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START THE SPRING OUT WRITE!

A Novel Writing Getaway to Jump Start Your Novel

August 25–26, 2012

sign up below!

This is not your average writer’s retreat! This writing seminar is a lively, active, results-oriented symposium of creative and accomplished authors, attendees and answers to the questions that have been dogging you for years regarding how to go about getting a book deal. At the end of this book-writing retreat you will have a surmountable format for mapping out your book, the components you need to pitch a literary agent, including the agent contact information and the sample pages you need to send the agent. So, with that said, what’s stopping you?

Okay, you have a fantastic idea for a book — but do you know how to begin, finish, and sell it? Or let’s say you’ve already finished a manuscript, but now you’re at an impasse trying to get the attention of agents and publishers.Whether you’re at the idea stage or in the home stretch, this weekend will show you how to navigate the competitive world of book publishing and get your project sold.

“I wanted to THANK YOU, Hollis, for your workshop. It played a crucial role in being able to complete and submit a successful book proposal.” Rachael Brownell, who became a best-selling author after taking the Shocking Real-Life “Develop and Sell Your Memoir” workshop. She’s since been featured on the Today Show, Good Morning America and NPR’s Weeken Edition as a result of her book, Mommy Doesn’t Drink Here Anymore (2009).

“Hollis’ workshop gave me the confidence I needed to continue following my dream of becoming a published author. [It] was key to helping me fine-tune my proposal, and her personal involvement in my journey has been invaluable.” Lisa Baron, Shocking Real Life graduate and award-winning columnist, who landed a book deal with Citadel for her memoir, Life of the Party; A Political Press Tart Bares All. It’s a Chelsea Handler-meets-George Stephanopoulos exploration of the dismantling of the conservative movement — and why young (drinking, chain-smoking, and, well, you get it) political campaign staffers sometimes go rogue.

Warning: This is a retreat for people serious about publishing a book (which is not to say you have to take yourself too seriously) — that said, (seriously) we are not in the business of hyping pipe dreams. The last thing we want to put you through is a litany of anemic sessions in which people sit around and bloviate about the difficulties of getting a book deal. The Shocking Real-Life Atlanta Book-Writing Boot Camp is an active writing retreat spanning an entire weekend devoted to your book, your idea for your book, formatting your book, writing your book, getting an agent for your book, selling your book to a publisher PLUS a special side workshop on how to write, publish and sell a profitable eBook. If you have an idea for a book — and especially if you have been sitting on your idea for a book — you owe it to yourself to enroll in this Shocking Real life writers boot camp hosted by best selling humor writer Hollis Gillespie.

Reserve Your Spot Now!

Click the button below to enroll in The Shocking Real-Life Book Writing Boot Camp with Hollis Gillespie on August 25–26, 2012

Price: $374* 100% Safe and Secure – We are PayPal verified. (SRL Alumni, click here to sign up at your discount) Click now and you’ll get an immediate email confirming your seat. Instant confirmation only available online. (To pay by check, see below) *Includes food, snacks, pot luck, beverages, champagne and inappropriate conversation. (See the end of this post for Atlanta class location.)

GIFT this class to someone you love! Enrollees will receive a gorgeous gift certificate attached to your confirmation email (if I do say so my own damn self). Printable, and ready to put under a bow! WOW, how great will THAT look ?

Whether you’re at the idea stage or in the home stretch, this weekend will show you how to navigate the competitive world of book publishing and get your project sold.

• In this workshop, you’ll learn:
• The marketability of your idea, and how to make it more so
• How to pitch an agent for representation and write the perfect query
• What publishers and agents are really looking for and what they hate
• How to avoid the most common rookie mistakes
• Which pages to send to a literary agent as a sample of your work (hint: It’s rarely the very first pages)
• How publishing houses and literary agencies benefit the author
• How to decipher the miasma of advances, royalties, subsidiary rights, foreign rights, and dramatic rights

Hollis Gillespie and a collective of other successful authors will share their secrets to unclogging your creative arteries so you can tell the world what you’ve been telling your friends all this time; that your book idea is a slam dunk, and now it’s time to cash it in. She and the other co-hosts will offer their candid critiques, suggestions for selling your work, and answer all your questions about breaking into book publishing.

Here’s some more things you will learn:

• How to pick an eye-grabbing title.
• Which genre best suits your idea (Memoir? Novel? Self-help? Humor?)
• When it’s permissible to embroider, improvise, and reorder real-life events.
• Exactly how to format your pitch letter.
• Exactly which agent to pitch (including contact info).
• How and when to contact agents.
• The difference between an illuminating essay and a journal entry.

And that’s not all, classes come with complimentary booze and fingerfood, as well as inappropriate conversation and other basic essentials for unleashing creativity and unlocking buried memories. Classes fill up quickly, so sign-up now!

Coming from out of town? CLICK HERE to save up to 67% on a local hotel stay courtesy of HalfOffDepot.com.

The Shocking Real Life Book-Writing Boot Camp Itinerary:

Saturday:

11:00 a.m.–5 p.m.

• Morning One-Hour Workshop hosted by Hollis Gillespie or a renowned guest speaker, such as magazine editor, author and agent-nabber Stephanie Davis. Learn the slew of rookie mistakes that keep your manuscript from the eyes of a literary agent, and the surprisingly simple insider tricks that put your pitch ahead of all the others.
• Continental Breakfast — coffee, tea, hot cocoa, etc. (doughnuts will definitely make a showing).
• Introductory discussion with Hollis Gillespie, topics to include finding an agent and publisher for your manuscript, determining the genre of your book, breaking down doors and ass-kicking writing techniques.
• Lunch is served with complimentary mimosas and inappropriate conversation (useful for dislodging buried creativity). Menu to include 5-cheese flatbread, mushroom-and-spinach flatbread, deli spirals, fresh fruit and POT LUCK!. Coffee, tea and snacks will also be available throughout the day during workshops.
• Initial individual assessment of attendees’ manuscripts and ideas for manuscripts. Here is your chance to work on the preliminary format, working title and pointsof an elevator pitch for your manuscipt or manuscript idea. Anytime you pitch to an agent, you need to sum up your book in one sentence. It’s harder than it sounds, and believe it or not it often falls to this precise sentence to make or break an agent’s decision to take you on as a client.
• Writing exercises. Material assessment. Homework distribution. (Yep. Homework, though we don’t make you sit in a corner if you don’t turn it in the next day.) (It’s fun homework, though, so you will want to do it.)
• After 5 p.m. Happy hour at Elliott St. Pub, a true writer’s hangout just steps away.

