Are You Prepared on a Job Interview to Answer the Question How Many Followers You Have on Twitter?

If you're looking for a job and want to improve your chances of doing well in an interview, you need to know about the most important aspects of internet marketing today, including social media such as Twitter, blogging, article marketing and other strategies.

Check out www.TeachMeInternetBusiness.com now to learn how you can get the jump on your job competition.

-- Brought to you by Phyllis Zimbler Miller, a National Internet Business Examiner at www.InternetBizBlogger.com

New Gig as the LA Internet Business Examiner

I've just accepted being the LA Internet Business Examiner at examiner.com with the commitment of writing 3-4 posts a week on this subject. While I'm very pleased about this opportunity, I took a hard look at my online commitments and realized that something had to give.

Thus I am giving up this blog in "exchange" for the examiner.com opportunity.

I won't be taking this blog down as there are several posts that are what is called "evergreen" -- not time specific. So if you happen to stumble upon this blog after today, I hope you'll check out whether there are any previous posts you'd like to read.

And I invite all of you who have faithfully followed me here to check out my new gig at examiner.com -- LA Internet Business Examiner.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

President Obama Establishes a White House Council on Women and Girls

As a long-time feminist, this video brought tears to my eyes. It's only a few minutes long and definitely worth watching:

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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

Reflections From the Passover Seder

At the Pesach seder this year one of the guests shared her thoughts on the 10 plagues and then connected her thoughts with our world today. I'd like to give you an overview of what she said:

She pointed out that it wasn't until the 10th plague that the Israelites had to do something themselves -- they had to put lamb's blood on their doorposts. In other words, talking about leaving Egypt didn't lead to leaving Egypt. The Israelites had to first take action themselves towards their goal.

And then she said that this is the same today. That TALKING about helping to do good in the world (my note: such as feeding the hungry or donating funds to help military families in need) isn't worth anything. You have to DO something -- to act -- for your good intentions to have any value.

Very profound -- and if you've been TALKING about donating funds to a needy organization or reaching out a helping hand to a newcomer in your community or any of the myriad good deeds that we all talk about, commit yourself to ACTING on one of these projects.

It's spring now -- traditional time of rebirth. Start acting today.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

TV Show House Goes Further in Its Support of Mental Illness -- Spoiler Alert

If you are a fan of the tv show HOUSE and haven't watched the April 6th episode, I'm warning you that there's a spoiler ahead. You've been warned.

In my February 3rd blog post "Popular TV Show HOUSE Uses Its Star Power to Support Mental Health" I applauded that the tv show has been raising a great deal of money to support the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Tonight the show dealt with suicide and a search for the cause of that suicide. At the end of the show there was a public service announcement about what to do if you are in crisis. And then there was another announcement:

If viewers wanted to leave a message for the person who had killed himself -- they could go to www.fox.com/kutner and leave a message.

I had just written a blog post at www.FictionMarketing.com about when people act as if fictional characters are real. And my immediate reaction to the web page to leave messages for "Dr. Kutner" is that this blurring of what is fiction and what is reality has gone too far.

Yes, I cried during the show, but I was crying for the fictional character. No, I don't want to demean the death of real suicides by leaving messages for a fictional tv character.

What are your thoughts about this?
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

Movie DUPLICITY Deserves Its Low Box Office Take

The weekend domestic movie box office was reported in Daily Variety today as it is almost every Monday. FAST AND FURIOUS on its opening weekend took in $72.5 million, which was considerably more than projected and a very good opening weekend number.

In 7th place was the Julia Roberts-Clive Owen starrer DUPLICITY, which in its third weekend took in $4.3 million for a cume of $32.4.

Unfortunately my husband and I contributed to that $4.3 million.

We had gone to the film expecting it to be a comedic spy thriller, perhaps even in the vein of the classic THE LADY VANISHES. Oh, how I wish we could have vanished back home as we both sat in the theater shaking our heads. How did this movie get a greenlight and a big budget?

In my blog post at FictionMarketing.com I talk about when fictional characters are real. In the case of the movie DUPLICITY, the characters are so uninteresting that there is absolutely no risk of anyone thinking these characters are real.

And the stakes of the story? In THE LADY VANISHES the fate of the whole Allied effort might depend on the vanished lady getting safely back to England.

In DUPLICITY -- okay, I don't want to tell you to see the movie to find out the stakes. Let's just stay that it makes no difference to anyone whether Julia Roberts and Clive Owen complete their mission satisfactorily. And that's a real shame for a movie that's a comedic spy thriller.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

Read the Mrs. Lieutenant Blog Post About Rape

Today is one of those days when I'm directing you to my Mrs. Lieutenant blog because the subject of the post -- rape -- and the actually uplifting message of the www.YourMilitaryLife.com interview of Eldonna Lewis Fernandez are topics that I want to share with my PZ the Do-Gooder Scrooge blog readers.

Read the Mrs. Lieutenant blog post now.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

Fiction Marketing: Using Blogging to Promote Your Novel, Memoir, Poetry or Stories

FictionMarketing.com has just been launched as an experiment in using a website in conjunction with a nonfiction book proposal to attract an agent for the proposed book project. The book itself -- Marketing Your Fiction: Effective (and Frugal!) Ways to Promote Even the Hard-to-Sell Genres -- is a how-to book for writers of all types of fiction.

My younger daughter Yael built the site through our company business www.CalltoActionWebsites.com -- and my co-author of the book project, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, and I are very pleased with the site.

We're giving away a copy of the book's blogging chapter to help people who are considering starting their own blogs. I wish I'd had this chapter when I started my blogs. And Carolyn has quite a few blogs of her own. So we wrote the chapter with the information that we would have liked to have.

Visit the site now. We've just posted on the blog section an edited transcript of the tweetchat we did on Twitter yesterday evening on writing book proposals. (Carolyn sells on Amazon a 49 cents report on writing book proposals.)

And let me know what you think of the site and the concept.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

Brain Gyms: Now Physical Exercise Isn't Enough

"The Latest in Mental Health: Working Out at the 'Brain Gym'" by Kelly Greene appeared on the front page of the March 28th Wall Street Journal. It turns out that we people over a certain age can exercise our brains as well as our bodies at gyms being set up all over the country.

