Here are some short videos by bestselling writers Tim Ferriss and Ramit Sethi where they discuss Writing What You’re Passionate About and Self-publishing vs. Publishing Companies. Check out the pros and cons and balance that needs to be struck in these approaches.
Author Archives: Darrick Dean
Passion and Publishing
Categories: Writing
Tags: indie publishing, publishing, self-publishing, tim ferriss
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What the Vikings Can Teach Us
We’re all taught that Columbus “discovered” the New World in 1492, with the caveat that the Vikings arrived centuries earlier circa 1000 A.D. This is always added as a bit of a footnote, as if it’s not all that important. Sure, it didn’t have the impact of the Spanish-backed Columbus voyages, but the Viking voyages have always been begrudgingly admitted to existing. Even before ruins were found in the 1960s, the Viking Sagas and other accounts were largely written off as myth. Even after the finds, the story went like this, “Yes, they came here, probably over a couple centuries, but these infamous explorers never did much of anything.” Doesn’t really make much sense, does it? Why the reluctance to give the Vikings their due? In light of the discovery of a new Viking site in Canada, perhaps our prejudices in studying our own history need re-examined. Continue reading
Categories: Ancient America, Ancient Sites, Critical Thinking, Native Americans
Tags: Canada, Columbus, History, Vikings
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Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator
Done Writing? Now Sell it.
Bestselling thriller author Robert Bidinotto has posted a video of his presentation, Ten Most Important Ways to Market Your Ebooks. Watch as Robert explains writing your story, to who and how you should be marketing your book and much more.
Whose Story are You In?
Are you an extra in someone else’s play, or are you the author of your own drama? …you must become both the author and star of your own story…However, too many of us succumb to a weak internal story informed by flawed but popular beliefs. We are reactionary to objective events, easily buffeted by the winds of change…we end up being extras in someone else’s story, reacting our way through life…[we all] have a unique reason for existing and a unique offering to the world…we must look deep within to find it. – Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal
Healthy Reading
If you haven’t checked out the Hero’s Journey interval training program yet, why not? Training or working out doesn’t have to be boring or something you have to do, it should be something you want to do. Add these two to the mix: the Legolas Workout or the Shieldmaiden Workout or any of the other dozens of themed workouts at Darbee.com. Training, however, is only half of the equation.
The other half is nutrition. Sure, working out out will reduce the weight, just as only “dieting” will, but focusing on only one makes long-term maintenance difficult and gains often temporary. If you have decided on a commitment to better health, you also have to commit to some studying. Knowledge has many benefits for your lifestyle change, such as: Continue reading
Categories: What You Can Do
Tags: diets, Excerise, food, health, Neila Rey, nutrition, training, workouts
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Last Man
When humans first entered the final frontier the very edge of technology was pushed to its limits. The race into space may have been driven by the Cold War, but ultimately there was something even greater behind it.
The human spirit.
That spirit has driven mankind to explore for millennia and space is no different. Every bit as dangerous as the New World, the Amazon and the Wild West, but this frontier has no bounds and is unforgiving. Unfortunately, the powers that be, quickly lost vision and returned to their myopia. In an age where technology is taken for granted, it is hard to believe this happened decades ago. It is also a reminder that we could do so much more than iPhones and smart cars.
There are some who still remain from that first wave; those who were there on the new frontier. This is the story of the last man to walk on another world:
Categories: History
Tags: Apollo, Apollo 17, Moon, NASA, space, space exploration, The Last Man on the Moon
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Not Reading is Not an Option
Shannon A. Thompson writes:
As an author and full-time editor, I’m coming across more and more writers who don’t read their own genre, or — even worse — don’t read at all. There are generally two types of these writers.
1. Writers who claim to read but obviously don’t (and I’ll get to how it is obvious later).
2. Writers who haven’t read anything since they left high school twenty years ago.
Spoiler Alert: Neither of these options is okay.
Writers, please, oh please, you must read—and you must read often, especially in your own genre. As the infamous Stephen King once said, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.” I adamantly agree with him.
Read the rest here.
Every Generation’s Legacy
Think not forever of yourselves, O chiefs, nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families, think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground. – Peacemaker, Founder of the Iroquois Confederacy
In all of your deliberations in the Confederate Council, in your efforts at law making, in all your official acts, self-interest shall be cast into oblivion…Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground – the unborn of the future Nation. – The Constitution of the Iroquois Nations: The Great Binding Law
There are a variety of quotes like these, often rewritten as some variation of, “In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation…” These quotes are often used in discussion of environmental issues, but they are a fundamental concept of foresight that should be applied to much of our thinking. This is something our politicians rarely do — they’re only concerned in what they can say or do (or appear to do) to get them through the next election cycle.
Categories: Critical Thinking, History, Nature, What You Can Do
Tags: future, human life, naturalism, purpose, seven generations, war on humans
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No Ordinary People
“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal,” wrote C.S. Lewis. Consider that as you consider these:
What if the veil between this world and the next began to break?
What if terrors long thought to be nothing more than myth and legend were not the fiction we thought they were?
What if the worst you saw on the nightly news was not the worst by any measure?
There are those who serve the Darkness, conspiring in the shadows, and those who serve the Light.
None are mere mortals. They are us.
Among the Shadows, Watchers of the Light Book 1, the first in a new fantasy series, coming soon.
Darrick Dean 