Sunday:

11:00 a.m.–5 p.m.

• Continental breakfast.
• Format your book, pitch an agent, learn to avoid rookie mistakes AS WELL AS learn the secrets that will put you ahead of 80 percent of the competition — it’s Hollis Gillespie’s sure-fire formula that has helped DOZENS of people get agent representation and/or book deals.
• Material assessment. Choosing the pages to present to the agent. (Hint: It’s almost never the very first pages.) How to treat, clean, edit and prepare your pages for presentation to an editor. Writing exercises.
• Lunch with complimentary mimosas and inappropriate conversation (marvelous for unblocking buried creativity)
• Afternoon workshop: The Con Game: Keeping Confidence That Your Work Will Work, hosted by Pulitzer Prize nominee Charles McNair, whose first novel, Land O’Goshen (St. Martin’s Press) received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for fiction and critical acclaim from the New York Times Book Review, Washington Post, and other venerated publications . This workshop is a personal approach to helping writers who haven’t broken through to keep believing they will. Charles will discuss the little ways you can build and nourish confidence along the way, until the novel is ready to be born, or the big work. “This is a topic that really deeply matters to me, since I struggled 10 years before a first book was ready,” says Charles. His novel, Land O’ Goshen (St. Martin’s Press, 1994) received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for fiction and was critically acclaimed by The New York Times and Washington Post.
• Each attendee will be assigned the contact info of a literary agent who is in the market for their type of material, and by the end of the weekend they will have a pitch letter formulated to attract that agent, a workable format for their manuscript plus 10 sample pages to include with their agent pitch.
• Your goal, by the end of this book-writers boot camp, is to have completed a professionally written query package to pitch your book, which includes a surmountable and creative format for your manuscript or book idea, a researched, completed pitch letter to a literary agent, and 10 professionally edited and treated sample pages to include with your query. Just give us this one weekend! Your life will change.

Hollis Gillespie

Syndicated humor columnist and author of the popular Atlanta magazine’s popular backpage column. Gillespie is also the best-selling author of three memoirs (titled Bleachy-Haired Bitch; Tales from a Bad Neighborhood, Confessions of a Recovering Slut and Other Love Stories, and Trailer Trashed; My Dubious Attempts Toward Upward Mobility) based on her blog, the rights of which were purchased for television by Paramount. She is also a radio commentator for NPR and Georgia Public Broadcasting, the personal-essay judge for the Writers Digest annual creative-writing competition, a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, television writer and not to mention accomplished trapeze artist (not really, but she’s very bendy).

Reserve Your Spot Now!

Click the button below to enroll in The Shocking Real-Life Book Writing Boot Camp with Hollis Gillespie on August 24–25, 2012

Price: $374* 100% Safe and Secure – We are PayPal verified. (SRL Alumni, click here to sign up at your discount) Click now and you’ll get an immediate email confirming your seat. Instant confirmation only available online. (To pay by check, see below) *Includes food, snacks, pot luck, beverages, champagne and inappropriate conversation. (See the end of this post for Atlanta class location.)GIFT this class to someone you love! Enrollees will receive a gorgeous gift certificate attached to your confirmation email (if I do say so my own damn self). Printable, and ready to put under a bow! WOW, how great will THAT look ?

Location:

The Shocking Real Life Academy is located in the historic Castleberry Artist district in Atlanta! Click HERE for directions from your location to our space at 311 Nelson Ave., Atlanta, GA 30313. (It’s a large shopfront facing the street. Free covered parking is available, just turn into the covered parking garage next to J.R. Crickets.)

Coming from out of town? CLICK HERE to save up to 67% on another local hotel stay courtesy of HalfOffDepot.com.

Click HERE for a sample of some more Shocking Real Life Alumni Success Stories!

What past participants say about the Shocking Real-Life Writing Seminar

• “I made contact (totally used your letter) with a friend’s agent at Writer’s House. It worked! Now he wants to see the proposal. They loved the idea. Thanks again! The class was great.” — Stephanie Davis, Editor, skirt! Magazine
• “Hollis, thanks for being in touch so quickly. Your seminar rocked!! I want to be one of your successes. I’ll start with [the agent you suggested] and if a rejection, will just keep going. I did not even realize I was so on fire about getting this book out there, until I felt the full Hollis Effect!!” — Susan Campbell
• “Hollis Gillespie’s writing workshop was the best I’ve ever attended. Hollis was extremely encouraging and helpful in both creative and procedural modes. And the yellow theme with the mimosas worked at a deep level of community which added to the enjoyment of the whole experience.” — David Ryback
• “Hollis is a rule-breaker who will teach you things you won’t hear anywhere else. If you don’t care about political correctness and want to learn a proven tactic to get an agent’s attention, Hollis can show you the way.” — Debbie Unterman
• “Hollis and crew were positive and upbeat. ‘Can’t’ wasn’t spoken. The environment and food were ‘quirky and fun,’ one of the underlying themes of the workshop and Hollis’s principles: build a support system of writers, share your work and contacts, and hit the send, send, send button on your computer made sense. The agent list was an added bonus.” — Lynn Hesse
• “The Hollis Gillespie workshop was money well spent and the day went by very quickly! Hollis took time with each person to help them clarify details of the story that they’d like to tell, develop a creative title, found similar books to use as examples in a pitch letter and provided a list with a recommendation of an agent (or agents) to contact. Hollis gave concise, realistic feedback to each person. As an added bonus, Michael Alvear spoke and each offered excellent advice. I came home and began work immediately on my story! I’m impressed by Hollis and Michael’s philosophy of helping other writers. Thank you for offering this wonderful seminar to AtlantaWriters Club members.” — Sharon LeMaster

• “It was a great experience and nice to sit around a table with others who are dealing with the same obstacles I am. I liked the advice given to ignore conventions and rules when querying agents and publishers which I will paraphrase: as long as it’s well written, go for it regardless of the ‘supposed’ hurdles or rules. Receiving a rejection doesn’t necessarily mean you’re work isn’t any good or you didn’t follow the rules. I liked having published authors talk about their personal experiences and paths to success using somewhat unconventional means. I spent part of yesterday putting the advice in practice and sent out several queries with an entirely different attitude.” — Kathy Lewis

Questions? For more information contact Hollis.

• Reserve Your Spot Now!

