Happy New Year!
Because we both think it’s important to formulate goals and write them down to make them concrete, we’re going public with goals for 2012 for One Brave Thing a Day.
- Grow our platform. Platform is a big publishing buzzword… but essentially what we want to do is make sure that people who weren’t already our friends and family and supporters from the beginning of the project know about One Brave Thing a Day, the website and the manuscript of Linda’s memoir.
That first goal is REALLY big, so we’ll break it down to make it easier to understand and accomplish!
- Publish at least one story from One Brave Thing a Day in a national magazine. Tegan already compiled a list of publications and ideas of anecdotes that will make great articles– now it’s time to get them written and submitted.
- Get more readers online. You can help us with this by forwarding stories from our blog to your friends, sharing things from us on facebook, and dropping www.onebravethingaday.com in casual conversation at workouts, coffee breaks, car pooling, dinner parties… We cover a lot of ground, surely you have lots of places to bring us up?
- Speak out. Linda is asking around for organizations and clubs that might want a guest speaker. Is your group interested in hearing more about One Brave Thing a Day? Training for triathlons? Home funeral planning? Parenting a medically fragile child? Email linda@onebravethingaday.com.
All that excitement will hopefully lead to our biggest goal for 2012:
- GET A DEAL WITH A PUBLISHER! We know the right editor is out there somewhere. We hope we’ll find each other this year.
In the meantime, we’ll keep blogging and
tweeting, keep breathing and moving, keep crying and laughing, and keep writing and editing.
Thank you for your support as we strive to reach our goals in 2012.
What are some of your goals for 2012?
Posted by Tegan on Dec 31, 2011 in
mash-up 
Goodbye 2011. Hello 2012!
We wish you all good things for the new year.
Posted by Tegan on Dec 25, 2011 in
mash-up 
“Peace on earth, good will to men.”
Posted by Tegan on Dec 16, 2011 in
contest,
Linda's posts,
mash-up,
Tegan's posts Happy Friday, everyone! How’s your week been?
Thank you to everyone who chimed in to make the week on the blog one of support and excitement. This weekend we’ll do the random drawing to pick the winner of the One Brave Thing a Day mousepad.
You have until midnight tonight, Friday December 16, to add more comments to get your name entered more times into our prize drawing. We’ll be pulling names of commenters on posts from last Wednesday’s (Rock ‘n’ Roll!) through today’s. You get one entry per comment you’ve made, and if you refer a friend who mentions you in their post, we’ll enter you a bonus time.
Good luck! We wish we had enough mousepads to give to each of you; you’re all winners, and we love that you’re inspired by our title. Go out and live it, and have a healthy, happy weekend! One Brave Thing a Day.
It’s a busy time of year. We know there’s loads going on. So we’re extra-special-grateful for your comments (and when you share onebravethingaday.com with others). To encourage even more comments on our blog, we have devised a little holiday give-away contest.
Here’s the prize:
A One Brave Thing a Day mousepad! Very rare, very inspiring. This mousepad was designed by Courtney Cook Hopp. It makes a great pick-me-up at your desk or a delightful holiday gift. (Sorry, glossy satin backdrop and mouse not included.)
Here are the rules:
Write comments on our posts, starting with Wednesday’s and going through Friday Dec. 16. For each comment you leave on these posts, your name will be entered into our prize drawing. If you get a friend to leave a comment and mention that you sent them to the site, you AND your friend get an entry for that post. The more comments you leave, and the more friends you get to chime in, the more chances you have to win the prize. Please do leave an actual comment, though– we want this to keep the good ideas and feedback flowing.
The contest ends on midnight Pacific time on Friday Dec. 16, 2011.
The prize drawing will take place on Saturday Dec. 17. My husband will pick the winner at random. We will announce the winner on Monday December 19. Check back that day to see if you won, and if you’re the lucky winner, we’ll ask you to email us your mailing address.
Let the commenting begin!!!
Posted by Tegan on Nov 24, 2011 in
mash-up From us and ours to you and yours,
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Linda and I thought maybe you could use a little tip a week, some little trick that works for us to be healthier. (We share these between ourselves all the time!)
Here’s one from Linda:
“I used to carry a whole apple around all day, then bring it back home each night. I was trying to eat more fruit, but it wasn’t working. Then I started the day off with an apple sliced up in a little baggie. With that little change– cutting it– I ate it every day.”
I’m the same with oranges. If the fruit is unpeeled, it may sit in my fruit bowl until the fruit flies come. But if I cut orange slices or section the grapefruit, I gobble it up.
Do you have a reformatting trick that gets you to eat good things?
Tags: healthy tips & tweaks
Ta da! Snazzy business card holders!
During the summer, Linda and I met over the phone rather than holding our weekly in-person meetings. So last week, to celebrate our first time together face-to-face in months, we got these. The purple one is hers, the black is mine.
As our agent pitches our proposal to editors, our duty is to network, network, network (and write and edit, too). I thought these sturdy, professional accesories would help us get in the mood. Pulling my business cards out of a rubber band repurposed from a pint of blueberries just wasn’t the suave look I had in mind.
Next time we see you, we’ll probably whip these out and hand you a card! How can we resist?
In the meantime, we would really appreciate if you would do the digital equivalent of giving us your business card– please write a comment on posts that strike a chord with you! And you can also do us the huge favor of virtually passing our card on by sharing our site with people who you think might appreciate it.
Thanks so much for your support of www.onebravethingaday and Linda’s story, One Brave Thing a Day.
Do you have something special that helps you work up the courage to speak out about a project you’re working on?
Posted by Tegan on May 25, 2011 in
Linda's posts,
mash-up,
Tegan's posts 
Thank you, Oprah, for giving America the ugly (beautiful) cry on TV.
Do you ever pick a book by its title? Or do you choose not to read it based on the words on its cover?
We’ve had a few responses to our project’s title change, almost all of them very positive.
The first person we told outside our comfort circle of friends and creative partners is someone with a lot of experience in publishing. After he heard our new title, he took a deep breath. We braced ourselves for his reaction. Then he gave us what every author who wants to inspire people wants to hear, “It’s like Oprah– in the best way!” From there, he went on to talk about how our title seemed like something America needed, and something that everyone could use. Needless to say, that made us feel like we were on the right track.
We realized that “The Power in the Body” may have seemed too much like a fitness title. One of Linda’s co-workers summed it up well when when I was first contemplating the name change. She remarked, “ I like the title with the word ‘brave’ in it. I’m not much of a ‘body’ gal but I want to be braver.” Our new title felt more universal and accessible to her, which is exactly how we hope our book will feel.
Tegan’s co-worker agreed that “One Brave Thing a Day” is more concrete and upbeat. Right away, readers get a sense that this memoir may have lessons everyone can use.
But some of the reactions are positive with a catch. “Oh man that means I have to do 365 of these in a year?” asked the Keeneys’ family doctor. Linda smiled and told him he had probably made a phone call or two he didn’t want to make before he saw her and after he saw her he was going to face a few more tasks that he really didn’t want to do either. She said, “I just don’t think you give yourself credit for the hard things you do do every day.”
So be sure to acknowledge the hard things you’ve already done. You already are brave! Recognize your courage and celebrate it.
Click “more” to see four titles that made Tegan pick up the books…
Read more…
Happy New Year!
