Happy Easter Everyone From Island Whispers Blog!

"For I remember it is Easter morn,
And life and love and peace are all new born."
~Alice Freeman Palmer~

"Easter tells us that life is to be interpreted not
simply in terms of things but in terms of ideals."
~Charles M. Crowe~


Enjoy my Easter poem
*Needs*

Purple basket sits empty
longing to fill its womb
suddenly the seed planted;
colourfull, shapely, speckled
babies appear appeasing
the lone baskets needs.


A thoughtful, inspiring, and well-read Easter poem for your enjoyment!


Needs Poem copyright Michelle Kafka

Quotes from: Quote Garden

Poetry: Neon Nightlife

Hello, I enjoy reading and writing poetry. This post is dedicated to all the freelancers who have quit their jobs to pursue the writing life. Enjoy!

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Neon Nightlife

Never using the ceiling light
cutting the sandwich with the across-the-street hotel’s flashy neon lights
sipping coffee past his bedtime
flipping calendar pages
counting down the days he quits his dead-end job
giving the nine-to-five obituary
only to resurrect a relevant invitation with much serendipity
to working at home instead!

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Poem Copyright Michelle Kafka

Junk Mail Jellie

Jellie Jardine’s ears tingled. Rolling over in bed she recognized the loud clank. Rising out of bed she tossed on her fluffy green robe and walked to the front door. With the husky-wolf pup just behind her she opened the door, reached around and slipped her hand into the box. Quickly she snatched up whatever the mail carrier brought her for the day. The stack in hand, Jellie closed the door and immediately begun sorting the mail. Bills, personal letters, junk mail. The bills and letters carted to the kitchen table while the junk mail got tossed into the trash with no further thought. Jellie went over to put coffee on so she could sit at her cherry wood table and read her newspaper and her mail.

The above scenario is common. Perhaps it’s even you. Jellie hates junk mail. You hate junk mail. But somewhere amongst that heap of junk mail is a stamp ahem “gem.” Interesting factual information can be gleaned from the pile o’ papers. Fashion trends, hairstyles, makeup applications, business opportunities (such as the new company not yet online who could use a web designer or content writer,) pricing, advertising how to, and new products for review can be pulled from the “ waste of paper and ink,” which can lead to a whole package of article ideas.

I gave you the beginning of a story. You can fill in your own middle and end. As a forethought though, just how will the story end? Will Jellie continue to throw away or recycle the flyers/unwanted mail without even glancing at them or will she take a closer inspection one day and find something no matter how small or seemingly insignificant she thinks it is file it away and put it to another use later?

What Key Factors Can Inventors Teach Freelancers?

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Thomas A. Edison said, “To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.” Edison also acted upon this statement by relaxing in a chair while holding ball bearings in one hand he would doze off. Upon entering his hypnagogic state (being the point between waking and sleeping;) he would encounter vivid visual and auditory hallucinations. Hand muscles relaxed, the balls loudly plopped to the floor jolting him awake. What followed next? Thomas carefully wrote down ideas and thoughts that drifted in his mind while under the “dreamlike spell”.

Furthermore what Willard Boyle a physicist stated is, “Any creative person - whether inventor, painter, author, or other - is a dreamer in a larger sense.” Bizarre, outrageous, outlandish, unique ideas do not deter inventors. Additionally dreams are embraced and emphasized.

Inventors consistently ask what if… What if I try this? What if I did this? What if I did it this way? What if that happened? What if I combined this and that? Inventors are out to experiment and get results. It is the process of being curious and wanting to know more. Sometimes the results are even more spectacular than one can imagine.

Inventions like the art of writing can take years to perfect and even the written project itself can take several minutes or years to form into a whole, however does the payoff come at the end of the invention or written project? Not necessarily unless that is of course the only focus, the only goal.

Each step of the inventing process is a reward, is a chance to make mistakes and learn similar to the writing process. Both inventors and writers ask themselves, how can I make it better? How can I improve what already exists? Intellectual curiosity. Both make necessary revisions.

Looking at the world through a child’s eyes is what inventors do. Ask questions and always see new possibilities. Think outside the box. Dreams, faith, determination, patience, and risk-taking are all qualities of an inventor.

Discouragement and rejection may bite inventors on the backside but keeping ideas flowing and experimenting will usually result in an attractive end product that the public will appreciate because it is the end product that the public will be able to hold and use.

How inventors get to the end product is through the process of discovery; there is a beginning, middle, and an end just like in a short story or novel. Looking further at Thomas A. Edison, he also stated, “ The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense.”

