I deviate from my Thursday posting schedule about my adventures among the Gainfully Unemployed to promote my sister’s new venture. She is CEO of The Next American Star.

TNAS is the biggest, boldest talent competition ever, where the best stars of today and tomorrow come to work and play on a world stage for up and coming artists. Performers sign up and post videos, pictures and Backstage Interviews so fans can learn about them and vote. If you register, you’ll get up to 5 votes per day, and one ‘supervote’ that counts for five, for a total of 10 votes per day. Your Votepod will tell you how many votes you have left. If you choose not to register, you get one vote per day.

Voting starts today for semi-finalists ing the regional Young Adult Rock Season 1 competition. The best bands will play at TNAS’s House of Blues Concert in Chicago in late May. Proceeds will benefit Starlight Children’s Foundation.

Artists and fans can win prizes. The top fan each week of voting wins a $150 Target Gift Card for themselves and a $150 gift card for the band/artiste they supervoted for the most. The top fan is the fan who uses the most votes during the week. If there is a tie, there will be a drawing to see who is the Top Fan for the week. The top fan for the entire voting period will win a $500 COACH Gift Card.

Lots of new content and competitions will be coming soon–including a video competition to be the hosts of TNAS’s daily show.

So check out TNAS, and vote now, vote often!

If at first you don’t succeed…
Winners never quit…
You can do anything if you put your mind to it.

All our lives, we’re encouraged to pursue our dreams. To set ambitious goals and work toward them. We hear success stories of those who created thriving businesses, sold their novels, got the part that launched an acting career.

We don’t hear much about those who failed…those who really tried, who worked diligently for years but just couldn’t get where they wanted to go.

So how do you know if it’s time to quit? Should you give up on a troubled relationship, the career change that hasn’t paid off, the novel you can’t seem to sell? When does an endeavor go beyond “persistence pays” to beating your head against the wall or even TSTL (too stupid to live–a critique given to a romance novel heroine who does something completely out of character or plain stupid)?

Maybe there’s a better use of your time, money and energy.

I’m seriously considering abandoning my pursuit of publication. Though multi-published friends and industry professionals praise my writing–an editor recently said “incredibly talented”–faithful readers know I haven’t sold after 15 years and 10 completed manuscripts. Yes, there are those who have taken even longer and written even more books before selling. But there are also many who sold their second or third manuscripts in a mere handful of years.

So do I write ms #11? Keep submitting the others, because all it takes is getting the right story in front of the right person at the right time? Or do I cut my losses and quit?

CNN: Ten reasons you should quit

Should you quit?

When the going gets tough…

How much should you get paid for what you do?

In the acting world, you can get paid nothing for being in a play, despite hours spent rehearsing and performing. Getting experience, a credit for your resume, having something to invite agents to, and maybe working with a prominent director/theatre company are supposed to be enough. On the other hand, some VO jobs I record at home I can get $150 for less than an hour of work. Which may seem like a lot until you realize that union VO actors can earn thousands for a national commercial that took them less than an hour to record, because they earn residuals every time it plays.

It’s one thing if you apply for a job an are offered a salary. You have a base from which to negotiate. If you can’t ask for more money, maybe you can get flex time or more vacation days. If I get booked for a job through an agent, the rates are set. Plus if the client doesn’t pay, they follow through.

Setting rates for jobs that don’t come through agents can be a challenge.

I’ve learned the general range for various types of projects, and I have VO friends to go to for advice. While I want to get what my time, talent and experience are worth, I don’t want to price myself out of the job. The hardest to bid on are opportunities that say the budget is “To be defined.” Do I bid per minute, per word, per hour of my time or finished audio, or per project? You have to take into account the length of the project, the amount of editing required, and also where and for how long the project will run. Is it just for the Internet, internal corporate use, a small market for cable, radio or TV? Regional or national? Will it run 13 weeks or should you offer a year buyout? Is it for a toy, game or even a phone app? An educational CD or DVD someone will sell? I saw a post recently for real estate narration that paid based on the cost of the property.