  Click the button below to enroll in The Shocking Real-Life Book Writing Boot Camp with Hollis Gillespie on August 25–26, 2012

  

   

  Price: $374* 100% Safe and Secure – We are PayPal verified. (SRL Alumni, click here to sign up at your discount) Click now and you’ll get an immediate email confirming your seat. Instant confirmation only available online. (To pay by check, see below) *Includes food, snacks, pot luck, beverages, champagne and inappropriate conversation. (See the end of this post for Atlanta class location.)

  GIFT this class to someone you love! Enrollees will receive a gorgeous gift certificate attached to your confirmation email (if I do say so my own damn self). Printable, and ready to put under a bow! WOW, how great will THAT look ?

  Location:

  The Shocking Real Life Academy is located in the historic Castleberry Artist district in Atlanta! Click HERE for directions from your location to our space at 311 Nelson Ave., Atlanta, GA 30313. (It’s a large shopfront facing the street. Free covered parking is available, just turn into the covered parking garage next to the restaurant space with yellow awnings.)

You Better Tell Somebody!

May 19–20 – The Shocking Real-Life Book Writers Boot Camp Weekend — This is not your average writer’s retreat! This is a lively, active, results-oriented symposium of creative and accomplished authors, attendees and answers to the questions that have been dogging you for years regarding how to go about getting a book deal . . . Read more

June 24 – Atlanta’s Most Popular Blogging Workshop — This is Atlanta’s Most Popular Blogging Workshop! If you’ve been thinking about starting a blog or if you’ve already started one, this workshop will teach you how to sharpen its concept, write better posts, rank higher on Google, triple your traffic and start making money . . . Read more

June 24 – Turn Your Blog into a Profit-Making Business — Learn how to discover and leverage your blogging voice, develop killer content, effectively analyze your stats and blog traffic, increase your readership and develop loyalty and improve your “findability” on Google! Read more

Dates Vary – The Pitch Doctor with Hollis Gillespie Here’s a secret, you don’t need to have a finished manuscript to get a book deal. All you need is an amazing idea and as little as 10 pages. I’ve helped scores of writers get book deals and agent representation, you’re next . . . Read more

[For a calendar of these classes, scroll to the bottom of this screen.]

You Better Tell Somebody!

Sunday, April 29, 11–5

This is Atlanta’s Most Popular Blogging Workshop!* If you’ve been thinking about starting a blog or if you’ve already started one, this workshop will teach you how to sharpen its concept, write better posts, come up with magnetic headlines, generate more ideas, rank higher on Google, triple your traffic and start making money.

(*we serve booze and guarantee inappropriate conversation.)

You probably have a ton of questions about your blog with nobody to answer them, right?

Questions like:

• Do I have a compelling concept?
• Where’s the traffic?
• Why is nobody linking to me?
• How do I write better headlines?
• How do I get more people to read my blog?
• How do I get ranked higher on Google?
• Should I rename my blog?
• How do I get people to comment on my posts?
• How do I make money off my blog?
• What’s the fastest way to come up with keywords?
• Is Google Image the only place to get photos?
• How can I tell if an image is copyrighted?
• How do I get advertisers?
• What’s the difference between a visitor and a page view?
• How do I promote my blog with Facebook & Twitter?
• What about YouTube & Linked-in?
• What’s the best way to write my About Me page?
• What’s an RSS feed?
• How can I get more subscribers to my blog?
• How do I track subscribers?
• How do I get people to read more than just one post?

Now, imagine getting answers to all your questions while sitting across the table, face-to-face with the hilarious and irrepressible back-page columnist and blogger for Atlanta Magazine, Hollis Gillespie, and boffo (in a brainy way) syndicated columnist and Huffington Post blogger Mike Alvear.

But before we go any further, check out what Heather Abraham of Chamblee, GA, has to say about her experience at Hollis Gillespie’s Shocking Real Life Blogging Workshop:

Sign up NOW and confirm your seat.

Hurry, the Atlanta blog workshop is limited to 25 attendees and we’ve sold out every blogging class! THIS CLASS IS SO POPULAR, THAT WE SELL OUT EVERY TIME!

Sunday, April 29, 11–5 Credit-Card Users, after clicking the above button, look for the “Pay with debit or credit card as a PayPal guest” link under “Don’t have a PayPal account?” at the bottom right of the screen.

Cost: $175

100% Safe and Secure – We are PayPal verified.

Click now and you’ll get an immediate email

confirming your seat.

Instant confirmation only available online

(to pay by check, see below)

* Includes finger food, champagne and inappropriate conversation.

Doubts? Just click here to read what Jenny Munn, a blogging workshop grad, has to say!

Or check out the video below, where SRL graduate Heather Abraham, author of the award-winning ReligionNerd.com, talks about her experience at the Shocking Real Life Blogging Workshop!

CLASS Location is in the historic Castleberry Artist District at 313 Nelson St., Atlanta, GA 30313. The workshop space is a large live/work loft complex in Castleberry Point. There is ample street side parking as well as covered parking. CLICK HERE for directions from your location.

This brings us to the first benefit of enrolling in our Atlanta Blog Seminar:

Personal Attention From Two Of The Most Prominent Bloggers In Atlanta.

Hollis after the appearance on The Tonight Show

Hollis Gillespie

Syndicated humor columnist and author of the popular Atlanta magazine’s popular backpage column. Gillespie is also the best-selling author of three memoirs (titled Bleachy-Haired Bitch; Tales from a Bad Neighborhood, Confessions of a Recovering Slut and Other Love Stories, and Trailer Trashed; My Dubious Attempts Toward Upward Mobility) based on her blog, the rights of which were purchased for television by Paramount. She is also a radio commentator for NPR and Georgia Public Broadcasting, the personal-essay judge for the Writers Digest annual creative-writing competition, a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, television writer and not to mention accomplished trapeze artist (not really, but she’s very bendy).

Mike Alvear

Mike's promo page for his HBO show

Huffington Post blogger Mike Alvear is the co-host of HBO’s popular sex advice series, The Sex Inspectors and author of Men Are Pigs But We Love Bacon, Alexander The Fabulous: The Man Who Brought The World To Its Knees, and Sex Inspectors Masterclass: How to Have an Amazing Sex Life. His opinion pieces have appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Reader’s Digest, Salon.com, and the Los Angeles Times. Alvear has made guest appearances on the Today Show, Tyra Banks and The Greg Behrendt Show, authors a relationship advice column syndicated to the gay press and blogs at www.mikealvear.com (where he’s always looking for guest bloggers–check it out!)

