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Volume 3, Issue 13 - 28 June 2006
Brought to you by Aneeta Sundararaj and Eric Okeke
For the online version of this newsletter, please click
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A WARM WELCOME TO ALL OUR NEW SUBSCRIBERS!
OVERVIEW OF NEWSLETTER CONTENTS ...
from the editor's desk ...
Dear [First Name],
First, thank you to all those who wrote in to say
some of the links in the last edition of the newsletter did not
work. After many hours of exasperation, I finally figured out
the problem. Nevertheless, I'm sorry about this - now that I
know the cause, I'll never make the same mistake again.
Remember how I told you I was busy working on a project? Well, I
have great delight and pleasure in informing you that this
project has now reached completion. A new book,
Snapshots!, has been published.
It is a collection of short stories I have written together with
two other talented writers, Saradha Narayanan and A. Jessie
Michael. I've created a webpage where I've listed all of the
necessary information about the book, for instance:
-
a summary of and excerpts from some of the stories;
-
why, by virtue of the fact that we live in Asia, we are
precluded from having our books listed on Amazon.com -
incidentally, in the StoryAsia, I've reproduced the article
I wrote to explain this issue;
-
the ability to order your copy of the book hot off the
press.
Here's the link to the webpage :
http://www.howtotellagreatstory.com/snapshots/info.html
I would appreciate any feedback/query about
SNAPSHOTS!; just send your comments to me at
editor howtotellagreatstory.com.
In a few days time, I will send to you a separate email which
gives more information about this book which I hope, you will be
kind enough to pass on to all you know or post on your blog, if
you manage one.
Speaking of short stories, I would urge you to come up with an
answer for today's prompt. I'll let you know the answer which
received an A+ in the next edition of this newsletter.
I don't know about you but when I send a message of appreciation
to someone, I am really excited when they use it and post it up
on their websites. This is precisely what happened in Mailloop.
I sent in my comments and out of the millions they must have
received, they chose mine! Go, look, see - here's the link:
http://www.marketingtips.com/mailloop/t.x/814293
Three new interviews have been posted: Laura
Backes, O Thiam Chin and Guy Ellis and all have fascinating
tales to tell - one is an expert in children's storytelling,
another in storytelling in business and the the remaining one
self-published his collection of short stories.
I've added some articles to Story Asia but none
of mine are as interesting as the tale Jack tells in 'Jack's
Tales',
Grimsby’s Child.
The winner of Michael LaRocca's ebook,
Rising Form The Ashes,
is Sue Block. Congratulations, Sue.
This week, we have a new contest running and that is for a copy
of the book, Free-Falling Man by O Thiam Chin. Follow the
links (see below under 'Subscriber Contest') to win a copy of
this book.
Please, do not forget to vote for this site in the
'The 101 Best Websites For Writers' - details are in the section
entitled VOTE FOR US
...
Here's to your storytelling success.
Aneeta Sundararaj
editorhowtotellagreatstory.com
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VOTE FOR US
...
-
Please nominate us for 'The 101 Best Websites For Writers'
competition by sending an email stating your comments and
nomination about this website (How To Tell A Great Story)
and this newsletter (Great
StoryTelling Network) to
writersdig@fwpubs.com with "101 Best Web sites" as the
subject.
-
Support the
Great StoryTelling Network by casting a vote on
the following page:
http://www.ezinefinder.com/vote.html?pub_code=gresto
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STORYAFRICA
* Watch this space
Eric Okeke
Writer, Storyteller.
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STORYASIA
Amazon.com - Anyone in the world can buy but not everyone in the world
can sell.
When our book,
SNAPSHOTS!
was published, one of the first questions I was asked was, “Is it available for
purchase via Amazon.com?” Sadly, my answer has, and continues, to be, “No." The
reasons are as follows:
-
There are a
few things you need to be aware of first:
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All
three of the co-authors of
SNAPSHOTS!
are
Malaysian who presently live in Malaysia.
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Our
publishers, Oak Publication,
is a publishing house that is also based in Malaysia.
-
I have
no idea how other Malaysian authors/publishers get their books listed on
Amazon. I’ve asked one person and the answer was, “I don’t know. My
publisher has links in UK, I think.” If you are a person who is willing
to help get our books listed on Amazon.com or you're an Asian person
who's found a way around this, please be generous with your
knowledge/services/products and tell us about it by sending an email to
editor@howtotellagreatstory.com
-
SNAPSHOTS! is
written in English and basically, the only two Amazon sites that we would
like this book to appear on are Amazon.com (United States) and Amazon.co.uk
(United Kingdom). It’s pointless trying to get the book set up on the other
sister-sites because none of us speak French, German, Chinese or Japanese.
-
First stop
– Amazon.com
When
I tried to log on to my 'Seller Account' the first thing I saw was this:
Amazon.Advantage program
If you're a publisher, label, or studio looking for a distribution and
fulfillment channel for your products, Amazon Advantage is for you.
