Happy New Year 2017

A new Year-2017: A time to look back and a time to look forward. 

Just taking a moment to wish everyone a happy New Year and share some of my accomplishments related to my writing. Pinterest sent me a notice. I always add the pictures from my on-line writing to Pinterest. Here is how that worked out for me in 2016.

HubPages

My writing on HubPages as been going along well I sailed past 250,000 views in December and now have a total of around 263,000 views. I have 120 different essays.  Take a look. I'm sure you will find a few you like.  http://hubpages.com/@catherinegiordano

NIUME
I started writing for another site also--Niume. I only started two weeks ago and I have over 2000 views already. This is a fun site because I can write short posts—I can do one in under an hour sometimes. I think of them as gum drops—short and sweet and a little bit addictive. I've done 14 posts so far. You can see my posts here.

 https://niume.com/profile/104144#!/posts

  

Niume pays for referrals. If you sign up, you and I will both earn a dollar after you do your first post. This is a very easy to use platform. You can write on whatever topic you like and then share it on your social media.  (Maybe you would like to write about and post pictures of your vacation, for instance, and then share it on your facebook page.) Plus you can make a little bit of money. Here is my referral code. Please click on it to register on the site.  https://niume.com/104144

Blogspot

And I still do my blogspot blogs. I’ve been doing a lot about politics. I post them onto my blog that I started for reviewing and commenting on the Bill Maher show. Now I just use it for politics.  It’s been getting about 6,000 views a month. I’m up to about 47,000 views.

http://billmaherrulesforreal.blogspot.com/

Pinterest 

My Pinterest views have been piling up also. Pinterest told me that in 2016, I had 168,506 views. I don't earn from Pinterest, but if you click and get to the post that used that picture I get my usual fraction of a cent. 

https://www.pinterest.com/caprille/

So when you come across a social media post for one of my writings, please click and take a look. I earn a fraction of a cent for each view—a tiny amount, but it adds up. Plus, if you see a product advertised, I hope you will click on that also. The amazon ads earn me a small commission if you decide to buy something even if it isn’t the item I advertised.  Again it adds up. 

If you have been reading my posts, thank you. I hope you have enjoyed them.

Happy 2017!

The People Who Hate Me are Making Me Rich

Pennies from heaven?

The people who hate me are making me rich. 

OK, not exactly the people who hate me.  It’s the people who hate my ideas who are making me rich. 

OK, not exactly making me rich. I’m still only earning pennies per day from my web essays. But it did go up to 49 cents one day which is way better than the 10 to 20 cents a day I usually get.  

I wrote an article called “The Billboard Wars: Good without God.” It was based on a presentation that Fred Edwords, National Director of the United Coalition of Reason (www.UnitedCoR.org). He gave the presentation at the FreeFlo Humanist Conference in Orlando in October 2014. 

 

 

Fred gave me permission to adapt his presentation for the web. I carefully edited to create an objective piece of reporting.  I explained how some free-thought groups started putting up billboards and ads on the sides of buses. Most of the ads were promoting the idea that people can be good without God.  

These ads got some Christian groups so incensed that they put up counter ads. This brought lots of publicity to the atheist ad campaign. The publicity brought in lots of new members and donations to the atheist groups. Ironically, it was the people who hated them who made them successful.   

I write for HubPages and HubPages encourages their writers to comment on each others’ work (hubs). When someone comments, everyone who “follows” that person will see their comment.  One person got really nasty.  At first I was upset. Then I realized he was giving my hub a lot of publicity within the HubPages community.  The more he ranted, the more views I got and the more money I made. 

 

Some of my other hubs generated a little bit of controversy, but not enough to make a real difference. Check out What is Secular Humanism? and Thou Shall Not Kill: The Morality of the Death Penalty. 

Additionally, these two hubs were a little bit shocking to a few. Right Livelihood: The Quest for Ethical Work and An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism. 

So if you hate me, maybe you’ll do a comment on facebook and google+.  Better yet, if you love what I have written, please like and comment. Or you could link to these articles on your own websites. (These links are like manna from heaven.)

The First Step--Glorious

CLICK HERE

by Catherine Giordano

The book is finally out. The First Step is an anthology of over 60 short stories and essays on the theme of new starts (big or small), taking the fist step, doing something new, going in a different direction, or beginning anew.

The back cover states that the stories may "pull at your heart strings, or make you laugh, but all will entertain you."

You'll probably tear up when you read my story on page 42, "Te Amo," not because it is sad but because it is a heart-warming story of love. I tear up every time I read it, and I wrote it.

