by AnnSheybani | Apr 28, 2025 | Writing
I was 36 when I discovered that people fear public speaking more than death. Let that sink in for a minute. People would rather be in the casket than delivering the eulogy. This revelation came during my stint as a sales rep for MacDermid, a chemical manufacturing... by AnnSheybani | Apr 7, 2025 | Writing
I’m guessing we’ve all heard the business adage: “People do business with people they know, like, and trust.” It’s practically tattooed on the foreheads of networking gurus and business coaches everywhere. But, after years of coaching... by AnnSheybani | Mar 31, 2025 | Writing
I was at a writers’ conference one weekend when a bright-eyed woman approached me during cocktail hour. “I’ve just finished my PhD in organizational psychology,” she told me, “and I think it would make a terrific book.” (Back in the... by AnnSheybani | Mar 3, 2025 | Life, Reading, Writing
I was 26 the first time I realized that what people thought about me had more to do with them than with who I was/am as a person. Such an epiphany should have freed me; unfortunately, it didn’t. When I’d first moved to Iran, I wanted two things more than... by AnnSheybani | Feb 17, 2025 | Writing
This is a guest post by Lucinda Halpern, head of Lucinda Literary. Lucinda gets writers book deals with traditional publishing houses. Even if you don’t harbor the fantasy of publishing your book with a big New York house, you’ll want to pay attention to... by AnnSheybani | Feb 3, 2025 | Writing
I once had a lovely, wise professor who said, “If you write about a person, tell the truth, and do it with love and compassion.” To show what he meant, he read a scene from one of his books in which he described, in gorgeous language, the boy he once was, his drunken...
