Erika Wassall here… The Jersey Farm Scribe

I’m really proud of my newest post on Honesty For Breakfast!

I’m a BIG believer that sometimes you have to jump in with both feet, take the risk and figure out everything else as you go.  Sometimes it’s the only way to give yourself the best shot at success.

But you have to know that there will be pitfalls and failures along the way.  If you shy away from these failures, you’re sure to miss out on a lot of amazing aspects of life.  Finding ways to take those failures, face them head on and be okay with THAT, is a powerful tool to have and will prepare you for a lot.

So here is my article published by Honesty For Breakfast:

Failings Does Not Make You A Failure

Hopefully it will remind people, failures are only stepping stones to success… as long as we don’t let them stop us.

My newest post went up today on Kathy’s wonderful website on Writing and Illustrating for Children.

It’s about the ebb and flow of how children’s speak, and how to be sure that tone is reflected in your own manuscripts.  Without it, you’ll lose the feeling of reality.  It’s an interesting topic, because I think it’s something that we as adults sometimes miss.  But kids will pick up on it instantaneously because it naturally just won’t feel quite “right” to them.  It’ll block their connection to the characters.

And without a bond to the characters, even a plot driven story will never have the impact you’re looking for.

So check out my tips on how to give yourself a dialogue tune up!

Mastering Kid-Speak: A Dialogue Tune Up – on Kathy Temean’s Writing and Illustrating for Children 

And of course, follow me on Twitter and tell me all about YOUR tips for bringing your characters to life!

Here is a link to my latest post in the world of the magazine, Honesty For Breakfast.

(Click here to read actual article –>)   Budget:  Here’s How You Do It.

Most of the readers are in their 20s, so I wanted to give useful, realistic tips.  Budgeting is almost a four-letter-word to some people and my goal was to quell the fears.  I strongly believe that the most important part of a budget is NOT micromanaging every cent you spend, but financial AWARENESS.

Starting at any age, no matter what bills you have or don’t have, a budget helps you see money in a more realistic way as you grow older.  One of the biggest problems I think people (sometimes including myself!) have, is not really  knowing WHERE their money is going.  And that can be a slippery slope.

I remember being about 22 years old.  I was making pretty good money, and sharing an apartment.  No car payments, no major bills.  Compared to the complexities of my finances now, I had it made!!  So how come I was often having a hard time coming up with the rent money????  It didn’t make sense.  And I would be very frustrated come the 1st of every month.

When I finally tracked my money, I realized I was spending WAAAAY too much money eating out.  I vividly remember talking to my older brother about it.  He laughed out loud at the amount, and said that was more than he spent feeding his family of four and a half!!   (His wife was pregnant, no one was cutting anyone into pieces or anything)

Once I KNEW the problem, I was able to address it.  I have always loved cooking, so it wasn’t that I minded eating at home.  It simply hadn’t occurred to me.  I didn’t stop eating out.  But I understood how it was effecting me and made my choices accordingly.

That’s what this article is targeted to.  Simple ways to increase financial awareness that make you feel good about your decisions.  No one wants to feel like their budget controls them.  Hopefully after reading this article, you’ll see how budgets really put YOU in control.

Link to Honesty for Breakfast – Budget: Here’s How You Do It.

Phew!  Say that five times fast….

Or if you’re feeling like doing something more productive… see if you agree with me by reading my newest post for Kathy Temean’s website Writing and Illustrating for Children at:

You’re RIGHT to Write What You Write

Have you ever had someone tell you they’re writing something, because they think it will sell?  Did it make you stop and think?  Read about how I highly suggest planning SUBMISSIONS around agent’s wish-lists, but not planning MANUSCRIPTS around them.

And of course, don’t forget to follow and check out the rest of Kathy’s amazing site too!

If anyone hasn’t yet checked out Honesty for Breakfast yet, I really suggest doing so.  It’s a great online magazine for girls in their twenties.  As a regular contributor, I have an inside view on the direction they decide to take.  And it’s really very fresh and fun, with a very honest and not-sugar coated tone.

Some of my upcoming articles have a bit of a more serious tone to them, but this last one was quite literally just for fun.  I had a few friends going on “first dates”.  They had been talking about how boring they are, and the awkward moments.  So we sat started spitballing new ideas on how to dress them up.  We came up with some pretty great ideas!

I was sitting there thinking, you know what?  Dinner and a movie is  HORRIBLE first date anyway.  You learn NOTHING about your date, and spend most of your time trying to think of what you can say to break the silence next time the conversation fades off.  So I came up with these Four Fun Flirty First Dates, why they’re great, and what message they send to the lucky guy.

Check it out here:                  Four Fun Flirty First Dates

And don’t forget to look around the rest of the site too!

Wow.  This contest went REALLY well.  There was over 100 entries in total.  I met lots of great people and had a lot of fun.  I will definitely be doing this again… soon.  Maybe once a month is what I’m currently thinking.  With a new twist for additional excitement and intrigue…

→    I’m thinking  $10 for every hundred entries (min $20)   ←

The more people RT or follow me during the contest hours, the more money will get donated to charity.  This way, even if you don’t win, you’ll still have made a difference!   I’ll post the full details of what I come up with next week.