The anthology is compiled by the Florida Writer's Association.  This is the sixth annual volume. Each year, an author of renown, is invited to read all the stories that have made the cut from the hundreds submitted and choose the top ten. This year the author was Mary Burton, the best selling author of mysteries.

I'm proud to say that I am included in the top ten. It is such an honor. Especially because (toot-toot) I made the top ten last year also.

If you happen to see me, I may have a copy for sale. If you already have the book, I'll be happy to sign my story for you. It makes a lovely gift.  You can click the link above to buy it on amazon and while you are there consider the five previous volumes.

I recommend the book because it has great stories. I don't make any money from the sale of these books. (All the profit goes to the Florida Writers association to help support the organization.) In fact, I don't even get any money for being in the book. It is all for glory.

And it is indeed glorious.

CLICK HERE

Enjoy!  Try one of Mary Burton's novels while you at amazon.The Seventh Victim is a good one. (At the time of this writing, it is only $1.99 for Kindle.)

A young woman is in jeopardy from a serial killer who attempted to kill her once before. Will he get a second chance? Not if a certain Texas Ranger has anything to say about it. Is romance brewing?  Absolutely.

Mary Burton is a prolific writer. If you like one book, there are dozens more.

An Avalanche of Accolades

by Catherine Giordano

The illustration used in "Tips for Writers"

It has been just about four months since I started writing on HubPages (HP). I began because I wanted to earn money, but I stayed for the joy of writing. 

I’ve been told it takes about a year for earnings to happen, but, for me the accolades happened very quickly.  I have reached over 3000 views in my first three months and close to 100 followers to date.  Some of my hubs have been selected by the staff for special recognition. (On HubPages, the articles or posts are called “hubs.”)  

Accolade #1

One of my hubs Inside the Bee Hive: How Bees Make Honeyreceived an “Editor’s Choice” award. It is featured on the HubPages domain where it can get extra attention from search engines.

 

Accolade #2

About a week later, one of my hubs, Why People Collect Stuff and How You Can Too,was selected as Hub of the Day. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of hubs published every day, so it is an a great achievement to win the Hub of the Day award.  

Accolade #3

I figured that was it accolade-wise for a while.  After all, HP probably wants to spread the glory around.  It is a way to encourage writers to keep writing, especially those of us who are not actually making money yet. Today, I turned on my computer and found I had won Hub of the Day a second time--twice in one month. This time it was Tips for Writers: The Making of a Poem that won.



CLICK HERE

I wrote Tips for Writers: The Making of a Poem as a way to put some of my old poems to use. I had several poems with a common theme—a love of words—so I put them all in a hub and  wrote some text about how to use the unconscious when writing prose or poetry, and added some pictures. I thought I was just burning off some old poems, but the tons of comments I have received indicate that people really found the hub interesting and useful.  And they liked the poems.

Another benefit: A network of friends. Through comments and other communication and by reading what others write, I have formed friendships with some of the other hubbers (people who write hubs.)  

If you think you might enjoy writing for HubPages, let me know. I will help you get started.


Update 10/15/14:. I had another hub chosen as "Hub of the Day" today.  That makes three hubs selected for this honor within 30 days.This time the hub was  The Resplendent Quetzal: The Most Beautiful Bird in the World. I may be the only person to ever accomplish this. I also got my second Editor's Choice" today, for  my post The Jobs of the Presidents (Before They Were President)

I am an artistic success. Now,show me the money.

 

Really, I'm getting all this validation on the quality of my writing, but still only pennies a day.

 

Perseus, Hercules, and the Nip-Slip

Perseus rescues Andromeda.

by Catherine Giordano

 

I have been doing posts for HubPages. They have some strange rules that can trip a writer up. You only learn what the rules are when you violate them. 

I did a couple of great hubs (as posts are called on HubPages), about dragon encounters in the myths about Perseus and Hercules.  I wanted to illustrate these hubs with classical art from Museums. I thought it added just the right feeling to the hubs.  

CLICK HERE

For the hub on Perseus, I told the story of Perseus’ rescue of Andromeda from a dragon named Cetus. I found a great picture. Only thing—Andromeda is naked. The story specifically describes her as naked, so practically every picture of Andromeda shows her naked. You can see the picture I choose at the top of this post. 

HubPages scores every hub and this one got the highest rating ever for me—a 96.  Then a few days later, I got an email saying that ads on my hub are being blocked because of a content violation.  Naked ladies are not allowed.  Ads are how a writer makes money on HubPages so I changed the picture. 

