Can’t wait for February so all of you can read my book and tell me if it has these five elements.

Every author dreams of making to the best-seller list, perhaps multiple times. You want people to read, enjoy, and appreciate the book you’ve put so much time and careful effort into. A successful book will make you feel validated; it will make you relevant; it can even make you rich.

With millions of other books and authors to compete against, it’s no small goal to write something that sells well. It’s often impossible to anticipate which books will succeed and which will fail. But one thing’s for sure: while no two successful books are alike, they all have the same five qualities. If you want your book to make it to the top, too, it must have all of them.

They’re Captivating

The secret of a successful book is that the topic doesn’t really mean much. Just about any subject can be turned into a successful book, because it’s the writing of it that matters. A book can be written about a widely popular and in-demand topic, but it will fail if it doesn’t capture a reader’s attention. Successful books excite readers and draw them in. Their words paint pictures and make the book come alive.

They’re Focused

Successful books have a clearly defined focus. Books that lack focus will lose a reader’s attention quickly or become confusing. They certainly won’t be captivating. It’s important to identify a specific focus before you even begin writing. And then, writing an outline first will help you stay focused and on track as you write. Everything you include in the book should add something to a reader’s experience or help prove your point. If your focus strays, your audience’s attention will, too.

They Have a Defined Audience

Before you write, you must also know exactly who you’re speaking to. No book can be written for everyone. One topic will be addressed very differently in a book for children versus a book for adults, or a book for men versus a book for women. If you write a book with a clearly defined audience in mind, you’ll make it that much more convincing and appealing to the intended reader.

They’re Original

Successful books offer something that no other book before has offered or in quite the same way. They present new ideas; they have a fresh, new tone; they contain new combinations of facts and information; they address a topic with a new audience in mind. Original books stand out and get noticed, and they succeed because people are interested in what’s new and different.

They Have Integrity

You could make any nonfiction book more interesting if you made up a few amazing statistics, for example, but that would be incredibly deceitful. Successful books have been written that later turned out to be falsities or misrepresentations, and they quickly crashed and burned. You have to have integrity when writing a book, and not just with nonfiction. Fiction books must not go beyond inspiration and outright steal their ideas from other books. To be successful as an author, your audience must be able to trust and believe you.

Alayne Valentine is a freelance blogger and literature student who considers herself an accomplished reader. She loves to write and covers anything from literary devices to using grammar checkers.

Photo Credit: EssHaych

So back when I was a personal trainer (it feels like ages ago!) I also taught a kickboxing class at the gym. Boy, so  miss having a punching bag handy! Sigh… Oh well, someday I’ll have one in my garage. I just have to get a garage first. 😉 Anyway, enjoy this little guest post about how martial arts makes you more fit. And trust me, it really does wonders for muscle tone.

Martial arts are a popular contact sport that is growing in popularity. People of all ages participate in martial arts lessons for a variety of reasons. The more popular reasons that people enjoy getting involved in martial arts include; weight loss, learning self-defense, and competition with others. There are many advantages that martial arts can have on improving fitness, including helping with weight loss and improving muscle tone.

Although martial arts can greatly benefit fitness, experts all agree that diet is also key to any weight loss regimen. For any fitness plan that involves losing weight, the best approach is to both exercise and eat right. Finding an activity, such as martial arts, that increases metabolism, will drastically benefit any weight loss program.

Like any type of exercise, martial arts offers many kinds of disciplines to choose from. When considering a discipline that will best impact your fitness regimen, choose one that you feel the most comfortable with, and one that will have the most positive effect on your fitness goal. A few that you may want to consider for a great cardiovascular workout include: kickboxing, karate, taekwondo, and American kenpo.

To begin your workout at a martial arts school, you will start the class with a warm-up exercise designed to get the body’s muscles warmed up. Next, you will stretch your muscles which will prepare your body for the martial arts techniques you will be doing throughout the lesson. Following your warm-up, many classes will jump into a light work-out session. This will usually consist of something like pushups or sit-ups. These warm-up exercises are a great way to begin your class, as these type of exercises are an excellent way to tone your muscles and burn extra calories, thus adding to your fitness goal.