To read more,
please click here ...
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Jack's Fables
Grimsby’s Child.
Serendipity knows everything there is to know about skittles.
In fact, so much does he know, that he gets near-terminal boredom putting others
down who don’t know as much as he does. What he doesn’t know about skittles has
yet to become public knowledge. Indeed so obsessed is he, he has started
inventing things about skittles.
His mission in life is to preserve skittles for future
generations. According to Serendipity, people are ignorant about skittles, what
they are, how many there are, how to use them, how they should be set and the
dynamics of being knocked down and re-set.
To read more,
please click here ...
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Storytelling Nuts and Bolts
The Full Stop
Let’s start with the end – the full stop. There’s nothing worse than being led
down the garden path with a long winding sentence, that doesn’t really seem to
go anywhere, that slowly starts to bore you to death with all of the commas, and
don’t forget the conjunctions, that are trying to hold the terribly long
sentence together. Now, wasn’t that boring? Didn’t it make you want to tear your
hair out? Not a full stop to be seen.
To read more,
please
click here ...
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PROMPTS TO TELL YOUR GREAT STORY
...
The shortest short story
A
college class was told they had to write a short story in as few
words as possible. The instructions included the fact that the tale
had to have the following three things:
1.
Religion
2. Sex
3.
Mystery
What
would your short story be?
In the
next edition, I’ll narrate to you the story which received an A+.
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WHAT'S YOUR
FASCINATING STORY?
Fascinating story # 9 -
One Hour
Last Friday, 2nd of June 2006, I came
across this story – it was an entry on a blog with the title ‘Absolute
Write is gone’. It was a horrifying read and here’s a gist of what
happened:
Absolute Write [AW], a leading site for
information on writing and publishing was given one hour’s notice
before their web hosting company shut down the website. Now, how
did such a travesty come to be?
The reason given for shutting down the website
was because AW was accused of sending out spam. Apparently, the
scamhunters of AW had posted the email address of an alleged scam
literary agent in the AW forum based on a list of 20 worst literary
agents. In so doing two things were noted:
· firstly,
such a post was considered illegal under the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA); and
· secondly,
because the alleged scam literary agent's email was posted in the
forum, she began to receive spam, thereby making AW a spammer.
To read more,
please click here ...
To tell your own Fascinating Story,
please click here...
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BLOW YOUR OWN TRUMPET!!
Interim Tales - an interview with Guy Ellis
Excerpts ...
Aneeta: You say that
you’ve worked with some of the best-known organisations in the world. Please
tell me about three of the most interesting ones you’ve worked with.
Guy: I’ve been
incredibly lucky to have worked with or researched a number of household names
and it would be unfair to single out specific ones. However, I have learnt
that although organisations act and work as unique entities, they are the sum of
the individuals who have currently or previously worked in them. What this
means to me is that although you may find things that work well for certain
organisations at certain stages in their development, implementing the same
policy/programme/activity with a different set of individuals and circumstances
will probably not work at all.
To read more,
please
click here ...
O, What A Wonderful Dream - an interview with O Thiam Chin
Excerpts ...
Aneeta:
How do I address you? Mr. O? O? Or, Thiam Chin?
O: You can call me O. I know it’s a weird surname
(at least, that’s what somebody tells me) but it’s
something I’m ‘stuck’ with for the rest of my life,
haha. Actually it should be Oh (a common Chinese
surname), but the clerk who filled up my father’s name
in the birth certificate spelled it phonetically, O. So
my father decided to carry on this surname when he named
me, not wanting to correct it. In a significant way, he
has started another generation with the surname O. Well,
that’s the story of my unique surname. One good thing
that often comes out this oddity: it’s always a good
conversational starter.
To read more,
please
click here ...
One of Those Published People - an interview with Laura
Backes
Excerpts ...
Aneeta: I know that your speciality is in
the field of writing for children. Why did you choose this area to specialise
in?
Laura: I've always loved children's books,
and I think in general they're much better-written than books for adults. And
much harder to write! I also enjoy working with children's book authors and
illustrators. They are, as a group, very generous, warm, talented people. There
isn't the competitiveness between authors in the children's book arena that you
might find in adult book publishing. It's a very supportive group.
To read more,
please
click here ...
If you'd like to be interviewed for this column, please
contact me at
editorhowtotellagreatstory.com
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ARTICLES FOR STORYTELLERS
Management Storytelling
One of the top management/supervisory challenges in our
world of information overload is to cut through the
clutter. More than 3,000 messages bombard each of us
every day, and these constant distractions blur
employees' vision and distort their focus. To overcome
all these distractions, managers and supervisors need to
continually remind employees of the University's core
values-as well as their college's or department's-to
keep them centered on their own roles in achieving the
University's mission.
