Tag Archives: WordPress

advertising, business, celebration, community, travel, WordPress

WordPress anniversary

January 15, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

Two years with WordPress

By Emma Palova

EW Emma’s Writings

Lowell, MI- Two years ago, on this day, I published my first post on WordPress. It was my author’s bio that I had later moved into About section. I introduced myself in a story with an author’s photo.

One hundred and ninety-six posts later, I am grateful that I had chosen the WordPress platform. It was a pure coincidence. I wanted to like and comment on the Hawkins Chamber of Commerce in Texas, and I was directed to the press site.

I wanted a blog anyways after Writer’s Digest suggested that every writer should have a blog or a website. At the time I started writing memoir “Greenwich Meridian” and I needed the exposure.

McGregor, Iowa — Rediscovering treasures on the Mississippi River

And I fell in love with WordPress for its finesse, sophistication, the variety of themes and the community in general. I found Rumanian colleagues Valeriu dg Barbu and Cristian Mihai, French photographer redstuffdan and many others, whose work I admire. They inspire me in my writings.

I started learning the ropes. Coming fresh from the print media, it was very different. I must say that I like new things, and this was right up my alley.

The constant challenge of change, new themes, new ways of posting, the speed and the prompts delight me.

I feel like I am being pulled deeper and deeper in. Like today’s prompt in The Daily Post “Connect the Dots,” Open your nearest book to page 82. Take the third full sentence on the page, and work it into a post somehow.

While sitting in a folding rocking chair in front of the wood stove, I reached into the library and grabbed “The People’s Chronology” and the third sentence on page 82 is entertaining in itself. For once I got lucky.

It reads: “Canon of Medicine by the Arab physician Avicenna (Abu Sina) follows the thinking of Aristotle and Galen but is so well written and organized that it will be a major influence on medical thinking for centuries.”

I couldn’t ask for a better prompt.

EW Emma's Writings — EW blog on Gatehouse Media 10 million reader market

Ironically in my Internet discussions, I asked, “Where will the Internet take us?”

Today I realize the real question is, “Where will we take the Internet?”

I took it to the next level. In July, I started my writing and blog design company on WordPress, Emma Blogs LLC. It is a portfolio of 10 blogs that covers a range of topics from health, outdoors, homes to brides and farming suited for advertising, whether affiliate or traditional.

I also write and manage a bilingual blog CJ Aunt Jarmilka’s Desserts in Czech Republic on http://jkarmaskova.wordpress.com

I have great writers like Sarah Harmon who bring their unique style to the blogs, and salesperson Ed Donahue.

EW writer Sarah Harmon in Paris

EW Emma’s Writings also feeds into the Gatehouse Media, a 10 million reader market including the Ionia Sentinel-Standard.

What I like the most about writing on WordPress is that it does have an impact on people and it gets the message out.

Friend Tina Sicialiano Cadwallader asked me when is the book coming out at a Christmas party at the Fallasburg Historical Society.

“We’re going to take a selfie with the book at the Lowell museum,” she laughed.

Last Saturday, I ran into Betsy Davidson, owner of Addorio Technologies, LLC.

“Have you been travelling?” she asked. “I am really enjoying your stories because I don’t get to go to places like that.”

Vizovice, Czech Republic — Vizovice, where old meets new.

Longtime friend Ruth Hall said, “I absolutely love reading your posts.”

Comments and advice on the posts are also very gratifying and informational. Following is a comment by Herbal Weight Loss Remedies & Tips at http://url.darkillusion.us/weightloss748972

“Great articles you post on your blog, I have shared this article on my twitter.”

I find the happiness engineering support team very helpful at times when I pull her from my head.

And as I ask in my story interviews, “What don’t you like about so and so?”

Off the top of my head, I really can’t think of a single thing that would stand out that I don’t like about WordPress. I might think of something later as I toss in the bed in the wee morning hours with my chronic insomnia.

Thank you WordPress for two great years.

Links:

Fallasburg Historical Society

http://www.fallasburg.org

Addorio Technologies, LLC

http://www.addorio.com

Go back

Your message has been sent

travel

Final goodbye to Czech Republic

September 4, 2014 emmapalova Leave a comment

Dad heads home to bid farewell to family

United Airlines flight 974 with my dad Vaclav Konecny on board just landed in Geneva four and a half hours late due to maintenance on one of the Pratt & Whitney motors.

My dad is 80 and he flew home to Czech Republic to say final goodbye to the family. Dad has only one living sibling left, aunt Marta.

He is the founder of our immigration saga that started with the Soviet invasion in 1968. And it continues to evolve to this day with third generation.

That is basically what my memoir Greenwich Meridian is about.

