Most women would jump on a legitimate work-at-home opportunity. Are you willing to learn a set of  professional skills and then work hard from home? Ghost writing may be for you. I warn you - ghost writing isn’t easy. The rewards? Set your own schedule. Work from where ever you choose - at home, your boat, a vacation locale. I’ve done it for years and so has Claudia Suzanne - the world’s most prolific, respected ghosts. Cash in on her secrets - this isn’t a sales pitch, it’s a clue.

I’ve worked at home for three decades, successfully, and am always on the look out for job opportunities that women can use long term to make a living while raising a family or enjoying personal freedom. Four months ago, I met a phenomenal writer, Claudia Suzanne. She has written more than 100 books - fiction and non-fiction, but you probably don’t recognize her name. That doesn’t bother her.

What does a ghost writer do?

Ghost writer Claudia, well-known in the publishing industry and master of a satisfying income, says:

1. A ghost is a writer who reads an author’s manuscript, writes an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses, then presents professional recommendations to the author. The goal: to get the manuscript attention and respect it deserves upon submission. The ghost must learn to evaluate from a positive point-of-view.
2. The ghost, with the author, refines and polishes a manuscript so it pleases the author and meets professional standards. The ghost may simply do a thorough edit, or rewrite most of it, with author-input. The ghost must learn how the publishing industry ticks, effective editing, and how to maintain any author’s voice.
3. The ghost puts together a professional quality proposal package for the author to submit. The ghost must learn what agents look for.
4. The ghost gets paid. A lot. The ghost must learn how to be worth it.

How to learn the right way to market yourself as a ghost

I signed on to audit Claudia’s 14-week ghost writer training program. Audit, as in she waived the tuition so I could report to you women. Two weeks into the program, I was so impressed with her teaching, her knowledge, and the value of the class that I paid the tuition. Claudia has fueled new, lucrative careers for hundreds of students. Her past students have branched into editing, small press publishing, novel writing, and lots of other fields.

If you need a new career and have experience or solid skills as a writer - you could do a lot worse than investing in this ghost writer certification training. The pace is like a master’s level college program - the work serious and multi-layered. Weekly class time is three hours; homework is at least five hours. The “classroom” is a telephone conference call each week - an extremely effective distance learning method. Claudia’s style is warm, professional, serious.

If you take the certification training and meet completion requirements, you’ll earn the only ghost writing certification in the industry. You’ll learn how to find customers, set rates that reflect your level of expertise, and how to make a name for yourself in the business, even though your name may never appear on a book’s cover.

Ghost writing is one of the fastest growing careers. As the changing publishing business lets more people publish writing cheaply and quickly, more people want to write books. But many understand they don’t know how. They are willing to pay for help. You can put yourself in the hands of one of the most respected ghosting experts and learn to provide that expert help.

Read the details about ghost writing certification training.

Read more:

A review of Claudia’s course

The United States National Women’s Hall of Fame is a delightful place to get virtually lost for an afternoon. I tripped over this site today as I was browsing the Web and I couldn’t tear myself away. You don’t have to leave your comfy chair, or go out in the rain. Just click on the alphabetical links and read about women who have impacted our lives.

• I read about how Lucille Ball was not only a comedian, but a true entrepreneur and the first woman head of a major studio.
• I learned that Mary McLeod Bethune was an African-American teacher who, with only $1.50, began a school to help educate other young African-American women. Maybe she wasn’t as flamboyant as Oprah, but she did her part.
• Leontine Kelly was the first female Methodist bishop. Awesome power for us.
• Ida Tarbell’s expose of the Standard Oil Trust in the 1904 publication, The History of the Standard Oil Company prompted the federal government to prosecute and break up Standard Oil for anti-trust violations. She became an icon of journalism.

The articles are very short - teasers, really, with nuggets of susinct information in them. They are often linked to larger pieces, and can inspire you to browse. Learn about women. Read a few of these to the children you care about, girls or boys.

You might become inspired to write a brief or two in your social media spaces about the women who have inspured your life.

Burgeoning author Susan Hasset, for some reason, sent a copy of her self-published book to Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Now, Hassett is suing Hasselbeck for plagiarizing Hassett’s book about surviving and managing celiac disease, which, if you follow the media, half of America seems to have.