Martial arts classes are designed specifically for people of the same age and skill level, so you can rest assured that you will be placed in a class with people who not only have similar fitness goals, but also with like-minded people who are of approximately the same age and skill level. Additionally, most martial arts schools have classes 4 to 5 times a week, making getting to a class that meets your schedule very convenient. Weekly classes are for both beginners and the more advanced and include classes for sparring, karate katas, and practicing self-defense moves. Many martial arts schools will allow someone to come and try a class for free to evaluate whether or not they may want to join. It’s worth it to check out a class for free; you may just find that getting fit is a lot more fun than you thought it could be!

For martial arts lessons in Chandler and Gilbert, Arizona, visit Sandoval Freestyle Karate, where students of all ages and skill levels are taught self-defense and fighting techniques.

So I’m not sure how many of you know this about me, but I’m a total sucker for mythology. When I first became obsessed with reading – it was vampires. But I didn’t just read stories about them. When I was in seventh grade, my new passion were books that involved mythology. I mostly read about Greek mythology, Roman mythology was second. However, I love to learn about any culture’s mythology.

So long intro there, but the point is that when I saw this guest post up for grabs, I totally snatched it for my site, just for nostalgic reasons. Enjoy this brief overview about horses from mythology!

 

The world of myth and legend is full of tales featuring incredible creatures, and the horse is a common occurrence. This isn’t surprising, of course, as the main mode of transport, aside from elephants and camels, was the humble horse. Horses have appeared throughout the lexicon of ancient stories, from all walks of life.

Here are four of the most famous horses from ancient legend.

Pegasus

The winged horse Pegasus is perhaps the most famous of all the mythological horses, or indeed mythical creatures as a whole. Pure white in colour, Pegasus, features heavily in two of Greek legend’s most enduring tales. The horse enables Bellerophon to ride to take on the monster Chimera. Legend has it that Pegasus was born from Medusa’s blood after she was decapitated by Perseus. So Clash of the Titans was way off the mark!

Kanthaka

Prince Siddartha’s favourite horse was Kanthaka, and was the most skilled of the royal horses. The Prince later became Gautuma Buddha, the enlightened teacher of the Indian subcontinent and father of Buddhism. When Prince Siddartha decided to renounce the life of the royal palace, it was Kanthanka that took him away to become an ascetic, rejecting wealth and physical comfort. It was Channa, a royal servant, who made Kanthaka leave Siddartha’s side, by riding him far away, ensuring the young prince had no comforts around him. It’s believed that after being parted from his master, Kanthaka died of a broken heart.

Al Borak

Meaning ‘The Lightning’ in Arabic, Al-Borak was the horse that was believed to carry the prophet Mohammed to the Seventh Heaven, which, like Pegasus, was a white winged horse. This mare was different in its description, with the legend saying that the horse had a human head, but with strong, horse’s cheeks. Al-Borak was delivered to Mohammed by an angel, and the horse was initially nervous of Mohammed, but the angel told Al-Borak of the prophet’s standing, and allowed him to mount.

Sleipnir

The best of all of Odin’s steeds is Sleipnir, literally translated from Nordic means ‘slipper’ to reflect speed. The animal was very strong and fast, which is undoubtedly due to the fact he has eight legs. Sleipnir’s parentage is somewhat questionable, however, as he was born of a mare and the Trickster God, Loki in horse form. Sleipnir could ride on air and sea as well as land, and could enter and return from the land of the dead.

The Equine Warehouse offer a large range of equine immine system supplements

Do you love spending time with your family? Do you enjoy having fun and entertaining activities with them? With the countless things to do nowadays, there are so many fun and family friendly entertainment activities to choose from now. Anything from spending the whole day at a theme park, a carnival, a circus, a fair, the actual park, to going on vacation anywhere in the world, to going to the mall to watch a movie, to eating out at children’s playground restaurants, to even just staying at home and making popcorn to eat while watching a movie by the couch. So many things can be done now, as long as you are with your family and as long as you are having fun. There is however, one activity which is not only family friendly, but also fun, entertaining, and challenging at the same time. Not to mention, it tops a lot of family’s charts when it comes to family fun. That is none other than laser tag.

