I am sharing this through my new blogger friend Cheryl Stober, a syndicated blogger on the BlogHer platform. She has been blogging for eight years, at a time when I was chasing after stories and yawning at township meetings for print media.
“You gotta cover that,” said the editor also yawning, “It’s our bread and butter you know.”
Among hundreds of posts, Stober caught my attention with her nice piece about getting ready for the conference. I was bummed that I couldn’t go so I literally devoured the article and commented and I got a comment back. And there you go we were friends.
My new BlogHer buddy Cheryl Stober
“I hope to meet you at the conference next year,” she wrote. “Follow me on @cherylstober.”
Her article included getting new business cards and clothes for the event. Of course fashion police at these conferences are on their toes.
Today, Stober tweeted she had lunch with my favorite Glee star, Gwyneth Paltrow. who is a keynote speaker at the conference. I am jealous, no just kidding.
Subscribe to CJ Aunt Jarmilka’s newsletter. This is EW’s sister publication newsletter for July. Sign up for great recipes and info about Czech baking, canning and cuisine.
Education: associates degree in health sciences-respiratory therapy, certificate in health coaching from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, Oct. 2014
Residence: Gainesville, Georgia
By Emma Palova
EW Emma’s Writings
Lowell, MI – Leigh Ann Dickey wanted to share her story of losing 35 pounds when she joined the nutrition school. Dickey started out with a page on facebook, Instagram and a blog on WordPress two years ago using tutorials and mentors.
“I developed a nice site,” she said.
Coach Leigh Ann Dickey loves helping people.
Dickey was offering a weight loss product. But when she sustained a head injury on her bicycle, Dickey took the site down.
Since she has always liked design Dickey wanted to master WordPress. She already had a great feather in her cap; 12 years of HTML coding. Dickey completely coded her animal charity site herself from the start.
She took a WordPress class to get up to speed in 2013 & 2014. Dickey joined the Learn to Blog in 2014, but found out that she already knew a lot of the stuff from the WordPress classes.
The biggest challenge of blogging for Dickey was targeting her niche.
“I felt tossed around,” Dickey said in a Skype interview last week. “I was posting and sharing trying to target my niche. I went all over the place.”
She tried health & fitness, business coaching and design. It wasn’t until recently she found that her real passion was teaching and coaching. So, Dickey launched her Soulpreneurs this week. Soulpreneurs is a membership site on the Genesis framework.
But, before that Dickey started a WordPress support group on facebook.
“It used to be enough to have a facebook page two years ago, but now you have to create a group,” she said.
Two years ago with a budget of $150, Dickey could increase traffic to her facebook page to 3,600.
However, two years in an online business is eternity.
“That was old school,” she laughed. “Start a facebook group not a page. Find like-minded people. Join other groups inside of facebook.”
Dickey offered a lot of advice for newbie bloggers. Number one on the advice list is determining your niche.
“It all starts with ourselves knowing what we enjoy doing,” she said, “And then turn that into business. People should ask themselves what is it that they enjoy doing all day long.”
According to Dickey, the advantages of realizing what you really like to do are the following:
You best will know a lot about it.
It will be easy to develop products and services around your niche or like.
Then you have to boil it all down to specific types that is; rather than pets narrow it down to dogs and then go further, different breeds and such.
In response to what she likes about blogging, Dickey was very spontaneous.
“I enjoy the process of creating that plays into my geeky side telling the story,” she said. “I enjoy helping people.”
Blogging was a life changing experience for Dickey who had suffered a head injury.
“Blogging helped me get past something and I relate that to overcoming obstacles in business and in life. It’s just human nature to get that feedback.”
The second part of Dickey’s story with more valuable advice will appear later this week. Stay tuned and feel free to comment with your advice.
The featured image is the Greenwich Meridian memoir on the screen surrounded by various memorabilia like the economy class menu of the Czechoslovakian Airlines. I flew with them in 1989 for my second immigration to the USA.
Blogging anchored, Greenwich Meridian memoir evolves forward
By Emma Palova
EW Emma Writing
Lowell, MI- Now, that I am firmly anchored in the blogging world with Emma Blogs, LLC, a portfolio of blogs, I resumed working on the Greenwich Meridian memoir in mid-May. The blogging part may seem like a detour to many, not to me. I feel like I can take the book to its finale. I didn’t have that feeling before.
It took me a year-and-a-half to set up the blogging portfolio under the umbrella of http://emmapalova.com. Fellow blogger Leigh Ann Dickey said it took her two years to prove herself. So, don’t believe the hype out there like “Get a blog in 60 seconds,” or in five minutes, in an hour or in a day. And definitely, don’t pay any money for that pitch.
