She's Got Skillz: Pagan Erotica Novelist

MySavvySisters celebrates women who love to showcase their personalities through the creative arts. This Pulitzer Prize nominated Pagan Erotica novelist is one of the most intriguing women we have had the chance to encounter.

In this interview we get to know her in a very profound way as she shares some of the obstacles she had to overcome in her quest to share her erotic writing, the importance of lust and love and why she believes Paganism empowers her life. She calls herself a sex witch, but don't be afraid, her writing casts spells like the Good Witch of the West.


Laura Stamps
Pagan Erotica Novelist
AVampskiss
My Kindle ebooks (all $0.99)


MSS: If someone asked you to describe yourself in one sentence what would you say?

Laura: I'm the Hooker with a Heart of Gold.

MSS: Those who love you the most love you because...

Laura: I'm a sweet Beta and all heart. I also never back down. When lemons come my way I make lemonade. Period.

MSS: What led you to begin writing erotica with such an interesting slant?

Laura: I'm a Wiccan Faery Witch, Otherkin Fey, and a sexual sorceress. That makes me a SexWitch, which is how most people on the web know me (the "SexWitch"). Sex is not only my career, but I have a raging hot libido, and I'm kinky as hell. As a novelist, I thought it was time someone wrote fiction that portrayed Pagans realistically. Not to mention Pagan men are some of the sexiest in any universe. Yum! For many people Witches, vampires, shapeshifters, and Fey are "paranormal." For those of us who are Pagan and half human (Otherkin), those kinds of beings are "normal." So my career choice was a natural for me. ~lol~

MSS: Briefly describe paganism and why it empowers you as a woman?

Laura: There are all kinds of different Pagan paths. Some are spiritual, some aren't. I'm a Wiccan. Wicca works for me because we follow two rules: 1.) The Wiccan Rede (do as you will as long as it hurts no one) and 2.) The Rule of Three (whatever you say, do, or think will come back to you 3-fold). I'm a royal Seelie from the High Court. The Seelie are known for their code of honor, so being Wiccan jives well with that for me. Most Pagan paths are feminist in that we worship one or more Goddesses from a variety of pantheons. When people ask me about Wicca, I tell them it's a basically peaceful, feminist, nature religion.

MSS: What is the most misunderstood aspect of your lifestyle and how do you help people to understand it?

Laura: Today is a good example. A woman I know found out who I am (the best-selling Pagan Erotica Novelist in the world). She's a funde Christian. We have always gotten along well. Today she treated me like the Devil's Spawn. I can understand why she thinks that. There have been waaaaaay too many false rumors spread about Pagans for the last 2000+ years by the major religions. Plus, I live in the Deep South Bible Belt. When she decides to talk to me again I will tell her: 1.) Pagans don't worship the Devil (or Satan) because we don't believe in him and 2.) Christianity invented the Devil, not Pagans.

As a Wiccan, I'm what they call a "White Witch." We go around doing good all day. I often say a White Witch is the best friend you could ever have since we live by the two Rules I mentioned above. Just imagine how different the world would be if the major religions lived by The Rede and the Rule of Three?

MSS: Can you describe the process behind organizing and writing your books? What inspires you?

Laura: I write 3 fiction series and one nonfiction Memoir series. "The Witchery Series" is the main fiction series. It is the only one that is not erotica. That's because romantic erotica didn't become popular until after 2005. The first book in this series (The Witches of Dixie) is an anthology of the first 4 novels and novellas in this series written from 1997 - 2003 and published by other publishers who eventually went out of biz (like many publishers do).

When I sold the series to Trytium Publishing in 2007, he put those 4 books together in one book. That novel is the only one of mine with no sex or romance because of the time period in which it was written. Instead it is very empowering for women and incredibly magickal. It's actually one of my fans' favs. The next two novels in that trilogy were published in 2007 and 2008 with Trytium. The second is a romance, and the third is erotic romance. All the other series (The Rune Witch trilogy and The Manigault Vampires) are erotica, and are spin-off series from this one.

My novels are all character-driven. The same cast of characters wanders through each one no matter the series, so readers never feel lost. All are Pagan and empowering, containing real spells, chants, and rituals. Because my books are character-driven I allow my characters to tell their story. They rarely follow an outline so I don't use one. They determine how long a book will be.