Ironically, one of the ads was for a statuette being sold on amazon.com of Perseus, naked, full-frontal nudity.  
 

Hercules with the Hesperides

After that I did a hub about Hercules.  Hercules goes to the Garden of the Hesperides to slay the dragon Ladon and obtain three golden apples. (It’s his 11^th of his “12 Labors.”) Again I wanted to use museum pictures. Again all the ladies had a bit too much décolleté.   

This time I imported the picture into Microsoft Paint, and painted a bodice over The naughty bits. I’m not much of an artist—I should have put in some shading—but I’m hoping no one will notice.    



CLICK HERE

Read the stories and see the replacement photos:  Perseus  Hercules 

I also earn money from views. So please click the above links. You will enjoy the stories. I tell them with humor. If you go to the hub, please do the polls and leave a comment.

My Apologies… and My Forgiveness

Apologies and forgiveness are important.

by Catherine Giordano

If you have noticed that I haven’t been showing up at meetings or social events, my apologies for dropping out. I’ve been busy writing. I’ve been obsessed with writing.  I write one article and I have six ideas for new articles. The ideas demand to be written down. Right now! 

This week I did three pieces on the subject of apologies and forgiveness.  

 

Thank you for liking, sharing, and tweeting. 

The first is

How to Apologize: Use the 3 R’s to Say “I’m Sorry”.

It explains the  importance of apologies and provides guidelines for how to apologize. 

The second is

How to Forgive: A Guide to Letting Go of Anger and Grief.

It explains why forgiveness is important for the person doing the forgiving. (The offender may benefit also, but that is not the focus of the article.) It gives guidance about how to forgive.  If you are angry at someone (living or dead), especially if you have held on to this anger for years, please read this article.    

CLICK HERE

After those two articles, it was time to lighten up. My third piece is The Apology Poem.
It will make you laugh. 

I hope you enjoy these pieces. I’d love to see your comments and our answers to the poll questions included in the articles.

If you would like to do further reading, here are some recommendations.


CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE



Collecting My Thoughts

CLICK HERE

by Catherine Giordano

I’ve been writing web articles and sometimes it just takes over my life. I began by writing an article about why people collect stuff and why and how people could  start a collection.

Why People Collect Stuff and How You Can Collect Too

I thought it would be fun to write about my collection of teapots that are in the shape of other things.  I’d focus on teapots in the shape of other things. All I would need to do is write a paragraph or two on collecting teapots and then grab some pictures of animal-shaped teapots. Easy Peasy? Two hours tops?  No! It took sixteen hours.

 

On Tuesday, I started around 2pm intending to finish before dinner. At 8pm, I stopped because it just wasn’t coming together. I wasn’t happy with what I had written and I didn’t know what to do t fix it. 

CLICK HERE
for more info on this teapot

The next morning at 9am, the problem became apparent to me. I really had two separate articles that I was trying to smuush together. One was about the joys, motivations and satisfactions of collecting with tips for what and how to collect. And the second was about collecting teapots. All I had to d was separate them. Easy Peasy? Two hours tops? No!  I spent eight more hours on it.  

On Wednesday at 6pm, I finally clicked "publish" on both of them. Two great articles with lots of pictures, some of which I had photographed myself.   

Why People Collect Stuff and How You Can Collect Too

 

Seven Adorable Animal-Themed Collectable Teapots



CLICK HERE

 

8/31/14 Update: A few days later I did another post about collecting

Five Fabulous Flamingos for Your Collection

I’m proud of these articles and I hope you will take a moment to read them.  Also take another few seconds to do one or more of the following: like, share, vote in the poll in the article, leave a comment. I appreciate your support.  

And if you are so inclined, I’m hoping you would like to use my link to buy a teapot or anything else you might want or need. If you know someone who has a collection, the perfect gift for people who collect is something for their collection.

P.S. Do you like cats? Here is a cat teapot for you. 

CLICK HERE

From Happiness to Success to Love

Copyright Christine Matthews and licensed for reuse

 under this Creative Commons Licence. 

 Modified by Catherine Giordano

by Catherine Giordano


 I’ve been doing a series of articles based on quotations from famous people. 

However, I don’t just give you a list of quotes like most websites that focus on quotations. I organize the quotes into “rules,” categorizing them according to theme and then add some advice of my own. 