The Glorious Game That Is Laser Tag

Laser tag has definitely got to be one of the greatest games ever invented. If you have not played laser tag yet, now would be the perfect time to. Drag your family members along, even your friends, for with laser tag, the more, the absolute merrier.

Laser tag is quite a simple concept to wrap your head around on. The objective is for you to tag either enemy players or enemy teams with your laser gun, and score the most points possible in order to win the game. You are given a gun, which may vary from pistols to rifles to shotguns and more, depending on which laser tag place you play at; and you are also equipped with body armor, which has little tiny sensors attached to it. These tiny sensors are what other players or other teams try to shoot at for them to be able to score points. Once you get hit on one of these sensors, your gun shorts out for a few seconds, making you unable to shoot. When your gun shorts out for those couple of seconds, it is then that you know you have gotten hit by an opposing player or an opposing team. Laser tag operates on those mechanics, and there is only one rule: to have as much fun as you possibly can!

Laser tag, by nature, is a non-contact game, which means there should be no physical contact between opposing players and opposing teams. However, it is not completely prohibited by game rules to have physical contact; it is only highly discouraged and highly unnecessary.

Laser Tag as a Family Event

Now that you know what laser tag essentially is, there is no way that you should not make this into a family event. Not only is it family friendly, with its great mechanics, but it is also child friendly, and child safe, meaning that even your little ones can play this amazing game. Laser tag is truly a game which can not only bring entertainment to the family, but can, and will definitely bring out friendly competition among family members and all around fun.

What are you waiting for? Head to the nearest laser tag place near you now and start shooting! Pew Pew!

Laser tag is one of Julian Hartley’s favorite games.  He’s a writer and contributor for indoorwar.com.

These 5 movie posters not only became famous in their day, but they each changed the course of film advertising and remain some of cinema’s most iconic images.

Gone With the Wind (1939)

Italian illustrator Armando Seguso created the famous image of Rhett Butler holding onto Scarlett O’Hara as Atlanta burns beneath them. The smoldering scene not only conveyed the intense on-screen passion of what has perhaps become film’s greatest pair of lovers, but it also helped to capture the vibrant colour of the newly-emerging world of Technicolor cinema.

The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)

Saul Bass’ graphic design not only shaped cinema but the business world, with many of the famous logos of the 2nd half of the 20th century being attributable to him. However, it was Bass’ breakthrough poster for The Man with the Golden Arm that transformed film advertisements from realistic illustrations of movie scenes to a more abstract, symbol-based interpretation of a film’s themes.

Jaws (1976)

Artist Roger Kastel’s original illustration for the paperback edition of Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws so impressed the heads at Universal that they were quick to buy up the rights for the film’s poster. Kastel’s work here was important, because while the infamous shark remained mostly invisible for the first hour, it was the music of John Williams and that lingering image from the lobby of a massive beast rising up under an unsuspecting swimmer from the darkness beneath that helped to put the audience in a state of unrelenting suspense.

Star Wars (1977)

When Dr. Zhivago poster artist Tom Jung was hired to create an image for Star Wars, he was given the order to work with with the theme of “good over evil”. What resulted was the iconic image of a young Luke Skywalker holding up a brilliant white lightsaber as a slinky Princess Leia leans against his legs with blaster in hand, all while Darth Vader looms behind them. It’s interesting to note that the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 were not part of Jung’s original design, but added later at the insistence of director George Lucas.

Silence of the Lambs (1991)

An almost unrecognizable, pale-as-death Jodie Foster stares with soulful brown eyes as a deaths-head hawkmoth covers her mouth. An even closer examination will reveal that the skull pattern on the back of the moth is actually seven naked intertwined women. The poster was created by the ad agency Dazu and the naked-women skull pattern is actually a careful replication of the famous Salvador Dali photo titled In Voluptas Mors, which shows Dali beside seven naked women forming the shape of a skull. In 2006, the original poster for Silence of the Lambs was named “best film poster of the last 35 years” at the Key Art Awards.

Martin is a poster designer from Sydney, Australia. He has designed many well known Australian movie posters and uses the highest quality large format printing services that Sydney has to offer. Martin has recently married and he is currently trying to get into poster design for major Hollywood movies.