Category Archives: blog design

arts, blog design, blogging, business, consulting, content writing, Greenwich Meridian memoir, memoir, publishing, relationships, Uncategorized, WordPress, writing

Emma’s Publishing Odyssey 1989-2017

February 17, 2017 emmapalova 1 Comment

Emma’s status update

Hello friends,

Have you been through the publishing odyssey between agents, traditional publishing houses and self-publishing?
I have been on this route for the last 28 years, and I have learned a lot about the publishing, the filming and the arts industries, as well as about myself. I traveled this path as a print media journalist who swapped ink for the digital WordPress platform in 2013 with the first post published on Jan. 15.

I am an author, journalist, writer, screenwriter, designer, photographer and an entrepreneur of Emma Blogs, LLC, based in Lowell, MIchigan. That is professionally. I am also a human being: a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, and a grandmother. Some people call me, Mrs. Emma.

And I am somebody’s aunt, a Godmother and a”babe.”

Missing my mother.Ella & Emma, Venice 2015

How many different hats can a writer wear? Many. But the real question is, “Which is the right hat, and where do we hang it? Where do we put what?

My new friends like T.G., Barb and Wendy, think I am a geek. Ask my old artistic friends like Tom and Pam Woodruff of Leland, or Eva Laurencikova of Kromeriz, Czech Republic, “Who am I?”

I started my own flagship blog EW Emma’s Writing on http://emmapalova.com after advise from agents to build up the Emma Palova name brand in pursuit of publishing Greenwich Meridian (c) 2017, a memoir about the Konecny family immigration saga, @emmapalova @ludekpala now spanning three generations.

The mission of Emma Blogs, LLC

Over the four years of my publishing journey on WordPress, I have diversified into providing an advertising platform for others on the Emma Blogs portfolio, creating blogs for other people, publishing and most recently re-branding old structures into new designs. In Russia, they called it “Perestroika.”

Opportunities await if we keep our minds open to them

The screenshot of your Place at Home opportunity.

Re-branding and re-structuring into new designs

I have assisted in the digital re-do of the Fallasburg Historical Society (FHS) organization founded by a group of women in 1965, who used to get together somewhere on the grounds of the Fallasburg Park, into a digital conglomerate, known around the world.

The FHS slogan now is, “The next 50 years of Fallasburg.”

When asked about the direction of the Fallasburg historical organization, president Ken Tamke said the goal is to spread the word about the Fallasburg village on the Internet, and then people may actually find the hamlet in the northeast Kent County.

http://fallasburgtoday.org

The FHS also has a new website http://www.fallasburg.org . So visit and chat with us before you head out there. You never know what you’re going to find.

The FHS is part of the innovative project “The Past Online” on http://www.thepastonline.org.

Current projects

Currently, I am working with the arts community of the greater Lowell area to create a new palette.

Thai wind 1 by Kacey Cornwell, Art Prize entry

Prague horloge on the Old Town Hall by “I love Czech Republic” group

You can call or e-mail Emma for a re-branding consultation as we fly fast toward 2020. Don’t wait around. You can do your research, but make a move now, or we will all miss the train. One person cannot rebuild an empire overnight.

My publishing ventures on Edition Emma

Join me on my explorations of the publishing industry on both platforms; print and digital. Like most of my friends, authors and artists, I’ve learned the hard way; endless rejections, phone calls from sales people from different Publishing Houses that are now going digital.
Being constantly broke, I had to get more resourceful than just waiting around for a publishing prince to arrive on a white horse at my doorstep. He or she never did.

I also looked for the magical publishing white horse in the actual zoo as a kind sign that I might find an avenue one day.

