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“I taught myself to read over the elbow of my older brother when I was three years old. “You’ll get your turn” my mother lectured me repeatedly. She was homeschooling him and he was 15 months older than I was. Mom had not realized how much the two of us did together. If he was learning something new, then I was too! This was just one of the ways I advocated for myself over the years to propel myself into the woman I am today. 

Life didn’t hand me a silver spoon; she handed me a silver milk pail. I grew up without running water or electricity and milked a cow by hand until I was 17 years old. Life was hard but I did not know anything different. I just knew that life held something important for me and horses were involved somehow.  

I lived in a single-wide trailer with my parents and five siblings. I got my own place to sleep because I sometimes wet the bed. Everyone else was double bunked. Horses and books were my salvation. They led me away from the family home and to a life I had only dreamed of.” 

This is an excerpt from the opening of a book I am writing. My aim is to promote my book to the masses through social media, a blog, and, eventually, a book contract. I have other short stories that I will self- publish when I get the training to do so. Follow my blog for more!

Transition could be described when a caterpillar goes into its cocoon of isolation to begin its transformation into a butterfly. It is used to describe the stage of labor just prior to pushing in birth, you know, where objects are flying and cusswords abound. Transition is the point when children in daycare are moved from one activity to another. When I hear the word transition, I know that hard work is ahead.

It isn’t always easy to go from one thing to the next. Think of dragging a child away from a favorite movie or friend. It is going to get ugly in a hurry! All this aside, transition is the beginning of a transformation.

Transformation is to change. For better or worse we are all transforming all the time. I am currently in transition to transform myself from a student to a woman with a career. I feel an alteration in my psyche as the knowledge comes flowing in. It is changing the very fiber of who I am. I am gaining strength I didn’t know I needed and insight I hadn’t even been reaching for. With every breath, my transformation is gloriously in progress and, though the work is hard, I know that I will persevere.

My favorite soundtrack is the one for Spirit, the Stallion of the Cimarron by Bryan Adams and Hans Zimmer. While I appreciate Bryan Adams’ work, I am positively captivated by Hans Zimmers’ music. When I close my eyes, I can see moving horses; his cadence and rhythm are perfect.

Music is what brings emotion into a film; joy, fear, action, inaction, drama, subterfuge, mystery, and much more are what brings the film to life and they are delivered via music. Without music, film is just a series of images, dialog, and actions. 

My favorite brand is Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee. My husband and I went to Jamaica for our thirtieth wedding anniversary. We had heard that Blue Mountain Coffee was considered the best in the world, but we had never tried it. The resort we were staying would only serve it if you asked for it specifically. We remembered to ask for it on the third day and never forgot again.

Blue Mountain Coffee is smooth, mellow, and has zero aftertaste. We are coffee weenies; our stomachs can’t really handle most brands and we had no trouble with Blue Mountain.

People began growing coffee in Jamaica in 1728. Coffee growers attribute the smooth, mellow flavor to the volcanic soil that the island provides. The distribution of the coffee is strictly controlled by the Jamaica Commodities Regulatory Authority*. If the coffee you purchase does not have the certification mark on it, it’s not Blue Mountain coffee.

My husband and I pinch pennies until they scream but we only buy Blue Mountain coffee. For our entire married lives (34 1/2 years) we have shared a pot of coffee sitting up in bed in the morning. We visit, share plans for the day, and discuss important topics. Blue Mountain joined us four and a half years ago and we will never go back to regular coffee if we can help it.

*Wikipedia

Looking at the infographics shows me that Facebook is still the number one used social media site. I have the most followers on Facebook, too. I have been on it longer than any other platform, so that makes sense.  I also use Instagram and Snapchat regularly but only to look at.

I intend to use Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn Primarily for now. I will build content that is engaging and interactive. I want to answer peoples’ questions. I will try to use a lot of images, as that is what often attracts the customer. Staying on top of communications is another plan I have; I want to engage with people in as real time as I can.

I hope to develop a forward-thinking plan of posts, links, and images to post once or twice a week as regular posts are where your customers start counting on you. I can create a bond while I move forward, allowing the customer to lead some of my content. They will tell me what interests them, and I will try to deliver.

I have a lot to learn about social media, but I hope this class will plumb my brain on how to use it correctly.

An image system is a theme or image that is repeated in films by the same movie producer. It is often unnoticed by the viewers but can become apparent as more movies are produced. Image systems can become the calling card of a director or create a feeling of symmetry in the movie. I haven’t watched a lot of movies, but Walt Disney had an image system in place. Each movie he created or had a hand in was vivid in primary colors, usually had a brilliant musical score, and a joyous ending.

I watched Bambi, Snow White, Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Chitty-chitty Bang-bang, Mary Poppins, The Fox and the Hound, just to name a few. Mr. Disney had local ties to the Sequim area, and, for that reason, I found him to be interesting. The Olympic Game Farm was started by a man named Lloyd Bebee and he started filming wild animals and Disney took interest. He started incorporating the film into movies and eventually filmed several productions on the Olympic Peninsula.Scenes from both Those Calloways and Charlie the Lonesome Cougar were filmed here. Disney loved nature as much as he did cartooning and used a lot of animals in his non-cartoon movies. You could even say that he had an image system in place!