Lorelle of WordPress is baaaaaaaack!  She’s the most famous “WordPress Queen” in case you haven’t heard of her before.  If you haven’t, that means you probably missed the first two parts.   I would recommend you read Part I and Part II before you delve into today’s 3rd segment of the 4-part interview series.

(Looking at Lorelle) Shall we?

(Giving each other high fives).

11. Conversely, what do you consider your proudest achievement in life?

Hmm, good question. And interesting contrast. Actually, I haven’t had a single achievement I’d say I was proud of. I’ve had many. But I want to qualify that.

In my talks on blogging and web publishing, I often ask people to define “blog success.” It means something different to everyone, but most say it’s traffic numbers, feed reader numbers, and use measurable statistics and numbers.

To me, I enjoy simple achievements to define my success. I have had all the big honors. Didn’t care. Not into the love-me wall stuff. Don’t want the trophies. Don’t need the certificates to prove I did things. Don’t care.

To me, making someone laugh is an achievement. I actually managed to put words together in a way that brought a smile and giggle to someone’s face. Helping someone learn makes me so proud as I watch them take the information and move forward smiling and proud they figured it out.

I just got off the phone with David Bullock and he is reeling from the brain switch from SOBCon08. He’s changed his whole business model based upon what he learned at the conference. He has a better understanding of what “social” really means on the web and it is changing his life and business. As a small part of SOBCon, that’s a major accomplishment that I’m proud of.

Every day is an accomplishment for me. That truck could have killed me or left me in worse condition. I’ve taken a lot of risks in my life and lived on the edge a long time. The fact that I’m still here kicking is probably the best achievement of all.

Until you define success, that’s my best answer.

Stephen’s Response:  I very much enjoyed David’s presentation at SOBCON08 - in fact, I told him he ought to seriously consider becoming a professional speaker - he was that engaging!   I agree that the fact you’re still kicking and screaming is the most wonderful achievement, especially when taking into light all the adversities you’ve experienced.

I don’t really think anyone has a firm grasp on the definition of success - it means different things to different people so it was interesting to hear your take on it.

12. We all have a dark side, what’s yours?

You’ll have to do better than that. Define dark side? Bad moods? Bad habits? Secret sides?

Honestly, I live a WYSIWYG life. People put labels on it and judge it. Not my business. I don’t have time for time-wasters. I live on the road in a fifth wheel trailer pulled by a one ton, crew cab, old beater truck. I’m trailer trash. RVer. Transient. That’s just me. Don’t like it, get over it.

Sure, there are dark times, stressful times, nights without sleep, but we all have it. It’s natural. So embrace it. Get over it. Let the dark be the balance of your life and appreciate that there is balance. I just choose to focus on the light in public.

Stephen’s Response:  LOL.  You’re a character, let me give you that much!  Trailer trash.  Ha.  Good for you that you don’t care what others think.  Actually, I wrote an article about how what others think is actually none of our business anyway.  We can’t control what they think so why worry?

13. What four books, blogs and/or mentors have influenced you and why?

While a lot of people have influenced me, books guide my life in so many ways, so I’ll focus on them as I rarely get to talk about my favorite influential and life changing authors.

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card: It’s an amazing science fiction novel that explores out of the box thinking. It was the first to win both Hugo and Nebula Awards. What’s more amazing is that Card went on to write several sequels, and then he decided to go back, over a decade later, and revisit the world of Ender Wiggin by writing a sequel that is actually one of the world’s first books that creates a sequel by telling the same story from the perspective of one of the other characters. The Ender’s Shadow series following Bean was published, and now, for the twentieth anniversary of Ender’s Game, Card is revisiting again with “Ender Stories” as part of Enderverse (Ender’s Universe) which are more stories of Ender’s Game told from other character’s viewpoints. That’s serious box breaking writing, and I learn so much from everything Orson Scott Card writes.

Life 101 by Peter McWilliams: Simple life lessons told in a couple pages per chapter that will kick your butt. They kicked mine. A dog-eared copy is never far from my side when I need more butt kicking.