While I happen to believe in the theory that exercising our brains on new material as we get older is very important, I'm not ready to sign up at a brain gym. But you may feel differently.

Form your own opinion (exercise your brain!) by reading the Journal article on brain gyms.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

Internet Phobia: What Behavior Are Parents Modeling for Their Children?

The internet and all the myriad possibilities that accompany it are here to stay. So why do many adults think it is a badge of pride to declare "I don't do anything on the internet"?

This week I sat in the waiting room of a doctor's office explaining Twitter to a 15-year-old boy who liked my Google phone on which I was checking my Twitter account.

Out of one ear I could hear the boy's father proudly declaring to another waiting room patient how he has nothing to do with the internet and how he thinks the internet is ruining his kids' abilities to do whatever (I missed that part of the conversation).

Later I thought about what teens are learning to do and what they aren't learning to do. And I realized that Twitter actually is a very good teaching tool for learning how to write brief and to-the-point messages.

I actually revise my 140-character tweets more carefully than I revise my blog posts because those 140 characters are out there for anyone to see. Plus the message is short enough that many people actually read my tweets.

And another thing about that overheard parental conversation. What kind of behavior modeling are parents doing when they announce they've closed their minds to learning new technology?

Thus when a teen announces she's not going to undertake a new activity being pressed upon her by a parent, what "coinage" does that parent have to insist she be willing to at least try?

This last year I've spent learning internet marketing has been incredibly worthwhile -- and, yes, incredibly frustrating also when I don't immediately "get" something. But the rewards of learning new information -- of eventually "getting" a new concept -- far outweigh the frustration.

If you're one of those parents going around "bragging" that you don't use the internet, perhaps you should look at yourself in the mirror and smile -- and then ask your teen to be your guide in cyberspace.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

DITCHING MR. WRONG Online Book Launch March 25-28

DITCHING MR. WRONG: How to End a Bad Relationship and Find Mr. Right -- by author Nicholas Aretakis -- has its online book launch March 25-28, and I'm participating in the launch.

When you buy DITCHING MR. WRONG between March 25-28 from the link below, you’ll get it at a discount and receive many gifts and bonuses, including my special report How to Use Facebook, Twitter and Other Social Media to Create Eager Buyers for Your Book -- a $14.95 value.

Check out this special offer now for DITCHING MR. WRONG.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

PZ the Do-Gooder Scrooge Gets a Do-Gooder Certificate of Appreciation

For those of you who read this blog regularly, you know that I like to highlight people and organizations that "do good." So I was pleasantly surprised when Lindsey Brothers submitted my name for the U.S. Army Freedom Team Salute Certificate of Appreciation.

Read about my getting this Freedom Team Salute.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

BROTHERS AT WAR Documentary Provides a Window into the Iraq War Experience

I've just viewed the documentary BROTHERS AT WAR directed by Jake Rademacher. Directed is a bit of a misnomer because what really happened is that Jake took a camera crew to Iraq to experience what two of his brothers have experienced as soldiers there.

Jake is the oldest of five brothers and two sisters, and he tried to go to West Point and wasn't accepted. Although he doesn't say so, it appears it may be because of his eyesight. But brother Isaac goes to West Point and brother Joe enlists.

And so Jake gets his own body armor and helmet and goes off with a camera crew to record his own experiences on patrol and sitting in a sniper nest.

The documentary is really a family portrait of a large family with two sons as warriors and one as the recorder of the story of those warriors. It's a story that draws you in as you learn more about the relationships in the large Rademacher clan.

I recommend seeing the documentary for both its personal look at the warriors' experiences and at the impact these experiences have on the family back home.

On March 25th Nancy Brown and I will be interviewing Jake Rademacher on our BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com. Listen live at 6:30 p.m. Eastern or listen afterwards to the download.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

Homes for Our Troops Builds Homes for Badly Wounded Veterans

I just learned about Home for Our Troops through a Facebook message I got from Goli Motar. The organization has a heartwarming mission, and the fundraising effort that Goli writes about is also rather amazing.

Please read Goli's Facebook message on my Mrs. Lieutenant blog to learn more.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

Stress: Can Be the Culpit in Your Backache

"Stress So Bad It Hurts -- Really" is the headline for Melinda Beck's article in the March 17th Wall Street Journal that explains the toll that stress can take on our physical well-being. She quotes from Christopher L. Edwards, director of the Behavioral Chronic Pain Management program at Duke University Medical Center:

Decades ago, when doctors said a condition was psychosomatic, it was the equivalent of saying it wasn't real, since there was little evidence that the body and the brain were connected. "Now, we recognize that what happens in the brain affects the body and what happens in the body affects the brain," he says. That knowledge gives us the tools to try to manage the situation, he adds.

Dr. Edwards says his pain-management program in Durham, N.C., is seeing a rise in patients amid the current economic crisis: "There's a very strong relationship between the economy and the number of out-of-control stress cases we see."

You'll have to read the article for yourself as I don't have time to add more to this blog post. I'm off to the gym with my exercise partner to relieve my own stress.

Read this Wall Street Journal article on stress now.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

Heifer International: Ending Hunger and Caring for the Earth

Yesterday at a Bat Mitzvah the 13-year-old Bat Mitzvah girl announced that she was donating a heifer to a village in Africa to help fight poverty. And she said she was doing this through Heifer International.

I had previously heard a Bar Mitzvah boy announce that he was giving a goat to an African village through Heifer International (www.heifer.org), and I've written about this boy's Bar Mitzvah in an earlier post here. But today I wanted to share more information about this amazing organization:

Part of the extensive programs this organization runs is something called "Passing on the Gift." Here's one such story from the organization's website:

In Rwanda, Christine Makahumure showed the true meaning of passing on the gift.

In 1994 genocidal war that raked Rwanda destroyed everything Christine had. She saw her son and husband shot to death when they were caught in a crossfire. When the fighting ended, Christine was barely able to feed her daughter and parents.

But then she received a Heifer cow. The milk supplemented the family’s meager diet, and she was able to buy a small home with income from selling milk.

Christine gave her first calf to a neighbor – but she didn’t stop there. She provided money so her neighbors could build and apply for their own Heifer cow. And she adopted four war orphans and became a living example of passing on the gift.