It just doesn’t happen. It’s like saying you’re going to learn calculus in a day. You may get the template like you would get a college-ruled notebook to start your math, and then what? Do you start with fractions, trigonometry or double integer?
Of course you start with the About page in the world of blogging. After all, you know the best what you are all about. Add a picture, it’s worth a thousand words.
Many blogging colleagues out there don’t know what their niche or target audience are. How are they supposed to pick a theme? Should they post every day and what should they post to attract that ever elusive traffic?
Maybe Stephen King asked himself the same question before his big Carrie break, “What should I write about so I make it big?”
I know I ask myself that question every week before posting, “What am I going to post this week or what is the next chapter outline?”
Other than King, I always think about German Martin Luther posting 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in 1517 according to the student custom. The theses were a catalyst to a change.
Blog posts carry those same signs of a changing world. A shorter, faster world of pixels that has no time for long “expose” articles. Readers want to know everything and immediately.
Without the “how to” knowledge, blogging can feel like sailing on vast seas after you lost your compass. You started out right, what next?
Editorial/marketing calendar for July, August, September
Dive into summer fun with Emma
The editorial/marketing calendar for Emma Blogs is flexible and I invite anyone who wants to contribute whether with stories, photos or ideas.
As you can see the topics range from blogging to vacationing, and everything in between. I am looking forward to the new summer series, Living in the country vs. living in the city. I bet anyone can attest that both have their advantages and disadvantages. So, feel free to write about your take on where you live and why. It will be hilarious.
Kathleen Mooney’s abstracts.
Also sign up for Emma Blogs July newsletter for blogging/design tips and How to get story ideas and bring them to fruition.
July
Blogger of the month
Creativity
Independence Day
Vacationing
Summers in Czech
Riverwalk 9, 10, 11/local
Summer series
Living in the country vs living in the city
August
Summers in Czech on the ranch
Vacationing
Mom’s birthday
Lowell youth fair/local/Aug. 6-13
Summer series
Living in the country vs living in the city
September
Fall fest with Fallasburg village bazaar /local Sept. 1&20
Fairs/expo Brno
Socialist brigades for students and army
Summer series
Living in the country vs city
Schools/universities
Copyright (c) 2015. Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
Note: I often write about different names in the Czech calendar and in our multi-cultural family. In the memoir “Greenwich Meridian” I write about the people behind the names. Recently, I found out that each name has certain characteristics that may be a perfect fit or a perfect misfit. This is a second part of a mini-series about calendar names. The first part ran on April 10. Look for the greeting card logo. I focused on female names first.
Another name in the family is Julie. That was my late mother-in-law. I have very fond memories of her. Julie lived to be 92 years old, she was up and running until the very last minute when she passed away peacefully in her nap. She took care of our daughter Emma, while I was studying at the Technical University of Brno.
The name has bold characteristics. According to Soul’s Touches, Julie is a dragoness, who is both sensitive and attractive. She takes deep interest in men into late years, caused by the vibrations of Mars. When she falls in love, she tears down bridges, and rebuilds them again. But, most of all she’s a woman. As a mother, she can be both loving and strict. The name is right for all zodiac signs except for Scorpio. Julie celebrates her name day on Dec. 10.
Mother-in-law Julie Palova was very beautiful.
Anna, was my grandmother and her daughter Anna is my aunt and godmother. The characteristics for the name are: a true woman, loving, devoted, but living her life through others. It is a troubled life of labor & worries, a constant circle of obligations and feelings of being in debt to all. Anna is foremost a mother and a wife.
The astrologist does not recommend this name, because it carries the premonition of a hard life. Anna celebrates her name day on July 26 in the Czech calendar.
Martha is the name of my paternal aunt, as well as first and second cousin’s names. According to Soul’s Touches, the name carries traits of satisfaction. Even though Marthas do not reach the most coveted goals, they end up usually married. Martha is foremost a woman. She matures emotionally later in life, quite often divorces. Not recommended in Gemini, Libra and in Capricorn. Her name day is on July 29.
Mary is my mother’s cousin name, and we probably had a lot more Marys in the family.
Mary is a universal name used in all languages. She is motherly, devoted and hardworking.
The traits: always willing to learn, intelligent, sensitive and strict. Only a bad coordinate with the last name and birth date can worsen her life’s path, according to Soul’s Touches.
The feast of Saint Mary falls on Sept. 12 and it is celebrated around the world with festivities and pilgrimages to sacred places like Hostyn, in Moravia.
