby player either). I always find someone though so I'm not too worried.

My voice has been changing again simply because my outlook is changing too. Life just doesn't look the same as it did even a month ago.

I used to wonder a lot and ask questions like, "What if..." and, "Where do I go from here?" and so on. Some philosophers have considered these existential questions that are worth asking simply because they are worth answering. I, however, think questions like these muddy the waters.

If a lot of our internal dialogue revolves around hesitation, fear, insecurity and inaction it will simply cause more hesitation, fear, insecurity and inaction.

If you know what you should be doing you will go out and do it. Why? Because it just feels right in your gut. You may not even have any internal dialogue about it at all, you often just go out and do it.

I have realized that thinking things through and through and through is actually a form of avoidance. Rather than really dealing with the issue at hand you simply think about it and consequently never really do anything at all.

My writing was getting to be like that at one point. It simply wasn't hitting the mark and I knew it. I was hesitant to really delve into my main characters, or my thesis, or my verse. This caused people to look at my work and think, "This has the makings of something great but..." It was the 'but' that I had to come to terms with.

Realizing, over the course of the last few months, that the universe is far more forgiving and generous than I once thought has really changed the way I do things. I no longer worry about sending that e-mail or making that phone call or writing that story, article, poem...Why not? Because even if I don't succeed in one place I will in another simply because I have put the right energy out there into the world.

I have had lots of personal experiences that attest to this and they just keep coming.

So my voice is no longer afraid to get to know my main characters, or the issues embedded in my articles, or the verses in my poems. The hesitation, fear, insecurity and inaction are all gone.

I feel lighter. I feel more in touch with what's really happening now. And I am proud of myself too.

Have a great one all!

A demain.

Open Forum

Good morning one and all and Happy Friday!

I had another dream last night about having an apartment downtown and also living out here. In the dream last night I was describing to someone how I was buying furniture for my apartment and starting to add in the personal touches.

I have a theory about why I am dreaming about living in two places. First of all, I know it is not literal. I spent enough time in two places as a child and I don't like going back and forth anymore.

I think it is a way that my consciousness is handling the fact that my life can be very different depending on the day. Some days I work, some days I'm with my son, some evenings I'm free, other evenings I'm not. My life is very compartmentalized into brief periods of space.

What I do with that space depends on the demands on my time.

I find the apartment downtown idea really liberating. In the first dream I had just rented it and this time I was buying furniture (and it was pretty cool stuff too) and rugs and so on. I was working downtown and enjoying it and living out here too when I was in my 'Mom' space.

I can't wait to see how it develops in further dreams.

I was spending a lot of time with a friend of mine in the dream too. Talking about work (because we were working together) but talking about life as well. We spent more time talking than working and this has been a trend in my dreams too.

I have been dreaming about friends that I know (they don't always look exactly the same as in real life) and we have been talking and hanging out and connecting.

All I can conclude from these dreams is that I am creating space within my mind for all of my different roles and manifesting the need for connections with people I care about.

The dreams are reflecting the fact that I believe I have the right to do what I want and want what I want in my life. They aren't needy dreams striving for something to fill in the emptiness or loneliness. They are dreams that are already full. The dreams are simply an inner-expression of what is already happening to me. When I wake up from one I feel as if I have been reading a book about myself, it's a most exceptional, wonderful feeling.

I can't help but feel that something awesome (and universal) is happening to me. If I were dancing, spinning round and round that would come close to expressing the way I feel right now.

The Journey

What's my journey been like recently? Eventful, as always.

One of the things that I have noticed more than ever is a continuity of relationships with people that seems to be a pattern of my life.

Many people remain part of my life even if I don't see them for a year or even two. I then suddenly run into them again and the friendship is renewed almost as if there hadn't been a break.

At first I thought it was happening now and then, but it happens with different people more and more regularly.