Storytelling is a powerful tool for meeting this
challenge. The power of stories is that they captivate
both the minds and the hearts of the people listening.
Just as we all fondly remember family stories that we
heard years ago, employees remember stories that their
leaders tell them, and those stories become guides for
carrying out their responsibilities. By continually
telling stories that illustrate the organization's
values, everyone will be clear about where the team is
going and how each can contribute to, and benefit by,
achieving the goals.
Stories also are an effective teambuilding tool, as the
College of Education staff discovered when they
participated in a Corporate Storytelling® session. When
the members of a work group are given the opportunity to
share their personal stories with one another, they
uncover shared values. As a result, they work together
better, support one another more enthusiastically, and
are better equipped to serve the customer more
effectively.
Many of America's top business leaders regularly use
stories to recognize employees "caught doing something
right." By highlighting employees' accomplishments,
managers and supervisors clearly convey the
organization's values and illustrate how those values
are being brought to life throughout the organization.
The employees who are recognized know that they efforts
are appreciated, and others quickly understand what it
takes to be successful.
Strategic planning is another application of
organizational storytelling, and one company's highly
successful experience with this use was the subject of
an article in the Harvard Business Review. For my book
on Corporate Storytelling, I've interviewed the leaders
of a number of successful companies, such as Costco,
FedEx, Nike, 3M and Kinko's, about a myriad of uses for
stories by managers.
Like the leaders of many successful businesses,
University managers and supervisors can leverage stories
to convey key messages. How and when can you use stories
to communicate more effectively? Which stories can your
college tell that will keep everyone on your team
focused on the University's values-as well as your own
team's role in enacting those values?
Cut through the information clutter by putting the power
of story to work for you. Become a more effective
manager. Start telling a few well-chosen stories.
© Evelyn Clark,
The Corporate Storyteller, is president of Clark &
Company, a marketing communication firm in the Seattle
area. A public relations practitioner with more than 20
years experience, she was accredited by the Public
Relations Society of America in 1986. Her firm's
services include facilitation of retreats and
communication workshops, marketing and communication
management, media relations strategy development, and
media training.
http://www.CorpStory.com
If you would like to submit your own article on storytelling,
please click here...
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BOOKCLUB
Review of
Awaken the Giant Within
It surprises me not one bit
that this book has sold over a million copies.
Briefly, this book has, as its
subheading, ‘How to take control of your mental emotional, physical and
financial destiny.’
There are four parts to this
book:-
Part 1 – Unleash Your Power
Part 2 – Taking Control – The
Master System
Part 3 – The Seven Days to
Shape Your Life
Part 4 – A Lesson in Destiny
To read more, please
click here
Review of
Cut The Strings - The
True Story of a Soul Reclaimed
I was a little stunned when Lynn sent to me a copy of this ebook. I
never expected it and I read it with much interest. My attention was
grabbed right from the start. It was these words which set me reading
this entire ebook in one go:
Bryn
Jones, who wrote the Preface used these words when signing off: ‘proud
friend to Lynn and Glen Grocott.’ ...
To read more, please
click here
If you would like to submit your own article on storytelling,
please click here...
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BLOGS FOR STORYTELLERS...
Here are some of the first blogs that I've found fascinating
to read. I hope that you enjoy reading their stories as
well...
Lotus Reads -
http://lotusreads.blogspot.com/
MoorishGirl -
http://www.moorishgirl.com/
The Book
Review Blog
-
http://bookreviewblog.blogspot.com/
Ted's Thoughts -
http://tedmahsun.blogspot.com/
Wing's World Web -
http://leonwing.blogspot.com/
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RESOURCES FOR STORYTELLERS...
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TELL EVERYONE ABOUT ...
How are people going to know about your great storytelling
resources [books, websites, newsletters, forums, e-books,
manuals, ideas, thoughts, tapes and so much more] if you
don't tell them? Here's your chance - Send info about your
stuff and we'll post it here for free. Please keep the
number of words to no more than 125. Send an email to
editorhowtotellagreatstory.com
with 'Tell Everyone About ...' in the subject line.
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WHAT OUR READERS ARE SAYING ...
And we can both be thankful
to Aneeta for providing yet another way of making the world smaller
through networking.
Dr. Neill Neill
Yes, one of the beautiful things about Aneeta's work is that it
brings people together.
Rosemarie Skaine
I have just ordered your e-book and read your bonus #4 Great
Storytelling Articles. WOW! did I enjoy. I heard a lot of wisdom
coming from your printed words and look forward to reading the
rest of your book. From what I've read so far, I know that I'm
in for a treat. ...
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READERS
WANT TO KNOW ...
* watch this space
If you have a
query you'd like to post to our readers, please send it to
editorhowtotellagreatstory.com
and we'll see what we can do to help you.
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