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World Scout Jamboree – Awesome Adventure Pt. 1

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I attended the World Scout Jamboree (in Japan) with some of my Scouts and I have to say, it was an awesome adventure. It was by no means a holiday or relaxing vacation but I expected that going in. It challenged me in so many different ways, testing both my physical limitations and how I thought and saw the world. Let me begin with the physical limitations, since those are the easiest ones to articulate. I had several preconceived notions of what I was capable of withstanding. Most/all of those were wiped out by this sometimes grueling trip. Let me list them: Heat – I come from a climate north of the 49th parallel. I don’t particularly like excessive heat. […]

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One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

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I don’t know how many times I’ve either said or thought, “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.” I know every time I have, it was not a positive thing. But yesterday that changed. You see, I was having lunch with my friend, Leah Crichton and we were talking about various things. Leah said those very words and I had an epiphany. I realized right then that feeling that way was actually a very good thing. I suppose it may have been the context of the conversation that did it. So here is my rationale. When you take a step forward, you are making progress. Maybe you have been trying to find a publisher or agent or a new job. When […]

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Know Thyself – Steps to Creating a Brand

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I have been trying to create a “Michell Plested” brand for some time now. To date, that has included being active on social media, having a website and a podcast. It has also included the several books I now have available. But yesterday when I asked the question on Twitter what else I should do, @KevinWohler asked me who I was. He wasn’t asking the question as in, “Who are you? I have never met nor heard of you.” Instead, he was asking, “Who do you think you are and how do you want people to perceive you?” This is when I admit that I am lousy at self-evaluation and even worse at seeing myself through any lens other than […]

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Writing in Multiple Universes

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If you are like me, you have more stories floating around in your brain than you have time to actually write. Some of those stories involve one set of characters, others another. It can lead to all sorts of problems when it is time to actually sit down and do the writing. That doesn’t even consider how complicated the story-telling can be in a single novel. For example, I wrote a novel once where I had some important but secondary characters show up from time-to-time. The initial writing of the novel went by very quickly but with revisions and follow-up edits, the names (and some of the description) of those characters changed somewhere between the beginning and the end. Can […]

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