Nursery Rhymes Book Guest Post

The first documented mention of nursery rhymes can be found in plays around the 17th to 18th century. Even before this, most human culture had created their own lyrical forms of rhymes versed through songs, to stimulate the mind and nurture one’s offspring.

Still loved today and greatly revered, nursery rhymes are a light-hearted link to the past, where nostalgia of childhood innocence can be rekindled with every passing rhyme. Some editions, like the personalised nursery rhyme book have been rejuvenated with a personalised twist, giving children a personal keepsake of their youth.

The earliest nursery rhymes we know of date back to the 14th century, during the Medieval era. The topic of taxes, religious persecution, plagues and disease were the mindless tunes churned out, as the lyrics mostly reflected one’s environment and society.

Though these topics are not the wholesome, fanciful rhymes that nursery rhymes of today present, the songs still perpetuate, and are passed down from parents to children, sung throughout schools and written in storybooks. Many songs also have much darker origins. 

The origins of popular rhymes - like stories from The Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen - are rooted in ‘folklore’. In short, the term sufficiently describes the nature of nursery rhymes and fairy tales based upon “stories of a community” that are passed between generations by word of mouth.

The most notable and popular rhymes still sung today emerged around the 17th and 18th century. This is known as the ‘golden era’ of rhymes, with the first English collections, Tommy Thumb's Song Book and a sequel, Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published before 1744. 

It was Thomas Carnan, the stepson of John Newberry - the publisher of the collections - who first used the term “Mother Goose” for nursery rhymes. The terms are often interchangeable, both with the same goal of comforting and lulling children, hence the term “lullaby”. 

However, there has always been a concern over the subject matter of nursery rhymes since their emergence. Many nursery rhymes gained notoriety predominantly as a form of societal resistance and mockery of the higher classes by caricaturing royalty, politicians and corruption. 

In these Medieval times, if the poor and often victims of said tyranny spoke out against corrupt high officials, the offence was punishable by death and so, a watered down form of ridicule to gently expose injustices presented itself as children’s entertainment: nursery rhymes, hence the dark subject matter of many popular rhymes.

In opposition to the dark undertones of children’s rhymes, the British Society for Nursery Rhyme Reform was founded in the Victorian period. They condemned the some of the most popular nursery rhymes like Humpty Dumpty and Lucy Locket, and vowed to clean up the cannon. 

Despite the darker origins behind nursery rhymes, the proven evolutionary benefits are evident. Nursery rhymes are essential to aid a child’s brain development, their basic skills in infancy and help nurture the parent-child bond. These are among the huge advantages of reading and repeating beloved nursery rhymes.

The Healthier Outlook for Mental Health with Talkspace

Everyone thinks once they are successful, wealthy, or famous they will finally be happy. They think, ‘If I can just reach this goal, I’ll finally relax. I would have made it. I will be happy.’ The vast majority of people seem to think this. The next bonus at work comes around, their mood lifts for a little while then back down. Their business takes off and they are doing well. They are happy for a little while then back to the humdrum. Some even become local, state or nationally famous and they are still not as happy as they thought they would be. Their mood begins to slip, but not once do they seem to think. “I need help.” That’s a pattern Michael Phelps is looking to change with the talkspace app. It’s a platform designed to help those, maybe especially those, who need help but can’t get to mental health centers.

Michael Phelps goes on to describe what his experience was like. He had it all, what most people determine to be the level of success, fame or wealth they need to be happy. He had gold medals. People across the globe recognized him. No one would describe him as poor by any means. Still, he says he laid on his floor depressed as ever unable to leave his room. It shouldn’t take this level of depression for people to get the help they need. He wants to break the stigma of mental health. With the talkspace app, he hopes more people will get the help they need. He hopes they won’t end up where he had. It shouldn’t be a place people have to go to for them to finally get the mental help they need.

Talkspace is a new online therapy space where people from all walks of life can find the help they need without judgment, fear or stigma. No one has to even know they are getting mental health help until they are ready to talk about it. The team working with the app hopes this will remove the fear people tend to have with mental health. If people are afraid of going to physical location, they will have a space to let down and relax with someone who understands. They will have access to therapists that can help make sure they don’t fall into the dark hole of depression. Michael Phelps certainly wants this to be a platform everyone knows about.

There are many success stories surrounding the app. It is a great choice for those that struggle to get out of their homes to the mental health centers. Talkspace takes the therapists from the centers and brings them into the homes of those that need it most. With Michael Phelps spreading the word with his fame and the success of others, people will have greater access to the mental help they need without the stigma, fear or struggle. We can grow healthier with the online therapy app, Talkspace.

