Saturday, December 16, 2017

Writing Books, Self Reliance and Teaching others Self Reliance in their Businesses



Self-reliance...Charting your Destiny with Heavenly Father!




Recently I took a class with our Church on Self Reliance.  I went into it with the brakes on, stating, we didn't need to do this.  I was so wrong!
We learned so much!

 We forged bonds with other members and helped each other with marketing and networking ideas.  It was a lot of fun and we learned a lot about our businesses.  One of the first things we learned in the class is that we need to pray for our business to find out how Heavenly Father wants us to Proceed.  I do several things from Genealogy to Mystery Shopping, to Avon as Sales and Recruiting, to Consulting with others on their Businesses through Web Design, Marketing/Networking and Search Engine Optimization through placing in Directories and Search Engines and lastly, as a business slash hobby, I also make my own jewelry, so which of these things was I supposed to focus on for the class?  That was the first prayer.  The answer came back, "none of these, go find your books."
Lexie - from Uncharted Destiny



Well, that was a surprise.  In 1988-1992, I wrote seven novels during a very difficult time in my life.  It was a great way to keep my moral integrity as I focused on principles that would enhance and uplift my life through stories and fictional novels.   My first husband was less than enthusiastic about helping me get them published and my financial options at that time did not allow the 2200/book cost.  It was important for me to have these put into print for my posterity so they could learn things that would help them as adults in a fun way.

I put them in a box and they followed me to Arizona where they have been tucked away for the last ten years.  I knew not where they hid in the maze of our cardboard menagerie in the garage.  Yet, when I prayed about it, I went right to the correct box, and there they were, still with their Printmaster graphics and rip away dot matrix paper from Radio Shack.  (the old-fashioned printers that first came with computers were stacks and stacks of paper attached to little rip away feeder holes so that you could feed an entire stack of 500 sheets of paper into the printer and it would print them continuously, then when you ripped away the little strips on the side, it looked like regular paper.  We've come a long way baby!)
Mike and Madelyn Murphy from Uncharted Destiny



Fast forward to 2017 and my dream is happening.  We are in the final editing stages of the seventh book and progress has already begun on the sequel to Under Cover and also Uncharted Destiny.

The marketing technique for one of the books I used, was in conjunction with the Self Reliance Class.  My daughter is a well rounded Artist from Ogden, Utah.  I had her place an ad on the Utah Film and Actor's facebook page for a casting call.  These people would try out for the "Part" of a character in my book.  She listed the qualities of each character and when selected, she took pictures of them acting out parts in the book.  They signed a release that we could use their photos and in return would get to keep the professional pictures for their portfolio, and list themselves as in our Production, they would be listed as Cast members in the book with their picture, and if used in the video, they could certainly use a link to that in their portfolio as well. No cost to us.  No cost to the Actors.


Moody Mark, Catherine the Drama Queen, and Tiger  - all from Uncharted Destiny



My daughter did such a good job of matching characters, right down to their bodies, hair and eyes and personalities.  It was amazing.   The chemistry was so great with some of them that they may even be dating now as I write this to you - how fun is that?    Here are some of the pictures from the book, Uncharted Destiny and a couple of wonderful reviews of it!


Catherine, after a little fall, decides to put a "cast" on made out of toilet paper.





Tiger, from Uncharted Destiny is a real pistol and quite the character.  He loves box racing and is one of the heroes of the Story.







I hope you all enjoy this book!  It was lots of fun to make it come to life!

Here is the video for it and My Amazon and Goodreads Author pages

AMAZON


GOODREADS








POSSIBLE MIRACLE?

December 18, 2017

I feel like I was the benefactor of a Miracle last night.  I have had laryngitis all week.Just want to express my gratitude for all the prayers on my behalf. Heavenly Father does listen. I had the worst laryngitis all week. Tonight was the big Stake Choir Concert. Ted gave me another blessing and this time it was more urgent. When I got there I was pretty bummed because I couldn’t talk still. But for some reason, I had about 6 notes above high c which came out clear as a bell. Anything else cut out and was gravelly. I thought if I have to cancel because I can’t sing the notes then 4 people won’t be able to perform; the pianist, the tenor and the violinist too. I thought what if I changed it to an obligato 1/3 above The tenor? It worked right, we did it off the cuff and performed it. Nailed it. Still can’t talk but what a testimony for the blessing. Thank you honey, for the blessing and for those who put my name in at the Temple. It was a multi-congregation venture and we all came together for Christ. .

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