Are you looking for an engaging summer novel to captivate you while lying on the beach? Or are you ready to curl up by the fire for a cozy winter’s evening read? Even if you are just immersed in day-to-day life and seek the refuge of transporting yourself into another world you must pick up one of Mave Binchy’s series of Irish novels.

Mave Binchy is the author of ‘Circle of Friends’. The book was made into a movie starring Minnie Driver and the author has won many of fans by involving them with her tales of Irish citizens and the twists and turns that create fascinating stories out of ordinary lives.

If you relish the emotion and intricacies of relationships and the madness of triumph and tragedies that inflict themselves on everyday lives, you will find yourself captivated as she spins a story of average people of whom you truly feel could be your best friend or neighbor.

Her books have been called “Mesmerizing”, “Remarkably moving” and “Compulsively readable” by reviewers.

In many of her novels, ‘The Glass Lake’, ‘Evening Class’, ‘Copper Beech’ and others, the stories of the lives of the characters emerge and become intertwined. As you become intimately involved with one character you will meet the other individuals in his or her life - at the restaurant, down the street and even during a foreign escapade.

As you travel their lives you will feel you have not only met this individual but understand their longings and place in this world based on your intimate knowledge of their past and their experiences.

When you read another novel, you will again meet these old friends as they are known to the current character. You will have the familiar feeling that you’ve known this town and it’s occupants for years. In fact, you may well wonder if Mave Binchy knows them herself. The stories have such a ring of truth and the mixing of individuals so well thought out you believe she could indefinitely create this town of people with history, lives and futures as if they existed in the real world.

You will not come to the end of a novel with the feeling of regret as we so often do when enjoying an engaging tale because you will actually visit these characters again, at another time in their life. Just as moving away from your hometown can be painful, it is wonderfully reassuring to hear news or make a visit and see how life is progressing for these dear ones.

It is an understatement to say that Mave Binchy weaves a fine yarn - the truth is that when you close the book you will sense you’ve had a long talk over a cup of coffee with an acquaintance and after listening to their life story come away with a new friend. You will become enraptured with the details of their lives and surprised or moved by the trials and tribulations they’ve encountered. They will in fact become a piece of your memory in much the same way as friends from your youth and from far away have become a small piece of you.

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake Up…Live the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

The Elizabethans inherited from the middle ages a view of man’s body as being composed of a mixture of the four elements, earth, water, air and fire, which were supplied by the intake of food. The liver converted food into four different kinds of liquids, or “humours”, which in turn gave moisture and vital heat to the body.

The four humours were the choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic and melancholic. The melancholic, being cold and dry, was associated with earth. The phlegmatic humour was cold and moist and associated with water. The sanguine humour was located in the blood, which was hot and moist, and the choleric humour was associated with fire and was hot and dry.

Fire = Choleric = Hot and Dry = Bile
Air = Sanguine = Hot and Moist = Blood
Water = Phlegmatic = Cold and Moist = Phlegm
Earth = Melancholic = Cold and Dry = Black Bile

It was the particular mixture or combination of these humours, or elements as they were also called, that informed each individual human being with a particular temperament or “complexion”.

The ideal man would consist of a perfect mixture of the four elements. In Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, Anthony describes Brutus as having been just such a man:

His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed up in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world ‘This was a man!’

Few people are blessed with such an ideal mixture and most exhibit a predominant humour or combination of humours.

For example, if someone was said to be of a choleric temperament it was because his character reflected the predominate tendency of that humour; in other words, he was a quick tempered, impatient, bilious sort of chap.

A phlegmatic character was placid and rather indolent, lacking in feelings and tending towards imbecility.

A sanguine character was ruddy of countenance, of a cheerful disposition and a lover of the pleasures of the flesh. Many considered this the best of all the humours.

Finally, the melancholic type was moody, sensitive, reflective, and given to bouts of mania or world-weary sadness or chagrin, like Antonio in The Merchant of Venice:

In sooth I know not why I am so sad,
It wearies me…

It was the melancholic humour that was given the most attention in the Renaissance period because it was the humour that could bring on bouts of madness, ecstasy, fury, and was even linked to divine inspiration.

Socrates and Plato were said to have been melancholic types whose philosophical insights were divinely inspired.

Poets and artists were also thought to have melancholic temperaments, and an attitude of “tristezza” became fashionable among young intellectuals in Shakespeare’s day.

