This weekend my internet connection has been problematic, dropping out at random and without warning. Very annoying. I’ve been trying to get a couple of half-written articles completed, but it just hasn’t been possible, so I’ve found my mind going around in circles, throwing up lots of questions that have been stewing around in there for awhile.

Questions like:

What niche am I in?

What do I offer my readers? What more can I give?

What’s unique about me?

Should I write an e-book, and what would it be about?

What can I do to move my subscriber numbers to the next level?

And the big one that’s been circulating for some time; should I cut SHE-POWER Fiction?

You’re probably thinking right now, “Wow, she really doesn’t know what she’s doing here.” And you’d be right. At least a little bit anyway.

Like my life itself, this blog is a work in progress and I tend to live and write by gut instinct. Everything you’ve ever read on this blog has poured forth from my heart and soul. Even if an article has seemed trivial to you, it’s been authentic and meaningful to me at the time I published it. On that day, those words, whether mundane or profound, were the words I wanted to communicate to you.

That said, this blog is not just about me. YOU are the reason I take time away from my young son and family and friends to blog on a regular basis. You may not have been here in the beginning when SHE-POWER was started, but the blog was nothing then. It was an idea, a catchy url. Now it’s a tool that I use to serve and entertain YOU.

So tell me, what is SHE-POWER to you? Do you have any feedback you’d like to share with me? Because for a chick that usually has a lot to say, I’m going to go out on a limb and admit I’m a bit stumped for answers here. I know the ideas I’m trying to communicate, but I don’t know what you’re actually receiving.

One decision I have made for the moment is to move SHE-POWER Fiction to its own page.

As an aspiring novelist, this category is very important to me. I not only want to share my stories and characters with an audience, but I want to impose a public discipline on myself to keep up my fiction writing.

That said, I’m not sure SHE-POWER is the right place for fiction. Some of you are devoted fans of my current storyline with Clarissa and Scott and email and write me with encouragement. I really appreciate that, thank you. Many others don’t seem to click through and read these posts. So, what to do?

For the moment, the next extract of SHE-POWER Fiction will be the last blog post. After that, I’ll post a quick message to let you know I’ve updated the Fiction Page, but you’ll then have to follow a link to read the story extract. That way, people who are interested get their Clarissa and Scott fix, and people who aren’t can just ignore the notification.

I will also get a chance to see how many people are actively seeking the stories, which will help me decide what to do with SHE-POWER Fiction long term. I have thought about moving all fiction to another writing site, but I’ll make that decision in due course.

Hope you’re having a great weekend, and I look forward to hearing any thoughts you might have about the future of this blog.

Kelly

Photo by aussiegall

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I’ve had a lousy week. Seven days of a respiratory infection, coupled with a feverishly ill son. I may not technically be dying, but I’ve definitely wallowed in the possibility as I’ve lain on the couch with a whimpering child and a hacking cough. Attractive image, I know.

As a consequence, my posting has fallen off a bit. My new SHE-POWER Fiction is still in draft form and I hope to polish it up and publish it in the next day or so. In the mean time, all this lounging around the house has had an upside in that I’ve spent lots of time surfing the web, feeding my groggy, medicated brain.

Here are the links I’ve cruised and loved this week:

Life on a Shoestring Budget has some creative and adventurous ideas for how to make your dollar go further. Check out their new 5 part series: 20 Ways to Live on Almost Nothing.

Cath Lawson writes about how to make yourself stand out as a freelancer in: Nude Freelancer Storms Google Campus

Leo from Zen Habits provides some tips for how to lift yourself out of a funk in: Flip Your Karma: 8 Tricks to Turn the Bad into the Awesome

Celebrate being a free woman with generous human rights this Saturday, 8 March by visiting the official International Womens Day website. There’s podcasts, photographs, information on the 97 years of IWD and some interesting links.

Caroline Middlebrook gives 6 Steps to Find the Right Work-Life Balance. I really liked this article as this is something I struggle with. I seem to go through binges where I neglect my work and lavish family, friends with quality time, then I panic that I’m not getting enough writing done so I chain myself to the computer and fob everyone off until my son practically has to rip my fingers off the keyboard. Can I blame astrology here? Us Librans struggle with balance…

The article, Sex, Blogs and Screenwriting got my attention this week with a focus on Diablo Cody, the winner of this year’s Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film in question, Juno is a must see, and Diablo Cody is particularly interesting because she first gained attention as a blogger. This led to a book deal, which then led to a screen writing career, which then led to her stealing MY DREAM!

