Name: Crystal
Posts by crystalstranaghan:
- spending time with husband & daughter 10%
- writing 1%
- spending time with friends 5%
- generating income 84%
SUCCESS STORY: OLIVER NEUBERT
February 17th, 2012
MEET OLIVER NEUBERT:
Oliver Neubert was born in West Germany in 1961 and took a long route to discover his passion for writing the stories that come to life in his vivid imagination. His detours included getting his degree in Psychology and Economics from Simon Fraser University in BC and an MBA from Hariot-Watt University in Scotland; founding his own research company; working for a financial institution; and working in the pulp and paper industry.
As a boy, Oliver loved to play all sorts of sports, soccer, tennis, volleyball, basketball and swimming. Being born a Pisces, it comes as no surprise that he loves to swim!
Oliver lives in Vancouver, BC, and draws inspiration from his natural surroundings and from his wonderful, creative daughter.
OLIVER’S ONLINE IN THE FOLLOWING PLACES:
WEBSITE: www.oliverneubert.com
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/#!/OliverNeubert
FACEBOOK: Oliver Neubert
CHATTING WITH OLIVER
What was/is your dream or goal?
To write fantasy / adventure stories that intrigue the reader and expose them to new worlds and ideas based on some real life issues. I try to engage the reader in being creative and by allowing the reader to add to the story by challenging their imagination. I base my stories on past experiences, past failures and past successes. By introducing fantasy / fable characters I allow my dreams and fears to come alive on paper.
What did/do you find most difficult about getting started?
At the beginning, six years ago, I didn’t realize how much pleasure I would get out of writing and creating new characters, new worlds, and new adventures. I have a very vivid imagination and the stories I want to tell come easily to my mind. When I write, I sometimes drift away from my original idea, but in the end it all comes together. Most difficult for me is to find the time to write. There are so many factors in my life that keep me busy and occupied. Another issue is the publication of my books. It is so difficult to find publishers / agents these days, that it is almost impossible to bring my ideas to the reader. That is why I have decided to self publish my latest trilogy - The Wind of Life.
What have you found most rewarding about going after your dream?
Realizing that there are so many readers / children who like my stories. The interesting questions and feedback that I receive which makes me appreciate the intelligence and individuality of the inquisitive minds who actually take the time and contact me.
Do you feel the process of going after your goals has changed you?
I have become more confident when talking to people about my books and stories, because I am passionate about it. My writing style has changed based on the feedback from my editors and from my readers. It is easier for me to just sit down and focus to write since I have started. I have learned so much about the publishing industry and there is still so much more to learn, but having created books, by starting with the story, designing the cover and getting it printer and distributed is very rewarding.
What have you learned/accomplished so far during this process?
I have published not only paperback books, but also e-books. I have also learned that the most important process is to use professional people, like editors, designers, printers and distributors, because in the end, you are being judged by your readers who are looking for a professional product that they can enjoy.
What piece(s) of advice would you give to people who are working towards a goal similar to yours?
Be patient and professional, but never give up your dream. It takes time and research to find the right balance of what you want to achieve and what you can achieve. Nothing comes easy and nothing is for free so be careful to whom you listen to and follow. Today every writer has to become also a marketing and public relations person, they have to promote themselves and find ways to become noticed. Not an easy task beside writing, editing and publishing.
Were Crystal and/or Jared helpful to you in some way, and if so how did Crystal and/or Jared help you to get closer to your goal?
Without the time, help, input and information from Crystal, I would have never reached my goal so quickly and so successfully. After reading Crystal and Jared’s books: “Self Publishing for Profit” and “Book Marketing Mixology”, I contacted all the suggested resources and had my first book “The Wind of Life – The Flyers” published within nine months, the second book “The Wind of Life – The Wanderers” followed three months later. I am still using Crystal services on a face-to-face bases to keep on track with my marketing plan and strategy.
Oliver will have a book launch on Thursday, February 23 2012 at 7 PM at the Lyceum at 3696 West 8 Ave, Vancouver, B.C. Everybody is welcome to attend and hear the latest about his new books. If you’d like to get in contact with Oliver to give him feedback on his books, you can email him through the contact form on his website at www.oliverneubert.com.
Streamlining your life, and improving productivity
October 25th, 2011Every so often, it’s good to really give your life and your habits a spring cleaning. After several months of never having more than a couple days at a time at home and a series of massive life changes – there comes a time to take stock of where you find yourself and hit the reset button.
There are some really interesting suggestions that we have been implementing in our lives lately that I’m finding to be very successful so I thought that I should share them with you as I know many of you creative types are dealing with the same kinds of frustrations that I do on a daily basis.
Streamlining your life
#1 – Get rid of physical clutter around you. For us this meant mostly books, because we’ve always been bookish folks. Even before the publishing company we collected books just to read, not to sell! Now with most of the classics being available on e-readers for free, we donated to a charity book sale anything that we could get our hands on digitally unless it was a really special edition. 25 cases of books in fact. And we hardly made a dent in the existing collection… but it sure opened the space up and made me feel better.
