Post and Photos

By

Michele L. Tune

Has it really been over 20 years since I was in the first grade? Since that nerve-wracking day my knees knocked and my teeth chattered. It was a new school with so many children standing outside. I didn’t want to get out of the car. I was terrified. Looking back, I’ve always felt like a hermit. I wanted to run home, crawl back under the covers, and hide from all those children! But mom encouraged me, coaxed me out of the car, and before long I was in love with my new teacher, classmates, and reading time.

When you first open Rockets, this is what you see:

Reading time… ah, the memories! The teacher would have us all gather around a table, seated in our chairs. I was so anxious for story time. I wanted to learn to read more than anything in the world. I couldn’t wait ’till she pulled the book out. It was called Rockets. It’s the book I learned to read with.

My favorite story from the entire books was The Monkey and the Banana. See the title on the page there? Oh, how I loved this story! The Rockets reader was awesome and very easy to learn to read from because there was bright, fun pictures and you can see from the title that part of the words were actually drawings you looked at and figured out the words for.

At the end of the school year, the teacher told us the school would be getting new reading books for the new year and we had the opportunity to have the old ones if we wanted them. Did I want one? Was she kidding? Already at the age of six, I was sentimental. I knew I wanted the book I’d learned to read from. I had to have it. I can remember how excited I was when I got my copy. Funniest thing of all is I still have that Rockets reader over 20 years later! (Actually, it’s just a teeny bit longer than 20 years - but don’t tell anyone!)

Looking at the pages open like this brings back so many memories. It’s almost as if I’m that little girl again, so eager to take her turn at reading her favorite story aloud.

I also remember fantasizing about my name being on the cover of a book. How I longed for people to read my words! I knew, even at the age of six, that I wanted to be a writer. Amazing.

I have to say, though, that I’d never have picked reading up so quickly if my parents hadn’t read to me, I don’t think. I remember mom reading to me - a lot. She read me Bible stories, fairy tales, and all sorts of books. So, do you remember the book you learned to read from? What was it? Did it happen to be Rockets? Do you still have it?

Lastly, here’s the full views of the front and back…

Rockets was put together by:

William K. Durr

Jean M. LePere

Mary Lou Ahin

and

Consultant: Paul McKee

Writing the Cyber Highway Copyright 2007-2008 Michele L. Tune All Rights Reserved

By

Michele L. Tune

I was planning on publishing a different post but something happened to change that. I’ve decided to share my GINORMOUS MISTAKE with you all, so what happened to me doesn’t happen to you. It’s embarrassing, frustrating, makes me want to cry - and it could have been prevented. So, what happened? What’s up with the above title? Why should you use free e-mail?

Here’s what happened:

Some of you might remember I started out with my very first website hosted at vistaprint.com. I was so excited to have a website for sharing my portfolio - a real website to display my freelance writing services. I chose my template, wrote the content, and published it for all the world to see. It was all I needed - until I decided to move this blog from Blogger to its own domain and self-host it with WordPress. It’s been a journey filled with ups and downs but I’m so glad I made the decision to just go for it. I’ve had a lot of support from you, my cherished readers, and I really appreciate it more than you’ll ever know.

Now, don’t get me wrong, VistaPrint was really good to me. It’s just that when I decided to move this blog to WordPress, I didn’t see any reason to keep the VistaPrint account when I could host my freelance site at the same place I chose for this blog - BlueHost.com.

The Process

There began the journey of having Goofy Girl Designs create a fresh look while I started writing all new content to reflect the creative, inspiring writer I am. It’s not easy to write great things about myself, but I don’t want to be invisible* after all! Then there was the fun of waiting (with much anticipation!) for it to all be done. It didn’t take long, though. My new website is finished and since it’s also a WordPress site, it was actually live while my first website was still live at VistaPrint.com. That was a little strange. How’d that happen, you ask? Well, it’s too long a story to get into here, but it just had to do with the fact that I own michele-tune.com and micheletune.com (without the dash).

So, what’s my point? Why should you use free e-mail?

