LegendaryLife Blog

I’ve been learning Mandarin Chinese on/off for 15 years… each time, making great progress then life getting in the way – usually in the form of a business that takes over all my time (WoodMarvels.com didn’t grow from a lack of work!). This has happened to me several times so far – and will continue probably until I retire. I actually moved to China and lived there for close to two years in the hopes I could finally get this long term goal of mine accomplished!

What I saw while there surprised me and then I realized how little education I actually got both from various books / tapes / CDs and even my year learning Mandarin Chinese at my local university about anything beyond the language. There was so much that I didn’t have the opportunity to learn about that was just as important to me as learning the language. China and the Chinese people are fascinating and complex, I wanted to show this to others trying to learn Chinese while, at the same time, having a book that took this into account and improving based on my personal experience, all the shortcomings of what others had done.

Learning a language is very difficult, it takes at least an hour a day, everyday – even when you are living in a country surrounded by this language – for it to sink in. I felt there was so much I didn’t grasp, hence how both the website HowToChinese.com and the book that was written came about.

My wife and I built a resource that I wished I had when I was in university – it’s by far superior to anything I’ve ever used previously to learn Mandarin Chinese and unlike the other systems, you have live video that will help you throughout the learning process. Lucky really enjoys making the videos and I doing the post-production… it’s great fun and I hope you can also see great benefit to the system we have developed for you to benefit from. Lucky worked extremely hard on this book and I’m very proud of her for how she has developed HowToChinese.com… there is a lot more coming in the very near future regarding this business to make it all the more educational and fun.

Book Information

Experience Lucky’s passion for teaching Mandarin Chinese to students around the world through her comprehensive and professionally produced online video series to help you build fluency in record time!

A fantastic book for both beginners and advanced students!

• Step by step learning process with each chapter building onto the next
• Multiple in-chapter exercises to reinforce new learnings along with real-life conversation dialogs
• Pinyin and Simplified Chinese characters throughout
• In-book Chinese <—> English mini-dictionaries
• Comprehensive video series tie-ins to help with your pronunciation and fluency
• Chinese history and modern cultural notes
• Over 170 photographs taken across China!

I find the more I progress in life, the more knowledge and passions I accumulate in it. I completely by far the most ambitious book I ever did about 6 months ago and after countless rewrites, edits and getting all that stuff out of my head… I’ve acquired the writing bug again.

It’s hard to describe, try to imagine growing a tree within a small greenhouse. Each day, it grows a little taller, stronger and begins to expand to fill its enclosed environment. Sure, you can prune the tree, give it less water and do other things to slow its growth down but it doesn’t take away from the fact that the tree is still there, slowly expanding and filling the empty space within the greenhouse. Eventually, one way or another, the tree becomes tall, strong and dense enough that it begins to exert increasing pressure on the greenhouse. Slowly but surely, the pressure builds then, all of a sudden, a panel pops, followed by a few more… until the greenhouse can no longer maintain its form, haven been conquered by what began as a small, inconspicuous seed.

I began on a sequel to my original science fiction story after I finished the first but then needed a mental break… focusing on WoodMarvels.com instead to satisfy my desire to “create” but much like the Ying/Yang Chinese symbol of balance and unity, I’m starting to produce a little too much Ying (design) and an adjustment is needed in the Yang (writing).

I learned a TREMENDOUS amount writing my first novel, so much so… that it gives me the urge to apply it, learning from my mistakes and doing something even more unfathomable. Bigger, Better and Uncut. I have this movie in my head that keeps replying, each time, with a little more detail, ideas all the more fleshed-out and if you read the book… a few major plot lines that need to be closed with others created.

Although writing and design may seem like world’s apart, they are actually very similar. In design, you start with an idea… and with time and passion, transform it into a real product. Writing is the same way except the only limitation is your own creative thinking… unlike design where it’s still limited by the tools you have at hand.

The amount of time required for a book is tremendous compared to the design of a product, but the sense of accomplishment grows in proportion as well. I really enjoy design and I see one field of endeavor helping the other. My ability to design improved dramatically as writing exercised my mental muscles in a different direction than how it was use to working.

So many passions, so little time. The story of my life

I’ve now launched my latest book, Transforming Your Life From Blah To Legendary!: A Guide For Massive Positive And Lasting Changes In Your Life as a PDF Downloadable book using the WoodMarvels.com e-commerce system. This means that you can now get this book within a few minutes right onto your own computer if you do not wish to wait to get a physical copy or live where it isn’t available.

About Transforming Your Life From Blah To Legendary!