Still need convincing? Check out what Allison Davis of Decatur, GA, has to say about her experience at the Shocking Real Life blogging workshop:

SO ENOUGH ABOUT US, LET’S TALK ABOUT YOU…

Why would you want to start

a new blog or turbo-charge the one you’ve got?

We can think of five reasons:

1. Get a Job. Imagine the VP of Widget International deciding between two finalists. You’ve got a blog called “Market Your Widgets” and the other candidate doesn’t. Who wins?

2. Sell Your Book. And speaking engagements, workshops, and seminars. All the while positioning yourself for the your next book deal.

3. Enhance Your Business.Attract sales by being an indispensable source for industry-related news, strategies, tactics — hell, even gossip. A blog can make you the “Go-To” person in your marketplace. It’ll also help your professional networking.

4. Break into Writing. Improve your writing in a real-world scenario where you can get unvarnished opinions from people you don’t know. Better yet, build up your portfolio of essays, social commentary, poetry, advice columns and political observations. Give editors a one-stop-shopping link to your best work.

And the best way to do that is to sign up for the only “Blogging Bootcamp” in Atlanta. Here’s another peek at what you’re going to learn in our 6-hour blogging seminar:

• How to discover and leverage your blogging voice
• How to maximize your blogging ROI
• How to develop killer content
• How to set short term and long term goals for your blog
• How to effectively analyze your stats and blog traffic
• How to increase your readership and develop loyalty
• Specific strategies and techniques to improve your “findability” on Google
• Maintaining professional boundaries while still being personable

Now, before we get to the boots-on-the-ground view, here’s the 2nd most important benefit to taking our Atlanta Blogging Workshop:

You need another set of eyes to look at your work. Are your ideas sound? Does your execution match your vision? Are you on the right track? Whether you’re spot-on, need to move a few degrees over or need a head-to-toe revamp,

Now, let’s talk about the ground-level knowledge you’re going to leave with:

How to Write Better Blogs:

• Expert tips for outstanding web writing
• How to blog with Magnetic Headlines
• How to make a blog with a “heat map” that attracts readers.
• Create a sneeze page and propel readers deep into your blog.

How to Increase traffic to your blog:

• Five things you can do to double your readers in 30 days.
• Writing secrets that’ll rank you higher on Google.(It’s about phrases not keywords).
• How to start a link exchange program (linking to other blogs to drive traffic).

How to use Social Media to promote your blog:

• An overview of posts that went viral on Twitter, and how these elements can help you do the same.
• Set up Facebook so it automatically grabs your latest blog post and splash it on your page.
• Inventive ways of using YouTube, Flkr and ConstantContact

How to Make Money Blogging*:

• 5 ways to find direct advertisers for your blog
• The best ad networks to join (they’re free!)
• How to find a sponsor for your blog
• The 3 things you should look for in affiliate marketing (getting a cut of what you sell on your blog)

* Important! You must have a minimum of 15,000 to 20,000 page views a month before the $$$ start flowing in. The most critical thing you can do to generate revenue is to GROW TRAFFIC. No worries–we’ll show you how.

How to Improve the Look of Your Blog:

• Which “Theme” should you start off with (or switch to)
• Should you start –or move– your blog to its own domain or keep it hosted where it is?
• Color schemes, type faces, sidebar widgets, line spacing, oh my! What’s best for you?
• How to find the highest quality royalty-free images.

Just look at what Chelcie Rice of Atlanta, GA, has to say about his experience:

The cost of the Atlanta Blogging Class is only:

$175

For a 6-hour blogging class, that works out to a little over $29 an hour. Such a deal! And in this intensely competitive environment, worth every penny.

Before you sign up, take a look at what past participants have to say:

“What a team! Two great writers coming from different angles made the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Hollis helped me reposition my blog and write more compelling posts and Mike helped me use some amazing guerilla tactics. Like the one about getting links. I struck gold with his advice (don’t ask other bloggers to link to your site; ask them to link to a post you wrote that complements a post they wrote).– Stephen Moore

Sign up now and take your blog to the next level.

If you’re a professional, we’ll show you how to build expert status by sharing knowledge and being insanely useful to your readers.

If you’re a “civilian” who wants to showcase your humor, political insight or social commentary, we’ll help you express it and get more people to read you.

If you’re a business, we’ll help put a human face on your company and get you attention, build loyalty, and generate sales.

Sign up NOW and confirm your seat.

Hurry, the Atlanta blog workshop is limited to 30 attendees and we’ve sold out every blogging class!

Sunday, April 29, 11–5 Credit-Card Users, after clicking the above button, look for the “Pay with debit or credit card as a PayPal guest” link under “Don’t have a PayPal account?” at the bottom right of the screen.

Cost: $175

100% Safe and Secure – We are PayPal verified.

Click now and you’ll get an immediate email

confirming your seat.

Instant confirmation only available online

(to pay by check, see below)

* Includes finger food, champagne and inappropriate conversation.

We can’t wait to strap a rocket to the back of your blog and watch you take off!

All the Best,

Hollis Gillespie, funny bitch

and

Mike Alvear, the funny bitch’s bitch

P.S. – The Atlanta Blogging Workshop is the only Atlanta-based blog seminar for beginning and intermediate bloggers. It’s led by two of Atlanta’s most prominent writers–Atlanta Magazine’s Hollis Gillespie and Huffington Post’s Mike Alvear. For intermediate bloggers this 6-hour workshop will help you write killer content, triple your traffic, and start generating an income stream. For beginners, you’ll learn everything you need to set up, develop and promote your blog. Sign up now–every one of our Atlanta blogging workshops sells out!

Questions?

Email us at: shockingreallife@gmail.com

1. Sign up.
2. Bring your laptop to the class, if you want (we’ve got wifi).
3. Start writing down your questions so that when you get to the workshop your mind won’t go blank.
4. Bring a folder– you’re going to need it for all the leave-behind materials.
5. Bring a sense of humor–you’re going to need that too. We don’t do boring.

Location:

We are located in the historic Castleberry Artist district in Atlanta! Click HERE for directions from your location to our space at 313 Nelson Ave., Atlanta, GA 30313!

