I am pleased to announce that I just got a call from a recent client who informed me that after submitting her resume, she got an email requesting an interview with the hiring manager!  She's very excited as this means she's been given an opportunity to talk with the employer and highlight her skills and accomplishments that would contribute to her desired position! It's all there on the resume, but they like to hear you talk even more about it! She's confident that she can do that...and we are too!  Congratulations!

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Writers are thick on the ground where I come from in New York. You couldn't swing a dead feline without hitting one. Everyone's got a short story, novella, full-length trilogy or movie script tucked away somewhere that they're just dying to slip under someone's door. Everyone's aching to get a shot at the big time. I, sadly, am one of those crazy masses just trying to get something together. My name's Shoshana Kessock, I'm from Brooklyn New York and if I have anything to say about it, I'm going to get published. This blog is going to follow the process of my grinding away until it happens. 

This wasn't always going to be my plan. Originally, I wanted to be a police officer or a teacher. Not so strange, when you think about it: I've got this hard-on for helping the community and (get ready for the big capitol letters) Making the World A Better Place. This is what I was taught since I was a little girl, that your job is to Make the World A Better Place. What that meant exactly, I never quite understood, but I read a lot of things (mostly comic books) and I thought I knew a basic idea. I wanted to help people out of jams, protect people, that sort of jazz. What I didn't realize while I was doing all that is that I had a particular talent, you see, for doing that helping people thing in one way: I told stories. I could put together a mean sentence that could inspire, that could bring an idea to light, anything. And while I was slaving away, trying to lose weight to go into the Army (that was part of the whole Be A Cop plan), I was neglecting that little bug that lived in the back of my brain that said write this down, don't ignore me, you know I'm here, now listen to this story idea and put it down on paper, get out your damn laptop and STOP IGNORING ME-

Anybody who has ever had the writing itch knows what this is. This, ladies and gents, is the writing fever.

It starts when you see something that intrigues you. You think 'hey, wouldn't it be great if that happened like this' and suddenly you're crafting the start of a whole tale. Now, if you're anybody else but a writer, you put it aside, you run it through a quick fantasy, and that's that. If you've got the writing fever, that itch? Then it just sits there and gnaws at you. Your eyes glaze over and suddenly, you're gone and thinking about a whole world of ideas and if you could just get them down on paper, then what would it turn into? If you don't get it out on paper, you tell a friend. Or you blog about it, in modern day, or you put it up on YouTube or you just forget about it. If you've got the itch real bad, sometimes that won't do it. Sometimes, it will just keep gnawing until you have an outlet and the idea has been given birth to and then its gone.

That's what being a writer is like for me.

Here's what that does to my life. I work at a part-time job while going to college full time. I also run a role-playing game (yes, I'm a gamer, so that gives me an outlet) and try to have a social life. When the itch comes, sometimes I can't write, because I'm too busy (classes, work, whatever) and then? Then it starts to get annoying. And if I don't do it for long enough because I have to go vacuum or go to the gym, it starts to actually be more than annoying. It starts to get downright irritating and then I don't know how to describe it. It feels like, to steal a term from Stephen King, like my brain is ready to do the junkie jive. So I suppose you'd say that to me, being a writer is like what I imagine being a junkie is like. You get it out there, you write, and by God you have to, because these ideas won't stop.

I didn't write for a long time. I didn't have the stones for it. Rejection is a bitch, ladies and germs, and I didn't like the notion of having to put myself up there to get pot-shots tossed my way. But I couldn't stop writing. I would start short stories and stop. I would come up with novel ideas and toss them aside. Then, on a whim, I took a writing class and... yikes, the floodgates just about killed the hoover dam in my brain and out it all has started to come. I've got more ideas than I know what to do with.

Now? Now, I'm serious about it. I've done things like the NaNoWriMo writing challenge two years running and pumped out stories that were, while not my best writing, good practice. I've taken more writing classes and I've started talking to people at conventions (gamer conventions are great places to meet people). I'm taking advice where I can and getting my stuff together. And this time... I know what I gotta do.

No matter what, I gotta write. I don't care if it means staying up late, not going to that movie with friends, or cramping up my hands due to typing too much, I've got ideas that just need to get out of my brain and onto paper. And so this blog is born. I'm going to chronicle what I'm up to, what I'm working on, and what I've bee doing to drive myself onward. I want this blog to be an inspiration for me when at the end of the day, when I'm discouraged or just plain tired of all of it, that it was worth it. I'm going to keep working and this blog is going to remind me of why.