Because I started out in this biz 24 years ago as a poet, all my novels are handwritten in one spiral notebook after another until they are finished. A novel usually takes a month to write in first draft this way. I just figure out the hero/heroine, the plot, the climax, the ending, set the scene for the first chapter, and let my characters tell the story. Several universities collect my papers and archives, and they love the handwritten notebooks. Then I begin the tedious process of editing. That usually takes 8 months for a novel because I am a meticulous editor, and my readers expect a high level of quality from my books.

MSS: What role does romantic love play in your life and work?

Laura: Love is my magickal energy and my destiny. Love is the most powerful form of energy in any universe. Romantic love is everything to me. My novels are all romantic. I'm a very sexual woman. I want to be loved and appreciated by a man. Lust and sex go together for me. I can't and won't separate them. And I won't settle for less.

MSS: How do you define success and how do you suggest other women define it?

Laura: Success is any goal you achieve, large or small. I was an artist before I changed careers at 30. I had always been told I had writing talent when I was in high school and college but I am also dyslexic. Painting was easier for me, and I won lots of awards for it. My paintings are still sold worldwide by my fine art publisher in California (Haddad's Fine Arts, Inc.) as prints and posters.

But by the time I was 30 I gave up the struggle and taught myself how to write. That is success because it took 4 years. Since then I have published 53 books with various publishers. My stories and poems have been published in over 1000 magazines and anthologies, including the 2004 anthology "Open My Eyes, Open My Soul" edited by Yolanda King, Martin Luther King's daughter. In that book my poems are next to those by Maya Angelou, Muhammad Ali, and Stevie Wonder. I was also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, and my resume of awards and honors is over 80 pages long. That is success for a dyslexic.

In 2009 I went with an agent who also had Donald Trump as a client. I was trying to reach the next step in my career. I was approaching 50 and tired of working my cute little ass off 24/7. Instead he killed my career. By the time I dumped him in 2010 I was just about ruined. He had let me go 16 months without a new book being published, and I lost almost all my fans. My income was down to $30 a month in royalties. At the same time my husband fell in with a bad crowd, and my marriage crashed. It was the kind of complete and total disaster some women never recover from.

What did I do? I stopped talking for a week while I took a look at what had happened. It scared the daylights out of everyone close to me. Then I said, "Fuck this shit!" I hit the ground running and I took control again, working my ass of until 4:00am every morning 7 days a week for 18 months. I went into ebook, built up my fan base, and became the best-selling Pagan Erotica novelist in the world. Now my books spend more time on the Kindle bestsellers lists now than off. I was blessed by the small group of fans who did stick with me. I was blessed to met an incredible woman with the techy skills I needed (Alex), and she helped me enter the ebook market with my company, Kittyfeather Press. I also re-signed with Trytum for paperback rights of "The Witchery Series" after my exagent bought my contract out the year before. That is success for a woman whose career and personal life were destroyed by clueless Alpha men.

In 2011, I burned out twice from exhaustion, my fiancé died, and by the end of the year I had met and fallen in love with a wonderful sweet man. My goal this year is to cut my schedule back to humane hours and make room for my incredible love life with this man. Each time I get closer to this goal that is how I define success at the moment.

In April I will be 55. I'm a runner and an organic vegetarian and model in my trashy panties for the covers of my Memoir Series. It's been a helluva ride, and it ain't over yet! ~wink~ Like I said, success is any goal you achieve, large or small. Women achieve both kinds every year. And every time we do we should celebrate because we are AWESOME!!

Vibe with the Sex Witch by visiting her on:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/sexwitch
My Pagan social site, Pagan-Place: http://www.pagan-place.com/profile/LauraStamps
Google Plus: http://www.gplus.to/SexWitch

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Take Control of Your Career Now

By Darcy Eikenberg, ACC
Author, Bring Your Superpowers to Work: Your Guide to More Clarity, Confidence & Control

A client recently said to me, “I’d love to stay at this company, but I don’t see how I can grow unless my boss leaves. It’s sad, but really, I have no control.”

I looked at her, aghast. Here was a smart, successful professional whose outward appearance would never hint that she felt she had no control over something as important as her career growth. And somehow, she had no idea of how much control she actually had.

Do you know someone like that? Or, are you someone like that? If so, you’re not alone. Increasingly in our new world of work, we’ve let ourselves believe that we can take control “when,” as in:

“ . . . when this project wraps up . . .”
“ . . . when we get a new department head . . .”
“ . . . when the economy gets better . . .”


