Don't miss this blog!

My friend and colleague Karon Thackston has a way with words.
This is a) an understatement and b) a good thing since she learns her living writing copy for her company Marketing Words, Inc.

I first met Karon through Jill Whalen, Karon was a regular presenter at the High Ranking search Marketing Seminars and she writes regularly for the Jill's e-newsletter the High Rankings Adviser (including an article on consistency in your pay-per-click campaigns in the latest issue).

However Karon is a successful author in her own right. She's written 3 popluar ebooks

• The Step-by-Step Copywriting Course
• How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)
• How To Write Success PPC Ads

Karon's approach to teaching copy writing is process oriented but informative and effective and most importantly, doable. I had many a seminar attendee tell me Karon had demystified the copy writing process for them. I liked Karon's work so much, I hired her to create the copy for my event planning web site. Oh and did I mention Karon is a dream to work with? Always organized, usually ahead of deadlines, NEVER late.

Karon has just launched a blog, at marketingwords.com/blog here she dispenses invaluable nuggets of copy writing wisdom and shares her thoughts on the process as a whole, so pop on over and say hi and partake in the conversation.

It is NEVER too late to pursue your dreams

I read a story in today's Concord Monitor about John Archer.

John is 99 and hopes to see a collection of poems he wrote at the ripe old age of 92 published this year by Revolution Booksellers in Exeter, New Hampshire. The book is titled Walking Backwards Towards Old Age and is due to be released this fall.

According to the article, he self published the book and it sold at local bookstores, but other than contacting a handful of national publishers, never did much to promote it.

Phil Englehardt, president of Revolution found it and thought it fit perfectly with their mission "to provide marketing and support to authors through a business model based on the independent music industry".

How cool is that to be looking at the end of your life and to know that a piece of you will live on after your passing?

So, how do you want future generations to remember you?

Writers Way North

Last month I attended the first meeting of Writers Way North. The name is a little misleading since we met in Concord, NH, but for some folks “down South”, (you know like in Boston), Concord New Hampshire, may as well be the Canadian border!

Writers Way North is the brain child of Linda Formichelli and Elaine Grant. Both are experienced writers with diverse backgrounds who are looking to share leads and best practices with like minded colleagues.

There were 11 of us at the December meeting held at the lovely home of Linda Formichelli and Eric Martin. There was great food an a lot of laughs. We talked about “Micro Actions” -- the small things that we can all do, with little stress, to further our long-term goals as writers and editors. Linda wrote a blog entry on this very subject in October.

Writer’s Way North is not meant to be a critique group, but rather a way for those seriously engaged in writing to network and learn from each other. The group hopes to meet on a monthly basis with discussions in between via a Google group.

So, have you published at least one piece in a paying market OR started a blog OR worked in a writing/editorial staff position at some point OR have the intention of selling your work, be it fiction or nonfiction? Are you interested in networking with other Northern New England writers? Drop me an email (laughlin at fearlessevents dot com) with WWN Information in the subject and I’ll send you the information.

Our next meeting is a week from tonight (January 10th) a 7pm in Concord, NH we will be discussing goals for our writing. Hope to see you there.