Read more about the extraordinary activities of Heifer International.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

All About Business Company Brought to You From My Co-Host Nancy Brown

Nancy Brown, my co-host on the BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com, has just started a new business called All About Business Company.

As Nancy says, "With this tough economy, all businesses need that other set of eyes to review their daily business operations. When they are cutting costs and staff, they could probably cut their operational costs easily. For example, by using newer office equipment and computer programs, they could make their staff more productive, and their staff could be utilized for other tasks."

Here's a brief video of how Nancy's new business can help your business. Or if you know of businesses who could be helped by Nancy, please send this blog post to them.

And Nancy has been so bitten by our BlogTalkRadio show that she now has a new show of her own called Business Guru Show. Check the schedule to learn from her business wisdom.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

PTSD: People Who Haven't Been in Combat Can Also Have This Disorder

On March 10th Heather Hummert,the wife of a Purple Heart veteran and who is contributions coordinator for FamilyofaVet.com, was the guest on the BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com that I co-host with Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com.

Heather spoke about her own experiences when her husband began exhibiting signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and how she couldn't find any information to help the families of people suffering from PTSD. She also talked about how PTSD can happen to anyone after a traumatic experience -- and that what isn't traumatic to one person can be traumatic to another.

Heather urged civilians and military personnel to recognize if someone they love is displaying signs of PTSD and to encourage that person to get help immediate.

Listen to Heather explain PTSD.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

Twitter Featured in The Wall Street Journal

Twitter -- the micro-blogging platform of 140 characters or less and which I have often blogged about -- is getting more and more media attention.

In the March 7th Wall Street Journal, reporter Julia Angwin (@juliaangwin on Twitter) shares her tale of starting on Twitter. You can read her article now as an introduction to Twitter if I haven't already convinced you to join this free social media site.

And if you do join, follow me at @ZimblerMiller.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

Brad Pitt Takes the Make It Right Project to Washington

Brad Pitt has played an incredible role in the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina with his instrumental involvement in the community organization Make It Right. On December 25th I wrote in this blog about his efforts to rebuild the devastated Lower Ninth Ward.

On March 5th the Daily Variety carried the story online "Pitt Meets Prez" -- describing Brad Pitt's visits around political Washington to garner support for Make It Right. Read the story for an update on Pitt's efforts.

To donate to Pitt's New Orleans effort, go to MakeItRightNOLA.org.

(In the Daily Variety photo above Brad Pitt is with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.)
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

Mixblendr Launches: First Web Open Source Audo Editing and Remixing Software

Mixblendr -- the first web open source audio editing and remixing software -- has just launched. I have a special interest because from afar I've watched this new application being developed:

Mixblendr is open source software that lets you create interactive music experiences on your website. Mixblendr lets you provide your users with audio tracks of your choosing, which they can remix and mashup using our powerful and easy-to-use audio application.

These remixes can then be published to a competition to be voted on by the audience of your site. Mixblendr is an all-in one solution for creating remix competitions, interactive music experiences, or online collaborations tools.

Mixblendr was founded by Sandy Parakilas and Jon Nathanson. Sandy is a musician and recording engineer who was looking for a better way to make remixes and mashups and share them with his friends. Jon was an executive at Fox Mobile Studios.

They collaborated with former Java Sound lead developer/code ninja Florian Bömers, who developed the Mixblendr audio applet, with an interface designed by Sandy.

Check out Mixblendr now.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

New York Times Weighs In on Internet Copyright Issue

Many of us on the internet quote from other sources, giving the attribution of the source and often linking to the original article. But in the future we can be running afoul of the copyright law if we quote too much.

Unfortunately, what constitutes too much under the "fair use" statute of copyright law doesn't include a legal word limit. Bloggers and website content people are left to their own discretion.

To learn more about this subject, read Brian Stelter's March 2nd New York Times article "Copyright Challenge for Sites That Excerpt." (I'm not going to quote any of the article here -- I don't want to risk being in violation of the "fair use" statute when it comes to The New York Times.)
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

Internet Marketing: Going from the Horse and Buggy to a Horseless Carriage

Internet marketing is a subject I don't usually deal with in this blog. But in the last few days I've been running up against closed mindset attitudes about this very effective marketing strategy. So I want to share some thoughts with you about the need for an open mindset about marketing in cyberspace.

Websites and web marketing have changed dramatically in the last five years, with many new applications that weren’t available then. Websites today take their cues from successful blogs, which have everything up front and immediate – no waiting for flash intros or welcome pages with a few words on a series of screens.

If people don’t like what they see instantly, they are out of there and on to the next website.

Open mind marketing rule #1: Don’t make the mistake of thinking that what was true for the internet five years ago is true today.

Don’t assume that your website from five years ago is “good enough.” Take the time and effort to find out what’s new and what’s effective in the internet marketing world of today. Don’t drive a horse and buggy when there’s a horseless carriage available.

Open mind marketing rule #2: Don’t follow every piece of advice so that you are running around in circles without making any progress.

Understand that some advice is better than others, and that not every piece of advice fits every situation. Take your time to evaluate the information you’re learning and consider what makes sense for your particular marketing project, your own available promotion time, and your strengths and weaknesses.

For example, the social networking site Twitter can be an excellent marketing tool if your personality fits the Twitter modus operandi. But there are people who get easily frustrated with trying to stay on top of various conversation threads. If you’re one of these people, utilize a social networking site that better suits your personality.

Open marketing rule #3: Be flexible. If something doesn’t work for you, be willing to admit defeat and move on to another tactic.

Just because many internet marketers say that Facebook is a great place to create relationships, if using Facebook isn’t helping you with your marketing, admit this and switch to trying something else (although don’t get rid of your Facebook account).

Of course, you can’t give up after only a few days. All of the social networking sites take time and effort to utilize them effectively. But if you’ve given Facebook several months of effort, you should probably consider finding a better site for you to connect with potential customers.

In conclusion, if you want to pave the way for a successful online marketing campaign, you must be in it for the long haul with an open mind – ready to learn new things, try new things, evaluate advice, and be flexible.

And if you want to read an excellent book about having an open mindset, read Carol Dweck's MINDSET: The New Psychology of Success.