Yes, as John Mayer sings, we keep waiting on the world to change. And we wait. And wait.

But you don’t have to. You can take control of your career right now by knowing the three elements you can always control. Add them all together, and they make a huge difference in your career, in your work, and in your life.

1. You Can Control What You Think
As the saying goes, “a mind is a terrible thing to waste.” So’s a mindset. Your mindset is your view on the world, your beliefs, your mental DVD’s that get played over and over again.

Your mindset is also 100% chosen by you, whether you realize it or not. Yes, you may struggle with beliefs that you’ve had for years, taught by your parents or our communities. But as we grow up, we can make the choice to accept those thoughts—or replace them with new ones that work better for us.

You take control when you decide what to think, adopting the mindset that reflects the person you want to be—one who has your unique superpowers and who brings them to her work and her world. Once you’re in control of your thoughts, no one can take them away from you. They’re yours for life.

2. You Can Control What You Say
Too often we’re silent on issues that are important to us—and that silence is interpreted as acceptance. Once your thoughts are in order, it’s time to bring them into the world with your words.

Where can you speak up instead of pipe down? Say kind things rather than criticize? Or ask tough questions rather than wonder? It’s amazing how much clarity we can find quickly at work when we ask instead of guess.

It’s true that when you’re in the mode of speaking your mind, you may say something uncomfortable or even hurtful. But you already know the words to say then—“I’m sorry.” Don’t let your fear of saying the wrong things stop you from taking control of what you do say. The risk of not saying anything is far greater.

3. You Can Control What You Do
If you saw a lost child in the road, would you wait until someone gave you permission to move her to safety? Probably not. But when you see someone lost at work (or a project that’s lost its way) are you waiting for someone to tell you it’s okay to help?

My bet is you know what to do. You know how you can help; how you can make the situations in front of you better right now. No matter what your role, when you’re taking control of the things that matter, you become a leader. Good leaders don’t wait to be told; they see pain and do what they can to bring healing. They see the broken and use their gifts as the glue.

It’s time to become the leader you were meant to be. Take control of your career by controlling what you think, say, and do, and start making a bigger difference for your work, your workplace, and maybe even your world.





Darcy Eikenberg, ACC, is the author of Bring Your Superpowers to Work: YourGuide to More Clarity, Confidence & Control, and a popular workplace coach and speaker. You can download a free chapter of her book, get her twice-monthly Community News, and access more free tips and tools on Darcy’s career and success site RedCapeRevolution.com.

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The Smart Girls Way To Entrepreneurship

Jean Brittingham
Seattle, Washington
www.SmartGirlsWay.com

MSS: Tell us about the inspiration behind The Smart Girl's Way. What changed in your life to help you to first seek to learn a smarter way to do things?

Around five years ago, I became obsessed with the idea that women could make a huge impact on the way that businesses and the world were run if we could only embrace the ways in which we are different from men and bring those significant differences to scale. Traits like passion, collaboration and weaving are critical for our success as society on planet earth. At the time, I—and many of the other women I knew—were being called upon to intervene in the largely negative paradigms impacting the triple bottom line—planet, people, and profit. After spending 17 years in the field of sustainability, I also came to realize that we weren’t going to change the existing culture from within. If we are going to restore equilibrium to the planet and sustain viable societies that work for people and business, we need to bring many more women into the conversation. We need to give assure economic and political parity to create a culture that not only embraces the benefits and contributions of diversity, but reaps the benefits of that diversity.

Around that time I began interviewing successful women, looking for the common set of
attributes that had helped them succeed, and in particular, looking for the “slip” factor—the point at which women give up their feminine approaches to problems because of the pressure of the more dominant, patriarchal win/lose culture we have today. It was this research that led me to uncover the unique strengths that women bring to business. I also saw the growing trend of entrepreneurship as the fastest, and most interesting, path towards that future.

MSS: Tell us about your personality traits. What is it that you believe you developed that has led you toward becoming a teacher of success?

