writing – Cynthia D. Griffin

Guest Post: Make Your Move and Grow Your Digital Nomad Small Business Enterprise

Posted on September 2, 2022 by Cynthia D. Griffin

by Lance Cody-Valdez

Digital nomad entrepreneurs are changing the face of business in America, and remote work trends continue to accelerate. Reliable and fast internet access and affordable living typically top the list of desirable features prized by seasoned digital nomads. Think about the wonderful places you’ve always wanted to experience — do they roll out a digital nomad welcome mat? This article highlights four welcoming digital nomad destinations to help you on the road to prosperity in this exciting new work and travel lifestyle.

The Big Apple

The world’s most intense business environment welcomes digital nomads with good public internet connectivity and a myriad of museums to visit and other interesting things to do, such as taking in a game at Yankee Stadium. Search for discounted tickets online. Some online discount ticket seller sites provide an interactive seating chart of Yankee Stadium, so you can check 360-degree virtual in-seat views before you buy. Finding a place to live can be a challenge in New York, and many nomads use co-working or co-living arrangements to get ahead.

A Texas-Size Welcome

In Texas, Austin ranks highly as a preferred digital nomad destination because of plentiful internet cafes, entertainment venues, and housing options. Search online rental sites for an apartment downtown or in one of the surrounding urban villages. Nature lovers and festival goers are naturally attracted to the Barton Hills neighborhood adjacent to the Barton Creek Greenbelt and Zilker Park.

Is Carolina Calling?

Historic Charlotte is the economic and cultural center of North Carolina and a premier digital nomad destination. Quality of life is high, and the cost of living is relatively low in Charlotte compared to the cost of living in New York City. Start your search early, and match your desired lifestyle to one of the nearly 200 neighborhoods available. Diversity is a top draw in the Queen City!

Add Scenic Idaho to Your List

Idaho is a hot digital nomad destination. Explore the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, and find inexpensive housing nearby in Boise, Coeur d’Alene, or Idaho Falls. Apartments go quickly, so watch the market carefully before making a move. Consider using a local property management company or rental agency for best results.

Nomad-Friendly Business Structures and Practices

Freelance digital nomads often form their own limited liability company to separate personal and business assets. LLCs offer flexible tax filings and simpler professional banking and credit arrangements, but rules and regulations differ by jurisdiction. File the paperwork yourself, or use a low-cost formation service to reduce legal fees.

Online tools are a boon for digital nomad entrepreneurs. Project management, marketing, bookkeeping, and customer relationship management tools are available in free or low-cost online versions. For example, an invoice maker free tool can help you keep accurate books. Choose a suitable template, and include your own logo, visuals, and text in the format you prefer. Customer account notifications can be automated, so you always know when payments are received or are overdue. Recurring payment invoices let you stay on top of your cash flow.

Follow Your Dream

Find your dream of unique travel experiences and stimulating entrepreneurial work in welcoming and interesting digital nomad locations from New York City to the Carolinas, Texas, Idaho, and points between.

writing

Book Series Review: Chronicles of an Urban Druid By Auburn Tempest and Michael Anderle

Posted on April 3, 2022 by Cynthia D. Griffin

I started this series almost two weeks ago, and I’m still not done, but I loved it so much, I decided to go ahead and do a review. Yep, it’s that good.

I was looking for a series on Kindle Unlimited that had a strong female lead, magic, and lots of adventure in it. This series hasn’t disappointed on those expectations. It also had plenty of other unexpected (fun) surprises too.

Chronicles of an Urban Druid starts out with a young woman living in Toronto who is from a large family of cops, but is disappointed because she doesn’t seem to really fit in that life. She’s a big supporter of her father and brothers, but being a cop really isn’t for her. Little does she know that a mugging in the back alley of the pub she works at will lead Fiona to her Irish heritage and Druid one as well.

Thrown into a whole new life, Fiona finds herself with a lot of catching up to do, but she’s excited for the task of learning to become a Druid and especially excited to find her true calling. The only thing is it comes with a lot of dangerous new enemies that stalks her, kidnaps her, and gives her quite a few near death experiences.

As Fiona learns to handle the new responsibilities and challenges of becoming an urban Druid, she also finds new friends and love that fills her life and heart. She’s excited by the magic that she’s now allowing herself to see and be apart of as she welcomes fae creatures to live in her backyard and becomes the mother of twenty-three rambunctious dragons.

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freelance, guest post, small business, writing

Guest Post: Your Guide to Starting a Small Business as a Stay-at-Home Parent

Posted on February 17, 2022 by Cynthia D. Griffin

By Virginia Cooper

Studies show approximately 20 percent of American parents choose to stay home with their kids, which can be rewarding. However, it’s perfectly natural to want goals of your own, and starting an in-home business can provide an additional sense of purpose as well as income.

What Are the Steps to Starting Your Own Business?

Starting a business is easier than you think. Once you have a solid idea, you can create a professional space and legally register your company.