Guest Post - Three Ways To Boost Your Writing Career

These days, many aspiring writers are looking for simple strategies they can utilize to take their careers to a new level of success. If this is your professional goal, it's important to note that there are several techniques you can implement to make it happen. Here are three:

1. Do Not Avoid Controversy.

Writing is one of the most controversial careers an individual could pursue, especially if you opt to discuss polemical topics known for inciting anxiety and discord. In the event that you find your ideas or values critiqued or criticized by the public, it's a good idea not to avoid controversy. Instead, figure out how to defend or retract your views in a humble, intelligent manner. This helps you develop a positive public image while simultaneously drawing attention to your work. For example, successful writer Daniel Handler was recently critiqued for a racial joke he made while a woman was awarded the National Book Award for Young People's literature. Handler apologized for the joke and has gone on to continue cultivating his writing career.

2. Build A Blog.

Building a blog is another effective strategy you can build to boost your writing career. In addition to functioning as a form of internet marketing through which you can boost sales for your work, blogging can be a wonderful way for you to network with other individuals in the writing community. Additionally, there are many writers who built substantive names for themselves through the maintenance of a high quality blog. Once they've developed a strong online presence and an avid following, they are oftentimes capable of attracting attention from literary agents.

3. Write.

One of the biggest mistakes that writers make when attempting to cultivate their careers is that they neglect the practice of writing. This is debilitating in many ways, including the fact that it means one is not continually submitting fresh work to potential publishers. Neglecting one's writing work is also disadvantageous because it precludes you from building your vocabulary and learning how to write more effectively.

Conclusion

If you've decided that you want to become a writer, it's important to note that there are numerous things you can do to increase the likelihood that you will have great success. To ensure that you remain on the path to vocational mobility, be sure to implement some or all of the writing techniques outlined here. Good luck!

Guest Post by Devin D. Thorpe - Author of Crowdfunding for Social Good: Financing Your Mark on the World

Crowdfunding for Social Good: Financing Your Mark on the World

by Devin D. Thorpe
Over the last year of writing my Forbes blog, I have had the opportunity to really dig deeply into the world of crowdfunding. I’ve just completed my first draft of my new book, Crowdfunding for Social Good: Financing Your Mark on the World.
The book is a guide to successful crowdfunding for people who want to change the world.
The book is not a sequel to my book, Your Mark On The World, but it is written in the same spirit. I’ve studied a dozens of successful crowdfunding campaigns, interviewing the people behind them to learn their secrets for success.
Devin’s Book, Your Mark on the World, was downloaded over 75,000 times and reached the #19 spot on Amazon’s free book list–among all free books. It remains on the top 50 free nonfiction books at Amazon.

Buy on Paperback

About Devin:

Devin D. Thorpe thinks he is the luckiest person alive. After being “let go” from the best job he’d ever had—as the Chief Financial Officer of the multinational food and beverage company MonaVie—he and his wife ended up living in China for a year where he wrote Your Mark On The World and embarked on the career he’d always wanted yet hadn’t dared dream.
Now, as an author, a popular guest speaker and Forbes contributor, Devin is devoted full time to championing social good. His current life isn’t much like his past.
As an entrepreneur, Devin ran—at separate times—a boutique investment banking firm and a small mortgage company. He served as the Treasurer for the multinational vitamin manufacturer USANA Health Sciences years before becoming CFO for MonaVie. Over his career he led or advised on the successful completion of $500 million in transactions.
Devin squeezed in two brief stints in government, including two years working for Jake Garn on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee Staff and another year working for an independent state agency called USTAR, where he helped foster technology entrepreneurship during Governor Jon Huntsman’s administration.
Devin is proud to have graduated from the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business, which recognized him as a Distinguished Alum in 2006. He also earned an MBA at Cornell University where he ran the student newspaper, Cornell Business.
Today, Devin channels the idealism of his youth with the loving support of his wife, Gail. Their son Dayton is a PhD candidate in Physics at UC Berkeley (and Devin rarely misses an opportunity to mention that).

Twitter: @devindthorpe

Facebook.com/yourmarkontheworld

Google+: devinthorpe.com

Tumblr: yourmarkontheworld.com

To get all of Devin’s updates please subscribe here to his newsletter

Guest Post

Do Something That Matters

As you think about projects you could tackle, businesses you could launch or things to keep you busy, please allow me to suggest that you do something that matters.

Providing for your family certainly matters. Don’t let me discourage you in any way from finding something at which you can make some money—especially if you are with the 99 percent of us who need to earn a living and can’t live off our savings. That said, doing something to help solve one of the world’s big problems will be so much more worthwhile.

We are living at a unique time in history. In our lifetimes we could see the elimination of abject poverty and hunger. It is by no means assured, but it is well within our grasp to completely eliminate from the earth the population of people living on less than $2 per day. The percentage of the world’s population living in such poverty has already been reduced dramatically over the past twenty or 30 years. If the trend continues—and it won’t without effort—this desperate level of deprivation can be eradicated.