In his Anatomy of Melancholy, Burton remarks that melancholia “advanceth men’s conceits more than any other humour” - in other words, the melancholic type is given to witticisms and has a swift and fertile imagination.

Michel De Montaigne (1533-1592), who popularized the essay as a literary genre, described his natural complexion as being a stable mixture of the sanguine and melancholic, the former keeping the latter in check.

However, when he relinquished his business affairs and retired to his country estate to live the life of a gentleman of leisure, a sudden bereavement threw him into a profound melancholic depression which he feared might develop into full-blown madness. His spirit, usually tempered by the sanguine humour and therefore free of sadness, suddenly “bolted off like a runaway horse” and gave birth to “chimeras and fantastic monstrosities, one after another” (Essays I:8).

If melancholia or any of the other humours takes on excess it corrupts and burns up to become “melancholy adust” and if one’s predominate humour is melancholia, then madness is a real danger.

Montaigne’s solution was to write about himself in the light of classical history, personal experience and anecdotes he picked up here and there. He analyzed and questioned everything that interested him (except the doctrines of the Catholic faith) with the sceptical eye of a student of Sextus Empiricus.

Montaigne’s melancholic humour and his intellectual scepticism are thought to have influenced Shakespeare in his creation of Hamlet, who is the image of a sceptical prince par excellence. Much of the play revolves around Hamlet’s search for evidence that Claudius did indeed murder Hamlet’s father.

Hamlet grieves over the loss of his father and is horrified by his mother’s hasty marriage with his uncle, Claudius, the new king. Hamlet’s melancholy humour is clearly conveyed in his first soliloquy:

How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Hamlet’s melancholy has become corrupted and “burnt” with excessive heat, and during the course of the play we see him take on various roles or undergo experiences that might be linked to “melancholy adust”.

He sees a ghost, just as Montaigne reported seeing chimeras; his language is full of poetic conceit and witty inspiration; he apes a lover’s ecstacies; he kills Polonius in a moment of fury and ultimately kills Claudius in a frenzied assault hastened by his knowledge that he too is dying.

And of course, Hamlet feigns madness. But he does it so convincingly that we wonder whether or not he has actually gone mad, or at least whether one would have to be mad in order to choose to feign madness.

Whatever the truth behind the claims that Shakespeare was influenced by Montaigne when he was writing Hamlet, one thing is certain, and that is that Hamlet is for much of the play an excellent model of melancholia.

For more information: Ask Steven E

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake Up…Live the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

In almost every writer’s forum, the deplorable perennial problem of writer’s block has always been brought up by both professional and amateur creative writers. Some discussions have gone as deep as defining the nature of writer’s block. In case a writer’s block (a.k.a. “fear-of-the-blank-page”) should come up in the middle of the deadline, the writer will be able to hopefully do something about it.

But what is a writer’s block? On the surface, it is simply a period of non-activity for the writer. A writer or a poet may attempt to write something based on the need to write something, but then they come up with absolutely nothing! What causes a writer’s block and what can be done about it? Here are some thoughts and suggestions:

1. The fear of coming up short from their last project - Collectively speaking, most artists and writers have an obsessive compulsion to concretize and materialize, through their works, abstracted thoughts and ideas. Once they start at some project, there is always that fear of producing something despairingly short of what they have intended to create. Thus, they become disappointed in themselves. If artistic or writer’s block does not happen prior to the start of the project, it may also very well occur while the work is in process. This explains why several writers may work on different projects at the same time and jumping from one unfinished work to another. Some even abandon previous works altogether for a new one but ultimately end up not accomplishing anything in the end.

2. A comeback after a long time off - Vacations and some time off taking care of familial/domestic or personal matters can only have two extreme results: either it rejuvenates, recharges and inspires the writer for the next project, or it completely diminishes or finishes off whatever is left of a prolific and fecund mind! Let’s face it, even professional writers are, first and foremost, human beings before they are writers. And, as humans, writers too are bound to lose footing once they have taken some time off from writing, if not inspired and recharged, as mentioned.

3. Insecurities - Lack of formal training…Being a newbie…The writing style…a friend who’s a better writer…etc., etc., etc., these can all spell one thing: insecurities. Our insecurities can really work nasty for writers. We know there is no other way out other than a paradigm shift or a change in perspective for the writer. We know that there will always be other people more educated, more renowned in the creative writing field. We know there will always be writers who are relatively better than us, other trends and styles in writing which the we can become unfamiliar and intimidated with. However, the bottomline is that it is just a matter of gritting your teeth with some decision-making: to write or not to write?