All entrepreneurs have a sense of fearlessness and drive—at least when we find something we feel passionate about. For many women, our personality isn’t the driver; it is our sense of Integrity that leads us towards entrepreneurship. A burning desire to solve a problem and build something we can be proud of. When we have this we can leverage our Creativity… follow our Intuition…and feel simultaneously challenged and fulfilled. For me this manifested in the idea
of championing the cause of women—and in particular individual entrepreneurs. Ultimately I am a very pragmatic person. I’m action oriented and believe in doing something about injustice or what’s not working. When I was in high school in a very, very small town in eastern Oregon, I started a group that was focused on helping disabled teens. I did that because these kids were being marginalized and hurt through no fault of their own. It wasn’t fair. At the heart of my heart is a strong belief that justice can and should prevail. So now my beliefs translate into this work for women entrepreneurs. I believe that women are the key to a balanced future and I want to ignite the strengths and alliances we need to create to build a sustainable future.

Trust is something that is both freely given and also earned. I am an entrepreneur like everyone else and face the same obstacles that all other entrepreneurs face. I have learned some things along the way and it is my passion to share that experience with other women and celebrate the attributes we bring to every business, every day. I’m also a tireless seeker of truth. The research that I commissioned at the beginning of my company and the interviews we have done for the 100x100 are directly related to seeking that truth.

MSS: At the end of the day, we all want to work for ourselves. What sets the women who WILL apart from the women who WON’T?

What an interesting concept. I suppose that everyone who is reading and engaging here—your audience at Savvy Sisters—does want to work for herself. But entrepreneurship is clearly not for everybody. But I do think all women want to work for someone or something that makes a difference—so even the women who are not here looking to be entrepreneurs are seeking meaning in the work they do and the lives they live.

Every entrepreneurial story begins with a Vision-inspired Big Idea, a ViBI™. The challenge for any entrepreneur (man or woman) is turning that ViBI into a viable business. We created the SmartGirls Mirror as a means to help women discover and grow their ViBI. The biggest hurdles facing women entrepreneurs is a lack of confidence and a lack of access to the people, capital and community they need to be successful. We call our tool the SmartGirls Mirror to take the confidence issue head-on. We want women to not only like what they see in the mirror but to understand that what they see in the mirror is defined self-defined. The SG Mirror is a tool that helps them see and focus on their STRENGTHS and helps them tap into the skills they need to be successful.

MSS: Can you offer a gunshot start up advice for women who need that one last push to move toward becoming an entrepreneur?

The 2011 100x100 Project had a lot of goals, but one of them was to understand what helped women entrepreneurs take the leap. We just don’t believe that so few women entrepreneurs want financially successful business. While the statistic of women owning 34% of the non-publically held companies but only representing 4% of the GNP is alarming, we wanted to know for sure what this means—do women really not want financial success? Do we not care? Or are there other things in our way.

Time and time again, the successful (and sometimes still struggling) women entrepreneurs told us three things: Don’t take no for an answer; Surround yourself with people who know more than you do; Stay the course!

What’s the greater risk: Not following your vision and living a life of regret? Or, taking a risk and building the business you’ve dreamed of?

MSS: What has been your biggest obstacle so far in achieving your goal of teaching women and how did you overcome it?

Probably time and resources: Time in that everything takes more time (and money) than you think it will; Resources in that building a business requires more than one person. It takes time to build the relationships with the team, investors and customers you need to achieve success. It really is a relationship building process. Fortunately, most women are very good at building relationships.

MSS: What hopes do you have for your own future and the future of Smart Girls Way?

We are laser focused at SmartGirls Way on uniting the women’s entrepreneurial movement. This includes the investors and organizations that support women entrepreneurs, as well as connecting women entrepreneurs with other women like them. We have some great ideas for assuring that the creation of a constellation—a network of stars—can happen quickly efficiently and intuitively, building powerful global connections that will assure that women entrepreneurs have the opportunity and access they need to build the future we want—for ourselves, our children and their children.

For more information about Jean Brittingham's life changing book, visit www.smartgirlsway.com

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Change Your Life In One Easy Step

Change Your Conversation, Change Your Life has started a movement destined to change the lives of participants for the rest of their lives. The creators of this program, Malinda Dowsett and Lani Barna, share their vision. “Our mission is to touch a million lives and to have that million turn around and touch a million more, so we are all creating a karmic wave of changing conversations together.” ~ Malinda and Lani

Malinda Dowsett, 38, and Lani Barna, 55, are longtime friends who hit rock bottom. Two women who turned to each other and empowered each other to become the strong, independent women they always knew they could be. Working together, they changed everything about their lives, one conversation at a time.