Now before you sign up, can we just brag a little? Here’s more of what past attendees have said about our Atlanta blog seminar:

“Here’s what I learned in the seminar about writing blog posts: Stop saying what you’re going to say and say it. I was opening sentences with stuff like, ‘I’d like to take this opportunity to extend to you my very sincere congratulations.’ You know, instead of just saying, “Congratulations!”– Alex Robbins

“I left that seminar with more resources than I ever expected. I especially loved the take-home lists that showed the best sites for almost every aspect of blogging. I especially liked the list of royalty-free picture sites (I thought Google Image was my only option–who knew there were DOZENS!).– Allan Wozniak

Are You Ready To Put More Bang In Your Blog?

Then….

THIS CLASS IS SO POPULAR, THAT WE SELL OUT EVERY TIME!

SUNDAY, March 25, 11–5pm is sold out. Sign up below for Sunday, April 29, 11–5 Credit-Card Users, after clicking the above button, look for the “Pay with debit or credit card as a PayPal guest” link under “Don’t have a PayPal account?” at the bottom right of the screen.

Cost: $175*

100% Safe and Secure – We are PayPal verified.

Click now and you’ll get an immediate email confirming your seat.

Instant confirmation only available online

(to pay by check see below)

*Includes champagne, fingerfood and inappropriate conversation.

We’re located just north of Downtown Atlanta in the Poncey-Highlands area. Our Atlanta blogging seminar students come from Fulton, Dekalb, Cobb, and Gwinnett County. They come from midtown, Marietta, Norcross, Sandy Springs, near the perimeter, outside the perimeter, on Peachtree or north of metro Atlanta. That includes Suwanee, Lithonia, Lawrenceville, Kennesaw, Emory, Douglasville, Decatur, Chamblee, Conyers, Buford, Alpharetta, Saturn, Pluto, and the ocassional escapee from the nearest black hole.

Atlanta Blog Class

Hollis Gillespie & Mike Alvear

353 9th Ave., Atlanta, GA 30308

Terms and conditions subject to change.

Copyright 2009 Hollis Gillespie & Mike Alvear | All rights reserved

To pay by check:

1. Write a check for the cost of the class payable to “Hollis Gillespie” and mail to Hollis Gillespie, c/o of Shocking Real Life, P.O. Box 89083., Atlanta, GA 30312-0083.
2. Send Hollis a note at shockingreallife@gmail.com. Include your name, email, which seminar you are signing up for, and the date the check was mailed.
3. When Hollis receives your email, she will email you a preliminary confirmation. After Hollis receives your check, you will get a confirmation email notifying you that you are registered in the Atlanta blog course.. . . . .

We’re located just north of Downtown Atlanta in the Poncey-Highlands area. Our Atlanta blogging seminar students come from Fulton, Dekalb, Cobb, and Gwinnett County. They come from midtown, Marietta, Norcross, Sandy Springs, near the perimeter, outside the perimeter, on Peachtree or north of metro Atlanta. That includes Suwanee, Lithonia, Lawrenceville, Kennesaw, Emory, Douglasville, Decatur, Chamblee, Conyers, Buford, Alpharetta, Saturn, Pluto, and the ocassional escapee from the nearest black hole.

ALUMNI REGISTRATION FOR Shocking Real-Life’s Famous Atlanta  Blogging Workshop ATLANTA, GA Sunday, April 29, 11–5 Use the button below and SAVE $25 on this class Credit-card users, look for the “Pay with debit or credit card as a PayPal guest” link under “Don’t have a PayPal account?” at the bottom right of the screen.

100% Safe and Secure – We are PayPal verified.
Click now and you’ll get an immediate email confirming your seat. Instant confirmation only available online
(to pay by check see above)

You Better Tell Somebody!

See what the buzz is about!

START THE SPRING OUT WRITE!

A Novel Writing Getaway to Jump Start Your Novel

May 19–20, 2012

sign up below!

This is not your average writer’s retreat! This writing seminar is a lively, active, results-oriented symposium of creative and accomplished authors, attendees and answers to the questions that have been dogging you for years regarding how to go about getting a book deal. At the end of this book-writing retreat you will have a surmountable format for mapping out your book, the components you need to pitch a literary agent, including the agent contact information and the sample pages you need to send the agent. So, with that said, what’s stopping you?

Okay, you have a fantastic idea for a book — but do you know how to begin, finish, and sell it? Or let’s say you’ve already finished a manuscript, but now you’re at an impasse trying to get the attention of agents and publishers.Whether you’re at the idea stage or in the home stretch, this weekend will show you how to navigate the competitive world of book publishing and get your project sold.

“I wanted to THANK YOU, Hollis, for your workshop. It played a crucial role in being able to complete and submit a successful book proposal.” Rachael Brownell, who became a best-selling author after taking the Shocking Real-Life “Develop and Sell Your Memoir” workshop. She’s since been featured on the Today Show, Good Morning America and NPR’s Weeken Edition as a result of her book, Mommy Doesn’t Drink Here Anymore (2009).

“Hollis’ workshop gave me the confidence I needed to continue following my dream of becoming a published author. [It] was key to helping me fine-tune my proposal, and her personal involvement in my journey has been invaluable.” Lisa Baron, Shocking Real Life graduate and award-winning columnist, who landed a book deal with Citadel for her memoir, Life of the Party; A Political Press Tart Bares All. It’s a Chelsea Handler-meets-George Stephanopoulos exploration of the dismantling of the conservative movement — and why young (drinking, chain-smoking, and, well, you get it) political campaign staffers sometimes go rogue.

Warning: This is a retreat for people serious about publishing a book (which is not to say you have to take yourself too seriously) — that said, (seriously) we are not in the business of hyping pipe dreams. The last thing we want to put you through is a litany of anemic sessions in which people sit around and bloviate about the difficulties of getting a book deal. The Shocking Real-Life Atlanta Book-Writing Boot Camp is an active writing retreat spanning an entire weekend devoted to your book, your idea for your book, formatting your book, writing your book, getting an agent for your book, selling your book to a publisher PLUS a special side workshop on how to write, publish and sell a profitable eBook. If you have an idea for a book — and especially if you have been sitting on your idea for a book — you owe it to yourself to enroll in this Shocking Real life writers boot camp hosted by best selling humor writer Hollis Gillespie.

Reserve Your Spot Now!

The Shocking Real-Life Book Writing Boot Camp with Hollis Gillespie on May 19–20, 2012

Whether you’re at the idea stage or in the home stretch, this weekend will show you how to navigate the competitive world of book publishing and get your project sold.