#2 – Get rid of the mental clutter. We spend an awful lot of time and energy trying to remember the things we need to remember… so I went back to my OMNIFOCUS program to make sure I was acting on the principles from the Getting Things Done book and not trying to keep track of everything in my head. Downloading all those to-do’s helps free up the memory for actually processing things I do need to think about right now.
#3 – Get rid of the to-do’s that are haunting you. You know, like the dental check up you haven’t booked even though it’s 6 months overdue, or your taxes from last year, or the huge stack of thank you cards from your wedding still waiting to be posted (ahem). Whatever you least want to do, should probably be the thing you do first. They don’t get any easier the longer you wait…
#4 – Do a time spent to priority check. Make a list of the priorities in your life, and then assign an estimate to how much of your time per week is being spent on those things. For example:
Maybe it’s time for a realignment? Or maybe some of those items simply need to get eliminated from your life and scratched right off the list. Within each category you can analyze in more detail what is taking up all your time. For example, what work do you spend most of your time doing and how much of your income does it actually bring in? Can you cut back on those tasks that have the least return on your time invested and then spend that time on things higher up your priority list?
Increasing Productivity
#1 – Don’t check your email until right before lunch. Then don’t check it again until right before you quit for the day. The more emails you send, the more you get. And once you start checking, you are at a serious risk for distraction every time something comes in.
#2 – Decide the night before what your first and most urgent task at work will be the next morning. Start with that, then work your way through your “to do’s” in OmniFocus (or whatever program you use) in order of priority until it’s time to check your email. You’ll be amazed how far you get! And that way, if your email contains something that becomes an urgent priority item, you won’t be distracted and keep pushing the already existing urgent items further down on the agenda!
#3 – If possible, the first thing you do in your day should involve exercise. Walk to work, go to the gym, do some stretches and/or exercises before you sit down to your desk. It’ll get the blood and oxygen flowing to your brain and you’ll be more alert, quicker with all your tasks and feel better about yourself too. Repeat at midday, getting some time away from your desk to run errands, a quick walk over lunch or just do some stretching while you step outside for a quick breath of fresh air.
#4 – Avoid refined sugar and complex carbohydrates (most of the “white” stuff) as much as you can. You’ll be amazed at how tired you don’t feel in the afternoon. Seriously, just give it a week and see how much of a difference it makes!
Something that’s really working for you that I didn’t mention here? Share it with us in the comments section… we’re always looking for more ways to improve our lives!
3 Day Writing Challenge – Oct 5, 6, 7!
September 30th, 2011We have talked about participating in the 3 Day Novel Writing Contest before, but always found that the labour day long weekend was not a good time to carve out 3 days for solid writing and hibernation.
We both struggle with carving out enough time in a regular work week to make any significant headway on our fiction writing, so this year we decided that even though we couldn’t participate in the official event, we would schedule our own 3 days and just have a contest between ourselves.
Although challenging, it certainly did work. Some keys to success that we discovered over the course of the 3 days:
-block off everything else from your calendar
-make some great reheatable meals ahead of time (soup, stew, chili etc.)
-make sure that your story is well outlined in advance to keep the instances of writing yourself into a frustrating corner to a minimum
-disconnect the internet
-turning off your phone
-if you get stir crazy, don’t switch activities – just switch locations. Library, coffee shop, apartment, coffee shop, library…
In fact, the 3 day push worked so well that we’re planning to do it again in October. If you’d like to join us, we’re doing a mid-week one on October 5, 6, 7. Can’t commit to the whole day? What about 4 hours each day? What about 2 hours each day? Decide on something realistic and achievable for yourself, and then check in with us and let us know what your goals are. We’ll keep you posted on how we’re doing too…
Anybody else in?
Are you on Google+ yet?
September 29th, 2011Are any of you out there on Google+ yet? Jared Hunt and Crystal Stranaghan both are, and we’re looking to connect with other people with similar interests. For all you lurkers out there, feel free to add us to your circles! Now that they’ve taken it out of the “invite only” beta phase, all you have to do is go the the Google+ site and click the +you button!
Jared is extremely active on Google+ and has found it does everything he wants in a social media tool all in one place, and I am in the process of seeing how it works for me. Interestingly, the new Facebook updates are a blatant attempt to offer most of the same features (and even the same layouts!) as G+.
Add Jared to your circles:
Add Crystal to your circles:
Want to stay fit in the Vancouver area?
September 28th, 2011As you may have noticed, the posting over the summer on this site has not been nearly as frequent as it had been. We had our wedding reception in July, and followed that up with some time away to enjoy the sunshine that finally arrived and reset some patterns in our lives.
As part of our focus on paying some attention to our physical selves, we started hiking roughly once a week. Having made the decision to not own a car, we’ve been trying out all the hikes we could access by transit, and complete in a single day.
If you are interested in detailed ratings, guidelines and instructions for the various hikes we’ve been on, or just wanting to see some pretty views and hear about someone else’s effort, then you can check them out on Jared’s website.
If you have any recommendations for hikes we should add to our list, please do leave a comment below. Even if they’re not accessible by transit, we do have access to a vehicle when we need one.
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