4. Bills to pay, daily tasks, and other small details - Where do I get the money for the bills? Who brings and fetches the children to and from school? For writers with actual day jobs and many deadlines to meet, who can still think of writing? These concerns, to mention only a few, hampers the writer’s writer’s sensitive thoughts. These are practical things that need to be done on the daily basis. On the surface, these concerns may seem harmless to an aspiring writer. However, eventually, these daily concerns will dry up the creative writer’s reservoir that needs constant nurturing. This is not to say, however, that children, career and domestic chores and other concerns should no longer be tended to in order to write. Being a great writer does not necessarily entail shunning away from daily practical concerns, in the same manner that a person with no other daily duties does not guarantee a prolific writer. Difficult for the right-brained writer as it may be, time must be managed. Schedules and systems must be established in order to attain the perfect juxtaposition and equilibrium of work (chores and responsibilities) and play (writing).

For more information: Ask Steven E

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake Up…Live the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

Your opinion of audio books are probably going to depend a lot on your age, if you can remember 33, 45, or even 78 speed phonograph records or if you are going what the heck is a record, it will play a large part in your feelings towards audio books as a medium. To the very young, not capable of reading yet they are a joyous and entertainingly vivid way of experiencing the written words long before you can put together your first “See Spot, See Spot run”.

To the highly mobile teenager they are the closest many would ever get to a book if not held in captivity seven hours a day in our public schools being forced to read things they can no more relate to then a Eskimo can to the sandy deserts of Saudi Arabia. Let’s face it although considered the greatest playwright of the last millennium Shakespeare is so out of touch to the average teen that you might as well drill a hole in their head and poor the stuff in as get them to want to read it.

Once again the generation gap will play a large part in whether you feel books by their sheer nature are better than audio that can just be turned on at the press of a button from their mp3 player as where their grandparents are asking what is an iPod? When seeking to find the answer for the question are audio books better, equal, or just a fad, you have to look at how the two differ.

The pro’s for the audio side of the argument; goes anywhere, light, hands free, can be read (listened to) on the go whether in a plane, train, or automobile. Costs are now comparable with the written book and sometimes actually more affordable.

You do not have to worry if you spill your coffee on an audio CD - just a quick wash and it is going again; try that with your favorite Harry Potter Book. You can often get audio books read by the author so there are no questions as to the author’s intentions about the way a passage was meant to be read in the book.

It is probably that fact which is one of the most vivid reasons that the audio books have a flaw. Where is the imagination? When you read a book, you have to interpret in your own way what the author meant by a passage not someone else’s view of it. You have a clear blank slate (ancient devices to write on with chalk like a PDA without batteries) to draw your own vision of the words with their own smells, sounds, lighting, mood, and whatever other senses you choose to employ in the visualization of the written words.

As humans we need to ask ourselves what is the reason for us to write books and thus hence audio books? It seems clear that audio is the offshoot of the written (for the last 100 years or so at least) not the other way around. Not too many authors release an audio book then release it into print.

On the other hand, studies have shown that only about 10% of books ever get read passed the first chapter. We have to ask ourselves what we are reading the book for in the first place. Is it for technical information or for the sheer joy to sit down with a hot cup of your favorite brew and find a cozy quiet corner to escape to lands far off and forgotten?

One could supposedly take this question one step further and ask whether the movie is better than either a book or an audio? Back to the Harry Potter example, are the movies better than the brilliant works of magical words that JK Rowling’s scribed out over the last decade? Are the visualizations of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds or Psycho clearer in his written words or the film later and then what about colorization?

The human mind is a complex visualization device and one left to its imagination creates incredible visions of what we see, or read, or hear. In conclusion one needs to ask yourself whether you want your medium dished out to you pre chewed or would you prefer to sink your teeth into a nice thick juicy steak and saver every single morsel of its complex texture, smell, taste, and visual perfection?

In the end if it is a question of getting some exposure to great books than it really does not matter which you choose as long as you get some of the great literary works of mans’ colored history to experience. One could also ask the question what about ebooks, but that would be yet another whole debate in itself and beyond the scope of this article. Whichever you decide in the end will be just fine as any opportunity to engage your mind from something other than the TV is a good one.