TurnOffYourTV.Com Says Let Your Signal Die

The March 2nd New Yorker has a review by Nancy Franklin of Joss Whedon's new television show DOLLHOUSE, followed by an "essay" on the push back of the change from analog to digital television.

In talking about the choices analog-set owners have to adapt to this brave new world, the article says:

There's another choice as well. Analog-set owners could follow the advice on turnoffyourtv.com: "Let your television signal die and explore the world around you Wake up out of the TV-induced stupor and enrich your life with real experiences."

I had never heard of this movement, so I checked it out. You might also want to check out turnoffyourtv.com and form your own opinions.

To me, the weirdest part of the whole brave new television world is that some people are watching a show like LOST on a huge television screen and some people are watching the same show on their phones. So who's living a more two-world experience? The characters from LOST or we ourselves?

Critiquing Art: It’s All Subjective

The English novelist Ian McEwan is the subject of the New Yorker Life and Letters’ Feb 23rd article The Background Hum: Ian McEwan’s art of unease by Daniel Zalewski.

While part of the article deals with McEwan discovering at an advanced age that he has an older full brother about whom he never knew, part of the article deals with the opinions of other writers about McEwan’s novels.

In light of full disclosure, I’ve read three of his novels: AMSTERDAM, ATONEMENT (before I saw the film) and SATURDAY.

The novel SATURDAY, which takes place in the course of one day, reminds me of Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell) novels. And also there’re the obvious hints of Virginia Woolf’s MRS. DALLOWAY (with one of the most memorable first lines in English literature: “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.”).

Yet for any writers or aspiring writers, the most important idea to take away from this New Yorker article is that opinions about novels, just as opinions about paintings or fashion or automobiles, are subjective. And those of us who create stories have to remember that something we write might hit a troubled chord in a reader – a troubled chord that has nothing to do with our writing – and yet turns the reader against our work.

And when that happens, we need to say to ourselves “It’s their loss,” and keep on writing.

Buy Coffee for Our Deployed Troops

I was just in Borders and, while buying a book, I also bought a $10 bag of coffee that will go to deployed troops. I didn't understand how the bag would get to the troops. The Borders clerk told me it was a joint venture with SoldiersAngels.org, an organization that I support.

I went to the website and learned the story:

You can send a special message of thanks to a soldier serving far from home by purchasing a Cup of Joe for a Joe.

In more than 60 cafes overseas, Green Beans Coffee provides a welcomed moment of respite where deployed services members can relax, enjoy premium organic coffees, teas and fresh baked pastries, hear great music and for a few minutes, escape into a peaceful oasis of tranquility that brings a little bit of home with every cup of coffee served.

Your generosity, in any amount of your choosing, will help provide a much-appreciated gift of Green Beans premium coffee to a deployed armed services member. And in keeping with our commitment of service to our troops, Green Beans Coffee will contribute a portion of your purchase to charities that support soldiers and their families.

Please join Green Beans Coffee in honoring our troops. It only takes a few moments plus the spare change in your pocket to say thanks. Simply choose a purchase of any amount and we'll do the rest!

Donate any amount now to this worthwhile project.

Kiva.org Facilitates Micro-Lending in the Developing World

In the recent guest blog post "Mico-Economics: How to Win the War in Afghanistan" for my Mrs. Lieutenant blog, Andrew Lubin explained how very small investments can make huge differences in Afghanistan.

Yesterday I came across the organization Kiva.org that facilitates micro-lending in the developing world. Here's the site's explanation of how it works:

Choose an Entrepreneur, Lend, Get Repaid

1) Lenders like you browse profiles of entrepreneurs in need, and choose someone to lend to. When they lend, using PayPal or their credit cards, Kiva collects the funds and then passes them along to one of our microfinance partners worldwide.

2) Kiva's microfinance partners distribute the loan funds to the selected entrepreneur. Often, our partners also provide training and other assistance to maximize the entrepreneur's chances of success.

3) Over time, the entrepreneur repays their loan. Repayment and other updates are posted on Kiva and emailed to lenders who wish to receive them.

4) When lenders get their money back, they can re-lend to someone else in need, donate their funds to Kiva (to cover operational expenses), or withdraw their funds.

Read Andrew Lubin's guest post and then check out Kiva.org to see if there's a micro-project in which you're interested in investing.

Ageism: Rearing Its Ugly Head in the World of Computers and the Web

Those of you who are regular readers of this blog know that for weeks I’ve been doing posts about do-gooder projects and I haven’t had a Scrooge post in quite a while. So be warned – today I’ve switched to my Scrooge hat.

This weekend I attended a conference at which I presented about my project Operation Support Jews in the Military. At the beginning of the conference when I couldn’t write down any information, a young woman told me she had two friends planning to be Jewish chaplains in the military. I gave her my card and requested that she contact her friends to email me.

Two days later I saw her at a time when I could write down emails. I asked if she knew her friends emails and I would contact them. (I know several simple email addresses by memory if I happen to use them frequently. I thought these two people might be good friends with whom she frequently emailed.)

She looked at me, then launched into an explanation about how she and her friends don’t use manual address books (as if I do!) and instead they keep all their info on computers (and thus she didn’t have the info).

I admit to rage coursing through me. How dare she assume that I’m computer illiterate and still use a handwritten address book! She knew nothing about me, but felt confident in her opinion that, because of my grey hair, she could patiently explain the new computer world to me.

Now I also admit I’m feeling somewhat guilty for how furious I got. And, I admit, I muttered partly to myself, “I’m sure I’m more advanced on the internet than you are.” (She didn’t seem to hear.)

In analyzing why I got so furious, I have concluded it is because this is my first experience of face-to-face ageism. Perhaps some people online think this about me (my photo with my grey hair appears with all my social networking profiles), yet no one says anything to me. And if they engage with me online they soon learn that I am very advanced in my use of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogging, etc.

This weekend at the conference the Hasidic reggae performer Matisyahu performed at the conference. Before he sang the first number he announced that he was on Twitter. That evening I “followed” Matisyahu on Twitter, and the next day he “followed” me back.

Last night when I watched the most recent episode of the TV show NUMB3RS (from Friday night) there was a minor subplot of Charlie’s father starting on Facebook. I applauded this minor subplot showcasing that more and more “older” people are getting on this social network.