I decided at a very young age that I didn’t want a “normal life” and, through the years, have developed habits and studied how to improve the efficiency of my life, the thoughts, ideas and concepts from a lifetime of lessons are synthesized within this book. I had also read more than my fair share of motivational books and from those experiences, wrote mine to use extensive imagery using a comic strip of characters to help bring some humor to the information being given as well as a step-by-step guide. My hope is that this book can help turn your life into one that is remembered far after you are gone.

Where to find

You can find Transforming Your Life From Blah To Legendary! at WoodMarvels.com under Special / Books in the top navigational bar.

Here is the direct link

I started on my second book, part inspirational, part workbook and all passion. I originally started on this book on Feb 8th of this year and it has taken me till the 26th to get it proofed, laid out and a host of other changes before it became available on Amazon! (read about it here)

What did I learn publishing this book?

A hell of a lot, my first book, WoodMarvels.com: Top Sellers took about as long to publish and in hindsight, this one blows it out of the water regarding what I learned.

• Get your proof proofed several times and double-check it digitally before requesting another one! I went through 6 proofs of this book because there was always one small thing that was missed which added well over two months to the publishing date.
• Colors are a pain in the ass! My cover and inside was originally all full color, color correcting over 70 images isn’t any fun so I simply did everything in full color but decided to get it printed in gray scale to save me the trouble except for the front cover.
• Have a good internet connection! Uploading a 200mb file several times isn’t any fun.
• If you are not an American, you cannot get your book released on Kindle! Originally this book was to be Kindled but a few days ago, I was told this was no possible… I guess somebody forgot to tell this to J. K. Rowlings.

Why is this book special?

Other than the fact that there is a heck of a lot of work, which I did all myself, from layout, publishing, graphics, comic strip etc… I’ve read more than my fair share of self-help and motivational books out there and this one is the only one I know that has a mixture of humor, comics and simple task based projects.

Why is your name not on the cover?

Well, this is a book to help YOU transform your life… I though it would be silly to stick a big picture of ME on there with my name in bold letters. I’m taking a different approach towards self-help books… in that the focus is 100% on YOU, not the author.

Can I view a sample?

Absolutely, follow this link to view inside the book – be warned though, as of writing this blog, Amazon seems to have stuck a very early proof in the book in the “Look Inside” feature. I’ve just uploaded the correct versions of all these with the inside in gray scale and the cover looking far better, I figure it will be a few days before they update it. Somebody screwed-up somewhere and it should fix itself soon enough.

Transforming Your Life From Blah To Legendary!: A Guide For Massive Positive And Lasting Changes In Your Life

Is that it?

No actually, I’m less than a month away from releasing my second volume of WoodMarvels.com with 4 pages shy of 200 and a wicked upgrade from my first one… using what I learned from my first volume and this one has taught me how to do things right in the publishing world! Also, my science fiction story 2847AD is slated to be moving along in a few weeks as well. Stay tuned!

The Bottom Line

Publishing your own books is fun!

I am happy to report that I have completed the first draft of 2847AD. I am now entering the world of heavy editing and cleaning-up the story lines and plots while leaving a huge gaping window that could easily lead to a sequel down the line should the book become successful. I started work on this on March 4th of this year, so it has been a rather tasking project through the months, but fun never the less.

LegendaryLife.com has now reach beta stage, testing out the features, doing some preliminary design work and getting everything to full working order. This project has taken far longer than I would have liked but I guess everything happens for a reason, as it now ties in wonderfully with my self-help book that I am reviewing the final draft of, after a heavy dose of editing and refining. I am very proud at how this book came along, it’s looking fantastic and I really think it can make some big changes in a person’s life if they so decide. I started working on this book back on the 8th of Feb, 2009.

I have decided to set myself a time line of September 1st as the publishing date for 2847AD, I now have things steam lined here enough so that enormous delays will be a thing of the past. I figure I should be editing the first paperback copy of my book sometime at the end of the month and a month later, it should be available for purchase.

Regarding my fourth book (third for this year), I have decided to make another WoodMarvels.com blueprint guide but make it geared more towards laser cutters than pure wood crafters. The same principals apply, it’s just exceptionally hard for a person to cut some of my designs using only a jig saw but idea wise, I think it would make a fantastic addition and a major update to my first book on the subject. Here is one of the models that is, for sure, making it into this book.

So, over the next 3 months, I should have 3 new books published and available for purchase, LegendaryLife.com launched and a host of other achievements coming to fruition… cool!

I hope to start writing daily blog articles again sometime in August, just got to get all this editing and publishing business done first. Exciting times, as always!!!