And don’t forget, you could RT me EVERY time you see one of my #CONTEST tweets for multiple entries!!

So without further ado…. the winner is…

HS  @Racer236  !!!

You know what…. things usually don’t work out that the person who entered the most actually win, but in this case it did!!!  HS not only followed me, but retweeted my contest related tweets numerous times with a total of 5 entries!

So CONGRATULATIONS to you!!!  I will be contacting you on Twitter via DM to see what charity you would like the $20 to go towards in your name (in the off chance that you want the charity name to not be publicized).  And we’ll discuss how you’d like a link to be used to your benefit.  This will of course depend on if you have a website and what it is.  I’d be willing to do an interview on my website if appropriate, mention it and include a link, tweet to it.

Winner gets what winner wants!

A big ‘ole thank you to everyone who was involved for making it such a success.  I hope you’ll participate next time.  I think I’m going to make this a monthly event for a while and see how that goes (I’m FAR from wealthy though, so I may have to cut that back at some point, lol!!)

Watch this space (HA!  I’ve never said that before… it makes me feel important for some reason) for more details on how the contest will be proceeding.  I’ll post a full details post next week so I can explain how it going to work in the next round.

Have a great weekend everyone!  The chickens are starting to slow down in their egg laying already.  But on the up-side I predict some home-made soup is in my future in the next few days.  It’s just chilly enough to make nothing taste better!!

Hi everyone.

I’m doing a 72-hour twitter contest that started yesterday.  I realized last night that I really should have put something here about it.  Plus, it’s a great place to put more than 140 characters of explanation.  LOL.  Not sure how I hadn’t thought of that before!!

But have no fear, I’m having fun with this, so I predict this to be a monthly event in some shape or form.  We’ll see.  So…

Contest details:   Starting yesterday through 11:59 PM tomorrow, anyone who follows me, or retweets one of my tweets THAT MENTION CONTEST will be entered into the drawing.

You can be entered multiple times (up to five total).  A FOLLOW is two entry, and every RT is one entry.

Drawing will be done Friday at noon.  Winner will be contacted via twitter.

Prize:  A link to their blog will be mentioned here on my blog, as well as in a few glowing tweets.  And $20 will be made to the charity of their choice in their name.

So no, it’s not an all expenses paid trip or anything, but hey….Not bad for just clicking a button, huh? 

Plus, it’s charity!  Never a bad thing.  🙂

So follow, RT, and come play on twitter.  I’m @NJFarmScribe for anyone who doesn’t know.

I’m really loving working with this online magazine. It gives me a chance to write about things I wouldn’t normally address. Dating and relationships are not topics I often write about, and you know what? It’s fun!

It’s a chance to look at my past and play around with memories. How exciting to let some of my own personal experiences become something that other people read about and how knows, maybe even get something from!

This article is about the famous line: Let’s just be friends.   (ugh, it’s even painful just to type!)

But as much as it invokes a natural eye-roll and groan every time I see it, I remember meaning it, I mean REALLY meaning it with all my heart. I wanted me and my ex to be good friends. I had visions in my brain about grabbing lunch together always keeping in touch.

Truth is, while this sounded great to ME, it wasn’t exactly fair to him. Breaking up is hard on everyone, but it’s definitely one of those situations where space and distance are kinder than that friendly check-in text that you can barley stop yourself from sending.

So check out my article on this link below, and don’t forget to peruse the rest of the magazine as well!

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

My  newest post on Kathy Temean’s Writing and Illustrating for Children is about optimizing the use of each and every word to bring your character to life and develop the bond between them and the reader.

Every word has a fingerprint.

It’s not just the definition of a word that matters, but the emotions and feeling it invokes in the reader, and how they sound coming off the tongue.

Read my article to find tips on how to bring out the profound power of each word.  And of course, come follow me on Twitter at @NJFarmScribe and tell me some of YOUR tips!

Picture Books:  Character Development in EVERY word

My next article for Honesty for Breakfast is really a follow up from last week.

If you remember my article Hate Your Job? Hang in there Baby! it talked about my horrible experience with waitressing, catty-coworkers, a boss that seemed to think he owned the staff, and pay that was a joke.  So why didn’t I ever act out one of those dramatic stomp-outs complete with a few choice words, that I acted out so many times in my head?  Find out in THAT post.  (HA!  got ya)

At the end of that piece I talk about how good it felt to quit when the time was right, and how excited I was about my new fancy job.  Here is where this article picks up.  I walk into my cubicle, enjoy more than my share of chair-swiveling and pencil organizing.  About a week or so later, I realize, I STILL don’t actually understand what they hired me to DO!

If you can relate, if you’ve had your share of water-cooler talk, or if you just want to have a laugh, read about my experience here:

Welcome To Corporate American… Now SWIVEL!

Leave a comment here, or contact me on Twitter @NJFarmScribe and tell me about YOUR experience!

~The Jersey Farm Scribe