His writing on Master Teachers In Disguise in Life 101 explaining the power that can be found in fear is life changing. When you look at fear as energy and motivation, a thing to be welcomed and embraced, as well as listened to wisely, you get a better understanding of how we keep letting stupid stuff stop us from living our best lives. McWilliams’ attitude about making mistakes, something we all do but often over-react to, is wonderful:

Mistakes are valuable if, for no other reason, they show us what not to do. As Joseph Ray told us, “The Athenians, alarmed at the internal decay of their Republic, asked Demosthenes what to do. His reply: `Do not do what you are doing now.’ ”

In Hollywood, mis-takes are common. (”That was wonderful, darlings. Now let’s get ready for take two.”) Give yourself as many re-takes as you need. Stars do it. (”I didn’t feel quite right with that one, Mr. deMille. Can we take it again?”) Why not you?

A Hollywood song (lyrics by Dorothy Fields) sums it up: “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start all over again.” Or, to quote an African proverb, “Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped.”

From Peter’s writing, I learned how to write for the web. Each chapter is only a page or two long, crystal clear in its presentation and intent. Sentences all have a point, with no wasted words. He pulls no punches while infusing every point with love and compassion beyond measure.

I constantly return to this book for inspiration, motivation, and creative ideas. His other books, now offered free on his site, continue to guide and inspire my life and will for years to come. I often joke that Life 101 is my bible, it’s that powerful an influence in my life.

Alan Dean Foster: Author of dozens of books, I am a huge fan of his and have read everything I can find, and then reread them all. I love the diversity of his writing, covering silly and fairly simple plot twists with style and a twisted sense of humor. For example, in his Spellsinger series, he asks the question, “What if a failing law student-wannabe-rock-star is transported onto another planet where the animals all talk?” Or another trilogy that began with Light years Beneath My Feet about a camper in the mountains who wakes up in an intergalactic zoo traveling through space as a specimen. Or To the Vanishing Point, where the simple act of a family picking up a hitchhiker on their way to vacation in Vegas in their RV turns into a path from hell as the hitchhiker turns the road into a path way through the universe. He makes it all legitimate, believable, and wonderful as he mixes some fantasy and magic into fascinating worlds where human values are tortured and tested, along with the characters involved.

His Humanx Commonwealth series universe dazzles me every time. Taking the concept of prejudice to its most base level, he brings together humans with their deepest and darkest primitive fear: insects. Human-sized bugs with a vast intelligence and culture who finds the soft shells of humans as repulsive as humans find them. These could be the best of the best for evil villains in any genre, but Foster never looks at the world in stereotypes. While this could be a series with fears, dark, and ghastly shadows, or comical plays, it’s a sensitive and powerful exploration of prejudices and how to overcome it, and how to unite a society forced to play nice together whether they want to or not. I often think of the Middle East situation when I read books in this series. How do you find commonality when both sides hate each other so much and their cultures are so vastly different?

The Catechist series is one of the most poetic science fiction novels I’ve ever found. Foster has a lyrical way with words that I envy. It’s poetry in motion. He specializes in creating characters out of animals, with distinctive personalities. He also isn’t afraid to speak out and be irreverent. One of his most famous quotes is “Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting.”

Terry Pratchett: While living overseas, I was introduced to Terry Pratchett, author of the incredible Discworld series. It couldn’t have come at a better time as we were facing economic and security problems in the Middle East with the war in Afghanistan and impending Bush War on Iraq, and things were incredibly tiresome and depressing everywhere as we waiting for war. I started reading Terry Pratchett and spent the next two or three years laughing harder than I could ever remember.