Once the new site was ready, I hesitated on transferring the VistaPrint domain to BlueHost.com. I should have listened a little closer to that inner voice tugging at me. I started the process and waited, all the while thinking all of my e-mails within my VistaPrint account would just “transfer” right along with my domain. You’re shaking your head right now, right? Well, I didn’t realize what would happen next. I couldn’t gain access to my domain’s e-mail account! I started panicking because the editors I was waiting to hear from might respond and their e-mail would be gobbled up by the wonky situation. Oh, what to do?

I got BlueHost.com on Live Chat and VistaPrint on the phone. VistaPrint told me I didn’t even have an account with them. Er, what? Huh? BlueHost told me they were sorry, but that I surely had lost all my e-mails since the domain was close to being resolved and I couldn’t gain access to my e-mail account. This went on for a couple of days. Finally, I got a message saying that VistaPrint.com was having technical difficulties and they’d have them fixed as soon as possible.

The Happy Ending

During that time of the “technical issues” I managed to get to my e-mails (how, I don’t know because VistaPrint said I don’t even show up on their records as having an account!). I was able to save all of my important e-mails, contacts, and markets and stuff I had saved there. Sheesh, what a relief! I think it was a miracle, really.

The domain has resolved and is pointing in the right direction. And, I’m currently using free e-mail. Even though I had free e-mail for personal e-mails, I had heard negative things about using it for editors/clients. Why? Because they wouldn’t take a writer as serious if he/she were using a free e-mail service. That’s what kept me from using free e-mail. Well, I’d rather have an editor or client have a working e-mail to reach me with then to use only a domain e-mail that I might not always have access to.

What have I learned?

• to study a little more before I leap into a technical situation I don’t know anything about
• to follow Melissa Donovan’s advice and back everything up*!
• not to risk my precious correspondence with editors because of what someone thinks about free e-mail
• to always keep a printed version of all current and important contact information
• to give the guy at VistaPrint who told me I didn’t have an account with them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was his first day!

So, what about you? Do you use a free e-mail address for your writing business? Do you have your e-mails forwarded from one e-mail address to another so you’ll have them in another location? Do you back up often enough? Has anything like this ever happened to you? Am I doing the right thing by using free e-mail? Throw your opinion in the comments. Let us know!

And a special thanks to Goofy Girl Designs:I love my new site and have received a lot of e-mails and positive feedback about it. I couldn’t be happier. Thanks, Heather!

*linked to Sharon Hurley Hall, at Get Paid to Write Online - Are You Invisible?

and Melissa Donovan, at Writing Forward - When It All Comes Crashing Down

Here’s to safe e-mail correspondence while writing the cyber highway!

Writing the Cyber Highway Copyright 2008 Michele L. Tune All Rights Reserved

It does, doesn’t it? Have its rewards, I mean. Sure, it’s not always easy to find the time to blog and we don’t always feel like cranking out a post. Sometimes our blogs go neglected until they’re collecting cyber cobwebs and our faithful readers e-mail and tell us something like: “hey, you haven’t updated in a week/month! When are we going to get a new post?” And so we feel guilty that we’ve let life get in the way of our passion for the blogosphere…

If only there were more hours in the day we could spend loads of time writing blog posts, visiting and commenting on other fantabulous blogs, and even discover new ones we never knew about. But life is busy and hectic and crazy and sometimes it has to come first, regardless.

I know you wonder where all my rambling is going. It’s going somewhere, I promise. This Arte Y Pico award, the one you see in this post, was presented to me by Grandy, over at Functional Shmunctional. This lady is amazing. Since the first time I visited her blog, I knew I’d have to return again and again. Her posts are like Pringles–you can’t have just one! I love this lady. She’s brilliant and her posts reflect her colorful personality beautifully. There’s never a dull moment with her and I’m just so honored to have crossed cyber paths with her.

When she presented this award to me, here’s what she had to say:

Michele over at Writing the Cyber Highway ~ This lady can really make you think, and feel. Isn’t that what writers do? Well, Michele will make you put the words into a sentence and push you to get the words written. She is quite a mentor and cheerleader to me. Thank you sweets!