• In this workshop, you’ll learn:
• The marketability of your idea, and how to make it more so
• How to pitch an agent for representation and write the perfect query
• What publishers and agents are really looking for and what they hate
• How to avoid the most common rookie mistakes
• Which pages to send to a literary agent as a sample of your work (hint: It’s rarely the very first pages)
• How publishing houses and literary agencies benefit the author
• How to decipher the miasma of advances, royalties, subsidiary rights, foreign rights, and dramatic rights

Hollis Gillespie and a collective of other successful authors will share their secrets to unclogging your creative arteries so you can tell the world what you’ve been telling your friends all this time; that your book idea is a slam dunk, and now it’s time to cash it in. She and the other co-hosts will offer their candid critiques, suggestions for selling your work, and answer all your questions about breaking into book publishing.

Here’s some more things you will learn:

• How to pick an eye-grabbing title.
• Which genre best suits your idea (Memoir? Novel? Self-help? Humor?)
• When it’s permissible to embroider, improvise, and reorder real-life events.
• Exactly how to format your pitch letter.
• Exactly which agent to pitch (including contact info).
• How and when to contact agents.
• The difference between an illuminating essay and a journal entry.

And that’s not all, classes come with complimentary booze and fingerfood, as well as inappropriate conversation and other basic essentials for unleashing creativity and unlocking buried memories. Classes fill up quickly, so sign-up now!

Coming from out of town? CLICK HERE to save up to 67% on a local hotel stay courtesy of HalfOffDepot.com.

The Shocking Real Life Book-Writing Boot Camp Itinerary:

Saturday:

11:00 a.m.–5 p.m.

• Morning One-Hour Workshop hosted by Hollis Gillespie or a renowned guest speaker, such as magazine editor, author and agent-nabber Stephanie Davis. Learn the slew of rookie mistakes that keep your manuscript from the eyes of a literary agent, and the surprisingly simple insider tricks that put your pitch ahead of all the others.
• Continental Breakfast — coffee, tea, hot cocoa, etc. (doughnuts will definitely make a showing).
• Introductory discussion with Hollis Gillespie, topics to include finding an agent and publisher for your manuscript, determining the genre of your book, breaking down doors and ass-kicking writing techniques.
• Lunch is served with complimentary mimosas and inappropriate conversation (useful for dislodging buried creativity). Menu to include 5-cheese flatbread, mushroom-and-spinach flatbread, deli spirals, fresh fruit and POT LUCK!. Coffee, tea and snacks will also be available throughout the day during workshops.
• Initial individual assessment of attendees’ manuscripts and ideas for manuscripts. Here is your chance to work on the preliminary format, working title and pointsof an elevator pitch for your manuscipt or manuscript idea. Anytime you pitch to an agent, you need to sum up your book in one sentence. It’s harder than it sounds, and believe it or not it often falls to this precise sentence to make or break an agent’s decision to take you on as a client.
• Writing exercises. Material assessment. Homework distribution. (Yep. Homework, though we don’t make you sit in a corner if you don’t turn it in the next day.) (It’s fun homework, though, so you will want to do it.)
• After 5 p.m. Happy hour at Elliott St. Pub, a true writer’s hangout just steps away.

Sunday:

11:00 a.m.–5 p.m.

• Continental breakfast.
• Format your book, pitch an agent, learn to avoid rookie mistakes AS WELL AS learn the secrets that will put you ahead of 80 percent of the competition — it’s Hollis Gillespie’s sure-fire formula that has helped DOZENS of people get agent representation and/or book deals.
• Material assessment. Choosing the pages to present to the agent. (Hint: It’s almost never the very first pages.) How to treat, clean, edit and prepare your pages for presentation to an editor. Writing exercises.
• Lunch with complimentary mimosas and inappropriate conversation (marvelous for unblocking buried creativity)
• Afternoon workshop: The Con Game: Keeping Confidence That Your Work Will Work, hosted by Pulitzer Prize nominee Charles McNair, whose first novel, Land O’Goshen (St. Martin’s Press) received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for fiction and critical acclaim from the New York Times Book Review, Washington Post, and other venerated publications . This workshop is a personal approach to helping writers who haven’t broken through to keep believing they will. Charles will discuss the little ways you can build and nourish confidence along the way, until the novel is ready to be born, or the big work. “This is a topic that really deeply matters to me, since I struggled 10 years before a first book was ready,” says Charles. His novel, Land O’ Goshen (St. Martin’s Press, 1994) received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for fiction and was critically acclaimed by The New York Times and Washington Post.
• Each attendee will be assigned the contact info of a literary agent who is in the market for their type of material, and by the end of the weekend they will have a pitch letter formulated to attract that agent, a workable format for their manuscript plus 10 sample pages to include with their agent pitch.
• Your goal, by the end of this book-writers boot camp, is to have completed a professionally written query package to pitch your book, which includes a surmountable and creative format for your manuscript or book idea, a researched, completed pitch letter to a literary agent, and 10 professionally edited and treated sample pages to include with your query. Just give us this one weekend! Your life will change.

• Reserve Your Spot Now! to attend the Shocking Real-Life Book Writing Boot Camp with Hollis Gillespie May 19–20, 2012
  
  Price: $374* 100% Safe and Secure – We are PayPal verified. (SRL Alumni, click here to sign up at your discount) Click now and you’ll get an immediate email confirming your seat. Instant confirmation only available online. (To pay by check, see below) *Includes food, snacks, pot luck, beverages, champagne and inappropriate conversation. (See the end of this post for Atlanta class location.)
• GIFT this class to someone you love! Upon request, enrollees will receive a gorgeous gift certificate attached to your confirmation email (if I do say so my own damn self). Printable, and ready to put under a bow! WOW, how great will THAT look ?

  Location:

  The Shocking Real Life Academy is located in the historic Castleberry Artist district in Atlanta! Click HERE for directions from your location to our space at 311 Nelson Ave., Atlanta, GA 30313. (It’s a large shopfront facing the street. Free covered parking is available, just turn into the covered parking garage next to the restaurant space with yellow awnings.)

You Better Tell Somebody!

Join writer, designer and social media snark shark Jami Howard and Social Mediaologist, Dawn Gartin for a full day of social media workshops!

Saturday, April 21st from 10am-5pm @ Shocking Real Life

Between Jami’s wildly popular Facebook Pages Workshop and Dawn’s targeted expertise with Twitter and Linkedin, by the time you leave this workshop, we’ll be following YOU on social channels.

