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Four times a month, fulltime freelance writer Yvonne Perry and I cohost a teleclass for writers called Writers on Call.

These teleclasses take place on Thursday nights at 7:00 Central time. Since tonight is the 5th Thursday of the month, we’re offering a free session of Writers on Call.

If you’re a freelance writer, you’re welcome to join us, to find out if our weekly teleclasses might be just what you’ve been looking for to take your freelance writing career to the next level.

However, we do need to make sure we’ve reserved enough phone lines for this class tonight. So, send an email to suzanne@workingwriterscoach.com if you would like to join us, and I’ll send you the call in information you’ll need tonight.

During tonight’s teleclass, we’re going to talk about making small changes that can produce BIG results in anyone’s writing career. And Yvonne and I won’t just be talking TO each of the callers tonight, we’ll be talking WITH them.

Each participant will be answering 3 questions tonight.Plus, Yvonne and I will help each writer develop a marketing plan for the week and we’ll be checking in with each person next week to see how their plan went.

You’d better hurry if you’d like to join us tonight! Time is running out!

Title: Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact
Author: Annette Simmons
Publication Date: May 2, 2007
Price: $22.00 / $26.95 Canada
Pages: 240
ISBN: 0-8144-0914-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-8144-0914-5

We’d all like to learn how to win friends and influence people.

That’s just the nature of being human.

So how do we do it?

Well, according to Annette Simmons, author of Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact, we become master storytellers because stories can create immediate changes in people’s attitudes and their actions.

Whether we’re aiming to persuade, motivate, or inspire others, we can use stories to get the results we want.

Simmons identifies these six types of stories:

Who-I-Am Stories - We use these types of stories to earn the right to influence the person we are talking to.

Why-I-Am Here Stories - We use these types of stories to defuse the listener’s fears of being exploited.

Teaching Stories - Instead of offering advice, we use a story to create a shared experience and the listener learns from this shared experience.

Vision Stories - These stories help shrink obstacles for the listener, so he feels he CAN get what he wants.

Values-in-Action Stories - Values mean different things to different people. Use these stories to illustrate in action what the value means.

I-Know-What-You-Are-Thinking Stories - Use these stories to validate the listener’s suspicions and then dispel them, without sounding defensive.

Through engaging anecdotes, examples, and step-by-step exercises, Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins can help anyone tap into the amazing power of storytelling.

This is a wonderful new series on ShowTime. It’s an example of story telling at its best (if only we could all write like this).

You’ll be completely drawn in by the costumes, the brilliant acting, and the music as you get an insider’s view of King Henry the VIII as a young man.

In between episodes, read this absorbing book, The Boleyn Inheritance, by Philippa Gregory.

If you’ve been watching the series, as you read this book you’ll probably hear the background music from the show as you read.

This book will totally captivate you!

For other great books by Philippa Gregory, visit her website.

Freelance writers, Suzanne Lieurance and Yvonne Perry have made learning fun as they host Writers on Call — weekly teleclasses for writers. And, on May 31st only, they’re offering a sample class at no cost.

Subscribers to the class connect via telephone conference lines each Thursday at 7 p. m. Central Time to learn more about the freelance writing business. On a regular basis, Suzanne teaches weeks one and two of each month, and Yvonne takes the class on weeks three and four. Months with five weeks are open to the public for anyone who wants to see what information might be offered in the class before subscribing.

From time to time, publishers, marketing experts, and other successful freelance writers appear as guest teachers in the writing classes. A weekly agenda is published as an audio file each Monday so participants have an idea of what, or who, is coming to the virtual classroom that week.

Not only do they have fun, students also learn a lot from the professionals scheduled as special guests for these group telecoaching sessions.

“We’re especially proud of the fact that subscribers tell us how much they enjoy the teleclasses and how much they learn from them,” says Lieurance.

Published children’s author, Suzanne Lieurance, known as the “Working Writers Coach,” offers individual coaching sessions for writers on all skill levels. Yvonne Perry is the owner of Write On! Creative Writing Services and the author of Right to Recover: Winning the Political and Religious Wars over Stem Cell Research in America due to be published in October 2007.

An extremely low fee of $37 per month includes nearly four hours of coaching and interactive teaching on a variety of writing related topics. However, if you will email Suzanne and let her know you would like to participate in the call on May 31st, she will send you the call in information and you can try the class at no cost.

If you don’t want to miss out on the fun and learning opportunities of Writers on Call, now is the time to try the teleclasses for free.

To read more about the classes or sign up for Writers on Call writing teleclasses, see www.yvonneperry.net/writersoncall.htm.

As a writer, if you love mysteries - and culinary mysteries just happen to be your favorite - then visit the Three Angels Gourmet Co. and try your hand at the new Culinary Mini-Mystery Contest.

The “Virtual” three angels who run the Three Angels Gourmet Co.

This month - which is the first month of this monthly contest - all you have to do to win the contest is finish the cozy culinary mini-mystery that’s already started for you on the site.

Take a look HERE.

Then start writing!

Good luck!

If you’ve been thinking about learning to write and/or illustrate for children, but just didn’t know how to get started, here’s your chance to get the help you need - for FREE!

Use the special link below to join the Children’s Writers Coaching Club at the National Writing for Children Center and enjoy all the benefits of Level 1 membership for FREE for one month.