Ah… *wipes tears*

Thanks so much, Grandy! Even as a creative writer, I can’t find the right words to express my gratitude and appreciation. Thanks, blogging buddy. You’ve made my day!

I can pretty much guarantee (if you like hilarious entertainment) that you’ll want to subscribe to her feed. She doesn’t have a lot of confidence in her writing abilities yet, but I personally think she’s quite talented and knows how to captivate her readers. She’ll keep you hanging on every syllable ’till the very end of the post and you just have to jump right in and comment. She responds to every single comment she gets–and they’re usually always in the double digits!

One of the rules is to give this award to five other bloggers. Since I try to keep up with about a gazillion blogs and I’m not quite sure who already has it, feel free to grab it up and post that I gave it to you. Just be sure to come by and leave a link to your post in the comments so I can check it out! And to anyone who has given me an award and I haven’t posted about it, my sincerest apologies. I’m not the best at remembering and posting about these things. But this one grabbed my heart. I knew I had to accept this award because Grandy’s words about me were just so sweet and touching.

Here’s to awards for writing the cyber highway!

Photo Credit: Me

Ah, this is the life!

What’s better than a laptop and a good cup of coffee? Ok, maybe a good cup of coffee, a book, and a comfy chair, but that’s beside the point! (Isn’t that cup cute? It’s one of my favorites!)

It’s easy to be inspired to write when you have a nice laptop and cheerful cup of warm bliss, isn’t it?

Freelance writing and blogging are both hard to do, but there’s so much gratification all along the way. We’re not always on the forefront, though, getting that byline to show off to friends and family.

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of “behind the scenes” writing and my name isn’t going to be displayed with the work. It’s on topics I’m passionate about and have endless inspiration for, so I’m pleased with the finished products–even though I can’t shout the published clips to the world. Sometimes the best things in life happen behind the scenes.

Do you write behind the scenes? Or do you always prefer to see your name? Have you ever used a pseudonym? Do you enjoy using a pseudonym or would you try using one? Share your opinions and experiences in the comments. Can’t wait to hear (ahem, read) what you have to say!

Hope you’re busy writing the cyber highway–behind the scenes, or not!

By

Michele L. Tune

Photo Credit: Me

Pretty photo, isn’t it? I’m far from a professional photographer. Half of the photos I snap are out of focus and not so great, so when I get one that actually makes me happy and proud to be the one who captured it (like the one above), I’m elated.

I have to be honest. I’ve gone back and forth between two other blog posts today. Both are great ideas and they’re going to be pretty good posts, but I’m just not feeling either of them today. I know you’ll thank me (once you read them) for saving them until inspiration takes me over.

Since this is the weekend, I’ve decided on a fun blog post. I recently came across the most hilarious thing I think I’ve seen in a while. I guess it doesn’t take much to occupy me. I’m not going to spoil the surprise, though. I want you to see it for yourself. Anxious to find out? I know you’re dying to know! Ok, I’ll share with you… But be warned, you’re going to flip out!

What? Thought I forgot to tell you? If you’re still reading, you missed it already. Go back and click on the words “flip out.” See ‘em right up there? Yeah, those words. Go click ‘em. You’re gonna love it! And don’t forget to come back here and share your reaction in the comments. I can’t wait to hear (ahem… read) what you have to say about it.

Ah, the meme…. I didn’t forget, Janna! Janna, over at Something She Wrote, paid me back. I recently tagged her for the Writing from Home meme, so she tagged me for the A to Z meme. I thought it sounded familiar when I read hers. Now I know why. I went through my archives and I’ve already done that one! Sorry for the wait, Janna. And… drum roll, please… Weekend Fun with the Alphabet.

So, how’s your weekend been? Have you been reading or writing? Are you near the water? Enjoying the sandy beaches? Did you go shopping? Let us know… leave a comment now! We’re waiting…. And, by all means, did you “flip out?”

Hope you’ve been having lots of success writing the cyber highway–and fun, too!