They overcame some of life's toughest hurdles -- divorce, suicide, near fatal experiences, single parenthood, devastating financial disaster and internal personal struggle – and it wasn’t easy. From failure to success they overcame years of self-defeating, habitual behavior by implementing the principles they put forward in their new book, “Change Your Conversation, Change Your Life” and into the real world around them.They began listening to, and changing, the stories they told about their lives.

Acclaimed authors and speakers Dowsett and Barna tell captive audiences that every question we ask, every conversation we have, is the Law of Attraction at work. The spark that sets everything else in motion. The first step towards the fulfillment and completion we all seek. And although sometimes the first step down a long path seems small in comparison to the journey, it is vital because without it there would be no journey at all.

Malinda and Lani demonstrate how to manage thought and move life beyond the physical senses to the inner peace and joy we all seek. “Our lives are like a movie,” they say, “At any moment we can re-write the script by letting go of junk we carry around for years, overcoming self-doubt and self-loathing and get on with the life we really want to live.”

The key is knowing that our true, inner self is the energy behind every thought we have. Deliberately changing our conversation – the way we talk about our life – changes the vibration we hold ourselves to and every experience we attract into our world. When you hold the vibration of how you want an experience to feel, you begin to enjoy your life because we are always going to choose well-being and joy. The only question we must ask ourselves is, how long can we hold a new thought?

Malinda's Story

“After being married for six years, separated for a year and then losing my husband to suicide in 2005, my life was in complete shambles. On the outside everybody thought I was doing pretty well until I decided to remarry a year later out of complete fear. At that point I had never been so scared in my life. I was raising two children on my own, running my own business and totally disconnected from myself. All my life I thought I was supposed to be married, work hard, be a good mom, a loving person and the rest would come out in the wash. When my husband died I wasn't sure what direction I was moving in. I felt lost and completely alone.

“My conversations with myself were ones of despair, guilt, depression, and anger. I didn't think I had it in me to stand on my own two feet – as a matter of fact I didn't want to stand on my own two feet. Deep down I didn't think I was capable of taking care of myself much less my children. I woke up every morning wanting someone to just take it all away. I didn't have the strength to deal with the enormous pain I was carrying around. I thought if I just kept going, all of it would eventually go away.

“Two years into my second marriage, I had totally isolated myself from my family and friends. I was emotionally and mentally at absolute rock bottom. My second marriage was incredibly unhealthy, every thought I had beat me up, tore me down and left me feeling angry, depressed, anxious, guilty, and with no self-worth. Through it all, I denied, ignored and dismissed the fundamental emotional patterns that were driving my life and everything my life reflected this pain back to me. I knew I was destined to repeat the same pattern if something didn't change. It was like waking up each day and rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic knowing that the end result would keep repeating itself as a complete disaster. Unless I wanted more of the same, I was going to have change from the inside out but where to begin? Then one day I received an e-mail from an old friend, Lani Barna.

“Lani and I had not spoken in two years since I had re-married and her e-mail was a wake-up call. We very quickly picked up right where we had left off and spent long hours on the phone talking about what had come our way and where we were in our respective lives. Our conversations had always been on a more spiritual side, and during the time that we had lost touch with each other, Lani had begun a personal journey of her own, studying the non-physical side of herself, her thoughts and how to control them. Through her studies and research she had become quite advanced in her thinking and in our conversations she began sharing her new-found knowledge with me.

“On a personal level she was coming to terms with her own life struggles: a near-death car accident, another divorce and a terminally ill mother. She abruptly ended a successful career in corporate America and left a well-paying job and the prestige of an important sounding title to move her mother into her home and care for her during her final days.

“Living quietly with her mother, Lani used that time to rediscover who she was and reconnect with the side of herself she had lost bit by bit over the years. When she wasn't caring for her Mother, she studied everything she could on being human and what this thing we call “reality” really is. She studied quantum physics, neurobiology and human consciousness. She searched the internet, subscribed to cutting edge newsletters and read books. Without the noise and distraction of a daily commute and endless meetings, Lani found – and began to feel – the energy side of her inner self again. She felt as if she was meeting herself again for the first time. She discovered that her shift in perspective provided her with an incredible opportunity to learn, grow, and finally take control of her life.

“As we talked, we discovered the need to stop asking the question, “Why is this happening to me?” and begin asking ourselves the question, “Why is this happening for me?” There is a cosmic difference in these two questions. The first one leads us down the path of victimhood, martyrdom, or feeling that there is something wrong with us. The second one takes us down a path towards deeper growth, spiritual awareness and healing.