Now I’m finished with this rant – the first in a long time on this blog – and I hope this post helps young people understand that they should NOT assume older people are not computer and internet savvy. If anything, older people may have social networking strategies to share with young people.

Want to ask me questions about Twitter?

Volunteering Ranging from One-Day to Long-Term Commitments

The February 12th Wall Street Journal had an article by Jane Hodges titled "A Virtual Matchmaker for Volunteers."

The article raised an interesting point: Some people would be happy to volunteer for a one-time project even though these same people might not be willing or able to volunteer for a long-term commitment.

How to find out about one-day or short-term volunteer opportunities? Hodges tested several free online services. Here are the ones she tested:

USA Service
VolunteerMatch
Idealist
1-800-Volunteer

She also mentioned that many organizations that need short-term assistance are indexed at the governmental program Volunteer.gov.

If you're looking for a one-day or short-term volunteer commitment, consider checking out the sites tested by Hodges. You may find just the right volunteer opportunity for you.

TV Show Grey's Anatomy Deals with PTSD

I rarely send readers of this blog to my Mrs. Lieutenant blog. Yet yesterday's guest post by my younger daughter Yael covers such an important topic -- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder -- that I do want to share her post with the readers of this blog.

Read Yael's PTSD guest post connecting Homer's THE ILIAD, Vietnam and Grey's Anatomy, and then share the post with anyone you think may be in need of this important information.

Twitter Communities Around the World on February 12th Sponsoring Clean Water

Here's what this amazing worldwide event is about:

Tweet. Meet. Give.

On 12 February 2009 175+ cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals which bring together Twitter communities for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for charity: water.

charity: water is a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations by funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need.

Join us by:

* Attending one of the events detailed on the city sites listed on this page.
* Uploading or buying music at Twestival.fm.
* Taking part in the t-shirt design competition.
* Donating to charity: water.

The Twestival is organized 100% by volunteers in cities around the world and 100% of the money raised from these events will go directly to support charity: water projects.

Read the rest of this amazing story and take part in whatever way you can. I've bought tickets for the LA event. Tweet me at @ZimblerMiller if you're going to be there too.

Popular TV Show HOUSE Uses Its Star Power to Support Mental Health

The January 30th Daily Variety issue celebrated the 100th episode of the Fox drama series HOUSE. (Full disclosure – I’m a fan of the show.)

As I flipped through the several pages of the special section, I stopped at the full-page ad of the actors who play Dr. House and Dr. Foreman. Both actors were wearing a black t-shirt with the words “Normal’s Overrated” on the shirts. At the bottom of the full-page ad were these words:

Buy a T-shirt. Change a life. Purchase a T-shirt from housecharitytees.com and you will help the National Alliance on Mental Illness end mental illness and improve the lives of all who are affected.

What was this ad about? I looked for an article in the special section that would explain the ad. The article by Jon Weisman, entitled “Charity reaps benefit of skein’s support,” noted:

In October, the U.S. government passed the Mental Health Parity Act, requiring health insurance companies to evaluate mental illness on the same basis as physical illness. The law was a long-term mission of the National Alliance of Mental Illness, which “House” has dedicated itself to supporting.

I don’t know where I’ve been in these past 100 episodes, but it appears that in the second season executive producer Katie Jacobs decided “to get out in front of a charitable organization so that we could all sort of own it, feel attached to it.”

And apparently the show has been raising “hundreds of thousands of dollars for the charity, creating cast-heavy ads that have run in Seventeen and Rolling Stone as well as T-shirts that have sold online.”

If you want to be part of this very worthwhile cause, buy your Normal’s Overrated T-shirt now as proceeds go to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. I just did.

Challah for Hunger: Raising Money for Disaster Relief Through the Sale of Challah Bread

I've just learned of a college project that started at one school and has now spread to several others -- Challah for Hunger.

Challah for Hunger raises awareness of and money for hunger and disaster relief through the production and sale of challah bread.

During the spring 2008 semester, the Challah for Hunger chapters (Pomona College, Scripps College, Syracuse University, University of California – Los Angeles, University of Texas at Austin, Vassar College) collectively baked more than 500 loaves of challah every week and donated a total of $20,000 to non-profit organizations providing aid directly to people who need it. Since the founding of the program in late fall 2004, Challah for Hunger has donated more than $55,000.

This is a great project and it benefits three different groups: 1) the bakers appreciate the weekly community; 2) the buyers appreciate the bread); and the 3) aid recipients appreciate the aid. A win-win-win situation.

Check out the Challah for Hunger website now to learn more.

Cyberspace Charity Auctions: Helping Your Favorite Charity

The January 28th Wall Street Journal had Sue Shellenbarger's Work & Family article "Do You Want An Internship? It'll Cost you." The article is quite interesting, but I'd already known about parents buying internships for their children at school auctions.

What I didn't know about was the existence of online fundraising sites that make money for charities by holding auctions. According to The Wall Street Journal article:

CharityFolks.com, a fundraising Web site, saw a sharp rise in internships offered for sale last year at such employers as Rolling Stone, Elle magazine and Atlantic Records, says Chief Executive Kelly Fiore. Another site, CharityBuzz.com, says a one-week internship at a music-producing company sold last month for $12,000.

I looked up both these sites to see what they are about.

Charity Folks is the leading online marketplace for nonprofit fundraising, corporate cause-marketing campaigns and celebrity-driven charity initiatives. Managing hundreds of successful charity auctions since its inception, Charity Folks has raised millions for nonprofit organizations around the world, all while offering consumers highly coveted auction lots donated by today’s hottest celebrities, musicians, sports stars, high-profile personalities and top-tier brands.

At charitybuzz, we believe that cause marketing can be both effective and trend setting. Our innovative auctions reach millions on a global basis. Our growing community of bidders are driven to do well, affluent, well educated, well informed and brand loyal. Our methods ensure successful results through a focus on value to consumers, collaborative marketing and unsurpassed white-glove service.

It's a new world of fundraising in cyberspace, and you might want to check it out for your favorite charity.

