Category Archives: Businesses supporting independent publishers

Finding a Good Fit

1 Comment

“Religion is like a pair of shoes…..Find one that fits for you, but don’t make me wear your shoes.”
― George Carlin

hAPPYNESS IN SOLE

Today on this Thirsty Thursday, one day of the week All Things FuIfilling is dedicated to good news, I’d like to share an architectural wonder that perhaps has greater meaning than what was intended by the firm who created it.

I was drawn to an article about this holy place since the building of churches goes way back to the first generation in the history of my family’s five generation construction business.

There is a house of worship designed and built by the architectural group, Gijs Van Vaerenbergh, in Borgloon, Belgium that takes seeing religion from different perspectives to a whole new level.

The good news is that there are many kinds of religions throughout the world. If you live in a truly free society, individuals get to select the religion that best aligns with their own principles and values, or we can opt out of being a believer of any sort.

Images in the article I’ve linked to this website tell the rest of this story. Put your Sunday shoes on, any kind will do, and take a few minutes to enter into this unique church. View the images and you will see what I mean. To learn more about the construction of the structure, visit this website.

That’s all for today! See you tomorrow on All Things Fulfilling. We will be sharing an upcoming educational event that is good news for independent publishers or for people who are thinking of writing their own stories of any type (faith stories, memoirs, fiction, non-fiction or creative writing through the form of poetry, song lyrics or screenwriting).

 

The Young Artists in Them

Leave a comment

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. ~ Pablo Picasso

On Friday, a number of nine and ten year old students, who are Junior Girl Scouts, expressed their love of writing during my presentation “One Day in the Life of a Writer.” When I admitted to my weakness of rising extremely early at 5:30am to 6pm to write and record what I have often been thinking in the middle of the night, a few said they, too, wake in the wee hours of the morning with ideas to put down on paper.
GS13 croppedSo, each junior Girl Scout was given a spiral-bound notebook to embellish with reflections of their own personality, design sense and color preferences. The notebooks are bound to hold up no matter where they travel and no matter how long it takes to fill the pages with words.They’ve been given a strong foundation backed with Duck© Tape! I never realized there are so many colors and patterns of Duck© Tape now available.

With a promise of returning to teach the Girls Scouts how to make paper roses, the group set about doing their own craft project after my presentation. The rest of today’s story will be told in photos – enjoy the colorful personal journal creations made by Girl Scout Troop #12622.

 

GS3

GS11 Cropped

GS6 cropped
GS10 cropped

GS14 cropped

GS15 resized

Isn’t individual creativity a wonderful thing? Come back tomorrow to All Things Fulfilling, I’m looking for some opinions. And on Thirsty Thursday, you’ll enjoy a post called Spirit Not Withstanding!

Happy Cinco de Mayo from Sue Batton Leonard,  the award-winning author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected and Short Stories: Lessons of Heart & Soul.

Letter to the Editor

Leave a comment

Have you ever written a letter to an editor of a monthly circular or a newspaper? Some people become regular contributors to magazines or “rag sheets” by writing letters to editors. This usually occurs when a publication features articles that an individual feels passionate about.
Colorado Country Life Mag cover March 2015I recently wrote a letter to the Editor of Colorado Country Life Magazine, published by the Yampa Valley Electric Association. The YVEA is “a business owned by the people it serves.” It is a not-for-profit cooperative providing energy and power resources. The YVEA lights up many parts of Colorado.

What prompted my communication to the magazine was my heartfelt thrill at seeing in their November 2014  magazine an article about “The Love of Books.” In this article they shared information about a few Colorado authors.

When an author puts their heart and soul into writing yet their books don’t land on the top seller lists sometimes getting recognition in the media beyond social media and websites can be challenging. I wanted to let the editor know how nice it was to open the magazine and learn about books that are not on NY Times best seller lists, but still very worthy of reading.

Thank you, YVEA for posting my letter to the editor in the Colorado Country Life Magazine. I do appreciate it and I hope you will continue to feature authors and books penned here in Colorado by independent publishers.

I encourage anyone who has positive thoughts about their love of books or reading, to please post your comments on All Things Fulfilling. Hearing from readers is a good thing because “we are what we think. All that we are that arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.”

