A Life in the Day

It's just a little prick You know it’s coming. You know the diagnosis before you hear the words and you know it’s not going to be easy to hear but you know. How could you not? You’ve seen the signs for years now, you just didn’t want to have those fears acknowledged. You knew it the moment you finally went in for your physical (at the end of the calendar year, as if postponing it to the latter part of the year would make the diagnosis easier to hear). You knew it the moment the blood tests were ordered and you knew it as you watched your sugary blood fill the vials. Sure, it’s easy to say to yourself that it’s not going to be difficult and it’s probably going to be easier to finally shed some of the weight you’ve added on since starting one of the many “lifestyle” food changes you’ve started and stopped in the past 2 years. You’ve watched countless of celebrities, friends and family members shed the weight after their diagnoses so this is a good thing, right? You know the...

So, I was looking through my old blog posts for ideas to repurpose or update on my blog for this month and found my 10 Things I’ve learned about being the ePub Agent in 2012 . It’s interesting but those 10 things are still important now and I will likely include them when I train our junior staff but I’m learning new things every year and I fall in love with my profession more with each new tidbit I learn. If I were to write a letter to my 2014 ePub Agent self here’s what I would add (with gifs of course because it's 2014 and gifs just make everything better): Your instincts are sharper with time and experience. You trust your gut now more than you did in 2012 especially when it comes to market trends and the commerciality of projects. Authors will continue to need support and uplifting pep talks but understand that insecurities may paralyze some of them. It’s more important to help them out of that fear than it is to get another book from them. The book will eventually ...

I make this kick look pretty My father's upcoming 64th birthday will include a surprise reunion for his martial arts students. We're expecting 60-75 people in attendance with 10-15 joining us via Skype from their various military locations. Many of my dad's students went on to join the military in the 90s during Desert Storm and were (some still are) part of the Navy Seals, Green Berets or Special Forces. My dad, as the senior instruction and 10th degree Black Belt, has always been referred to as Shihan  in the dojo. He's also a Shuseki Shihan but I won't go into that now. Anyway, we have put together a Facebook Page for his dojo, American Open Karate and asked his students to post their favorite Shihanisms: the phrases he would use to motivate them in his drill sergeant ways and remembering them has been a great blast. The student becomes the master So here are a few: "Don't look at me! I know I'm good-looking!" - usually said while...