WRITING SAMPLES FOR YOUR REVIEW

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Web site SEO copy for The Coves Mountain River Club:

 

For just a few weeks each year, certain parts of the United States present a breathtaking exhibition of the most vivid colors on Nature's palette. People drive great distances just to see the show, as leaves make their annual change from summer's green to their rich fall hues. In terms of pure, awe-inspiring natural beauty, there's nothing else that even comes close.

 

Residents at The Coves Mountain River Club know the Lenoir, North Carolina, weather is just perfect in the Fall as the leaves start to change. If you're at The Coves' Pisgah Mountain Lodge by Wilson Creek, you have a front row seat as the foliage of sugar maples and mountain maples begins turning to red, crimson and orange. Beech and yellow birch trees treat the viewer to a panorama of yellows. And you'll notice even more red becoming visible on serviceberry, red oak and high-bush blueberry.

 

At Banner Elk's high elevation, you also get to see the local fall-flowering species that provide so much additional color. The yellow skunk goldenrod and roan goldenrod are in bloom, and wavy-haired aster and eastern agueweed and white-wood aster add some blue shades to the mix. Look for the reds of serviceberry, red oak, high-bush blueberry and mountain ash berry. As a natural backdrop to all this beauty, there are the native evergreens such as Fraser fir, red spruce and Catawba rhododendron.

 

One of the great things about fall foliage in North Carolina is that there's no “peak color” period as in other parts of the country. Again, because of the varying elevations, you can arrive any time between September and November and find plenty to see and do. The wonderful Lenoir, North Carolina, weather insures that whether you want to hike and enjoy the fresh air or take a scenic drive through a forest of stunning beauty, Banner Elk's high elevation offers you the best viewing experience and plenty of pleasant surprises. Imagine turning a corner and finding yourself suddenly standing at one of the many massive waterfalls, ten feet high or taller, framed by the most stunning combination of color you'll ever encounter outdoors.

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From I'm Not Done Yet, an autobiography ghostwritten for Dave Draper:

 

Our last stop before heading home would be the island of Moorea, which is northwest of Tahiti.  After a series of shuttle rides, we found ourselves immersed in an experience very similar to Mana.  We stayed in a thatched-roof hut, with sea breezes wafting in from all directions.  And the floor was transparent, so we could see the fish and other creatures swimming below us.

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Carol suggested that we get aboard a huge catamaran that was offering tours around the island.  The views were magnificent.  It was everyone's vision of a South Seas paradise, and we were lucky enough to be right in the middle of it.  Just perfect.  Of course, there were the cultural touches as well:  a traditional luau, fire dancers and hula.  Many see these things in Hawaii and perhaps don't realize they were brought there by Tahitians fleeing repeated attacks by inhabitants of Tonga, Samoa and other islands.

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All too soon, we were on our way back to Sydney and then on the fourteen-hour flight home to San Francisco.  Four months had passed, and we'd spent $4000.  It had been one of the most educational and visually stimulating experiences of my life and worth every penny.  Seeing how the people lived, endured and persevered made me a more humble person.  I learned to make the most of whatever I was blessed to have at the moment.  Call that cocaine money ill-gotten gains if you must, but it bought me new-found understanding of my place in this world – and memories I would savor for a lifetime.

 

From A Scientist's Guide To Love, a supplement to seminars ghostwritten for Mathew Fontes:

 

Carl Rogers (1967) was a total sweater-wearing softie.  But he was smart, and his methods have been proven to work.  It was his contention that the quality of interpersonal relationships was more heavily influenced by the environment created by the interacting individuals than by any specific technique. He believed that being congruent, exhibiting positive regard and demonstrating empathy are more important than the steps you will learn to follow from reading this book. 

 

It’s important to remember, however, what I wrote earlier about how practicing those techniques can make you into someone who’s better at initiating and maintaining relationships.  That’s because doing so will train you how to apply the very skills he advocates:  being congruent, exhibiting positive regard and demonstrating empathy.  Let’s discuss those in more detail.

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What is a conversation without trust?  It’s two people talking – nothing more.  The formula to securing trust from another human being is congruence, or genuineness.  There’s more counselor-speak for you.  What it means, simply, is that your nonverbal and verbal behavior aren’t in conflict with one another. 

 

Being genuine is aligning your words with your actions and feelings, thereby allowing people to see the real you.  As Rogers said, that’s far more important than anything you might say.  In other words, it’s “being yourself”.