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake Up…Live the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

A poem is a created work that uses language to express ideas that are meaningful and memorable. Several broad types of poems that have been used throughout history include the epic poem, lyrical poems, dramatic poems,and the various familiar fixed forms such as ballads and sonnets.

Epic Poems

The oldest poetic form is the epic, sometimes called the heroic poem. An epic poem is a long narrative that concentrates on heroic deeds and events that are significant to a particular culture. Mythology is often expressed in the form of an epic poem. Many epics existed in oral form only and have not survived.

Examples of epic poems that have survived in written form include “Gilgamesh,” which was recorded about 2000 B.C. on clay tablets. Much of Greek mythology was recorded as epic poems by numerous authors, including Homer’s “Iliad” and his “Odyssey.” Virgil’s “Aeneid” and Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” are famous epics which cover Roman mythology. Written during the medieval period, “Beowulf” relates numerous Anglo-Saxon legends. More recent examples of popular epic poems include Dante’s “The Divine Comedy,” John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” Lord Byron’s “Don Juan,” Longfellow’s “The Song of Hiawatha,” and Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.”

Characteristics of an epic poem include an imposing, significant hero; a vast setting; courageous, even superhuman actions; supernatural forces, such as demons or gods; and an objective point of view surveying the whole story.

Lyrical Poems

Lyric poetry originally referred to the Greek practice of delivering verse to the accompaniment of the lyre. A lyric poem generally is a short poem, often expressing personal deep feelings, having a musical quality that might be set to music and performed to an audience.

Some familiar lyric poets include the Greeks, Sappho and Pindar, and the Romans, Catullus and Horace. During the middle ages the Persian Omar Khayyam wrote memorable lyric verses. During later centuries John Donne, Ben Jonson, John Milton, Robert Burns, Goethe, and Schiller were famous for their lyric poems. The 19th and 20th centuries were filled with lyric poets. Some of the most familiar include Wordsworth, Keats, Byron, Shelley, Tennyson, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, and Robert Frost.

Lyric poems typically depend on rhythm and rhyme. Rhythm is often called meter and is composed of several feet or beats. Two syllable feet and three syllable feet are the most common, and a lyric verse normally has a small number of lines, each divided into a recognizable pattern of feet. A verse may contain a definite rhyme pattern or may be left without rhyme and called blank verse.

Dramatic Poems

Dramatic poetry is meant to be spoken or sung to an audience. It derives from theatrical drama and is generally written in the form of a dialogue or a monologue.

Examples of dramatic poetry can be found in Greek tragedies, Indian drama, Chinese opera, and Japanese Noh theatre.

Fixed Forms

Sonnets, ballads, odes, elegies, epigrams, limericks, and haiku are popular fixed forms of poetry. Each form follows a definite model.

The most famous sonnets are those of Shakespeare, also called English sonnets. English sonnets are 14 lines in length and consist of 3 quatrains (four lines) and a couplet (two lines). The rhyme pattern is generally characterized by abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Shakespeare’s lines employ an iambic pentameter rhythm, five two-syllable feet.

Another popular sonnet form is the Petrarchan or Italian sonnet, named after Francesco Petrarch. This form also has 14 lines broken into an 8 line octave with a rhyme pattern of abbaabba and a 6 line sestet with a rhyme pattern of xyzxyz.

Sonnets are often written about love and affection and employ skillful imagery. Their length allows the poet to create complications in the body of the sonnet and then to resolve the conflicts in the closing lines.

A ballad is a form of verse meant to be sung or recited and usually presents a dramatic or exciting episode from real life.

The traditional ballad form includes four lines per stanza and, often, a refrain. The four lines in each ballad verse consist of four two-syllable feet in the first and third lines and three two-syllable feet in the second and fourth lines. The rhyme pattern is often abab.

An ode is generally a lengthy lyric poem with a serious subject matter, and elevated style, and an elaborate structure. One form is modeled after the Roman poet, Horatio, and uses uniform stanzas and a regular rhythm pattern. The stanzas are often divided into three sections. The first section describes the scene or situation. The second section presents the problem, and the third section presents an insight, a vision, a decision, or a revelation.

Elegies are a form of lyric poetry used for mourning a death, reflecting on something sorrowful, or considering something strange or mysterious. Many elegies are set to music. Some paintings are also titled as elegies.

Epigrams are usually short poems ending with a twist or a clever, witty point. In the Greek tradition they were inscribed on statues or sanctuaries. In the Roman tradition the epigram became a witty gift given to entertain a patron or a loved one, and not something to be inscribed. In the English tradition the epigram became a witty rhymed couplet with Coleridge, Pope, Dryden, and even Benjamin Franklin becoming its master.

Limericks are funny poems often containing hyperbole, puns, and idioms. The last line of the limerick is usually the punch line, a witty conclusion. The form of the limerick consists of five lines, three rhyming each other, and the remaining two lines also rhyming. The rhyme pattern is aabba with lines 1, 2, and 5 containing three two-syllable feet and lines 3 and 4 containing two two-syllable feet.

Haiku is a form of traditional Japanese poetry. Haiku is a 17-syllable verse form which consists of three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. The traditional subject of a haiku is a revealing moment in nature that is conveyed directly to the reader without judgment. One or two words indicate the season of the year to which the Haiku relates. The traditional Haiku is considered complete in itself and is not titled.

Conclusion

There are a few other identifiable poetic forms in addition to the ones listed above. Certainly, there will be additional forms invented by insightful poets in the future. Understanding and appreciating the many different forms of poetry will help the reader to more greatly appreciate the creative work of the poet. 

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake Up…Live the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

Poems are created to express what people consider to be meaningful and memorable in their lives. Poems are written in a style that seeks also to be meaningful and memorable.

Many poems make use of recognizable and accepted poetic conventions, though many poems break away from conventions. Familiarity with and understanding of many of the different poetic conventions can help a person to more fully appreciate the meanings and memories that are embedded in a poem.

Poetic Elements

The most common elements found in poetry are rhythm, rhyme, meter, and sound. These elements are what make poetry recognizably different from prose.

The rhythm in a poem comes from the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables and from the number of syllables in a line. Rhythm gives the lines of the poem movement and conveys a musical design.

The basic unit of meter is called a “foot.” Most commonly, a foot consists of two syllables or three syllables. In a two syllable foot, one syllable is stressed and the other is unstressed. In a three syllable foot, generally either the last syllable is stressed or the first one is stressed.

Here are the names and examples of some common meters.

Iambic meter has the two syllable pattern of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. For example: “That time of year thou mayest in me behold.”

Trochaic meter is the opposite of iambic meter. A trochaic foot stresses the first syllable. For example: “Twinkle, twinkle little star.”

Anapestic meter is a three syllable pattern with the third syllable receiving the stress. For example: “And the sound of a voice that is still.”

Dactylic meter is a three syllable pattern where the first syllable is stressed. For example: “This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlock.”

When the meter of a poetic line contains three feet, it is called a trimeter. If the line contains 4 feet, it is called a tetrameter, which is very common. Another common meter is the line that contains 5 feet, called a pentameter. A line with 6 feet is called a hexameter; a line with 7 feet is called a heptameter; and so on.

Putting meter and rhythm together, here is an example of a beautiful line of iambic pentameter from Shakespeare. “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?” By the way, Shakespeare often used iambic pentameter in his plays. Here is an example of trochaic tetrameter. “Tell me not in mournful numbers.” Or think of “Twinkle, twinkle little star.” Here is an example of anapestic trimeter. “And the sound of a voice that is still.”

Rhyme in a poem is the sound pattern produced by the regular repetition of consonant and vowel sounds. Most commonly, lines of a poem will rhyme at the end of the lines. When a rhyme occurs within a single line, it is called an internal rhyme. The sound pattern created by rhyming lines in a poem is called the rhyme scheme. A rhyme scheme is typically denoted with alphabetic letters, such as ABAB, or AABBCC. Not all poems exhibit a rhyme scheme, and those that do not are generally called free verse.

The sound of a poem often is created by the use of alliteration, assonance, or consonance. Alliteration is the most common of the sound elements. Alliteration is a pattern where there is repetition of the first consonant sound in two or more words in a line. Here’s a good example from William Blake. “Tyger, Tyger burning bright.” By the way, that line is also a good example of trochaic tetrameter.

Assonance generally involves the repetition of middle vowel sounds such as the use of “nine” and “white” in a line of poetry. Consonance involves the close repetition of similar consonant sounds following differing vowel sounds, such as the use of “head” and “bird” in a line of a poem.

Poetic Devices

Among the poetic devices commonly found in good poetry are simile, metaphor, and symbols. These devices, when well used, help to create a picture in the mind of the reader.

A simile is a definite and explicit comparison between two objects or concepts, usually linked with the words, “like,” “as,” or “than.” A good simile is often surprising as it links two unlikely things. The simile creates a concrete image. Here’s a great example from Robert Burns. “My love is like a red, red rose.”

A metaphor differs from a simile in that it is an implied comparison between two objects or concepts. A metaphor does not have the linking words that a simile has, and it represents one thing in terms of another. Here’s an example. “My love is a red rose of the heart.” Notice how different this metaphor is from the preceding simile.

Lastly, the poet often uses symbols in their poem. A symbol is a concrete item which represents an idea or feeling. The use of a symbol gives the symbolic item a deeper meaning and creates another type of picture in the reader’s mind. In Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken,” the forked road represents choices in life and is an easily understood symbol.

Conclusion

Understanding the most common elements and devices used in poetry helps the reader to more greatly appreciate the work of the poet. Understanding the elements and devices also helps the poet to be able to convey their meanings and memories to the reader in wonderful, poetic ways. 

For more information: Ask Steven E

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake Up…Live the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

Have you ever rationalized that shopping on vacation doesn’t really count? That if you are spending on an ‘investment piece’ it’s really worth the money? Or have you ever opened your bank statement and swore someone must have stolen your card because you can’t believe you really spent so much?

For every smart girl who’s maxed out her credit card on an irresistible pair of shoes, a few (ok, a lot) of expensive coffees and a new duvet - just because, there’s a little bit of Becky Bloomwood inside of her.

Sophie Kinsella, one of New York Times bestselling authors, has given every woman with a head on her shoulders the opportunity to enjoy an over indulgence of impulse shopping without the guilt-inducing credit statement that follows. By following the misadventures of her quirky and opportunistic shopaholic, Becky Bloomwood, in the series of ‘Shopaholic’ novels that is being devoured by legions of fans, you can shop from London to Manhattan, from the top shops to the behind-the-scenes sales, without breaking the bank.

Sophie Kinsella has created a heroine with problems. A financial writer, turned financial consultant on TV, Becky is enjoying the fame of financial wizardry while hiding her dark secret - shopping debt! Good intentions aside, there always seems to be a way to rationalize a little spending - whether it’s a Starbucks coffee or another pair of shoes. Even cutting back and getting a second job seems to lead to more trouble instead of more cash.

If following Becky’s first person account of the struggles of maintaining her lifestyle despite the cost is not enough to engage you, her antics trying to cover her spending trail will have you in stitches; antics described by USA Today as “worthy of classic ‘I Love Lucy’ episodes”. Sophie’s creation is begging for the same cinematic turn as fictional English neurotic, Bridget Jones, and according to her website Disney already has one in the works.

If you are looking for a captivating tale that will leave you flushed with the excitement of a spring sale you must start reading the ‘Shopaholic’ series this summer and share them with your friends. And if Sophie Kinsella’s books really capture your interest, you can join her fans on the official Random House website for a chat in the forums, join the newsletter, read more about the author or look for her new books coming up for release.

For more information: Ask Steven E

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake Up…Live the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

Creating multiple streams of income is an important factor when considering any type of business. Affiliate marketing is no exception. By creating multiple streams of income it ensures your survival should one source fail for any reason.

Having multiple streams of income can be equated to McDonalds serving chicken sandwiches even though they’re a burger joint. If you put all your eggs in one basket you’re just looking for trouble. Also, as an affiliate it’s fairly easy to setup multiple streams of income because there is usually an abundance of different programs with decent products available.

Within most niches you’ll probably even be able to find products that complement each other instead of competing with each other. This is an excellent way to bolster your affiliate earnings.

The first order of business is to get your own web site. Something basic will do as you won’t need too much web space. There are very inexpensive hosting plans available today, some as cheap as $3.95 a month.

Next you’ll need a domain name. These are also very inexpensive and can be purchased for under $10 for a whole year.

Your domain name is very important. You’ll want to try to include the name of the niche you’re targeting in the domain name itself if you can and if it’s not too long. If you’re looking at the dog grooming niche for example you may want a name like “doggroomingtips.com” or “doggroomingsecrets.com” or something similar.

The next project on your agenda when attempting to achieve multiple streams of affiliate income should be to create your email capture page.

Your capture page should be your top priority. Consider this your sales page even though you won’t be selling anything in the true sense of the word. By capturing the name and email address of your prospects before sending them to the merchants site you’ll build a list that you can send other offers to whether they purchase from the original merchant or not.