“Our experiential knowing of this fundamental truth quickly changed our conversations from ones full of negativity and “what is” to the spiritual journey of personal growth we are all on. We began helping each other move past what we had created in our lives that no longer felt good by slowly letting go of false expectations -- of ourselves and others -- and coming to terms with the personal responsibility and accountability for all that we had, and continue, to create.

“As Lani and I peeled back the layers of our lives we discovered that there are four principles involved in the process of creating every human experience: thoughts, feelings, inner guidance and choice. We began to step back and look at every experience that no longer served us objectively, like it was the next door neighbor’s life. One by one we resolved these experiences through forgiveness and a deep sense of gratitude. Did we not choose them at one time? Did they not serve us? Do we now not know even more clearly what we want now? Now let them go.

“We began to stop pushing others to change their ways to make us happy. We began seeing every experience as a gift to more completely discover who we are and what we are made of. Are we courageous? Are we kind? We saw every difficult person as a way to more clearly express our core beliefs. Is this really what I believe a marriage should feel like? Is this really the relationship I want with my kids? We used every mistake to help us become even more clear about our purpose, our beliefs, and how the law-of-attraction works in our lives. Is this really who I think I am? Is this really what I want to be? We realized that every conversation we have with ourselves and others either builds us up or tears us down. We learned that when we get to the place where we become aware of how each thought makes us feel, we will always move towards choosing a better-feeling thought because all of us want to be happy and experience joy. We got quiet. And as we quietly nurtured a new relationship with ourselves, we began using contrast as a way to determine, once again, what we really want to feel.

“As soon as I began applying these four principles to the big things in my life I began seeing more and more opportunity to move my life in the direction I really wanted to go. I started to feel like I was gaining back control of my life. I started to feel a little more like me. Every day I began finding my strengths again. I began building myself back from the ground up again. My life began to turn around.

“I separated from my second husband shortly thereafter, and with new eyes and an open mind, am purposefully and intentionally creating the loving home I always wanted for me and my children. I have become incredibly quiet in my mind as a result of letting go of all the drama swirling around me that I did not create. I feel an expansive inner peace I would have never known if I had not courageously looked at and broken through all the major issues in my life. I have now feel enormous strength and gratitude from every life experience that once caused me pain. Releasing beliefs and ideas that no longer served me opened up a huge amount of space in my life for the things I truly love and believe in. I am no longer in limbo. I am living my dream.

“After a year of helping each other turn our lives around, we knew that we wanted to share this simple, amazing information with everyone around us. We wanted to help everyone know that our minds are meant to serve us, not control us. We want to demonstrate how easy life can be if we would but relax, get to know ourselves, and get out of our own way. Life is supposed to be abundant, fun, exciting, adventurous, expanding, and ever-evolving! This was knowledge worth sharing. This was information we knew would immediately help others understand that they do not have to suffer unnecessarily any more. Change Your Conversation was born.

“In January 2010 Lani and I took a leap of faith and began teaching others how to use life's everyday contrasts to create a better feeling life. We now speak in front of groups of people ranging from women of domestic abuse to corporate executives and show people in a very real way how to use a tool they already use every day – their conversation – to identify their core beliefs, become clear about what they want and move. In less than a year Change Your Conversation became an overnight success touching thousands of people with real stories and changing lives. Today more than 4,000 people in over 62 countries follow our daily inspirational thoughts and teachings on human potential and purpose. We call it “The Power of Conversation” and we are living proof it is real.

So take heart ... you are not alone. Join us on a journey of self-discovery. Do not be afraid to listen to your thoughts. Learn the science behind what it really means to be human. Understand that your thoughts are like a magnet and to think is to create.

“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

We challenge you to start today. Take the first step towards creating the life you desire by entering into a powerful conversation with us that will change your life forever. Join us at: www.changeyourconversation.com.

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The 1% Mentality - The Difference Between The Haves And The Have Nots

In the midst of the Occupy Wall Street protests, investigative journalist and Success Coach Te-Erika Patterson reveals the top 12 traits of the wealthy elite in her latest eBook, The 1% Mentality- The Difference Between The Haves and The Have Nots.

This eBook, available on Kindle, explores 12 distinct mental perspectives that the 1% have that are different from the lower class, enabling them to prosper beyond their wildest dreams. You too can become a part of the 1% by adopting these perspectives and pushing their principles to the limit.


