Hey there friends!

Lord have mercy. 💔 We in the U.S. are in a tough season of natural disasters, aren’t we? With Hurricane Helene causing destruction all the way to NW North Carolina and then Hurricane Milton in Florida this week, we’ve seen the destructive power of rushing water as it swept so many homes and businesses away.

In addition to the heartbreaking loss of life with these storms, you also hear families saying “we just lost everything.” I know that when you’ve lost your home, thinking about lost photos and other memorabilia won’t be a high priority. But I’m sure that down the road those affected by storms will wish that they had still had access to beloved family photos.

In this issue I’m sharing again a link to an article I wrote a couple of years ago. It gives you some easy steps towards preparing your family photos now before a weather disaster strikes your neighborhood.

Today I’m also sharing Step 9 in the Build An Ebook series and encouraging each of you to take a look at the design app Canva, even if you're aren't building an ebook. You can find all of this below. 👇🏻

I have new book recommendation for you in the "Delighted & Inspired" section at the very end. I "read" (listened to) this book from Minnesota to Iowa to Missouri to Arkansas and loved every minute of it.

Happy weekend!

It's Time to Get Ready

Put together a plan now for preserving your precious photos and other memorabilia before the urgency of storm preparations. I give you some ideas in this article.

It’s been said that “you can’t judge a book by its cover.” But, that clearly only applies to everything but an actual book! The cover of a book is an invitation to a reader. All of the elements of a book cover should work together to say, “Hey, here’s what this book is about and I think you should read it. So what are you waiting for? Get a copy and open it up!”

We’ve been working together through the process of how to build an ebook. I initially left this step for designing a cover to almost the end of the process because while it’s important, you can really get hung up on the design if you haven’t actually finished your book.

Read more about creating a book cover at the button link below. Happy designing!

If you’re not remotely interested in creating an ebook cover design, I would still recommend that you read the Step Nine article. Here’s why - around the middle of the article I give you a very short tutorial on creating your first design in Canva, a FREE online design app. You could use my tiny launch pad to discover all that is available to you in the free version of Canva.

I’ve had a Canva Pro account for many years now and use it for quick designs that don’t require the more advanced features of my long-time design tools like InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop.

Last year I created an online graphic design course for middle and high school students that also teaches them to use the free version of Canva. While I love all the bells and whistles of my Pro account, trust me when I say the free account is all you need to create so many things. Or why not just go there and play?

I’m working on some new teaching resources that will also be based in the basic Canva version. Stay tuned for more news about those!

Available on Amazon for Kindle and as a paperback.

Things that delight & inspired me this week ✨

I just finished my Minnesota “road trip” audiobook and boy was it a good one! If you love a good murder mystery with lots of interesting family stories thrown in then you’ll enjoy “How to Solve Your Own Murder.” Delightful! I also got this week’s inspiration from author Kristin Perrin and her main character Annie Adams. Annie is trying to solve her great aunt’s murder by reading her teenage journals. She is then inspired to write her own story of what she discovered about her family history in the process. Reflecting on that, she says the words that inspired me and I hope inspire you, too - “When you write it all down you can go back and find meaning you never noticed was there all along.”

✨What is delighting and inspiring you these days?

#delightedandinspired

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