French Catholic Priest Patrick Desbois Saves History Before It's Too Late

The expression “do gooder” doesn’t even begin to describe the amazing task that French Catholic priest Patrick Desbois has undertaken since 2002. The task? Searching out the last remaining witnesses to the Nazi death squad murders of Jews in the former Soviet Union.

The story of this Catholic priest is told in the January 23rd Wall Street Journal article by Jordana Horn titled How Father Desbois Became a Holocaust Memory Keeper. Horn writes:

How much he has accomplished since 2002 can be seen in "The Shooting of Jews in Ukraine: Holocaust By Bullets," which runs until March 15 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. The exhibit was created by the Memorial de la Shoah Paris in cooperation with Father Desbois's organization, Yahad in Unum (the words for "together" in Hebrew and Latin). It follows the publication last August of his book "Holocaust By Bullets" (Palgrave MacMillan).

What I found most amazing, besides Father Desbois’ self-imposed mission, is that children and adults were made to participate in the death squad shootings of the Jews. I’ve read a vast amount of first-hand accounts of the Nazi murderers as well as fictional accounts (Saul Bellow’s MR. SAMMLER’S PLANET has a scene from these death-squad shootings that I’ll never forget). Yet I had never heard that there were forced local participants and witnesses. And it is those then-children participants/witnesses who Father Desbois is searching out in order to find the unmarked mass graves of the Nazi atrocities.

As the unmarked mass graves are slowly located, one by one, and sanctified with the recitation of the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of mourning for the dead, the cries can at last be silenced. Are we our brothers' keepers? To Father Desbois, the answer is a resounding "Yes."

Even so, I ask him: How can you bear to listen to a woman talk about when she was 14 years old and was forced to walk on corpses, between shootings, in order to pack them down in a mass grave? "I keep my faith in God," Father Desbois responds, "not in humanity."

Father Desbois wants people to contact him through his organization’s website to tell him about more mass graves and eyewitnesses.

"These were young children who were forced, in the course of one day, to fill the grave and to witness," Father Desbois said. "They heard the last words of the dead. They want to speak."

Short Story and Poetry Contests: Consider Trying Your Hand at These Fiction Forms

John E. Murray, III just interviewed me about my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT for a future RamblingVerser podcast on his site Story Institute.

While checking out his site, I noticed that he’s having a poetry contest and a short story contest – both with deadlines of March 15. As it’s not so easy to find markets for poetry and short stories today, if you write this type of fiction check out the site while you have time to submit to the contests.

And if you’ve never tried your hand at poetry or short stories before, it’s never too late to take up a new creative pursuit. There’s even a section on this site with “ideas and suggestions for short stories, poems, and writing tips”.

Martin Luther King Day, Barack Obama and MRS. LIEUTENANT

In honor of Martin Luther King Day and the Presidential inauguration of Barack Obama, I'm sharing with the readers of this blog the children's picture book story I wrote after the Presidential elections in November. This is a "continuation" of the story of Wendy, the African-American character in my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT that takes place in 1970:

Rosemary woke early on the morning of November 5th. Today she turned seven years old. But her mother and father hadn’t yet come into her room to wake her and sing happy birthday. She knew they had stayed up late the night before, celebrating that an African-American man had been elected President of the United States.

Rosemary slid her feet into her bunny slippers and skipped down the hall to her parents’ bedroom. Pushing open the door, she saw they were still asleep.

Rosemary took a flying leap and landed on the bed between her parents.

“Wake up! It’s my birthday!” she said.

Her mother woke up first. She smiled and kissed Rosemary. “So it is. You’re seven years old today.”

Her father pulled on the loose end of one of Rosemary’s pigtails. “You got an early special birthday present yesterday when Barack Obama won,” he said.

At breakfast Rosemary and her parents read the newspapers announcing the Presidential win. “He’s not there on his own,” her father said. “He has a lot of people who went before him to thank.”

“I know,” Rosemary said. “Martin Luther King Jr. led the fight for our rights.”

“There were others too,” her father said. “You know the story about Rosa Parks in 1955 starting the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.”

“Were you there?” Rosemary asked her parents, who laughed at her question.

“No, honey, we’re not that old,” her mother said. “But your grandmother was just your age in 1955.”

“Did she boycott the buses too?” Rosemary asked.

“No, she lived in a different Southern state. But her parents protected her from racial prejudice.”

Rosemary frowned for a moment, trying to understand what her mother meant.

“How did they do that?”

Her mother took Rosemary’s hand. “When your grandmother comes to dinner tonight for your birthday, ask her.”


That evening Rosemary put on her favorite dress and waited near the front door for her grandmother to arrive. When her grandmother entered the house, Rosemary jumped up and down in front of her.

“Grandmama, tell me about growing up in the South. Did you have to sit at the back of the bus like Rosa Parks?”

Her grandmother shook her head, then sat down on the sofa and motioned for Rosemary to sit in her grandmother’s lap.

“Oh, Rosemary, I had a very unusual life growing up in the South. But today I’d rather tell you another story. Because next week is Veterans Day, when we honor the men and women who have served in our military forces. And you know that your grandfather was in the army during the Vietnam War.”

Rosemary nodded, although she had never known this grandfather. “What story do you want to tell me about?”

“The story when your grandfather first went on active duty in May of 1970. He was an officer and he had to attend armor school at Ft. Knox, Kentucky.”

Rosemary tugged on her grandmother’s hand. “What’s armor school?”

“Armor is tanks. An armor officer trains on leading tanks into battle.”

Her grandmother paused for a moment, brushing her hand across her eyes. Then she continued. “We had to live in a trailer because people wouldn’t rent to us. I thought I would have to spend all nine weeks alone by myself. But something funny happened.”

“What, Grandmama? What happened?”

“There was a training program for the wives too. And I got to be on the entertainment committee. There was a white woman from Chicago – she was the chair of the entertainment committee. She wrote a little play for the wives’ graduation luncheon and we got together and practiced the play.”

“Was it a good play?”

Her grandmother laughed. “Lord, I don’t know. But we had fun practicing. And it made those of us on the committee into friends.”

“Were the other women on the committee also white?”

Her grandmother nodded. “Yes, there was a Southern who didn’t much like blacks – that’s the polite word we were called in those days. And there was a Puerto Rican.”

Her grandmother looked at Rosemary. “Do you know where Puerto Rico is?”