Letter to editor rotated CO country life

This blog is brought to you by the author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected and Short Stories: Lessons of Heart & Soul.

Film Friday: The Theory of Everything

Leave a comment

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. ~ Stephen Hawking

The theory of everythingMany film fans have been waiting for the biopic film The Theory of Everything. It is the story of Stephen Hawking, the famous scientist (cosmologist/physicist) and his marriage to his first love, Jane. The wait is over! Today it will be released in theatres across the country.

The film is a love story, but parts, from a few of the reviews I’ve read are a little difficult to watch because the audience watches the sad physical decline of Hawking due to his advancing ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). Hawking was diagnosed when we was 21 years old, just prior to meeting Jane.

Admittedly, he says up until his diagnosis he was a “wastrel” who loved to party. Once he was advised his lifespan would be limited due to his condition, he began to fully use his brilliant mind studying the big bang theory and dark holes.

The drama is said to be a beautiful story and a great testimony to a brilliant mind.

For more information on The Theory of Everything, directed by James Marsh, visit this link.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2980516/.

This blog brought to you by the EVVY award-winning author, Sue Batton Leonard. Tomorrow listen into http://www.blogtalkradio.com/richerlife to hear the author reading from her memoir Gift of a Lifetime:Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected. Follow this link to see the broadcast times of the Harvest Book Reading contest https://allthingsfulfilling.com/2014/10/29/2014-harvest-book-reading-competition/

 

2014 Harvest Book Reading Competition

Leave a comment

Press Release

October 28, 2014

Steamboat Springs, CO

Sue Batton Leonard, EVVY award-winning author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected is a finalist in the 2014 Harvest Book Reading Competition which will be broadcast via blog radio on Saturday,  November 8th, 2014.

Manaspirits, Inc. an Arizona-based non-profit, philanthrophic organization is sponsoring the book reading. The mission of the organization is to “help to feed the hungry while feeding a community’s literary passion.” The participants look forward to having “the program listeners leave with an enduring bond with the authors and their messages while helping neighbors in need.” The event will be “modeled after East Coast public literary events and book readings.”

Sue Batton Leonard is a finalist and her book is published by http://www.bookcrafters.net,  titled Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected. It is a story of multi-cultural love, faith, healing and life lessons.

Sue Batton Leonard is also founder of We Write Steamboat, a networking group for independent publishers whose mission is to foster independent publishing success. Two other EVVY award-winning authors from Steamboat, Dr. Dawn V. Obrecht and Debbie Zoub, MSW are finalists for their publications.

To listen in, tune into the nationally broadcast blog radio show through this link http://www.blogtalkradio.com/richerlife/2014/11/08/2014-harvest-book-reading. The show will be live on Saturday, November 8th at 1pm Eastern Standard Time, 12:00 pm (noon) in Central time zone, 11am Mountain Time and 10am Pacific. The award-winning authors will be announced during the airing. To call in to the show during the broadcast to speak to the host dial 347-838-8578.

_Harvest_Book_Reading_Logo

 

Need for Mountains of Creativity

Leave a comment

Entrepreneurship, inspiration, and putting faith in one’s own creativity are all the things that excite me about the world of independent publishing. It is a field that has brought vast changes (with an eye on sustainability) by doing things differently than in the past.
brainstorming

Some time ago on All Things Fulfilling, I posted a blog about a TedX talk which I think bears repeating. I believe the speaker, Chuck Scranton, had some wonderful things to say about the future of education, how to engage students in classrooms and what today’s children need so that they are prepared with skills that go beyond what students of the past have been taught. It is all about encouraging creativity and active learning.

Parents and educators, this issue is very important. So please listen in to The Immovable Mountain. https://allthingsfulfilling.com/tag/that-immovable-mountain/.

Is there something more you can do to help support your child’s mind, interests and creativity? Our country’s future depends on new industry, creative thinkers and “pioneers” working in ways that are different than the same old-same old ways of doing things. The new generation will need to work in ways that will lead America forward to new eras of discovery.

Interested in reading about more ways you can foster your child’s creativity? Here is also a good article. http://bit.ly/10dKjtG.

Today and everyday is a great day for brainstorming! Don’t forget to write down your ideas!