I also have a value-added feature of providing a little bit of information about the person who gave us the quote. It puts the quote in context and eliminates that nagging question, “Who the heck is that person?”

I’ve learned a lot doing these articles. I began with one about happiness, then did one about success, and a few days ago I did a third one about love. 

I started off thinking I could just knock each one out in a couple of hours. I was wrong. Each one takes 10 to 15 hours to do. I have to find the exact right quotes, research the authors, discern the themes, write my commentary, and find or create the pictures to illustrate the article.

It’s hard work, but it is fun and I learn a lot in the process.  Read all three articles.

 

How to Be Happy    How to Be Successful    How to FindLove

When you read the articles, please rate it. using the check boxes at the end, and/or write a comment. Also, I'd love it if you did the one-question poll.

Thank you for sharing, liking and tweeting this post.

You can also like, share and tweet each of the articles using the buttons on the page.

Finding the Path

"Tao" means the path or the way.

I'm still trying to find my way as a writer.  I'm writing on a wide range of topics.

Last week I wrote "The Tao of Balanced Energy: Nutrition, Exercise, and Spirituality."  Please take a look at it and leave a comment to let me know your thoughts.

In the article, I give tips for healthy eating and recommend a plant-centered diet. One of the ways to fit health into a busy life is to use convenience foods. When I first switched to a healthy diet about 30 years, there were no convenience foods.  It is so much easier now.



CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE

I provide some recipes in my article and recommend some convenience foods.  I buy them at Costco, but you can also get them at amazon. com.

Sharecropping Words

I’m trying something new with my writing—sharecropping. 

It is called HubPages.  It works like this. I plant an article in the HubPages field and I get a percentage of the sales. 

Without the tortured metaphor, it means I write an article and post it on the HubPages website. HubPages gets advertising revenue and affiliate sales from the web page with my content and I get 60% of that revenue. 

I posted my first article yesterday. Today I saw I had earned one cent. 

Help me get this off to a good start. Click this link to see my article: Understanding Tarot. I think I did a nice job explaining the history and practice. 

At the end of the article, there is a little poll about whether or not you think psychics are real. Take the poll—it will improve my ranking.  

If you want to be really nice, leave a comment. Comments improve my ranking. But even if you do nothing but click, it will help my ranking. Please click.

 

If you are a writer and want to try this, contact me. I’ll be glad to help you can started. (There’s a lot to learn and it would have saved me a lot of time if I had had someone to explain it.) And you’ll be helping me earn by letting me make a referral.

Please tweet, like and share this post.

Fair is Fair (Except When it is Not)

By Catherine Giordano

I’m going to announce that I have a new writing credential, even tho I’m not sure a “letter to the editor" qualifies.

I used to have letters published in the Orlando Sentinel quite frequently, but yesterday was the first time I had sent one in years.

The letter was about Fair Districts, the constitutional amendment Florida voters passed in 2010.  It forbids gerrymandering.  Now Florida courts have to decide if the districts were fairly drawn. (Of course they weren’t--they were done by politicians using voting data to insure that their seat was "safe.")

Here is my “letter to the editor” published in the Orlando Sentinel on May 20, 2014.

Fair Districts, Please

To create fair districts, all we need to do is to put a couple of cartographers into a room with a map of Florida and population statistics. If any politicians, political consultants, or voting data is present, that is prima facie evidence of gerrymandering. Please, can we finally have the fair districts we voted for.

 

 

Learn more about the issue at Fair Districts Now


7/11/14: Florida won! A judge has ruled that the Republicans violated the law and gerrymandered districts to favor Republicans. The districts have to be redrawn. Republicans will probably appeal. They should be ashamed.

Fun with Words: The Daily Vocabula

I've been enjoying The Daily Vocabula, a free email newsletter to help build vocabulary and "learn you how" not to misuse words.  (Just a little joke.)

 

The publishers describe it thusly: "The Daily Vocabula" is a free Monday-through-Friday publication of Vocabula Communications Company. Unlike the many word-a-day emails, The Daily Vocabula offers sections on disagreeable English, elegant English, concise writing, scarcely used words, as well as other topics."

 

Sign up to receive The Daily Vocabula by sending your email address to TheDailyVocabula@vocabula.com.

 

Please share this post on Facebook, Google Circles, Twitter.

Please ""follow" so you don't miss any of my posts.

And remember to click the shopping cart above to order from amazon.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Florida Writers Conference Accolades

by Catherine Giordano

 

I’m back from the Florida Writer’s Conference and my brain is a buzz.  So many wonderful seminars, workshops, and people gave me so many new ideas. I think I’m ready to start on my novel now.