“Yes, Grandmama. It’s in the Caribbean near Cuba.”

From the kitchen Rosemary could hear the sounds of her parents preparing her birthday dinner. She hoped they would take more time, because she wanted to hear more of her grandmother’s story.

“What happened to the other women?”

Her grandmother shook her head. “I don’t know. At the end of the nine weeks we all went to our husbands’ next duty station. But for me those nine weeks had been an amazing experience. It was the first time I had been friends with white folks. It gave me confidence that I would be okay in the white world.”

At that moment Rosemary’s mother walked into the living room. “Good evening, Mother,” Rosemary’s mother said to Rosemary’s grandmother. “I just heard what you were talking to Rosemary about.”

Rosemary’s mother stopped in front of Rosemary’s grandmother and held out a book. “I have a surprise for you even though it is Rosemary’s birthday. I’ve just read a new book that I think is about you.”

Rosemary watched her grandmother take the book and look at the cover photos of four women – one of them an African-American. “Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel by Phyllis Zimbler Miller” her grandmother read aloud. Then she turned over the book and read from the back cover:

“In the spring of 1970 four newly married young women come together at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, when their husbands go on active duty as officers in the U.S. Army.

“Different as these four women are, they have one thing in common: Their overwhelming fear that, right after these nine weeks of training, their husbands could be shipped out to Vietnam – and they could become war widows.

“Sharon is a Northern Jewish anti-war protester who fell in love with an ROTC cadet; Kim is a Southern Baptist whose husband is intensely jealous: Donna is a Puerto Rican who grew up in an enlisted man’s family; and Wendy is a Southern black whose parents have sheltered her from the brutal reality of racism in America.”

As Rosemary’s grandmother read those last words, Rosemary’s grandmother gasped. “Oh my heavens, you’re right. Someone has written our story.”

Rosemary saw the tears gathering in the corners of her grandmother’s eyes. Rosemary took her grandmother’s hand and said, “It’s okay, Grandmama. We’ve come a long way since then.”

Her grandmother smiled at her. “Yes we have.” She paused for a moment and squeezed Rosemary’s hand. “And your grandfather would be so proud of America today.”

Peace Corps Service: A Rite of Passage That Helps Others

Today I attended a “bon voyage” open house for a young man who recently graduated college. Yet he wasn’t off to explore the art museums of Europe or the cheap travel in countries such as Thailand. He was off to join the Peace Corps in Nicaragua.

Those of you who were “of age” during the Vietnam War remember the Peace Corps. It was a big topic of conversation during the army draft years. Yet I haven’t heard very much about this program in recent years.

Home from the open house, I went to the Peace Corps website to read about what it’s been up to in the last 40 years.

In a January 12th press release I read:

For the third consecutive year, the University of Washington is No. 1 on the undergraduate list in the large schools category, with 104 alumni serving as Peace Corps Volunteers. The University of Colorado-Boulder has risen dramatically from sixth place last year to claim the No. 2 in the large schools category, with 102 Volunteers. Michigan State University has also risen up two spots from fifth place last year to take the No. 3 rank among the country's large schools, with 89 currently-serving Volunteers.

Michigan State is where I earned my undergraduate degree in journalism, so I was impressed to see the school so high on this list. And I have to admit I didn’t realize how active the program continues to be.

Read the entire press release to learn which colleges have produced the most volunteers since the program’s founding in 1961.

And I wish this young man, whom I’ve known his whole life, a rewarding and fulfilling experience during his 27-month commitment.

Operation Support Jews in the Military: My Newest Do-Gooder Project

Over the past few months I've been contemplating how I could help with the problem of a drastic shortage of Jewish chaplains in the military. I've talked to people who are interested in helping, and people who have put up obstacles to helping.

And then on December 31 I had an epiphany. I could utilize everything I've been learning about internet marketing to start a "citizens' movement" in support of Jews in the military. And as my company Miller Mosaic, LLC was already building websites for clients, we built one for this project.

Introducing Operation Support Jews in the Military. I'm not trying to raise money -- I'm trying to raise awareness of the need for the U.S. Jewish community to support Jews in the military. This support can take a variety of avenues, from inviting Jewish personnel from nearby bases to synagogue services to providing online discounts to military personnel for Jewish products such as Shabbat candlesticks.

I hope you will consider checking out this site, and then emailing the domain name to people you know who might help to get the word out. My goal is to have the U.S. Jewish community use this site as a focal point for supporting Jews in the military.

New Movie DEFIANCE Tells the True Story of the Bielski Brothers During WWII

I have been debating since I saw the movie DEFIANCE two days ago what I thought of this true story of Jewish brothers “who defied the Nazis, saved 1,200 Jews and built a village in the forest.”

This quote is from the cover of the book THE BIELSKI BROTHERS by Peter Duffy (which I have but haven’t read yet). The movie was based on the book DEFIANCE: THE BIELSKI PARTISANS by Nechama Tec.

(There’s a little confusion in reviews about how many Bielski brothers there were. The Duffy book says three, although the movie gives the three a little brother. Perhaps this is why at the end of the movie only the fate of the three brothers is given.)

On the one hand, this movie is as important storytelling as was Jon Avnet’s television movie UPRISING about the Warsaw Ghetto. Both these stories tell the world that all Jews did not go quietly to the gas chambers.

On the other hand, to me this particular version of a true story was really told as the biblical story of Esau and Jacob. And, in fact, the movie version ends when the Esau character (Liev Schreiber) and the other Jews who have been fighting with the Russian partisans return just in the nick of time to save the Jacob character (Daniel Craig) and his “sheep” from being slaughtered – approximately two years before the end of the war.

I’ve read glowing reports and not-so-glowing reports of the film. You’ll have to see the film yourself and make up your own mind.

One thing I can say about this film, it’s no SCHINDLER’S LIST.

Spirit of America Partners With Soldier in Afghanistan

Something amazing has happened since I wrote a post on my Mrs. Lieutenant blog on December 23rd about a single soldier deployed in Kabul who was requesting donations of blankets to prevent Afghan children from actually freezing to death in the brutal winters.

In that post I mentioned that my husband had told me that Spirit of America was an American organization that supported efforts by U.S. personnel stationed in places like Afghanistan to help the civilian population. And I sent the blog post to Spirit of America after finding a contact email on the website.