Hasselbeck is the abrasive, blonde pseudo-celebrity who sits at the table on ABC’s The View and complains about practically everything on earth. I find her most annoying and most untalented. My opinion only, I’m sure. I love the idea of having opposing points of view. But Hasselbeck is such a parrot. I can’t really believe anything that comes out of her mouth is actually her opinion or that she actually has researched, studied or even read about the issue at hand.

Hassett is a Cape Cod resident, tile installer, and entrepreneur. Hassett says she can’t work because of celiac’s disease. She wrote her book, she told me in a quick phone conversation, to help other people .

According to a blog post about her, by a woman named Kelly,

On June 23, 2009, Sue Hassett

Joyce Dewitt - Janet from Three’s Company - was arrested this weekend for DUI. I wonder if it’s about money, loss of money or loneliness. Are there really more celebrities who make bad decisions or do we just hear more about those? They end up arrested or embarrassed because they abuse alcohol or drugs, or they slug someone with a phone.

The Michael Jackson media frenzy is putting the spotlight on anyone who could even loosely be called a celebrity. So much money is being made by media outlets milking Jackson’s demise that the desire to keep some kind of hysteria going must be very strong.

But Joyce hasn’t, to my knowledge, done anything celebrity-like in many moons. No one is a fan anymore - except, of course, those folks who know and love her in real life. But let the woman have a couple of cocktails (ok, the blood alcohol level wasn’t released, so it might have been more than a couple) and reporters come out of the wood work. But I think Joyce is too old to create much of a stir. She’s 60 - born in 1949.

I feel sorry for Joyce - her mug shot - touted all over the internet as a front runner for “worst celebrity mug shot” - looks sad to me. Not scared, not really terribly bleary-eyed and drunk. I just see a wide-eyed, deer in the headlights, how did I get here kind of look.

Look at the photo - her eyes seem so surprised. Her mouth is turned up, Mona Lisa-like in a mysterious hint of a smile. It almost looks like she’s going to flash the happy, brilliant Janet smile. You can hear her, drawing out the one syllable name into several, “Ja aaa ckkk,” as John Ritter does something charmingly silly to annoy Janet.

But Joyce can’t quite pull off that gorgeous smile. She’s not on the set - she’s in a police station and wondering about the fragility of life.

Some of us spend a lot of time pining for the money and fame that celebrities amass during that period when they are the bomb. But I wonder if the downslide- the money is frittered away or stolen by managers or agents, the camera is no longer a friend, and life has gotten so quiet you can hear your career drop - I wonder if that now-I’m-lost feeling is worth it.

Michael Jackson is dead and I’ll be dipped if I can figure out why, after more than a week, he’s still the lead on the nightly, daily, and noonly news. For me, it’s sad that a human life ended, especially such an obviously tragic, possibly empty, and likely regretable life. He died because he was taking drugs that stopped his heart. That, too, makes me sad. The stupidity of it. The waste. The lameness. I felt the same when Balushi croaked.

What did Michael do to deserve all the hype and hoopla?

Am I wrong here? Was Michael Jackson not suspected of pedophilia? Did he not pay a huge hush money settlement to the family of a child he allegedly molested? I’ll happily change my mind, if someone can cite the material or information that exonerated him.

Isn’t this the same singer whose record sales plummeted to nothing over the past couple of years? He was staging a comeback concert to help resolve millions of dollars of debt, yes?

Isn’t there a question about whether he even parented those kids held in post-mortem limelight?

Didn’t Michael dangle a masked, helpless infant upside down out a window? I SAW the video. So did you.

I don’t know the man. Never did, never wanted to. I hold all life as valuable and worthwhile. Ok, most life. Dunno about Gacy and those guys. Don’t know about mosquitos. I may not be able to revere them.

But this isn’t about the dignity of revering a death. It’s about a bunch of people frantically buying records made by a man who, two weeks ago, a month ago, a year ago, they hadn’t given a single thought to in eons. It’s about young adults rapidly approaching that big four-oh birthday. They’re panicking over the death of a washed-up celebrity who marched just ahead of their generation. It’s about seeing their group-mortality and attempting to somehow mask Michael’s tragic end — before they crash into their own.

We all get there. We all become mortal. When our parents die, we find ourselves the oldest generation in the family, mortal selves inexorably marching toward the end of a road.