And following up with more Juno goodness, Mia Freedman, a well known Australian writer/media personality wrote a funny post on the Academy Award nominated actress, Ellen Page. Check out Not that there’s anything wrong with being a lesbian, you understand. Make sure you watch the videos. I like people who don’t take themselves too seriously.

Enjoy this blog while you can; a Hollywood producer is going to be calling me any day now…

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You may have read my post for New Year, where I talked about my primary goal for 2008: to write consistently and hopefully sell a short story or novel.

So far, I’ve managed to keep up with blogging a few times a week, but my old enemy, FEAR, has prevented me from fulfilling the promise I made to start writing some short fiction, finish my novel and maybe start on a new one. There’s no point in keeping all these stories on my hard drive and looking at them longingly, is there? They need an audience. People to read them, enjoy them, critique them. People like you.

As of tomorrow I will be posting a piece of short fiction every Wednesday. This story or excerpt will feature a female protagonist (main character) who is struggling with all the issues you and I wrestle with, whilst trying to be the best woman she can be. She may be a mess, she’ll definitely be conflicted, and I’m hoping she’ll resonate with most of you.

Some fiction pieces may be one offs and others may run as a serial. I may even take plot requests, so tell me what you want to be reading. And if anything feels like it has a life of its own, or attracts a good audience, well maybe it will be turned into a novel.

I’m counting on you to work with me here. I need your feedback. I need your support. Come on this journey with me and I will endeavor to write fiction that inspires and moves you.

Photo by moriza

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The more that you read,
the more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
the more places you’ll go.
Dr. Seuss

Okay, call me slow, but I had never heard of a Book Meme before reading about one on www.collectingmycash.com. Sure, I’ve done email chains before, but not about books and I’ve never heard of a Meme. What a cool word, and a great idea!

I’ve had a life-long love affair with books, so today I am going to start my own Book Meme.

What was the last book you bought?

Eat, Pray, Love

Name a book you have read MORE than once

Lots! One I can see on my bookshelf is ‘The Bronze Horseman’ by Paullina Simons

Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life? If yes, what was it?

‘You Can Heal Your Life’ by Louise Hay

How do you choose a book - eg. by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews

Cover or recommendation

Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction?

Depends. Sometimes I go through stages of only reading one type, but usually I’m reading one of each

What’s more important in a novel - beautiful writing or a gripping plot?

plot, hands down

Most loved/memorable character (character/book)

Lucky Santangelo (Chances series by Jackie Collins)

Now, leave a comment sharing your answers to the above, and then tell 3 more people about our little Book Meme by:

* Emailing them the link: www.she-power.com, or
* SHARING THIS POST on your preferred social bookmarking site.

I can’t wait to see the books and characters that have made an impact on you.

Kelly

Photograph provided by lunawhimsy

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EAT PRAY LOVE is a book I find very hard to review. The whole point of reviewing a book is to be able to judge it from a distance. I cannot do this with EAT PRAY LOVE. I am obsessed with the magic that is this book and the enormous talent that is Elizabeth Gilbert. I want to meet this woman. Okay, I’ll be honest, I want to BE this woman.

EAT PRAY LOVE is the memoir of award winning writer, Elizabeth Gilbert’s one year sabbatical from a life that seems to be collapsing around her. She’s coming out of a nasty divorce, her husband wants to take her for everything she’s worth, her new lover is infatuated one day, distant the next, and she’s on a cocktail of pills for her chronic depression and anxiety.

Like many of us at times like this, Elizabeth wants to get away, but unlike the majority of us, she actually does it, embarking on a trip to ITALY, INDIA and BALI She does what so many of us dream of doing - escaping the mundane of our daily troubles, breaking out of our comfort zone and reshaping our lives in a fundamental way.

And so begins the journey that is EAT PRAY LOVE. She finds pleasure in food and language in Italy, spirituality through meditation and prayer in an Indian ashram, and ends up falling in love with herself, life and her future husband in Bali. However, the most important journey of all is the one that is within, and this is where Elizabeth Gilbert has laid herself bare. She writes with an honesty that is at times uncomfortable, publicly revealing her fears, neuroses and regular bouts of self pity so we can share her often pot-holed, roundabout road to self-acceptance.