Create a Home Office

You need a space to work without distractions and meet with clients, so creating a home office is a good idea. Having a separate room for work also helps you “check out” when off the clock.

Choose a Business Structure

If you’re a one-person operation, you can choose a sole proprietorship or limited liability company as your business structure. Many entrepreneurs choose LLCs for the benefits:

Considered a separate legal entity from the owner
Numerous tax advantages
Flexible ownership

The process for registering an LLC varies by state, so you’ll need to do research before filing. The good news is, you can do it yourself or with a formation service, so there’s no need to spend money on a lawyer.

Find Funding

Starting a small business requires money for fees, supplies, and marketing. If you have savings, you can tap into those. Otherwise, you’ll need to apply for financing.

Market Your Services

To get clients, you need to put your business out there. Fortunately, there are many marketing techniques small businesses can use:

Create a website
Post on social media
Join local groups

What Kind of Businesses Can You Run From Home?

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better writing, creative writing, editing, fiction, showing vs telling, writing, writing tips

Writing Tip: How To Balance Showing and Telling in Fiction Writing

Posted on November 16, 2021 by Cynthia D. Griffin

This is a subject that’s near and dear to my heart. Mostly because at one point in my writing journey, I totally sucked at showing the reader what was going on. I was all about the telling, and anytime someone critique my fiction, I always got called out for it.

At first I was ticked off. Why couldn’t people see past what I wrote to see what I actually meant? After a while, I realized how ridiculous that was. The whole point of being a writer isn’t to write, so much as it’s to convey what you mean and feel in a way others can know it too. One of the best ways to do this is to spend time building up your description to show readers what you mean, not just spoon feed it to them.

So how much showing should fiction writing have? I personally think it should be a balance. If you had all showing, or all telling the writing just doesn’t work well. So maybe about half and half? But that all depends on the writer and what’s being written too.

One thing I learned on my writing journey is that developing writing skills take time. Just because you decided to make improvements in a certain area doesn’t mean you are going to see significant results right away. Just be conscious of the change you want to make, and work at it a little each time you sit down write. This particular area took me years to build, but it’s been worth all the effort. Here are a few things I did to develop my showing and telling.

First, I studied examples of showing and what made it different from telling. I even took a course through a writing acquaintance Michael Knost who really helped me understand the key component of what showing more description looks like.

The first thing is to know that a big part of showing is really about emotion, and letting the reader feel what the character is feeling. So it means going a little deeper. And for bonus points, if you can convey a sense of emotion without actually writing the emotion out, that’s where the gold is.

An example would be like this…

Example of Telling: Karen wept for her daughter.

The emotion here is sadness. So let’s show the sadness, and for extra credit let’s do it without saying wept, sad, or sorrow.

Example of Showing: The savage storm raged inside Karen as tears streaked down her cheeks in a relentless waterfall.

That’s a pretty big difference. Those sentences are conveying the same idea (or emotion), but in a totally different way.

For me, this wasn’t so easy in the beginning. I was so used to telling that it felt like I was walking through molasses every time I had to slow down my writing to add more description. But I realized that in slowing down, I was really doing myself a big favor.

I also started paying more attention to my own emotions. Exactly how I felt during high emotional times. What sort of analogies I would liken those emotions to. And where I might feel those emotions in my body.

I also purchased this handy book The Emotional Thesaurus. This resource has been the single most used writing tool I have ever used. In fact, I don’t even have to pull it out most of the time now. I’ve pretty much memorized many of the more common emotions that I use in my writing.

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a guided journal, digital journal, digital journaling, guided journal, journal, journaling, new release, writing

New Release: I Feel Playful When… A Guided Journal

Posted on July 12, 2021 by Cynthia D. Griffin

Here is a journal that’s been in the works for awhile, at least on a subconscious level. One of the things I have struggled with continually has been to relax, lighten up, and not take life so seriously all the time. So I decide to make it one of my new year’s resolutions, and while at first it seemed like I was making no progress at all on this particular resolution, about April/May time frame I realized I actually had.

That’s the thing about some resolutions or desires for change. They can happen when you don’t even realize it. This was certainly one of them. The realization came as I noticed that I had been making progress with being more playful in small, but consistent ways like getting even more into role playing video games, reading more books (especially series, which I love to do), and just allowing myself to experiment with ideas, thoughts, and even my daily schedule. In doing more of what I loved, and being more open to change and new ideas, I discovered more playful energy in my day to day life.

So with that in mind, I created the seventh book in my Journaling To Feel Good Series called I Feel Playful When as a reminder to me of all the ways I have invited more playfulness in my life. Not only is this a great reminder for me, it’s somewhat of a blueprint for others to find their playfulness as well.

The journaling prompts inside this guided journal, which are… I feel playful when, I feel excitement doing, I love to experimenting with, I enjoy thinking about, I think it’s fun to, I feel the most joy when I, I feel adventurous about. Each help dive and dig out the things that bring out the playfulness in us (at least it did for me!).

Here is the official book blurb…

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