I was at a conference in Washington D.C. in the late 90s for an exclusive group of winners. We came from 31 school districts and 26 states. Our proposals had been chosen from more than 5,000 from across the country, to be funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
Five years of funding, with an average of three-quarter of a million dollars to each of us to support academically at-risk middle schoolers in their learning challenges.
The feds present that day wanted to make sure we knew both how special we were and how much was expected of us.
The first presenter walked to the podium in that Hilton ballroom. We leaned forward with pens and notebooks, poised to record all the stuff we would need to know to implement our grant projects.
She removed her glasses, peered out at us and paused.
agent’s view of things with practical publishing ideas in the digital age. Really, it’s the best of both worlds.
Kids come to school with ideas already formed. About winning and losing. About being the best at something. About being stronger. Smarter.
I am pleased and honored to welcome Robyn M Fritz as my very first guest poster on CatsEyeWriter blog. I knew the decision would be tough—and it was. Just a note up front. I didn’t judge any of your entries by how many comments your post got. I used my trusty 3-E’s criteria: Does it educate? Does it engage? Does it entertain? Robyn’s post did all three beautifully. I was struck by what a simple—yet powerful—concept she blogged about, by how she touched both the head and the heart. Oh, and by the way, I also chose three runners-up. I’ll feature those bloggers in my post next Friday, June 24. Okay, enough of me. Here’s Robyn:
Robyn M Fritz MA MBA is a writing coach and author of Bridging Species,
I see a lot of talk out in the blogosphere about how easy guest posting is:



The Surprises of Guest Posting
There are a bazillion bloggers who have talked about benefits of making guest appearances on other blogs. One of the best reasons to write guest posts is to reach new audiences and grow your own blog.
But sometimes when you write a guest post for another blog, things happen that weren’t even in your brain. You see, the thing is, you never know who is reading your post. And that makes guest blogging unpredictably fun.
For instance, just this week, my guest post for Write to Done showed up on the Holy Caw! All the topics that interest us page of Guy Kawasaki’s mega-popular site alltop.com. (If you didn’t know, alltop.com is now the authority in sorting through the flood of blog posts and articles that are published daily. Their goal is to filter through all the stuff and aggregate the best for you.) Because of the Holy Caw appearance, my guest post was shared on Twitter a whole bunch of times and got tons of traffic.
The next day, I got requests for an interview from a national magazine for writers and for quotes for an e-book. So what’s my point?
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