 

From Journey With The Grieving, a self-help book ghostwritten for Sara Anderson:

 

It's important to understand some of the ways that the mind will react.

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At the moment you hear the news, there will be shock and disbelief:  That's not possible.  An instant ago, my life was moving in one direction and now...  No!  This can't be happening!

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As the horrible reality finally sets in, your instinct is to take charge of the situation that's turning it all upside down...to do something.  More and more questions are swimming in your head, and you need answers.  You try to push away the regrets...the would-haves, should-haves and could-haves that start to attack your conscience.

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Maybe it's not too late.  If the person is still clinging to life, get to the bedside.  Pray like you've never prayed before.  Make a deal with God:  I'll do anything.  Please, just don't let this happen.  Please, God!

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We want to be in control.  It's too scary to think that things like this can alter our lives in an instant.  We're used to running the show...making decisions...getting things done.  And so, we behave in the same predictable way even when we're powerless in the face of what is happening.  But at those times when all we can do is watch and wait, we have to acknowledge our own inability to affect the outcome.

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Again, often the best course of action is to "stand still".  Don't give in to the impulse to take charge, just because you see what you think is a need to do so.

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In the maelstrom of feelings that surround a death, whether actual or imminent, anything you say or do will not only have an impact in the moment but will stay with you forever.  You will own it.  Choose your words and actions with extreme care.

 

From a book on options trading ghostwritten for Dale Wheatley (I don't know what title he eventually used):

 

The main reason to study particular sector index charts is to see the influences from the UUP. But you can dig deeper and learn that the KOL, for example, is comprised of several coal stocks:  JOY, CNX and ANR.  Like the X index, they all have heavy volume, low bid/ask spreads and other characteristics that would make them good candidates for trading OTM options when the correct patterns are present.

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In order to find out which individual stocks make up a given index, use any online search engine and enter a phrase such as “components of KOL” or “components of SLX”.  That will give you a list, and then you can input the symbols into any finance web site under “Quotes”.  You'll find both the price quotes for the stock and a link to get the options.

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Click on the options link to see the various strike prices, expiration dates and bid/ask prices.  You can also determine if the stock has weekly options that expire each Friday – rather than only on the third Friday or Saturday of the month.

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But if you have an active stock market brokerage account, you should use it to get more current quotes than the ones you'll find using this method.

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As you look at the charts, remember that you're going to focus upon only the strongest and most distinctive patterns – the ones that are capable of putting the price into immediate and powerful motion.

 

From The Claims Game, rewritten and edited for Noellin Smith:

 

Here’s a true story that illustrates how difficult it is for homeowners to assess damage.  In the little town of Eustis, Florida, a roofer friend of mine asked me to do him a personal favor and look at his pastor’s roof.  There had been a tornado, and although it didn’t touch down in the immediate vicinity he was concerned that there might be related damage.

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I should mention here that my friend had been in the business twenty years and still couldn’t tell if the tornado had impacted the roof in any way.  The pastor was concerned because he found shingle granules on his concrete the next morning but didn’t plan to file a claim because he didn’t believe he had justification.

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I was able to find enough evidence that he received an entire new roof worth over twenty thousand dollars and another twenty thousand for interior and exterior damage.  He could have gone after twenty thousand more, but he felt so blessed by what he had already received that he opted not to.  He felt that he was almost cheating the insurance company because his untrained eye didn’t see any significant damage.

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When damage is undetected, it can sometimes create problems months or years later.  You may get lucky…or maybe not.

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The lesson to take from this example is not to rely entirely upon the opinion of a roofer in situations like the one I described.  He may be very good at replacing roofs, but he won’t have the expertise to determine the cause or the extent of storm-related damage.

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As a general rule, assume that there has been damage to your property if wind gusts during the storm exceeded 70 MPH.

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From a crime story written for the Sword And Scale web site:

 

In spite of the image created by Hollywood, most art theft isn’t perpetrated by a suave and sophisticated criminal whose taste runs to the great masters.  To the contrary, those involved are simply opportunists drawn to museums and collections by easy access to soft targets, the very high value and the stolen art’s ease of movement and disposal.

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It’s a well-established procedure.  Most purloined art quickly goes to a broker, who pays the thief about five percent of its actual value.  He, in turn, resells it to a middleman for twice that amount.  At that point, the item is too hot to move.  So the middleman has to be prepared to keep it until the time is right to stage an underground auction, which could be in ten or more years.

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A dealer enters the picture, buying the piece for perhaps half of what it was worth when stolen.  Once again, a lot of time may pass before it’s safe for him to bring it to auction, where he can hope to get full price for his investment.