This blog is brought to you by the award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard. For information on her book Gift of a Lifetime:Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected, please visit this link.http://amzn.to/1te9k2F

Portraits of America

Leave a comment

“Agriculture, manufactures, commerce and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are the most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise.”  –Thomas Jefferson: 1st Annual Message, 1801.

IMG_20141005_132520_553

In the National Portrait Gallery images of prominent people of widespread importance are featured throughout the museum.The portraits are stunning but,I was particularly drawn to an exhibit called Experience America. The paintings typify the U.S.A.  in earlier times and feature common folk both hard at work and play, building our country into what it is today.

Also portrayed in these images are good old-fashioned American values of family, faith and community. The paintings are representative of our nation’s population of people throughout history who have toiled to make us a country of free enterprise and industry.

 

IMG_20141005_133419_684

IMG_20141005_133513_655

IMG_20141005_133653_425

IMG_20141005_133338_534

IMG_20141005_133815_852

IMG_20141005_133701_311

IMG_20141005_133646_476

IMG_20141005_133547_820

 

IMG_20141005_133520_212

In the Experience America collection, a few of Edward Hopper’s paintings are included. He was both an oil painter and watercolorist (circa 1882 – 1967) whose urban and rural scenes are ”spare and finely calculated renderings reflected his personal vision of modern American life.”

 IMG_20141005_133826_381Above: Edward Hopper painting

Below Edward Hopper’s “Cape Cod Morning”

IMG_20141005_133855_315

IMG_20141005_135508_101This plaque hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. To me it is a shining reminder to protect what we so dearly cherish about our country – freedom and independence!

That’s all today from All Things Fulfilling.  See you tomorrow!

This blog brought to you by award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard. For more information on the independently published book Gift of a Lifetime:Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected, please visit this link.

http://amzn.to/1vDFUMt

A Caring, Comedic Character

Leave a comment

Through humor you can soften some of the worst blows that life can deliver. And once you find the laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it. ~ Bill Cosby

“The treasure is in the voice,” the author says of her EVVY award-winning audio book version of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.

Some readers argue that “the real gold is in Fanny’s character.”  Either way, the Batton family benefited from the love and friendship of a woman who kept things in the right perspective. Fanny was a real winner!

Last weekend at a book signing in Towson, Maryland, award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard’s home town, something wonderful happened – a group of Fanny fans gathered round! Some knew Fanny in real life and others met her through reading the award-winning memoir.

DSCN2774

Fanny’s Fan Club

If you want to learn more about the “phenom Fanny,” Ukazoo has Gift of a Lifetime:Finding Fulfillling Things in the Unexpected in stock! http://www.ukazoo.com. It is also available through other major on-line book sellers in audio book, paperback and e-book.

Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected has become a finalist in another book competition, in two categories – young adult and non-fiction. To read more about the 2014 Harvest Book Competition, please visit this link. http://bit.ly/ZWqMxV and to see the list of other finalists and the titles of their books, please visit this list. http://bit.ly/1vbWwfb.

 

The Gift of Opportunity

Leave a comment

“The freedom to move forward to new opportunities and produce results comes from living in the present and not the past.” ~ Brian Koslow

Boxes tied up with pretty ribbons and bows immediately come to mind when someone mentions presents.  However, one of the most valuable favors one can be given in life is the gift of opportunity.

Ukazoo BooksThis Saturday, on October 11th, I will be given an appreciated gift of opportunity. A chance to share my award-winning memoir with book enthusiasts in my native place of residence – Towson, Maryland. A book signing and author presentation at Ukazoo Books in Dulaney Plaza from 1pm to 4pm is scheduled. Some people who will be coming to this public event I have not seen for decades.

At 2pm I’ll discuss my reasons for penning a memoir and how the independent publishing industry has paved the way for ordinary people to tell their extraordinary stories and publish them.

I look forward to the event. I hope you, the readers of All Things Fulfilling will help me broadcast the good news that the author talk is taking place. It will provide an opportunity for others to learn something about why storytelling is so important and why people should share stories through independent publishing.

Pass the word and hope to see you at Ukazoo Books on October 11th!

First try with award

This blog is brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, author of the EVVY award-winning book “Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.”