The book starts with her sobbing on the bathroom floor night after night as she slowly comes to the realization that her marriage and her life does not reflect what she wants for her future. She is married, financially comfortable, trying to have a baby, basically she knows she SHOULD feel blessed, but she doesn’t. She is tortured by the sense that her life has gone terribly off-track somewhere. She loves her husband and doesn’t want to leave him, but then she also doesn’t want to be with him. So she stays trapped in her misery, unable to move forward in any direction .

I think any woman who has had a committed relationship break down can relate to her struggles here. Relationships end for many reasons, which are often too complicated to articulate, and I respected the fact that Elizabeth Gilbert refused to get into the whys and wherefores of her divorce. The details of her relationship with her ex-husband are not our business, and more importantly not what this book is about.

EAT PRAY LOVE is not about how to survive divorce, or how to find love, or how to travel the world paid for by a publisher (though I wish she gave us tips on that because I’d be very interested). EAT PRAY LOVE is not even a travelogue.

This book is a memoir of self-discovery and a spiritual quest. A story of how one controlling, high strung woman crosses the world in search of inner peace and happiness. What she finds is the love, acceptance and serenity she’d been looking for were never missing. They were always inside of her, and have been found in the silence of meditation, the warmth of a smile, a gratitude for life, an open heart and an acceptance and honoring of self.

The fact that this book is so much about Elizabeth Gilbert - how she feels, what she is scared of, obsessed with, raging against - is the most common criticism of the book on Amazon. People complain that she is narcissistic and shallow, and the book doesn’t give enough of a feel for the countries she is in. But, I think these reviewers are missing the point of the book. The bi-line of EAT PRAY LOVE says One Woman’s Search for Everything. Hello - if that doesn’t say memoir, then I don’t know what does.

So many women in this day and age, I believe, can relate to this book. It is not just a book for divorcees, or those on a spiritual quest. This book is for anyone who has questioned where their life is going, what it’s all about and how can they be happy with themselves.

At the beginning of the book, Elizabeth Gilbert cannot be alone. She cannot let life be. She must control, achieve, and obsess over her lovers and her failures. She describes herself in relationships as a cross between “a golden retriever and a barnacle”, and says she could “make friends with the dead”, anything so she is not left alone with her own thoughts.

How many of us are like this today? In a world where we can effectively do something all the time, many people fill their lives with one meaningless activity after another., Busy busy busy. That’s the name of the game. And if a part of us starts to suspect that this isn’t all life was meant to be, well we shut that voice up by going shopping.

I could go on and on about this book, but I think ultimately you need to read it for yourself. So read EAT PRAY LOVE. It’s a life changing kind of book. It’s written with humor and empathy and great insight. I love this book. I wish I had written this book.

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I was reading The Lorax by Dr. Seuss to my son tonight, and as the rhyming text rolled off my tongue in sing-song waves I couldn’t help but marvel at the literary brilliance that was Theodor Seuss Geisel.

The Lorax is not one of his better known books, but it has always been my favorite. It’s very much an ode to the dangers of greed and unfettered progress, and as a kid I always loved books and songs with a moral message. I was an anti-capitalist, environmentalist Liberal long before I knew what one was. My dad used to play his guitar to my brother and I every night before bed and one of our favorite songs was an old folk tune called “Throw out your TV”, which tells you a lot about my alternative childhood.

But back to Dr. Seuss. If you have children and you are not reading them Dr. Seuss, then get thee to a book store!

Never has there been a children’s writer who could tell such imaginative stories, draw amazing technicolor graphics that make the characters come alive on the page, whilst also delivering a positive moral message that is too clever and crazy to be preachy.

However, your reading style and rhythm is crucial when introducing your children to Dr. Seuss. If you don’t put expression into the words it just won’t be the same, so relax, maybe have a gargle, do some vocal exercises, throw yourself into character and embrace this roller coaster reading task. Your children will love it, you can immerse yourself in the magic of childhood once more, and best of all, you’ll be instilling a love of words and books. A love that will feed the mind, nurture the soul and keep your children company through the long years ahead.

