Freedom through Education: One Woman’s Quest

Author’s Note: Throughout the month of July, I ran a contest called, “Is There a Legacy in Your Midst?” Individuals nominated a friend or family member to receive a complimentary 30-minute interview and document package from Lasting Legacies. Ms. Valya Shapiro was randomly drawn as the winner. She owns and operates Turnkey Living, Inc., an interior design company outside of Boston, Massachusetts. During our interview, I was impressed by her thoughtful responses and her poignant storytelling ability. I think that you will find the following excerpt of her quest to find freedom through education compelling and inspiring.

Dalene Bickel: Valya, I was hoping that you could share about your childhood in Turkey.

Valya Shapiro: I was born in Istanbul to a Jewish family whose ancestors left Spain in 1492 after the Inquisition, so I have an approximate 500-year history in Turkey. It’s a history which, unfortunately when I grew up, was tumultuous for me.

I was a young child during World War II. Even though Turkey ultimately decided not to enter the War, my father was taken to a concentration camp anyway. It began as a tax that was imposed on all Turkish citizens, but the minority groups (there were three small segments of us in Turkey – Greeks, Armenians, and Jews) were taxed beyond what they could afford. If they could not pay the full amount, they were taken away. Read More

How to Stay Motivated to Write Your Book

So you have a book idea and you feel that now is as good a time as any to write it. You’re eager to get started, so you jot down a few notes, maybe even develop an outline. You write a few paragraphs and then a few pages.

“This writing thing isn’t so hard,” you think. You write a little more. And then it happens.

A work obligation. An illness. One or more of the million-and-one things on your to-do list. Whatever “it” is, it diverts your attention, requires your time and ensures that you don’t write that day. Before you know it, one obligation or emergency or fun night out leads to recurring neglect of your book for weeks or months.

Friends and family members ask how your story is coming along. You wince at the reminders and being too proud to admit the truth, you simply state, “Great!” Eventually, you resume your writing, but by then you’ve lost your mojo and have to start back at square one.

Distraction is a common problem for writers of all genres, but it doesn’t have to happen.  This type of scenario can be avoided if you take the time to employ this simple strategy before writing your first sentence.Read More

5 Ways to Push Past Your Fears and Write Your Story

You know there’s a story inside of you. A meaningful story, not just a fluff piece. Something that will inform, inspire and intrigue others. But every time you try to put it down on paper, you come up empty.

It seems that no one else has this problem. New authors crop up every day, causing you to wonder what it is that they know that you don’t. How were they able to take their ordinary life and turn it into something people are eager to read?
Read More

Fuel Your Legacy

Ever since the introduction of the automobile, Americans have been busily traversing our country’s roadways for work and play. It has broadened our horizons and led us to new destinations, creating innumerable memories in the process. Yet to get from point A to point B, our vehicles require more than a key in the ignition.Read More