A couple of days ago I got an email from the program director at Spirit of America saying that the organization was going to contact the soldier and send $300 worth of blankets. I was so excited that I wrote a second Mrs. Lieutenant blog post about this.

And then I got another email from the organization's executive director saying Spirit of America was increasing its donation to $1500 for blankets and the school supplies that the soldier now also requested. I have to admit my eyes filled with tears when I read this second email.

I wanted to share this generosity of Spirit of America with you, and to tell you that the soldier has now also requested gently used children's clothes. His return to the U.S. has been pushed back from April to September, so he'll be in Afghanistan longer and will have more time to help the people there.

Here's part of the email that the soldier -- Specialist Gerardo Llamas -- has just sent out to people interested in helping with his project:

I have partnered up with a great organization that is helping me get more donations as well as helping with shipping charges. You can see the ad they have posted for me here. They are great and hopefully I can reach a lot more people and make this project a huge one. I want it to make a huge difference in the lives of these people, the people of Afghanistan. If you are interested in helping by donating blankets, clothes or school supplies, you can do it directly through me, like before, or you can do it through Spirit of America.

If you would like to help this effort, please go to the Spirit of America page for this project.

Your Turn to Win: New Book by Lance Heft

Today on the BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com -- Nancy Brown and I interviewed Lance Heft, the author of the new book "Your Turn to Win."

I can't recommend the book because I haven't read it yet. But I can recommend you listen to our 30-minute interview and consider the book yourself.

And the part of the interview that most moved me was when Lance described the breast cancer fund he recently set up to honor his fourth-grade teacher, a breast cancer survivor, because of six words she wrote on the back of his end-of-year report card. I'll give you a hint about the words -- Shakespeare put them in the mouth of a father giving advice to his son in "Hamlet."

ShowMeTheScreenplay.com Launched to Help Screenwriters and Directors

ShowMeTheScreenplay.com has just been launched by my older daughter Rachel Miller (she’s @Rachmiller on Twitter) with the website built by my younger daughter Yael Miller (she’s @MillerMosaicLLC on Twitter).

The three of us are very pleased with how the site has turned out. And we’re hoping that there will be a sizable online target audience to learn insider Hollywood knowledge from Rachel.

If you know of any aspiring or just-starting-out screenwriters or directors, do send them along to check out the site.

Doubt the Movie: Questions Raised That Aren't Necessarily Answered

I saw John Patrick Shanley's play "Doubt" performed in Los Angeles, and he himself adapted his play for the screen and directed the movie. I thought the play powerful, and the playwright has preserved his story in the movie he wrote and directed.

Still, the play's ending seemed much more ambiguous than the movie's ending. Perhaps Shanley felt that movie audiences needed a more settled ending than did theater audiences. Regardless of the case, the story itself -- set in a Catholic elementary school in Boston a year after the assassination of President Kennedy -- raises some interesting moral questions for all of us today.

In the absence of evidence, are we morally required to go with our "gut" in order to protect a child, even at the risk of ruining an adult's life? Or are we all liable to see what we "see" based on our own insecurities and prejudices?

If you've seen the movie or the play, leave a comment as to whether you think the head sister (played by Meryl Streep in the movie) was correct in the action she took.

And, oh yes, the actor who plays the child's mother in the movie, Viola Davis, I predict will be nominated for an Oscar in the best supporting category. When I said this to my younger daughter, she informed me that this is already being predicted by film critics. I hadn't read anything about this, but there was no doubt, as I watched Viola Davis' heartbreaking scene with Meryl Streep, that Viola Davis will be one of five names in that category when the Oscar nominations are announced.

New Year’s Day: Making Resolutions for the Coming Year

Harvey Mackay’s December 30th weekly column titled “How to stay young as the years go by” had lots of good advice, perhaps to me the most important being “Keep only cheerful, positive friends.”

The following morning my business partner and I were reviewing 2008, and we realized that this was the year we had taken control of our own destinies. We had stopped waiting for people to say yes to us and instead had said yes to ourselves. My novel MRS. LIEUTENANT was published in April and her children’s picture book TOO MANY VISITORS FOR ONE LITTLE HOUSE is due out any moment. And we had started other endeavors as well.

This morning, as I reflected on the coming year, I thought of Mackay’s advice, my conversation with my business partner, and a conversation last Saturday night at a Hanukkah party. I had been talking about how Twitter can be used for business purposes, and one person just dismissed the idea out of hand. Yet another person there, an M.D., jumped up and right then hired me to come to her office Monday to get her started on Twitter.

When I went to the office Monday I first met some resistance from her assistant. I realized that her assistant was concerned that I was taking over her role as the computer expert in the office. But I’m not a computer expert. I was there to use my marketing expertise to help her boss. And by the end of the two plus hours, both boss and assistant seemed on board.

And they were definitely on board when I subsequently shared the info with them that the New York Israeli Consulate had held a “press conference” on Twitter. What’s a press conference on Twitter? It’s a way to bypass the often-biased media channels and take the info straight to the people. Twitter users asked questions in 140 characters and got answers in 140 characters. And afterwards these conversations were “enlarged” from Twitter language (for example, changing 4 to for) and put on the consulate’s blog.

I thought this was a genius idea, and apparently the doctor’s assistant thought I was “brilliant for recognizing the power of Twitter.” (The truth is that Twitter combines my two expertise areas of communication and marketing – so I’m definitely open to its power.)

And this new media, this technology, is available to all of us as we begin 2009. Only yesterday I had an epiphany about a do-gooder project that I want to undertake but could never do in the traditional way. I suddenly realized I could use all the new technology/marketing I’ve learned in the last year to do this project.

I immediately registered a domain name (after checking with my business partner as to which of three names was the best for this project) and I hope to be off and running in days. My husband isn’t convinced my plan will work, but I’m taking the chance. Because if it does work, I’ll be accomplishing something for lots of people. And that’s worth a try.

Stay tuned for a progress report on the above project. And for all of you, I wish you a year of saying yes to yourself and a year of being open to new ideas and new technology and of surrounding yourself with “cheerful, positive friends.” (Oh yes, and good health for all.)