Jami Howard has been teaching social media and blogging workshops through Shocking Real Life and elsewhere in the Atlanta and Athens area since October of 2010. She is ready to help you ROCK your online presence and brings a no-nonsense, practical teaching style that gives you meat and potatoes, not just fluffy theory. If you’re ready to really take your social presence on line to the next level, you better get your seat in this workshop!

Dawn Gartin has been a corporate trainer and business consultant and is now your Social Mediaologist and stands by her conviction that social media is a party – Plan, Act, Reply, Test, You Measure! She’s made her mark on Twitter and LinkedIn and is ready to share some of her secrets with you! Don’t miss her!

Facebook – Setting up your Timeline & ROCKING it!

10am-1pm with Jami Howard – $79.00

Are you ready to take your Facebook Page to the next level?

• Learn how to set up your new Timeline for your Page
• Best practices for marketing on Facebook
• Overview of Advertising on Facebook
• Tips & Hidden Tricks
• Tracking your progress using Insights
• Two hours with Jami, the Facebook Whisperer
• Personal attention to your specific problems

Twitter - The Tweet that Pays: Small Biz and Twitter

1pm-3pm with Dawn Gartin – $59.00

As a small business owner/operator do you ask:

• Why would I want to use Twitter?
• How do I get started on Twitter?
• How much time per day should I spend on Twitter?
• How frequently should I tweet to make it worthwhile?
• How can I drive people to my website through Twitter?
• What’s a hashtag and how do they work?
• What is proper Twitter etiquette?

Leave empowered with knowledge and tools for your business’ Twitter strategy.

LinkedIn - Don’t be on LinkedIn, “own” LinkedIn!

3pm-5pm with Dawn Gartin – $59.00

• Do you want to be in front of your ideal prospects, elevate your profile, build your network and find more business?
• Are you on LinkedIn but need to know how to work it for success?

Join us for making the most of your LinkedIn account:

• Maximize visibility
• Share profitable updates
• Find your audience
• Build relationships
• Best practices for building strategic alliances

Register for all three workshops and attend the full-day of social media training!

The full day of workshops will be $179, a savings of nearly $20.

Use the drop-down on the registration button below to select the workshops you’d like to attend!

Workshop Selection

Full-Saturday – Best Deal! (5 Hours) $179.00 USD Facebook Only (3 Hours) 10am-1pm $79.00 USD Twitter Only (2 Hours) 1pm-3pm $59.00 USD LinkedIn Only (2 Hours) 3pm-5pm $59.00 USD Facebook & Twitter (3 Hours) 10am-3pm $138.00 USD Facebook & LinkedIn (5 Hours) 10am-1pm & 3pm-5pm $138.00 USD Twitter & LinkedIn (4 Hours) 1pm-5pm $118.00 USD

As always, you’ll be able to partake in the booze and snacks that have made Jami famous (hush!) and folks registering for the full-day will receive a catered lunch.

Check out what people are saying about these kick-ass instructors:

“Working with Dawn was a breeze. It’s one thing to know a topic, it’s another to be able to teach it. Dawn gave clear and concise information on “my” level. Best of all she was patient with me.”

~ Jon Schwartz

“Jami provides down to earth, practical instruction on the things that matter most in the world of social media. I’m amazed how two hours of class can propel an entire communications strategy and still be fun! Thanks for being an amazing resource, Jami!”

~ Kristi Taylor

“Dawn is an excellent speaker on the subject of social media networking. She is able to simplify the social media process for all audiences with various levels of experience and SM knowledge. She is sincere about helping individuals learn about the different SM platforms available. Keep it up Dawn!”

~ Reid Casey

“Jami not only understands the nuts and bolts of Social Media, she can engineer a plan for you to succeed in marketing. Her best quality? She helps you figure it all out and make sense of an ever changing Facebook world!”

~ Peter Wood

 What are you waiting for?!? Sign yer asses up immediately!

Shocking Real Life alumni that are interested in registering, contact Jami to get the discounted rate.

You Better Tell Somebody!

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Spend a Sunday at Shocking Real Life and We Promise You Won’t go to Hell. No matter your genre — fiction, cookbook, memoir, self-help, true-crime, even erotica — don’t miss the Shocking Real Life Book Writers Boot Camp May 19–20! 

Sign up (sand save $40) for the next  

Shocking Real Life

Book Writers Boot Camp Weekend

with Hollis Gillespie

May 19–20, 2012, 11-5 p.m.

Use the button below to enroll and save $40

6 spots left!

(regular price: $374. YOUR price: $334)

You Better Tell Somebody!

Sign up here for this Weekend  Comedy Course with Debra Cole and get your $40 SRL enrollment discount! The Bitter Divorced Women’s Funny-Ass Comedy Class is May 4–5, 2012, includes a field trip to a local comedy club and concludes with a graduation finale!

Ladies! Humor is healing. Whether it’s been bad luck, bad decisions, or bad boyfriends, comedy is the ultimate revenge. In fact, comedy is for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you work in politics, business, teaching, etc.,  telling a good joke will open doors in your profession, improve your social life, and heal your spirit. Besides, life has been kicking you around with layoffs, sickness, and break ups. Why not try something new? Maybe you’ve had to move, change jobs, or get rid of toxic people. Sometimes the pain from these experiences cement you, making it impossible to move forward. But, you don’t have to remain in that place forever. Laughter can get you to the next level.  With the camaraderie of other women and a working comic as the instructor, what could be better?

So Sign up below for a course at Wisecrack University with professional comedienne Debra Cole!

Click below to sign up now to reserve your seat! This Atlanta Stand-Up Workshop meets May 4-5, 11–5 p.m., and includes wine and cheese PLUS a Saturday night field trip to a local comedy club. 

Reg. price $360 , YOUR price $320 for this weekend course that includes wine, refreshments, comedy-club field trip, materials and a graduation “finale.”

DATES: May 4–5, 11–5 p.m., PLUS Saturday night comedy-club field trip

Workshop location: 311 Nelson St., Atlanta, GA, 30312, in the historic Castleberry Loft/Arts District of Atlanta!

