The latest issue of AWAI’s Barefoot Writer

Click HERE to read:

* “This Opportunity Treasure Trove for Writers Makes Other Solopreneurs Green With Envy”

* “Never Again Hang Your Head in Shame After Hitting ‘Send’”

* “Scoring Big in the Niche You’ve Never Heard Of”

* “The Hidden Value in People Who Don’t Need Your Writing and Will Never Hire You”

* And much more!

The latest issue of Independent Healing

“Calorie Counting Is Fake News”

Studies show you’re more likely to gain weight than to lose it on low-cal diets. Here’s why they don’t work – and here’s what does.

Madwomen: The “Locas Mujeres” Poems of Gabriela Mistral

I discovered Gabriella Mistral through Pablo Neruda. Like her famous countryman, Mistral won the Nobel prize. Also like Neruda, her poems were lyrical and personal. But in this collection (I have a bilingual edition), written later in her life, she displays a hard and complex view of life that I find appealing. It’s too early to tell but for me she might be the better Chilean poet.

Here are the first three stanzas of the opening poem, “The Other”:

I killed a woman in me:
one I did not love.

She was the blazing flower
of the mountain cactus;
she was drought and fire
never cooling her body.

She had stone and sky
at her feet, at her shoulders,
and she never came down
to seek the water’s eye.

I don’t know how many times I’ve had the discussion about whether Trump can be reelected. This piece from POLITICO articulates my arguments better than I’ve been able to. And based on the early debates among the Democratic hopefuls, it spells an easy victory for Trump in 2020…

“Dear Democrats, Here’s How to Guarantee Trump’s Reelection”

The I Hate to Cook Book by Peg Bracken

Bracken made her living as a copywriter. She wrote this, her first book, in 1960 when she was 70 years old. I’m reading it for the maturity of her wit, not the recipes.

Examples:

* “Add flour, salt, paprika, and mushrooms, stir, and let it cook five minutes while you light a cigarette and stare sullenly at the sink.”

* “A mutual dislike can be quite as sound a basis for friendship as a mutual devotion.”

* “What most of us are after, when we have a picture taken, is a good natural-looking picture that doesn’t resemble us.”

* “It is important to remember that these are your Declining Years, in which you can jolly well decline to do what you don’t feel like doing.”

* “It isn’t true… that nothing is as bad as you think it’s going to be. Some things are exactly as bad as you thought they were going to be, and some things are worse.”

“The Land Where the Internet Ends” in The New York Times

The range of the Internet is fast expanding. Very soon it will cover just about every square inch of the world. But some people would like the government to preserve areas where cell phones cannot operate. The only hope may be areas where huge audio observatories operate. You can read the article here.

“The Day the Music Burned” in The New York Times

“The Papa Connection” in Taki’s Magazine

Taki’s Magazine is a regular of mine. It’s extreme in some ways… racist and misogynist. But its writers are smart and its editor, Taki, could be the most interesting man in the world. When he writes, I’m always delighted. Here is an example: a review of Autumn in Venice: Ernest Hemingway and His Last Muse, which I have yet to read.

The Latest Issue of AWAI’s Barefoot Writer

Including:

* The Million-Dollar Writing System that Awards Effort Above All Else
* Why Most Copywriters Never Make Big Money
* This Global Obsession Can Bring Writing Legends to Your Kitchen Table
* 4 Freelance Secrets From an Ex-Pat Writer in Mexico

“You Can’t Buy a Starbucks franchise. Here’s Why and What You Can Do About It”

I’ve had some experience with franchising. Just enough to know that it’s an industry best approached if you have money to lose and time to spare. Most of what’s written about franchising is not worth reading. But this short article on three of the biggest operations is good and well worth a few minutes of your time if you are thinking about a franchise business.