Pratchett is appreciated the world over for his delightful novels, but I don’t think he really gets the appreciation he deserves for being such an expert in satire. Other than L. Ron Hubbard’s Mission Earth series, I don’t think I have read any collection of books so consistently irreverent and beautiful abusive of human traits, habits, and nonsense that we all take so seriously. Each Discworld book tackles some human obsession or industry such as the movie industry, music industry, tourist industry, fairy tales, communication industry, and the list goes on and on. His use of language, dialog, and storytelling techniques continues to delight me. I thank him for helping me survive what could have been nearly the suicidal depression of living with war and terrorism.

Pratchett also taught me a lot about web writing, about how to mix in humor with characters and their environment to tell a story. I’m so draw to really good storytellers, ones who create believable worlds with words we can totally get lost in.

As I read the works of amazing writers like these and other great writers of all different genres, I’m constantly reminded about how little I still understand about how we pull words out of our heads and form them into concepts and ideas that move individuals as well as nations. These masters push me to write better and learn how to express myself better.

Anything that makes me want to push myself farther, past my sedentary comfort zone, I adore.

Argh. Get me talking about books and authors and we could do a whole show just on that!

Stephen’s Response:  Good thing you stopped right there my dear friend.  Otherwise, I would have had to order sleeping bags for everyone in the audience.

Hey, I just thought of something - that wouldn’t have been such a bad idea!

Imagine this:  a slumber party!   That would be a first at Adversity University.  Can you see it Lorelle?  Everyone in their PJ’s with a bowl of popcorn and a remote control to either put you on pause, fast forward or rewind your words.   Wouldn’t that be awesome or WHAT?

Kidding aside, I read “Life 101″ because you recommended it to me.  I found it to be a series of lessons that all of us need to be reminded of.  It was an interesting book and I need to re-read it again because I went through it so fast.  I’m a fast reader.  I can finish books just like that (snap of fingers).

14. Name the top 5 articles from “Lorelle on WordPress” that you believe readers at Adversity University would benefit from. (Provide a link for each please).

• The Power of the Link: If you don’t understand how the web works, this article will introduce you to the most powerful feature.
• How NOT to Comment on Comments: The web is about communication. If you aren’t communicating in a way to convey your message well and draw people towards you to continue the conversation, you are missing the whole point of the web.
• Do-It-Yourself Search Engine Optimization Guide: Don’t believe all the junk you get in your email or read on the web about SEO. Read this and you will know just about all there is to know about how to convert your online publishing site into a publishing empire - well, sorta.
• Blogging Tips - Hundreds of Resources for Your Blog: This continues to be a strong article that helps so many people think through how they get their news and information to help them research their blog post content.
• What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content: Copyright violations are a matter of when, not if, and everyone needs to learn about copyright and Fair Use laws and restrictions. Just because it’s on the web doesn’t mean it’s free. Protect your rights and the rights of others. Don’t be a copy cat.
• Blog Challenge: Blog Your Dash: Plus one, just for you, Stephen. Every week or so I offer a blog challenge to help kick some blog butt. This was a favorite of mine and touched a lot of spirits.

Stephen’s Response:  You might have learned from the first two parts that some of the people who hang out here at Adversity University aren’t bloggers so they might not be familiar with anything having to do with blogging.

However, with over 100 million blogs in existence and thousands of new ones born every single day, I’m sure a handful of them will find one of your articles to be of interest to them.  Especially the “How NOT to Comment on Comments.”   WARNING TO READERS:  This particular article will kick your butt with some tough love.  If you take the risk and read it, don’t come crying to me and tell me I didn’t warn you, okay? 

Well, ladies and gentlemen, those of you who have been reading interviews every week, you can probably tell we are beginning to wind down with Lorelle.  We have one more coming up next week and that will be it.  By then, you’ll know her so well that next time I mention “Lorelle,” you’ll instantly recognize the name.

(Turning to Lorelle and giving her a hug):  Thanks again for coming to the campus!  As usual, we’ve enjoyed learning from you.  Can’t wait to have you back one final time next week.

Until then, enjoy!

If you liked this post and you want to be notified of the next one, subscribe via Email or Full Text RSS Feed. I would love to have you as part of the community!

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite