Brummet's Conscious Blog

--  Book Marketing Guide --   Some of you may recall that Dave and I have a published book marketing guide available that discusses virtually every aspect of marketing and promotion, offers tips, ways to save time and money, avoid mishaps and a myriad of resources and quotes from people in the industry to help writers feel less alone and comforted when stressed. I'm going to share a brief 2-part excerpt here today (August 11th) and the 2nd part on August 13th. Purple Snowflake Marketing - How to make your book stand out in a crowd A Word About The Media - Part 1: Publicity through the media is actually the most affordable and a fairly effective marketing endeavor. "Media" can come in the form of print publications (magazines, newspapers, newsletters), online publications (e-newsletters, blogs, e-zines), and audio/visual (radio, TV, you-tube).  Newspapers usually have various columns that discuss websites, businesses, press releases, events and bo...

-- Used oil and its effects on the environment --   * Today's article was written by: Greg Chapman of Greg Chapman Motors - a knowledgeable and leading provider of used cars, trucks, and SUV’s. Since 1959, Chapman Motors has supplied reliable used cars in Austin and the surrounding . For more information please visit www.gregchapmanmotors.com .   Motor oil leaked from individual vehicles—or outright dumped by homeowners and commercial garages inevitably finds its way into local water bodies. Topsoil and natural vegetation would ordinarily filter many of these pollutants out, but the impermeable pavement that covers much of the surface where these pollutants originate carries it right into storm drains and into streams, rivers, lakes and the ocean where it can poison marine life—which we might eat—as well as entire riparian or coastal ecosystems. This pollution also finds its way into underground aquifers that supply our drinking water, s...

-- World of Writing --  Yep, time for another World of Writing Interview. .. today we are featuring Connie Dunn - an author, speaker, and book writing coach. She writes both fiction and non-fiction. You can find more about her at http://publishwithconnie.com or at http://facebook.com/publishwithconnie.com or http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B006GK6MQO . Her latest book is When Panda Was a Boy: a Collection of Stories on Gender Identity for K-8 and you can read more about it at http://whenpandawasaboy.publishwithconnie.com/ . Connie lives in Franklin, Massachusetts with her wife, Joyce, a tiny Chihuahua, Rusty, and a plus-size cat named Sophie. Q: When did you consider yourself a writer? A: I began to consider myself a writer when I got my first poem published when I was in high school. I actually began writing in elementary school, and my mom kept them all! I started out writing poetry, and then I did some storytelling when...

-- Quote of the Day --  "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." ~ Lao Tzu -- Positive News --  Have you heard of the Recycle For Nature program? - this new program was designed to create more awareness about recycling and conservation, to increase access to recycling and to help people understand and participate in water conservation and protection.  According to the article I read - http://tinyurl.com/l5sl2hc - nearly 35% of rivers and 50% of lakes within the USA are not safe for drinking, swimming or fishing.  Every time national (US) recycling rates jump .25% PepsiCo is going to donate additional funding designated solely for water protection. By making recycling easier, with accessible bins in more locations, and additional motivation and promotion the people involved ( The Nature Conservancy and PepsiCo ) aim to protect rivers and land that impact the health of important water resources and to sav...

-- chatter --  Can you believe we are already into August and are heading to mid-august next week? ugh. Time is flying by - and so are the lists of to-do's. We've done a lot of little things around the property the last few weeks including washing the Jeep and little camping trailer, installing proper underground drainage diversion in preparation for the eves troughs and rain barrel run-off, and put in a walkway leading to the area under the deck. Dave took the time to sharpen some tools and the lawn mower blade as well. Coming up over the next weekend or two we are going to touch up some paint on the Jeep where rocks have chipped small bits away, and touch up the basement walls in a couple spots where the yellow paint got marred. I'm hoping Dave will have the time to do the annual maintenance on our laundry machines as well. And then we get to prep for the storage area we are building under the deck, hopefully starting the construction of that project by mid-august. W...

-- Resources --  The last couple weeks I've posted several green living articles from gardening to packaging and plastics. So I thought I'd share a few resources that you might want to follow up on. You can find a complete list of our radio show archives here: Archived Audio Positive News (Greener Pools & Green Technology) Positive News (Greener Transportation) Best of Conscious Discussions #47 (Environment, History & Green Living) Ocean Conservation Investing for a Greener, Socially Responsible Planet Best of Conscious Discussions #41 (Green Living) Positive News (Recycling & Green Cities) Positive News (Green Business Initiatives) Positive News (Green Energy & Busines...

-- Quote of the Day --  "Too many of us consent, or are forced, to spend time doing things for which we have no heartfelt reason… We do it to hold a job, to make a living, to satisfy the expectations of others, to fill our time, to evade the fact that we don’t know what else to do – but not because the doing comes from inside us. When our action is dictated by factors external to our soul, we do not live active lives, but reactive lives." ~ Parker Palmer -- Green Bags -- *Today's article was written by Douglas Lober, founder of ReuseThisBag.com . It is his belief that by using green bags will one day eliminate single use paper and plastic bags. There are many benefits that green bags can have on the environment. One of the largest benefits is the reduction of the waste people produce. Plastic bags take up enormous amount of space in the landfills around the world. Unfortunately, this problem will only be...