Still need convincing? Here are some more concepts to be covered in the Debra Cole’s Wisecrack University Stand-Up Comedy Workshop:

• Stage Presence, Vocal Projections, Fluency, and Pacing
• Techniques Great Speakers Use
• Knowing your audience
• Organizing your Speech
• Understand the Power of Humor
• Tricks for Memorizing
• Distinguish and Apply Different Styles of Humor
• Writing an Effective Joke
• Coping with Performance Anxiety
• Make a Great Impression at the Microphone

This Wisecrack University Stand-Up Comedy Class with Debra Cole is also designed to help you develop skillful delivery with public speaking. Here are some more concepts to be covered:

• Build Confidence at the Podium
• Connect with Others
• Find your Passion
• Experience the Joy of making people laugh
• Repetition.
• Misdirection: Appear to go one direction with your writing, but end up in a completely different place. For instance: Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read. – Groucho Marx
• Escalation: Start out reasonable and sensible, then become increasingly extreme, irrational, and absurd.
• Being Self-referential.
• Understatement. For instance, “many people would say that the Holocaust was not a good thing”.
• Reversal. Example: Work is the curse of the drinking classes. – Oscar Wilde.
• Be silly about serious things.
• Be serious about silly things.
• The Straight Man. A common beginner’s mistake is to be ridiculous the whole way through. However, being serious is a vital part of being frivolous. They’re yin and yang, opposites that need each other.
• The Importance of Writing in a Consistent Style

Reg. price, $360, YOUR price just $320 for this weekend workshop, including wine, refreshments, materials, comedy-club field trip and finale!

DATES: May 4–5, 11–5 p.m., PLUS Saturday night comedy-club field trip

Workshop location: 311 Nelson St., Atlanta, GA, 30312, in the historic Castleberry Loft/Arts District of Atlanta!

Debra Cole is a staple in the Atlanta comedy scene. She is the host of Funny Fridays at the Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville.  She recently performed in New York City and travels regularly to audiences in clubs and at events. You may have seen her at the Ansley Park Playhouse, Buford Variety Theatre, The Warren, The Star Bar, Eddie’s Attic, The Laughing Skull, The Funny Farm, The Punchline,  and other venues. She’s also performed for charity events like the Hotlanta Roundup, Pets are Loving Support (PALS), Comedy for Critters and others. A former school teacher, Debra is now known for her smart, sophisticated humor delivered with sarcasm and an authentic southern Georgia twang. As an educator, Debra taught English and orchestra in the public schools for 9 years before turning to her true calling as a comic. She has undergraduate degrees in music and history and a master’s degree in educational leadership. She teaches a drama class at the First Presbyterian Church Preschool and is the mother of  a toddler.

Debra has experienced her share of heartache and disappointment. Along with a formal divorce, she’s also broken up with Public Education, Kroger, and recently dumped her hairdresser! In her course you will learn how to find the funny in the midst of problems, writing techniques, creativity warm-ups, and stage presence.  Professor Debra guarantees that the class will change your outlook on life.  You will have progress from your pain! The course will  be FUN, RELAXED, and NON-THREATENING!  Plus, participants are encouraged to bring food and ALCOHOL.

You Better Tell Somebody!

April 29 – Atlanta’s Most Popular Blogging Workshop — This is Atlanta’s Most Popular Blogging Workshop! If you’ve been thinking about starting a blog or if you’ve already started one, this workshop will teach you how to sharpen its concept, write better posts, rank higher on Google, triple your traffic and start making money . . . Read more

April 29 – Turn Your Blog into a Profit-Making Business — Learn how to discover and leverage your blogging voice, develop killer content, effectively analyze your stats and blog traffic, increase your readership and develop loyalty and improve your “findability” on Google! Read more

May 19–20 – The Shocking Real-Life Book Writers Boot Camp Weekend — This is not your average writer’s retreat! This is a lively, active, results-oriented symposium of creative and accomplished authors, attendees and answers to the questions that have been dogging you for years regarding how to go about getting a book deal . . . Read more

Dates Vary – The Pitch Doctor with Hollis Gillespie Here’s a secret, you don’t need to have a finished manuscript to get a book deal. All you need is an amazing idea and as little as 10 pages. I’ve helped scores of writers get book deals and agent representation, you’re next . . . Read more

[For a calendar of these classes, scroll to the bottom of this screen.]

You Better Tell Somebody!

No matter your genre — fiction, cookbook, memoir, self-help, true-crime, even erotica — don’t miss the Shocking Real Life Book Writers Boot Camp this weekend (March 17–18)! 

Did you know you don’t need a finished manuscript to get the attention of an NYC literary agent? All you need is a pitch letter and 10 sample pages (3,000 words)! The Book Writers Boot Camp Weekend will prepare you to land a book deal! All are welcome, with manuscripts in any stage of completion (even if it’s simply in the idea phase).

SRL book-deal prodigy Corinne Humphrey landed a book deal with Chronicle Books and now her SECOND book, Shoot for the Moon; Lessons on Life from a Dog Named Rudy, is out on the shelves and doing great.  Here Corinne is on TV.

Lisa Baron became an Amazon bestseller after attending the SRL Book Writer’s Boot Camp!

Rachel Brownell published her book and appeared on the Today Show and Good Morning America after attending the Book Writers Boot Camp! Check out these and other SRL Alumni success stories here! You’re next!

Sign up (sand save $40) for the next  

Shocking Real Life

Book Writers Boot Camp Weekend

with Hollis Gillespie

March 17–18, 2012, 11-5 p.m.

Use the button below to enroll and save $40

2 spots left!

(regular price: $374. YOUR price: $334)

You Better Tell Somebody!

Face It, You Can’t Party Like You Used To!

Ancient Greece: Sheep lungs and owl eggs. Yes, you heard me. I was at the farmer’s market the other day, and these supplies are abundant (except that the owl eggs look a lot like chicken eggs). Get ye there!

Ancient Rome: Two fried canaries. Your neighbor lady with the doll collection probably has fresh canaries on hand. She probably won’t mind sacrificing them.

Mongolia: Pickled sheep eyes in tomato juice. Sheep again. Depending on your alcohol consumption, you may consider farming this livestock.
Puerto Rico: Lemon slices, rubbed under the armpits, before drinking. Not only is it a hangover deterrent, it’s also serves as reliable birth control (because, seriously, who is gonna sleep with someone who has lemony armpits?)!

United States During the Old West: Rabbit poop. Dang varmints are good for something it turns out. Start with two and let them copulate until you have enough to cure the world of hangovers.  You will be a hero.

You’re Welcome.

Try being PRODUCTIVE the St. Paddy’s Day!  Land a book deal!

Sign up (sand save $40) for the next  

Shocking Real Life

Book Writers Boot Camp Weekend

with Hollis Gillespie

March 17–18, 2012, 11-5 p.m.

Use the button below to enroll and save $40

2 spots left!

(regular price: $374. YOUR price: $334)

You Better Tell Somebody!