About The Author

Te-Erika Patterson is an inspirational journalist and the publisher of MySavvySisters.Com, the leading empowerment website for women. She is the founder of My Savvy Sisters, Inc., a non profit organization dedicated to providing financial and emotional relief for women in crisis.

Patterson is also the creator of The Rebuild Your Life Project, where she gave away everything that she owned and became homeless on purpose to teach women how to overcome their fear of failure. For four months she explored the homeless lifestyle and mentality and presented mental strategies for success as well as survival skills women need to rise again after an extreme failure. She documented her journey in and out of homelessness on her youtube channel and in writing on MySavvySisters.Com.

Download the Kindle App

Don't own a Kindle reader? You can download the Kindle app for free to your phone or PC to purchase The 1% Mentality- The Difference Between The Haves and The Have Nots.

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REVIEW: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Author: Rebecca Skloot

Reviewed by L. Cherelle


The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a riveting story about an African American woman’s unsung contribution to medicine. While undergoing treatment for cervical cancer in 1951, two tissue samples were removed from Henrietta’s cervix and sent to a cell culture lab for examination without her knowledge. One of the samples led to a massive discovery—the first immortal human cells—which assisted in the cure and treatment of many illnesses. For years, Henrietta was only known in the medical and scientific communities as the infamous HeLa—an acronym for her immortal cells. Her family, however, remained in the dark about the ever-growing cells and the multimillion-dollar industry that was birth as a result of them.

This nonfiction work delves into a pivotal scientific breakthrough and the lives of Henrietta’s descendants. It provides an extensive account about Henrietta’s life and cancer, the medical professionals she encountered, her invaluable cells and their implications in science. Page after page, you develop an unrelenting need to find out what happens to the family; why they where oblivious to Henrietta’s cells; what, if any, restitution is made to the family; and if there are any ramifications for those who researched and sold HeLa.

To counter the extensive fact based reporting, Skloot weaves legal, medical, scientific, familial and cultural journeys into a narrative that accelerates the pace of the hefty book and keeps each chapter interesting. And Skloot does so mostly through the words and experiences of Deborah, Henrietta’s second daughter. I wish that a greater portion of the book were devoted to Henrietta’s importance in science. There was a point in which I learned too much about Deborah, her siblings and their children. Sadly, Deborah (and the family in general) became a spectacle and her plight began to overshadow her mother’s significance during the reading.

I found myself laughing out loud at Deborah, rather than siding with her emotional, uphill battle to find peace in her mother’s death and immortality. In addition, Skloot uses examples such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study to trace related cultural and medical instances in American history that brought forth forums on ethics, rights, consent, and race-based medicine. Given that Henrietta was a Black woman who suffered and died from cervical cancer, I wonder why Skloot never mentioned Black women’s role in the development of gynecology. In doing so, she could have made a profound connection between the use of women’s bodies as research subjects in medical advancements pre and post chattel slavery.

Despite those weaknesses of the book, you can’t finish “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” without feeling some ounce of gratefulness for Henrietta, sympathy for her family, or questioning your stance about donorship and consent, ownership and compensation, or exploitation and bioethics. It leads you to question your physical and societal worth.

If you seek an educational nonfiction read rooted in hard-hitting fact and monumental legacy, you will find the “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” an appreciated literary adventure.

L. Cherelle is the author of “Accept the Unexpected’ and manager of Resolute Publishing—a publishing collective for women. She is a graduate of The University of Tennessee with bachelor and master degrees in Fine Arts/Graphic Design and Business Administration, respectively. To view her books, magazine, and projects, visit www.ResPublishing.com.

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How To Write Your Own Self Help Book in 12 Days

By Te-Erika Patterson

Anyone can publish a book these days. With the emergence of POD (publish on demand) companies where authors can write and upload their books for sale to customers on an as needed basis as well as the Kindle book publishing method, many are realizing their dream of holding their very own books in their hand and adding the word AUTHOR to their biographies. In this article I will teach you the process behind writing your own self help book in 12 days.

Organizing Your Book – Day One

Organizing a book will only take one day as you prepare the outline. Decide on a topic for your book. I usually decide on the name of my book first and it inspires me throughout my writing process.

After you have your topic, write down 10 questions your book will answer concerning your topic. Each of these questions will become your book chapters. Since most books have 10 chapters you can add more if you’d like, but you don’t have to.