So what key factors can inventors teach freelancers? Inventors teach us:

1. What if?
2. Stay in it from beginning to end
3. Look at objects/the world as children do
4. Keep dreaming and jotting down ideas and thoughts
5. Stay focused and encouraged
6. Experiment, experiment, experiment to perfection!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone!


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May all the writer's receive all their writing wishes come true this year and let it be a happy, healthy, plentiful writing year!

May all the luck roll in everyone's favour!


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Please feel free to share some of your writing wishes/resolutions or any 2009 wishes here. Will you be bold and daring and try something new?

Who Let The Dogs Out?

Freelance writer Michael Kwan did with his analogy post combining dogs and freelance writing.

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I like both dogs and freelance writing and thought this to be the best analogy thus far and wanted to share this with readers/writers/friends of Island Whispers Blog.

Here's the link:

Michael Kwan's blog - "beyond the rhetoric"
"What Freelancers Can Learn From The Dog Whisperer"

Enjoy the link and let me know if you liked the analogy too?

Writing Tool For The Writer/Virtual Office - Zoho

I was searching for local writing groups and came across an ad in my area. I responded to the ad. The advertiser wished to start a writing group in our area but because of people's different schedules, etc. decided against the idea and instead came up with a new idea.

She now wished to begin an online writing group which I thought was a better idea.
She e-mailed me a link to where we could meet, discuss, share our work, and thoughts online.

I signed up at the link she suggested.

So what's this mysterious link I've been talking about you ask?

Zoho
http://www.zoho.com/
Zoho is a place where one can organize most of one's items very easily. In short, it's a handy organizer. Zoho offers the free membership or the paid membership.
In Zoho Personal there are applications that one can add to or delete.

The applications include the following:

* Mail
* Calendar
* Documents
* Desktop
* Writer
* Sheet
* Show
* Wiki
* Tasks
* Notes
* Links
* Contacts
* Notebook
* Meeting

With Zoho you won't miss a deadline again or forget where you put that cover or query letter. You can keep track of all your writing projects in one neat place.

I have yet to try out all the apps. But am happy with what I have tried out so far.

Bless this fellow writer for posting the useful, helpful link.

If you're in need of a great organizer, than the link is defo worth the visit!

Blog Action Day 2008 - Poverty, Island Whispers Blog

Poverty is today's topic at Island Whispers Blog because today is Blog Action Day where vast numbers of bloggers join hands to post on poverty issues.

A good resource to look through is Blog Action Day including another awesome link 88 Ways to Do Something About Poverty Right Now

Poverty can and does hit anyone at anytime. I have come from a background of poverty/rough times. So let's together take a bite out of poverty and expose its rotten core!

What action am I taking for Blog Action Day 2008 - Poverty?

~ I am posting videos made for the event.
~ I am donating a portion of my today's wages to a local food charity.
~ I have spoken to my kids about poverty issues.
~ I am posting poverty quotes.
~ I am linking to relevant blog posts on poverty issues.



I found my favourite poverty quotes and wish to share with readers/friends/contacts here at IWB:


~~~~~~~~~~~Poverty Quotes~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. "Poverty- one thing money can't buy."
(Lynwood L. Giacomini)

2. "The rich would have to eat money, but luckily the poor provide food."
(Russian Proverb)

3. " Poverty makes you sad as well as wise."
(Bertolt Brecht)

4. "Blessed is he [she] that considereth the poor."
(Bible)

Also upon my meanderings of poverty issues I came across some children's poverty quotes that are heart-wrenching and I think the children are hit the hardest when it comes to poverty. Child Poverty Action Network CPAN

Sources: YouTube

Famous Quotes & Authors Poverty Quotes and Quotations retrieved Wed. Oct.15/08
<http://www.famousquotesandauthors.com/topics/poverty_quotes.html>

Thanksgiving

Hi to all.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians out there!

There are many things I am thankful for in no particular order including:

* being blessed with three great children,
* friends/family/contacts
* freedom
* shelter
* writing and reading ability
* getting over a lengthy illness
* and so many more wonderful things

May you all have an awesome, blessed Thanksgiving weekend!

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Here is a link to The History of Thanksgiving:

The History of Thanksgiving

Freelance Writing Jobs - Seeker

Just a quick post today. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I visit my favourite freelance writing job site to look for writing jobs/clients. While searching for the jobs I found a really good post on some of the do's and dont's when applying for the writing job from some of the writing employers. Here is the link to the post at Deb Ng's "Freelance Writing Jobs" site:
http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com/2008/09/05/deal-makers-and-deal-breakers-how-to-get-your-resume-to-the-top-of-the-pile/

And here is another great link about writing job responses from Misti Sandefur who operates "Life Of A Writer" which I am also a regular reader/viewer of:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/334791/responding_to_freelance_writing_jobs.html?page=2&cat=3