And how much should you get for selling a book? Advances range from nothing for some e-publishers to thousands. Some books sell at auctions. Royalty rates differ. Other contract terms such as print runs, marketing, free author copies may be negotiable.

Should athletes get paid millions for dropping half of the balls they are supposed to catch while teachers make so much less? Supply and demand, letting the market decide…that is the American Way. So I guess we are worth whatever we can get.

How do we not sell ourselves short, especially now, in the midst of so many cutbacks and layoffs?

What have you forgotten lately, and what did doing so cost in frustration or money? Is forgetting a sign of aging or illness, having too much on our plates, or being too stressed or tired? Are we too busy thinking about what we’re supposed to do next than where we’re putting our car keys right now?

Usually I’m pretty good about remembering because I write almost everything down. But recently, I forgot:
-to blog yesterday. It was my turn to post on a group blog, and in doing that, editing a book for a friend under deadline and dealing with a family issue, I just forgot. It didn’t help that I didn’t add blogging to my ‘To Do’ list for that day.
-that I had a ticket for the Lyric’s production of Porgy and Bess. I thought I’d entered all opera dates on my calendar. Obviously not. The friend I go with called me on the way there, but I didn’t get the message in time. Kind of a costly error.

Sometimes I’m surprised when I open my Day-Timer and see a task written in my handwriting. I don’t remember putting it there, but that’s the point…by writing down what I need to do on the day it needs to be done, I can clear my head of that item, leaving room for other topics.

These days, a lot of people keep their to do lists on line, using sites like Remember the Milk and Toodledo , or have them on their computer and/or synced with their BlackBerry or phone. But I prefer having mine in writing, on paper. It’s more accessible; to me flipping pages is easier than scrolling or remembering to keep a site open, plus I can keep it on my desk next to my computer.

If you’d like to be less forgetful, try:

Banishing Forgetfulness

Combat Forgetfulness

Forgetfulness: Not always what you think

How much preparation is enough? If you’re giving a presentation for work, going on an audition, or sending out a manuscript to an editor or agent…how far are you willing to go to produce your best, and how do you know when you’re ready? When you run out of time? Ha.

Tuesday afternoon around 2:30, I got a call from a talent agent telling me I’d been selected to audition for a SAG movie. A lead role. The audition was Wednesday at 4:30, and she’d be emailing me the sides (ie, lines to learn). I was a bit surprised when not one, not two, but three scenes appeared in my mailbox. And two of them required crying.

Before reading the script, I Yahoo!ed the casting director, Matthew Lessall, and found a 2/14 blog entry () about his adventures casting this film. He focused on preparation, because apparently some actors had complained about how hard the material was and that they didn’t enough time to prepare, though he’d booked them for the audition LAST WEEK. (Recall that I only have around 24 hours.)

His advice: “PRACTICE! When you think you have practiced enough, DO IT AGAIN!”

So that is what I decided to do. Fortunately I didn’t have major plans Tuesday evening. Would I have gone so far as to, say, cancel dinner with a friend? Try to find someone to use theatre tickets? Miss a chorus rehearsal or class? Hmmm.

Next I researched the director and the film, and found a cool “first look” on the director’s Web site. (What did we do before the Internet?) I read through the scenes, decided what a late 40s Orthodox wife with 3 kids might wear and what to do with my hair. I reviewed and reviewed my lines, out loud and silently. The next day, I brought them with me and rehearsed on the bus and while waiting for an appointment. I wasn’t fully memorized, but could glance at a line then say it.

How did the audition go? Had I prepared enough?

When my turn came, Matt asked if I’d had time to look over the script. I knew better than to say, “Well, I just got it yesterday afternoon.” So I told him I’d read his blog and quoted his preparation advice, which I’d followed. He said that was more than most. Then we had a nice chat about blogging and health insurance. Sounds like a good start.