My grandparents saw that milepost when Valentino died.

My parents felt it when Kennedy expired.

My peers and I - well, we had John Lennon.

Gen X or Y or whomever has Michael. God gave him a voice, a huge talent and the intelligence to parlay that into a money making business. He, himself made the darker choices. Michael is dead. You’re not. We have to move on now, no matter how long or short our road.

Here’s a treat! Well-known Broadway actress, dancer, director and web entrepreneur Joan Barber shares her tribulations of finding a dress for her daughter’s wedding in a delightful guest post, Where are the affordable clothes for real women? Thanks, Joan - I love keeping up with your new website 50toDeath!

Here’s the problem . . . my step-daughter (my only child) is getting married and NO ONE makes affordable clothes that I can wear. Am I being petty? I think not. It’s important to me as a 21st century woman to be perceived NOT as an “aging hipster” or a “Betty White” type or a frump but as the vital, healthy, attractive person I think I still am - a real woman!

Or . . . am I kidding myself? OK. The K-Mart arms are creeping up on me, despite the fact that I wear a size 2. So, that means no sleeveless. The cleavage that I used to display with such elan (and that got me many roles as an actress) is maybe not as firm as it once was. So, that means no low cut gowns.

The legs are definitely still good, thanks to walking on a regular basis in New York City and schlepping up and down subway stairs. But my bunions (from years of dancing) kill me when I wear high heels, and no one makes shoes that work for my high instep without cutting into my hammer toes. In ballet flats I stand a statuesque 5′1″.

And as for my cute little pancake butt . . . let’s not go there.

The event is approaching and I am slowly freaking out as I trek from high end department store to boutique to discount paradise. I give myself what I assume to be a reasonable budget (buying the bride’s wedding dress kind of emptied my piggy bank) and plenty of time to shop, but all I see are teeny tiny prom dresses (where were those hot little strapless numbers when I was in high school?) and mother-of-the-bride frocks in which I look like a cute little dumpling wrapped in a doily.

Oh, for a stylist like the stars have! I’ll never forget the episode of Project Runway where the designers cringed at the prospect that they were going to have to design for (”ugh gross”) MOTHERS of hot young babes. The blue business suit in my closet starts to look better and better. Hopefully I’ll just fade into the hydrangeas.

BUT NO . . . I may be over 50 (well, pushing 60) and I may not be an heiress, or tall and elegant, but one thing I am is a proud and strong child of the sixties, an actress, and a rebel. I will be seen. I’ve never faded from a challenge in my life!

This wedding is just like any show I’ve done in my over thirty years of performing. I can play the role of step-mother-of-the-bride. I may not have a Tony Award Winning costume designer sketching and a wardrobe department building my dress, but I can use my vision and experience, my wisdom and sense of perspective to zero in on THE DRESS.

I just have to become the character and “she” (THE DRESS) will find me.

And, like the blue Grecian goddess she is, she does find me . . . as do the comfortable, multi-colored sandals (found online). I’ll get to show off my cleavage and legs at the same time (without being too outrageous). After all, the bride is supposed to be the star of the show and believe me, she will be.

Take a walk over to Joan’s website 50toDeath to see some really funny video slices of life in the boomer lane. Joan and her partners, Norm Golden veteran actor in 15 major films and numerous television projects, and equally prolific actor and writer Jon Freda, have built a delightful web of baby boomer-centric video entertainment.

Women keep each other afloat (Photo by Oddsock)

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Doing some housekeeping today, I dove way back into the contents of Women Day By Day and found some articles our newer readers may have overlooked. Here, then, are some of the best web articles for women from Women Day By Day.

Sexy Stories for a Hot Summer Beach Read

Women in need find recovery and independence

Low Cost Activity Books for Young Children and Moms

Pro-Life Thinking: Understanding the Basics

Pro-Choice: The Basic Issues

Aging Tissue Can Be a Risk Factor for Breast Cancer

Lose Weight or Lose Yourself - Truths About Dieting

Resources for Military Women, Women Veterans and Families

Women-Fix Your Own PC? Windows Ailing? Tips from Computer Guru

Our site for writers and freelancers

Take a look at some of these and then dip into our archives. Tell me what you think - add your comments or contact me about doing a guest blog! I want to engage with you.