If I hadn't have married the wrong man, I would never have foolishly given up my teaching career to move to Greece with said man. I would never then have been in a sudden desperate financial situation, which forced me to start my own business overseas. If I hadn't started a business overseas, wherein my poor grasp of the local language, customs and business practices were challenged daily,I'd never have learned that I could be a more-than-competent, creative and tenacious entrepreneur. If I hadn't learned that I was a competent, creative and tenacious entrepreneur, I wouldn't have developed the confidence I needed to do what I really wanted to do, which was to write a book and see … [Read more...]
What’s In a Name?
Shakespeare’s Juliet asked this question in self-reflection and came up with the right answer for her, despite the tragedy to which her conclusion ultimately led. My answer to the question, “What’s in a name?” is the opposite of Juliet’s: there is a lot of meaning in every one of the names of my characters in my upcoming work, Cooking for Ghosts and Lost Lovers. This is a story I had been thinking about ever since my first visit to the RMS Queen Mary in 2008. I’d been given the honor of being asked to work on First Lady Maria Shriver’s California Women’s Conference in Long Beach, California. All the rooms at the conference center were booked. I could only find a room on the ship, which … [Read more...]
Women’s PowerStrategy Conference 2015
The next Women’s PowerStrategy™ Conference will be held in 2015. Speaker applications are not being taken at this time. Please continue to visit the conference website for updates and for photos and videos of our 2013 conference. For questions about speaker applications and all other inquiries please email womenspowerstrategy@gmail.com (Any queries here in the comments section will be deleted.) Thank you for your interest, Patricia V. Davis and The Women’s PowerStrategy™ Conference Team Note: Questions about speaker applications … [Read more...]
Let’s Not Fight ─ It’s Christmas: Your Holiday Cheat Sheet for Making it Through the Family Gathering
You’re going to see your family for the holidays again this year. You don’t know why you’re doing it, because every year you feel as though you’ve visited a level of Hell Dante forgot to mention. Every year your therapist gets a call on December 26 for an emergency session in which you swear to him or her you’ll never spend another holiday with “those people” again. But for some reason, you’re still not ready to emancipate yourself from this torture and so, every year that promise goes right out the window along with your diet, your hard-earned independence and your meager self-esteem. But I’m here to help. I’m here to remind you that Christmas dinner is after all, just dinner and not … [Read more...]
The Little Pink Pill
What if someone told you that there was a little pink, tasty pill that if you swallowed it, every word that came out of your mouth would be extremely pleasing to everyone? You’d never ever have to worry again, about saying the wrong thing that hurt someone feelings or made you sound selfish? Would you take it? I know lots of women who would. In fact, I swallowed that pill when I was a little girl and I am pretty sure it was my mother who gave it to me. She, like many women of her generation, was raised to be a “good girl.” Her parents liked her best when she was obedient and dutiful and respectful ─you know, all those qualities we’ve been told are “feminine”─ and … [Read more...]
March 26, 2013
A Better You Equals A Better World
By Patricia V. Davis No matter what it is we do for a living, most of us seek new ways to improve our skills, because we hope that improving professionally will lead us to a greater return. But what about our human being skills? Often our lives are too busy to even consider that if we make small adjustments in how we view and respond to the world, we could be sending out a more positive energy, an effort that will come back to us tenfold. Below are three simple suggestions on how building a better each of us will help build a better world. 1) Instead of making resolutions, let this year be a year of “gratitutions.” Gratitutions are statements of … [Read more...]
Thoughts on Losing a Child
Both the beauty and pain of loving one's child is that we can see all the imperfections in that relentless love, and even more, the imperfections in both that child and ourselves more clearly as a result. Nonetheless, the love is perfect to you and only to you, so that if you should lose it through that child's death, you're crushed beyond bearing. But the day comes eventually when you realize that though the child is gone, that love has stayed with you, a gift to you always. And in order for you to embrace and cherish it, you must carry on and live. ~ Patricia V. Davis … [Read more...]
A Call to Nominate Jane Friedman as the 2013 Exceptional Woman in Publishing
by Patricia V. Davis Fellow Writers: Since 1998, Exceptional Women in Publishing has selected a woman in the publishing industry to honor her achievements publicly. The nominees for the annual award are solicited from former recipients, EWIP members and esteemed publishing industry colleagues. The honorees often surpass the criteria, achieving personal excellence, a reputation for mentoring, and exceptional leadership in an industry that seems to transform itself every year. This year, I’m calling upon every writer I know to help me nominate the one woman who I believe deserves this honor above all others, Jane Friedman. I met Jane in 2007 at … [Read more...]
Alone? How to Turn a Lonely Day Into a Great Day
You're going to be alone for a holiday, but have no wish to be. You've lost someone you love, or are estranged from family, or are far away from home --- whatever the reason the upcoming holidays are making you blue --- many of us have been there. Here are some fab ways to turn the day around that can work really well to change the attitude of "a lonely day" to "a lovely day alone." 1. Sleep in. Have breakfast in bed. Eat something you would not normally have that you've always meant to try. (Mine was eggs benedict.) 2. Go for a half an hour walk in a place you've meant to walk, but have never had the chance or the time. Take a bus or drive there if … [Read more...]
The Women’s PowerStrategy™ Conference 2013 Call for Speakers
Dear Potential Speaker: Thank you for your interest in The Women’s PowerStrategy™ Conference 2013. Our mission is to gather together leaders from diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise who join forces "to educate and inspire women of all ages to believe and invest in their own talent, skills, and potential." Our speakers are all experts in their fields who volunteer their time by either being on a panel or conducting an individual session and then taking the time to answer questions and speak with our attendees. All speakers are also invited to attend the after conference reception with a personal guest. Speakers will have breakfast and lunch courtesy of the conference … [Read more...]
The Next Big Thing
by Patricia V. Davis Thanks to my friend and fellow author Patricia Morin for giving me an opportunity to join a long line of writers talking about their newest project. Pat is the author of Mystery Montage and Crime Montage, both short story collections in which the complexities of the human mind play a large part. But this shouldn't really be a surprise, as Pat holds a Masters in Counseling Psychology and in Social Work. You really should visit her website to learn more about her, because she's one of those multi-talented women we all admire who has a loving and generous nature to boot. As for me, this blog chain is a chance to talk about a number of things I'm working on in … [Read more...]
Calling All Female Humans On The Planet Earth
It’s only been a hundred years, give or take, since female human beings in the United States and England received “permission” to vote alongside male human beings. We rarely think about that or about what those first female voters went through in order to achieve this milestone for our sex. But when it does roll through our heads we usually visualize a well-dressed society woman wearing long ruffled petticoats, a fashionable hat, parading elegantly in front of government buildings in pretty high button boots, while carrying a delicately worded sign, and possibly singing. Sort of like this: But the fight to gain the vote for female humans was actually like … [Read more...]