To be continued

Note: This is my 150th post on EW Emma’s Writings on WordPress. The 15th new follower of EW will get a $25 gift certificate to Steak & Shake.

Go back

Your message has been sent

Uncategorized

Writing journey

May 29, 2014 emmapalova Leave a comment

Writing; a wild journey into the unknown

By Emma Palova

EW Emma’s Writings

Lowell, MI- Three things prompted me to think about the writing business: 101 Challenge by WordPress, 100 Posts & beyond that I have achieved in a year and my worsening eyesight.

Sometimes people ask me what would I be if I wasn’t a writer.

“I’d be a queen,” I answer laughing. “The queen of hearts.”

First of all writing is a business and it should be approached as such. I never quite got the idea of some of the Internet writers’ magazines screaming out loud on Facebook:

“Writers, do you want to get paid for writing?”

How is writing any different than going to get your groceries and paying for them? Or gas at the local station? Air ticket?

Actually it should be paid higher than your average retail position because the fact of the matter remains that minority entertains the majority.

“People would die of boredom if it wasn’t for writers and artists,” I always say. “What would you do without us?”

But, there does come a time when you feel like giving up after all the ups and downs, the encouragements and the discouragements.

It is that time when you’re bombarded by self-publishing houses that want your credit card number for your book on demand; by your spouses who want you to make money rather than use it on print cartridges, your aging parents who want to hold that long dreamt about book.

Then, kicks in the thing about driving traffic to your Internet sites and likes, which somehow magically will transfer into sales.

Not to forget about traditional publishers who want everything by snail mail, and 10 months later they still haven’t responded to you.

I don’t know how to change things to get different results or more likes and followers.

I like to encourage others to keep on trying doing the things they want along with the wanted outcomes.

My wanted outcomes are the publishing of my memoir and a book, but I seem to be lost in a sea of unexpected results on winding paths. This is not always bad, it’s just something else than you wanted.

It’s like going into the woods to get morels, and instead you bring back blackberries.

“It leads to new discoveries,” I say.

Like in this typical example of having a blog to increase your online presence and publishing capabilities while writing your memoir.

Well, accidentally you pick out WordPress, the best of the bunch. You are a perfect match, and you’re on your way.

“I love doing the blog more than writing my memoir,” I told my husband the other day.

There’s better and instant feedback, the constant challenge of maintaining the blog and coming up with new things, new challenges.

Then in turn you get picked up by other Internet giants and you’re headed into the unknown, like on a spaceship.

“I like being its captain,” I say.

This is part of the 100 Posts & beyond series.

Uncategorized

Moments in time 2013

December 31, 2013 emmapalova Leave a comment

Looking back at 2013

By Emma Palova

EW Emmas Writings Journal

I’ve experienced a very productive year, both professionally and personally. On January 15^th, I started my blog with WordPress to increase public engagement for my memoir project “Greenwich Meridian.”

The readership has grown from zero to nearly 200 followers in less than one year. As a lover of new things, I found a new passion in writing online, designing and search engine marketing.

My trophy case with WordPress says, “You are a prolific publisher. Why don’t you blog about it.”

As I learned the nuts and bolts of the business, I continued to explore my memories. The memoir tells a story about the family immigration saga that now spans three generations.

Emma Palova in her writing studio in Lowell, Michigan.

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 4- “The life of returned immigrants in communist Czechoslovakia.” It covers our return from the USA to the homeland in 1973 based on the presidential amnesty.

When we finally got out of a week-long nightmare at the quarantine Trebotov, it wasn’t exactly how I envisioned our homecoming. I was shocked at the dilapidated state of villages and towns in Bohemia and Moravia.

“Mom why is everything so old and ugly?” I asked innocently.

“It’s an old country my dear,” she smiled. “This is were you and I belong.”

“How can you say that after what we’ve been through at the quarantine?”

Due to chronic shortage of housing, we moved in with my paternal grandparents in Stipa. Neither mom nor I were used to being constantly pestered, not to speak about my brother Vas. Both grandparents, who were educators, were strict and prompt.

“Don’t touch that, don’t use that much water,” resonated through the house.

To this day, the house and my late uncle Antonin remain a mystery to me, and that was one of the reasons why I travelled to Europe last September.

But, back to Moments in time 2013.

In March I went to Florida for a retreat and an interview with my parents Ella & Vaclav Konecny who started the immigration saga in mid 1960s. See posts “Interview with my parents for Greenwich Meridian on March 10th, 13^th & March 17^th.

April brought flood waters to Lowell and Grand Rapids, the two communities that are the closest to where I live.

As far as my blog goes, I started adding pages covering local stories and interesting people. I will continue this with more inspiring area people into 2014.

One of the most heartbreaking moments came in July.

The Whites Covered Bridge burnt in Smyrna, which upset the history lover in me.

