Seth Godin says ...

I'm sorry, we're out of time

What do you do when the deadline looms?

I often hear blowhards on the radio, wrecking the entire interview because they don't know how to call it quits when the host tells them they have thirty seconds to wrap up. They try to say one more thing, one more thing, one more thing and they get hung up on and the message is lost.

I often hear presenters who always manage to need just two more minutes than the time allows.

Read more ... http://adjix.com/3i6h

 

'Create your future from your future - not your past'
-Werner Earhardt

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Resource for the Week

"Stress Management Masterclass" Program:
Mind Tools' Stress Management Masterclass shows you how to tackle at source the deep structural problems that cause stress in our working lives.
As well as teaching useful relaxation techniques, the program will show you how to win control of their jobs and careers, build positive relationships with powerful people and co-workers, and approach stressful situations with confidence and poise. These skills help you power their career forward at the same time that you learn to thrive under the pressures of a successful career.
The Stress Management Masterclass has been designed, researched and tested in collaboration with leading stress experts.

Stinky - graphic novel - by Eleanor Davis

Stinky - graphic novel - by Eleanor Davis

 One of the honorees for the 2009 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award, recognizing the most distinguished books for beginning readers.

Deep in the swamp dwells Stinky, a purple, spotted monster with horns and a hedgehog do. Stinky lives up to his name, and the swamp is the perfect place for him: I love the mushy, mucky mud. / I love the slimy slugs. / And I love the stinky smell! / (SNIFF) AHHHH... But on the other side of the swamp is the town, which is full of children, who like to take baths! When a little boy builds a treehouse in Stinky's swamp, he tries everything he can think of to drive the disgustingly clean creature out until he discovers that this particular child is definitely a kindred spirit.

The winning story carries itself on spunk and a controlled vocabulary that combines judiciously chosen sight words (onion, gross) with easily sounded-out words (slimy slugs!) that will have emerging readers in stitches Davis’ colorful art makes Stinky and his swamp delightfully attractive to young readers. 

It’s impressive that Davis can draw characters like Wartbelly the toad in a way that makes her clearly smelly and slimy, but at the same time actually cute.

more, including lesson plans and more in the Toon Books series

 The Independence of Miss Mary Bennett

by Colleen McCullough

independenceEveryone knows the story of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. But what about their sister Mary? At the conclusion of Jane Austen's classic novel, Mary, bookish, awkward, and by all accounts, unmarriageable, is sentenced to a dull, provincial existence in the backwaters of Britain. Now, master storyteller Colleen McCullough rescues Mary from her dreary fate with The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet, a page-turning sequel set twenty years after Austen's novel closes. The story begins as the neglected Bennet sister is released from the stultifying duty of caring for her insufferable mother. Though many would call a woman of Mary's age a spinster, she has blossomed into a beauty to rival that of her famed sisters. Her violet eyes and perfect figure bewitch the eligible men in the neighbourhood, but though her family urges her to marry, romance and frippery hold no attraction. Instead, she is determined to set off on an adventure of her own. Fired with zeal by the newspaper letters of the mysterious Argus, she resolves to publish a book about the plight of England's poor. Plunging from one predicament into another, Mary finds herself stumbling closer to long-buried secrets, unanticipated dangers, and unlooked-for romance.

PDF Download: Read an excerpt from The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet

Buy the book from Amazon

with Barbara Niven
Barbara NivenSpeaking is a performance. No news here. However, few speakers fully integrate key acting skills and perspective into their presentations. Actors know the importance of setting the stage, using vocal nuances, creating characters through body language and facial expressions, and eliciting the desired emotions in their audience. By using simple acting skills you will dramatically increase your effectiveness and make yourself memorable.

Barbara Niven, a professional film and television actor for nearly three decades, will share acting techniques that speakers can immediately apply to their speeches. Barbara straddles both worlds, as she gives professional speeches in between her busy filming engagements.

You will learn how to:

  • Understand your “role” and the “character” you want to project
  • Identify the emotions you want to evoke in your audience and how best to accomplish this
  • Scrutinize the podium as a director would, and avoid common pitfalls
  • Get your mind, voice and body in the right frame off stage
  • Begin with a dramatic bang to start the “show”
  • Portray characters in your stories to make them memorable
  • Use improv to be in the moment and connect with your audience

Register or order the CD or MP3 recording. Note our new policy: people who register for the teleseminar will get the MP3 recording of the session for free.

Date: Tuesday, February 17
Time: 7:00 pm Eastern, 6 pm Central, 5 pm Mountain, 4 pm Pacific
Length: 60 minutes
Cost: $25


Special Limited-Time Offer:
If you want more information on adding more drama to your presentations, we suggest the MP3 recordings of two earlier programs to complement Barbara’s program:

  • “Get Standing Ovations Using Broadway and Film Performance Techniques” with Lou Heckler, CSP, CPAE
  • “Add Oomph to Your Stories by Bringing the Characters Alive” with Jon Schwartz, a.k.a. Vinny Verelli

With your order of Barbara’s teleseminar, CD or MP3, at checkout you will be offered these recordings.

A 20-year study at Stanford University examined the career paths of thousands of executives to determine the qualities they had developed that enabled them to move ahead rapidly. Researchers concluded that there were two primary skills that were indispensable for men and women who were promoted to positions of great responsibility.

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The American Library Association's (ALA's) Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has announced the selected fiction and non-fiction works for its 2009 Great Graphic Novels for Teens list.

Designed to aid Young Adult librarians with graphic novel collections, the list presents graphic novels published in the past 16 months, selected for proven or potential appeal to the personal reading tastes of teens.

The 53 selections for the 2009 Great Graphic Novels for Teens features several of the comic industry’s best and brightest, including Dark Horse Comics’ Umbrella Academy Apocalypse Suite TP (ISBN: 9781593079789), DC Comics/Vertigo’s Cairo HC (ISBN: 9781401211400), Image Comics’ Astounding Wolf-Man TP Vol 1 (ISBN: 9781582408620), Marvel Comics’ Dark Tower: the Gunslinger Born (ISBN: 9780785121442) and Dark Tower: The Long Road Home (ISBN: 9780785127093) and Go Comi’s Japan Ai: a Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan (ISBN: 9781933617831). To view the complete list, click here.

A strong post from Rowan on Powerpoint.  He makes excellent points with extremely valuable supports. 

If your presentation consists of a PowerPoint and the File Properties tell you that the audience will be spending more than half of your allotted time reading your slides, I would recommend staying home and sending an email.

http://fortifyservices.blogspot.com/2009/02/putting-value-on-your-audiences-time.html

Reading or interpreting text out loud is easier than it sounds. I’m going to highlight some of the pitfalls that I have come across and try to provide appropriate solutions too.

http://prohumorist.com/?p=222

 

Winner: Guardian Children's fiction

 

 by Patrick Ness

A dystopian thriller follows a boy and girl on the run from a town where all thoughts can be heard — and the passage to manhood embodies a horrible secret.

 "Guard your heart - it will swell with compassion, it will be broken and it will pound with excitement and anticipation when you are done. "
 
 "Patrick Ness is a first rate storyteller with a vivid imagination and he is a powerful literary talent that deserves paying attention to. For readers of all ages, this non-stop thriller will take you places you've never dreamed possible."

... more