The friendship is similar to what it was before, but different in some important ways that makes the pattern all the more significant. My friendships are becoming more and more honest and reciprocal and, well, loving. It's as if my own journey is attracting different things from people I have known for years. What they are giving me now is far more mature and long-standing than what we initially shared.

I have 'grown up' a lot over the last year or so and it is not surprising to me that I would be attracting a different level of communication from these people.

I just find it so amazing that it is happening with many different people from different parts of my life.

It is quite liberating because it is direct proof that we make our own realities. The quote from Tolle 'Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world,' is proven with my ongoing friendships.

I used to think the world was withholding honesty and shared experiences and love. I no longer feel that way and have made very specific efforts to give all those elements back to the world and in turn I am receiving them back as well.

That's what Tolle said would happen and of course he is right because he already knew it works because it does. It's as simple as that.

The more I learn about the universe, the simpler it becomes.

There are no absolutes, everything is gray.

When we make up rules for ourselves and others, we are setting up walls and boundaries and complicating life. Life is not complicated, it is simple.

Looking within and acting from your own inner-purpose is what makes life uncomplicated.

The path you take should be peaceful and genuine, if it is not then you are getting caught up in the details.

Details are not life.

You should be your own priority. Why?

Because if you aren't you certainly won't be anyone else's.

The Unmechanics Day

Today is yet another day where my schedule is just not possible.

It is on days like this that I have to tell myself 'the only constant is change.'

Hearing that over and over in my head helps me cope with the constant interruptions, the comments like 'I'm bored!' and 'I'm hungry!' and the sound of Sponge Bob in the background.

Luckily, today is a filing day. Now that the taxes are ready for the accountant I can move on to filing 2007 away and bringing in the new year. I find this one of the most boring activities on the planet and one of the most satisfying (once it's done and not before).

So, my office will feel less cluttered by the end of today and I will have said 'the only constant is change' 5 million times (or at least it'll feel that way).

Have a great one all!

The Writer's Weekly

I'm doing my taxes today. I know, I know I'm late (as usual).

See you tomorrow!

The Voice

Good morning everyone. It's Monday.

My routine has been somewhat bizarre recently because my son has been home with a weird stomach thing. Consequently, I don't do anything at the time I normally do and I am interrupted a lot. This experience leaves me feeling like a flag flapping in the wind, a great symbol but not really useful.

I was reading the current blog by Tamara Lee from the Canadian Writers' Collective and it is true that women are more timid about putting themselves out there into the writing world. I am sure there are many different reasons depending on the person and so on but I can think of one that might be universal. Women play the role of peace keepers in families. We help things work better and things run more smoothly and we don't fight for our positions we negotiate.

Men play a lot more organized sports than women. Men fight physically a lot more than women. Men are naturally more aggressive as a gender. I think most men feel they will have to compete and fight and strive for whatever position they want in the world (never mind the fact that they compete for women all the time). So if a man yelled out from the crowd during a reading and said 'You suck!' the guy reading would fight back whereas the woman would wonder where the comment was coming from.

That's what makes men and women so wonderfully different (and why I think this world would be a MUCH more peaceful place if women and men EQUALLY decided on the political decisions in every country).

Women reflect and wonder and then act (most of the time), men do those things too but later. First men react and that's likely why being out in the world is easier for them to just do. I don't believe that women should become more like men. What would be the purpose of that? Women are unique and see things differently for a reason. Men do too.

Thinking that women and men are competitors is really the wrong way to look at things. It's really a yin-yang idea. We complement each other as long as we are allowed to be ourselves whichever gender we are.

It's unfortunate in our world that differences are either ridiculed or feared, at least initially.

The decision by the Catholic Church to not let women become priests is an example of the division, artificially created, between the sexes. Male priests would lose 'control' if women were 'allowed' to be their equals. Ironically male Catholic priests would gain so much more if they could only embrace the other half of the world's population.

Whenever you are faced with a person or group that thrives on separation and division you know it is the ego at work.