Many people know that in the last generation small pox was eradicated from the world’s population. A recent campaign by Rotary International, the group leading the charge in the fight against polio, reminds us that we are “this close” to eliminating polio completely. Malaria is also in the cross hairs of global organizations battling it.

AIDS is no longer considered a fatal disease, but a chronic one, meaning that people don’t die from it, they live with it. Finding a cure is within reach of the next generation.

New technologies are in development that would allow us to treat a range of cancers more effectively; the next generation will see the adoption of personalized medicine based on each person’s genetic code, allowing doctors to choose exactly the right drug. Progress in medicine will astound us all over the next 30 years—if we continue to invest and work toward these goals.

It takes so little more effort to think of doing something that matters than to think of something that doesn’t—say, Facebook for dogs—let me encourage you to take off the blinders. See the world’s problems as opportunities for you to solve. Pick one and go for it. 

Crowdfunding can help you raise the money you need to do something that matters!

Guest Post by Liz DeJesus - Author of First Frost & Glass Frost

First Frost Blurb:

For generations, the Frost family has run the Museum of Magical and Rare Artifacts, handing down guardianship from mother to daughter, always keeping their secrets to “family only.”

Gathered within museum’s walls is a collection dedicated to the Grimm fairy tales and to the rare items the family has acquired: Cinderella’s glass slipper, Snow White’s poisoned apple, the evil queen’s magic mirror, Sleeping Beauty’s enchanted spinning wheel…​

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Frost wants none of it, dreaming instead of a career in art or photography or…well, anything except working in the family’s museum. She knows the items in the glass display cases are fakes because, of course, magic doesn't really exist.​

She’s about to find out how wrong she is.

 Glass Frost Blurb

When joined together, Cinderella's slippers grant the wearer her heart's desire. But whose wish will be granted?



When Cinderella’s glass slipper is stolen, Queen Felicia sends her faithful steward Terrance to the real world to retrieve his love and witch-in-training, Bianca Frost. The power of the glass slipper, when paired with its mate, and in the wrong hands, could ruin the peace of Everafter. Bianca must gather every bit of magic she has learned in the past few weeks to find the slipper and protect her new love. Together, Bianca, Ming, Prince Ferdinand, and Terrance venture deep into the heart of Everafter to seek clues as to who has stolen the slipper and why. Along the way, they uncover what happened to the Seven Dwarves after Snow White married the prince, but also learn the awful risk of tampering with black magic and the high price that must be paid for magic, even when used for good.

​

Bianca and Terrance’s relationship is put to the test. Through the pain of suffering and loss, Bianca must determine if following her gallant boyfriend into his faraway world is in fact her heart's desire.

The highly anticipated sequel to First Frost. ​July 19th 2013 through Musa Publishing. 

 Buy links:

http://musapublishing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=313

http://www.amazon.com/First-Frost-ebook/dp/B008DQU0CQ/ref=la_B004HJN9YY_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1361323822&sr=1-6

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/first-frost-liz-dejesus/1111747846?ean=2940014724272

Author Bio

Liz DeJesus was born on the tiny island of Puerto Rico.  She is a novelist and a poet. She has been writing for as long as she was capable of holding a pen. She is the author of the novel Nina (Blu Phi'er Publishing, October 2007), The Jackets (Arte Publico Press, March 31st 2011) First Frost (Musa Publishing, June 22nd 2012) and Glass Frost (Musa Publishing, COMING SOON).

​

She is also a member of The Written Remains Writers Guild  http://www.writtenremains.org/.

​

Liz is currently working on a new novel.

GUEST POST

Anyone that knows me knows that I love fairy tales. Actually I take that back...I'm OBSESSED with fairy tales. One of the first books that I ever bought with my allowance was titled English Fairy Tales. It was hard cover, with yellow cloth and it has a picture of a giant holding a tiny ax. I was eleven years old at the time. I was lonely, nerdy, didn't fit in with anyone at school and the only escape that I had was in books.

            Anyway it's safe to say that I quickly became obsessed with fairy tales. I devoured books like Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales, Alice in Wonderland, among others that I'll list some other time. :)

            I'm gonna list some of my favorite fairy tales and why:

1. Snow White ~ First story I ever read that featured a brunette. But I like Snow White because she is complicated; she lost her mother, and then her father. She was left with a hateful stepmother that envied her, tried to kill her and she overcame all of these different obstacles: being poisoned with a comb, strangled with ribbons and then ultimately killed with a poisoned apple. I think it was Snow White's vanity that killed her (because the seven dwarves warned her not to let anyone in and she disobeyed). She had a lot of harsh lessons to learn. This is why she's one of my favorite princess. 

2. Alice in Wonderland ~ This story is just plain fun. White rabbit, mad hatters, talking caterpillars (that smokes a hookah thankyouverymuch), a crazy-head-chopping queen of hearts and a very confused little girl named Alice.

