Archive for January, 2010
textanddate.com
by Lull Mengesha on Jan.31, 2010, under Blog
As I mentioned before, one of my main projects for 2010 will be my graduate school capstone(Thesis). We are creating a site/application centered around dating and texting. We have finally tracked down down a sponsor for our project and will continue to define what we are working on. Good times!
Faith and Education
by Lull Mengesha on Jan.26, 2010, under Blog
This past Sunday I was asked to deliver the message at FAME church in Seattle. One of the oldest and most established Historically Black Churches in the State of Washington. Nervous? Yeah, you could say that. I rarely openly discuss my Faith as a Christian but it gave me a great chance to tie in Faith and Education for the Youth Explosion event that was going on. The most exciting part of my 20 minute speech came before hand as I prepared for my message. I worked with a few friends with a strong knowledge of the Bible and asked them to provide scripture that I would be able to mix into my message. Let that be just another reminder of the value of a diverse social network. You don’t need to know everything, the important part is that you know where and how to find resources.
Fall seven times, stand up eight
by Lull Mengesha on Jan.24, 2010, under Blog
Question from friends: How to find Editors?
by Lull Mengesha on Jan.19, 2010, under Blog
If you have a question about self-publishing that I can answer then go head and send me an email or leave a comment on previous posts and I will do my best to help you out.
Question:
Where did you look for editors, and who did the final edit before you went to print?
BTW, all that science is a serious help!
Answer:
For editors I just started with my friends, just start with your most dependable and pro-active people in your network.Tell them to focus more concepts versus grammatical or spelling issues. You just want to make sure that what you are saying is understandable and coherent. The grammar and spelling can come into play as later edits.
From friends I started going to mentors in the education field as my book is catered to that audience. That is where I had the most revisions and changes as they introduced more ideas and concepts to think about.
After that I started approaching copy editors online. I found a few that were good and consistent when it came to more of the technical aspect of writing. Claire is a person that I found after about a year into the writing process and she has been rather helpful. Here is her contact info.
http://clairepodulka.com/services.html
Claire is pretty good and works rather fast which is important when you have so many versions of your draft out to people. When I get into writing more I will come to Claire for copy editing. Although she is not the only one available, simply googling “copy editor”, “editor services” online will provide you a lot of resources.
I hope this was quick and understandable, If not feel free to keep the questions coming.
Find Your Ideal Business in 5 Simple Steps
by Lull Mengesha on Jan.18, 2010, under Blog
Click here for Article
Below is a list of the 5 simple steps to your ideal business:
- Define your dream: Write down your goals
- Find What Interests you
- Do your research
- Eliminate Lessor options
- Never give up
Questions from friends: How to write a book?
by Lull Mengesha on Jan.14, 2010, under Blog
I have been getting a lot of questions about how to write a book. People are contacting me through email, facebook and really anyway possible to figure out how to do it. I figured I would share some of the conversations on my blog in order to help others who might not know what to ask or even where to start.
Question:
The question that leaps into my mind is, once you’ve decided to write a book, how do you make sure you are writing and getting out your ideas on a consistent basis. I know what I want to say, sort of, but I have found very little time in my life to just compose. Right now I’m editing a 300-page manuscript for someone else and I’m amazed at the amount of work that went into getting it to this stage. Making the prose sing is a job in itself, but how do you liberate the thoughts within?
Answer:
Good question bro,
I would start off with just witting your a$ off, don’t edit or filter anything initially. Create an outline of what you think the book will about and just start writing under each section. Before you know know it you will have enough material to edit and filter into a book.
I did that with The Only Black Student started getting feedback from mentors and other writers once I had something substantial.
As far as setting time to do it I would recommend thinking about it as if it were part of your regular routine such as going to the gym or brushing your teeth. Some people write when they are inspired or in spurts but that often leads to an unfinished product. Treat it the way you would class assignment or project for work if that makes sense. I made sure that I spend about an hour or so every day for a three month period until I had my first draft.
That is the fun part, It gets real humbling when you start asking for feedback and is also a very long and tedious process. However very necessary, if you were to see my first draft you would think I was crazy to think I could write a book(you still might) as I have never been a strong writer grammatically or spelling wise.
So a recap of this long email:
1) create an outline of the proposed book or project
2) write your a$ off daily if possible
3) start getting feedback once you have your first draft
Holler at your boy!
Public versus Private?
by Lull Mengesha on Jan.13, 2010, under Blog
Decisions, decisions to make. This is just another one of my random thoughts with no planned out greater meaning. I am simply just trying to get these thoughts out, enjoy.
My little sister is in her final year of elementary school and childhood as I know it shall be a thing of a past. Soon she will be telling me about her co-workers weird habits and secretly leaving passive aggressive facebook status toward guys who I will never meet nor will she admit to. I am cooping with her growing up quite well, don’t you think?
In the mean time one challenge is selecting what middle school she will be attending. I was the experimental child for my parents in that it was more just sink or swim and “you will be alright.”With my sister it seems we have all vested more time and interest in her education. My mother and sister live in a middle income neighborhood and the school district that my sister is in, I have no complaints about. In fact I think it is a good school district and if my sister continues down this path she will end up getting a GOOD education. Lets do better though. I received a sub-par education until college and I ended up doing fairly well for myself. However, if you were to compare the kids from my high school to that of the students from neighboring private schools you would see a tremendous difference in continuing education, average income level, countries traveled and a wide array of different measures of success.
I want nothing more then her having not just a good but GREAT, FANTASTIC, AMAZING education. Why not? Well, the why not is not as easy to solve as I would like. From location to financial aid, this Private school decision will pose as a challenge for the entire family. We would all have to make certain sacrifices in order to insure that she can attend one of the three independent schools she is looking at. Let us see how this next year turns out in regards to her education.