To be continued……

Uncategorized

Desert ephiphany

December 13, 2013 emmapalova Leave a comment

Going back to a distant childhood memory

As I approach my one year anniversary with Word Press on Jan. 15^th I have to share this inspirational message or a writing prompt that goes so well with my memoir “Greenwich Meridian.”

My Rumanian friend and colleague on Word Press poet Valeriu Dg Barbu liked this timeline photo on my facebook in the same fashion I liked his childhood photo and poem Thief. Now, I understand why.

I was in this high plateau desert with Saguaro forest near Tucson AZ in 1972 with my parents and then in 2011 with my daughter Emma only to find out that nothing has changed.

“Do you remember this?”Emma asked.

Emma Palova 2011 in Saguaro National Park

And there were the same cacti as when I was in my beloved Saguaro desert as a child since they live up to 100 to 200 years. There was even the same old visitor’s building even though it was closed and a new center had opened nearby.

It was a very humbling experience and I had to ask myself a question.

“Have I changed?”

Sure, physically I have. I am older and I don’t have the romantic long hair so admired by both men and women.

I still get the same old question whenever I come back to Czech Republic for a visit.

“Why did you cut your hair?” neighbor Milena and a friend both asked me at first sight.

But, I am still the same ambitious and hard- driving creature never afraid to tackle new things, look to the sky and reach for the stars. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be in the USA. I would probably still be whining back in Czech, swearing at the regime and complaining about my vice-president job for an engineering firm located at Zarami, Zlin.

I am very happy here in the US as a successful author, journalist & photographer. I am thankful to my entrepreneurial surroundings and friends including Word Press, facebook & Google+

Saguaro forest immortalized by Vaclav Konecny

Also inspired by the Sonoran desert, my dad former Ferris State University professor Vaclav Konecny immortalized the majestic saguaro in his oil on black velvet painting “Saguaro cacti at night” in the 70s. He did it again as a present for me in the 1990s with the same impeccable quality of a mathematician.

So styles and personalities basically don’t change.

I think everyone should ask themselves that same question: Have I changed since a certain humbling moment in my life?

Watch for my Silver Sunday post coming soon.

Uncategorized

Entrepreneurial Encounters

November 17, 2013 emmapalova Leave a comment

Entrepreneurial encounters will take us to the stars

By Emma Palova

I am starting a new screenwriting blog with focus on a screenplay that I have written in 2008-2009 when my husband Ludek was working in Wisconsin.

I was still writing for the Lowell Ledger stories about window donations, charities and non-profits right before Christmas. I purchased Final Draft Scriptwriter’s Suite, and tested the program on a short one-act play “Santa on the Showboat.”

Every day after work, I sat behind a PC computer, after working on a Mac at the office, and started spitting out words.

“You’re bilingual,” said former Lowell Light & Power manager Tom referring to my two computers at work, side by side. But, I am also fully bilingual in English and Czech.

I wrote a screenplay “Riddleyville Clowns” in three months, and I registered it with Writer’s Guild of America, West WGAW. I have the certificate framed and displayed.

Western Guild of America, West screenplay certificate for Riddleyville Clowns

“That in itself is a feat,” local businesswoman complimented me.

I consider myself and my friends as keen entrepreneurs. During my recent visit to Europe, I encountered many of them. One entrepreneur Ales Kobylik owns an information firm TechnoDat in Zlin, another one owns York Café in Vizovice.

“That’s named after the owner of the building Eda York,” said Petr Surovec, owner of the York Café.

Some 20 years ago, I gave advise to my cousin cartoonist Olin Pink to start a graphic firm. He learned the design program and established the successful Grafik firm located in Stipa.

Most recently, I told my sister-in-law Jarmila to start a baking business CJ Aunt Jarmilka’s Cukrovi. I designed her blog. She is a successful baker who also lives in Stipa.

When the Parnell store was for sale, I was ready to buy it, but somebody beat me to it. Last year, I started writing my memoir “Greenwich Meridian where East meets West.” I designed the blog EW Emma’s Writings on WordPress to support its publication.

Now, I am caught in a web of words, SEO and SEM, content writing, grouping and regrouping of words. One of the most wanted skills on Elance and Indeed is knowledge of WordPress which took me in turn to programming and coding.

Where will the Internet take us?

Uncategorized

Emma’s blogs

November 2, 2013 emmapalova Leave a comment

CJ Aunt Jarmilka’s desserts. Post Holiday sweet dreams.

I now design and write blogs and pages on WordPress for other people as well. Email me for a quote at emmapalova@yahoo.com. I offer unbound creativity, uniqueness, originality and SEO, SEM skills. Check out Aunt’s sweet site at http://jkarmaskova.wordpress.com