All babies come into the world with a gift for languages. From the day they are born, they begin to learn the language that surrounds them. In this way, every baby is a citizen of the world with full and equal capacity to learn any of the planet’s six thousand languages.
~KENDALL KING PhD, author of The Bilingual Edge: Why, When, and How to Teach Your Child a Second Language
WRITING & SCREENWRITING
- Writing a salable personal essay: 5 Key questions to ask yourself, The Write Life | Tweet
Even if you’ve spent weeks crafting the perfect personal essay — and friends and family have declared it brilliant, compelling, powerful prose — that doesn’t mean it’s a shoo-in for publication.
→Great Essays (Great Writing 4)
- How writers can be storyshowers instead of storytellers, Live Write Thrive | Tweet
The point is, stories were told, and while that meant some especially poetic details were thrown in, for the most part stories got summarized, with huge swaths of action happening from a long-distance view, like in the Iliad above. But then along came technology (hail, Gutenberg!) and changing literary conventions, and movie cameras, and somewhere along the way we became storyshowers instead.
→Storytellers: A Photographer’s Guide to Developing Themes and Creating Stories with Pictures 
- The two things stopping you from finishing, Jennifer Blanchard | Tweet
How many times have you started a writing project, but never finished it? And you always have a great reason (aka: excuse) for why–it was too hard, it wasn’t working, you’re no longer interested, you don’t have time, etc. But here’s the thing: at some point you have to finish something.
→Finish Your Book: Finding the time, the skill, the mindset, and the motivation to get to “the end”
- Your most frequently asked writing questions, answered!, Terrible Minds | Tweet
Going to cons or checking my email or wandering into the woods, inevitably a writer (or a rogue whitetail deer) will ask me one of a pre-selected set of questions. These questions are understandable — I’m not knocking them. But I did think, hey, maybe I’ll take the Top 15 by frequency, bop ‘em in a single post, and see if I can’t hit a few fly-balls into the outfield.
→Engaging Questions: A Guide to Writing
- Interview with Tess Morris, screenwriter of the romantic comedy Man Up, Go into the story | Tweet
My interview with Tess Morris, screenwriter of the romantic comedy Man Up, starring Lake Bell and Simon Pegg.
- Why writing high-concept comedy is all about truth, love and understanding, Script mag | Tweet
Recently, comedian Jerry Seinfeld was asked what he thought the most important ingredient to comedy was, and he responded with one word: structure. And after writing several comedy scripts of my own I couldn’t agree more. This seems especially true of the high-concept comedy.
SELF-PUBLISHING
- How to repurpose your book or blog content for profit and promotion, Jane Friedman | Tweet
Here’s a bit of information the book industry doesn’t like to reveal: Books don’t provide a huge source of income. In fact, most authors, with the exception of those who consistently hit the bestseller lists, supplement their book royalties with additional sources of income that may or may not be related to their publishing efforts.
→Born to Blog: Building Your Blog for Personal and Business Success One Post at a Time
- 9 Twitter tools and apps to ease your tweeting, The Book Designer | Tweet
There are numerous applications that can help you to become more efficient on this platform. I use several of the apps below.
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EDUCATION
- Giving teachers the tools to help build resiliency, Huffington Post | Tweet
For children who grow up facing adversity in their home, their path out is often lit by a teacher.
→The Resilience Breakthrough: 27 Tools for Turning Adversity into Action
THE BRAIN
The brain is truly a marvel. A seemingly endless library, whose shelves house our most precious memories as well as our lifetime’s knowledge. But is there a point where it reaches capacity? In other words, can the brain be “full”?
LEARNING
- Do you see what I see?, The Economist | Tweet
Human beings are not born with the knowledge that others possess minds with different contents. Children develop such a “theory of mind” gradually, and even adults have it only imperfectly. But a study by Samantha Fan and Zoe Liberman at the University of Chicago, published in Psychological Science, finds that bilingual children, and also those simply exposed to another language on a regular basis, have an edge at the business of getting inside others’ minds.
→The Bilingual Edge: Why, When, and How to Teach Your Child a Second Language
NEW YORK
The first year I lived in New York was an utter cliche. There I was, young and fresh and terribly naive, unaware that my whole self was about to transform in ways that I couldn’t even begin to imagine.
→My First Book About New York (The New York Experience)
BUSINESS
Ever since Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis stepped down as co-chairmen and co-chief executives of BlackBerry, neither has spoken much in public about the once-dominant smartphone maker’s fall into near market obscurity.
→Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry
SOCIAL MEDIA
- 5 Brands on Instagram that succeed with Influencer Marketing, Social Media Examiner | Tweet
Are you looking to increase your visibility on Instagram? Have you considered reaching out to influencers? Partnering with influencers increases reach, brand awareness and revenue.