He asked if I had any questions. I wanted to know what her job was, because one of the scenes is outside her place of work. He said that was a good question, but he didn’t know the answer.

I did the first scene, with him reading the other parts. It’s a little nervewracking to have the casting director as your reading partner, because you need to make eye contact…and while you’re trying to remember the lines, separate the fact that he’s the one who can hire you from the need to see the other people in the sence, find the emotion and be in the moment.

He said my performance was flat (Ouch. Is that what it feels like not to go through to Hollywood on American Idol?), but then gave me some direction on how to do better. According to his blog, that’s a good thing. And I know some auditioners give notes just to see if you can take direction.

I did the scene again, and he seemed happier. We moved on to the second scene. He said that was good, but didn’t ask me to do the third. Which, of course, I’d also rehearsed…

When I gave work presentations, I always had more information to impart than fit into my alotted time. The questions attendees asked were almost always easier than I’d anticipated. I prefer to be as prepared as I can be, so the time and effort I’ve invested will pay off.

Songs have been written about the need for and benefits of help…by artists including The Beatles and Bette Midler (who didn’t get teary-eyed listening to The Wind Beneath my Wings?).

Yet there are those unable to realize when they need help. Some who realize the need are unwilling to ask. Others are unwilling to accept help, because they think doing so makes them seem weak. They don’t want to sacrifice any of their independence or privacy and/or feel guilty, that they will be indebted to the helper.

Many offer help, and many are happy to give it when asked. Others do so grudgingly, perhaps resentful of the time and effort needed, or they attach strings.

Help can come in many forms…from encouraging words to assistance with a specific project to giving of your time, and in this economy, money or even food.

Writers are one group that thrives on help. Many authors have critique partners, without whom they say they’d never have finished or sold some or all of their books. This writer would not have kept going for so long after so many rejections without the ongoing encouragement and support of many friends, from one who recommended my latest manuscript to her agent to those I’ve made through Romance Writers of America.

But help goes both ways. I’m helping a friend under deadline by line editing so she can produce new pages. I’ve helped another stay on task, which also helped me, because it’s easier to stay focused when you’re writing with someone.

How can you be a more gracious giver or reciever? What’s the best way to thank someone who helps you, and the best way to accept thanks? I’d guess any way that leaves both parties satisfied.

For more information on the subject of help: Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help

How to accept help:

Great Entrepreneurial Minds

About.com Article focuses on arthritis but issues are relevant.

How to thank someone: Wikihow

Merriam-Webster online defines happiness as “a state of well-being and contentment.”

How many times have we heard that happiness comes from within:

Ezine @rticle

Articlesbase

Even so, external events often trigger happiness or unhappiness–you get the job/part you wanted, the guy you like asks you out/your spouse does what he said s/he would…or you don’t get it and s/he doesn’t.

I’m one of those people who finds it challenging to stay happy when things in my little world or the big world aren’t going well. Things that make me unhappy: looking at my 401(k) balance, getting a rejection. Things that make me happy: participating in enjoyable activities, getting the part.

A goal is to stay on a more even keel as opposed to riding the roller coaster of happiness. I’m working on letting go when stuff happens that I can’t control, and really appreciating all the good stuff in my life.

What can we do to be happier? Maybe learn more about how to be happy…

About.com advises “cultivating an internal locus of control,” or the belief that you are the master of your fate.

wikiHow has many suggestions, including relaxing, smiling, taking the good with the bad, being thankful, pursuing goals that make you happy, developing healthy relationships, and making someone else happy.

The Formula for Being Happy says it’s a matter of V2 x S2 x P2 x L2 = H, or V2 = Values times Vision. S2 = Stability times Structure (of which balance, accent, and flow are parts). P2 = Passion times Professionalism, which together produce Power. L2 = Love Given times Love Received. H = Happiness.

Not sure how happy you are? Try a Happiness Quiz.

What makes you happy?