Now you should have a book title and a list of questions (chapters). For each question write down as many answers to the question as you can think of. List these answers as bullets under each question. Move through each of your chapters this way until you have outlined all of them.

Writing Your Book – Day Two through Eleven

You can write one chapter a day by deciding which day you want to write and sitting down to do it. You already have the topic questions and the answers, all you have to do is expound on each answer. Use examples, share stories, resources and information to validate your views.

Write out one chapter per day and don’t worry about editing anything, that will come later.

Polishing Your Book's Structure– Day Twelve

Now that you have the guts of your book written you can go ahead and change the chapter questions to statements. Be creative with your chapter headings. Write headings that will grab attention and also support your book title. Add an introduction to your book that explains why you wrote the book and how the reader will benefit from reading it.

The rest of the process is editing and you’ll have to develop your own strategy for that. For tips on structure, editing, formulating plots for fiction books and how to market your book, I highly recommend that you order Nick Daws' Course How To Write A Book in 28 Days. This will become your new book writing bible. It was extremely useful to me. I wrote my first self help book in just 6 weeks while a full time graduate student and single mom.

Happy Writing!

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Kindle Apps Are Free For Your Phone Or PC

If you want to be in on the latest trend in technology for literature you should buy a Kindle reader. But, the real deal with the Kindle doesn't come with a sticker price because it's FREE.

You can now download Kindle apps to your phone or your PC for free. You will be able to instantly download all kinds of books, blogs or newspapers for less than the price of a print copy and many of your favorite books are free.

My Savvy Sisters is listed under Kindle blogs. You can subscribe to us on your Kindle app as well.

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My Savvy Sister Of The Week- Kathryn Alice

Kathryn Alice is the author of Love Will Find You:9 Magnets To Bring You And Your Soulmate Together, a guide to helping singles to prepare for their soulmates. Kathryn is a celebrated author, speaker and love experts. Her workshops teach singles how to believe in and connect with their ONE before the physical meeting. Kathryn's book teaches that you will connect with your soulmate wherever you are in life without having to change or transform.

My Savvy Sisters caught up with Kathryn as she vacationed with her husband in Barbados. Kathryn and her husband have been married for 10 years and enjoy spending the winter months vacationing in the Caribbean.

As we chatted, I could feel the positive love energy that exuded from Kathryn's core. She shared with me that she wasn't always this content. "I was an insecure wreck trying to find my way," she said. "I thought of myself as a failure. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life until I was 35."

Kathryn said she always wanted to be a writer but she became a publicist to pay the bills. Working to care for her child as a single parent, Kathryn almost gave up on her dream. "It was by the grace of God," she asserted. "I had been a failure in life and one day I taught a workshop and that very first one was so well attended that I had an epiphany. When you find your calling, things start going well. It's like a natural flow."

Before the flow of life eased her into the comfort she enjoys now, Kathryn said she had to do a lot of inner work, beginning with affirmations like, "Life is easy. God can make a way."

She would repeat these statements over and over until she felt that they were her truths. "I would journal out my frustrations and then I would leave that negative state and focus on where I wanted to go instead of where I was at the time," she said.

Kathryn Alice offers My Savvy Sisters 5 Things You Should Never Do When Hoping To Attract Your Soulmate:

1. Don't sell yourself short. Most people go into it thinking the other person's doing them a favor and they have to compromise to keep them. The biggest attribute that contributes to attraction is self confidence.

2. Don't believe the statistics. The studies show so many negative things that will keep you feeling hopeless about love. Ignore them. I've seen people get married at every weight, at every age and from every race.

3. Don't make it into a logical thing. Let go and trust that you will have what you desire. When you're in a good mood and you allow it to happen, it happens.

4. Do nothing about it. Sometimes its best to include unstructured time in your schedule. Hop in your car and say, "I am going to stop where I land." Sit home and don't do anything productive. Just the gesture of doing something unstructured leads the way to a playful feeling of energy that calls in your soulmate.

"If you want love you get it, "Kathryn asserts. "It's incredible and it's so much fun and it will be nothing like you've ever had before. When you meet your soulmate there are all of these extra gifts that you get that makes it even better than what you could imagine. It's okay to hope for love. That longing for your soulmate indicates that you have one and it will lead you two together."

To learn more about Kathryn visit her website at KathrynAlice.com.




For My Savvy Sisters: Have you met your soulmate? Are you still hoping for one? Are you doing anything specific to attract them?

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