Some of my best friends have been characters in books, and today I’d like you to meet one. His name is The Lorax.

“The instant I’d finished, I heard a ga-Zump!

I looked.

I saw something pop out of the stump

of the tree I’d chopped down. It was sort of a man.

Describe him? …..That’s hard. I don’t know if I can.

He was shortish. And oldish.

And brownish. And mossy.

And he spoke with a voice

that was sharpish and bossy.”

And just to show you why I love The Lorax so much, I’ll leave you with a few of his inspirational words.

“UNLESS someone like you

cares a whole awful lot,

nothing is going to get better.

It’s not.”

And THAT is why I worship at the altar of Dr. Seuss.

Excerpts from The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

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I said I wasn’t going to make New Years Resolutions this year, but here I am, a couple of days into the year and I’m already breaking that vow. My New Years Resolution for 2008 is to to WRITE. Write obsessively. Write 2-3 times a week for this blog, finish my Mexico novel, write a second, sell at least one short story or even better one of the novels. Just write!

Even as I say this my old foe, FEAR is creeping up the back of my neck. Why would I think I have that much to say? And who am I kidding, I have never been a great creature of habit. I am the original fly by the seat of my pants girl. Omigod, I’m breaking out in hives…

Hang on, I don’t get hives - this could be worse than I thought!

Back to reality (or as close as I get to it considering I live in a world of my imagination) - my ultimate goal is to make my living as an author/travel writer/writing mentor (I’m great with story structure and untangling plot problems) so this involves having a strong writing habit. Previously my writing habit has been enforced by working as a copywriter (thank you deadlines) and attending a mentoring course to write a first and second draft of a novel. Now that I am winding back the copy writing and have finished with the Writers Studio, I’ll have to trail blaze my own path to writing success and this means the M word - MOTIVATION. I really must research how one acquires this skill.

Anyway, I’ve rambled on enough for today. I hope you’ll check back here and come along for the ride while I see if I can become a paid author by the end of the year. It could be wildly amusing…

P.S:

I hope you had a great New Years Eve; mine was fabulous. Watching fireworks from the foreshore under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and across from the Sydney Opera House - I’m not sure it gets much better than that. Check out my pics. The top one is me with my husband, Glenn - even after 11 years we still see stars.

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2007 is coming to an end, I am still recovering from Christmas gorging and my brain is on holidays, but I am posting! This is my final hurray for 2007 and I wanted to wish everyone a Safe and Happy New Year. I hope 2008 brings many new adventures and boundless love, health and prosperity for all (I am an optimist).

New Years has always been a time for me to contemplate the state of my life and my resolutions for the coming year, but this year I’m shaking things up a bit. 2007 was a great year for me and it taught me that happiness is only attained in the present, and being grateful for all the blessings I have, not only makes me feel good, but it opens new doors of opportunity for me. So, for the first time ever I am NOT going to make New Years resolutions this year.

Why? Is my life perfect? In short, no. However, focusing on what is lacking in life does not get us more of what we want. It only frustrates and makes me depressed. Besides, who sticks to their New Year resolutions anyway?

I am excited about 2008. I am excited about NOT putting all sorts of pressure on myself to ACHIEVE and ATTAIN. For years I have focused on goals and finding my life purpose, whilst striving to be A SUCCESS. The only thing was, no matter what I achieved, I never felt like a success. The life purpose always seemed to be this unreachable ‘thing’ and there were aways new goals to pursue. It was just a relentless cycle of constant striving and I get exhausted just thinking about it.

So, now I have a new path. One where I strive to only live in the present, be myself, stay honest, and seek joy and serenity in each and every day. It may sound flaky, but my previous choice of trying to control everything today to achieve goals tomorrow, while pretending to be some kick-ass modern woman with all the answers, only made me feel more anxious, disconnected and miserable with every passing year. I don’t have all the answers, I don’t know what tomorrow may bring and that sounds kinda exciting.

This New Years Eve I will be celebrating with my husband in prime position under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I have loved fireworks since I was a girl, so this is going to be a great night for me, especially since my dad is babysitting my son and we have a night for adults only! We’ll see where that leads us…

Well wishes to all. I’ll be back next week with a post about the courageous Benazir Bhutto. May she rest in peace.

Cheers to all!

Kelly xx

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