3. Toads and Diamonds ~ This was one of the first fairy tales I read and was absolutely fascinated by the story of these two sisters.

            This fairy tale is a little obscure so if you've never heard of it, here's a little info I got from Wikipedia. I first read about it in Michael Hague's Tales of Charles Perrault.

            A bad-tempered old widow had two daughters, her older daughter was disagreeable and proud but looked and behaved like her mother, and therefore was her favorite child. She and her eldest daughter badly mistreated the woman's younger daughter, who was sweet, courteous, and beautiful, but resembled her late father.

            One day while drawing water from the well, the younger daughter was asked for a drink by an old woman. The girl politely consented and after giving it, she found that the woman was a fairy, who had taken the guise of a crone to test the character of mortals. As the girl was so kind and compassionate toward her, the fairy blessed her with having either a jewel, a diamond or a pretty flower fall from her mouth whenever she spoke.

            Upon arriving home and explaining why she took so long to her mother, the widow was delighted at the sight of diamonds, pearls and roses falling from the girl's lips, and desired that her favored eldest daughter, Fanny, should have the gift as well. Fanny protested, but the widow forcibly sent her to the well with instruction to act kindly toward an old beggar woman. Fanny set off but the fairy appeared as a fine princess, and requested that the girl draw her a drink from the well. The elder daughter spoke rudely to the fairy and insulted her. The fairy decreed that, as punishment for her despicable attitude, either a toad or a snake would fall from Fanny's mouth whenever she spoke.

            When Fanny arrived home, she told her story to her mother and disgusting toads and vipers fell from her mouth with each word. The widow, in a fury, drove her younger daughter out of the house. In the woods, she met a king's son, who fell in love with her and married her. In time, even the widow was sickened by her older daughter, and drove her out, and she died alone and miserable in the woods

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toads_and_Diamonds

            I'm using these characters in the sequel to First Frost. Safe to say...I'm having tons of fun.

4. The Three Heads of the Well ~ I like this story because the main character sets out to seek her fortune.

            This is another slightly obscure fairy tale:

            In the days before King Arthur, a king held his court in Colchester. He had a beautiful daughter by his beautiful wife, but when his wife died, he married a hideous widow with a daughter of her own, for her riches, and his new wife set him against his daughter. His daughter begged leave to go and seek her fortune, and he permitted it, and his wife gave her brown bread, hard cheese, and a bottle of beer.

            She goes on her way and sees an old man sitting on a stone. When he asks what she has, she tells him and offers him some. After they eat, he tells her how to get through a hedge, and that she will find three golden heads in a well there, and should do whatever they tell her.

            The heads ask her to comb them and wash them, and after she does so, one says she shall be beautiful, the next that she will have a sweet voice, and the third that she shall be fortunate and queen to the greatest prince that reigns.

            She goes on, and a king sees her and falls in love with her. They marry and go back to visit her father. Her stepmother is enraged that her stepdaughter and not her daughter gained all this, and sent her daughter on the same journey. The daughter was rude to the old man, and slighted the three heads, and they curse her with leprosy, a harsh voice, and marriage to a cobbler.

            She goes on. A cobbler offers to cure her leprosy and voice if she will marry him, and she agrees.

            Her mother, finding she had married a cobbler, hangs herself, and the king gives his stepdaughter's husband a hundred pounds to quit the court and live elsewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Heads_in_the_Well

5. Beauty and the Beast ~ I love this fairy tale because the moral of the story is to search for inner beauty. And of course my favorite is the Disney version...seriously...I would totally marry the Beast just for the library. I remember the first time I saw the movie and my jaw dropped when I saw the library scene. I wanted to live there. :)

6. Snow White and Rose Red ~ Sometimes they change Snow White’s name to Rose White so it’s hard to tell which one it really is. I like this story because the two sisters get into mischief with the dwarf. Some of my favorite stories have bears in them. LOL. I wonder what that says about me? Hmmm...I wonder.

7. Cinderella ~ Classic fairy tale. It has everything, wicked stepmother, wicked stepsisters, glass slippers, fairy godmothers, a ball, and a prince. What's not to love?

            Hint, hint, Cinderella's glass slipper will be a major item of interest in Glass Frost (the soon to be released sequel to First Frost). :)

            Anyway, those are just some of my favorites, I had to stop myself from adding more because otherwise this would’ve been a ridiculously long blog post. I guess some people would find my fascination with fairy tales strange. But I like to think that we all need a little magic and whimsy in our lives. This is why books are crucial to our existence. It's a safe way to escape. And you’re probably wondering why so many writers use fairy tales in their writing. My response? WHY NOT! All of these stories are just an endless fountain of inspiration.

            I can only hope that you all enjoy my book First Frost, all I have ever wanted to do was have a bit of fun and entertain people with my work.

            For more information please visit my website http://lizdejesus.com/