The lovely Linda Janssen of Adventures in Expatland, who you will know and enjoy from our monthly NorthSouthEastWest: Expat Dispatches posts, joins us as part of her virtual blog tour. A blog tour for what, I hear you ask? Well, Linda has contributed to a wonderful new book called Turning Points: 25 Inspiring Stories From Women Entrepreneurs Who Have Turned Their Lives Around and she's here to let you know more about it.
I won't steal her thunder by revealing any more of the book other than to say that Linda's own personal story is quite special for many reasons. She is a talented writer and supportive friend in expat land - and her place in this book is well deserved. Here's Linda with more on Turning Points...
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The book's concept is straightforward and simple: a group of entrepreneurial women from around the world each share the pivotal moment or series of events that made them realize the immediate and absolute need to implement radical change in their personal and professional lives.
Each woman shares her own background, the situation she was in by the time she recognized her turning point, what she decided to do and how she it, and the resources she took strength from along the way. One of my favorite parts in each chapter is reading the lessons learned that each person came away with.
When I planned my virtual book tour, I knew that I wanted to stop by here at In Search of a Life Less Ordinary, and I knew what I wanted to write. I've been following Russell's great storytelling here for quite some time. I love that he is a young married guy writing about life as he has experienced it in his native England, Canada and now Australia. I'm a (slightly) older married American gal writing about the twists and turns of living in The Netherlands with a husband and two teens in tow.
That is what is so wonderful about blogs and bloggers: you can find talented writers sharing anecdotes, opinions and life's snippets on just about any topic you can imagine. Like you, I've got a lot of things going on in daily life so I struggle to keep blog-surfing to a minimum. Yet I have found many amazing blogs from all around the world, and follow many of them. Every one is different, and I've laughed with and learned from each of them. In fact, it was the joy of checking in with different people around the globe that led me to ask Russell to help create our four-way monthly virtual blog NorthSouthEastWest: Expat Dispatches with Maria and Erica.
What I have enjoyed most about participating in the Turning Points book project is that the contributors are a lot like bloggers. Each comes to the table with a different set of experiences and a different perspective. While each story is interesting and unique, the strength of their impact is that the whole is even greater than the sum of the individual parts. Andre Maurois expressed it in this manner:
'Style is the hallmark of a temperament stamped upon the material at hand'
As authors, writers and bloggers, we may all have different styles and temperaments, and work with different genres, but at the core we are telling our stories. And that is the beauty of storytelling.
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If you'd like to find out more about our book, please take a look at the website www.theturningpointsbook.com or follow along on Facebook's The Turning Points Book page or on Twitter @Turning_Points. A portion of all sales will benefit the inspirational charity www.seedsfordevelopment.org.