That’s right.

Although the order form will list the amount of payment for the month’s membership, your credit card will not be billed for 30 days, so you’ll receive one month’s membership at no charge.

At the end of that time, if you decide the club is not for you, then simply cancel your membership and your credit card won’t be billed at all.

Just look at all the benefits you’ll receive with your FREE month’s membership:

1) Weekly lessons covering the basics of writing for children and a weekly assignment - which you have the option of completing and submitting for review from the club’s writing coaches.

2) Two monthly teleclasses for writers and CDS of these teleclasses so you can listen and learn from them any time you wish. One teleclass will feature a successful children’s book author as the speaker, the other teleclass will feature a successful children’s illustrator as the speaker.

3) FOUR professional manuscript critique opportunities each and every month.

4) You’ll become part of a network of other published and aspiring children’s writers and illustrators.

You CAN become a successful children’s writer and/or illustrator.

You just need a little help getting started.

The Children’s Writers Coaching Club will give you that help.

Get your FREE month’s membership here and get the help you need to succeed!

The Kansas City Literary Festival is tomorrow - Saturday, May 19th!

NBC television personality and popular weatherman, Gary Lezak, will be on the Main Stage from 9:50-10:00 a.m. to kickoff an amazing array of authors and performers!

From 10:00 a.m. straight through to 6:40 p.m. Kansas City will be treated to a nonstop lineup of local, regional and national authors on five stages.

Nearly one hundred exhibitors will line Nichols Road and Pennsylvania along with the BRIO ‘Books and Brew’ Lounge.

Find out more about the 2007 Kansas City Literary Festival HERE.

Here’s an interesting video about the mysteries and other books from author Billie A. Williams.

Visit her website and get more information about her writing and her free resources for writers.

Her Bed and Breakfast Murders Cookbook is just the thing for mystery lovers who also like to cook. Learn more about it here.

Have you subscribed to Writers on Call yet?

It only costs $37.00 per month for nearly FOUR hours of group coaching each and every month. Plus, you’ll see that we often offer special bonuses during the month.

Here’s what’s coming up on Writers on Call:

This week, on May 17th, Yvonne Perry will start a 6-part series called HOW TO START AND MANAGE A FREELANCE WRITING BUSINESS.

To find out more about this week’s session listen here:

The second part of this series will take place on Thursday, May 24th.

On May 31st - since that is the fifth Thursday of the week, we’ll have a free question and answer session for freelance writers. Come join this session free of charge to find out if these weekly coaching sessions are for you.

June 7 - Re-Evaulating Your Goals for 2007

During this session, Suzanne Lieurance will help you look back at the goals each of you created for yourself in January. We’ll talk about the progress each of you has made, the setbacks you might have experienced, and any other problems you’ve had moving forward with these goals.

If you never created definite career goals for yourself in January, we’ll help you do that during this telesession. We’ll also look back at some of the telessions we have presented so far this year, to see if any of these other writers/special guests have provided a good model for you to follow with any of your writing goals and projects.

Jun 14th - Group Critique Session

This week, subscribers will be invited to submit their query letters, cover
letters, etc. for critique and review. We’ll also review tips for writing effective query letters.

As you can see, we have some information packed teleclasses coming up. We hope you’ll join us and get your own freelance career started on take it to the next step.

Subscribe HERE.

As fulltime freelance writers, Kristen King and I have learned the power of article marketing.

Several times a year we enjoy helping other writers harness the power of writing articles for online directories.

Today is Day 12 of our Lieurance-King Spring Article Challenge.

So far, 15 writers have accepted this challenge to write 30 new articles before June 30th, and submit them to online directories.

And, it’s still not too late to join us.

To accept the challenge, all you need to do is send a blank email to LKSpringArticleChallenge-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Then, sign up for our f.ree 21-day mincourse called “Tips for Effective Article Marketing” by filling in the information in the appropriate box in the right column of this page.

Once you’ve joined the group, use the following ideas to create a few articles.

A Dozen Ideas for Quick Articles You Can Write Right Now

Summer is almost here. Which means soon kids will be out of school, families will be heading off for vacations, etc. - which can give you all sorts of ideas for articles.

How about an article that:

1) Gives moms ways to keep their kids entertained over the summer, without spending a lot of money.

2) Offers tips for inexpensive family vacations.

3) Explains some fun ways to keep kids safely entertained in the car on long road trips.

4) Tells pet owners what they can do with their pets while they’re on vacation this summer.

5) Gives things pet owners should consider if they want to TAKE their pet(s) with them on vacation this summer.

6) Lists places for “pet friendly” vacations.

7) Offers unusual Father’s Day Ideas - start these articles NOW and they’ll be picked up in time for Father’s Day.

Lists ideas for out-of-the-ordinary Fourth of July picnics.

9) Gives Memorial Day ideas.

10) Lists inexpensive gifts for graduates.

11) Explains various graduation party ideas.

12) Gives summer wedding and bridal shower ideas and tips.

Three are dozens of other ways to use the season and seasonal holidays to create simple, yet informative articles for online directories.

So, what are you waiting for?

Accept the Lieurance-King Spring Article Challenge.

And start writing!

Suzanne Lieurance
Cohost, the Lieurance-King Spring Article Challenge