On Friday night, there was an open mic. I read some of my poems from News Print Poetry 2012: Best of 2012.  I chose short funny ones from last October. I got compliments all the rest of the weekend.

I also got lots of compliments on my story “The End of a Marriage” which took second place in the annual FWA anthology, It’s a Crime. There are so many great stories in that collection—everyone is a gem.  I’m so honored just to be included.

If you would like to read the poems I read on Friday, click the links below.

October   2, 2012      Love

                               

October   2, 2012      Reality                      

October 11, 2012      Romance           

October 27, 2012      Insight                                   

I finished my open mic performance with two poems from my first book, The Poetry Connection, both funny, but cynical, poems about love.   

 Please share this review by tweeting, "liking" on facebook, and "+1 ing"

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A New Twelve Chairs Program Starting

For about a year now, I have been part of the Twelve Chairs Project.  A new program is starting with seminar one scheduled to begin in November. Maybe you will want to take part also. 

Twelve Chairs is a comprehensive, practical, and innovative course for poets. The program is called the Twelve Chairs because only 12 hand-picked students/colleagues will be enrolled.

 

There will be 30 seminars in all. You will meet 15 times a year for six hours per session. Each session will be devoted to a single topic, such as sound, metaphor, rhetorical devices, technique, and more, including how to get published.
 

·        It is targeted for experienced poets seeking to broaden the scope, sound, and vision of their work; for poets who want to make use of all available resources in to advance their understanding and talents.

 

·         It is also targeted for writers of all kinds who want to improve their writing through an understanding of poetic techniques.
 

The Twelve Chairs seminars include lectures, lots of show-and-tell, freewheeling discussions, exercises, and elective at-home assignments to help you bring your writing to the next level. (I should say “next levels” because you will undoubtedly progress rapidly from level to level.)

 

Al Rocheleau, the author of on writing poetry: for poets made as well as born has developed the course and will be the instructor. He’s a charismatic teacher and  a widely published poet.

Twelve Chairs is like getting an MFA only it is a lot less expensive (you will be pleasantly surprised at how low the cost is), it gives you twice as much as you would get from university classes, and it is much more fun.  

There are a few chairs remaining.  Maybe one of them has your name on it.

If you want more information, contact Al Rocheleau via email at ARRO40@aol.com.

 

 

Click Here  to order a copy of Al's book

A Beautiful Woman

by Catherine Giordano

A chance encounter in the supermarket with a gentleman who was a stranger to me reminded me that you are only as beautiful as you feel.

I wrote an essay about this and it has just been published in The Florida Writer Volume 7 Number 2.

Getting published makes me feel beautiful.

Plus, on Tuesday September 8th, the anthology Not Your Mother's Book: On Being a Parent will be released. It includes my story "Figuring It Out."  Being published and getting paid for it--it's a beautiful thing.

Also I'll never another story published in Not Your Mother's Book: On Being a Mom.  The book will be released November 2013. 

Please share by tweeting, "liking" on facebook, and "+1 ing.".

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Click Here to purchase Not Your Mother's Book: On Being a Parent 
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Funds for Writers

by Catherine Giordano  

Why do you write? For personal expression and satisfaction? For money?  Who says you can’t do both. Moreover, nothing says your work is good better than someone wanting to publish it and give you money for it.

Click here to order
 Low Country Bribe

Besides writing is hard work. Maybe not the first rush of creativity, but the editing and re-editing again and again. When we work, we like to be paid for it, do we not.

“Funds for Writers” is a free online newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month. It is a great resource. Each issue includes information about publishers and contests for fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. It’s where I learned about Publishers Syndicate, and now they are publishing two of my stories, one in each of two of their anthologies.

But “Funds for Writers” is more than that. Each issue includes at least one inspirational and/or informative essay. You’ll get very good advice. Sometimes there’s a brief “success story”. You’ll be inspired by them also. There is also information about grants and agents.

It will take only about 10 minutes to read each issue and you will be glad you did.  Get more information and subscribe at www.fundsforwriters.com

The editor of “Funds for Writers” is C. Hope Clark. She is a writer herself so she understands writers. She is the author of two mystery novels—Low Country Bribe and Tidewater Murder.

You’ll like this newsletter even if you only write for personal expression and satisfaction.  You’ll like it even more if you write (or want to write) for money.

Please share by tweeting, "liking" on facebook, and "+1 ing" on google circles.

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