That’s why I rolled out the blogging/writing portfolio, Emma Blogs, LLC in the summer of 2014.
Part of the portfolio is my own Publishing House Edition Emma (c) 2017 copyright. All rights reserved.
If you want to get published, submit your work to Edition Emma. Looking forward to seeing your work.
Love always,
Emma

blog design, content writing, Uncategorized, WordPress, writing

Pull quote Day #22

Quote December 8, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

“Today is unique. Be careful what you do with it. It will never repeat itself no matter who we are. I like to think that by writing every day, I can help someone accomplish the same goal.”

Emma Palova

blog design, blogging, business, content writing, Uncategorized, WordPress, writing

30 Day Blogging Challenge #22

December 8, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

The way we do anything is the way we do everything

By Emma Palova

This statement is true. I either do everything 100 percent or not at all. It doesn’t matter what it is; writing, blogging, posting, laundry, gardening or cooking. I don’t believe in halfway work.

Yes, sometimes I do wander off on a tangent, but I get back on the track. I wrote about excellence #21 yesterday.

Once, I decide I am not going to do something, I don’t do it. Today I have a lot of work ahead of me. I have to post to a client’s blog, while another one has pulled a fast one on me. It’s the nature of the business.

You explain the purpose of a WordPress blog to someone in a sales pitch, and they go and have someone else do it for them.

I am a good spirited person, I don’t mind. I can handle just about anything except for stupidity and violence.

Every day we make conscious choices based on the best information we have.

Today is unique, it will never repeat itself no matter who we are. I like to think that by writing every day, I am helping also someone else accomplish the same goal.

That’s the knowledge I’ve gained in this 30 Day Content challenge by Learn to Blog (L2B).

By helping others, you’re helping yourself as well.

blog design, blogging, business, content writing, WordPress, writing

30 Day Blogging Challenge #21

December 7, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

Excellence, participate in life

Dec. 7, 2015 Monday

By Emma Palova

I’ve been excellent and I’ve been bad. Most of us have. I’ve been able to produce the best of work, and the worst of work. Just like in the Charles Dickens’ book. It was the best of times and it was the worst of times. They have a tendency to feed into each other. The good and the bad. I know, now I sound like Clint Eastwood.

I can be creative, and on other days not so creative.

What carries me through this challenge is that I need to help others. I do not live for myself. I think we each have a bigger purpose why we live.

I strive for excellence, but sometimes it’s not within reach. I am a human being, therefore I am vulnerable. I have my strengths and my weaknesses.

Totally desperate when my husband Ludek had to leave Michigan for Wisconsin in 2009, I wrote a screenplay “Riddleyville Clowns” © 2009 about the assassination on presidential candidates. Yesterday, I heard from an independent production film company. I’ve been to the Cannes Film Festival in France twice and I saw demonstrations there along with Johnny Depp and Antonio Banderas. That’s again the good and the bad.

What satisfies me, is that I have done all these different things. I have participated in life. The educational system in former Czechoslovakia taught me to participate, it also taught me to be a leader and to help others.

Anything can be hard if you make it hard. Anything can also be easy, as easy as you make it.

blog design, blogging, business, content writing, WordPress, writing

30 Day Blogging Challenge #12

December 6, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

Putting one foot in front of the other aka #creativity against violence

By Emma Palova

Very appropriate theme as we come closer to the end of the year 2015. We have completed the year by putting one foot in front of the other.

We’re more than half-way through the content challenge and we’ve attracted the attention of a lot of people.

Was that our goal? Not really.

During this creative challenge many bad things have happened around the world from Paris attacks to San Bernardino.

I took it upon me to call this challenge #creativity against violence.

The hope is to inspire other people to do the same thing, because peace cannot be enforced.

Together we can and will make a difference. Collectively, we have posted 3,000 pieces of content since Nov. 17. I’ve reached with this post 319 posts on the WordPress platform.

Nothing is going to stop us in creating. No guns, no amendments or fear.

Actually one of my best posts Day #3 “Thoughts on Fear in the Wake of Paris Attacks.”

Equally good is Day #18 “Creativity versus violence.”