Lenka is the name of my second cousin, the daughter of Mary. The name has bad karmic vibrations. Lenkas do not have an easy life or a happy life. There are only a few exceptions depending on the birth date and coordinate with the last name. The biggest problem can be in relationships. The astrologist writes, “When a relationship ends and Lenka asks why?” I answer “Because you have bad vibrations. I would recommend to shorten the name to Lena at the birth registry.”
The name is influenced by Mars, Sun, Venus and Saturn. The Saturn negatively impacts Venus. That’s where the bad karma comes from.
I covered only a few female names in the family, and a fraction of female names in the Czech calendar. From time to time, I will be coming back to this subject, because it fascinates me. Most descriptions fit like a glove depending on the zodiac sign, and sometimes on the last name.
Trending names in Czech are: Tereza, Natalie, Anna, Adela, Eliska, Karolina, Katerina, Barbora, Lucie, Kristina, Michaela, Nikola and Veronika.
Next week I’ll write about the characteristics of male names in the family.
See you then. Hope you find your name a great fit.
Sources: “Soul’s Touches” and “Greenwich Meridian”
The April newsletter is here. It’s been on my radar screen since I’ve established Emma Blogs, LLC. Every month, the newsletter will feature news from the blogs portfolio, blogging tips and editorial/marketing calendar. Features will include en excerpt from the story of the month and a featured blogger. You can submit who do you think should be featured and why, as well as a story,a poem or a photo with links to your blogs. You can also submit a story about your niche business with a link.
Emma Blogs newsletter for April.
The deadline for submission for the May newsletter is April 20. Happy blogging.
In my memoir “Greenwich Meridian,” I write about Czech and Slovak traditions that I have witnessed while living in Czechoslovakia with a touch of nostalgia. Some of them disappeared along with the old regimes, but most have survived mainly in villages and small towns preserved by enthusiastic small groups of people. Festive costumes for the holidays and special events reflect these traditions, as well as music, dance, food, and customs specific to each village and town.
We lived in Zlin, Moravia, which is the central part of former Czechoslovakia embedded in traditions. Both as a child and an adult, I lived and visited with my grandparents in Vizovice, a treasure trove of traditions.
Cousin Bronislav Pink ready for “schmigrust”
Easter celebrations in Czech and some other European countries are longer by one day, and that is Monday.
We have always indulged in lavish preparations for the long Easter weekend. That meant having enough meat, desserts, eggs, and beverages for three days. There were long lines just like before any major holiday. I spent a lot of time standing in lines and listening to what the old broads had to say.
“I am not going to tell him how much I spent,” a woman wearing a scarf and a fluffy skirt shook her head defiantly.
The other one with an apron over her dress smelled of burnt dough.
I thought, she must have burnt her kolache, a traditional festive pastry with plum butter.
The broad leaned closer to the first one and whispered something into her ear. Then they both laughed, until their bellies and chests were heaving up and down. I learned a lot standing in lines. The longer the line, the more I learned.
So, the culmination of it all is Easter Monday known for its “schmigrust,” an old whipping custom.
Traditional Czech festive costumes.
On that day, early in the morning ,large groups of boys and young men head out into the streets with their braided knot-grass whips or oversized wooden spoons decorated with ribbons. The day before, they spent many hours skillfully braiding their whips out of willow twigs or scouring the house for the biggest wooden spoon.
The boys go door to door, reciting traditional Easter carols like “Hody, hody doprovody,” asking the lady of the house for painted eggs. Then, they whip all the present women in exchange for decorated eggs and ribbons. Single women, and girls tied ribbons on top of the whip. I always wondered about the whipping custom, long before I ever set my foot out into the world. One day, grandma Anna finally explained it to me.
“It is supposed to resemble the whipping of Christ before he died,” she said.
“But, grandma that’s evil,” I cried.
Grandma just shrugged, and turned away. Later in life, I knew better than to question a tradition.
Easter desserts
Women of the house offered shots of plum brandy, usually home-made or acquired through bartering to the “schmigrust” groups. Even family members took part in this ritual. Uncles and cousins visited for coffee, festive desserts such as kolache, shots and meaningful conversation.
On a good year, and especially when I was a teenager, we got anywhere around 100 passionate revelers. Sometimes, I ran out of ribbons. The boys and young men, competing against each other, took pride in the number of ribbons they got. The craft stores had to stock up with meters and meters of ribbons, plain or embroidered. The hens, of course, felt obligated to produce more eggs.
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