It’s been said many times by the internet’s top marketers, “The money’s in the list”! This rings true for affiliate marketers as well as product creators. You can build a list by writing a special report pertaining to the niche you’re targeting. Perhaps you can write a review of the product you’re promoting or a “top ten” list of reasons to use the product. Offer the report for free so long as your visitor leaves their name and email address. Use a double opt-in autoresponder to protect yourself from unethical folks.

After the prospect has confirmed their address send them to the download page of your special report. And a word of advice - Don’t just send a download link. By sending them to an HTML web page you can sprinkle in links to different affiliate products.

Also, write up 7-10 emails to go out at 2-3 day intervals, each highlighting a different aspect of the main product you’re promoting. Then you can add more emails to go out at 7-10 day intervals exposing your readers to different products in the same niche. Explain how these products complement your main product and why your reader would benefit from the purchase.

By setting up a few of these simple sites offering an array of special reports in one niche you’ll be promoting several different affiliate products within that niche.

Find a variety of other profitable niches to target, repeat the above process and soon you’ll have a whole network of sites funneling prospects into your sales process. The result -You’ll soon have multiple streams of affiliate income in several different niches producing substantial income.

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake Up…Live the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

If you are going to be successful on the internet or any home business as far as that is concerned, then, integrity must come before your financial success. Many people are financially successful on the internet, but some have forgotten the meaning of true success.

As Jim Rohn (One of the all time favorite motivational speakers) says, quite often, it is far more important of who you are becoming, then, what you are earning. Jim even goes so far as to say that you should work toward becoming a millionaire, not for the money, but because of who you will become in achieving the goal.

The stress is on becoming a better person. A person who has integrity. Integrity is being able to be counted on, to be depended upon, if you say that you are going to provide a service or product for a certain amount of money, then you do it. You are looking out for your customers, as well as yourself.

In most cases your reputation will precede you! You may think that no one is discovering your flawed business manners, but actually, the word is spreading and on the net, it spreads quite rapidly.

One of the universal laws of success is that financial success follows hard work with honesty. In other words, “help enough people get what they want and you will find that you receive what you want.” However, if you are just looking out for you, you are only hurting yourself in the long run. Wouldn’t the internet be so much better if we were all watching out for each other?

One important lesson I have learned when it comes to making a sale is that people buy from those whom they trust. If they trust you they will buy from you. If your integrity is guiding you as you make your presentation to others it will come across to your potential buyer. You are more likely to make that sell with your integrity guiding you, then, any other aspect in your presentation.

It does not matter how well you intellectually present your service or product, if they detect flaws in your character you might as well close up your brief case and go home.

Perhaps, even of a greater reward for being a man or women of integrity is that you will sleep better at night just knowing you did your best to sincerely help others achieve their dreams. What can be more rewarding, then, to help others reach their goals?

If you have children, perhaps, that would be the ultimate reason to permit integrity to lead you. Your children will have someone that they can be proud of and more importantly someone whom they can trust!

Around the world Steven E is known as a highly successful publisher, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, mentor, and best-selling author. The Team Publishers program, that he helped to develop, is the publisher of the Wake Up…Live the Life You Love best-selling book series with over 12 million stories in print. Steven E is also featured in the movie Pass it On!

The term Duplication is often confused with replication. Both are very different methods for producing duplicated CD or DVD media. Duplication is usually used and more cost effective when you have smaller amount of discs to produce. Replication is usually used for quantities of 1000 or more because of the glass mastering process involved.

Duplication uses a completely different method from replication for producing the final disc. It uses premade blank discs to burn your data using a CD or DVD burner. Many people have a CD or DVD burner on their PC and use it for making copies of data files, movies, etc..

Duplicating a disc uses a burner capable drive and alters the surface of the blank disc by bouncing a laser off the dye in the disc. As the disc spins, the laser writes outward and the spin or burn rate is determined by the burn rate of the drive doing the writing.

Almost all DVD burners are dual purpose and will burn a CD or DVD disc. Discs are marked as CD-R, DVD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RW. There are other varieties but the one constant in them is the R or the W. The R shows that the disc is recordable and the W shows that it is writable and can be written to numerous times. The only problem with rewritable discs is that most often they will only play in the drive that originally wrote to them. Recordable discs however will usually play on any drive they are used in.

Mediatechnics uses their own line of equipment to duplicate CD and DVD media for small or large jobs. They have the capacity to turn any size job as quickly as needed.