Now, I am all caught up with all the posts.

blog design, blogging, business, content writing, WordPress, writing

30 Day Blogging Challenge #19

December 6, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

Take charge, express yourself

By Emma Palova

Connecting things is like making new things happen. You don’t always have all the tools and you don’t necessarily need them. Look at Facebook, it wasn’t a new idea. It was a better retooled idea.

You start from nothing, a blinking cursor on a white page. Or you start with a thought for the day.

I usually have to regroup or restream myself before I write. I do that by driving to the nearby Murray Lake. Nature has always inspired me.

We have a beautiful winter in Michigan. For the first time since I’ve lived here, we have no snow in December. People were playing golf at the Arrowhead Golf Course next door yesterday. This girl has lived in Africa and Texas without a snowy Christmas. Never missed it for a moment.

I am grateful that I can be a part of this content challenge that it will hopefully make a difference in this world.

I am hoping to use #creativity against violence along with all my friends, real and on social media. I do have respect for all the amendments, that’s why I use the pen to bring hope and joy.

I hope to inspire other people to do the same thing, and that is to create. It doesn’t matter what, how big or how little. Just create at any time and anything. Take charge, express yourself.

blog design, blogging, business, content writing, WordPress, writing

30 Day Blogging Challenge #17

December 3, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

Creativity versus destruction & violence

By Emma Palova

The content challenge that started on Nov. 17 has been marked by consistent violence. I find it bizarre, that at a time when we’re creating content, 2089 pieces of it, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg created a $51 billion foundation for the next generation, other people decided to destroy.

It saddens my heart to see so many people killed. Starting with the attacks in Paris, shooting at the Planned Parenthood Center and now San Bernardino, California.

Even for president Barack Obama, the speeches after shootings have become routine.

Is this the way to live in fear of routine shootings?

We’re living like in the Middle East where you never know if you’re not going to get blown up in a coffee shop. And now people suggest to arm ourselves. On Day #3 I wrote about Fear in the wake of Paris Attacks. The post was about how fear supports consumerism. And here we go again. Buy more arms.

I will never shy away from saying that violence breeds more violence. We have just saw it over the last three weeks.

Violence is not the answer to anything, neither is increased consumerism.

I face violence with more creativity, my own and others. The government should use diplomacy and they shouldn’t be sticking their nose into other country’s business.

blog design, blogging, business, content writing, Uncategorized, WordPress, writing

30 Day Blogging Challenge #10

December 3, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

Nov. 26 Thanksgiving Thursday spent with the family in Hastings

Thankful

By Emma Palova

I am thankful for the country I live in. I became a naturalized American in 1999 along with my daughter Emma Palova-Chavent at the Gerald Ford museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I received so many congratulations and the Ionia Sentinel-Standard did a story on me. Kara Hennigan wrote the story. That made me both; the writer of stories and the subject of some of them.

I was born in former Czechoslovakia and I studied engineering at the Technical University of Brno by default and by punishment. We left the country illegally in 1968 just before the Soviet invasion. I wasn’t allowed to study any humanities.

Mom Eliska wanted to go back in 1973. We returned to the homeland and we were punished for doing so.

On a writer's retreat in Venice, Florida — On a writer’s retreat in Venice, Florida

The book is about our journey back and forth across the Greenwich Meridian.

We left the country again; dad Vaclav in 1976, mom Eliska in 1980 and I left in 1989 after the Velvet Revolution. My husband Ludek left the Czech homeland in 1988 for Austria.

Crazy?

It’s been a turmoil. When I interviewed my own parents two years ago during a writer’s retreat in Venice, Florida they both said they would never do it again.

“It doesn’t matter anymore because everyone back home is dead,” Vaclav said.

True, our most recent trips to Czech were for the purpose of attending funerals.

However, we all started a new life in the USA. It is a life of accomplishment, satisfaction and love.

Our son Jake has a beautiful family and he is very successful with the Faygo company. He studied at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Our daughter Emma lives in France with her family. Both her husband Adrien and Emma are medical doctors.

