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New Myers Novel Spotlights Iraq War

Sunrise Walter Dean Myers.
Two-time Newbery Honor author Walter Dean Myers is no stranger to war. His father served in WWII, his brother died while fighting in the Vietnam War, his son was stationed in Qatar during the first Gulf War, and his grandson served in Iraq at the beginning of the current conflict. Understandably, the author has a deeply personal connection to the subject of his latest novel, Sunrise Over Fallujah, narrated by a teenage soldier deployed to Iraq. Next month, Scholastic will release the novel with a 50,000-copy print run, as well as a 20th anniversary paperback edition of Fallen Angels, Myers’s Coretta Scott King Award-winning novel set in the battlefield jungles of Vietnam.Myers also has firsthand experience in the military, having served in the Army for three years, after enlisting on his 17th birthday. "When I joined the Army," Myers recalls, "I had a romantic notion of war, having read World War I British poetry and watched films about World War II." That image was soon shattered. His brother’s death in Vietnam caused Myers to reflect further on war and its meaning and led him to write Fallen Angels. "I wanted to dispel the notion of war as either romantic or simplistically heroic," he explains.   

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Are You Making These Mistakes in Your Sales Presentations?

 
- SUPER STAR SALES PRESENTATIONS WEBINAR:
  Tuesday, June 3 at 5:30 PM Eastern Time
  With Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

How many more sales could you make if you gave totally awesome sales presentations?
Remember, every sales presentation is a captured or a missed opportunity.
 
Sign up for the Tuesday, June 3 Webinar. You are guaranteed to learn how to:
 
- Properly structure your sales presentation
- Emotionally and intellectually connect with every prospect
- Effectively create third person endorsements
- Take your satisfied clients with you
- Be remembered and repeated
- Stand out as your prospects BEST choice!
 
Click through for information and sign up.
 
Tuesday, June 3rd at 5:30 PM Eastern Time:
Superstar Sales Presentations: The Inside Secrets
This is (2:30 Pacific Standard Time)
 http://www.consultpivotal.com/Afripp.htm

 
Are You Making These Mistakes in Your Sales Presentations?
By Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE
 
Whenever you open your mouth to a prospect or committee your have to get a specific message across. Do you make these mistakes?
 
UNCLEAR THINKING. If you can't describe what you are talking about in one sentence, and why the prospects are better off by doing business with you and have a clear presentation structure, you may be guilty of fuzzy focus or trying to cover too many topics. Make it easy for your prospects to follow what you are saying. Your goal is to speak to be remembered and repeated. This is especially important if you have strong competitors.

NO MEMORABLE STORIES. Propsects rarely remember your exact words. Instead, they remember the mental images that your examples inspire. Support your key benefits with vivid, relevant examples of satisfied clients.

NO EMOTIONAL CONNECTION. The most powerful communication combines both intellectual and emotional connections. Intellectual means appealing to educated self-interest with data and reasoned arguments. Emotional comes engaging the listeners' imaginations, involving them in your illustrative stories and by speaking from their point of view. It must be obvious to them..."What's in this for us?"
 
NO PAUSES. Good music and good communication both contain changes of pace and pauses. When you pause your prospects reflect what they have heard.

IRRITATING NON-WORDS. Hmm--ah--er--you know what I mean--. When you are comfortable with silence many of these irritations will be eliminated.

NOT HAVING A STRONG OPENING AND CLOSING. Engage your prospect or committee immediately with a powerful, relevant opening. "My name is...." does not fit the bill. Don't close with questions. Ask for them,
then deliver your dynamic closing. Your last words linger.

Remember, every sales presentation is a captured or a missed opportunity.
 
Sign up for the Tuesday, June 3 Webinar, or visit patricia Frip's web pages to learn more from this talented trainer

http://www.consultpivotal.com/Afripp.htm

 

Thought for the Day

When you are down on your back, if you can look up, you can get up.
Les Brown

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personal best

The roots of true achievement lie in the will to become the best that you can become.

Harold Taylor
………………………………………………………………………
Resource for the Week

Heal your relationship with MONEY
with this 90 day support program. Discover and resolve your behaviours, emotions and limiting beliefs around money.
Shift your money consciousness, your self worth and your net worth.

“Aspects of Love” Stories from Germany’s The Brothers Grimm to Australia’s Tim Winton

Australian Storytelling Guild (NSW) Inc proudly presents

"Aspects of Love"
Stories from Germany’s The Brothers Grimm to Australia's Tim Winton

Featuring the Inspirational Storyteller, Jonathan Drew with Members of the Sydney Storytellers 

Venue:     
The Hughenden Boutique Hotel
14 Queen St,Paddington,

Date:       
Sunday 15th June 08

Time:      
 2 pm- 4 p.m.

Cost:        
$12 (includes delicious Devonshire tea). 
Pay at door Come and Listen!Come and Tell!
Open microphone section
New Storytellers invited
ALL WELCOME
Free parking in Centennial Park

Looking for a good topic?

Try this list ....  It also includes tips on public speaking

"Free speech topics lists with more than 5,250 persuasive, informative and other speech ideas, speech writing tips, how to guides, tutorials and information on outlining your speech topic for public speaking. With just one goal: to help you to develop the best topic for a speech for all types of public speaking and speech writing assignments. This reference guide with instant topic ideas, public speaking speech tips and education resources "

http://www.speech-topics-help.com/

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open-minded

"The struggle of the mind to keep itself free from every sort of bondage -- to remain curious, open, unsatiated in all its relations with nature -- is tenfold more difficult than the cultivation of a stable, satisfying point of view, but a thousandfold more precious."
-- Gardner Murphy

Special Edition of ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ Due in September

Listen up J. K. Rowling fans: a special anniversary edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, featuring exclusive bonus material from the author, new cover art, and a four-color frontispiece by illustrator Mary Grandpré, will be released on September 23, 2008.

The new cover depicts 11-year-old Harry looking into the Mirror of Erised, which the boy wizard comes across during his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and learns that the mirror shows more than what one desires. read more...

Top 5 Traits of Successful E-Mail Marketers

What’s the difference between a good e-mail marketer and a great e-mail marketer?

These 5 traits:

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We Belong Together

we belong togetherTodd Parr
ABC Books pbk $14.95
9780733323119
 
This is another in the series by US author Todd Parr that focuses on issues that can be huge in the minds of our littlest people.  Unlike many authors who explore these issues using toys, teddies or animals as characters, Parr uses children as the key characters and his bold, uncomplicated illustrations are very appealing.
 
This book is about belonging together and the first sentence depicts it all - "We belong together because you needed a home and I had one to share." A simple, direct statement that explains a most complex situation perfectly.

At the end of the book, Parr has a message for his readers, "There are lots of different ways to make a family.  It just takes love.  Share your home and share your heart."  Through the words and the illustrations, you just feel that this is a genuine message, meant with feeling.

This is a lovely read-aloud book, to be shared by parent and child when they have a question about their family or that of a friend.  It echoes the messages of all those in the series -we are all different and we should accept and celebrate those differences. It's more than okay to be yourself.

Barbara Braxton
Teacher Librarian
COOMA NSW 2630
AUSTRALIA