Because in the end, I want to see my work in print. Because I might not get to be a police officer (that's still up in the air) and I might not be a teacher or someone who saves the world, but I'm going to write something that somewhere, touches someone in a good way. I'm going to write something that gives someone a good time at the end of a sucky day of work. I'm going to do this because these characters are alive in my brain and they want out into the world to say hello. I've got dozens of them, hundreds maybe, and I'm going to let them come out and say hello. Because while writers may be a dime a dozen? I'm going to quote an author that I adore, Jim Butcher, who said that being a writer is like being chased by a bear. You don't have to be the fastest one, you just have to be faster than the other guy. I don't have to be better than the authors out there, I just have to be better than the guys around me who want to be authors. I just have to Do Something. 

Because, in the mathematics of my brain, when I Do Something I can get to my goal and maybe Make the World a Better Place in some small way. That's my goal.

So welcome to my brain. Step over the old plate of cookies, don't trip on the cat, and come on in.

- Shoshana Kessock /  Summer 2008

Now what does our good old Dictionary tell us-

A Testimonial is a Noun: ‘testimonial’

• Something that serves as evidence
• Something given or done as an expression of esteem
• Something that recommends (or expresses commendation) of a person or thing as worthy or desirable

A Testimonial is an Adjective: ‘testimonial’

• Expressing admiration or appreciation
• Of or relating to or constituting testimony

A few more definitions:

• A facility provided by Orkut (and its fellow brethren) to its users, which allows them to write about the people they like and make it known to others.
• Written speeches made in honor of a person
• Good old way of writing character sketches either in a refined or unrefined manner
• A statement in support of a particular truth, fact, or claim.
• A written affirmation of another's character or worth; a personal recommendation.
• Something given in appreciation of a person's service or achievement; a tribute

A Testimonial is written because:

• You are bored.
• You want some one to write something just as nice or in some cases, just as damaging :P

A few spellings people use for 'testimonials'

• Testomonials
• Testimonials (sounds like some cocktail)
• Tostomonials
• Testamanilias

The various ingredients
The person who writes a testimonial is generally hell bent on stating all the good things and would end up exaggerating them to a considerably large extent. More often than not, when you read a testimonial, you should get the feeling that the person for whom the testimonial has been written is a saint in the guise of a mortal :P

Classification/Types of testimonials:

1. Sentimental and over the board.
2. Funny and made up, with good usage of English.
3. Written in their mother tongue to show their closeness.
4. Written for the heck of it.
5. Written all because the other person is a girl.
6. Filled with all sorts of poetry and sometimes pictures.
7. Written by relatives to show their unity.
8. Written with genuine interest.
9. Written because the writer wants a testimonial in return.

Note: Some species send forward jokes or articles or shayari or weird diagrams as testimonials!

Generally what shapes up all these testimonials is a long list of adjectives used for effect description.

Sample these-

• sincere
• caring
• loving
• beautiful
• crazy

The above rank high in the vocabulary of most testimonial writers.

Few more-

• Words like “good” or “best” which appear before each and every attribute of that person, e.g. “he is the best guy ever” or “she is a very good friend of mine” etc.
• Along with these words a few “kiddings”, “lols” and “hehes” end up being in the brackets here and there.

If the testimonial becomes too sugar coated then a few witty criticisms are added to make it look somewhat funny and genuine at the same time. Most of the time these testimonials end in a very predictable and cliched manner - sentimental dialogues like “lucky to have you as a friend”, “loveeeee youuuuu”, “he/she will reach great heights”, etc.

Secondly just go overboard in praising your friends (which apparently is not required).

Some things that I read here and there:

• The number of lines in one’s testimonial is inversely proportional to the level of knowing the person who is writing the damn thing for them

(Well, I wrote the shortest testimonial ever for my sister. Thats a different issue that she simply deleted it and I still get daily dose of taunts. It’s just that I know sooo much about her that cramming years of togetherness in a small amount of space is very hard)

• The sweetest and the best testimonials are inversely proportional to the level of your expectation (the best testimonials are those that come out of the blue)

• The level of sweetness in the testimonial towards the person is again inversely proportional to the level of closeness to that individual.

• The ease with which you can spot fakers is directly proportional to your expertise in the art of testimonial writing.

• Judging a person by their testimonials is directly proportional to the level of stupidity of the person reading it. :P

Notizia da Adnkronos

Beh vedendo questo foto dal Rock in Rio Madrid sembra ci si stia mettendo di impegno...

Respecting the skill and talent of an artist, it doesn't mean that I must accept or justify his lifestyle, and I don't want to accept the idea of some people thinking we are stupid ...
Amy Winehouse testimonial of a spot against the abuse of alcohol?

News from Adnkronos

Looking at these pictures from the Rock in Rio Madrid, it seems that she's really interested in give us the right example.

Thank you to everyone who took part!