I just posted a new writing article on The Blue Rose Bouquet.

If you dream about having a full-time writing career, you’ll want to read 5 Ways to Tell if You Have What It Takes to be a Professional Writer.

For reasons known only to Bill Gates and the CSS fairy, Internet Explorer doesn’t correctly display the contents of this page.

Therefore, to view this page design correctly, you’ll need to use Firefox (Firefox features) or Google Chrome (Google Chrome features).

(I am demanding that Billy G personally apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.)

I am currently in the process of migrating the content of The Blue Rose Bouquet online magazine from BlueRoses.com to its new home on BlueRoseBouquet.com. Now that the archives for the Writing Woes comic strip have been moved, I’m starting with the oldest short stories, humor, essays, and articles in The Blue Rose Bouquet archives and working my way forward.

During this transition, the Home page for The Blue Rose Bouquet will remain on BlueRoses.com. Any page that has been migrated to BlueRoseBouquet.com automatically (and conveniently) will update to its new location; however, you will need to use the back button to navigate to the links for some of the existing pages.

In the meantime, I continue to dream of that Someday™ when I’ll have a staff to help me with all of my housekeeping chores.

The archives for the Writing Woes comic strip are now at home on the new site for The Blue Rose Bouquet.

Because these comic strips are often politcal in nature, The Observational Therapist comic strips previously seen at The Blue Rose Bouquet have been moved to the new The Observational Therapist Web site.

The Writing Woes comic strips will continue to appear on the pages of The Blue Rose Bouquet.

There’s an advantage to my ADD: I never get bored. I get diverted. I digress. But I’m never bored. When I tire of doing one thing, there’s always that figuratively shiny thing elsewhere that gets my attention. I’m continually expanding my horizons, learning about new stuff or new ways to do things. That used to include learning about and using the newest and greatest technical things and gadgets. Now, unless the gadget is for the kitchen, I procrastinate about introducing the change to my way of doing things.

There’s also a disadvantage to my ADD lifestyle: Having so many interests and writing about so many different topics means that I also have an assortment of Web pages that I started putting online in the late 1990s. That means, to keep those Web pages up to date, I have to edit and update them one by one by one….

I’d much rather create new content — write an article, post Web pages telling you about one of my books, create a comic strip, or do whatever else might attract my attention in such a way that makes me want to share it with others. But, because I’ve been working with Web pages for which nothing is automated, it’s also been time-consuming to put any new content online. To do so, I have to create the Web page for that content and then update an entire assortment of index pages so that they link to that content. As a result, I probably have more saved files for stuff that I’ve intended to put online than I have pages already online. With any luck, that’s all about to change.

That change won’t happen overnight. I have more than 1,000 existing pages to migrate to the new systems that (with the help of Eric Ehlers) I’m putting into place. But a change has to start somewhere. (The old “how do you eat an elephant?” way of doing things — one bite at a time.)

It’s ironic that it’s taken me this long to adapt to newer technology. After selling one risqué greeting card idea, I began my published writing career in earnest writing for computer magazines. Later I expanded to working as a technical editor and writer for computer-related books. I wrote a chapter about Dynamic HTML as Microsoft was creating that expanded language, literally tweaking the work as they tweaked theirs. But then, as a consequence of getting older and coping with some pesky disabling chronic conditions, I’ve almost become anti-new-stuff. I once welcomed the chance to review software, often working my way through figuring out how to make it work using trial and error until the publisher got around to providing documentation. Now I almost hate software updates. I cringe when I have to adapt to the newest ways to do things. I’ve become a creature of habit. (I actually cried the other night because I got so stressed trying to figure out how to swap out the memory card in my new digital camera and replace it with an 8GB SDHC. Pathetic, I know. But at least a few deep breaths and a nap later I was finally able to figure it out. That experience taught me that I’m obviously dyslexic when it comes to following simplified instructional diagrams. But, as usual, I digress….)

With any luck, in no time at all, whenever you visit my sites (and I hope you come back often!), you’ll not only be better able to find what’s on the specific site, you’ll find lots of new stuff of interest as well. That way I can expand your horizons as I expand mine.

Links to the sample content from The Everything Improve Your Writing Book by Pamela Rice Hahn and the Improve Your Writing resources.

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Publishing professional Pamela Rice Hahn outlines simple steps for you to follow for various types of writing, including:

• Social writing, such as thank-you and get-well notes, congratulatory messages, and invitation responses
• Journalism, such as letters to the editor, press releases, and freelance article writing
• Personal and biographical essays
• Business writing, including sales letters, requests for proposals, and press packets

With this practical guide, you’ll learn to choose the appropriate tone, use the correct format, and communicate effectively. Whether for school, for work, or just for fun, writing will be a chore no more!

View the Table of Contents to get a better understanding of what is covered in this book:

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1. Being a good, effective writer is one of the best ways to advance in your career, no matter what it might be.
2. Knowing all the proper writing etiquettes will help you maintain good friendships-from typing up proper e-mails to writing thoughtful personal letters.
3. Writing well will convey to others your knowledge and intelligence, garnering for you the respect that you deserve.
4. If you are taking classes, you need strong writing skills to get top grades.
5. Being able to write well enables you to put into words your thoughts, feelings, and ideas in a way that may move others.
6. You must be able to write well to teach others how to write, including helping your children with homework.
7. Writing is a wonderful way to relax and keep track of your life.
8. Being able to craft well-written and clear business letters may prove rewarding (especially if the letter is a complaint).
9. From invitations to essays to reminder notes to fax cover sheets-our daily lives are constantly filled with activities requiring the written word.
10. Someday you could write a bestseller!

–from
The Everything Improve Your Writing Book
by Pamela Rice Hahn

Index for the Improve Your Writing Pages

Author Letter:

Dear Reader,

Writing isn’t some sort of mystical process. And a writer isn’t a magician. An artist, maybe. I like to think that I sometimes sculpt and draw pictures with words. Other times, the words I choose instruct and teach. Sometimes, I use them to persuade and convince.

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