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At lunchtime on August 5, 2007, thieves dressed in blue overalls and ski masks burst into the poorly guarded Musée des Beaux Arts in Nice, France.  The audacity and brashness of their daring midday heist made headlines around the world.  And the aftermath – a journey through the murky world of underground art dealing – had all the twists and turns of classic American cinema, as they made their way from the South of France to coastal Spain and eventually all the way to the South Florida suburbs.

 

Another Sword And Scale story excerpt:

 

Inside a Dunkin’ Donuts in Miami Beach, a 33-year-old Colombian named Nariz waited nervously for the arrival of someone he had met just recently.  The two had made arrangements to do a cocaine deal worth about $100,000.  Nariz was to purchase five kilos with a combination of cash, the title to a motorcycle and a garish gold necklace with a pendant bearing the initials K.A.R. and the phrase “Kill All Rats”.

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Unfortunately for him, the deal was a setup.  His contact had notified the Sunrise Police Department that Nariz wanted to score ten to twenty kilos, and the vice squad had been watching him for two months.  And now there were two DEA investigators sitting at a nearby table.

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Meanwhile, a friend of Nariz – Abel Fernandez – was meeting with an undercover officer posing as the dealer’s partner.  When notified by Nariz that the “dealer” had arrived at the coffee shop, Fernandez swapped the money, title and gold chain for a bag containing the coke.

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The takedown signal was given.  Fernandez was taken into custody.

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And Michael Corleone Blanco, AKA:  “Nariz”, as he was being cuffed, must have had one thought on his mind:  “My mother’s going to kill me.”

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Born in Medellín, he had spent most of his life watching Griselda Blanco build and solidify her reputation as the ruthless “Godmother of Cocaine”. 

 

From Are You Easy To Love?, rewritten and edited for Reverend Laura Ellis

 

Be resilient by stepping out of your comfort zone and meeting new people.

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According to research, the number of American people who have a close friend or confidant has declined by fifty percent since the 1980s. That’s because there is so much information out there. We now have the internet, for example.

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If you’re homebound, there are so many new resources available, including online dating.

Love rejoices in the truth…

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Unfortunately, online dating has become a tool for many people who have hidden behind the screen to create a web of lies and distrust. When people meet in person – the old fashioned way – they can get a better idea of who they are dealing with.

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More Americans have become addicted to cyberspace technologies, and because of that, we have shied away from human interactions, except for those in the workplace. It appears that we're afraid to learn the truth.

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In face-to-face relationships, when something goes wrong, both parties pretend that everything is just fine -- despite the fact they know there’s an issue. All that does is create a less-than-honest connection based upon fear.

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One of the most important things you can do for yourself is to refuse to live a life of lies or to accept lies as truth. You need to start being truthful with yourself. As you become more aware of who you are, you can move on to having truthful conversations with other people. This will let you get to the core of problems more quickly, and other people will trust you as well.

 

From web site copy created for ONE Sotheby's International Realty

 

Situated on the northernmost tip of Miami Beach, palm-tree-lined Bal Harbour is one of South Florida's most exclusive neighborhoods. And the 18-story Kenilworth condominium building, surrounded by impeccably landscaped grounds, offers those with a desire to live there an enticing selection of 150 residence units with two or three bedrooms. The sizes range from 2060 to 4735 square feet, and they feature extra-spacious floor plans with ten-foot ceilings and spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean and the skyline of Miami.

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Every effort has been made to insure that the iconic Kenilworth lifestyle continues to be one of both unmatched luxury and convenience. Materials, features and fixtures have been chosen with meticulous care. The appliances in the kitchen are top-of-the-line, cabinetry is custom-designed and the countertops are granite. Residents have a wide choice of amenities, including a fully-equipped 4000-square-foot fitness facility and spa with sauna, a heated pool, a private club house, billiards, a library and a business center with conference room. There's also a cafe right on site.

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Of course, one of the biggest advantages of living at Kenilworth is its location. Bal Harbour is known worldwide for its upscale shopping, and the famous Aventura Mall is nearby as well. Along with being close to the many unique stores, restaurants and cultural attractions in the area, Kenilworth is minutes from the sands of South Beach, vibrant downtown Miami and the airport.

 

With all of South Florida's famed destinations for nightlife, entertainment, fine dining, shopping and culture just a short drive away, it's easy to see why Kenilworth is known to be such a wonderful place to call home.