I learned to blog on WordPress, the biggest publishing platform in this world.

I consider myself privileged.

blog design, blogging, business, content writing, psychology, Uncategorized, wellness, WordPress, writing

30 Day Blogging Challenge #16

December 2, 2015 emmapalova 1 Comment

When the inner fire goes out

By Emma Palova

I am meditating on today’s theme “When the inner fire goes out and meeting another human being rekindles it.”

This is a big one because it has happened to all of us. We are sharing a common human experience.

It has happened to me many times in life and then I suddenly met a person who sparked the fire in me again. I recall them all. They were editors, fellow writers, business owners, store managers and directors.

Kathleen Mooney's abstracts. — Kathleen Mooney’s abstracts.

Most recently it has happened to me on the Internet with the 30 Day Content Challenge. I went into the challenge on Nov. 17 after finding out about it only on the previous day totally burnt out from years of writing.

I could have plain ignored it like I have other challenges. But, this seemed important.

Why was it important to me? It wasn’t to showcase anything or to prove to myself that I can do it. It wasn’t for the exposure either. It was because of the special bond these challenges create, they teach you discipline and you are helping others move forward. By helping others you are also helping yourself.

My weakness is the lack of discipline in everything. I like freedom without boundaries. But, that creates also problems. I can overeat, overwork and overdo. And after that I need rest to recharge my batteries. It’s like a vicious roller coaster.

Yes, the 30 Day Content Challenge rekindled my inner spirit. I found new passion for writing, met new people, made new friends on Facebook and twitter and I got new followers on EW Emma’s Writings.

So, in the end even though I wasn’t seeking exposure, I got it.

I found gratitude to those who led the challenge and helped out.

I found the writer in me who will never go away even when I try to throw that character out.

blog design, blogging, business, content writing, Uncategorized, WordPress, writing

30 Day Blogging Challenge #8

December 1, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

Passion, heart, soul and inspiration

By Emma Palova

The cursor is blinking in front of me on a blank page. I am writing the third post today and that is Day #8 to catch up with the 30 Day Challenge.

The prompt for Nov. 24 was passion and pouring your heart and soul into everything you do. This theme is close to my heart as I never do anything without passion including my E Diary that is EW Emma’s Writings blog on WordPress.

Featured Image -- 128596 — Abstract art by Kathleen Mooney inspired by quilting.

I am passionate about writing whether you write for money or for free. I’ve done both. All fiction writing is done on speculation. You don’t know if you’re going to publish and make money or if people are going to buy your book. Blogging is a little different because you’re already creating a following that will hopefully transfer onto your other work. And you are publishing electronically. You have a sense of timelessness.

On the other hand, writing for money creates pressure, stress and the need for speed. Writing is therapeutic if not done under pressure, according to psychologists.

I am a passionate blogger as I create blogs for clients as well as my own. At times, it can be challenging finding something to write about. I am resourceful and search for inspiration wherever and whenever I can get it.

People and nature inspire me, art inspires me, jewelry and metal.

I am also a passionate entrepreneur. I use to sell real estate for Westdale. I started the company Emma Blogs, LLC in January of 2013 with the first blog and I have grown it to a portfolio of 12 blogs. With heart and soul into it, I use different themes for my blogs. I like the magazine theme and Lovecraft, Radcliff, Skylark themes and many more.

I am a firm believer that everyone should at least once during lifetime own their business. I heard this from an Internet guru Alan Teelander and from Mike Spranger, owner of Springrove Variety in Lowell, as well as other people like Pete Haefner, owner of an accounting firm.

Having a business is like growing flowers; you see it grow and flourish or wither. You take care of it, it takes care of you. During the three years, I’ve learned so much from organization and discipline to marketing and social media marketing. I’ve met so many interesting people on the Learn To Blog group and through the challenge. I feel enriched.